sweet home

How about now?

1. Yes I went out in public like that.
2. I didn't notice until I got home.

Yeah, I am pretty smooth.

Are your kids into these too?

I'm on a mission to find more, but don't know where to look.
Maybe it's because they remind me of the arm full of jelly bands I used to wear.
See, they look like animals (or in our case ABC and 123)



and then you can wear them like bracelets.

Want to know why she's mad?

Because I made her stop playing in the toilet!!!

Isn't that a cute ponytail? It lasted all of 2 minutes.

Jackie, Brian, Tillie, and Porter came for a visit and we all headed down to Gulf Shores for the weekend. It was our first trip to the Alabama gulf coast since we moved here and I highly recommend it!!! Even though it was raining cats and dogs here the weather was perfect at the beach. Next time we'll have to go for a loooooooong time. (I was ready to move in). We had fun playing in the water and sand,

eating at LuLu's (more playing in the big sand mound there),



taking lots of family pictures,


posing,


and just enjoying the view. I'm ready to go back tomorrow. (no, seriously--I can still hear the waves...)

We all need less crazy talk of conspiracy, communism, and Hitler and more dancing!!!




Don't you think? Yeah, me too. Plus, that boy can DA-ANCE!!!

Lewis' parents came for a visit and it was so awesome. Unfortunately, our kids took turns being sick which greatly limited what we were able to get out and do. We did have some fun anyway though. We worked on projects from the Home Depot. (have you ever taken your kids to these clinics? They are once a month and so much fun for the kids--we just brought them home for the kids this time to avoid spreading our germs around town).

We ate breakfast at the Original Pancake House. Loved it as usual.

We ventured out to the "unclaimed baggage outlet". America at its finest, my friend.

We explored the Tennessee Aquarium. It was really awesome and Chattanooga seemed like a really neat city. I hope we get back there sometime.




A holding a butterfly. She looks scared."please remember to use 2 fingers"
A told B that the alligator was climbing out!
Outside the aquarium there is a bunch of water for the kids to play in. They loved it.


She ate the whole thing in about one minute flat. It came up about an hour later.

Ever since we moved into this house we have been saying that "soon" we would put crown molding in the front room. In fact, when I painted that room about 2 years ago I just left the top part really poorly edged thinking that it would be covered up soon.
Here's a before shot:
With a little bit of this:
And some of that:

A lot of trial and error, cuts, measurements, and nails later, it is done and looks great.
( I actually filled the holes, sanded and painted today, but don't have a picture yet to show for it.)
Thanks to Grandpa and Lewis for all your hard work. It looks GREAT!!!!

Ever since A was a tiny little girl she has loved ballet. (and she would tell us about it since she started talking just about at birth and hasn't stopped yet) She took a class when she was 3 and has been begging to go back ever since. We finally got her signed up this year. This was her first week and she loved it. She loved the room and the mirrors and the bar and the teacher and the stretching and everything about it.

and this:








She's a genius, I know. :)


ps---watch the videos a lot because they took FOR-EV-ER to upload. (as in hours-- is that normal?)