Zoo Atlanta

Last week Mary Claire was out of school for Spring Break along with all the other children in our county. We like a lot of people in our neighborhood did not go out of town so we decided to take a trip to the zoo with some of our friends. Mary Claire had an absolute blast and has asked everyday since to go back and see the monkeys, elephants, bears, etc. Laurel also had a good time and was such a trooper. She did not get to nap from all the excitement and I was surprised at what good spirits she was in the whole day. We went to the zoo with the Klay & Kidd family and we had a great time. Here are some pictures from our day!

Another Year Older....

and, hopefully wiser. I had a wonderful birthday this year filled with a nice surprise. My birthday actually arrived this year with little thought from me. It was not a major milestone and I had my hands full with being a mom and wife. So I was naturally shocked to see my Mom and Ms. Janet walking in the Chick-fil-a on Friday, April 4th. Wayne has been so busy with work lately that I really did not think he would have the time to plan anything and I figured that we would just hang out and maybe have dinner. Wrong....he made plans with my Mom & Ms. Janet to come in for the weekend and he had a surprise party on Saturday night with a yummy Ice Cream Cake....my absolute favorite!

Thank you Wayne for a very special weekend! I had a great time and I enjoyed all my presents.

I love you, Today!

Happy 1st Birthday, Laurel!

Wow! What a year! I am going to reminisce a little so you will have to bear with me! It really does seem like yesterday that I finally talked myself into taking a pregnancy test. I was just certain that I had been running too much but that little voice in the back of my head thought just maybe. Well it turned out that there was no maybe and that I was indeed pregnant.

Mary Claire was just 10 months old and I thought...how in the hell am I going to do this again?!?! I can remember calling Wayne frantically only to get his voice mail over and over again. So I called my mother and started the sob story about how I was pregnant and what was I going to do. She composed herself and told me that this was great and that my babies would be so close and how the timing was just absolutely perfect. I felt some better because Mom's have a way of making things alright.

I remember Wayne calling me back after what seemed like an absolute eternity. He was stoked...absolutely thrilled with joy. See he had not been the one that had just been pregnant with our first. Not to mention that I puked morning, noon, & night with Mary Claire for almost 20 weeks and also developed Pre-E and had a baby at 35 weeks that weighed only 4lbs. 15oz. Plus I had finally gotten my figure back and lost the 50+ lbs. I gained!

After two months and what turned out to be an absolute perfect pregnancy I started to get very excited. Yes I was nervous about juggling two under the age of two but now I am so happy that we did it this way! Having two girls is just wonderful. I am not sure what having a brother is like but I know having sisters has made me a better person! Sisters really have a special bond as I am sure most siblings do. It is just fun to think about the giggles, secrets, tea parties, etc.

I carried Laurel 37 weeks to the day which was my goal. I really wanted to be full term and I am glad that I made it and did not go a day longer. She was born approximately an hour and a half after my water broke weighing a whopping 7lbs. 4oz. and 21 inches. A much bigger baby than her not so big sister Mary Claire.

The hospital ride was intense to say the least. We live about an hour from the hospital and I was uncertain that we would make it on time considering the intensity of the contractions. Wayne made it to the hospital a nervous wreck in a record 35 minutes. Laurel was born in less than hour after arriving allowing her mother no pain medication.

I have to say that she has been the most wonderful surprise that I have ever had. She continues to amaze me everyday and she fills our heart with an enormous amount of love. I look forward to all the times ahead with our beautiful girls. God really blessed Wayne and I with a beautiful family.

Laurel had two parties for her first birthday. We celebrated in GA with friends and in Mississippi with family. The first of the two parties (Georgia) turned out to be better because Laurel enjoyed herself and was not sick.

It never fails, I go home and someone always gets sick and we are lucky if we do not all get sick. This time we all got sick. It started with Laurel and I and we gave it to Wayne and Mary Claire. Laurel and Mary Claire got ear infections and we all have an upper respiratory infection to boot. So on her actual birthday she spent most of it asleep with a fever that would not break. So the pictures from the MS birthday of Laurel are few. She really did not eat her cake, open any of her presents, or participate with any of the festivities. She was attached to me the whole time because she is also going through a little separation anxiety on top of being sick.

Here are some pictures from both of her little parties.

Some Pictures

It has been a busy month for us but that is really nothing new at all. Wayne has been working long hours and the girls are definitely keeping me on my toes. All in all February has been a good month and I cannot believe how fast time is going right now. Please tell me that it will slow down!!!!

Laurel is almost a year old and that is very hard for me to believe. It really seems like we just had her a couple of months ago. The first year with Mary Claire actually felt like a year, and that is probably because Wayne and I were clueless about children and parenting. I would like to think that we have grown wise in some ways; definitely still clueless for the most part. Laurel has had her first stomach bug this month and another ear infection...needless to say, I am so ready for hot weather and well children. She is now pulling up in her crib and pulling up with furniture somewhat. It is funny though because she pulls up and cannot figure out how to get back down. I think because she is so tall she becomes very frightened at the aspect of falling on her bottom. I would too considering that it is a pretty far drop.

Mary Claire is becoming more independent if you can believe that! She is also talking non-stop. Her vocabulary has exploded these past few months and since she can really communicate she never stops talking and I do mean NEVER. By the end of the night I sometimes find myself watching mute TV and then realize that I am just enjoying a moment of silence. For the most part I think our tantrums are becoming less but we are definitely getting into more trouble. I am not sure trouble is the right word for it because it is completely normal behavior but I am having problems coming up with another term to describe it. Maybe I should say that it is more trouble for me as a mom in that I find myself constantly on guard. These are some events that have taken place in the past two weeks.

1. Wayne is working late. I am at home with a child (Laurel) who is vomiting and Mary Claire who is extremely constipated. I get Mary Claire squared away and am in the process of giving another bath to Laurel and cleaning up vomit when I hear the words: Look Mama...It is POWDER. Mary Claire has emptied an entire container of powder on to our couch. Loads of fun for me since I already have my hands very full. Not too mention that cleaning powder off your couch is not very fun!

2. Wayne is working late again!! We are getting ready to head over to a friends to watch American Idol and I am going to put the kids to bed over there. I bathed Mary Claire early in the day so I would only have to bath Laurel. I put in a movie for Mary Claire and proceed to bath Laurel and get everything together. When I come out I find Mary Claire on the couch covered in hand soap. She has gotten the soap out of the bathroom and covered her body in it. So it took another bath to get that taken care of.

3. Lately Mary Claire has become obsessed with Lotion. We lotion her and Laurel after their baths but she always wants to play in it for some reason. I have told her that we only use lotion after our baths but she insists on getting in it at every opportunity. Today I am doing laundry and fixing lunch when I walk in the room and discover Mary Claire on my bed covered in lotion. So I finally put it away and out of her reach....I should have done this a long time ago but like I mentioned earlier I am still mostly CLUELESS!

I will post a picture of Mary Claire in the lotion at the bottom of this post but I failed to take pictures of the other two events. I really found myself aggravated and wanting to drink hard liquor because I was exhausted by that time of day! However, I want to remember all these things because I know I will find it really funny when she is older. And it will be fun to talk about when she is dealing with her children one day...that is if she chooses to have any!

Wayne and I are staying extremely busy lately and are finding it very hard to spend any real time together. I am hoping that we can steal a weekend away sometime this summer. Wayne and his team have been working on a huge deal and finally won it this past week! However that comes with a lot more work for them....the joys of a one income family. I have started working out again and this time I have a workout partner. I am still going strong after only 5 weeks but I have to say that it is the outlet that I have been needing. I am also taking my first sewing class next weekend. I have had a sewing machine since Wayne and I got married and really have no clue on how to use it so I am about to learn.

Anyhow that is what is going on with the crew!

A Half Time Show of Our Own

I am sure that many of you watched the half time show during the Super Bowl on Sunday. Well I wish you could have been at our house. Mary Claire decided to put on a little show of her own. All I have to say is move over.....Tom Petty! Here is a video clip & some pictures for you to view. As her Dad would say....this is PRICELESS!

Emma's 1st Birthday!

Emma Kate turned one year old earlier this month. It is so hard to believe that it has been a year. We had a small birthday party for her at our house and I wanted to post some pictures of it. The girls had a BLAST eating cake.

Catching up!

Wow! I cannot believe that January 08 is already ending! We have had a very busy month. It takes me a while to get back into the routine of things after the holidays. I think that we are finally there though and I am glad of it!

I was worried about Mary Claire starting back to school after having a break but she never missed a beat. She is learning so much and it is amazing to witness all the changes. She is literally speaking in full sentences. She is also potty training and is doing amazing. She has started doing #1 in her potty and is not having many accidents at all. I am sure it will take sometime to get her fully potty trained but we seem to be on the way and that is amazing in itself because as most of you know this is not my most favorite thing to do....HA!

Laurel has gone from army crawling to cruising and she is really on her big sister's heels these days. She has also starting saying Da Da and is babbling a good bit. I wonder if she will be a talker like her sister? She has three new teeth on the top and another one on its way so we now have a total of 5 teeth.

Mary Claire and Laurel are interacting a lot more these days and it is fun to watch. They are not always happy to be around each other but that is to be expected. Mary Claire is a little bossy and Laurel likes to annoy her sister by trying to play with everything Mary Claire is interested in. I am sure they will figure everything out soon enough.

We actually had two days of snow this month in the same week. It was beautiful and Mary Claire had an absolute blast playing in it. Wayne and I had a great time too. Although Wayne tried to kill himself sledding on the golf course and it took a couple of days for him to recover.

I had my first case of strep throat and for anyone that has ever had this you know it is just awful. Thankfully I got some antibiotics and got over it fairly quick. Mary Claire actually caught it from me and is on antibiotics but doing very well. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Laurel does not catch it.

Here are some pictures from our snow days that I have been meaning to post.

Getting Back to Normal!

Well we had a great Christmas and a Happy New Year! Mary Claire had a blast opening up gifts from Santa and Laurel seemed to be very excited over the wrapping paper and bags. Mary Claire was still very frightened at the idea of Santa coming to her house and on Christmas morning she informed both Wayne and I that Santa had not brought her any presents but instead the Grinch had brought them to her.

We spent Christmas here in Georgia and then headed to Mississippi the day after. We spent the first few days with the Overstreet family where we played lots of wii and ate lots of food. It was a blast spending some quality time with Wayne's family since it is not very often that he gets to go home.

Next we headed to Mee and Nonie's where Wayne was able to get in some hunting although he and mom both came up empty handed. We rang in the New Year with a bond fire and hot dogs and smores. Mary Claire had a good time but she did not care too much for the fireworks...maybe next year!

We then came home and we were able to spend a couple of days together before Wayne returned to work this morning. It took about three hours to get all the toys put away and organized. Mary Clarie starts back to school tomorrow.

It was a wonderful holiday season but I have to admit that I am so glad to be home and back to normal.

Here a couple of pictures from Christmas. We did not take as many as I would have liked to but we used our video camera instead.