Check Up

Poor Allison battled two ear infections in one month.  We are happy to say, "Goodbye ear infections and goodbye February!"  It has been a consistent (and humid) 75 degrees for the past week or so here in the "big city", so hopefully Spring is here to stay.  I LOVE it!  I am a flip flop wearing girl and the moment I can pull them out of the closet is the BEST moment! Talk to me in August when it's 110 degrees and a 110 percent humidity; I might be hoping for Borger snow at that point!  Anyway, the doctor wanted to double check Allison, so we went in to the doctor's office aka the petri dish feeling perfectly well.  Here's to praying we stay perfectly well after our hour in the waiting room!

As you can see, the little ham is fine.  Thank goodness.  We count our blessings daily for our healthy princess.  After the doctor, one always deserves a treat.  We headed to Tutti Frutti Yogurt and had a special treat!

Have some yogurt with  your sweetheart soon!

PS  Today is a very special day...HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DEAR NICK!!! It's Nick's birthday today!  I am so thankful for another year with the sweetest boy I know!  Allison and I love you!! Enjoy your special day!

"Happy Girls Are The Prettiest Girls."

"I believe in manicures. I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick. I believe in pink. I believe happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day, and... I believe in miracles." -Audrey Hepburn

Valentine's Day

Valentine's was on a Monday which somehow makes it much more difficult to truly celebrate this Hallmark holiday that I adore.  However, we made the best of it and had a great day.  Allison was our "Miss Valentine's Day 2011."  Check her out!

This is the new thing now, she turns her head when it is time to take the picture.  She is totally striking a pose.

Nick came home bearing gifts of roses and chocolates for me and a teddy bear and cookies for Allison.  He is a great Valentine!  We went across the street from our neighborhood to our favorite little Thai spot for some Volcano Shrimp Flambe, Pad Thai, dumplings and coconut ice cream. It was wonderful.  Allison ate her ring from her boyfriend, Zach, for dessert...

Happy LATE Valentine's to each of you! I hope it was full of red, pink, candy and most of all love!

Elmo LIVE!

Now that we are "big city folk" we have plenty of opportunities to catch live shows.  Whether it be Guster, Ben Folds, or even maybe a little Harry Connick Jr.; they all come to Houston.  Nick and I love live shows and our time in Borger greatly reduced our concert attendance, but we are in the mecca now.  We were so excited to finally make it to a show.  Little did we know, our first show in the big city would be Elmo.  Yes, we are parents and Elmo for our princess took priority over a  trip to the House of Blues for us.  Our time will come.  It is Princess Allison's time right now.

Nick found tickets to "Elmo Healthy Heroes."  We thought it would be a blast to take Allison since Elmo truly is her first boyfriend.  She does adore him and has for quite some time.  

We were excited because Allison's other boyfriend, Zach, was able to come along too!  She loves Zach and calls him, "My Zach."  Zach even brought her a Valentine's treat!  A RING!! Yes, a ring POP!  We will have to watch out for those two though.  They might be getting serious!

Everyone was so excited for the show to start!

And it was magical  once it finally did!

We had fun, but Allison was  ready to go after intermission.  We left early.  I am not sure if she is a little over Elmo or if the show was a bit too long for a two year old's attention span.  However, I am so glad we went.  The smile on her face and the light in her eyes was worth every penny.  Of course, she did have to say goodbye to her "first love."

Sushi Date

Nick had a business dinner last week so he would not be home for dinner.  Allison and I were a little tired of eating at home, so we stepped out together for a sushi date one night.  I stopped at McDonald's to get her "chicken and fries."  Chicken McNuggets are the only meat our little vegetarian will eat.  When we went into the sushi restaurant, she immediately asked for chopsticks. She did so well with them!

She also requested some of my "noodles" that just so happened to be seaweed salad.  Well, she ate them right up!  She LOVED it!  She has had seaweed salad before and enjoyed it, but I had yet to see her eat an entire plate of it.  Ha ha! Little does she know...

The next morning, she requested to eat her cereal with chopsticks.  Lucky for her we had some on hand!

I can't wait to take our little one out for sushi again soon!

Princess Allison

I did it.  I am single handedly responsible for this transformation.  I, Kelly Spencer, turned our two year old toddler into a princess.  I always adored the idea of having a little girl that would wear smocked dresses, tutus and bows. In fact, I used to tell Nick that besides him, boys were just not allowed in the Spencer house, girls only.  Nick used  to tell me that I doomed myself to a life of triplet boys, but he was wrong.  God so fittingly thought that I needed a girl.  I stand by the fact that this is true. I am a "girl" mom.  I do not like to get dirty, I love fashion and pink is much more my color.  In fact, I am so much a girl mom that I created a monster.  I present to you Exhibit A of the "Princess Allison" transformation.  She dressed herself.

Lately, Allison has passed up Elmo and Olivia for Snow White and the The Little Mermaid.  She is in love with all things princess.  She carries around a magic wand and usually has a crown near her.  She twirls around and sings while she stares at herself  in her Disney Princess Vanity mirror.  She acts out and has every word memorized to her "Barbie And The Magic of Pegasus" movie.  It's an awful movie that I found in the $5 bin at Wal Mart. She thinks it is truly the cat's meow. She refers to her house as her "castle" and says, "Bye bye my castle," every time we drive away.  She greets her house with "Oh my castle!" every time we arrive home.
Exhibit B of the "Princess Allison" Transformation.  Or the "Lady Gaga" transformation.

Every morning she wakes up and she is ready to "get dressed."  She only wants to wear "pretty, pretty princess dresses."  I love the fact that she wants to wear her darling dresses. I am thankful she has so many  to choose from to wear; however, they are not appropriate for every occasion.  For example, she has gymnastics at her school once a week.  For her movement and safety, she should wear pants. Well, that is not an option for "Princess Allison."  When pants are suggested, fits are thrown, time out is served and somehow this two year old turns into a 16 year old fighting with her mother about what to wear to school. Last week, her school had t-shirt day and gymnastics.  I was so nervous about that morning and how she would react to the idea of wearing jeans and a t-shirt (gasp).  I was  right to be nervous.  She was not happy.  Although, suddenly it clicked.  Around the house and with her pajamas, she has been wearing her tutu. I guess that is what princesses wear when they are lounging around the house.  So, being the peacemaker that I am, I came up with a compromise.  This...

Princess Allison was able to still be a princess even on jeans and t-shirt day.  That tutu has served us well and continues to do so.  I am so thankful for our princess.  I love that she loves to dress up and is not afraid to "express herself."  I realize that this is probably just a phase.  Next week, she might aspire to be something else.  I am thankful for every phase and every moment, even the tough ones.  I prayed so hard for a little girl and God so graciously gave us this little bundle of perfection.  We love you, Princess Allison.  Thank you for simply being you.

Even Though We Are Miles Apart, We will Always Be Sisters In Our Hearts!

I am truly blessed. I have a lot of friends.  I have a lot of dear friends; whether they are old or new, I am so thankful for the relationships that we have with each other.  I have one friend in particular that I am truly always thankful for, Cathleen.  Cathleen and I have been friends since we were six years old and started taking tennis lessons together at Briarcrest Country Club in Bryan.  Some of my fondest memories of childhood were spent with Cathleen.  We spent a lot of hours playing in her playroom, watching Grease 2 and playing Barbies until we were embarrassingly too old to be playing with Barbies.  My family and I moved from Bryan when I was 10 years old, however, Cathleen and I only furthered our friendship.  She came up to Fort Worth to visit me in the summers, while I went to Bryan to see her.  We spent time at her family ranch in Bandera and also lots of trips to Austin and Houston in between.  Cathleen attended Baylor and I attended OU.  We did not let the miles stop us from seeing one another.  In fact, I have a very vivid memory of going to see her at Baylor and meeting Jon, the boy who would later become her  crazy, fun loving husband.  I also remember her coming to visit me at OU right after I met Nick, my future soul mate.  She stood next to me and served as the maid of honor in our wedding; the most sacred job any friend can do.  I later had the privilege to be a bridesmaid in her wedding as well.  As one can see Cathleen is a true gem of a friend.  She is not one that I have to talk to on a daily or even monthly basis.  She is a friend that I can speak with every so often and it will be as if no time has passed at all. I know that I can truly talk to her about anything and she probably knows me better than just about anyone.  Cathleen and Jon have been living in Europe for the past three years.  Unfortunately, I do not get to see her often since there is a whole ocean between us.  However, at the beginning of February, she was in the states and made the time to come stay with us for a couple of nights!  What a fun, wonderful time we had!  She was witness to Houston's snow day (although neither of us saw any snow) and was able to hopefully relax a bit at the Spencer house.  It was nice just "to be." We ate a lot, ran a bit, watched some movies and drank a bit while we were at it.  Words cannot say how much it means to me that she came all the way to Houston to see us and spend time with us. Now, Nick and I need to get ourselves over to Europe to see those Cloughs!  Thanks Cathleen!  I love ya tons!  Oh and Cathleen is a great blogger, check out her site here.

Nick made fun of us in this picture because of our ever present "head tilt."  

We tried it again...

And the newest little addition to our friendship, Allison, we can't wait until she is into Barbies.  She might need our help! 

Thanks again, Cathleen! You are the best!!! 

First Day Of School...In Houston!

Well, folks, Allison hit the big city and struck a pose before her first day in her new school!  She loved school in Borger and adores it here!  They have gymnastics, learn Spanish and sing A LOT. She always comes home with a new song for me!  I am so happy she loves it!

Check out Margo peeking through the door!

Sideways

What trip to Northern California would be complete without a trip to Napa?  Of course we had to head over to Napa to drink some wine and see the sights.  I love wine.  I like to consider myself an "equal opportunist" when it comes to wine.  I do not discriminate.  I like it all.  I like red, I like white, I like expensive, I like cheap; I am pretty easy to please as long as it is some sort of a beverage made from a grape.
Tim, Melissa and Ryn were so sweet to take us all the way to Napa.  I am so glad we went.  We started at the Trefethen Winery.  This was a great place to start.  The scenery was gorgeous and the staff was very kind.  A huge plus...the wine was great!

I had no idea that mustard grew in Napa Valley.  Look at those pretty mustard plants.

After a delicious lunch, we headed over to V. Sattui Winery.  It was a great place to end the day.  

Here we are with little Ryn.  She was a trooper!

I am so glad we had the opportunity to see Napa.  We flew home to Houston the next day.  I am also thankful for all of the other sites we saw in California.  Thank you so much, Tim, Mel, Ryn, Jason and Erica.  It was a trip we will not soon forget.  If you have not been to California, I highly recommend it.  One honestly feels like one is in another country.  It's gorgeous.  I am sure we will be back someday.  

XOXOXO

Happy Valentine's Day to you and your loved ones.  I always enjoy this day.  I will have pictures soon of our special day today, but for now, some Valentine's Flashbacks from the last couple of years....

"Love is a many splendid thing; Love lift us up where we belong; All you need is love."- Moulin Rougue