Zoo Atlanta

I know I had a huge lapse in my posts right after we found out we were pregnant, but hopefully I can do a little catching up before the new baby gets here!

We had an AWESOME first trip to the zoo back in April. We met Elizabeth, Scott, Ann Marie, and Mary for our monthly date and had a wonderful time checking out all the animals! Emma Catherine was learning to say Ann Marie by the time we left too!

Here the girls are observing the lazy kangaroos!

Apparently we picked the perfect weekend to see the pandas. They are typically very inactive, but they seemed almost restless while we were there. Something was said about it being mating season...

Look at the baby panda!

Even though I know she could probably crush me, there is something so cute about her!

We also got to see the elephants being fed, but I got it on video so there aren't any pictures. I really want to know where you go to find the grey elephants like dumbo?

My twins, having a great time!

Ann Marie loved Mary!

Our favorite, the giraffes!

Emma Catherine and daddy looking at the giraffes!

What a sweet tired girl =)

She is way too growny!

I unfortunately did not get a picture of the snake that scared my husband to death =) One of the zoo employees had it out and was just holding it for people to see! Priceless!!

What a great first trip to the zoo for our family and a huge added bonus that we got to share the experience with great friends! We hope to make it back when the weather cools off!

Painting from Momma

Bo and I have the worst time finding art we like. The WORST. However, there are two watercolor paintings we love that hung in his mother's house in Blakely. She gave us one when we were living in our first apartment and then let us borrow the other to place above our mantle when we moved into our current house. Many of you know my momma is very crafty. She has dabbled with acrylic paintings for years and decided to try a class on painting with oils this Spring. She has been having a blast with oils! And she is quite talented. So when Ms Sandra decided she would like her painting back, momma offered to paint us a similar one to go in its place. We sent her a few photos of the painting to work from not really knowing how it would come out. Well check out these before and after pictures!

Here is the original:

And here is the one momma painted:

Pretty incredible huh? I told you she is talented! And she even pulled in the blue colors of our couches! What an awesome momma I have - Thank you mom!!!

Up! Down!

The beauty of daycare being right next door to my building is that I can stop by when ever I want! So I stopped by this Wednesday to find Emma Catherine playing outside. I just watched from her room to see what they were up to. I saw Emma Catherine, Braelyn, and Tatum sitting on the third step of the playscape. They would stand up, sit down, stand up, sit down. I'm not sure how long this went on. I didn't really take note of this until I was talking to one of the teachers who was outside at the time. Apparently Tatum would yell "Up!" and they would all stand up. Then she would yell her version of "Down!" and they would all sit down. Apparently this went on for a good five minutes! It is so cool to see what is entertaining to small people! If only we were all that simple =)

I don't have a picture of the three girls outside, but this picture is cute!

You can tell Emma Catherine is not sure about this game!

To See Beauty Even in the Common Things

Most of you know we are living in my parent's house in Powder Springs. They are currently in their other house in Alabama. They had this house on the market for two years. Unfortunately, the bottom fell out (economically) right after their house went on the market. After Bo graduated, we needed to move back to Atlanta and shorten that three hour commute from Athens to Atlanta! We mentioned in passing about moving into my parent's empty house since it had been on the market for two years. They loved the idea! Nothing is worse than a house sitting empty on the market for too long. And that is how we ended up in Powder Springs.

It has been a GREAT move for us! I'm close to my high school friends again. We are still close to all our family. We can get to most of our immediate relatives within two hours. It is absolutely perfect! Yes, I am a family girl!! The only thing that could make it better would be for my out of state sisters, Mark's family, and Gran and Pop to move closer. I'm not asking for too much am I?

Now that Spring is here, we are getting out into the beautiful yard my momma worked so hard on while she lived here. Things got a little out of control during the two years the house was empty, but the variety of plants is amazing! Not that the yard is amazing by any means, but it has great potential!

Check out these beautiful tulips that popped up Friday!

Hands down those are my favorite! The runner up fav is this beautiful iris...

This is also a cool plant with the leaves trimmed in white

It is not a great picture, but very classy plant I think =) Other plants I love are the wild strawberries. Look closely and you will see the little yellow flowers where strawberries will appear later. I'm hoping for more yellow flowers to appear, because most of the lower green leaves in the picture are wild strawberry leaves!

You can tell that bed looks pretty rough. Here is a picture of the part I have started to clear out. The hardest part is identifying what stays and what goes without my momma here to tell me!

I'm sure I have a ton more weeding to do in this area, but I would rather not pull out too much the first time!

Next up are the flocks. These are a great ground cover. And they are quite pretty minus the weeds!

I also love this purple flower.

I think this plant has potential

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me!

And just for the record, I hate this stuff.

Do you see those small, yellowy/lime green leaves in between these bushes? This stuff is the energizer bunny in plant form. It just keeps growing and growing and growing...No matter how hard you try to contain it or get rid of it you cannot. It is killing the bushes around it just like it killed the bush that used to sit in that spot! I ABHOR this stuff - just for the record! =)

Emma Catherine's New Ride

We had a busy and fantastic weekend! Mommy got to go out with Elizabeth and Mary for lunch at Le Madeleine's. It was so delicious and I have to agree with Mary that they have the best strawberry jelly ever! Yum!

So here is a picture of Emma Catherine practicing her lacing with daddy while I was getting ready to go out. Bo looks like he is working really hard too!

After I left Bo and Emma Catherine had some shopping to do. They went to Walmart (his most dreaded place) to get a DVI-to-HDMI cable and came back with a little something for Emma Catherine...

Emma Catherine had a great time going up and down this little "step" from the garage to the driveway.

Then we had an unplanned visit from Grammy, Poppa, and Auntie! Emma Catherine LOVES having visitors. It is way more exciting than just being home with boring old mom and dad! And I am always amazed at how much she learns from every visitor we have!

Emma Catherine working on her fine motor skills with Poppa!

Emma Catherine learning about cameras with Poppa.

Emma Catherine working on those fine motor skills again and coloring her dress - lovely!

Emma Catherine having fun with Poppa!

Bo and I have been talking lately about how we have the best in-laws. We really do feel that God has blessed both of us with loving families who support us and care for us more than we deserve. Don't get me wrong, they have imperfections and we certainly do, but we all love each other and can always count on each other. Even if we don't talk every day or even every month, we have no doubt that our families will be there for us in any storm and we will be there for them too. We know that our types of families are very hard to come by these days and we love them so much!

Hat Day and "mommy stop it"

Today was hat day at daycare! The children were able to bring in a hat or borrow one from the center to wear today. Luckily I found a couple of dollar, dress up hats at Ikea a few months back and snatched them up! The children were so cute in their hats! This is Emma Catherine with Tatum and

Tonight Emma Catherine said her first three word sentence "mommy stop it", but she was very sweet about it! I was crying about something that was just so silly and she was in my lap. She eventually looked up at me and sweetly said "mommy stop it" with a big smile on her face! It was the sweetest thing! How could I not just stop crying and smile right back at my darling? =)

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was busy and so much fun! We went to early service at Powder Springs UMC. The service was really cool. They showed a video up on the big screens to go with the first part of the anthem music. My favorite part was the animated recreation of Jesus awakening in the tomb. I have read the Easter story many times, but "seeing" and putting more emphasis on this sceen was very cool.

After church we met Craig, Deb, Jessie, Austin, Katie, and Eric for lunch in Flowery Branch. Eric spent the week with Aunt Deb and family while his mom and dad were in Miami. Eric was a little under the weather, but the kids had a great time! Emma Catherine loved carrying Katie's pink purse and dipping chips in her own personal bowl of salsa! Eric loved sitting by the window so he could point to and say car as the different vehicles drove by!

Then we went to Deb's house to hunt Easter eggs! Katie graciously donated her goldfish to fill up Easter eggs for Emma Catherine and Eric. Isn't she just the sweet girl folks? That is my Katie! She even helped me hide the eggs for the hunt! When Emma Catherine and Eric came down to hunt the Easter eggs they took off in separate directions. Austin carried Eric's basket for him while he hunted Easter eggs. Then Eric opted to swing and let Emma Catherine finish the hunt! Emma Catherine did catch on to the whole basket part of the Easter egg hunt this time. On Thursday at the daycare Easter egg hunt she stopped and opened each egg to eat the goodies before going on to find the next egg. This time she learned to place the egg in her basket and quickly head for the next egg. But that only lasted for a short time. She eventually broke down and just had to have a little "pick me up" snack to give her the energy to finish hunting eggs!

To finish up the afternoon, Aunt Deb let Emma Catherine and Eric dye Easter eggs! I would not have been brave enough to do this at home, but have no fear - Aunt Deb was near! Eric had his first Easter egg dying experience earlier in the week, so he was a pro at dying his egg (and hand) blue this time! Emma Catherine was also very eager to help her Easter egg rotate in the yellow and orange dye. She even wanted to try a little boiled egg, but quickly discovered she takes after her daddy and does not care for eggs at all! The kids also tried to eat there whole Easter egg with wet dye and all. Eric discovered that he did not like the taste of the dye, water, and vinegar combo. Emma Catherine was just the opposite and kept trying to lick her Easter egg vinegar and all! Aunt Deb has a bet that if we let them both try pickles Emma Catherine would love them and Eric would not. Maybe we will test that out one day! Here are a few pictures from our Easter day!

Emma Catherine's Easter loot from us, Grandmama, and Ms. Tammie! Don't worry, the candy was for mommy and daddy =)

Emma Catherine tried on Jessie's shoes!

Eric strutin' his feminine side!

He takes after his daddy and is very in touch with his feminine side!

Eric took a quick break with Aunt Deb

Emma Catherine was a great little egg hunter!

Austin helped Eric carry his basket!

Katie helped Emma Catherine find the big pink egg.

We all wish we could still bend like this!

Just pausing for a quick pick me up snack!

She is always our sharing girl, so of course mommy had to have a goldfish too!

A (distant) future dad in training!

Emma Catherine does love to swing!

Eric loves that darn dog!

Eric bravely tried the Easter egg and did not like that at all!

Eric tried to wash down the yuckiness while Emma Catherine concentrated on dying her egg.

Emma Catherine went in for a little taste.

Eric was a pro at dying his egg!

Emma Catherine tried the boiled egg inside. Definitely not a big hit like licking the dying water!

Once again, another blessed day! Thank you Lord!