Mother's Day

We spent Mother's Day at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The weather was PERFECT and it seemed like every flower was blooming. We had so much fun and it was a wonderful Mother's Day!

All of us at the orchid exhibit...


Daddy and the girls...


My big girl...


Some sweet pictures of Emma...




Some sweet pictures of Mary...




Here are some of the gorgeous orchids we saw...



One of the biggest magnolia blooms I've ever seen...


Gorgeous poppies, one of my favorite flowers...






Roses...




Foxgloves...


Water lily...

For Sale

Free setup and delivery of the swing, too.

Happy Birthday Samson!

Our sweet Bobo's 10th birthday is May 5. Happy Birthday to the best dog EVER!


Go ahead, honk him. You know you want to.

Spring Has Sprung

I love this time of year - when I haven't had time to kill my plants and my bird feeders look like Grand Central Station.
...male and female cardinals. I can't believe I got this picture - the female flew right into the shot.
...zinnias.
...I WAS trying to get this one and I'm very proud of it.
...geraniums.
..ruby throated hummingbird and an eastern towhee. This is another picture I really love because we don't see either of these guys very often. I couldn't believe I was able to get them in the same picture!
...hibiscus.
...daylilies, just about to bloom.
...redbellied woodpecker. I SO love this bird - we only see him about twice a week and I think he's so handsome!
...mandavilla.
...pansies on the front porch.

Mary's School Pictures

And the tradition continues...
Yesterday we got Mary's school pictures back. It's been quite a while since I had a professional picture taken, but it looks like the standard "Say Cheese" just wasn't getting the job done, and photographers are trying new methods to get that perfect photograph.
Just a few techniques I think Mary's photographer may have used:
1. Say "Vomit"!!!
2. "Look at those cute little toes! Mr. Photographer is just going to bite them right off, one at a time!"
3. "I bet you're a Mommy's girl! Too bad she's never coming back to get you."
4. "Wow, look at that fun ride-on toy you're sitting on! Now look right here and pretend it's a dentist's chair!"

My Babies

Mary's 2nd Birthday (Part 2)

Mary's birthday was yesterday (April 15th) but Wade had to travel for Macy's this week, so we celebrated a little early. Sunday afternoon, Wade and Emma baked a cake for Mary while I ran a few errands. Emma met me at the door and led me straight to their culinary creation - a yellow layer cake with chocolate frosting, complete with pink and red icing roses and Mary's name written across the top. I told Emma I was very impressed with how beautifully she decorated the cake, and how well she wrote Mary's name with the icing tube. But she wanted to give credit where credit was due, and she told me that her Daddy did that part.

After Mary blew out her 2 candles, we all enjoyed a piece of birthday cake (which tasted even better than it looked, if you can believe that!) and celebrated the fun we've had over the past two years with our sweet little Mary Wade.


Awww, makes you just want to kiss her, doesn't it? Well, maybe you should hose her down first.

Mary's 2nd Birthday

Saturday night we took Mary to eat at Texas Roadhouse (or "The Peanut Place", as Emma calls it) for her birthday. After dinner, some of the servers brought her a little ice cream sundae and sang to her, which thrilled her to pieces! She heard them coming and you can even hear her say "Me!!" when they got to our table.

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):