Dinner Tonight

The four of us went to dinner at Jim and Nick's tonight for a little BBQ. We sat at a small round table in the middle of the restaurant, and there were people all around us. About halfway through the meal, Mia suddenly says "Mommy, Daddy tooted!" We just looked at her and Ryan said "I promise I did not toot!" So Mia says even more loudly "Mommy, Daddy tooted!" and Lily starts saying very loudly "Daddy tooted! Daddy tooted!" The worst part was Ryan and I were laughing so hard, we couldn't catch our breaths to tell them to stop because that wasn't true. Of course, people all around us are turning around to watch the scene. I'm sure they thought our laughter was a sure sign of guilt, but it wasn't. We just couldn't believe they started saying that out of nowhere in the middle of a restaurant!

Happenings Around Here

Here are a few miscellaneous things that have been going on around our home over the last couple of weeks.

Ryan took Lily to Veni, Vidi, Vici for a Daddy/Daughter date night last weekend. It was her idea. Ryan told her he would take her wherever she wanted to go assuming she would say Moes or Figo. Nope. She said "I want to go where they have the long twisty bread sticks and cheesecake for dessert." Don't you love the high end tastes that our 4 year old is developing?! They had a great time!

Lily and Mia were cuddling on the chair a few minutes before nap time a few days ago. Apparently, Mia couldn't stay awake any longer. Thankfully Lily let her rest right where she was.
On Saturday morning, Ryan had a seminar to attend, so the girls and I hung out together. I made them both waffles and Lily wanted cream cheese on hers; she loves cream cheese. She ate most of it, but then was finished, so Mia asked if she could have it. Mia prefers butter on her waffle, so she took one bite of Lily's cream cheese waffle and started saying "spicy waffle! spicy!" This made me laugh.

After breakfast, the girls disappeared into Lily's room while I got a huge grocery list together. After a few minutes, Lily came out and said "Introducing....Mia ballerina!" and Mia came running out while laughing. She was only wearing part of Lily's Tinkerbell costume, and I have to admit, she looked really cute. Lily ran back to her room and came out a minute later wearing only part of her Snow White costume. They had a blast dancing all around the house saying "Ballerina Ballerina!"

After their ballerina routines, they took off their "tutus" and sat down to watch a little bit of Fantasia 2000 which they both love. I absolutely love when they play nicely together!

Ryan took the girls to Chuck E Cheese this morning. Lily "bought" a makeup/jewelry set with her tickets. She couldn't wait to show it to me. She loves the glitter lip gloss that was included; she put some on both of us and proclaimed us to be twins. She also put on the ring that was inside and her Tinkerbell watch so we could be "even more twins." The last touch was the earrings. The little set had three sets of sticker earrings, and Lily loved them. This is her looking in the mirror so she could admire the "earrings."

Mia came across a picture from our wedding day, and she immediately ran over to it. She started saying "Mommy princess!" which made me feel pretty good. I did feel like a princess that day!

Mia is in love with her cowgirl boots, and she looks adorable in them. She often asks for her boots, but it cracks me up when you help her put them on. I usually have her push against my stomach to make sure they are all the way on, and she will say in a really deep voice "Puuuuush. Puuuuush." I don't know why she says it this way, but it cracks me up.

Mia can be such a little handful, but I can't tell you how much we love this precious girl!

Correction from Lily

In my previous post, I told you about Lily informing me "I am not a turtle" which I found both odd and funny. She said it again on Saturday, and it made me laugh again. On Sunday evening, we met some friends for dinner, and it was pretty dark by the time we left. Lily was very tired and she said "I don't like it being dark outside." I replied "It's okay though because you're not a turtle right?" She paused for a couple of seconds and then said "No Mommy. I'm not nocturnal." The way she said it though was like "Why in the world would you even say that? I know I'm not a turtle." I just about wet my pants from laughing so hard at the way she said it and the fact that she was telling me before "I'm nocturnal," not "I'm not a turtle." It's making me laugh all over again just writing this!

In case you are wondering, there is a "Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That" episode that talks about nocturnal animals. I can only assume that's where she picked that up.

Good To Know

As we were leaving church last night, it was pretty dark outside. Lily said "It's okay that it's dark. I can see in the dark. I'm not a turtle." All I could do was laugh and say "That's good to know!" Where in the world would a comment like that come from?!

2 Funnies Tonight

Mia received a Minnie Mouse bubble set in her goodie bag from Christen's party today. She wanted to open them so badly, but I told we couldn't blow bubbles in the house, and it was too cold to go outside tonight to blow them. Finally, she put them down and agreed to wait. Well, as we were saying our prayers tonight, I said "Dear Jesus, thank you for" and let Mia continue. As usual she said "Daddy, Lily, Mia, Mommy, Mamma (aka Bama)." She paused briefly and then said "Bubbles! Bubbles!" She was apparently very thankful for those bubbles!

Lily and I were sitting on her bed tonight reading a story before bed time. She started laughing about the story, and she tooted. She exclaimed "Oh my bum is laughing too!" This made me laugh pretty hard too!

Relaxing Weekend

What a wonderful weekend! With all the snow we had earlier in the week, it was nice to get out a bit. On Saturday morning, my dad called to say he had my niece, Molly, with him, and he wanted to stop by so she could play with the girls. I told Lily they were coming, and she excitedly said "Yea! I can't wait! Molly is my best friend!" She paused for a moment and then said "Well, you are my best friend too Mommy." She melts my heart! Dad and Molly arrived about 5 minutes later, and Lily and Molly had a blast playing with Lily's dollhouse together. They were nice to let Mia hang out with them as she ran between Lily's room and the living room where we were. After about 20 minutes or so, Papa and Molly invited Lily to go with them for a few hours. She was thrilled! When they left, Mia and I headed out to run errands; we had a fun time together at Target and Famous Footwear. We returned home to eat lunch and then Mia went down for her nap. About that time, Dad called and said they were having so much fun together. He wanted to see if it was alright to keep Lily with him awhile longer to go to McKayla's basketball game and to the bookstore. Of course, this wasn't a problem because I knew Lily was having a great time. So, Ryan and I got to spend a good part of the afternoon with just Mia, and we had a blast! It's rare that we get this kind of one-on-one time with her, and we loved it. She's an amazing little girl, and we couldn't believe how easy it is to only have one child around! Papa brought Lily home about 5:15, and we read the new books Papa gave her and Mia. We had dinner, it was bath time and then bed time for the kiddos. Ryan left to go to a the Rohan's house to watch the Falcons game (that game didn't turn out so well), so I had an evening to myself. I watched the first half of the game, but then got fed up with it so I watched "He's Just Not That Into You;" a chick-flick I had been wanting to see.

Ryan actually spent the night at Doug's house because we needed to take two cars to church on Sunday, and Doug lives very close to the church. It seemed silly for him to come home after the game only to return the next morning. So, Sunday morning, I got the girls ready and we headed out. Ryan and I enjoyed our morning in the nursery with Mia's class and then our own Sunday school class. Ryan had a meeting right after class, so I picked the girls up and we played on the indoor playground for awhile. The girls love it, and I enjoyed catching up with some friends I haven't seen in a couple of months. We got home, ate lunch, played and then all three of us took naps; I love a Sunday afternoon nap! After nap time, Mia and I went to her friend, Christen's, 2nd birthday party at Gymboree in Sandy Springs. She had a great time! I can't wait until she is old enough to enroll at classes at The Little Gym by our home! She loves all the activities they have at these type places: the parachutes, the jumping, the slides, the bubbles, etc. As we were leaving, I called Ryan who told me he and Lily were having a date night and going to Veni, Vidi, Vici at Lily's request! Mia and I headed to Steak and Shake for a yummy treat. I put her to bed soon after we got home. Ryan and Lily arrived home about 8:15; they had stopped at my parents' house on their way home. Lily told me all about her dinner date and what a great time she had. She is such an awesome kid, and I know Ryan loved their time together.

Overall, this was a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

Snow Much Fun!

Ryan and I were a little surprised when we returned from our cruise to the news that a snow storm was on its way to Atlanta! We changed our plans to get home. Instead of spending Saturday night in Belleair with Ryan's dad after his grandfather's party, we headed on up 75. We stopped in Lake City at 1:00 on Sunday morning; we were too tired to make it any farther. We got on up Sunday morning and made it safely the rest of the way home. We kept waiting on Sunday for the snow to start. Finally, around 8:00, it started to fall. It only took about 30 minutes for a couple of inches to accumulate. When we woke up Monday morning, we were greeted to 5 and a half inches on our back deck! It was beautiful to see too. Here are some pictures of the fun we had.

Ryan was ready to go out and take pictures and play. He was testing out his new gear for his March/April trip to Arctic Alaska. Drop the temperature another 30 or 40 degrees, and he'll be ready!

Here's the front of our house. You can just barely see the sidewalk that runs beside the mailbox to the steps. In fact, you can't even see the first step at the house!
The back yard and playground. Lily really wanted to go down the slide with all the snow on it!

Our back deck. Don't think we'll enjoy a picnic out here anytime soon!

Lily and Mia watching Daddy take pictures.

The girls couldn't wait to get outside and play too. We all bundled up about 10:30 and headed out for awhile. It was chilly but it really wasn't very cold out, so we were able to stay for about an hour. The girls had a lot of fun! Look at sweet Mia's face; she was having a blast!

Mia was a little stuck and needed some help. She didn't really like putting her hands into the snow, but she liked playing with it if you handed it to her.

Lily loved the crunching sound as she walked around. There was about 5 inches of snow and a half inch of ice on top of it. She also enjoyed picking up pieces of ice and playing "karate class" with it; that meant I would hold it and she would chop it in half or vice versa. We played this for awhile; maybe we should consider enrolling her in martial arts next spring!

Lily about to throw a snowball. She had fun with this too! Ryan made her a snowball just before we went inside, and she sat it down just outside the garage so it would be there tomorrow. She said "I don't think the car will back over it here." No worries kiddo, the car isn't going anywhere anytime soon!

The girls had a great time!

Off exploring together.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Hooks!

After returning from our cruise Saturday morning (see previous post), we headed over to Belleair to see David and Jan. We had a great time hanging out with them for the afternoon. The four of us left about 4:30 to drive to Lakeland because we were celebrating Grandpa Hooks' 90th birthday! Grandpa's wife, Lois, had planned a wonderful birthday party at Greenlands Country Club. There were probably about 100 people there to wish Grandpa a happy birthday.

We enjoyed cocktail time for a bit while all the guests arrived. Ryan and I had a great time catching up with his family who we don't get to see much at all. While everyone mingled a slide show played to the side which had tons of great pictures of Grandpa through the years. Soon it was time for dinner, and we all enjoyed a wonderful meal: mixed green salad, steak, mashed potatoes and asparagus.

After dinner, it was time to start the festivities. David and his brother, Hollis, were the emcees for the evening; they did a great job. While we ate birthday cake, they introduced several different people, including Grandpa's brother Syd, to talk about their times with Grandpa. Syd talked about growing up with him, but others talked about their time at the University of Florida, his distinguished military career, his leading of the Florida citrus and phosphate boards and his time in retirement (if you can call everything he does "retired!"). We wrapped everything up by standing and singing "Happy Birthday." This was a wonderful evening celebrating an amazing man!

Ryan, Grandpa and David

Hollis, David and Helen with their dad.

Ryan with his cousins, Hamilton and Emily. We wish we could see them more often!

Ryan, Emily and Hamilton with Grandpa and Lois.

To Start the Year

Now this is the right way to start the new year! Ryan and I took a five-night Caribbean cruise this past week. We were already heading down to Lakeland, FL to celebrate Grandpa Hooks birthday, and we decided to add a vacation on to celebrate our anniversary, which is January 12 (9 years!). Last Sunday, January 2, we drove down to Tifton, GA, and then on Monday morning, we got up and drove to Tampa, FL. We were supposed to board the ship between noon and 4:00, so we could sail at 5:00. Unfortunately, there was fog in Tampa that morning which kept our ship, Radiance of the Seas by Royal Caribbean, from arriving in port on time. That meant they were late disembarking everyone on the previous cruise, so we were late boarding. The parking attendant gave us a heads up about that so we went into Tampa to grab some lunch and stop at Wal-Mart to pick up some snacks for our trip. When we returned to port, we waited in another terminal for about an hour; Ryan read some of his book, and I worked on our digital scrapbooks. We finally boarded the ship about 6:00, and we set sail about 7:00. Here's a picture of the ship taken later in the week; the Tampa port didn't look this beautiful!
After getting on board, we dropped our things off in our stateroom and headed to dinner. We opted for the "My Time Dining" option which meant we could go whenever we wanted instead of choosing a stated first or second dining time. We both enjoyed a delicious fresh kiwi, strawberry, pineapple with a honey-lime sauce appetizer. Then Ryan had one of the best strip steaks he had ever tasted while I enjoyed a prime rib. He finished dinner off with a chocolate cherry cake slice while I loved my strawberry meringue dessert. What a great first meal! After dinner, we participated in the required muster drill and then just enjoyed walking around a bit before heading to bed.

Tuesday was our first full day on board, and we were sailing the entire day. It was so nice to sleep in a bit! We enjoyed a bit of breakfast, and then headed to the movie theatre to watch "Toy Story 3." It was a pretty cute little movie. After the movie, we walked around the ship for a little bit and then we ate some lunch (BBQ sandwich for Ryan and a turkey spinach wrap for me). After lunch, we headed back to our cabin and this picture shows what we did until dinner:

It was a gorgeous day, so we sat out on our balcony and read all afternoon. Actually, I worked on our digital scrapbooks some too, but it was mostly reading. A day of relaxation was just what we wanted! This picture shows the view we had on Tuesday from our balcony. Gorgeous, right?

And this was the sunset we enjoyed that evening. Again, gorgeous!

It was formal dinner night, so we eventually got dressed up and headed to dinner. Ryan started his meal with a papaya pineapple soup that was fantastic. My lobster bisque was very good too. We both enjoyed steak and strawberry cheesecake too. Another good meal in the books! Here's a picture we took just before heading to dinner.After dinner we went to the theatre to watch the ship's production called "City of Dreams." You know Ryan and I love to go to the theatre, and we have seen our fair share of shows. Most cruise ships have excellent entertainment on board; to be honest, this production was alright, but nothing to brag about. It was still fun to see a show though!

When we woke up the next morning, we were docked in Costa Maya, Mexico. When we looked over the railing to the water below, this is what we saw. Amazing!

Ryan and I really wanted this vacation to be nothing but relaxing, so we picked the "Jungle Beach Break" excursion to go on. A bus picked us up from the port and drove about 20 minutes away to a secluded beach. We quickly scouted out the perfect place to sit, on the chairs behind this palm tree.

For most of the day, we sat in two of these lounge chairs and enjoyed this view. Our waitress brought us drinks, we read and simply looked out at the water. Perfect.

We did get up to go get some lunch (nachos and quesadillas), but otherwise, I was planted in that chair. Ryan went for a long walk though. Here's what he saw while he was out.

This too. I thought this was a really cool picture.

They had a few little boats like this available too, but we didn't get one.

Our wonderfully relaxing afternoon finally came to an end and the bus took us back to port. This was the sunset we saw as we were leaving Costa Maya.

We went to dinner after watching the sunset. We both started off with a wonderful cranberry mango soup (they really had some yummy soup combos). Ryan enjoyed his parmesan turkey and I loved my asparagus and brie tart. We were so full we skipped dessert this evening. After dinner we went to the theatre where we enjoyed an act by Paul Boland, "the man of 1000 voices." He is an impressionist, and he was fantastic! We were really impressed with his talents. At one point, he had about 5 kids come up on stage to help with his Kermit the Frog set. One adorable little boy was named George; he appeared to be about 5. Well, two skits after Kermit, he did the Beatles, and in his Paul McCartney voice said "Are you ready George?" When he said that, the little boy, George, came running back up on stage which took Paul (and George's family) completely by surprise. Well, little George apparently liked being on stage, so Paul let him. He sat near him and watched, and Paul involved him in a few songs too. It was obvious this was not planned, but it was adorable to watch and made the evening a little bit more fun!

The next morning, we woke up in Cozumel, Mexico. This was the sunrise we enjoyed over the city.

After a quick breakfast, Ryan and I disembarked and met up with the rest of our group to go on a snorkeling excursion. There were about two dozen of us on this trip. We went to three different reefs and spent about 20 minutes at each one. The fish we saw were amazing! They were so brightly colored, just like what we imagined they would like. The water was perfect too; fairly warm and completely clear. We actually took an underwater disposable camera, but we haven't had a chance to develop the pictures yet. This was a great excursion!

We did a small amount of shopping when we returned and then we headed back to the ship for lunch. We spent the afternoon laying near and playing in the ship's pool. Not surprisingly, we got a little too much sun this afternoon. In the evening, we cleaned up and went to one of the ship's specialty restaurant called "Chops." It's an upscale steak restaurant, and it didn't disappoint. Our filets were delicious and the potato sides were yummy too. After dinner, Ryan went to watch one of the bowl games (and win $30 on the casino's slots!) while I went to see Levent perform a show. Levent is an illusionist, and he was pretty good. I enjoyed his show a lot. Ryan and I met up afterwards and listened to a performer give a Billy Joel and Elton John tribute for awhile.

Friday morning was our last day onboard, and it was another full day at sea. It was a beautiful day, but unfortunately, the seas were a little more choppy. You could definitely feel the boat moving! However, we wanted to enjoy our last day. Mid-morning we participated in a mile long walk around the top deck for "Walk for Wishes." Royal Caribbean partners with the Make-A-Wish Foundation since cruising is now the second most requested wish for participating children. After lunch we went to the theatre for a backstage tour they were offering. It was really interesting to hear a few of the performers and technicians talk about what it takes to run the shows on the ships. We got to go up on stage to see how it is set up, and we went backstage to see what all goes on back there. We both enjoyed this tour. However, when this was over, neither of us were feeling well, so we went back to our cabin, took motion sickness medicine and promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours. Soon after waking up, this was the sunset we saw. Not a bad way to end the trip!

After not feeling well, neither of us wanted a really big dinner, so we went to the buffet where we could get a variety of smaller portions. We didn't feel up to watching the entertainment that night, so we just took it easy. Finally about 11, we realized we had to pack up and get our bags outside our stateroom so the crew could get them.

On Saturday morning, they actually called us to disembark about 2 hours ahead of schedule. We realized later though they made everyone (customers, crew, etc) disembark so they could thoroughly disinfect the ship. There was a virus going around that affected about 150 passengers, so the CDC made them go through extra cleaning procedures. It delayed the next group's cruise by about 5 hours.

Once we disembarked, we called Ryan's mom to check in. She had been keeping the girls all week for us. Thank you so much Liz! Also, thank you to my parents who kept the girls multiple times during the week to give Liz a break. We really appreciate your willingness to stay with the girls so we could enjoy this amazing and beautiful week! This was absolutely a great way to start out the new year!

The End of 2010

I cannot believe today is the last day of 2010. This has been such an incredible year for our family, and it has been full of many blessings. First, Ryan and I had the chance to visit an Eskimo village in Arctic Alaska where we fell in love with the people there. We look forward to building our relationship with them in future trips as we continue to share the love of Christ with them. We think about them and pray for them daily. This trip changed both of us for the better, and we feel so blessed to have had this opportunity. In addition to this amazing trip (and the train trip to Denali and Mount McKinley afterwards), we also were able to take trips to Orlando (just Ryan and me), Disney World, Gulf Shores, Birmingham, Jefferson City (Tennessee) and New Smyrna Beach. Of course, we have had lots of fun around Atlanta too! This has been a fun-filled year for us.

Besides all the fun going here and there throughout the year, Ryan and I have loved watching the girls continue to grow up. I can't believe Lily turned 4 and Mia turned 2! They amaze us every single day with their new skills, words, etc. While playing on the zoo's playground today, I laughingly said to Lily "When did you become such a big girl?" to which she replied "Don't you remember? It was when I turned four." Maybe so! We are so head over heels in love with these girls! I love to read past blog entries from time to time, and I get such a kick out of reading about what they were doing even just a few months ago. It's crazy how quickly they are growing up! I can't even begin to imagine what they will be like a year from now.

Of course, Ryan and I have worked hard over the last year to grow our accounting business. We feel so fortunate to have this family business that allows us so much time with the girls and provides financial blessings. We have big plans for continuing to grow the business in 2011. We also appreciate all the help we receive from our families, especially our moms. We couldn't have the work/life balance we have without you, and saying "thank you" will never be enough!

This has been such an amazing year, and we look forward to all that the Lord has planned for us in 2011. We wish all who read this many blessings too!

New Years Eve

What a wonderful December 31! Our office was closed today, so this morning, the four of us visited the zoo. We have an annual membership here, but we don't get to go a lot during the winter because it is usually too cold to be out for a long time. This morning though was beautiful! The temperature was in the low 50's, and there were virtually no clouds in the sky. To top it off, there was hardly anyone else there, so we were able to just walk around and enjoy. Here are some pictures of the fun we had.

Lily loves sticking her head in these kind of pictures. She makes a cute elephant don't you think?

Mia wanted to try too. She's a cutie too!
Taking it in from a higher vantage point.

My two favorite kangaroos.

Mia getting a lift to see the tiny monkeys. We had never seen this exhibit before, so it was fun to stumble upon these and see something new.

The girls really just wanted to play on the playground most of the time, so we only visited the animals for a little bit before heading over. Lily was ready for the see-saw!

She loves climbing this vine.

Having fun together.

Lily tried the rope wall today and enjoyed it. I love this new found courage she has discovered over the last few months.

Mia loves the twisty slide!

We rode the carousel a couple of times too. First they rode on panda bears and then on elephants. Both had a blast!

After the carousel we rode on the little train. It's not terribly exciting, but the girls had a good time. They both thought the tunnels were pretty cool, and they enjoyed riding past the petting zoo too. Mia wanted to hold Ryan's hand the whole time which was really sweet.

What a great way to spend the last day of 2010!

White Christmas!

Can you believe we had a White Christmas this year?! How fun! It didn't really pick up until Saturday afternoon, and it didn't appear that it was going to stick. However, when we woke up Sunday morning, we had a very nice surprise. Here's a picture of our home all covered in snow.
The girls couldn't wait to bundle up and go out to play. I know this sounds silly, but it was really cold outside! Sometimes it feels nice outside even though there is snow to play in, but not this time. We only stayed out about 10 minutes because it was so cold!

Lily couldn't wait to start playing. She and I had fun playing tag as we ran around the yard.

Lily also had fun throwing snowballs!
This is mostly what we saw of Mia. She just kept running all around!

Trying to get a picture of the two girls isn't always easy!

Our play time was short, but it was fun. Who doesn't love a little fun in the snow?