Mabry's First Snow

I couldn't believe it, we actually got snow at our house a couple of weeks ago! I was feeling pretty bummed as I began facing the fact that we would NEVER get snow at our house and.......VOILA! It snowed for about 2 hours and it looked so beautiful on the rooftops, cars and bushes. The next morning when we woke up it was melted but it was nice while it lasted. I'm so glad Mabry finally got to experience a little snow at the ripe old age of 2. She loved it and can't wait for it to come again! Good luck, darling.:)

Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

2 Years Old!!

I can't believe it! Our little girl turned the big #2 last week. We had a great time celebrating with our little family. We had dinner, ate cake, and opened presents. It was a very low-key, but wonderful birthday celebration for Mabry. Andy and I had a great time, too! It was so nice to just have a relaxing evening with our family and watch Mabry take in all the excitement of her 2nd birthday without the stress or craziness of a party. Mabry enjoyed having all Mommy and Daddy's attention on her and getting to open her presents slowly and play with each one. She really enjoyed her cake as well. She hopped up in my lap to get a few last bites of her cake and told me with a big smile, "Mae Mae LIKE cake!". Our sweet little girl is growing up so fast! She is starting to put 3 or 4 words together and form little sentences and can really communicate with us now. She got several puzzles for her birthday and has mastered them all in no time. She absolutely loves doing them over and over again. Here are a few pics from the "party".......

Mabry patiently waiting for the dinner portion of her party to begin!

Mabry LOVED this balloon and played with it just as much as her new presents. In this pic she is having fun seeing herself in the balloon.

Waiting for us to sing and cut the yummy cake!

Family pic with the big 2 year old!

Mabry enjoyed talking to Oma and Opa on the phone. She didn't want to put it down. She just walked around the room with the phone up to her ear and drinking out of her sippy cup. So grown up!

Happy 2nd Birthday sweet girl! We love you!

And then there were.........

FOUR!! That's right, soon our little family of three will be a little family of FOUR! We are so excited to announce that we are expecting baby #2 in late June. I am 12 weeks today and we just had our first appointment yesterday. It was such a joy to hear that sweet little heartbeat. Music to my ears! Mabry is super excited to be a big sister, even though she probably doesn't have a clue what that means. She will touch my belly and say, "Baby" and even give it kisses at times. Lets just hope she is as sweet when Baby makes his/her debut into the world.:) Honestly, we know Mabry will be a great big sister and do a great job keeping the little one entertained. Thank you for sharing in our joy with us. God is so good!

In other news, here are a few things we have been up to since Halloween.....just to get you quickly caught up!

Our sweet niece, Julia, celebrated her 6th Birthday! Happy Birthday Julia!

My whole family met up in Dallas to surprise my Dad for his 60th Birthday! It was such fun to be together and celebrate this man we all love so dearly.

While in Dallas, we also got to celebrate our nephew Jacob's 6th Birthday at Chuck-E-Cheese! What a big boy!

This was Mabry's first Chuck-E-Cheese experience. While she really enjoyed the restaurant and games, she wasn't too fond of the big mouse!:)

Mabry LOVES being outside, especially helping her Daddy with yard work. Before Thanksgiving, she "helped" Andy rake some leaves and enjoyed playing in the big pile!

We enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving at our house with Andy's family. Here are the cousins enjoying the yummy food at the kid's table.

And finally, we got our Christmas tree up and decorated the other night and Andy got the lights up on the house! We are so excited about this Christmas season and how much fun it will be with Mabry this year!


Merry Christmas! Enjoy the Season!

Halloween

Here are some Halloween pics FINALLY of our little butterfly. We went to our church for Trunk or Treat and then just came back to the house and handed out candy for the rest of Halloween night. We had a good, low key Halloween and Mabry was thrilled that her cousin Caden and Aunt Bethany and Uncle Braden got to join us for the fun! I didn't get very many good pics but here are a few. You can tell Mabry's costume was just put together by her dear mother and not too extravagant. Oh well, she sure thought she was cute as usual.:)

Our little butterfly (yes I know butterflies don't wear tutus but what can I say...I like the girl in a tutu!)

Mabry and Caden holding hands. Too sweet.

Our sweet insects.

Happy Fall!

Tutu Cute

Here are some cute pics that Andy took of Mabry in her tutu the other night. This child is such a silly girl and constantly keeps us smiling. She is learning new things everyday and growing up so fast. Mabry currently loves playing with stickers and organizing her blocks and other things into piles/categories. I think she is a little OCD.:) She loves to put on her tennis shoes and run across the room as fast as she can. Mabry thinks she is such a big girl when we go to the park and she struts across the playground like she owns the place. She loves to go down the slides and climb up all the stairs. Mabry still gets super excited when her "Dadd-ay" gets home from work and loves to squeal and have silly time with him in the evenings. She melts our hearts and we can't get enough of our little fireball!

Mabry poses for the camera

This pic is for all you Hoelzles out there.......does this remind you of anyone? Mabry totally posed like this on her own and it reminded me so much of her Aunt Catie when she was little. Hilarious!

Our little fireball!!

10 years? Really??

This past weekend we went to Longview for my 10 year high school reunion. I can't believe I am so old! I had SO much fun getting to be with all my great girl friends (minus a couple that couldn't be there......we missed you!). It is so fun when we all get back together because it feels just like old times. I am so thankful for such wonderful friends that will always hold such a special place in my heart. I love you girls!

Unfortunately I didn't get very many good pics but here are a few.

Let me introduce you to the gals.......

The girls and our kiddos

The "girls" from left to right on the floor: Cathy, Christi, Candy, Holly, Ginger, Amy and Kathy. From left to right on the couch: Amanda, Beth, Kim, Ashly and Me.

These are the mommies with their babes. What cuties!

Thanks to Andy, my parents, Catie, Rebekah and Hilliard for all helping take care of Mabry this weekend so I could enjoy my time with friends!

Can't wait to see what we are all up to in 10 more years!!

Quick update

Just a quick update to let you all know that we have made it back to the 21st century and now have electricity after 10 days without power! We didn't suffer any real damage to our home and are very thankful for our safety during this crazy time. We are super excited to be back at home and trying to get back to life as normal. We are SO thankful for our families and friends who housed us, fed us and took such great care of us. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such loving people. And....just for kicks I have added a few pics of Mabry from a year ago.:) My how things change!

Keep smiling!

Lake Fun

Catch up time again. A few weekends ago we rented a house on Lake Livingston with Andy's family and had a blast being out on the boat and playing together. Mabry was THRILLED to be with her cousins and get to ride in a boat for the first time. And of course, she enjoyed the swimming as usual. I am so glad Mabry has lots of sweet cousins to grow up with and she just absolutely adores them. She even talks about "Bobo-Bryce" in her sleep.:)

Mabry loves to kick in the water. Our little water baby will be swimming in no time.:)

Daddy is quite the teacher

The two "little misses" talking things over......
...and having a stare down.:)
Andy seems to handle three children all at once pretty well! We better hurry and have some more!
The girls and their Dads. Mabry and Julia definitely rank number one with their Dads. They can do no wrong.;)

See you next time!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

This past weekend, on August 23rd, Andy and I celebrated 5 wonderful years of marriage! We took a little trip to Galveston and had a great time relaxing and being together. It is great to look back on the last five years and see all we have been through and how far we have come as a couple. God has certainly blessed us abundantly and things get better every year. I can't wait to see what fun we are having in 50 years! Here's to many more adventures!

First a trip down memory lane......

Andy proposes with me looking my best.:)

August 23, 2003

Our honeymoon (who are those young hotties?!)

And now some pics from this year.......

Some might think it is strange that we took the "little miss" along with us but I guess that is just how we roll.:) While we would definitely welcome a little alone time, we love being together as our little family!

Andy & Mae going down the waterslide at Moody Gardens. Such fun! Seriously, I think I liked it more than Mabry!

A yummy dinner at Fisherman's Wharf

Why would you want to spend your anniversary alone when you could spend it like this?!

And like this. Mae decided to be quite the stinker during dinner but she shaped up once we let her have some of the crab queso. Yummy! (For the record, we did have plans to have dinner alone but Mabry got a case of Pink Eye so that messed things up a little. We had a great time anyway!)

Mommy and Mabry at the beach

Daddy and Mae. I can only speculate they were watching the jumping fish while searching for sharks. Way too far out for me, but this girl LOVES the water just like her old man.

One of the many reasons I love Andy.....
he gave me this little sweetheart!

Our little family
Thanks Andy for 5 amazing years. I love you babe!

But-ball!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get this post up. Better late than never, right? I know you have all been on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what we did Saturday evening (well, two Saturday evenings ago). That's right folks, we took Mabry to her first major league baseball game, or "but-ball" as she likes to call it.:) We had a GREAT time! Mabry loves baseball at the grand old age of 20 months. What can we say, we have raised her well! She loves to hop up on the couch with her Daddy in the evenings and watch some good All-American baseball and going to the game in person was no different. Mabry would sit and watch as the pitcher threw the ball to the batter waiting in anticipation to see if the batter would get a hit. And around the bases they would go. Well, you know how it works. It was such fun to watch Mabry enjoy the game and cheer the Astros on. About halfway through the game we went down to the vendors to get a snack and Mabry kept saying, "More, more" and pointing back to our seats. She couldn't wait to get back to the game! So funny. And, of course the Astros did not disappoint. They were down the entire game but came back and tied it up in the 9th inning to end up winning in the 10th. Exciting times! I have a feeling this will not be our last "but-ball" outing as a family!

Family Pic

Mae and her Daddy enjoying some baseball

Mabry put on her rally cap and the Astros came through:) Way to go 'Stros!