Too Cute

Our little Mia is almost too cute for words.  She makes us laugh a lot with the funny faces and voices she comes up with.  It's a good thing too because she is such a curious, outgoing, messy, adventureous and fun-loving little one that we often find ourselves saying "Mia Hooks, what in the world are you doing?!"  But really, take a look at this picture...how can you stay upset at this cutie?

Lily's Imagination

I love Lily's imagination right now!  She is so much fun to talk with because you just never know what she is going to say, or what kind of a song she may come up with.  Often while we're eating, I will remind her to actually eat her meal and she'll reply "I can't help it; I just love to talk."  A few days ago, I came home from work, and Lily showed me the games she had come up with.  Now, it's not unusual for her to come up with some sort of game or play for us to act out; she loves being the "cruise director" as the Mommy Morning Out director called her last year.  This time though, she had actually drawn out her games on paper and had come up with rules and a point to the game.

This one was my favorite.  Lily drew an ice cream cone with 15 scoops of ice cream and a cherry on top.  The point of the game is to figure out how to eat all 15 scoops of ice cream and the cherry before they fall down and break the cone.  I promise we don't give her this much ice cream!

This one isn't a game, but it's her drawing of a house.  I drew the square house and triangle roof for her (I know they look like a 4 year old drew them, but no, that was me), and then she added the chimney, extra rooms (bathroom on the top right and kitchen on the bottom left), fans in every room, steps going upstairs (that's the squiggly line going across the big square) decorations to each room, a sun, clouds and Granna coming in the front door.  As she was coloring this, she thought through and then told me each detail she was adding.

Another game she invented.  This is a picture of a cat.  You are supposed to show the cat how to walk through the maze (the blue line) before the snake (that's the yellow line on the cat's back) scares the cat.

This is Lily's sticker playground.  I remember the big line of stickers on the left is her hopscotch board, but I don't remember all the other details.  I believe there are two kids playing jump rope and someone else climbing a tree.  There is also a sun, lots of clouds and a sky.

 I couldn't get this picture to turn properly on here, but this is the maze Lily came up with.  The person starts in the middle (see little blue person), and you try to get her to the "N."  I guess Lily thinks when we do mazes I am saying "there's the n" instead of "there's the end."  According to her, if you go to the bottom right, that's a hole, the bottom left is hot lava, the middle left is the sun, and Lily (she wrote out her name) is on the top left.  She loves doing puzzles and mazes!

Nothing terribly exciting about this next one, but I wanted to put it on here.  Lily and I went to Chick-fil-a's family night last week (free kids' meal with adult purchase - score!), and they were offering free spin art.  I used to love spin art as a kid.  Honestly, I cannot wait until the girls are old enough to have one of the small spin art sets for our home; I fully plan to use it more than them!  Anyway, Lily thought it was awesome too, so I put this on here to remind me of our fun evening together.

This is Lily's picture of her playing basketball.  She drew herself with long blond hair (she likes to say it's really long like Rapunzel's, but it's cut above her shoulders), and she put a basketball sticker at the end of her hand which is raised as if she is shooting the ball.  She then said "I'm going to scribble the rest orange because you play basketball on an orange field but I don't want to really color it."  She then decorated with little star stickers "to make the field prettier."

The rest of these pictures are purely for me to have record of what Lily did at this age.  Back around Easter (yep, just now getting around to putting it on here), Liz helped Lily make a few books.  Lily would dictate a story to Liz, Liz would write and then Lily would decorate the cover.  So, here are the books they made; I hope you can read the stories.

  

  

Lily is really start to enjoy learning how to read, and she works on rhyming words a lot.  Here's a book that she and Liz made together to help with that skill. 

 Our 4 and 1/2 year old is so precious; what a fun age!

Treasure Chests

Lily loves the new show on Disney Junior called "Jake and the Neverland Pirates."  It's a pretty cute little show.  She likes to pretend that she is searching for the gold doublooms like Jake and then keeping them away from Captain Hook.  She usually take the role of Izzy (Jake's female sidekick), and assigns Mia the role of either Jake or Captain Hook.  Here's a picture she drew recently; it says "Jake Neverland Pirates" across the top, and she says the four people are Captain Hook and his crew hiding in a forest as they look for Jake and the doublooms.

 Because of her love of this show, Lily really wanted to make her own treasure chest keep her doublooms (otherwise known as any trinket she can find).  Luckily, Bama is amazingly creative and can keep up with her!  She took the girls to Michaels for a little field trip.  They found adorable little chests to paint, and each girl picked out paint for themselves; not too surprising, Lily picked pink and Mia picked bright blue.  We spread out some newspapers on the table, put on their aprons and started painting.

 They both enjoyed swirling the paint around inside the bowl.

Thankfully Mia received a little help from Bama.

Concentrating so hard to make everything just right.

 The paint dried overnight, and the next morning each girl got to stick two wood pieces on that they picked out.  Lily was thrilled with her finished product!  She has enjoyed it for days now; she puts all sorts of little things in it: her jewelry, stickers, little figures, hairbands, etc.  She loves it!

Happy Father's Day

A very happy father's day to all the dads in our lives, but especially to Ryan!  I am grateful my girls have such a great dad.  I love watching him with Lily and Mia.  He is such a wonderful example of what a Christian father, husband and man should be like.  Thank you for being a great daddy!

We made a cake to surprise Ryan last night.  Lily was thrilled.  She told Ryan "Daddy, we're going to clean the kitchen; you stay in here."  She loved being "tricky" (her word of choice); she was certain that he could not hear or see what we were doing from one room away.  As soon as I told the girls what we were doing in the kitchen while Ryan was sitting in the living room, Mia started saying "I want cake!"  She even went over to Ryan and said "Daddy I want your cake."  Mental note...keep secrets away from Mia for now.  Here they are putting the finishing touches on the cake.

 They loved making this for Daddy!

 They were jumping up and down with excitement as Ryan came into the dining room; they couldn't wait to show him his surprise cake!  Lily kept saying "We tricked you Daddy!"

 Blowing out the candles.

 We love Daddy!

 On Sunday evening, we went over to Wayne's house for a joint celebration.  In addition to honoring Ryan, Wayne and Dad, we wanted to say Happy 65th Birthday to my Dad.  Wayne grilled a delicious beef tenderloin and corn for us; Mom brought a spinach salad and potato casserole while we brought the pineapple casserole.  It was all delicious!  Of course, the kids played great together.  At the end of our meal, the younger girls (Molly, Lily and Mia) got together and formed a band.  They couldn't wait to put on a show for us when we all finished.  Mia played the guitar.

 She also sang a little bit for us when Lily moved away from the mic.

 Lily was happy playing the piano for everyone; she also danced while Mia sang.

 After the show (which included singing Happy Birthday and Happy Father's Day), we moved back to the table for Dad's birthday chocolate pies; yum!  The little kids helped him blow out the candles.

 The five grandkids with their Papa.  They all love and adore him!

 Papa with my girls.

What a wonderful day!  Happy father's day!

Mia Story

Mia had to spend a little time at the office with me today as I finished up some client's work.  We were there about 1.5 hours, and then I said "Okay Mia, it's time to go."  She said "Okay Mommy.  Taxes all done?"  I could only chuckle to myself that my 2.5 year old knows I go to the office to do tax returns, so I said "Yes Mia, the taxes are all done," and we went about our merry way.

Happy Birthday Meme!

Happy Birthday Meme - 90 years young today!

We had such a great time celebrating my grandmother's birthday this past Sunday. She knew there was a party planned for her after church, but she had no idea the whole family and a lot of friends had been invited to join her at church that morning. She was overjoyed when so much of her family and Pop's family from Newnan came in on Sunday morning. Even Aunt Nell was able to come; at 90 herself, she is Pop's youngest (of 13!) and last surviving sibling, and Meme was thrilled to see her. Of course, she loved seeing all her great-grandchildren too! We all enjoyed a wonderful worship service together, and then we headed to the fellowship hall and patio to enjoy a BBQ lunch and let Meme visit with everyone who came to honor her. Here are just a few of the many pictures taken.

Ryan snapped a picture of the patio before anyone got out there. We were all so thankful for a beautiful day.

One of Meme's delicious cakes. This one was a strawberry cake while the other one was vanilla.
The birthday girl enjoys having Happy Birthday sung to her.

Everyone gathers to sing. We think there were about 200 people altogether.

Meme's three boys have a special way of serenading her!

Meme always had African Violets on her windowsill at her house that she and Pop lived in since the mid-60's before she moved to Smyrna Towers a few years ago. All her grandchildren (that's my generation) remember seeing these every time we would visit their house. Jodi had the great idea of having all the great-grandkids decorate clay pots and putting African Violets in to use as table decorations. Here are three of the pots in front of a beautiful picture of Meme. See if you can guess which two Lily and Mia made.

This the bouquet of 90 long-stem roses that our family friend, Doug Bowles, sent for the occasion. This picture doesn't do them justice; they were truly stunning.

More beautiful decorations; I love this picture of Meme when she was in her early 20's!

Meme with her three sons and their families.

Meme with Lily and Mia. My girls absolutely adore Meme. She lives pretty close to us, and just about every time we drive past the apartment tower, they will start pointing and saying "Meme's house! Meme's house!" They love every visit with her; I'm sure it has nothing to do with the snacks she gives them each time!

I love Meme!

Meme with her 11 great-grandchildren; they range in age from 2 to 13.

Meme with her younger brother, Roy. Her two older sisters, Margie and Doris, have passed away.

Meme with her boys; my dad is on the top left, Joe is on the top right and Randy is sitting next to Meme. She and Pop raised three great men!

Meme with her five grandchildren.

What a wonderful day celebrating an amazing woman!

I have so many wonderful memories of Meme. I'm sure most of you know a lot of them revolve around food. I used to spend the night at Meme and Pop's house a lot when I was a kid. One thing I loved was that just a little before bedtime, Meme would give me a snack of either Nilla Wafers and peanut butter or Graham Crackers dipped in milk. Both of my girls call Graham Crackers "Meme crackers" because she still has them in her apartment and shares them each time we visit. Growing up, Meme used to cook for the whole family (that would be her sons and their families) every Thursday night. I have eaten at a lot of good restaurants, but nothing compares to eating at Meme's! In the last week, I have made both of the the first two things Meme taught me how to cook: grilled cheese sandwiches one night and scrambled eggs another; simple, but delicious! Her meals were a lot more involved though: fried chicken, country ham, country fried steak, chicken salad, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, cornbread, fried okra, corn, green beans, lima beans, jello salads...my mouth is watering just thinking about it. Thank you for always feeding us a delicious meal.

Meme has always shown me the importance of a true relationship with the Lord. I vividly remember going to her house and seeing 5 Bibles, each a different translation, sitting on the ottoman of her chair, so she could read and study to deepen her faith. I remember being in her living room as she taught me my first Bible verse (John 3:16). She often gave her grandkids Bibles at important times in our lives. In the front of each one, she would sign her name and write a verse that she wanted us to think about and keep in our hearts. In one that she gave me, she inscribed Proverbs 3:5-6; I have grown to cherish this verse, and I thank Meme for leading me to it. Meme has a Christlike servant's heart that I have never seen in anyone else. She faithfully taught Sunday School for over 50 years; I am so proud that she was my Sunday School teacher for 3rd, 4th and 5th grades. I can't begin to count the number of people's lives she has touched over the years, and the impact she has made for God's Kingdom. Thank you Meme for such a great example of how to be a Godly woman, wife and mother. You are truly an inspiration.