Wordless Wednesday

Snack Happy

I won't lie...I love food. If you know me--heck, if you've just ever SEEN me, you know this! :0)

My love of food runs the gamut. I'd be perfectly comfortable ordering in a French black-tie restaurant (thanks, UNT, for that minor in French!), and I'd totally love the food, but I'd also be content with a Happy Meal from McD*nald's (aren't my girls lucky?!).

Probably my favorite of all foods is the "snacky" variety. Think party food, shower food, junk food. I could seriously live on snack foods for every meal. I don't need three hot meals a day to be happy!

Want to know a secret? I have a deep, abiding love for convenience store food and drinks.

OK. Now it's out there. I feel so much better! Just please don't judge me or think less of me!

Since I've had children, popping in to 7-11 for a fountain Diet Coke or the like is a bit less, well, convenient (no pun intended) than it once was, so I seldom get to treat myself to that little pleasure.

That's where my man comes in.

My sweet J knows me too well. He calls me every evening on his way home to ask if he needs to make any stops for me, including picking up a treat (or dinner, depending on how late it is) for me. Last night he had some big fancy fundraiser to attend, I was starving by the time he was on his way home, so he picked up my favorite snack du jour...

the 7-11 Roller Grill taquito and a cherry Slurpee.

We've been married for 7 years now, and I don't think that up until this year I've ever touched hot food from a convenience store. I love the fountain drinks and pre-packaged snacks, but I've always turned my nose up at the stuff rolling around on those grotesque metal grills. Shudder.

Until Baby Boy came along.

Could it be because he's a boy and his daddy too has a fondness for such delicacies? Who knows.

What'll be interesting to see is if I still love the taquitos after Baby Boy arrives!

Last night, J brought me new treats to go along with my "dinner".
The new Sour Punch cherry Slurpee straw! (Excuse the sugar "dust" on the desk...I didn't bother to wipe it off before I took the photo!)

Review: initially it was great. I normally love this candy! But after the first few sips, the straw loses its sugar coating and gets sticky. And when I tried to bite it to eat it, I found that it had "frozen" from the Slurpee and was really hard to chew. I probably won't get it again.

And because I've been craving Cheeto puffs lately, he gave these a whirl for me:


Giant Cheetos! They're a funny size--maybe the size of a standard marshmallow? Not quite as big as a golf ball, but a little bigger than a gum ball.

The review: they're divine, but are they kidding with this package of FOUR? I'll cut them some slack...maybe this was just a sample size. :0)

Here's wishing you giant fun in giant quantities this weekend! We have a crazy-busy weekend in store for us, so things may be a little quiet around here. We'll see!

New Shoesday Tuesday

I don't know why I felt compelled to take pictures. I don't know why I felt so nostalgic! Tuesday was a rite of passage in some ways...my firstborn put on her first pair of Keds!

I don't know why I was so excited. It's not like I've worn Keds since, oh, high school (and only then because it was required of us for Dance Team), nor do I plan to anytime soon! Nonetheless, it was just so cute.

J took M shoe shopping the morning of April 4, and they came home with these. But she's not had opportunity to wear them yet.

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We started the day with another OB check-up. The girls were great--so much so that I heard both from one of the nurses and my doctor about it! My nurse asked if they are "always so perfect" and my doctor commented on how he can never tell if I have them with me or not at any given appointment until he walks into the exam room.

I realized that my first inclination is always to laugh comments like that off, but really I do hear them quite often. I had a little epiphany in the office that morning that I shared with them. It's not that my girls aren't great--they really are--it's that I'm an abnormally "uptight" mom who goes ballistic on the inside if they make so much as a peep. :0) I need to work on that. I need to cut them more slack and count my blessings for the great kids that they are.

After my appointment, we met Aunt Nikki at our favorite mall for lunch, the play area and then some shopping. Again, my girls were stars! I've been making concerted efforts to get them in situations where M's "running free" and not in her stroller. And don't think that's not torture for me! I LOVE our double stroller and the convenience of keeping both girls contained wherever we go. But reality is that there's a new baby coming in a few weeks, and I'm not even thinking about a triple stroller. The double's cumbersome, heavy and a pain in the behind enough! (That's a post in and of itself...)

And wonder of wonders, M's proving to be better "out on her own" than I thought! Then again, it could just go back to the "uptight mom" thing. :0) But on Tuesday at the mall, she was at her absolute best. She walked beside the stroller the whole day, holding on to it or helping me push Rosie in it, and if she did venture away it was only a few paces in front of us where I could see her safely. Way to go, my dear!

I'm learning to let go of perfection. I'm trying hard to let my children be children, within safe reason. It's a hard lesson for me, and it requires lots of practice, but so far it's been so rewarding and freeing!

Easterpalooza Day Two: The Big Show

So Sunday wasn't too much different. The same conditions: no sleep, tardiness and the Great Wardrobe Wars left this mama in another grouchy state. Because nothing says "Hallelujah He is risen" like a crabby mother. :0)

We woke the girls up to find their Easter baskets, they ate a few little treats out of them, then proceeded to take only one-two bites of their oatmeal for breakfast, only to proclaim all of a sudden that they were done.

I said a silent prayer right there and then for their Sunday School teachers...I knew they'd have their hands full with these two hungry girls!

Secretly, I was OK with the abbreviated breakfast. Maybe just maybe we could get dressed and out the door on time that way!

I was worried initially about the weather, but God was gracious to us and allowed the downpour to happen while we were getting ready. It was only misting when we arrived at church, and we park in the preggy parking anyway, so I was only a few short steps from the church entrance!

But back to dressing...M gave me the same fight. A few days ago while we were getting our final Easter outfit together, M declared that she was not going to wear a bow. She wanted to wear her hat. Fine with me. Easter morning comes, and she was having neither. What she did have was a big ol' meltdown right before it was time to leave. Go figure.

In an effort to reverse psychology the situation in my favor, J helped me out by stating that he'd be wearing the hat:
That worked for a short time. But in the end she won. No bow. No hat. I was lucky to get a barrette in her hair to keep the bangs out of her face that we're trying to grow out.

We made it to church on time somehow. The service was great! Great music, great message. Packed house, full of faces I've never seen. Easter's funny like that! We didn't have Sunday School that day, so it was nice to pick up the girls early from their classes. J's mom went with me to pick up Rosie.

Here are she and M outside the church after service. Note M's not in a sweater. She wouldn't wear that, either. It made me so cold looking at her!

J and Rosie. Who is holding M's cast-off sweater.

We went to early service because J's whole family would be there, and we knew we all wanted to go out to eat afterward. So we decided to go somewhere kid-friendly, wallet-friendly, crowd-friendly...

...Cici's Pizza!

It was truly an Easter miracle...neither of the girls left there with so much as a spot on their dresses! And they both ate like champs. Guess it was the lack of breakfast!

Rosie was having a ball swiping everyone's breadsticks within her reach. She's my carb baby!

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Then we went over to J's grandmother's house for Mama Landa's birthday cake and more Easter baskets for the girls.

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(All in all, that makes TEN baskets between the girls. Not counting my mother's that we'll get this week! Crazy...)

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The girls love to go to their Mamaw's house! It is absolute Toy Central! There are five great-grandchildren that they love to provide for there.

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Rosie enjoyed walking around and around. She's really gotten good on her feet! She's getting faster and more confident every day.

Since I really can't get a nice photo of M lately--she won't pose for me and throws a fit when I get out the camera these days--this is one of the only shots I have of her in her dress.

And y'all know I have some weird photo tendencies: I love to snap pictures of people from behind while they're walking away, I love to get close-ups of my girls' hands when they're making things, etc. Well, I also love shots of the backs of my girls' dresses. I don't know why...even some of my favorite bridal shots are of the back of my dress, too!

I just think it's sweet! I may crop this one, make it black and white, and then frame it as part of our Easter 2010 decor.

Here's the only photo I have of both of the girls together from Easter. M simply won't stand for it! And wouldn't you know she'd be harrassing her sister...

I found these dresses several weeks ago, and I really had mixed feelings about them not matching. The dresses are significant--daisies and roses are "their" flowers--but it seemed to wrong to not match them while I can! And especially since this is my last Easter as a purely "girl mom". Not that I still can't match the girls when Baby Boy arrives, but... Anyway, it was something I had to let go of.

No cute family shot of the four of us, either. I was too defeated to even try it. I'm a "Big Expectations" kind of girl. Always have been. Looks like with children I need to re-think that!

Another Easter miracle? The girls stayed awake all the way home from Mamaw's, thanks to their Cici's balloons that they played with. We all enjoyed a two-hour Easter nap when we got back home!

Now that deserves a Hallelujah!

Easterpalooza Day One: The Church Easter Festival

Our Easter weekend started out on a grouchy note with our church's Family Easter Festival on Saturday. I say "grouchy" because that was my condition...I'd not had enough sleep, we were running late (as usual!), and M was giving me a run for my money on her three year-old wardrobe battles. Sister girl turned up her nose at my carefully-chosen casual dress outfit with her sparkly flip-flops and opted instead for her Valentine's Day long-sleeved top with her dark brown corduroy pants. And her hot-pink cowboy boots. That didn't even remotely match.

I decided I could let it slide if she'd only wear a bow in her hair. I didn't even care if it matched! But no...she knew how to get to me, and she initially chose to wear about 7 headbands instead.

Sigh...

I'd love to find (or make) shirts for M that read "I dress myself!". I'd make her wear those every day.

I may have done this to myself...I've always been careful to let her have independence in as much as possible, and I figured clothing wasn't a big deal. And it's not on most days, unless they're holiday days that include lots of picture-taking. Those situations are important to me, but it's getting increasingly hard to get M to wear what I want her to even on those rare occasions. I was ready to spit nails by the end of the weekend!

Blah blah blah...so for all the grandparents reading, here's how Saturday went down:

M, J and Rosie taking in our church's children's Easter service. (Notice she'd finally shucked 6 of her headbands.)

J dealing with a restless Rosie...the program is a little long for the younger kids!

Of course, M wanted to hit the bounce houses first thing. I remember last year she was scared of them! You've come a long way, baby. :0) Now we can't get you out of them.

J took M to meet some of the characters from the childrens' service (the Tooth Fairy, Spider Man, Lady Liberty...), so this preggy mom took a little rest break with Rosie. Here she is sorting all of the snacks and condiments from our lunch bags. (Our church provided free lunches for all the guests! How cool is that?!)

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She even rebelled that morning and would not wear a bow in her hair. Seems M's teaching her some bad habits!

J and Rosie goofing off while they wait for the start of the Egg Hunt. Rosie put her basket on J's head.

When the hunt began, we opted to divide and conquer. J took Rosie, and I took M. She actually brought in a decent haul for only being a year old! He'd hand her an egg and she'd pick it up and drop it in the basket.

Chaperoning M on an Egg Hunt is much easier. She's totally self-sufficient now, so all I had to do was follow her a bit and snap photos. I was so proud of her--she got a ton of eggs!

We came home and put the girls down for naps. I had to make an Easter shoe and Easter basket filler run. I can't believe it, but I waited till the day before Easter to buy the girls' contents. And I'll never do that again...the shelves were bare, and T*rget was a madhouse!

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The shoe hunt was nuts, too. I've been searching for shoes to go with the girls' Easter dresses for weeks now, but it seems that kids' shoe manufacturers are under the impression that all kids have 5-inch wide, 4-inch tall feet! I've not been able to find sandals that fit my girls...I guess they have narrow feet, maybe? They can't even wing it in sandals...their feet slip out because the shoes are so wide and tall.

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J ended up having to make another shoe run that night, and we ended up with closed-toe dress shoes for both of them. Which was just as well with the rain and all the next day.

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The photo above is the girls' baskets! I think they turned out cute!

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And in my grumpiness, I even forgot to set out the Easter Bunny's snack with the girls before we went to bed. And we never got around to dying eggs. (But I bought all the stuff to do it! That's gotta count for something, right?!)

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Lucky for me, they're not old enough to call me out on all this stuff yet! :0)

Easter Retrospective Day 4: Meeting the Bunny

Another Easter "must-do" on the Dees Family Holiday Fun list is a photo with the Easter Bunny. Behold, the catalog thus far...

M on 4-11-06 at 5 months.

M on 4-6-07 at 17 months.

Rosie was with us for Easter 2008, but for the life of me I can't find a Bunny photo. We must have skipped a year (gasp!).

And fast forward to today. I took the girls to meet Mama Landa and Papa Popo at a mall, and it also happens to be Mama Landa's birthday. Can you think of anything more fun to do on your birthday than standing in line for 30 minutes with a bunch of impatient preschoolers? Yeah, ML's a trooper...

We got our usual photo with the Bunny:




4-10-09
M is 3 1/2, Rosie is 16 months. And since I can't find one from last year, this must be Rosie's first official Easter Bunny photo!

She looks thrilled, doesn't she? :0) And M's keeping a comfortable distance.

Hopefully next year will yield better results! Oh wait...we'll have yet another infant to freak out in the picture!

Never mind...we may have to wait a few years for a good shot.

Because there's nothing a good hot roll can't fix

It's a weird day today. I'm not feeling so great--I'm not sick or anything, just not feeling up to par. Could have something to do with a string of a few very uncomfortable nights with not much sleep. I'm telling you--this kid feels like he's 15 pounds already! :0)

As a result, it's been a lazy day. M's begging me to go outside today since the weather is pretty, but I'm just not feeling like it. Days like this, when it feels like I veto virtually everything my children want to do because I simply don't have the energy, make me feel like I'm supressing their sweet creative spirits. It's hard to describe, but it's a cruddy feeling...

I did get to sleep in this morning, luckily. The girls weren't ready to get up until 8:30. But I didn't get up and get ready either, which always equals a discombobulated day for me.

And you know it's bad when your three year-old asks to be taken to her Mama Landa's house! :0)

I always feel as if it's not a successful day until we've tried our hands at a big project, or at least semi-big, and days like today make me even more apt to relent to a big project following afternoon naps in an effort to redeem the day.

Before naptime, we did some cleaning. That always makes me happy! It's not up there on the "great mom" list of things to do with my girls in my opinion, but they seem to enjoy helping me.

But before that, while Rosie was napping this morning, I decided I'd pull M into a quick baking project. She lives to help me in the kitchen, so I knew there'd be no coaxing necessary. And I was right. At the mere mention, she tore into the kitchen where we keep her step stool.

And I do classify baking with my children as a big project. Because it makes my blood pressure skyrocket! I'm OCD about clean, and baking with M almost always means a mess to clean up afterward. So I rarely embark on those type projects with her, unfortunately.

It's a painfully easy recipe I found years ago and always wanted to try but never did for some reason. I recently rediscovered it in my recipe file, and I thought it would be a great one to try with M since the ingredient list is so short and the directions are so easy.

Here's M in action. My mini-Betty Crocker taking a moment to pose for my camera:
Quick Sunday Dinner Rolls

Ingredients:

1 cup self-rising flour

1/2 cup milk

3 heaping tablsepoons mayonnaise (I used Hellmann's)

Directions:

Mix ingredients well. Pour evenly into greased muffin tin (I used an ungreased silicone muffin pan, and it worked beautifully.), about 3/4 full. Bake 15 minutes at 400. Makes 6. You can roll these and cut them with a biscuit cutter if you decrease the milk to make a stiffer dough.

Here was our end result (along with melted butter!):

Some notes:

These turned out pretty tasty! I don't think I "heaped" my mayo enough when I measured it, though. The dough/batter was pretty stiff when M stirred it, so I don't know what they meant when they said "pour the batter" in the directions. I "glopped" the batter into my muffin pan, and I didn't have enough to fill the cups 3/4 full. But they all rose nicely and were a good, big size!

I love bread. LOVE it. I love rolls, too. So I was really excited to try this recipe. I found them to come out a little more biscuit-y than I prefer. So I'd like to try this again adding more mayo next time. But the mayo adds a nice flavor and moisture to the rolls!

I'd also like to experiment next time, too. I think it'd be interesting to try some cheddar cheese and garlic in them, as in R*d L*bster's cheese biscuits. Or adding some beer to the batter. Or some herbs and parmesan for an Italian spin.

I guess I should mention my source, eh? I have written a website "Southern Daughter" on this recipe, but I just searched for that website and can't find one online anymore. I did find southerndaughtercookbooks.com, and I think this is where it originated. There's a "recipes" link on that site, but it's not functioning at this time.

All in all, this is a good, basic, quick recipe! Try it with your little bakers sometime!

Easter Retrospective Day 2: Easter '07

Easter 2007 was one of my favorites! M was 17 months old; about the same age Rosie is this year.

Below, the week before Easter, trying on her outfit at home:
Can you tell she was d-o-n-e at this point?

Then she pulled one more cute one out for me. And this will forever go down in M history as one of my favorite photos of her EVer. It's framed on my personal desk.

Fast forward a week to Easter weekend. M's great-grandmother, GG Carolyn, came to visit us that weekend! She's in Florida, we love her to pieces, and we're so blessed that she comes to see us about once a year.

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M is a big fan of rummaging through purses, and it didn't take her long to find her way to Carolyn's. Check her out in her GG's sunglasses:

Then Easter Sunday. At that point in her life, we decided she wouldn't know the difference, so we opted to give her her Easter basket in the evening. We were probably running late for church!

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Because I'm so AR, I cannot STAND what car seats do to my daughters' pressed dresses. So for certain occasions we'll wait and put the girls in their dresses when we get to said destination. This particular Sunday, that's what we did with M. Here are she and J in the backseat just before we left the car to walk in.

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Again, one of my favorite all-time photos.

I treasure this photo too, because it's what I see every Sunday morning as we're walking in to our church building. Except these days J's carrying Rosie and M's holding my hand walking in on her own!

J's family began attending church with us a few years ago, so Easter is a special day for that whole side of the family. After Easter worship, it's tradition for us to go eat since we aren't scattered in different Sunday School directions.

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Here we are at the restaurant, and M's obviously pumped about the crayons. When I look at this now, it reminds me of the popular Facebook flair that says "I freakin' LOVE coloring!"

And one of the sweetest things for me...the way M loves to snuggle up to J when we eat. It doesn't matter if it's at home or out in a restaurant. She often wants to rest her head on his arm! I love their sweet relationship.

Checking out her Easter gifts from her grandparents and great-grandparents:

I just got the call this afternoon about our plans for this year. I love our holiday traditions!

Easter baby

Yesterday while I was doing some ironing, I decided to get a jump on the weekend and take care of the girls' Easter dresses, too. Oh my...pressing your daughters' Easter dresses will make a mama's emotions go nuts. :0) I was flooded with memories of Easters past.

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The only thing better than dressing a daughter for Easter? Dressing TWO daughters for Easter! It's been so fun these last two years with Rosie's addition to our family. This is her second Easter, and I can't wait to show you how cute her dress is!

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I was inspired by Kelly's Easter-themed posts this week, so I thought I'd share my own take on it. This week I'm reminiscing about our past Easters and republishing photos of my babies. :0)

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The first installment is M above at 21 weeks in March 2006. In this photo I was just trying on her Easter outfit. A dress rehearsal. If I remember correctly, I emailed this photo to J at work the same day, and his comment was something about melting when he saw it. :0)

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Score!

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That's what the Dees girls live for...making Daddy melt.

A monster of a weekend

A baby shower. Soccer tourney that my husby's students were in. And a birthday party at Going Bonkers.

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A brief glimpse into our weekend! Yeah, it was a monster.

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I wasn't going to post at all today, but Amanda's really resonated with me. I'm glad I'm not alone in feeling personally and domestically wiped out at the end of a weekend!

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So what am I going to do about the messes? Nothing. All the housework and stuff can wait. I'm signing off, turning out the lights and getting ready for bed. That's the best "work" I can do to get the week started off right...getting a good night's rest!

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(Side note...M chose the plastic lizard above as one of her arcade prizes from the party today. I can't tell you how much I love this. She'll forget it in a matter of days, but I'm keeping it forever. If she'll let me, he'll end up permanently living on my desk. He just makes me giggle! A hot pink and yellow plastic lizard...I think it's totally what I must look like on the inside when I'm having one of "those days" as a mom. So I'll use it as a reminder that I need to just chill out. Relax, press in, and enjoy these days. Even though sometimes they bring out the monster in me.)

Spring things

I love this time of year. Yeah, sure, it's a harbinger of a long string of hot months to come, but I'll take these few weeks of pleasant temperatures while I can get it.

And what better weather to make special memories with my little girls throughout the month before Baby Brother joins us? It's going to be a fun time.

Some signs of spring at the Dees House:

My Easter wreath went up today. (Got this gem last year at the T*rget Dollar Spot. It was worth every penny! I'm thrilled to get one more year of use.)

My girls our trading in their sweaters and pants in favor of their happy spring dress wardrobe.

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As a side note, this photo was taken on Tuesday evening of this week. It was the first time the girls had worn these dresses, and Rosie incidentally decided to walk most of the evening this evening! I don't know if it's because it's harder to crawl in a dress or what, but it was so cute to see her toddling all around the house. She's been walking a few steps here and there independently since late Feburary, but she's really made great strides (no pun intended!) this week!

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(Got these for a steal at W*l-M*rt. SIX DOLLARS each! M wants to wear dresses all the time, even for play around the house, so I've been stocking up on all the inexpensive dresses I can find. WM has a few good ones for $5-6. Not all of them are little-girl appropriate in my opinion, but we're nabbing the ones we can.)

And I'm thrilled that my cardinals have returned in the last couple of weeks! Here's the little Mister. I spotted the Misses first, but I've not been able to get her on film.

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We have a male and female that inhabit our backyard each year, but I've been worried about them this time. It seems like they came later this year.

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And I can't ignore the fact that my pansies and dianthus are STILL ALIVE even after we planted them a few months ago, and I recently planted the petunias and marigolds you see above, and they're still alive and thriving, too! This is a miracle for me...I'm notoriously bad at growing anything.

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A few weeks ago J took M to H*me Dep*t, and I told him to let her pick out a few random flowers to fill in some empty pots I had. She chose these, and I'm so happy they're doing well! Good job, my sweet girl. :0)

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And though I don't have any photos of them, we were happy to spot the first bluebonnets of the season this week on our way up to Plano! I can't wait to take the girls for photos in the weeks to come. It'll be Rosie's first experience! I don't think we did it last year.

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From our house to yours, Happy Spring!