Easter 2011

I am WAY behind on posting on our blog, and sadly I have missed blogging about some exciting things. (birthdays, injuries, etc) I will do my best to do some "make-up blogs", but for now I thought I'd post a few pictures from Easter. To be honest, I am up in the middle of the night (and trying to keep myself awake) while we are having terrible weather. Anderson is out of town and I am doing my best to keep up with the tornado warnings and such. So...while I watch the news, I'll post some pictures. Yes...most pictures include squinty eyes, scrunched noses, and someone not looking at the camera...but this is pretty much to be expected in the phase.

Elephants and Snow Days

Yes, you read correctly...ELEPHANTS! The circus has come to town and every year they unload the elephants off the trains and walk them to the arena. So cool. What's even cooler is that they unload them literally across the street from our showroom, Kenny & Company. This means we get to wait for the elephants in a warm place with snacks, while everyone else is waiting in the cold on the streets. Major bonus! I rushed to the showroom with the kids (after a sweet call from my sister that they were coming) so that we could see this exciting event. It was pretty quick but it did not disappoint. Henry and Lucy loved seeing the elephants. It's not every day you have elephants walking the streets of Nashville.

Our weather has been pretty darn cold lately. Well, we woke up to more snow this morning. (which does not make for a happy mommy....Mother's Day Out was cancelled) We have been in the house all week since it's been so cold and we (mommy) have gone crazy. Henry and I decided to bake some cookies yesterday to help pass the time until daddy came home from work. Baking is fun, but we are ready for SPRING!

I love this picture!

Morning Ritual

It is Lucy's new morning ritual to get up, have a cup of milk, and go on the hunt for her necklaces! She walks around EVERY morning with her necklaces on and usually a purse on her arm. IT'S ADORABLE! I love having a girl! It's all about dress-up, babydolls, and (in our case) a strong personality! Here are a few pictures of her playing in her pj's with her jewelry on. A girl always has to look her best, right?!

A Whole New World

I totally have that song in my head now that I just wrote that title...anyways....

It really IS a whole new world now that Lucy is walking. And I mean for the BETTER. I really experienced it for the first time today. You know, once your child passes that infant stage where they relax in the carrier or your arms....and the phase where they just sit up and play without traveling around....it basically gets hard to really play outside until they start walking. Moms....do you know what I mean? Once Lucy started crawling, it was challenging all summer trying to let Henry play outside while I had Lucy with me. We don't have the ideal fenced in yard, and especially with us living on a busy street, I really need to be out there with him any time he's playing. Well, what do you do with the "other" child who is wanting to be on the move but can't walk? Yes....you swing...and that's it! Henry and I would always have to sneak outside to play quickly with the monitor while Lucy took her morning naps. And once she dropped that nap and they only napped at the same time...it really was challenging.

So, all of that rambling to say that it is now a whole new world with Lucy walking. She starting walking over the Christmas holidays and so we have not been playing outside with this freezing cold weather. Well, today we went out in the snow and it was SO NICE that she could just walk around with Henry to play in the snow. Yes, in challenging areas I would help her out, but I got a taste of it today. This spring and summer are going to be great! So much easier to play outside...so much easier at the beach. I'm just really excited about this phase of having both of my children in the "independent walking and full on toddler stage". They play together (and fight together) and it honestly makes me excited that we're not pregnant right now....is that terrible to say? I'm looking forward to enjoying this for a while. It really is a whole new world...and I'm loving it!

War Eagle!

National Champions!!!!!! It sure does feel good!!!! War Eagle!

Christmas 2010

How exciting to wake up Christmas morning to a white Christmas! So pretty. Just enough to cover the ground but not enough to make traveling a problem. Thank goodness...we had a few stops to make that day.

Santa came!

Lulu played in her car all morning!

Henry was a happy boy. Santa did good!

First stop was to Columbia to the Hills.

This is probably my favorite picture from the day!

Next and final stop...back to Nashville for dinner and presents at the Kennys.

We are blessed with so much family. While it's exhausting on these special days, we love having both our families so close. Our babies are so loved and they adore their cousins, aunts and uncles, and of course those grandparents and great-grandparents! God is so good.

Christmas Eve

I thought I would breakdown some of our Christmas festivities into 2 different blogs. Christmas Eve is usually spent doing a little cooking, a little relaxing, and sometimes a little last minute shopping. We go to our Christmas Eve service at church and then my family meets at Mom and Dads for a quick supper, a birthday cake for Jesus, and Dad continuing our tradition of reading us the Cajun Night Before Christmas. (in his cajun accent, of course!)

Christmas Day is usually so busy and such a blur that we usually get our family picture on Christmas Eve.

I'm sad to say that this will be the last time you see sweet Henry in the button-on shorts. Anderson gave me a hard time about it this year and honestly Henry was upset about his outfit too. I guess with 3 being right around the corner, it is time to say good-bye. I'm sad to see them go! I just think he looks precious.

Cousins in their pjs. (without Rees) They are all dressed and ready to head home, head to bed, and wait for Santa!

Cajun Night Before Christmas

Sophie concluded our evening playing Jingle Bells on her violin. She has been taking lessons since the fall and has be doing great!!