Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you moms out there!

I'd like to give a shout-out to my AWESOME Mom, who is the biggest supporter and cheerleader I know.  Also, to my beautiful sister, who has always been my inspiration and role model.  Lastly, I'd like to give a shout-out to my 3 little munchkins- without them, I wouldn't be MOM!  I love them to pieces.  I am so blessed.

Mother's Day topped off a very busy weekend for us.  Last night was a late night, and it was hard to get up... but, I woke up to pancakes, a card and present, and lots of hugs from my kiddos.  Oh, and the best greeting this morning- from Taylor- "Happy birthday, Mommy!!"

So thankful for my babies... so thankful for my Mom and Grandmom... what a great day!

Mother's Day goodies from school.

Sweet card.

A heart pancake :)

Random Pics

Here are some random phone pics that never made it on the blog!

The 3 siblingos

 

The new wreath I made for our door

I went back to the evergreen bushes!

 

 Sleepover.

 

Derby Day.

Taylor opening an invitation she got in the mail.

Me and Sydney on a day we both had the stomach bug.  We had to entertain ourselves somehow!

 

Sweet Taylor.

 

Sydney & Raegan at Savannah's b-day party.

 

Sassy Taylor.

P-Man.

 

Sydney is wearing Stephen's shirt; Parker is wearing Taylor's dress.  Poor guy.

Sydney's drawing of her and her BFF.

 

Bathroom Remodel

Stephen and I decided to get our master shower and guest bath shower remodeled.  The master shower is not totally finished yet (glass guy is coming next week), but here it is so far!  What a difference!  (more pics to come when it's all done)

There is so much more room, it is amazing.  I'm only wishing we had done this before I was 15 months pregnant three different times- I would have fit a lot better. ;)

Before 

"What's that?"

It has been such a joy having two daughters who are so close in age.  They are best little buddies, and when one is away from the other, you can tell that a piece of them is missing.  Another fun thing that I can easily compare the two, since they are only 26 months apart.  And boy, are they different!
I noticed something today that made me think.  Do you recall that Sydney, around 2-1/2 or so, would always ask, "Why?"  Well, I've noticed that Taylor always asks, "What's that?"  And I think it's fitting with the difference it shows in them. 

Sydney is very inquisitive, and she really ponders things.  She is my thinker, my memorizer, my pay-attention-to-details kind of gal.  She's the one that could spell her name at 17 months and count to 20 by 19 months.  It is fitting that she would ask, "Why?" because she really wants to learn the purpose of things.  She can then apply that knowledge to life.  She is smart but dramatic, and she has the best memory of any little 4 year-old I know. 

Taylor, on the other hand, is just happy-go-lucky.  She is more laid back (she still can't spell her name at 29 months) and is more of a sweet, funny, and loving child.  I think she'd rather make people laugh than learn how to do things.  She is into EVERYTHING.  I mean, if she is playing with something and you take it away from her, instead of focusing on it being taken away, she immediately turns and gets into something new.  She is constant.  So, I think, "What's that?" is fitting for her, because she is so curious about anything and everything around her.

My two different daughters... it's great that they each have their own personality and character traits, and it's so neat to watch them come together and just work. 

I am so very blessed!!!

Nashville

The whole fam headed up to Nashville this past weekend to cheer on Stephen in his quest to master the Country Music 1/2 Marathon!  We both took a half-day on Friday to beat the traffic.  The ride up was pretty harmless- the kids were pretty good, alternating between napping, watching movies, and playing with toys. 

We stayed at my brother's house, and my folks came up for the weekend, too!  Sydney and Olivia (her 4 year-old cousin) were SO excited to see each other.  They made up for lost time rather quickly.  Taylor tagged right along.  They stayed up until 10 PM Central Time (eek!) Friday night, and finally crashed hard on their sleeping bags.

Saturday morning was race day... and it was POURING down rain!  Stephen got up about 4 something to get ready, eat breakfast, and head in for his 7 AM start time.  I headed down around 8:15 to get a spot at the finish line.  This is what I saw:

And it was COLD!  I felt so bad for the runners, although, to give them credit, they were quite chipper at the end.  It didn't seem to phase them.  I had my phone out to try to snap shots of Stephen, but, alas, the water crept into my 3 day-old iphone and it completely shut off.  This was the last picture I took:

Bam.  It was done.  24 hours in a bag of rice seemed to help, some.  Grrr.

Back to the race.  Stephen did AWESOME!!!  I am SO proud of him!  His goal was to beat 2 hours, and he came in at 1:53 something.  In the rain!  He rocked it. 

We went back home, warmed up, dried off, and hung out.  We all went to a kid play place-kind of like a Chuck E Cheese- to have fun and run off some energy.  There was no playing-outside that would be happening this weekend.

After that, we headed to Cracker Barrel for some grub.  Parker sat in a restaurant-style high chair for the first time!

Uncle/nephew bonding.

What to eat?

We then headed home for the night.  It started storming later, so we hung out, watched TV, and just chilled.  The girls crashed earlier- no nap + late night the night before = three sleepy girls. 



WWF Wrestling.

Sunday morning, we ate breakfast and then made the 5 hour trek home.  It was a great trip!!  Can't wait to do it again (only next time, with sunshine!).





I just have to say...

That Sydney read the entire book- all 62 pages- of Green Eggs and Ham... ON HER OWN. I am so proud of her!!!

Old stomping grounds

This evening, after work, I headed into Dunwoody/Sandy Springs to attend a bris for a good high school friend's new baby son.  They had bought a house a couple years back in our high school's district, so they live in the area now where we all grew up.  So, after the bris, (which, by the way, was so nice, their baby is absolutely adorable, and I got to catch up with some good guy friends from HS), I decided to take a spin of my old stomping grounds before I headed home. 

It is such an odd feeling- seeing sights that I used to see every day... roads I learned to drive on... memories that were made at every single turn.  Then, you go away from that area (especially me, since my parents moved away after I graduated) and coming back is foreign in some ways (I needed the GPS to help me find my way to Evan's house!) but also like I was just there yesterday.

So, here is a little picture-tour of my past.

My lovely high school entrance.  Only difference is that the word "Charter" is now included in the name.  Other than the new name/sign, all was the same!

A view of my high school.  Oh, the times that were spent in this school... football games, softball games, dance team, basketball games, band concerts... all my friends, all the people I knew from KG until Senior Year... Wonderful years of my life were spent here.

My beloved church.  I was baptized here.  I had so many fond memories of being in youth group, going on trips, lock-ins, VBS, singing in the youth choir, my sister got married here. 

Many-a-years were spent at this ballpark.  This probably gave me the biggest nudge in the gut, it brought back so many memories.  Also, isn't it funny how big things seem when you're little, and then they're not so big when you're big?  Although they have expanded this park some, the parking lots seem smaller, the fields seem smaller.  Good times.  I played softball here from 2nd-12th grade.

This is where I was a cheerleader in 6th grade.  It didn't last long.

My old neighborhood!  Wow, this brought a flood of memories back.  I drove by my two best childhood friends' houses- Amy and Allison. We were inseparable.  I love the greenery and the trees and the different styles of houses that you see.  I couldn't even begin to list out all the memories I had here. 

My old house!!  I lived here from birth to 19.  I loved my old house and have so many vivid memories of the whole thing... but, the new owners did SO many changes to the front.  I'm talking, they even moved the driveway!  No joke.  They removed this big, landscaping hill from the front, they moved the driveway/mailbox, they tore down all these trees I used to climb out front, they took out this huge garden my mom planted in the front, they planted a row of trees along the road.  They also built a not-so-obvious fence around the front.  So, as many memories as I have, they sadly didn't come flooding back since the house looks so different.

 

So, that's a tour of where many years of my life were spent.  It felt so good to be back.  There have been so many changes in this area- so many new stores, restaurants, buildings, neighborhoods.  But, it still has a lot of familiar sites.  What a good day!