Some More Recent Pictures

I have just put several new blog entries below. However, here are a few miscellaneous pictures from the last week or so.

Oh I love these two!

 My beautiful and happy Lily.

 Lily wanted to share the egg hunting fun with her sister!

Lily liked wearing my heels! She actually walked pretty well in them which really surprised me.

Mia is such a precious little angel.
Being the big girl that she is, Lily now likes to help me dry my hair after our shower.
Singing away!
Lily loves it when Ryan turns her upside-down!
We walked in at the end of Mia's nap to find her like this. Her little legs were just sticking out the end, but she didn't mind. She was sound asleep!
Mia really seems to like the excersaucer. She is getting pretty good at balancing herself and playing with the different parts. She grabs the dangling fish, hits the music part and (occasionally) makes the rattle go. Lily has a great time playing with it too. She can easily get inside of it, but then she gets stuck and can't get out.

Easter Sunday

I love Easter Sunday. To me, it's the most important day of the year. I saw a church's sign that said it's "the end of the Christmas story." Christmas is nice because it celebrates Christ's miraculous birth, but Easter celebrates Christ's resurrection which conquered death, something no one else can do. Without Easter, there is no reason to believe Christ is the Son of God sent to save us from eternal separation from God. Today is truly an amazing day, and we were fortunate to get to celebrate it in church and then with family.

Ryan and I had 8:30 nursery duty at our church, but then after nursery duty, we drove over to First Baptist Church of Chattahoochee which is the church I grew up in and where my parents and grandmother still attend. We met the four of them there just before 11:00. The girls stayed in the nursery there while we went to the service. I love visiting Chattahoochee; it feels like home. I learned about Christ at that church and for that reason alone will always love it. However, there are many other people and reasons that make me love it and always want to come back and visit. Dr. Haskell did a wonderful job which laid out why it makes more sense to believe Christ is who He claimed to be instead of not believing. It was a great sermon. After church we visited with old friends for a few minutes before heading home.

Both girls had woken up early this morning, so they fell asleep in the car. Knowing they wouldn't get a nap later on because we would be at my cousin's house, we left the car doors open and let them sleep for about 30 minutes. We just sat in chairs in the driveway talking and enjoying the weather. We finally woke the girls up to take some pictures before changing clothes to head over to my family get-together. Lily was not pleased that we had woken her up and was quite uncooperative in the picture-taking session. When we came inside, she had a mini-meltdown as she was exhausted but didn't want to go back to sleep. Finally, she calmed down and had fun looking through the things in her and Mia's Easter baskets. Lily received a Little People Springtime book, three Little Einstein books, new bathtub crayons (which calls "cray-crays"), a puzzle and a new book for her Leap Frog lap reader. Mia received a picture Bible, two teething rings (which seem to be needed these days), an activity dragonfly (crinkle sounds, mirror, etc) and an activity worm (plays music, counts, etc).

We got out to Judy and Robert's house just in time for lunch which is simply fantastic as my family is filled with wonderful cooks. It's always great to get together and catch up with one another. They have a playground, play house and bouncy for the kids so Lily had a ball. She was thrilled when Molly (my 4-year-old niece) arrived so they could play together. My cousin, Barbara, fed Mia and held her almost the entire time we were there which provided us a nice break and time to visit with others. Just before the egg hunt, we took the traditional picture of all the kids that were there which you'll see in below. Don't look too hard for Lily or Mia as neither one of them are in it. Mia was napping on Barbara's shoulder at the moment, and Lily sat there for a few minutes patiently, but it took too long for everyone to get situated, so she wouldn't stay put! She had a good time hunting eggs again and looking through them. After that, she played some more while we had dessert and then we all headed home. It was another great get-together!

Here are some pictures from the day...

Coloring Eggs

After the fun morning I wrote about in the previous blog, we came home and set up shop in our garage to color eggs with Lily. My brother Wayne, my three cousins (Jodi, Tiffany and Lee) and I used to do this at my Meme's house every year just before Easter. I have always loved coloring Easter eggs! I think I was more excited about this than Lily!

I had purchased a special little decorating kit for Lily that had zoo stickers and holders for the eggs because I know how much she likes animals. She was very excited when she saw all the stickers and the holders that looked like a rhino, an elephant, a zebra and a lion. She was pretty curious as she watched me mix the vinegar and little tablet to make the colors too. We put an old shirt of Ryan's on her (and me!) to keep the mess from spills and splashes off her clothes, and then we brought out the two dozen eggs and accessories into the garage. I showed her how to put an egg into the dye and then let her do it. After the first drop, I had to show her again how to GENTLY put the eggs into the dye. She did a good job with them after that. She really liked "helping" me pull the eggs out and put them on the little drying rack and then into the cute holders.

The first dozen eggs we just put into the dyes and let them dry. They made beautiful shades of blue, green, orange, yellow, pink and gray. The second dozen though, she had a lot of fun putting them into one color, drying them and then putting them into a second (and third...) color. This is her first experience with seeing what happens when colors mix, and I think she was fascinated.

After we dried off all the eggs, she put each egg into her basket. After they were all in there, she was ready to start putting the stickers on which she loved; she always has fun with stickers. She put each sticker on the very top of each egg. They had cute monkeys, elephants, giraffes, butterflies, panda bears, alligators, birds, hippos and tigers. Here's how a couple of our sticker conversations went...

Me: What sticker do you want to put on next?
Lily: Snake. I like snakes.
Me: Really?
Lily: No. I no touch snakes. SSSSS.

Me: Now which one?
Lily: Oh, the beautiful butterfly! Oh, matches the pink egg!

One thing to note about putting the eggs into her basket. She seemed to have forgotten the "gentle" part of putting eggs down. She wasn't throwing them in or anything, just sort of letting them fall in from a few inches up. With each egg, we would hear a little cracking sound as it hit the other eggs in the basket. We couldn't reuse them for hiding with all those cracks, but that's okay because we were able to make delicious deviled eggs!

I had so much fun doing these eggs with Lily, and I think she had a great time too! She told several people on Sunday about "dropping eggs in cups," and she has asked us several times to color eggs again. If I think about it, I might try to buy a couple more of the little decorating kits and we can color them over the summer too. I think she would like that, and there are very few things I like better than seeing my child having fun!

Here are a few pictures from the egg coloring...

Saturday Morning

What a wonderful Easter weekend! On Saturday morning, we went to the egg hunt at Whittier Mill Village Park that was put on by First Baptist Church of Chattahoochee. That was the church I grew up in (and where my parents and grandmother still attend though we have transferred to another church), so it was great to see a lot of familiar faces. As we were getting ready to go, we thought it was going to be a warm, beautiful day...wrong. It was overcast, and the wind made everything really cold, so we weren't really prepared, clothing-wise. Funny little Lily though, after I got her dressed, insisted on wearing her "cow boots" instead of tennis shoes which turned out to be a good idea because they kept her legs a little warmer.

I doubted Lily remembered how to hunt eggs from the year before, so just before leaving I put a few eggs in the kitchen, and we "hunted" them and put them in her basket. She seemed to get pretty excited about going on an "Easter hunt" (she always forgot the "egg") after that. She took those eggs with her to the park so her basket already had some eggs in them when we arrived. She was very excited to see her white basket with green gingham liner that said "Lily." Mia has a matching white basket with a pink gingham liner that says "Mia." We didn't get much use out of it this year!

There were a ton of kids at the park, probably around 200. Luckily the church was prepared. They put out approximately 2,500 eggs which had all been filled with candy on Wednesday evening. They also had two ponies to ride, face-painting, little bunnies that could be held and petted, a fun playground set-up and a couple of games. Of course, the Easter Bunny was there to meet, but we were also excited to see Buzz the Georgia Tech Yellow Jacket. Though she didn't want to meet either one of them, Lily stared at Buzz a lot. She kept pointing and saying "Look Mommy! Yellow Jacket!" She also talked about the pony a lot, and we stood in a short line to ride him. Not at all surprising to me though, she refused when it was her turn. She later told Meme "I ride Dusty at my home in my playroom, not horse here." She also seemed scared of the little bunny I held for her to pet. She loves to see animals, but she is terrified to get them near them; I wish I knew why. As we were walking towards the ponies, Lily found a couple of eggs that she put in her basket. A few minutes later, before the egg hunt, we sat down near the playground and she started looking at the eggs. Of course, all the old ones that she brought with her were empty, but then she opened one of the new ones and a piece of chocolate fell out. She gasped and said "Look, that a special egg!" When another piece of candy fell out with the second egg, she exclaimed "Another special egg!" Once she realized the eggs had "prizes" in them, she couldn't wait for the egg hunt to begin.

Finally, it was time for the big hunt. The whole park was separated into different areas for different age groups, so we went to the 1-3 year old section. Lily had a great time picking up many eggs (probably about 10 in total) and putting them in her basket. It probably took less than 5 minutes for the whole section to get cleaned! I think all the kids had a great time. Of course, then Lily had fun opening up all the "special" eggs to see what was inside. My favorite was a gift certificate for a free Chick-fil-a kids meal, but Lily was thrilled with the different candy. She loved the little chocolate eggs! We'll ration out the remainder since candy is a rare treat in our house. This was a really fun event to attend. I hope the church will continue to do this in future years!

Here are some pictures from the morning. Enjoy!

Thank you!

THANK YOU so very much to Liz (Bama), my mom (Granna) and my dad (Papa). I don't think we could get through this tax season without you all!

Liz has been so wonderful to give up several weekends to come over from Birmingham and help us. Ryan has been helping me and my new accounting firm by doing some data input on weekends, so having Liz here to watch the girls so we can both be at my office has been very helpful. The day before she arrives I will ask Lily "who is coming all the way over from Birmingham just to see you?" She gets very excited and says "Bama!" She often brings cool new books for her which she loves, and she adores the special attention. This past Saturday she took both of the girls to the zoo and Piedmont Park; from what I heard, it was awesome. Lily loved watching the elephant show, and she keeps telling me how the elephant did the hokey-pokey. Liz is also very kind to sleep on our couch when she's here. That way, when Lily comes out of her room in the mornings, she starts playing with Liz which allows Ryan and me to get a little bit more sleep; right now I think this is the best gift ever!

My mom and dad have also been invaluable during tax season. Mom keeps the girls all day on Wednesdays plus Monday, Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. It is wonderful to have someone we trust completely with the girls while we're working. She has been so flexible with her schedule and always willing to help with laundry or putting up dishes. Lily tells me everyday about all the fun she has with Granna. We are very thankful for her help.

My sweet dad thought he was out of the accounting business! He sold his practice in 1998, but he has been up at my new office many nights each week (after working all day at his regular job!) and on the weekends helping with some of the more difficult clients we have encountered. He is helping me see how to grow this new business. His vast knowledge is amazing. I am so fortunate to have him to turn to for help and advice.

We are so thankful for all of our parents, always, but we especially appreciate the help you four are giving us these days. We love you!

Our Little Singer

Lily loves to sing!  I love how she ends each song with "Yea!" She really enjoys talking on the phone too. She will see Ryan's phone and ask to call someone so she can talk. She has called me at work a few times which is great, and I think her grandparents enjoy getting a call too!

Sweethearts

I know I say this almost every post, but Lily just cracks us up. Her current catchphrase is "oh my goodness!" A funny example of this was last week we were coming inside from playing because I needed to cook dinner. I told Lily what I was going to make, and she exclaimed "Oh my goodness, that smells tasty!" We also hear "Oh my goodness, that is so silly!" a lot.

Our friend, Chris, and his daughter, Peyton (who is one month younger than Lily), came over to play with Lily, Mia and Ryan last Saturday while I (and Chris' wife Hannah) went to work. It was a pretty day so they played out on the playground for awhile, and then they came in to play on the inflatable bouncy. It was great for Ryan and Chris to catch up, and I think Peyton and Lily had a great time together. Lily was funny though because I told her Chris was Peyton's daddy, but she kept calling him "Miss Chris." She was trying to be polite!

Lily loves being a big sister to Mia, but I think she is anxiously awaiting Mia being able to do a little more. Mia sits up well and laughs at Lily a lot which is great to see. Lily will ask if Mia can do something (walk or eat chicken for instance), and I will say not yet. Lily always says "get a little bigger." So, whenever Mia does something that Lily sees as "getting bigger" (rolling over for example), she gets so excited. She claps her hands, then raises Mia's hands up and down as she says "Hoo-ray Mia! Hoo-ray Mia!" I truly hope they will be great friends as they get older.

Last Sunday the girls looked so cute in their little outfits, so we took tons of pictures. I put a few here for you to see. Aren't they adorable?!

The Girls

Here are a few recent pictures...

Lily is trying so hard to be a big girl. There are so many things she wants to do "all by me-self!" Right now she loves to dry her hair after her shower. Thankfully she lets me do it for a few minutes before she asks to. She's getting the hang of it though!

Concentrating really hard...
Maybe we have a future chef on our hands? Lily loves to watch us cook and "help." She made and tried this little concoction with our dinner tonight...cheese quesadilla, sour cream and strawberries. Hmmm, no thanks.

She was so tired before her nap last Saturday that she fell asleep while watching Dumbo. How cute is she? When she woke up, she looked up and said "Mommy in shower" which is what I was doing before she fell asleep. She apparently didn't realize that over 45 minutes had passed!

I love those big blue eyes!

4 Month Check-Up

Ryan took Mia in for her four month doctor's check-up yesterday. Can you believe how quickly time is flying? She now weighs an even 14 pounds (70th percentile) and is 24.5 inches tall (60th percentile) which is consistent with her prior growth marks. Dr. White noticed she had a little fluid in her ears from the cold she had last week, but it didn't seem to be infected or to bother Mia which is good news. She said she seems to be right on track; she is rolling over from her back to her tummy, smiling, laughing and cooing a lot, holding her head well and is starting to sit up well with some support. Even though Dr. White didn't actually say so, I'm pretty sure she was thinking "this is one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever seen!" We are so blessed to have two healthy, sweet, precious little girls!

Silly Girl

When I came home for lunch today, Mia was sound asleep in her crib so Lily and I went outside to play together; it's a beautiful day! We had so much fun picking flowers (aka weeds), playing chase, counting rocks and playing on the playground. It amazes me everyday how big Lily is getting. What happened to my baby? When did she become a little girl?

Lily has started calling a lot of things "silly." For instance, there was a bee flying nearby, so I asked Lily if she heard the bee. She listened and then said "yes! Buzzzzz!" When I told her that was right, she said "Bees so silly!" Later, we were watching a cartoon and one of the characters sneezed. She said "That dog so silly!" I guess she picked this up from me telling her she is a silly girl when she does funny things. I hear and see myself in her all the time now!

I made the mistake of leaving my McDonald's sweet tea out while we were playing. She ran over and brought it to me; I didn't ask her too, she was just "helping." Anyway, she asked what it was so I told her tea. She thought for a minute and said "Me try tea." I let her have a sip because she is just so stinkin' cute! She took a little sip, thought for a second and said "That a good drink!" I couldn't help but laugh because I am totally addicted to their sweet tea! I gave her a few more sips but then had to hide it until she went down for her nap. I have a feeling I will have to careful with my tea in the future!

On a sweet note, when I came home and Kim had just left, we were sitting on her playroom floor. She took my hand, smiled at me and said "Glad you home Mommy." It melted my heart!

About a boy

As I was waiting in the carpool line to pick Lily up from school today, her teacher came to the car with the sign-out sheet. As I was signing her out, she said "Lily and Caleb were quite the item today." I just laughed and said "Oh really?" She replied, "During story time, Caleb was kind of reclining back a little so Lily just laid her head on his chest. They stayed like that for several minutes. Then while we were playing in the gym, they went and sat by the wall and talked for a little bit. It was really pretty cute." I couldn't help but laugh! On the way home I asked Lily about her day, and asked her if she had played with Caleb, to which she just said "Ah-ha" and kept telling me about coloring the shamrock green.

When we got home, I told Ryan about it. As we were all eating a snack together he asked Lily about playing at school with Caleb. She said "He a boy. He very, very, very nice." She agreed that they had a lot of fun together. Then as she walking around the table, Ryan asked if she liked to play with any of the other kids. She replied "Aiden. David. Three boys." She couldn't tell us the names of the other two little girls in her class. Hmmm....

My Birthday Weekend

So this weekend was a big one for me...that's right, I turned the big 3-0 on Saturday! Ryan asked me several weeks ago what I wanted for my birthday. I told him quite honestly "two Tylenol PM." Tax season (along with two young girls) is really taking a toll on me this year. Lucky for me, Liz was willing to come over for the weekend to give me (and Ryan) a chance to relax.

On Friday night, Ryan and I had dinner at South City Kitchen with our good friends, the Henderson's and Rohan's. I enjoyed my appetizer of She-Crab Soup and dinner of Fried Chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. It's not Meme's friend chicken, but it's in second place. After dinner, we went over to my Mom and Dad's house to have birthday cake and Dom Perignon champagne (thanks to David and Jan for that!). It was a wonderful evening and a great way to end my twenties!

On Saturday, I decided to take the day off from work and enjoy my family (though Liz played with Lily to let us sleep in a little). We had a great morning playing, reading and eating together. About 2, Ryan and I left for the High Museum to see an exhibit on China's Terra Cotta Army. The "soldiers" were really impressive to see. The exhibit is closing next month, so I'm really glad we had the chance to visit. After that we checked into the Marriott Marquis downtown, and then walked a couple of blocks over to Dailey's for dinner. It was fantastic. I enjoyed a pecan-encrusted shrimp appetizer and then a filet with a garlic demi-glaze, asparagus and au gratin potatoes. Ryan loved his strip steak with homemade steak sauce and mashed potatoes. Then we split an warm apple tart with vanilla ice cream...yum. It was a delicious dinner, and it was really nice to sit down and enjoy a conversation without being rushed or trying to help a two year old eat. We walked back to the hotel and enjoyed a bottle of our favorite wine (Inniskillin Winery's Vidal icewine). While Ryan watched tv, I was able to relax with a magazine. A little while later, I got my birthday wish and took two Tylenol PM. We were both out a few minutes later!

We woke up about 10:45 this morning. I honestly can't remember the last time I slept in that late. It was wonderful! The night before we had talked about how excited we were to order room service breakfast because they had some delicious sounding items. Unfortunately, they stop serving breakfast at 10; oh-well, it was worth it! We waited a little bit and then ordered room service lunch instead. After lunch we got ready and headed out about 2. We made a quick trip to Target, and then came on home. Lily was very excited when we got back to tell us about her trip Ikea yesterday. "I go IKEA!" is what we heard several times.

This was a great weekend, and a great way to start out my 30's. I can't wait to see what the next decade holds!

Positive Attitude

We have noticed recently that Lily seems to have a very positive attitude. Everything is "the best" or "the biggest" or "the prettiest" item "EVER!" For instance, she asked if she could eat a strawberry, so I agreed. As I cut it up, Lily said "Biggest strawberry EVER!" On the way home from the grocery store, she saw the moon which was especially big and bright tonight. She pointed and exclaimed "Prettiest moon stars EVER!" I think she gets this from her great-grandmother, Meme, who says something is the prettiest she has ever seen (though she doesn't usually say it with as much gusto as Lily!). I hope she will always be a glass half-full kind of girl.

The Singer

Lily has become quite the singer over the last few weeks. "Old MacDonald Had A Farm" seems to be the current favorite, especially when he has ducks. We were playing this afternoon, and she was marching around in circles, singing Old MacDonald and flapping her arms like a duck. When she first started "singing" this several months ago, she would wait for her cue to say "O!". Then, for a couple of weeks she would say "E-I-E-I-E-I-O." Now she correctly says "E-I-E-I-O" and sings most of the other words properly. She also really likes "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "All Aboard the Choo-Choo Train" (those of you who are familiar with Playhouse Disney will know that one). She is also working really hard at learning the ABC song. She has A through F and Q through V down pretty well; the rest of them are coming along though. Today, she was watching a video she received for her birthday that has a bunch of young kids singing and dancing; she loved it. She would try to dance like them and sing along when she could. She kept saying "Mommy look! Mia look!" to make sure we were paying attention.

Also, after our shower tonight, Ryan came to help her get ready for bed. She said "Daddy dance on knees!" so he turned on "their" song ("Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman), and they danced together. Ryan gets on his knees, holds one of her hands, put his hand on her back and she puts her hand on his shoulder. They sway back and forth, and he helps her spin around. It's absolutely the sweetest thing ever. Tonight, for the first minute of the song though, Lily was smiling so big and just singing "LA LA LA LAAAAA LA LA LA LAAAA!" She was loving it!

Bless her little heart though. As much as loves to sing, she has apparently inherited her mom's singing voice...

New Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks around the house...

Mia is getting bigger by the day! She really enjoys playing on this little mat that dangles a couple of fish and a beach ball above her.

Lily had a great time visiting with Grandpops a few weeks ago!

Grandpops with both girls. Ryan and Lily putting together the big puzzle from Granna. Lily loves this puzzle and asks to put it together several times a day. Each time, she points out new items she discovers. She loves pointing out the different shapes, the colors and the animals that she sees.

Lily loves to lay down next to Mia.

What a precious little one!

Lily was having fun watching Mia in the mirror. Mia seemed to enjoy it too!

Lily loved playing with our 3-D glasses!