Valentine's Day

I loved this outfit but had to force her to wear the sweater. I have no idea why, but she hates it. I told her (she'd worn it one time already for Valentines) that she would NEVER have to wear it again b/c it was Feb 14 and it's a size 2... literally, she won't have to. So she obliged... amazingly. She got some heart stickers at school. You will see more of those later. I am finding them all over my house everyday.


Ahem, there's a heart sticker. Stayed on her face from morning until night (Bath time or she would've slept in it)

Chocolate mouths. Daddy gave all of his girls a bag of candy. Funny thing about Nucky. She ate all the chocolate but there were about 50 little sweet-tart hearts too. She never had a desire to eat them and only wants to organize them, pour them and play with them with her tea set. What is wrong with my child? TSG, on the other hand, whines, begs and cries everytime she catches sight of one of those red valetine bags in an effort to say, "GIMME CANDY!" (Cookie Monster-style)

Botanical Gardens

Fun slide - we're trying to teach Nucky about being ladylike with the dress but it seems to only make her want to hike that dress up even more. TSG had a great time sliding... she gets quite a thrill out of sliding especially when she can do it without help.

The weather has been so beautiful the last couple of weeks, so we took advantage of our Christmas gift (membership) and went to the Botanical Gardens. I could go everyday. Even in winter there are so many interesting plants starting to bloom and their children's garden is always fun for the girls.

Cute faces

A favorite activity of Nucky's is to make different faces. Actually, she likes to have us makes faces. For example, about 10 times a day she'll say "I'll be happy and you be sad" -- see above faces. We give her a hard time because she cannot make a sad face without smiling. But that smiley face is pretty smiley.

I'm becoming quite a little rascal and I know it!

This looks like I hand-tinted a black and white photo... she was especially rosey-cheeked and crazy-haired that day.

Romantic? Getaway

Lover and I just celebrated 5 years of marriage at Serenbe, a farm and inn south of Atlanta. It was such a peaceful place and just nice to be alone without our girls. I had great expectations of sleeping in and reading all day, but I started my sore throat battle on Friday night and wasn't a whole lot of fun for Lover nor was I able to get much sleep. He enjoyed hiking and frolicking around the property (many, many thousands of acres of rolling hills, woodlands, etc) while I stayed in our beautifully-appointed cottage. See above shot of bathroom... room was also really pretty and neutral, bed was awesome and full of feathers! The food was fabulous and 5-star quality...yum.

Marriage has been an interesting and enjoyable journey. I hope to always view it as a journey on which I will continue to get to know my husband better, as was said in our wedding homily. The pastor encouraged us to always pursue knowing each other like you are on a journey from the east to west coast. He said that it's easy to assume you've already reached the west coast after a few years of marriage when you've really only hit Tennesee (or something like that). That is so important especially because I see how we fail to do that and it has definite effects. I am such a selfish person and find that I want to control my little world at the expensive of (especially) Lover. God please show me how to be a servant to him and to my children.

Thank you Lord for a man who loves you and loves us so well. I pray we will grow to love each other more with each passing day. That takes work and communication....ahh!

For those of you who may not know and wonder in these pics, I am expecting again... wow! It was a pleasant surprise to us... more details later!

Ragamuffins in a bag

Birthday sleeping bag -- thank you, Gogo and Bibi! Let's hope this gets much use in the future. My sister and I used to love sleeping in our sleeping bags and I have many fond memories doing so in the summertime when it was too hot upstairs in our house, so we'd sleep on the floor in my mom and dad's room. I hope my girls will have wonderful memories of growing up together too!

Purple Painting Party

Look how cool this playdough is!


Here, let me help!

My baby is 3! Wow! In some ways it seems like she was just born and in others, it seems like I can't remember life without her. Lover used to look at her when she was a baby and even a toddler and say, "what are you going to look like when you become a little girl?" And now we see... a beautiful little doll!

Celebrated the 3rd bday with a purple painting party. She loved the idea and talked about long before it came around. Finally the day arrived and it was 15 degrees out, so we moved the garage party to the Dining Room. Threw down dropcloths and let 'em go. We had 4 friends over which was a perfect number for such a high-level activity inside.