Easters Past

I love looking back at old holiday photos to see how our family has changed over the years. 

 

{Then I realize what a bad job I do at taking photos sometimes.}

 

Here are our Easter photos beginning in 2006 (right after Claire was born).

 

2006

(Apparently there was no family photo this year.  Claire was 4 days old!)

 

2007

(Another year with no family photo.  Boo!)

 

2008

(I'm very pregnant with David.)

 

2009

 

2010

 

2011

(Luke's first appearance at Easter.)

 

2012

 

2013

12/12/12 ... in 12 photos

1. Making a list and checking it twice that morning.  Coffee and a computer ... many times how I start my day.

 

 

2.  Claire playing on the ipad after breakfast ... 2013 is going to be a year of limiting the electronics for the kids.  We are not doing a great job right now.

 

3.  David carries this blanket around everywhere!

 

4.  Luke taking my picture on the phone.  Actually, I think he is taking his picture ... not sure!

 

5.  Coloring books from Santa the night before.  (Santa at the mall.)

6.  Sometimes, Luke colors with us too.  Sometimes, not.

7.  Our advent project.  Truth in the Tinsel.

 

8.  Claire pretending to be Mary.  She said this is what Mary looked like in Marketplace at our church.

 

9.  Our family message board adorned with Christmas crafts.  Our babysitter is an expert at making handprint/footprint crafts!

 

10.  Claire looking cute in her BIG Christmas hair bow.

 

11. My Christmas card "books".  I finished the one from 2011 to add to the pile. 

 

12.  Luke looking cute in the kitchen before dinner.  Actually, I don't think he ever got dressed that day.  It was a pajama kind of day.

 

 

More than 12 photos ... Will and I are so rarely on the blog, we'll put pictures 13 and 14.

 

13.  Claire and me.

 

14.  Will and David.

 

The end!

Just Checking In ...

I was on a roll blogging last week. I think I posted every day (M-F). Clearly, I have not done so well this week. But I have many good excuses. (See below.)

Monday: worked, tornado and stormy weather in afternoon kept up holed up in 1/2 bath downstairs for a good portion of the afternoon (and interrupted boys' naps).

Tuesday: worked from home, ran errands, left for Augusta, GA at 2:30 pm.

Wednesday: day at The Masters with my honey (and my brother-in-law and father-in-law), got home at 10:30 pm on Wednesday night.

Thursday: worked from home, toured new preschool/MDO for boys for next year, ran errands, took Claire to ballet (got to ballet and had to drive back home to get ballet shoes), decorated for Claire's birthday party on Friday night, did load of laundry to wash pink Hello Kitty PJ's for said party.

Friday: worked, Claire's birthday party at our house (which will also be shown at 2:45 today ... birthday decorations up and all ... did I mention our house has been on the market since January), pick up cupcakes and balloons for birthday party (with kids in tow).

Saturday: David's birthday party at our house (Sat. morning will be spent cleaning up Claire's party and decorating for David's party). Pray for no rain! Saturday night my in-laws will be in town (at a hotel) and my sister and her family are spending the night with us.

Sunday: Luke's baby dedication at church. Entire family over for lunch afterwards. Watch final round of Masters. Relax ... maybe even drink a glass of wine.

Like I said ... I have many good excuses.

But I will be back soon ... with LOTS of pictures!

Summer Grandparent Visits

The kids have gotten to spend some quality time with their grandparents this summer.

I remember going to my Meme and PawPaw's house growing up and spending weeks at a time with them. (It seemed like weeks to me ... it was probably just a few nights.) I got to play dress-up with my mom's old clothes, pick fruit and vegetables out of their garden, play in my Meme's flour drawer, ride the tractor and eat lots of ice cream. They had an awesome garden and lots of great home cooked veggies in the summer. (Think fried everything.) I remember eating tons of strawberries straight from the garden. (My PawPaw had a big bucket of fishing worms out in his shed that scared me just a little bit.)

My kids have a little different experience as their grandparents both live in town and not in "the country" like my grandparents did. But, they still have fun ... just different fun. And they still eat a lot of treats and come home tired and dirty just like I did.

Back in June, my parents got to keep all four grandkids overnight when my sister and her hubby had a wine tasting at their house to celebrate their 8th anniversary. Here are all 4 playing in the "kids' room". (On a side note, I'm not real sure why my mom still has a Christmas tree up in there.) The kids love to jump on that bed that is built into the floor.

The big kids slept in the bonus room on the pull-out couch. (David still sleeps in the crib at their house ... for a few more months at least.)

These two were still awake when Will and I got there around 10pm. (On another side note, that is my Strawberry Shortcake sleeping bag that Claire is sleeping in. My parents really do save everything!)

These two princesses in their princess pjs.

Mickey waffles are the best. We bought this waffle iron as a gift for my mom the summer before my senior year of high school ... 16 year ago.

David loved the Mickey waffles the best!

Mini bunk-bed. I'm pretty sure that this is not what Meme intended this piece of furniture to be used for.

The next weekend in June, Will's parents came up to visit on a Friday night and brought Breanna and Davis (our niece and nephew) with them. They stayed in a fancy hotel and after dinner, the kids (including David) got to swim at the hotel pool with RiRi and DiDi. (Will and I ran a whole bunch of errands while the kids were swimming.)

Claire got to spend the night at the hotel with her cousins and they got up to swim some more after breakfast and before check-out the next morning. (This is what kind of picture I get when I send my hubby with the camera.)

Claire and David are thankful for all the fun times they get to have with their grandparents and cousins. We are thankful for the free childcare!

Our family in 2009 ... looking back

I realize that it is mid-January and I am a little behind, but here is a short recap of 2009. I tried to find a family picture from each month, but I couldn't. The kids are in all the pictures, so it is fun to see how they have changed this past year.

January: On a trip to Gatlinburg with Will's family. I just now realized that I may be the only one with my eyes open in the picture. We also had birthday parties and baby showers this month.


February: Valentine's Day shirts. (Claire saying, "Cheese!"). Also, more birthday parties and a scrapbooking weekend/girls' weekend for me!


March: Showing our St. Patrick's Day spirit (mainly because I found this fun shamrock headband in the dollar bin at Target and Claire had to wear green to school that day). We also celebrated my 32nd birthday and hosted a fun mini-high school reunion get-together at our house.

April: Claire turned 3 and David turned 1. So, we celebrated many birthdays and attended many Easter egg hunts.

May: Mother's Day! Will took and long weekend trip to Florida for his annual guys' golf trip and we took a family vacation to Hilton Head, SC where we had the worst vacation weather of all time.

June: Father's Day! Will and I took a mini-vacation to Las Vegas and that was about it for this month. I am loving David's hair in this picture and missing all those sweet curls!

July: July 4th (our fireworks viewing plans got rained out shortly thereafter). Other than celebrating the 4th, we had a shrimp boil at our house with my bible study group that we hope to make an annual event.

August: Apparently, we didn't do much in August. It was slim pickens in the ole photo folder. But we did make homemade playdough one day ... and I took pictures. Oh, and Will took a trip to Arizona for work and went out a few days early to play A LOT of golf.

September: On our beach trip to Destin that I never blogged about. We went with four other families for a grand total of 10 adults, 9 kids (all under age 7) and 2 high school aged babysitters. Oh my, this was a busy month!! Claire started preschool and David started Mother's Day Out. Claire started playing soccer and taking ballet lessons. We also attended baby showers, weddings and birthday parties. Will went to several football games that I missed because I was toting the kids around to all this other stuff!

October: At the pumpkin patch. I just realized that I never blogged about this either. Well, we went to the pumpkin patch and it was muddy and David did not want to get his picture made. Claire had fun and picked out a pumpkin for herself. This month brought more soccer, football games, fall festivities and Halloween.

November: Yeah!! An event I did blog about here. We took the kids to Tuscaloosa with us one weekend. Again, David is thrilled to be in the family photo. In addition to more football games, we took Claire on a long weekend trip to Disneyworld. She is so much fun right now! We also hosted Thanksgiving at our house for both of our families.

December: We were very busy with lots of Christmas activities in December, most of which, I have not blogged about. But, we made progress in that David is sitting and smiling for a picture. That, my friends, is a big accomplishment! Look for a Christmas wrap-up post coming soon!

I hope that 2010 is an equally great year, but less busy. I love January and February because we have nothing much going on and I feel like I can sit back and enjoy life!

Blog Tag: Round 2

Yikes!! I've been tagged by Melissa. This is fun and I thought it would be a nice short post. Here were my instructions:

a.) choose the 4th picture folder on your computer

b.) choose the 4th picture

c.) explain the picture

d.) tag 4 people

This is Claire (obviously) shortly after she turned one. I love all the details about her in this photo. She is sitting in her favorite chair (her first birthday gift from mommy and daddy) probably watching Little Einsteins. (That was her favorite show long before The Wiggles or Dora the Explorer came along.) She has her chubby little cheeks full of her cereal snack of Kix. Her favorite purple passy is sitting by her snack bowl so it can go back into her mouth when she is finished eating. And she is wearing one of my absolute favorite outfits from that age-her cute little pink Polo dress. This was such a fun age with Claire. I can't wait to share this time with David, but this picture sadly reminds me how quickly times does fly.

Okay ... now I have to tag 4 people. I tag ...

(1) Candice because she hasn't updated her blog in a really long time and needs some inspiration.

(2) Jennifer W. because I am curious to see if she will respond.

(3) Lindsey because she tagged me once before and it is only fair that I tag her back.

(4) Caacie because I have not tagged her before.

I can't wait to see your pics!

Grandparents make life GRAND!

Today is Grandparents' Day. I am sure that this is a holiday that was manufactured by Hallmark to give us another reason to buy greetings cards, but I do think it is noteworthy. Will and I do not have any living grandparents. I recently read somewhere that our legacy will be that we lived, we reproduced and we died. People won't remember the little details about us or our many accomplishments. While this is a morbid thought and somewhat inaccurate, it did get me thinking ... what are the little things I want to remember about my grandparents? What can I tell my children about their great-grandparents who have gone on before them? What made them tick? What was their life like from day-to-day. Will and I spent a lot of time in the car this weekend, so we brainstormed a few ideas about each of our grandparents. (I hope to add photos to this post as soon as I can find them and scan them into the computer.)

My Grandparents:

Evie Lou Taylor Brian (Meme)

-made the best chicken-n-dumplings and strawberry shortcake
-had a flour drawer in her kitchen (literally a drawer full of flour that she used to cook with; my sister and I played in it, which wasn't very sanitary now that I think about it)

-loved to watch her soaps-"One Life to Live" was her favorite

-called her sister (my great-Aunt Flora) "sis" which I thought was very cute and endearing

-liked to quilt

-sang in the church choir

-worked in the school cafeteria (that is why she was such a great cook)

Hubert Murrell Brian, Sr. (Paw Paw)

-let me drive the tractor in the garden

-had a huge bucket of earthworms in the shed (for fishing)

-always slipped my sister $5, $10 and $20 bills

-led the music at church

-always had a garden

-was a postman (or "carried the mail" as he called it)

Mildred Inez Scott (Granny)

-drove a white Nova

-ate Cream of Wheat for breakfast

-sold Avon

-played the piano

-"antiqued" all of her furniture

-had a strong dislike for Ned McWherter (TN Governor from 1987-1995)

-had cats

Will's Grandparents:

Mr. & Mrs. Gossett are in the center with all of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren (taken June 2006).

Agnes Gossett (Grandmom)

-always slipped cash in your pocket when you came to visit

-had walls of her house covered with pictures of family

-loved to read romance novels

-always made big breakfasts

-always carried candy in her purse for the kids at church

-loved to eat Popsicles

Douglas Baxter Gossett (Granddad)

-"gummed" all his food (he didn't have teeth)

-loved to eat breakfast at Hardee's

-sold tractors

-fought in WWII

-loved to watch old Westerns

Charlotte VanDyke (Mono)

-she loved to shop

-she always went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch when she went shopping

-ate "Kroger bread" for breakfast

-kept everything in boxes/containers in the kitchen

-always made Will Kraft Mac-n-cheese

-loved to play Rook (thought that 70-80 was a big bid)

Joe Cooke VanDyke, Sr. (Little Grandad)

-he wasn't little per se, just much smaller than Will's other granddad so that is how he distinguished between the two

-a preacher

-a pack rat (he never ever threw anything away)

-drank powdered milk

-always cleaned his plate (even ate the corn cob)