reminiscing...

I was looking through pictures on the computer tonight as I put together Bryan's birthday party invitation, and I came across a picture from our house in Lubbock. I realized that it has been almost four years since we moved back from Lubbock. On one had it seems like forever ago that we were leaving Lubbock, but on the other hand life has sure changed in four short years! It made me realize how blessed we are and how proud we should be of all our accomplishments!!

Here are a couple of pictures I ran across while reminiscing (they are in reverse order, sorry, still cannot figure that out...so start at the bottom!!!)

Emma meeting Bryan for the first time, think this is one of my all time favorite pictures!! Bryan was just minutes old but the doctor let Emma come into the room to meet her new brother and she was such a natural Big Sis from the moment she meet him!!

Second house, after Emma turned one we decided we needed a bigger home if we wanted to add to the family anytime soon. We found our dream house, and with a little renovations we've made it OUR HOME!!

Emma- our lives certainly changed on that day, but I wouldn't change a single minute of it!

Our house in Mansfield, our first house to own!! We were sooo excited, yet so overwhelmed by home ownership! We moved in exactly one month before Emma was born, poor Patrick had to pack up everything and move us from Lubbock into my parent's house (and a storage unit) and then move us out of my parent's house (and the storage unit) and into our house in Mansfield in less than four months, all while I was pregnant and studying for the bar exam- i.e. I was of no help!

Our first children- Autumn and Aspen (aka Auty and Aspey). Sure miss them, but know that we wouldn't be able to give them they attention they deserve! As a newly married couple they sure taught us a lot about being responsible for someone/something other than ourselves and we had lots of adventures with the two of them that we'll never forget!

Our house in Lubbock, it was so small, yet so charming- and you couldn't beat $600 per month in rent and walking distance to campus!! Even though we rented the house Patrick did so many renovations- think the landlord was very sad to see us leave!

Boo at the Zoo

We finally made it out to Boo at the Zoo on Tuesday night, and it's Friday and I am finally getting around to downloading the pictures from the camera....can you tell it's been a busy week!

Boo hoo...no Boo at the Zoo tonight

We had planned on going to Boo at the Zoo tonight, but we weren't about to venture out in all this rain (especially when we all have runny noses!). We decided to postpone until tomorrow night but Emma still wanted to try her costume on. Emma is "DORA the Explorer" and Bryan is "Boots." For those of you who know me well you know that I don't like character themed kids stuff, so when Emma said she wanted to be DORA for Halloween I kept trying to convince her to be something more classic like a witch or a ballerina...but she was persistent and when I realized that it wouldn't take much to make her costume (pink shirt and orange shorts) I decided to give in!

(Boots, I mean Bryan, discovered his ears!)

(Emma wouldn't turn and face the camera, she kept wanting to show off "Backpack")

Pumpkin patch

We've taken Emma to the same pumpkin patch for the past four years...here's some pics of her from the past four years as well as some pics from our visit to the patch this year.

October 2006

October 2007

October 2008

October 2009

Bike-a-thon

Emma's preschool had a bike-a-thon today to raise money for St. Judd's...cannot believe she's already old enough to be participating in a bike-a-thon, time sure does fly!!

Some pics from the weekend...

Emma eating icecream with Grandpa.

We meet up with my dad, mom and Juan at Nolan on Friday night to watch the football game...the Daley's came too and Bryan and Gregory got to watch their first high school football game, I'm sure there will be many more to come in their future!!

Soccer take two- Emma finally had her second week of soccer, with all the rain it has been rained out the past couple weeks. I remembered to bring the mega-zoom lense so I got some up-close action pics...

Bryan cheering on BIG SISTER!!

It was so nice outside tonight that we decided to eat dinner outside on the patio...Emma called it a pic-nic and eat every bit of her food for the first time in a long time- think we'll be eating outside more often!!

Bryan found several things to entertain himself with at Grandma and Grandpa's on Saturday night...including a Diet Coke can!

Another pic from the football game! (the bleachers were packed so we were standing up against he fence, Bryan completely enjoyed being independent!

Walking

Bryan has been taking a couple steps here and there, but today when I got home from work he took ten or twelve steps on his own...if I can figure out how to get the video on here I'll post it later!! He's so proud of himself it's so cute. Now just to work on walking all the way down isle for Lindsy and Juan's wedding in four weeks!! :)