So Sweet

Ho Ho Ho! NO! NO! NO!

Today we took the girls to see Santa Claus. Mary is fascinated with Santa figurines and pictures, but when we ask her if she wants to go see him, she has a complete melt-down. We knew what was going to happen when the time came to sit on his lap, so we told Emma to just smile for the camera and to IGNORE MARY, whatever she did.
So, at least we knew the picture was going to turn out exactly like this...

Emma's Fall Picture

Below is Emma's fall school picture. I love how serious she looks!

No-Piece Nuggets

Tonight while running errands, we stopped at Wendy's for chicken nuggets. We pulled out of the drive-thru and I handed each of the girls a FULL box of nuggets. Mary immediately began devouring hers, but Emma exclaimed "Oh no! I got the Zero Piece Nuggets!"

Chattanooga

We went to Chattanooga this past weekend and had such a great time! Here are a few pictures from our visit to the Chattanooga Aquarium.

















...the girls at the touch pool.
















...Emma made a beautiful new friend in the butterfly habitat.

















...a few more amazing butterflies.















...this diver actually swam over to the window and motioned for me to take a picture of him with the girls. He waited while we got them situated and even smiled for the camera.















...the girls didn't like that idea nearly as much as I did.














...Mary was exhausted and starving from all of the excitement, so she made herself comfortable and had a little picnic.

















...who knew fish liked Hershey bars?














...we
saw
lots
of
penguins...





































...and seahorses...




































...and enjoyed the beautiful view of the river.

Mary's Protests

The Encarta World English Dictionary defines the word "protest" this way:

1. an expression or display of strong disapproval of or disagreement with something, or a refusal to obey or accept something, often in the form of a public statement
2. an expression of strong opposition of or disapproval of something in the form of a public demonstration or other action

Just wanted to share a few recent pictures of Mary protesting...

















...Civil War cannons.


















...penguin statues.


















...hayrides.
















...beautiful scenery (with Emma fully supporting the cause).

Random Things You May Not Know...

And Never Asked Because You Don't Want To

~ Mary calls George "Gore". And rather loudly.

~ Emma believes that you should put your hand over your heart when "Sweet Home Alabama" plays. That may be because when she asked me if this was what you are supposed to do, I answered "Absolutely". Was that wrong?

~ If given the option, my girls would eat frozen waffles for breakfast every morning. Frozen - not toasted.

~ Neither of my girls will TOUCH a real, true, confectioners-sugar-coated beignet from Cafe Du Monde. I am firmly convinced that, however unlikely it may seem, they were both switched with my real children at birth.

~ Wade is deathly afraid of snakes and ghosts. The only difference is that he will watch television shows about snakes all the live-long day, but will not watch a show about ghosts.

~ Mary's favorite song is "The Cha-Cha Slide". She requests it EVERY TIME we get in the car.

~ Emma's favorite songs are "Beer in Mexico" (What? That's not appropriate for a four-year-old?), "Last Dollar (Fly Away)", "Down In Mississippi (And Up To No Good") (again, so VERY inappropriate), "Jamie's Cryin'" (I'm sensing a horrific pattern here), and "Ring of Fire". I could not make this up.

~ I will not watch ANY movie (animated or not) where the main character is an animal. No Disney movies, no Animal Planet specials, period.

~ Wade's favorite song right now is "In Da Club" by 50 Cent. (Again, I could not make this up.) His very favorite part is the "Go Shorty, it's your birthday" part. While Wade was singing (maybe "performing" is a better word) this song for us in the car the other night, Emma stopped him to ask "Daddy, how old is Shorty going to be on his birthday?"

~ Mary loves to carry a purse and wear sunglasses.

~ Emma recently overheard me telling someone that she was 4 1/2. She immediately and vehemently denied this fact because no one had given her any presents. We baked her a cake, bought her a tube of Colgate Princess toothpaste and an Ariel Electric toothbrush. She is now 4 1/2.

~ Mary will eat ANYTHING. Including Eukanuba Small Breed and Pedigree Healthy Maturity. She also prefers her sippy cup be placed on a coaster.

~ Samson only barks in his sleep.

~ I find doing laundry very therapeutic. It's the folding it and putting it away that I loathe.

~ Emma has an on again/off again fear of elevators.

~ Mary LIVES for elevators.

~ Emma enjoys going to school so much that, if she misbehaves, we can threaten to keep her home from school and she will straighten up immediately.

~ Mary smiled at her Mother's Morning Out teacher for the first time last Wednesday. She's been in the program since late August.

~ Wade can answer ANY Trivial Pursuit question, usually within about 3 seconds.

~ Emma believes the correct name for a Frisbee is a "roast beef". We have no idea why this is. We should correct her, but we're too amused by it to tell her any different. So we continue to ask her if she wants to go the park and throw the roast beef, and she continues to get the frisbee.

~ We are done having children. Really. Yes, I'm sure.

~ Samson still hates George.

Trick or Treat!

We had the best time trick-or-treating with the girls for Halloween! Emma dressed up as Ariel and Mary wore an octopus costume, so we decided she should be Ursula the Sea Witch. We trick-or-treated with our neighbors and very dear friends Dylan, Sofie, and Pilar Homiak. Dylan, Sofie, and Emma are as thick as thieves, and they were SO excited about trick-or-treating together. Mary wasn't sure about things at first, but after a couple of houses she had it all figured out. The only problem was that she wasn't satisfied with one or two pieces of candy. When our neighbors would put a little candy in her bag, she didn't say "thank you" and leave; she stayed on the porch, waving and smiling (and looking positively adorable) until they handed over more treats. Resistance is futile when she turns on the charm, and she came home with about twice as much candy as Emma! Here are some pictures from our wonderful Halloween night...

...all dolled up and ready to roll!

...Ariel, Ursula, the Green Power Ranger, and Tinkerbell.

...Ready, Set, Trick-or-Treat!

...I love this picture - they are the cutest kids in the neighborhood!

..."But I only got 8 pieces."

...We weren't even halfway around the block before Mary was sampling her goodies.

...Time to call it a night.

...It didn't take Emma long to lose the wig and fancy shoes and dig into her candy bag!

Brotherly Love

Can't you just FEEL Samson's happiness in this picture?

Little George

On September 24, we adopted a 3 month old long-haired dachshund that we named George. He is the sweetest and cutest little man, and he has fit right in with our family. The girls love him to death and he is so good with them. He follows them everywhere and just lives for their attention! Of course, Samson despises him but we expected that. Here are a few pictures of the newest Latham!

Fall Pictures of the Girls

I recently took some fall pictures of the girls and I LOVE how they turned out! Here are a few of my favorites...

Bittersweetness

Today was Mary Wade's second day in Mother's Morning Out at McEachern Methodist. Up until yesterday, only a handful of people have ever kept her for Wade and me, and most of them have been family. Even though we knew SHE needed this, WE weren't entirely ready for it. Yesterday morning when I dropped her off, she was sobbing and I thought I might not be able to leave her. I just knew she wouldn't make it a half an hour, and I told her teacher I would be sitting in the lobby with my cell phone if she needed me to come back and get Mary. After about 45 minutes, I had not heard from her teacher, so I snuck back to her classroom to peek in. She was doing just fine! She ended up staying until a little after noon and I (along with EVERYONE who knows Mary) was shocked! This morning, I took her back, and she was equally upset when I left her, but she settled down and was just fine for the rest of the day. This afternoon when we got home, I was watching her play and it felt like she'd grown up so much in just a couple of days. She suddenly seemed so independent and so BIG! I felt like she changed so much in those few hours that we were apart and it broke my heart a little bit. I am happy because this is a huge milestone for her, but I'm sad because I can't keep her from growing up.

Emma's First Golf Clubs

Wade bought Emma her first set of golf clubs this weekend and took her to the driving range this afternoon for a lesson. She did very well and she can't wait to go back! Here are a couple of pictures I took before they left...

Meet-The-Teacher Day

The time has finally come for Emma to go back to preschool and for Mary to start Mother's Morning Out. It has been such a fun summer but Emma is so excited about going back to school. She couldn't wait to get to McEachern this morning to meet her new teacher, Mrs. Johnson. She knew exactly what she wanted to wear and counted the days until Meet-The-Teacher Day.











...Emma before we left this morning. Clearly she practices posing on a regular basis because she always has a new one when I get out the camera!

















...Emma at the door to Mrs. Johnson's classroom.

















...Emma and her new teacher, Mrs. Johnson.



Mary wasn't quite as enthusiastic about this major milestone in her life. She started crying the minute we stepped in the door at McEachern, and got even worse when we stopped to talk to Mrs. MacMillan, Emma's teacher from last year. When we got to Emma's class, Mary calmed down a little bit and even played with a few of the kids in Emma's class. But she lost it again as soon as we left Emma's classroom to head over and meet her teachers. When we got to the classroom, she was very nervous that I was going to leave her, and at first she didn't want me to put her down. Then she noticed all of the neat toys in the room and some of the other kids playing and decided she might need to explore a little bit. She played very happily for about 20 minutes and actually cried when I picked her up to leave. To make matters worse, I then handed her to her new teacher for a picture, at which point Mary made it perfectly clear she was in no mood to "Meet-The-Teacher".










...She could hardly contain her excitement about her Mama leaving her with those horrible strangers who are going to love and care for her and try to get her to have fun.











...However, her mood improved when she saw all of the neat toys in her classroom.

















...She was having so much fun she didn't want to leave!















...She didn't want the teacher touching her either.