These last several months

So it has been quite some time since I've posted; 8 months or so in fact. Sadly, life has just gotten so very busy for us. We are enjoying life together, but I haven't had the time to write about it!

Celeste turned 6 this past February. My little girl is growing up so very fast and I feel a little bit of sorrow that she's no longer the length of my forearm, and she wants to do everything herself (yes, I know exactly where she gets that from!).

Here's a short little video of Celeste reading a book about Rapunzel to me all by herself on February 16, 2012. She was just over halfway through kindergarten; I absolutely love the education that she's been getting at her private school!

On the day of her birthday, I surprised her by bringing little cupcakes up to the school for her entire class during lunch. She was really stoked about it, so full of excited giggles and her eyes were dancing when she saw me walk in. I love these moments!

We had her birthday party at Fun City Sk8 in Webster, and so many of her friends from church and school came. She was so looking forward to having her party at the skating rink. We picked up rock-and-roll themed cupcakes from Rise Cupcakes in Friendswood (oh em gee, they were amazing), and she was extremely proud of the little fondant rock star guitars on them.

We have Pergo floors at home so they have been perfect for Celeste and her energy. She's been wearing these roller skates that we got her at Christmas almost every day and roller skating all over the house in them; so by the time her party came in February, she was a pro at skating!

Everyone singing Happy Birthday to Celeste at her party...

Aunt Ta bought her this cute little bag to carry her things in, and she was not going to church without it the day after her party!

Miss Personality... I just can't seem to figure out where she gets it all from??

A few more photos of springtime fun...

And here's my princess... rollerblading around the house as I mentioned earlier. :)

GASP!!! WHERE HAS MY BABY GONE?? :'( All grown-up; wow, how time flies.

And then it came; the day of her kindergarten graduation. Miniature pomp and circumstance with tiny robes and caps and tassels. It was so cute watching every kid walk down the aisle to the platform to graduate; but of course the star of the show was our little Celeste.

I still cannot believe my baby is about to go into the first grade this year. She tells me that I'm old, and I'm starting to believe her! Nothing I say is cool, she knows everything and of course, since I'm old, I lived in "the olden days" so I just do not understand how things work in today's society. Haha it's a little ironic when you get to experience what your own parents experienced from you 25 years ago. God has certainly got a sense of humor. :)

December... and Christmas!

So I've been slacking lately on posting things and this is my attempt to catch up! Sorry.

As you can see in my last post, a big part of our Christmas this year had to do with Walt Disney World in Florida. However, here are some photos of other things we did in December.

Celeste's class took a field trip to watch the Bay Area Houston Ballet & Theatre group perform The Nutcracker at the University of Houston Clear Lake. It was a little chilly, so Celeste put on my UHCL sweatshirt to keep warm. I don't know what it is about wearing my sweatshirts, but she loves doing it. Here are some photos of her with some of the cast members before the performance:

As part of her treat from her teacher, Ms. Minchew, Celeste and the rest of her class were given little toy nutcracker ornaments.

The next day, I bought Celeste this cute little Fraser Fir from Lowe's and she decorated it all by herself!

Then I began decorating some of the rest of the house... with Aunt Cyndi's help!

This just cracks me up. It looked too blah without anything on top... but it provided tons of laughs for me and Aunt Cyndi after I did this to it. Probably not appropriate for blog posting...

This tiny poinsetta from Lowe's is so cute!

Some garland, ribbon and ornaments on the antique vanity. My favorite part of this was actually the 2 lotus votive holders that Eric bought for me from the Nutcracker Market!

We kept the outdoor decor simple this year...

And finally...'twas the night before Christmas...

...and all through the house...

...not a creature was stirring...

Finally, it was Christmas morning. I got the bike down from the attic, set it up, and went to wake my two sleepyheads.

After a few hard blinks, Celeste was wide awake and present time was ON!!!

All bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Celeste loves her new bike.

Celeste tied her new robot dog (gift from Nana and PaPaw) to her new bike and they strolled through the house together like this.

She loves playing with Barbies, so we bought her a cute little Barbie house and she got some more Barbie dolls... and a Barbie car! So they're all set to live in my living room now, ha.

We had a great Christmas. I love this time of year, it's so beautiful and a bit romantic. The best part of it is watching Celeste's reactions to everything. It was awesome.

Disney!!!

We had wanted to take Celeste to Disney World around Christmastime and some close friends of ours (whose son is Celeste's age and friend) were able to come too, making the trip even more fun.

We didn't tell Celeste about the planned trip to Disney World until the moment we picked her up from school after her Christmas party on Friday, December 16^th. We arrived with a newly purchase, hot pink furry "Rockstar" duffel bag, packed with lots of Disney things and activities to entertain her during our long drive ahead. And we told her where we were going, and here's a photo of her reaction!

We met the Baker family at Chic-fil-A and Celeste grabbed her new luggage and rode in their car for the first leg of our trip.

We had such an amazing week of vacation! Here are some of the photos from the trip.

Here's my favorite photo from the Nemo exhibit at Epcot.

Celeste was able to meet most every princess and several Disney characters. But her favorite princess is Rapunzel. Perhaps it's because of her long curls and how often the kids at school say she's like Rapunzel, but regardless, Rapunzel is her favorite. And on our final day at Magic Kingdom, Celeste got to meet Rapunzel and get her autograph and photo.

Some of our best photos are from Epcot.

We had so much fun, but were glad to be back home, whew! Just in time for Christmas. ;)