The Fun Never Ends Around Here

Our girls LOVE puzzles. Audrey wants to "play puzzles" all the time and Alaina seems to be catching the puzzle fever as well...

The last few days have been fun-filled with family visits. It started with Cole and Caroline coming to spend the night.
These sisters love to swing together.

And even more when their cousins Cole and Caroline are pushing them.Look at these pretty girls. Caroline is so sweet with the girls. They both just love her to death.

Audrey had the time of her life playing with her cousins.

Some pool time...

Audrey can't get enough of Cole.

After Cole and Caroline left, Papa, Nana and Cameron came for a visit.

Papa brought his jet ski.

Can you believe I let my baby on a jet ski? Her Daddy took good care of her. Not sure she loved it, but she didn't hate it either.

And Mommy wasn't even planning on getting in the water (didn't even bring a bathing suit) but decided to take a ride with Troy and Audrey.

One minute we were on the jet ski...

The next minute...

And then comes Nettie to save us...

She couldn't stand it.

So much for Mommy not getting wet.

Luckily Audrey didn't mind falling off too much.

Alaina just enjoyed the day watching.

What a fun time with Nana, Papa and Cam!

Checkin Out the Ft. Worth Zoo

What better way to spend a hot July day than the Ft. Worth Zoo, right?

I'm ready mommy!

More animals Daddy!

Audrey looks enthused doesn't she?

I need an oreo.

Nice to meet you Mama Kangaroo!

Not so sure about the carousel...

Woohoo this is exciting!

Can you tell we're getting tired?

Fun day with the fam, but let's go home, crank up the air and grill some burgers.

Alaina says that sounds like a good idea to her!

There's Those Eyes Again

What a joy!

The Big Anniversary Date

After 2 babies, a shortage of babysitters, however many moves, and re-doing this house

we were in dire need of a great date.

And what a great 5th Anniversary date it was!

Troy made the plans and surprised me as we showed up at "Simply Fondue" in Sundance Square in Ft. Worth. (I have always wanted to go to a fondue restaurant...and it was well worth the wait. I highly recommend it.)

There were gorgeous flowers and a card waiting for me at our very private table.
It was a 2 and a half hour dinner experience and with great conversation and food we loved every minute of it.

It was perfect even down to the music they played. Troy almost had me convinced that he gave them a playlist. They played our favorites all night from lots of John Mayer to Vertical Horizon to "Drops of Jupiter." It was pretty crazy.

We had a 4 course meal and every course was awesome.

We ended our night by a great walk around Sundance Sqaure and browsing in a bookstore. Then we realized that our babies were going to wake up really early regardless of how late we stayed out. So we opted to go home and get some much needed sleep.

It was a wonderful night.

Can't wait for 5 more years and year 10 anniversary! Boy will that be an awesome date.

Happy 5th Anniversary to Us!

5 years today!
I have a surprise waiting for Troy when he gets home today. We just finished putting together our living room in the new house and I hung a wedding collage.

The written page is my handwritten vows to Troy.
The blank page is for him to write his.

(It occurred to me one day that we all say our wedding vows and then rarely think of them or even remember what we said. I wanted to be able to see them and think of them regularly. They are such special words.)

I love it and it looks really great when you see it in the room.

The pictures are all kind of creative ones taken by our friends Max Fun and Michael Radovanovic at the wedding. We love them.

(Now off to get ready for my anniversary date. Yea!)

A Douglas News Flash...

The Story Continues...

We started dating the summer of 04 and were engaged on Valentine's Day 2005. I already described that day to you back in my Valentine's Day post so I won't go through it again. But it was a wonderful day. Very special.

So, we were engaged in Febrauary and planned the wedding for July 2, 2005. It was a short time to plan a wedding, but was perfect.

We recruited so many people from our church to help with the wedding. It really became a church event. Actually, our wedding was the first Hope Fellowship wedding. And we were the first couple, of many, to meet and get married at Hope.

We spent several months in marriage counseling with our dear friends and mentors Doug and Shelley Hunt. It was a special time with them and it helped us so much. We also really enjoyed spending time with some other married couples who were very special to us - Mark and Connie Stump and Curtis and Brandy Cook. We spent one evening with each of them sort of interviewing them about their marriage. That was a very meaningful time for us.

And just before the wedding Gia and Bapa, Uncle Eddie, Aunt Sarah, Cate, Caroline and Cole came in town and we all went to the beach together for a special trip before the wedding. Here are a few pictures of Troy and I in Ogunquit, Maine, on that trip.

This place is very special to us. Troy and I stayed in the cottage here in Perkins Cove many times. Even one time when you, Audrey, were about a month old. Hopefully we can all go back there as a family some day. You would love it!

Ode to the Red Sox

We cannot tell the story of us without giving much credit to the ever so amazing Boston Red Sox.

The summer that Troy and I started dating I had a minister's pass to the Red Sox.

Most of the time when someone asks about our dating we tell them that we dated over the Red Sox. It's very true. Troy and I spent most of our time together at church and with friends, but when we had time alone much of it was spent at a Red Sox game.

I could go to any game (except the playoffs) and take one guest.

Needless to say, after Troy and I started dating I took no other guests.

The only catch with the minister's pass was that we didn't have our own seats. We had "standing room only" seats. This meant that we spent much of the game scoping out seats that were empty that we could sit in. (We got kicked out of seats several times.)

But we did end up enjoying sitting at the very top against the fence.

It had a great breeze and view of Boston behind us.

We had many great conversations at Red Sox games.

And let us not forget that this was the year that Boston won the world series!

Another interesting point - The Sox won again the year that I was pregnant with Audrey.