water babies

Our favorite activity these days is swimming in the pool in our back yard. Every time we look out the window, the sparkling blue water is twinkling at us in the sun, tempting us to head outside for another swim session. Here are a bunch of pictures from one day last week. (I realize I tend to put more pictures on my blog than my other friends...hope you don't mind them all!) :)

My oldest had swimmer's ear last week and wasn't allowed in the pool. Finally, on this particular day, her ear seemed on the mend, although not completely better, so I allowed her to hang out on the steps and instructed her to be careful not to get water in her ears. She did just as she was told and was perfectly happy just to be back in the water again. :) She is my sweetie!

This is my middle child, trying out our new goggles and flippers.

Getting ready to jump...

jumping...

almost in the water....

SPLASH!!!

Ok, here come a bazillion pics of the baby! I know most of the time the baby of the family gets little or no pictures taken...but in this case, he is sort of my first baby...so he is definitely not lacking in the picture department! :)

The first couple times in the pool, he fussed the whole time and just wanted to be held out of the water. Now he's over that and LOVES going in the pool! He swims all around and loves to jump in and spin in circles.

In the middle of a spin.

He also loves going down the slide...

and doesn't even care when he goes all the way under!

"Ha ha! My hair didn't even get wet!"

"Kick, baby, kick!"


Swimming is great all around - the kids love it, I love it, and Mommy and Daddy love it because it makes for three very sleepy children come bedtime! :)

perfect sunday

I love days that leave you feeling like life is wonderful and appreciating the fun of living close to family and friends. Sunday was one of those days. After church in the morning, followed by a quick trip to Starbucks, Michael and I picked up a birthday cake and headed to Mom and Dad's house for lunch. Sunday was Mom's actual 60th birthday and Daniel and I had saved our presents for her to open then instead of at her surprise party a couple weeks ago.


The cake was a sweet cream ice cream cake with strawberries from the Marble Slab. Yum!! But since their ice cream cakes are mostly...ice cream...it was rather difficult to cut! Had to have the help of some strong guy...! :)

I sent Daniel into the pantry to find the candles. These are the ones he chose... :} and actually put on mom's piece of cake.

"100?! How about we just leave off one of the zeros!"

Ha! It is a well-known fact in our family that mom, um, likes to take her time making decisions. The card I found for her fit her perfectly! It had two pictures and one said "Reality TV: 'Well, it's the end of the weekend and we've completely finished redoing the house!'" The second picture said, "Reality: 'Well, it's the end of the weekend and we've narrowed it down to only 37 paint chips!" Yup! That's my mother!

Modeling the sarong I gave her for her upcoming trip to the beach in August.

Michael, being artistic with his camera....

After leaving Mom's house, Michael and I headed over to my place so he could do some fishing off my dock and I could do some planning for camp.

Poor worm.

Fishing off my dock. It was beautiful outside...although a bit on the toasty side!

The view from my dock. If you travel down the river in this direction, you would eventually come close to the airport, where you can sit and watch the airplanes take off over your head! I haven't ever done it, but I hear that it's fun. :)

After being thoroughly annoyed that the fish seemed to be eating the worms...and not the hook...we decided to take a break from the fishing/camp planning to go see the new movie Get Smart with Steve Carrol and Anne Hathaway. Hilarious. After the movie we came back to fish until 11ish. By that time it was dark and quiet on the river - the best time to sit on the dock. It had rained while we were gone, which had helped to cool off the air. Everything was peaceful. Michael never did actually catch a fish this time, but I did get some good camp planning accomplished!

Days like that don't happen all the time and when they do, it's easy to forget to slow down and enjoy them completely. This is where my little blog comes in handy...now it's down on "paper" and I won't forget my perfect Sunday. :)

happy days

Ok, so I found this ADORABLE little jacket at a favorite consignment store for just a couple dollars and could not pass it up! Since the girls were at preschool on Tuesday, when I originally started this post (internet wouldn't let me upload the pictures for some weird reason), I had the baby to myself...so we borrowed daddy's motorcycle and had some fun with the jacket. :) This is our tribute to Happy Days and "the Fonze", except he doesn't have enough hair do to it just like Fonzie. Oh well! :)

I suppose Fonzie didn't have a cool, black cellphone to carry around with him.... :)

If only I could hear what he was thinking....!

"Cool Dude!" This is how he gives a thumbs-up.

a boy and a harley...

He's watching out for cops as he speeds down the road. :}

Contemplating how sweet life would be - just him and his motorcycle and the wind in his plastered-down hair.

swim time!

We are all very excited now that it is warm enough to get in the "big pool" in our backyard! It is the girls' very favorite activity right now - and Kiki's too, for that matter! I even have the sunburn to prove it. :-p The baby isn't quite so sure about it yet, so we tend to go in when he is asleep. I would write more...but it's about time to get those bathing suits back on.....! :)

a surprise birthday luau

June 22 will be my mom's 60th birthday and I decided a long time ago that a surprise party would be in order for the occasion! I tried to find some theme that said "my mom" but called my best friend from the party store and complained that everything there said "kathryn!". :-p She suggested I just choose something fun and summery and since I was planning to have it out on my deck, overlooking the river, I decided a luau would be perfect.

These are the invitations I made for the party. I "stole" the idea off one of my favorite stamping/scrapbooking idea websites - http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/ .

To get my mom over to my house without raising suspicion, I asked her and Dad to come for an evening of dinner and games - something we do semi-often at her house. She said later that she never had a clue of the real reason I was having her over! :)


I HAD to get these when I found them at Party City! And I do NOT think my mom looks like she's about to be 60! (hope that runs in the family..... ;) )





Shishkabobs, baked potatoes, tossed salad, and fresh fruit seemed to fit the theme well. :)

Ok, so the decorations didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned....but we kind of ran out of time to decorate! Oh well, at least the effect is still sort of there. It of course decided to literally be 100 degrees outside last friday so we had all sweated a few buckets by the time everyone was here and ready to eat!! Thankfully, by the time we sat down, the sun had shifted and was not beating down on my deck.

I invited my mom's very oldest friends - mostly those we have known since we moved to TN when I was three years old. A few of them couldn't make it but we were excited to catch up with those that did. This is my mom's friend Carol. We met her and her daughter when I was four and taking gymnastics and we've been friends ever since. She and Emily are friends that we do not see nearly enough!

Daniel and Dad braving the hot weather outside. Yes, Daniel has a moehock and no, I do not know why.....

This is the beautiful cake that my friend, Leah made for me! Leah and I were in second grade together and ended up going to the same college. It was always fun to have someone else to talk to about home. :) She recently took a cake decorating class and learned that she has a real knack for making all kinds of icing/gumpaste/etc. flowers! Happily, she was very excited when I asked if she would make a cake for mom's party and I think it turned out amazingly well! The camera did not do justice to the colors of purple in the flowers. (And no, she did not make the butterfly or the little hummingbird, which I think are thoroughly adorable.) :)

A close-up of the bottom...

and of the top. It was a very yummy cake - white cake on the inside with an almond buttercream frosting underneath the fondant.

My family. :) I think it's funny that it looks like my brother and I have the same color hair in this picture! One of us has dyed our hair and I'll give you one guess as to which one of us it is! ;)

My best friend, Shannon, came over in the early afternoon to help me with all the food preparations. I definitely would not have been ready had she not come to help out!! (Thanks again, Shannon!) Shannon's baby hung out with us all day and was so good! :) He especially enjoyed the baby pool filled with ice and cokes!

This is the group that came - except for my brother who, like me, would much rather be on the other side of the camera taking the picture than be in it! :)

Overall I think the party was a success. Don't you just love this hat that one of mom's friends gave her?! Ha! She was very brave to let Dad take her picture in it! Happy Birthday Mom!

personality shoes

All three of my kiddos have had a case of walking pneumonia this week so they have felt horrible and looked the part too, thus, no pictures have been taken. I did however remember that I wanted to take a picture of a couple pairs of their shoes, so I figured that would be a good choice for this post.

I got these two pairs of shoes for the girls a while back and after I got home I began thinking more about them and realized that each shoe is a pretty good picture of its owners' personality.


These shoes above are my oldests'. The majority of the time she is like the pastel colors in these shoes - sweet, calm, quiet, content, cheerful, happy to share with her siblings, and loves to help Kiki around the house. But then, just like the shiny silver streaks in these shoes, she also can have a burst of personality from time to time - whether it's frustration at one of her younger siblings that lands her in a rare timeout or, as is more often the case, her very joyful laughter. She is definitely the first born child. She likes things to be neat and orderly, thrives on a routine and likes to know what is coming next in the day and likes it even more when she can accurately predict what is coming next. She rarely irritates me and when she does happen to I usually realize it is some part of my own personality that I need to work on myself.

These shoes belong to my middle child. She has a very bold and passionate personality! :) She feels her emotions very strongly and isn't afraid to make sure everyone knows! When she is happy, she is usually bouncy and bubbly and giggly and her eyes are bright and sparkly. When she is angry, you can see it flash in her eyes. When she is sad, as Anne of Green Gables said, she is usually in "the depths of despair." :) She likes to test her limits and see how much she can get away with...which isn't much when Kiki is around. So for her, the routine of sitting on the "naughty steps" is a very familiar one, though becoming a bit less frequent lately, thankfully. She can definitely be sweet and kind and loves to give hugs and kisses and for the most part plays very well with her older sister and baby brother. She could care less about having things neat and orderly and I can just see the bedroom she shares with her sister in about 10 years having a line down the middle with one side spotless and one side...decidely not! :)

I love my two very different little girlies and can't wait to see what God has in store for their lives!

recipe for 30 minutes of peace and quiet

Put the baby down for a nap.

Send the girls into the living room for "quiet book time".

Let the oldest discover that a chipmonk lives inside the wood pile just outside the window, which they promptly name "Princess".
Instruct said chipmonk to play "peek-a-boo" with the girls, peeking out at intervals juust long enough to keep the girls interested, whispering as quietly as they can and sitting as still as statues so as not to scare her away!
Go grab a cup of tea or coffee and sit quietly while it lasts. (Or, if you are like me...go grab your camera and join the girls for the fun!) :)