Playhouse!

Mollie and Tripp got a new playhouse today! These are pictures of Mollie playing in it.....and loving it! She loves ringing the bell and making us "gits" (grits) and giving them to us through the window.

Little Tripp didn't get to spend much time in the playhouse today with her, but I'm sure he'll be pushing his way in as soon as he can walk around. We know he will love it once he gets more mobile.

Thanks Curtis and Kaye!

Lil' Slugger

Oh, we love this little boy! Tripp is wearing his daddy's baseball outfit from 1969! Can you believe it is forty years old! Thanks Kaye-Kaye for saving Curt's baby clothes all these years!

Notice his shoe is off during the pictures. Neither shoe would actually stay on his foot because he doesn't have ankles!

Look what the Easter bunny left....

This was so much fun! The Easter bunny left Tripp a sippy cup and some bibs, some of his favorite "nannies" (pacifiers) that said "tough guy", some Little People figurines, Sesame Street figurines, some balls and his favorite......a duck that quacks and lights up in the bathtub (thanks kaye-kaye and sashee)!

The Easter bunny left Mollie some sidewalk chalk, bathtub crayolas, playdough, a potty-training toilet seat, a ballerina bunny from aunt camille, an easter barbie, lots of candy, sunglasses, a beach cover-up, and a duck from Kaye-Kaye and Sashee just like Tripps!

We're already looking forward to next Easter!

Easter weekend fun!

Happy Easter everyone! We had such a fun weekend and were able to visit with so many of our friends and family. We ate lunch with Grand-Joe and Andy. The kids really enjoyed seeing them and we all ate way too much ham.

After lunch, Curt's cousins, Walt and Rachel, and John and Courtney, and their families came over for ice cream and an Easter Egg hunt. We were able to hunt our eggs and take a few pictures before it started to rain.

This is Camille! She was so much fun at our Easter egg hunt. She's always so friendly, playful, and polite. Camille also brought her new baby brother, Walter, but we forgot to take his picture too! He's really cute too!

Mollie loved her chocolate ice cream.

This is Drew! He is really sweet and enjoyed playing in the back yard. He's really fast so it was hard to get his picture standing still. He brought his new baby brother too. His name is Nick and he's really a sweet baby. We forgot to take his picture too! We'll have to get together again soon and take pictures of both of the new babies.

This is a picture of Jack eating his ice cream. He was telling us his ice cream was freezing his mouth! Jack is the oldest of all the cousins and was so sweet to all the little kids. Way to go, Jack!

This is a picture of Jack climbing up high.

These are our Easter cupcakes. Curt and I stayed up really late "playing" Easter bunny. We had so much fun cooking, baking cupcakes, hiding eggs in the dark in the backyard, and laughing at ourselves burning the pecan pies. Lots of fun memories!

Easter Eve

Mollie pushing her baby in the doll stroller. (Notice her lovely "Crab Trap" t-shirt from her beach vacation last summer.)


Tripp got smooshy cheese toast all over his pajamas so Curt "changed" (stripped) him for me while I was posting the blog about our dinner last night. These are Tripps leg warmers I bought for him at Mistletoe this year. The problem is that they never matched any of his outfits. So these are his house leg warmers.

Here is Tripp eating his cheese toast. He loves to play with his food. Sometimes it seems like he ends up sitting on all of it!

What's for breakfast?

Guess who came to dinner?

Some of our favorite friends, Tom, Mark, and Jeff, brought a spaghetti dinner to us on Good Friday! What a treat to get to hang out with them AND not have to cook dinner! It was a really fun time to laugh and catch up with each other. (Mark in the green shirt is actually the one who invited Curt to Outback Steakhouse the night Curt and I met for the first time. Way to go, Mark!)

Curt and his mini-me!

Okay, now let me explain this one. Mollie puts all her baby dolls on the floor and covers them up with a blanket. They're usually all over the floor in little blanket piles and you have to walk all around them. Tom decided to really entertain Mollie and let her cover him up too! What a sport!

It was really nice to hang out with these guys and keep up with all the fun stuff going on in their lives. Curt, Mark, and Tom have been friends since right after Curt graduated from State (almost 15 years!). Thanks for dinner guys!

The Little Drummer Boy at Easter?

"Come, Tripp told me, pa-rum-pa-pa-pum".

Tripp was wearing his drummer t-shirt and working on his rhythm skills!

So much fun!

We had a great day playing on our new swingset! Tripp and Mollie get so excited when we open the back door! Mollie starts doing a little dance and saying "owside, owside"! (This must be what the class does at school when they go to the playground.) Tripp starts crawling real fast toward the door.

Mollie likes to sit at the top of the slide and listen for the neighbors dogs. (We really think she's working up the nerve to slide down.) Then she says "hold hands". She was sliding alone when we first put up the slide but she's gotten a little more nervous now. We're just really proud she can climb to the top by herself. And it's so funny because as soon as her feet hit the grass, she immediately says "do again", and runs back to the wooden stairs! What a big girl!

Ah, her favorite pastime.......buckling and unbuckling......she would do this all day if she could!

Looking back...

Could this have been just one short year ago? My, our little girl has changed so much! Maybe Tripp does resemble her at this age.

Another sweet memory:

This is Mollie and her best friend, Lucy Neal. They were about eleven months at this time. Lucy's mommy, Phoebe, made the "twins" matching outfits! They are "twins" because they were born on the same day at the same hospital.....just hours apart! Lucy Neal is the oldest of the twins, born right before lunch and Mollie was born soon after. And then they met again in the baby nursery at Wee Care! Too sweet. Our babies were so little back then and it just amazes us how they have changed. They both talk so well now and are learning so much! Lucy Neal still carries this baby around (her name is "baby" now), and also loves her "lamb". The twins call each other "Sushi" and "Mowwi". I hope we never loose touch with our first friend.

And a not-so-sweet memory:

This was a shot of our house after the tornados came through last April. We had a little roof damage but were so thankful we were all okay. We were all in different areas of Jackson when the storms came through and were so relieved when we were back together as a family. Cell phone usage was a disaster for hours because towers were blown down. Cars were not allowed onto the road to Mollie's daycare because there were trees and power lines down, so I had to park my car at a nearby gas station and run down the road in heels.........in the rain.........and I was seven months pregnant with Tripp! That wasn't going to stop me from making sure Mollie was okay! Our area was littered with downed trees so it took hours for us all to find a route home. We spent a few days with no electricity but were really thankful it wasn't too warm outside yet. Such drama!

Our little Cookie Monster!

Yummy! Tripp loves his little Gerber banana cookies! We had to go straight to the bathtub after he finished his cookies. Could he be any happier? (Oh, and by the way, this picture was shot about an hour after he got home from the doctor's office with 102 degree fever from some kid of virus and a rash! He doesn't look very sick to me!)

Could he be any cuter?

Our little alien, a.k.a Tripp, is ten months old today! This photo was taken after his bath as he was practicing brushing both his teeth.

The "Sunday School" face!

We finally captured the look! This is the face Mollie makes when nice church people try to say hello to her, the face that has come to be known as the "Sunday school" face. She usually dusts her hands while she glares at them, as though she is washing her hands of them.....nice, huh?

In this photo, she is mad because I am trying to get her out of Tripps exersaucer. She gave me the "Sunday school" face for sure!

No need to drive to the park anymore!

Our days of driving to the park with the kids and the double stroller are now over! We are so excited to have our very own swing set in our back yard! Curt and his dad built this last night and today (in between the heavy storms!) and we can't wait to let the kids play on it! Thank you so much for building this for them!

We've been spending every evening in our back yard and enjoying the great weather until time for the kid's baths. Mollie even eats her dinner on her tray in her swing most nights. The two baby swings were hanging on our back porch. Tripp is never happier than when he's in his swing. This is where we go with him when nothing else calms him.

Mollie tried out the slide a few (hundred) times today as they were building it and LOVED it! As soon as her feet hit the ground, she would immediately say "do 'gin" (do it again). She really had a great time. Curtis is going to hang two more big kid swings on it tomorrow so we can have big kids over to play too!

We are looking forward to all of our playdates in the backyard while the kids play and we grill out or relax in the rocking chairs on the back porch.