The Eyes Have It

Wade and I have never thought Mary and Emma look very much alike. Sometimes we'll see an old picture of Emma and notice a slight resemblance, but for the most part, we don't even think they look like they're related. Can you tell which set of peepers belongs to which of our girls?

Is It Over Yet?

This morning, we were headed out to run our Saturday morning errands, and Emma and Wade were talking about everyone's plans for the upcoming week. The girls were out of school this past week for Spring Break. We didn't do anything exciting like take them to Disney World, but my goodness, they both slept until at least 9:30 every morning and basically got to do whatever they wanted the entire week, which (I thought) was very relaxing, and neither of them ever complained. Wade reminded her that she had to go back to school on Tuesday, and she said "Good, because I have more fun at school. Spring Break is kind of boring."
Here are a few boring pictures of the girls taken this past week...

The Agony of De-Feet

Emma had gymnastics at the Little Gym tonight. On the way in to the building, Wade opened the door on Emma’s big toe, breaking the toenail and, judging from her bloodcurdling screams, every bone in her left foot. Thankfully, there was a hospice nurse in the building with an unbelievably well-stocked first aid kit in her trunk. She fixed Emma right up, and even sent us home with tape and gauze and sterile water. Emma was hurting, but she was more upset about missing gymnastics than her injury, so I was not worried. Wade, on the other hand, was convinced that she was going to be immobile for weeks on end – no soccer, no dance class, no playing on the swingset, etc.
The minute we got home, Wade was on WebMD researching “nail injuries”. This did NOTHING to ease his fears about our firstborn’s “big pig” just falling right off of her foot, so we decided to take her to the children’s urgent care center near our house. After careful examination, the doctor there decided that the best form of action was a bandaid and a little Neosporin. I asked if he would mind wrapping a little gauze on top of the bandaid, just so Emma would have some padding there in case she bumped it during the night. And because I paid a $35 copay and spent three hours at this place and I wanted more than a bandaid to show for it.
On the way back home from the urgent care center, we passed the Little Gym and Emma said “You know, that’s where the accident happened.” I said “Yes, I remember.” She got quiet for a minute or two and then said “Boy, Mary is going to be really sad when I can’t play with her for a while…because you know the doctor told me not to walk for a few days.” Now I suppose it is possible that I blacked out during Emma’s visit with the doctor, what from the sheer pandemonium following "the accident", but for the life of me I do not remember Dr. Darvesh giving those orders. So, I suppose Wade and I will let her milk it until she forgets her self-imposed bedrest, or until our backs give out, whichever comes first.

"Soccer" Practice

Emma is a very active little girl. She takes a tap and ballet class, plays on an Upward soccer team, and also takes gymnastics at The Little Gym. We're exhausted trying to keep up with her, but she enjoys all of her extracurricular activities so much that right now we can't bear to make her choose between them. As exhausted as Wade and I are just watching her, we marvel at her energy level and her enthusiasm for everything she participates in. As much as she does, it was only a matter of time before some of the skills she learned in one sport spilled over into another. Here she is at soccer practice on Tuesday afternoon:



We won't worry too much about it until she starts kicking people in ballet class.

Emma's School Pictures

Even though I have THE TWO MOST BEAUTIFUL GIRLS IN ALL THE LAND, I keep my expectations relatively low when it comes to school pictures. This is primarily because, in my 12+ years of school, mine always bordered on repulsive no matter how much time I spent getting ready for picture day. Regardless of how bad they were, my parents always bought them, and I'm so glad they did because it's part of growing up and they are very special keepsakes.
When Emma started school, I vowed to buy at least the smallest package of each school picture that she has taken for the same reason. So far, we have three or four sets of school pictures of Emma, and her expressions in them range from petrified to irritated. Imagine my surprise and sheer ELATION when she brought these home this week!

Mary's Animal Impressions

Here is a funny little video of Mary Wade doing her best animal sounds (while in the tub):

Pictures

Some recent pictures of all of our babies:













...BoBo, Samson, Sambo, Boovy, Boovis, Boovinator, Bo-nator













...Emma, Wooley, Woolinator, Emma-lou, Woolis, Woogey, Woog, Sister














...Mary, Mary Wade, Baby Mary, Mermy, Merm, Mervis, Merminator

The Best Day Of My Life...

...was seven years ago today. I love you Wade Lee Latham. Happy Anniversary!

Privates

Our sweet, innocent Emma went to a friend's house to play this afternoon. When she came home after playing, she was very upset and we talked about her afternoon and why she was so distraught. Her friend's older brother (who is six) was apparently quite smitten with our girl, and spend the afternoon trying to woo her. When he realized chivalry was getting him nowhere, he resorted to drastic measures; he showed my precious daughter his "privates".
When Emma told me this, I panicked. She was clearly bothered by what happened, but did not want to talk about it. After a few minutes, she finally opened up and told me that the little boy took his belt off and was slinging it around over his head like a lasso. I was FREAKING OUT on the inside, but I waited for her to continue.
And then she said "That's when he lifted up his shirt and showed me his privates."

Mr. Fix-It

Wade Latham is beyond smart. He may very well be the most brilliant man I've ever met. He is detail-oriented, logical, and thorough when solving a problem. So, on the RARE occasion that he makes a mistake, I absolutely must share it with everyone I know.
Over the weekend, I broke one of my flower arrangements. Wade sat down at the kitchen table with the broken vase, Gorilla Glue, and a roll of masking tape. He applied the glue, used the masking tape roll to stabilize the top part of the vase, then placed the top of the vase on the base. Shockingly, it wasn't until it dried that he realized what he'd done:

Seeing her Daddy's chagrin over his little blunder, Emma cheerily suggested "That's okay, Daddy. We can just wait until it breaks again. Then it will come right off!"

Fun With Photo Booth

One of Emma's favorite pastimes is playing with the Photo Booth program on our computer. If she twists our arms, Wade and I can occasionally be persuaded to partake. We were all being so silly but noticed that Mary seemed nervous about it, and didn't want to have her picture taken. We didn't force the issue and took several silly ones ourselves. Wade finally talked Mary into "posing" for one or two, so we got some crazy shots of everybody!

...Believe it or not, I didn't marry him for his looks.

...A little creepy, but she doesn't tend to argue as much this way.

...As if Wade doesn't have all he can handle with just one of me.

...Clearly, Emma has her Mother's smile.

...And Mary gets her broad shoulders from her Daddy.

...One last crazy one.

...My sweet and silly girls.

Go Team!

Daddy said: "Emma, what's the name of the team you are cheering for?"
Emma said: "What team?"

When you look this cute in the uniform, who's going to be looking at the team???

My Funny Valentines

Today I wanted to get some pictures of the girls in their Valentines Day shirts.

They started out silly...



...then Mary had a minor meltdown.


She wasn't THAT loud...


But after all this time trying to get a sweet picture of my beautiful girls...


...I realized the best pictures can't be staged.

Mary's Duck Walk

Hey, what's all that white stuff??

No matter what the weatherman says, when you live in the South you never expect snow. We got the surprise of our lives late yesterday afternoon when we looked outside and saw huge snowflakes falling and sticking! We had so much fun and the girls were just beside themselves. Emma's only fear was the school was going to be cancelled today. What?!? I thought kids looked forward to "Snow Days"!

Bath Time Pictures

This is my first attempt at posting a slideshow on our blog, so hopefully it will work! It does play music but you can click the speaker to mute the sound. There are some pictures from the girls' bath earlier tonight, but I also put in some older ones from last August, when Emma was not quite 4 1/2 and Mary was 16 months old. It's amazing how fast they are growing up! I am also throwing in a couple of pictures of Samson, just because he's such a sweet boy.

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas this year with the girls and our families. Emma and Mary must have been at the very top of Santa's "Nice List" this year, because he really brought them some great stuff!
...the girls in their Christmas pajamas and ready for bed on Christmas Eve.

...Emma's persistence paid off; she finally got her drum set and she was absolutely ecstatic!

...Emma with her Hannah Montana microphone.

...Santa must have known that the girls love to share with Mama, because he filled their stockings with lots of chocolate!

...Mary confiscated Emma's gumball machine immediately and carried it around for most of the morning. We finally had to distract her with the candy in her stocking and hide the gumball machine.

...Mary in her new Learning Chair. Notice she's carrying a bowl of candy from her stocking. For some reason, she won't eat ANYTHING these days if it's not served in a bowl.

...Mary, Learning Chair, bowl of candy.

...it's a shame Santa wasted so much time making all of those neat toys for Mary, when all she wanted was a stocking full of chocolate.