The Princess and the Dog

The princess didn't want the dog to be in her royal picture.

If Mollie is the princess, then this must be the King holding the dog.

And then Trippy was "dog-tired" after all that

 trick-or-treating!

Bop and Gangi

The kids rode with me to the cemetery the other day, and we visited the marker for my precious grandparents, Mark and Francis Thomas, aka "Bop and Gangi". They both died in 1987, only a few months apart. I still miss them today and wish my kids could have met them.  And by the way, I explained a cemetery to the children as a place we go to remember our friends and family that have already gone to Heaven to be with Jesus.  They're not ready to know that there is a casket under that marker. :)

Every kid needs a Kaye-Kaye!

 Mollie: "I wish all my priends had a

Kaye-Kaye because Kaye-Kaye's help you

go to the potty and read you

lots of books after you eat".

We love our Kaye-Kaye!

riding with training wheels

Guess who is riding her Barbie bike with training wheels?

This is a big step for her because she's been a little scared of her big girl bike.  Mollie would have been happy to ride her tricycle for a little longer, but we knew she would love her bike once she got the hang of it!

Beauty and the Beast at the Children's Museum

The characters from the Beauty and the Beast were coming to our Children's Museum so we got all dolled up to see Belle, on of our favorite Disney princesses!  But first we had to do a little dancing while we waited  for them to arrive.....

 Well, they arrived and we were surprised they weren't dressed in costume...this is them, Mrs. Potts, Chip, and Belle. They had just flown in and were able to read to the children before their evening performance. Mollie didn't think Belle looked the same in a black tshirt but she went along with it anyway. Mollie is seated in the crowd, blending in with others, but where is Tripp? Is he seated with the others listening to the story?

 Of course not, he's outside acting like a wild man! haha. He thought it was more fun to run and climb on stuff. After all, he didn't see Mrs. Potts or Chip anywhere!  I kept easing into the room, and motioning quietly for Mollie to please come out with us because I was having trouble keeping Tripp in this area. She was not ABOUT to leave storytime....she kept cutting her eyes at me, and motioning for me to stop distracting her. haha.

 And THEN, I remembered the WIGGLES.....I quickly pulled out my phone, and handed it over. Problem solved.  He sat still as a mouse while we waited for his sister to come out of storytime! What a relief. Notice how he holds it carefully so that he doesn't touch the screen. Look at that tongue licking his upper lip. Hilarious!

 Now, he's scrolling through his other Wiggles choices on YouTube. What did parents do before we had smartphones?  (I say this with sarcasm because I know it's ridiculous to hand my phone over to my toddler.)

 And here's Mollie with the actress who played Belle.  Mollie doesn't understand but she's being a good sport anyway!  haha.

picnicking and playing with our cousins

 We took the kids out to a park for a late afternoon picnic last weekend when Carson and Kelli visited.

 The kids ran and played and loved kicking the soccer ball!

 "Everybody make a silly face".

 "Everybody ROAR like a tiger"!

They LOVED to make scary noises. Such fun!

"Cat" the horse

 Yep, they loved it!  Those kiddos LOVED riding that sweet horse. We have to do this again soon!

Lee left us gorgeous beach weather.

Tropical Storm Lee came through our area right before Curt was planning to spend the week working in Pensacola but we decided to go with him anyway, and we were so glad we did because Lee left behind beautiful weather and gorgeous beaches. The kids and I spent the afternoons playing in the sand and soaking up the Vitamin D. 

The kids really enjoy the beach. Tripp does a big belly-laugh every time a big wave hits him, and was even seen applauding a few times when he was really excited about a big wave. Mollie loved making ice cream cones for us out of sand, and was way too busy to spend her time in the waves. I could have stayed for many more hours, and am sure my beach misses me now that we are gone. This was truly my happy place, and I can't wait to return.

the office (starring Curtis)

Curt recently was promoted to a Wrigley Manager, leading a team of twelve sales reps. This position allows him to work from home two days a week, and work with his team throughout the Southeast during the rest of the week. Curt regularly leads and participates in video conferencing with his team, and with the National Wrigley team, and needs a quiet area for these calls. We were really excited but knew that our home provided working conditions not conducive to silence,nor productivity. We had to make some changes quickly! And right on cue as always, there was Curtis to the rescue! Curt's dad kindly volunteered to build an office in the garage, and we were so pleased with how it turned out.

This is the before picture.... (notice Kaye-Kaye leaning so that she wouldn't be in the picture, haha!)

And this is the after shot! The office is fully insulated, has a window looking out at the front yard, is carpeted, and has an a/c unit that Curt has to surprisingly keep on the lowest setting because he gets too cold. And we still can park our SUV inside the garage as always. We appreciate Curtis building this office because Curt really could not have worked inside with all of our noise.

And this was our contractor....we might hire him again because he offers really good rates!

mollie goes to preschool

And here it is, she's started preschool. This is Mollie posing with her teacher,

Mrs. Laura, in their classroom.

I felt like the paparazzi shooting this picture out of my car window, but I had to get a shot of her walking into school with her teacher. Her teacher is handing off the yummy sugar cookies that Kaye-Kaye made for the teacher and the director.

I'm really happy with our preschool. I heard about it from each of Tripp's fabulous therapists, and they all mentioned this one as the best in our area. The therapists visit all the centers and are in and out of the classrooms, and they know what is really going on in a center that sometimes a director doesn't always see. I trust their recommendations. So I toured about 8 centers in the area, and agreed that Mollie belonged at this preschool. It took us many months to get an enrollment spot, and even had to be put on a waiting list at open registration, but a spot opened up and here we are! Mom and Dad are happy and she's all smiles when she's off to school!

under the table

Tripp won't stay in his crib anymore at naptime. He IS a three year old now, so I guess that's understandable, but today this is where I found him when I peeked in during naptime. I HAD to grab the camera for this one! Guess he liked his little cozy spot under his changing table and it looks like he tried to bring Barney and his pillow with him. So precious (when he sleeps).

he pushed her in.

We knew the day would come when Tripp would get her back. Mollie has been torturing her little brother since birth, and he just usually lets her smother him, wrestle him to the ground, whatever. But not tonight. Superdaddy took the kids to the reservoir tonight by himself while I met with a bride. They were having a relaxing time sitting on the pier watching the sunset, until Tripp pushed Mollie INTO THE RESERVOIR! and then kept walking like nothing ever happened. Mollie went under, and came up scared to death. Curt pulled her out of the water, comforted her, and gave her his shirt so she could warm up on the ride home. back to safety. My poor baby girl. :(

a big day for trippy

This little guy has some important appointments today. Please say a little prayer for him, and his mommy too!

"For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." Psalm 139:13-16

i miss her

missing this little girl tonight....

the therapy dogs

We visited the library preschool story hour a few weeks ago to see the Therapy Dogs with our Mrs. Freda, and we just realized our picture is on the library blog site.  Pretty cool!  Click on the link and check us out.

The Spill Grill

We took the kids to the Spill Grill on Mollie's birthday, and had a nice time eating outside on the picnic tables.  I took a picture of the kids in their new matchy-matchy outfits that their LiLi gave them for their birthdays. Precious. Thanks Kelli!

Tripp, the technician.

This makes Tripp really happy.  He loves to push buttons on televisions, remote controls, telephones.....pretty much anything with a button.  And then he gets REALLY excited if he sneaks the chance to insert VCR tapes/DVD's!  We'd been stopping him from all his fun, until the day we realized he actually knows what he is doing. Our little Trippy really knows how to work the machines.  He knows which buttons are for on/off, volume, channels, etc....  Now we are amazed, instead of annoyed.  Yeah for Tripp! 

The Bunny Weekend

The Easter Bunny was hopping all weekend around us. We were glad we remembered to take some pictures of all the fun festivities. This is Mollie and Uncle Andy at lunch in Starkville. Andy is moving to Murphy, NC to be the archeologist in the Nantahala Forest, so we went to Starkville to spend a little time with him before he moves. (And Curt and I are really excited to go visit him and explore that area!) 

Mrs. Freda invited us to the Easter Party at the library, and we thought this scary bunny was hysterical. Tripp was not as amused as the rest of us, and couldn't wait to dart away. The kids enjoyed the egg hunt on the shelves of the childen's section. Mollie found eggs. Tripp found Barney movies, of course. haha.

 Laurie Hamilton Smith painted our wooden eggs this year.  I think they are our best ones yet!  Carson got a basketball bunny, William wanted a surfer bunny, Mollie got an Ariel mermaid bunny, and Tripp got a puppy egg. So cute!

 We woke up on Easter morning to a backyard full of eggs that the Easter Bunny had hidden for the children. We let them hunt them before church, and realized Tripp cared more about running and sliding than finding Easter eggs, which was good for Mollie, since she won the contest!  :)  Then we got all spiffied up, and headed off for church.  Curt and I had the pleasure of teaching Tripp's Sunday School class, and enjoyed playing with all of Tripp's little friends. Afterwards, we stopped and did a little posing outside before we headed home.

 We changed our clothes and headed over to John and Courtney's to join their family for Easter lunch.  We had a little incident with Tripp harassing their dog, Rocky, so this is the only shot we were able to get, but this is Drew, Camille, and Mollie playing in the backyard. All the children were so sweet and precious. Just wish I could have taken a few more pictures to remember the afternoon. Happy Easter!