April Happenings

 

 

Here are a few of the things we were up to in April...

 

Here are a couple of pictures I took of Alice wearing her new tea party princess dress.  I wound up using one of the for her birthday party invitation.  This girl is definitely not camera shy.  What a ham!

 

 

Here are a few shots I took when we headed to Lubbock for a Saturday to see a baseball game and for Drew's birthday party.

 

 

Alice at the ball park.  She was loving the new baseball cap!

 

 

 

Daddy and Aunt Melissa snuggling up with Baby Eleanor during the game

 

Drew and Alice watching the game from the Suburban.  Cute cousins!

 
 
 

 

 

Drew's Birthday Party

 

 

 

Matthew the Clown.  I think he should totally get himself hired out! 

 

 

 

Eleanor enjoyed the party too and loved watching all of the kids playing and hanging out with the birthday boy!

 

 

 

 

Alice even got an early birthday present from Mimi.  Ride 'em cowgirl!  She believes she is riding a bucking bronco... I wonder what will be the first thing in our house to get broken with the stick horse!

 

 

 

 

Daddy was the luckiest (and maybe the least productive) man at Lowe's with both a stroller and a little princess in tow.

 

 

Our little Eleanor turned 6 months old.  It is hard to believe she is growing so fast.  She is sitting up on her own now, and wants to be a part of the action these days.  She gets so excited when Alice talks to her, so I have a feeling they are going to be great playmates soon...if Alice will let her play with any of the toys.  We are in a "mine" phase right now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let the birthday festivities begin!  Alice was so excited about turning 3 that she couldn't sleep for days.  On Friday she got to take some special cookies that she helped bake to her classmates at

 St. Paul. 

 

 

 

The one gift she consistently asked for was a Cinderella dress.  Here she is in her new royal duds.  I really do think she is the "fairest of them all"  and her outfit is complete with what she calls "tippy toe shoes".  All of the princesses have them, you know...LOL

Here is a cute photo I took of the girls hanging out together one morning before I took Alice to ballet class.



March Happenings and Easter Weekend 2013

 

A couple of random favorite pictures from this month:

 

It is so hard to believe that Eleanor is already 5 months old!  My baby is getting way too big too fast.

 

 

 

Alice spends about 70% of her time in dress-up clothes imaging that she is anything from a superhero to a princess.  She has quite the imagination and I love catching her in the middle of a story line.  Here she is "Super Alice" and is about to "fly" off to the rescue.  I made her get off the coffee table when I saw her, but not before I got a picture of this!

 

 

Alice was so excited this year to have an Easter Party at her school.  Here she is all dressed up in her Easter dress and later that afternoon enjoying the festivities with her friends.

 

 

 This year we went to the Easter Egg-stravaganza at the zoo.  Here are a few of the highlights from that trip.

 

 

 

Daddy spent a lot of time holding Alice up so she could see the animals...

 

 

Alice and Eleanor visiting with the Easter Bunny

 

 

 

 

Alice loves turtles and was very excited to get up close and personal with this one. 

 

 

 

Umm, I don't know what kind of bird that is, but Alice loved it and asked if she could have her picture made with it and hold its nose.

 

 

 

We waited in line for a very long time because someone was dying to get her face painted like Hello Kitty.  The result was so cute, but it was only this perfect for about 2 minutes so I am glad I got this picture!

 

 

 

Just the girls

 

 

 

 Here are a couple of shots I got of early Easter morning at our house.  Alice was ecstatic to find what the Easter Bunny had left for her.  If you ask her, there is just nothing better than Peeps and sidewalk chalk!

 

 

 

Daddy took a few minutes to show Eleanor her loot too.  Finally some bath toys of her own!

 

 

 

Later that evening we headed to Nana and Pops house for a family dinner and egg hunt with cousins Kendall and Kaizer.  Alice had a pretty bad cold, but she definitely made the most of it.



 

 

Eleanor was too small for the egg hunt, but she enjoyed playing with her new baby chick.

 

 

 

 A confetti egg mess!  The kids loved this...

 

 

Alice enjoying some cake....er...frosting!

 

Spring Break 2013: Visiting With Family

 

     During Spring Break this year, we decided to take a trip to the Metroplex so that Eleanor could meet her great-grandparents.  It was amazing how beautiful the weather was during our entire trip, considering it was just mid-March.  It was a wonderful trip and it turned out to be a very meaningful one too. Paw Paw passed away the following week, and these pictures became something very special that we will always treasure.  I am so glad we got to visit him and that he got to meet the newest member of the family. 

 

Jeff was so proud to introduce little Eleanor to his grandparents.  Here is a picture of him holding the newest member of the Merrell family.  There is something really awesome about seeing four generations of a family, and I know that we are both very glad that we were able to bring both the oldest and newest members together for a visit.

 

 

 

Here is my favorite picture of Jeff and our girls with Maw

 

 

 

Alice enjoyed a little chat with her Paw Paw.  She really thought his moose was something special, and she insisted that he hold it.

 

 

Jeff with his little ladies and his grandfather

 

 

 Here are a couple of shots we were able to get one of the caregivers to take of all of us together.

 

 

 

Two very special people

 

 

 

This was also the first time Papa Gene got to see Eleanor.

 

 

 

This is one I took of Papa Gene hanging out with his "Funny Number".  Alice got such a kick out of being called this name that she is still reminding us to this day that she is a funny number! 

 

 

 

Eleanor got some good snuggles in with Maw

 

 

 

Daddy spent some time "goofing off" with the girls before we left Maw's house

 

 

 

After we left Hurst, we headed for Albany to visit Mimi for the weekend.  Here are a few shots I got of us at the new City Park there.  Alice is a real playground aficionado, and she thought it was fantastic!

Eleanor and her Mimi

 

 

 Ready for church!

 

The whole trip was really great, but boy were our little ones tired by Sunday afternoon when we finally headed home!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Blizzard 2013

February 24 was a strange day here in the Texas Panhandle. During the early afternoon, we had both kids in the backyard enjoying the 70 degree weather, and by 5:00 pm snow had begun to fall. It did not stop snowing until late in the afternoon the next day. Amarillo officially received 19 inches, the second largest snowfall on record for this area. Here are some photos from the big event...

Here are Jeff and the girls standing at the back door watching the snow blow in. 

 

 

Somebody had to go out and get the firewood, and poor Daddy got nominated.

Here is a view from our front porch about halfway through the storm.  This is what we woke up to the morning of the 25th.

 

 

 

This is a picture of the storage building near our driveway once the snow had stopped falling.  It was a real mess!

  

 

This is a shot (taken by a local photographer) of abandoned vehicles on Hillside road about a half mile from our house.  This is one of the main arteries that runs east to west thorough the city.  The roads were completely impasssable.

 

 

After the storm was gone and things started to clear out, we made it outside for a little bit of winter fun.  Here are a few shots of Daddy and Alice enjoying the fresh powder and building a little snowman.

 

 

 

 

Cutest snowbunny ever

 

 

Here we are standing next to the snowman Alice appropriately named "Fwosty". 

 

 

Eleanor slept through most of this.  She says, "What blizzard?"