Ben and Daddy

Tonight, I snuck this picture because I thought it was priceless. Ben was watching one of his first full length Disney movies- Pooh's Big Adventure. He was mesmerized. As you can see, Daddy was too! Daddy is awesome and can often be found hanging with both kids pretty much all the time! (9 times out of 10 he is awake Too! )

Maddie is ONE!

Ok- It is hard to believe that Maddie is already one year old! Time flies- even when it is blurry. It seems like just yesterday we were driving home from Chattanooga - on Ben's first real family field trip, March 3, 2006, when we got the call that we had been chosen to be Maddie's parents. I can remember it clearly. Driving in the car, with sun streaming through. So many thoughts go through your head when you find a new baby is on the way. Could I do it? Could I be ready? Is it going to change Ben's perfect world? (duh-huh) She is such a sweet baby- and now little girl. Well,we had a little shindig for her, complete with cupcakes and balloons. Many thanks to our family and friends who came - we thank you!

Picasa Rocks

This is my first try at Picasa- it is incredible. I just downloaded the program for free, and bam, all my photos were catalogued and organized and easy to view. There is this cool collage option that allows you to collage (three different layouts- this is grid) This is a folder of photos from a trip to Aruba we took in Oct 05. What a blast. This helps relive it! I feel warmer already.

Maddie on the Move

Boys and their Toys

Ok- My husband recently turned 40- so I was trying to get prepared for midlife crisis. You know, red Porsche, mistress, new hair...whatever. In comparison this is a good thing. I keep telling myself that. Todd decided he needed a longboard. Not a surfboard, a SKATEBOARD. Hello, are you 13 years old? I have to admit it is pretty cool, and it makes me want to run out and buy a pair of Vans. It is friggin huge, and it carves way gnarly dude.

Is It Spring Yet?

Ok, so it is 3 AM and after having been awakened by my son, I became a complete insomniac, and instead of staring at the ceiling, I decided to blog. I am a bit behind, and besides, this was a quiet time- or so I thought- to blog uninterrupted and quietly. Then, my daughter decided to give us her typical morning wake-up call - which btw usually comes at 5am. The baby whisperer would not be happy- I have been apeasing her with a bottle at that wee hour for the past couple of mornings. As a result, my new Bobbi Brown concealer has been getting a workout, lets just say. Anyhoo.....Here are some fabulous shots of my past few weeks. Easter has come and gone, and frankly I am tired of giving Ben chocolate eggs for breakfast. No, I am not kidding. I have only myself to blame, and because I won't let him eat every last one of them in one sitting, I am left with rationing them out until they disappear. What was I thinking? Next year the Easter Bunny is going to get crafty and creative and go lighter on the chocolate. Of course, I have to do my part in getting rid of the pesky eggs too!

The weather has been so frustrating to say the least. It is cold, rainy, and Easter Sunday was spent in record lows. Our beautiful pink dogwood got stung badly by the frost on Easter morning, but I know it will make the warm weather that much more enjoyable.

Maddie has a big day coming up! Tomorrow she will be one year old! The year went by fast- and blurry. She is growing and turning into a little girl. She is crawling and pulling up, and balancing well, but not ready to take the toddle plunge. She is so speedy on all fours, that I think she is sticking with the most efficient mode of travel for a while. She loves baths and laughing. She loves her big brother, and is doing quite well while suffering thru the short end of the sharing dilemma.

Ben is excited to have his cousin Carly visiting right now. He really looks up to her, and as a result lots of good things are rubbing off- so my hope is that they can spend LOTS of time together in the future. Come on you guys!! MOVE TO KNOXVILLE!!

anyway, I digress.

Check out these photos. Last weekend, we made a pitstop in Nashville, and got to glom on to the Easter festivities at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens with My brother and family. Even with the very cool weather, we had lots of fun.

Well seeing that it is nearly 5 am now, I think I better go perk some joe.

Ben discovers chocolate bunnies on Easter morn.
Maddie is all dressed up for Easter Sunday
Maddie and newest cousin, Jessie gracious spectators on the Easter Egg hunt.

Ben has fun at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens-what a fun time.

Tennis Anyone?

Ok, I swore I would not be one of those moms who would push their toddler into sports. But, to date, (Ben is 3.4 yrs. old) He has taken "mommy and me" gymnastics, ice skating lessons, and now tennis lessons. Hey- the kid is a natural athlete! I have to admit, he does have fun, and I just consider it organized, albeit expensive play. The city of Knoxville has a great tennis league and I happened to stumble across this opportunity for Ben to take lessons for just 30 minutes every Monday afternoon for 10 weeks! Best $60 I ever spent. Ben's buddy Mason got to join in the fun and it got off to a great start. On the way to lessons, I asked Ben what he wanted to be when he grew up- he said, "A tennis lessoner" to which I said, "What?" and he said, "You know, a tennis boy." So there you go, a star is born.

Spring Break Rocks

I have always loved the sound of "Spring Break". Memories of forays to Panama City and fantastic road trips come to mind. Then, it was all about relaxing. Now, it is all about finding people who will help me entertain my children; aka babysit for free. LOL.

.ouch, the truth hurts. Seriously, like most activities with my toddlers, I do love a plan, so we planned on seeing some grandparents, and due to the fact that one in particular was babysitting in Nashville, we just crashed the party and went there a few days. Hats off to Uncle Tom Tom and Auntie Rob Rob. Having an infant around is like round the clock work! Mine is just turning 1 soon, and I have all too soon forgotten the joys of a baby baby. Just look at these three cousins though- they all played very well together, we sure missed Carly though. Everyone is growing up so fast! Dee Dee and the kids and I planned a fun day due to the nice weather. We went to Palmer Park in the beautiful Belle Meade area of Nashville and chatted with all the nannies. Yes we did. That's how we learned that they had live bunnies at Phillips Toy Mart- truly the coolest toy store I had been in ever. I even had to go back by myself and load up on cool toys for young and old. The nights were filled with American Idol of course, and a great visit from surrogate Auntie Carol. Big shout out to CC! Our last day's visit in Nashville was spent picking beautiful daffodils. Ben loved this. Just check out these Kodak moments! Now a trip to middle Tn would not be complete without a visit to our favorite watering hole- Tullahoma, TN. Specifically, Chez Burfitt. Now talk about some wonderful free babysitting. All the young ones there know how to entertain a three and one year old. A Big shout out to Sid, Sam and Corey G! Many thanks for playing with my kids, and bearing thru the noisy night of so called sleep. Many thanks too, to Aunt Donna and Uncle Wade. We are looking forward to the summer.

Let's Stay Home Today

Friday is the only day of the week we don't have anything scheduled -so, we decided to forego the library and just have pajama day. After getting spoiled by spring weather, we had a cold snap, or blackberry winter, and we did not have the advantage of the great outdoors as an activity option, so we had to get creative. Ben decided to set up his store, and proceeded to empty my pantry. Ok, I just have to let go and get messy right? Then, even though chilly and rainy, we donned our rain boots and played some hoops. I did not last long, but I think Ben could have lasted lots longer! Well the day sounds idyllic, and if I was still working, I am sure I would be jonesing for a day like this, but by 1:30, after both children refused to take a nap, (it was not pretty- so if you are reading this blog and think i am the mother of the year, think again. It was Friday, mind you and I had dealt with a traveling husband and out of town company. Now we were all "cozy" inside for a day, and no nap??!!Was it happy hour yet?) Ok, I digress.

I decided to institute "rest time" where Ben would sit quietly in his room, Maddie could hang out in her crip- she likes books too. They would quietly read, and rest of course. Now, stop laughing. Ben just used his creativity to decorate his bathroom! Luckily, these were special bathtub crayons- who invented these?? Anyway, the rest of the day goes like this, I piled both kids in the car and headed for Starbucks. 1/2 of my crew fell asleep, so a sleeping 3 year old is a beautiful thing come 3:00pm. So, I did not disrupt a good thing, and let him get some much needed rest from all that creative .....play. We went on to have a good, although exhausting beginning to our weekend, many thanks to Dad for coming in from the road- and rescuing me! We went to Chilis for dinner, and enjoyed ice cream for dessert. Nights are getting better- as we have gotten Ben to sleep all night- just in time for Maddie to start waking again. Hey, I signed up for this , right!



This next photo took place sometime last Friday, this is a shout out to my friend Amy - thanks for this idea. It is designed to be done with ice trays, but I couldn't find mine, so we used styrofoam bowls(sorry Al) three had colored water and three were clear water; Ben used an medicine dropper to mix the colors. This kept him busy for some time, and he enjoyed it.















We are spending more time outside now thanks to Spring! Yea! This photo shows the sibling love going on here at our house. Maddie is learning to fend for herself! I think they will have great fun playing together eventually. It is fun to watch them grow together. I think Ben is going to be a great big brother, although, at three yrs. I don't know if he has fully grasped the job description. We are working on it though.

Squish Squash and Cozy Coupes

Is my life great or what? I am amazed at how tiring this job of motherhood is, but occasionally I stop and say- dude, this is really something. Maddie is growing so fast, and Ben is, well let's just say, a trip. I took these shots when we had a fun day of art and play. Ok, ok, it lasted about 28 minutes, but hey- it was structured and it wasn't too stressful! And, it makes me look good- ha. Seriously, this was a great-albeit not original project that Ben loved. I call it squish squash, and I found the recipe in my Preschoolers Busy Book - a great resource. This is the recipe:
1/2 C corn starch
2 C water
boil water and stir in cornstarch. Add food coloring of choice and when cooled put in a zip lock bag- then they can squish it all they want. Also, they can trace letters or use plastic cookie cutters. Note to self- don't use cheap zip locks- use the real thing!
Fun stuff. We did get lots of mileage out of the bag shown here.

Isn't Maddie a good driver? The paint job is compliments of Ben circa Summer '06. Nice.

Blog-o-licious

Wahoo! I love Spring. I hope this is the real thing and not a teaser, because I actually sweated today, and did not wear a coat and now I can't wait for Summer! My children wore sandals, and played outside which lead to lovely bedtime rituals. They crashed. Which, for Ben, is virtually unheard of.

Some milestones took place recently. First of all Todd turned 40!! More on that later. Secondly, Maddie had her first haircut! Many thanks to Miss Tracie. Maddie is really stealing my heart lately, I just wish you all could give her a sqeeze too. After the haircuts, we were getting in the car, and Ben decided to pull a trick on Maddie- I swear this was not a Mom set-up! Truly a blog-worthy moment, don't you think. Following this, we went on to enjoy todays incredible spring-like weather, and played outside

Here are some shots of our time outside:

Come on February

Is it me, or is the shortest month of the year seemingly dragging on forever? I am so ready for spring- as are most people; hey at least I live in the south- we are looking at 70 degree weather by the end of the week. So I should just stop my whining right now. We did get a little dusting of

snow,and we had a little fun. It is President's day weekend- a very underrated holiday I must say. We took a jaunt up to Pigeon Forge this weekend, and the crowd was quite sparse. We toured the "upside down house" better known as Wonderworks, Amusement Park for the Mind. More on that later.

So, Family Valentine's Day was fun and as I try to begin some family traditions , I sure hope this one sticks. We had a nice dinner with a wimpy attempt at decorating! But Ben really liked the flower petals- he called them mushrooms at first. Maddie really enjoyed her chef-boy-ardee ravioli- you would not believe how she can put them away!

Lastly, I just wanted to leave family and friends with snapshots of my beautiful blessings. It has been a difficult week, as it started with terrible news of a great loss. A family we know and love lost their 16 mo. old daughter on Monday due to a tragic fall. My heart goes to the Myers family. Lauren's little life was a blessing to so many. Her funeral and eulogy led me to appreciate my friends and family all the more. So, to my loving family and friends far and near- I love you. I am so thankful for the blessings of my children, my brother, sisters and brothers in law, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, neices and nephews, friends, my Mother and my Father, Mothers and Fathers in Law, and of course my husband. I am also thankful for Jesus Christ who saved my life. Life is Good.