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.

The Pink Pig

We finally went to Macy's last weekend to ride the famous Pink Pig. The girls loved it, but Wade and I had such a hard time fitting into the cars that we might not make this a "holiday tradition".

Breakfast With Santa

This morning, Santa Claus came to visit Emma's preschool and have breakfast with the kids. Emma told me on the way to school that she was only going to ask for a drum set today when she got to sit on Santa's lap, since she'd already given him a rather lengthy list last weekend when we visited him at the mall.

Our Star Student

At the end of every month, Emma's preschool teacher sends home a checklist of skills to keep us posted on her progress. She has gotten absolutely wonderful reports each month, and we wanted to show them off!
(These scans are small, but if you click on each report a larger version will open.)

Emma's Christmas List

Emma wrote out her Christmas list for Santa last weekend and I wanted to share it. And just in case the scan is too small, the outside reads:
Santa Claus
I love you

and the inside reads:
Hannah (Anything Hannah Montana - she is HUGE in our house these days.)
Drum (This is the third Christmas that Emma has asked for a drum set. She also reminded us on her third and fourth birthday that Santa did not bring her a drum set the previous Christmases so she needs one for her birthday. It's a pretty safe bet she'll be asking for a drum set for her fifth birthday.)
Doll (Emma wants a Baby Alive doll. Apparently she does not remember that Santa brought her a Baby Alive doll last Christmas. She fed it green stuff, it pooped the green stuff, and she was absolutely horrified. This year, we hope Santa brings her a doll WITHOUT bowels.)
Puppy (Not another real one, thank goodness, but a stuffed one.)
Cradle (Because she sat in the one she has now and broke it.)
Eating table (I don't know what is wrong with our kitchen table other than it is not directly in front of the television.)

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!"