Pierced Ears!

Summer has started with a bang. . . literally, in our house. We have talked to Molly for sometime about piercing her ears, and apparently, she decided today was the day! She had been adamantly saying no to piercing the ears. Then today, while bathing suit shopping, out of the blue, said, "I think i might want to get my ears pierced!" Me: "TODAY????" Mol: "Can I???"Off we went to the jewelry store and picked out a pair of precious pearls. And when i say "we," i mean "SHE" picked them out. First choice was a pair of minnie mouse earrings that when i discovered the price to be over $50 i banned from the choices and put a cap on the cost. So, her 2nd choice was pearls! I believe that to prove without a doubt, the girl is truly southern by blood and birth! All great southern girls must wear pearls, right?

So, here are the photos. . .

BEFORE:

And AFTER:

She didn't shed a single tear. I swear she is the most determined little girl i know. Strong, brave, courageous, and FUN! Love her to pieces!

Really, It's February?

Where Oh Where did January go?
We had lots of fun in January, including an entire week with no school, unexpectedly, and now we're battling through what feels like really long weeks, although we are just really back in a "normal" schedule. A few pics from our snow days and fun times last month!

Camden and his best friend, Gracie!
SNOW cones. . . Literally:
Just so we remember how big they were in Jan. 2011 when we had 6 inches of snow!
And of course, to remember how beautiful everything looked. I love a snow covered yard and house! Now, the driveway . . . that was another story. Took days for it to be truly serviceable again!
We had a great week! We ventured out, slowly, a couple of times; watched lots of movies; burned enough firewood that now we need to restock, and had a great week just together as a family!

June 2010

We kicked off June with lots of fun. Jeff had the camera, so i have no pictures of Molly and myself, but Griffin and Jeff went to Auburn for two games of the College World Series. They saw Auburn vs. Jacksonville State and Clemson vs. Southern Miss. Griffin got two autographs of guys that signed with the major leagues the week after the world series! Camden stayed with Khaki and Papa and Molly and I went to the cabin - thanks to the Brauns! Jeff and Griffin picked up Camden and met us at the cabin when they were done with their overnight in Auburn. .. when Griffin naps, you know he MUST be tired!
Taking the field:

(Griff and Jeff had purchased tickets to both games, but did a little spiritwear shopping when they arrived in Auburn). While at J&M Bookstore, the girl working the register asked if they had tickets to which Jeff replied yes. She then told them that was too bad because the owner had been given tickets, but also had a tee time he didn't want to miss, so he had 2nd row seats to Clemson game! She was kind enough to "exchange" their tickets for the better seats and what a thrill that was to sit right the Clemson dugout!
Camden is just like the rest of the men in this family and L-O-V-E-S ribs! TASTY!
BIG BITE!
As i mentioned in a previous post . . . we love spring/summer fruit! Taking a bite out of our first watermelon of the season!
Camden has already learned how to enjoy every last DROP!
Jeff has to travel just a few times each year, so we kept busy while he was in Seattle for business. We visited the new Babyland General and met some new friends:

The doll in the blue and white dress sitting next to Molly is my doll that i "adopted" in 1981! I was only 5 years old. She is one of the "original" dolls. If you visit, check out the cases in the lobby of "originals" and you'll see why Molly is not allowed to play with Pauline very often!
Griffin despised having to visit with all those babydolls, but he found a special place "all his own" so we had to stop for a photo-op!After Babyland and a little further in the car, we made it to Unicoi State Park! We have a favorite swimming hole and picnic area that we try to visit a few times each year and we always take pictures so we can see how the kids grow! Doesn't matter what time of year it is, or how old they are, they (we) still love the creek! Lots of memories are held in this small section of the creek! Birthday celebrations, father's days, and just trips just for fun!!!
Shew, doesn't matter if it's winter or the dead of summer - the water is still C-O-L-D!
Skipping rocks!
As of these pictures, we felt like summer had just started, but now that it's the middle of July, i can't believe summer is so close to being over! Makes me so very sad! We WILL make the most of these last three weeks!

May 2010

Completely out of order (I am so frustrated with how blogger is loading pictures), but at least you'll be able to see what happened in May.

May 25th: LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!! YAY! We can't wait for summer to start - can't you tell by Griffin's face?

I hosted a few luncheons, picnics, receptions, etc in the month of may. This is a pic of all the supplies i purchased (and thankfully was reimbursed for) during the month of May! A hot dog lunch for 100+ 4 and 5 year olds, a school-wide picnic for 240 children and their families, a retirement reception, and a team party/cookout (oh yea, wasn't reimbursed for that one though), and supplies for a graduation for 100+ 4 and 5 year olds!

Griffin accepting his trophy from "the coach" after a great spring baseball season! This is our back deck!
Batting during a travel-ball game! No trophies involved here, just F-U-N!
After the pool was kind-of finished:
Jeff enjoying the fruits of his labor:
A dance recital and two precious friends (visit this one here) enjoying their rewards for a great performance!
WHY was spongebob squarepants the theme song for Molly's recital dance? My LEAST favorite cartoon of just about anything on TV! And yellow - not her best color!
Teacher appreciation/Mother's Day gifts! Bird feeders that we made out of bowls, saucers, and spoons. They must be "covered" or refilled after rain or else, but darn, aren't they cute?
Just a little taste of one of the many construction issues we faced during pool construction! And as i post all these pictures, i will say, we were told and promised that our pool would be FINISHED by May 27th - "at the latest" and it is July 18th and it is still not finished! Can you say FRUSTRATED???

April 2010

It's April which means FRESH FRUIT! We love spring and summer in our house for all the yummy things it brings to our table! We avoid vegetables at all costs if we can get our 5 with fruit only! Washington Farms is a short drive from here, so we visited them on several occasions and picked our own strawberries! They are absolutely the best in the world to go straight from the vine to our mouths. There's even a few animals to visit when you're done picking!

A baby cow that tried her best to lick Camden some kisses!: Camden broke all rules (as usual) and ate as many strawberries as he picked! The fields are huge and it wasn't crowded anytime we went, so he'd tromp up and down the rows and just snack away!
Hidden by vines! Gotta love that toe-head!
Evidence of the crime:
A little trip to American Girl to spend some money she had saved since Christmas! A Just Like Me Doll was the selection of the day! (Sorry the pics are out of order. Drives me crazy, but the loading process isn't cooperating so great tonight!)

Griffin and his loot! He thoroughly enjoyed this!
Molly and her prize pick! She loved the long stem!
Concentrating hard on which one is just-ripe!
"Whadya think mom?"

February 2010

February Fun!!! We had an action packed February! You would think with being out of baseball season, we would slow down, but no such luck in this house!

A father-daughter dance at the school! What a special night that included corsages and dancing, and well. . . yes, even dad being left on the sidelines while Molly hung out with friends!
VALENTINE'S FOR EVERYONE: I think we made a total of 58 of valentine's, plus a special valentine for lots of special teachers. I forgot to take a picture of the teacher valentine's, but i bet they upped our total to at least 70! That was a fun couple of days of crafting!

Molly's:
Camden's:
Griffin's:
Even a snowfall, that required TASTING:

There's a New Gal In Town!

Molly has a dear friend that recently donated her hair to Locks of Love. Molly loved her fresh new-do so much, that she couldn't wait until summer to get herself a fresh new hairdo. I love Molly's hair long, but quite honestly, it was too long. So, chop it off! She cut at least 5 inches today. . . smiling the WHOLE time! She was so excited! We'll see how it holds up these next few weeks. For the first time EVER it is all one length instead of many layers, AND it's shorter than it's been in a long time! But, what's important is that she loves it! See for yourself:
Here's the during . . .check out the length. Too bad it curls so much, it hardly looked this long when dry!

Don't be fooled, this straight hair is fresh from the salon with lots of tugging with a paddle brush! It won't last long. If you go back to the face close-up, you can see as we were leaving the salon, there were already curls forming around her face! With it this short, i even saw some ringlets (Which i haven't seen in YEARS) after her bath tonight!

Life With Molly

In a nutshell, this is what it's like to live with Molly:
Preparing dinner, Molly is having salad, and she knows this, as this is the "vegetable" she requested.
Jeff: What kind of dressing to you want?
Molly: SALAD dressing!
Me: Molly!!!!!!! Seriously??? Ranch, Honey Mustard, caesar. . . ?????
No joking. She was serious as serious is. LOVE her, but oh, she is so literal.

More Creativity!!

Once again, it's 1am and i've just finished the creative project du jour! Special thanks to Andrea for the fabric. . . i truly did not have time to go to Hobby Lobby today and stand in line for approximately 10 inches of fabric. So Andrea let me raid her stash of fabric scraps instead! You're a lifesaver, and quite honestly, have almost as much fabric as Hobby Lobby!

Here is what i created - a whole set of mickey and minnie shirts. From the littlest peep, all the way to the big dude!

For CLM:

For MGM:

For GMM:

And a closeup of Minnie. . .

Sorry for the blurry pictures. . .it's late and i wanted to post these before we leave. The boys' shirts are red with black mickey. MGM's shirt is black with checked minnie and red bow! I'll take good ones the day they wear them!