Happy 65th, Mimi!

We celebrated Mimi's 65th birthday this past weekend and it was so much fun!  Mimi wanted to take all of her girls to the Houston Children's Museum.  It was a great place and the girls loved it!  Miss Lilliann was, as always, such a trooper.  We are so grateful for sweet Mimi.  She enjoys the quality time, the special moments, and the fun experiences with her grandkids.  Mimi is all about making memories.  She is so sweet and fun loving.  The girls are all so lucky to have Mimi in their lives and we look forward to celebrating many more birthday celebrations for Mimi.

Happy 65th Birthday to our special Mimi!!!

Yay!  We are finally at the museum and we decided to mock the mannequin.  :-)

Climbing the levered chair

Papa and Claire enjoying the museum together

Uh oh...Look who's driving! 

Harper the scientist - She had so much fun in this room that it took a million photos just to capture one moment of her still enough for no blurriness.

Claire the scientist

Harper driving - watch out, world!

Group shot at the end of the museum trip.  It was a lot of fun!

 Mommy got a new camera.  I played with it while I was in Houston and got some really sweet pictures of my sweet, sweet girls.

This kid can't get enough of the wagon.  I really think she'd sleep there if she could which is why I loved capturing this moment of Harper resting against the wagon handle.

SWING!

Mommy snuggles...

My beautiful girl loves to pick flowers in Mimi's beautiful yard.

And, she LOVES to swing!

I love this picture because Claire had no idea I was taking a picture while she was picking flowers.  I was a solid 20 feet away from her.  She loves nature; she loves to stop and  smell the flowers.

Sweet, beautiful girl picking a flower for her Mimi...

Whirlwind February - is it already March?

Birthday parties, kickball practices, bike riding adventures, a trip to Houston, Claire's 1st lost tooth, the Hill Book Fair, and more...  February was BUSY!  We blinked and it is over.  Here is a sneak peek at our February:

Audrey's dance party gang - Harper was hysterical at this party.  She was totally in her element.

Harper cutting a rug at Audrey's dance party

Being silly at Hope's birthday party

Ava & Claire playing with their bow and arrow balloons at Hope's birthday party

Fun at John Barker's construction party!

Wagon rides with Mimi

Claire and Papa

Sliding with Papa

Stevie Ray Vaughn and Claire...taking a bike riding break!

A Blueberry Muffin sighting at Zilker Park riding her bike, or a Harper who insisted upon wearing her Blueberry Muffin costume - whichever you prefer!

Claire lost her first tooth.  The tooth fairy came and she got $5 for her first tooth!

Hill's Book Fair was a blast for Claire. She loves to read and loves that she is now able to read them on her own.   The school library was transformed to a Libratory!!  Dax and Claire are really good friends.  His Mommy sent me this picture on the day of the book fair and I love it!  Claire came home with 3 chapter books that she has devoured.  She's growing up!

Harper really wants to dress herself these days.  She does a pretty good job most days!  Look at our pretty girl growing up...

This is the kickball pep rally.  Claire's precious coaches made them cheetah masks!  Go PURPLE CHEETAHS! In case you can't tell which cheetah is ours, she is in stripes on the left.  :-)

Running the bases at kickball practice

Learning to kick and run to first base

Happy Valentine's Day 2013

Mommy decided to take Valentine's Day off and just be a Mommy.  My day was packed full of fun activities with the girls, and it was much needed medicine for what has been a stressful couple of weeks in the Nix household chocked full of house showings, packing boxes, moving things to storage, selling things on Craig's List, donating to Goodwill, etc...

The girls woke up to their Valentine's treats from us and to a home cooked breakfast.  Then, off to school!

I volunteered to man the "bookmark making table" at Claire's Valentine's party.   I had a blast making bookmarks with Claire and her friends.  I headed to Harper's class party after Claire's.  Harper's little class was precious too.  Most of all, I had a blast being with two of my loves.  :-)  They were excited I was there, and I am very thankful to have taken the day off.  After the girls went to bed, Daren and I enjoyed a nice, home cooked meal and a glass of wine or two.  It was a perfect day full of the three most important blessings in my life - my girls and my man.

Claire and Harper before school all dressed up in their cute Valentine's outfits from Mimi & Papa!

Mrs. Scace chose Claire to begin the Valentine card pass-around.  She did a great job giving them out and telling everyone "Happy Valentine's Day!"   She chose Barbie Valentine's with a Ring Pop.  Every time she gave a boy the Barbie card and the Ring Pop, she said to him, "Just giggle about it, ok?!  I know you don't like Barbies or rings, but just giggle."  Cracked me up and caused quite a laugh among the other parents there!

Mommy and my valentine

She's so excited!

Casen, Ava and Claire being silly on the Kindergarten couch

Harper's classroom door was decorated with these signs that each child answered.  I love Harper's answer.  :-) 

Harper patiently waiting to see what's inside her Valentine's shoebox.  She was so excited!  I don't think this picture quite does justice to showing the self control it was taking for her to wait for all of her friends to receive their shoeboxes full of cards. 

Harper and her bestie, Abby

Mommy and Harper enjoyed a little quality time playing outside before we went back to Hill to pick up Claire.  She's such a fun loving, smart, silly little girl!  We had so much fun playing and hanging out.

Every day when Harper and I pick Claire up from school, she climbs this tree in the front of Hill.  Valentine's Day was no different.  This time, Harper decided that she wanted to join.

Daren came home from work that night with roses for his two sweet girls who LOVE their Daddy so much!  I love that Daren thought of his sweet girls in this way.  Warmed my heart.  (He came home with flowers for Mommy too.) 

Putting it out there

Whether anyone reads my blog or not, I feel that I can hold myself more accountable if I publicly post this. So, here's my story...  I have a deep need to get fit again and show my girls that they have a strong, healthy Mommy.  For Daren, I would like my body to look a hint of what it did when he fell in love with me at age nineteen.  For me, I want to be fit, healthy and strong.  I want to feel proud of myself.  My excuse has always been about time.  The record in my head plays like this, "I work all day.  I want to be with Daren and the girls after work.  I don't have any energy left after I put the girls to bed.  I don't have time."  I was tired of the excuses because women around me do it all the time.  I saw this online and it hit me.  I have to change my life!  But, I did nothing.  I just saved the photo and thought about it a lot. 

 Then one night, I saw this Facebook post from a friend of mine who is a Crossfit Coach.  It resonated with me and I decided to change my life.  I look at this photo every morning when my alarm goes off at 4:45 A.M.

In the past, I get excited about exercise and I overdo it.  I get hurt early and this the routine fades out.  I did a bit of research and decided to start really slow.  I set my alarm for 4:45 A.M. to begin the Couch to 5K program. It was perfect.  It allowed me to feel really successful at first while the habit formed for the 4:45 wake up call and for exercise.  My 8 weeks on the program ended just in time for a 5K.

For a while, my running felt a lot like this:

 Then, I just settled in to the routine and it got easier and easier.  I signed myself up for the Jingle Bell 5K as a finish point for the Couch to 5K 8 week program and I ran it alone.  I just wanted to prove to myself that I could do it. I didn't want the pressure of having to pace with anyone else. Guess what, I did it!  And, I ran the entire way.  For some, that is not a big deal.  For those of you who read this and think, "I can't believe a 5K is hard for her?!"  Well, guess what?!  I did great!  It was hard, but I did it.

 So, my promise to myself in 2013 and moving forward is that I will maintain this healthy way of life.  I will continue to push myself and work to keep my body healthy.  It is a struggle for me, for some reason.  Call me lazy.   I don't know what it is.  I am my own worst enemy.  I feel great when I exercise.  No excuses anymore.  Just gonna do it!

 My next goal is the 10 for 20 in Austin, TX on April 13 that I am running with my good friends, Jen and Stacey.  I started the training program for it this week.  Eye on the prize - 10 miles, the finish line, a healthier me!

Goldilocks and the Teddy Bear Picnic

At bed time, Harper LOVES story time.  Her most recent favorite is "Goldilocks and the Three Bears."  In all seriousness, I think we have probably read it a thousand times!  We showed up to her school one Monday morning, and her teacher had transformed one corner of the room to have 3 beds, 3 bowls, and 3 chairs (big, medium, and small) to replicate the story.  Harper flipped.  Harper was ecstatic, to say the least!  It was an amazingly fun surprise for my silly 3 year old who loves Goldilocks so much!  To top it off, the class was going to have a Teddy Bear Picnic that Friday where each kid brings their favorite teddy bear and a packed lunch for a picnic with all the friends and their respective teddy bears.  Heaven on Earth for sweet Harper Ann!

Goldilocks ready for her picnic!  She brought her ballerina bear to join her along with her princess lunch box.

Umbrella Obsession

Claire has wanted a Hello Kitty umbrella for several months now.  Harper has been begging for Minnie Mouse.  Daren and I didn't understand the obsession so we avoided it for a while.  One night, Daren decided we should go ahead and order the umbrellas from Amazon.  You would have thought we bought them a trip to Disney World.  They LOVE the umbrellas, to say the least.  The girls have been pretending it's raining indoors ever since.  Hopefully, it's really NOT bad luck because, if it is, we are in BIG trouble.

Fun times in the COLD

January began with a bang and it was cold.  I think we had a week's worth of cold weather and it was during my last week at home before school began again.  We had some fun play dates with the boys and the girls and I took several trips to the park.  The break from our work/school routine was really nice.  It's fun to be with the girls and watch their friendship flourish. 

I was so proud that I actually got them all to agree to look and smile at once.  Pretty cute kiddos!

Claire and Harper raced up the slide.  Claire is really sweet and patient; she always lets Harper go first.  The good news is that Harper is getting really fast and brave.

Harper's favorite park feature - the ROCKS!

Claire loves to see how fast she can go down the slide!

Two Texans Dreaming of a Victory

Daren and Trey flew to Boston to root on the Texans as they played against the Patriots.  Although the Texans fell short, the two lifelong friends had a great time! 

I think they ate their way through Boston.  Look at that breakfast!

Game time!!!  Go Texans!!

Two very excited Texans.  Maybe next year, boys!  :-(