Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Some Days in May


We took Julia to the park in Parkin last Sunday afternoon.
Her favorite is the slide!

Picking flowers....


"Smelling" flowers (with her mouth, instead of nose!)....

I finally got my new camera. It's a gem and I am just sad that I haven't had it all along!
This was the first picture that I took with it....just us hanging out with the sidewalk chalk.
Julia's first ear of corn. I think it's her new favorite food.
Julia hanging out with me at Relay for Life in Wynne. She didn't jump in the bouncy, but stayed close to the opening where I was standing.
John played a festival in downtown Harrisburg. He is to the far left. The music was located in the town square in front of the beautiful court house.
Sadly, this is what the rest of the downtown looked like. It's so typical of rural Arkansas.....these old downtowns are slowly dying.
Julia was John's biggest fan. Until......
She spotted the ducks and met Julie, her new best friend who worked at the duck booth. Julie is in the brown shirt and I could not believe my eyes when Julia let her pick her up and love on her! Julia just hugged her and patted her on the back like she had known her forever.
All that loving was probably because Julia knew that Julie would let her play the duck game as many times as she wanted.
Got one!

Julia got to pick out whatever prize she wanted. She picked the guitar......go figure. Another of the million things that I said I wouldn't do......get sucked into those crazy carnivals and those silly toys.

Yeah, right.

A Perfect Rainy Memorial Day Weekend...

Our view from the porch


John got to play on the patio of a steakhouse/grill in Heber Springs this weekend so we decided to make a family vacation out of it. We got lucky and were able to rent a little cabin that overlooked the Little Red River. We were all were so lazy, except John who actually had to get dressed and go play music at night! The highlights of the trip for Julia were walking in EVERY mud puddle she could find and seeing the fish hatchery. The highlights of my trip were hanging out with John and Julia, sitting on the back deck and staring at the river, and most importantly, having no cell phone, internet, or sewing machine! Only a portable DVD player with some great movies and a good book. We watched Benjamen Button and Rachel Getting Married.....both very good. I am reading Water for Elephants for book club this month and am liking it so far. We just finished Outliers which was a fascinating nonfiction book about what makes people successful.

Julia at the fish hatchery. Her finger HAD to be tired from pointing the entire time we were there!

Julia makes friends with every one's pet!

Good thing we brought the rubber shoes. She waded around in every mud puddle and wet spot she could find!


What Julia's feet looked like throughout our vacation....

Julia has been enjoying some time at home with John for the past couple of weeks while he is on break from school. He has made all A's and only a couple of B's throughout his college career. He is a brilliant and talented man who could do anything. I am trying to talk him into applying for med school.....LOL! Julia loves her dad more than anyone and he is cherishing every, well almost every, second of being at home with her. We are so grateful that things fell into place for us to be able to pull this off. He will be taking a summer class this first summer term and Julia will be spending some mornings at Miss Melinda's and one morning a week with my Mom. It's only for five weeks and then he has the rest of the summer off. Believe it or not, John will start his last semester of college in the fall!

Saturday, May 16, 2009

A New Yard Ornament

Julia and I went for a good long stroll today around lunch time. We sure didn't mean to come home with this.....

And I PROMISED myself I wouldn't......be one of "those" parents with a yard full of junky toys. I told myself that Julia would have plenty to keep her busy out here in the country with nature alone. Well I guess this new yard ornament is made out of wood which qualifies since it was a tree at one time. Even though somebody painted it hot pink and yellow once it was constructed. But oh, the fun we will have!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day was just about a perfect day. We spent a quiet and lazy day at home and loved every minute of it. Julia is a blast these days and keeps us cracked up. Her favorite words are, "Oh no!" "Wow!" and she answers in her best Southern draw "Noooooo" to every question that you ask her. We have been walking alot these days and she asks,
"What is that?" to everything that she sees. She points to identify things that we see on our walk such as, "flag, flower, dog, meow, bird, car, etc."
Her vocabulary continues to amaze us! Last week, she said, "Where's that blankie?" and "Where's that Daddy?" It's so funny to hear these brilliant sentences coming out of such a little body!


These pictures are of Julia at her first trip to McDonalds! We came for breakfast and sat in the play area. She would hardly eat because she was so busy trying to turn around and see the play area. She must have asked, "What is that?" at least fifty times before we left!


John took Julia to the John Hayden Smith park one day last week and she found a mud puddle. She was a mess before we left! She took off her shoes and socks and was covered in mud, water, and sweat when we put her in the car! She loves to be outside and doesn't mind a little dirt! I caught her Saturday face down on the carport with her mouth in the mud.....YUCK! She is definitely not a girl who likes to sit around inside the house and drink tea out of porcelain cups!

Typical Julia, strolling the baby upside down around the house in her PJs and rubber boots!


We celebrated Cinco de Mayo at Becca and Neall's. I caught these two pictures late in the evening when the Momma's still want to talk and the babies just want to go home and go to bed! We stayed out so late that night that little miss Julia slept until 10 the next morning!!! Thank goodness for such a great sleeper!

This is the dozer that has been in our front yard for 2 months now. The landscaping work that we are doing is taking forever because of all of this rain!!! Julia has gotten so smitten with the dozer that she says, "Hi Dozie" when we pull up in the driveway and she see it!

Tuesday, May 5, 2009