Julia and I at baby Rose's first birthday party! (More pictures soon....) She loves the water and is pretty brave. After the party was over, I asked her what her favorite part of the birthday party was and her first answer was the birthday cake and then second was the swimming pool. We all had a great time celebrating this sweet baby girl's first year!

I wanted to post this picture of Julia and John because of the tshirt that John is wearing. My Mom helped Julia make this finger painted shirt, with glitter paint, for John for Father's Day. My Mom forgets that John has very few wardrobe rules and will wear this shirt anywhere proudly! So, if you see John in a bar somewhere playing his guitar, don't be surprised if you see him in his autographed glitter paint t-shirt.

John and I got a much needed vacation/work trip to Portland, Maine last week. We had a great time and loved wandering through the art museum, long sushi lunches, even longer fine dining at dinner, and walks around the town. Had a good time hanging out with my boss and his wife too. They are wonderful people and I am very lucky to get to work with them both and to know them! Thanks to Jee Jee and Paw Paw for keeping Julia and giving her four fun-filled days. John and I missed her so much and my mouth was literally watering when we landed in Memphis. I couldn't wait to get my hands on her!

Julia napping with TONS of books in her bed. She reads them all before she falls asleep. We love standing outside of her door and listening.

I decided to make home-made dill pickles after I was inspired by my Aunt Jane. Julia was a big help, but not as big of a help as my Mom. It's a two man job! We have to wait 30 days to let the flavors settle in and I can't wait to try them!

Here's the finished product. I have enough pickles in my pantry to feed an army!

We had a low key 4th of July. Here's Julia throwing poppers. She had a big time with them!

The leftovers from all the poppers! Thank you Aunt Jane!

Aunt Jane (who is about to experience not one, but TWO grandchildren very soon!) and Julia! I can't wait to meet my two new cousins!!!!

Maine Memories

Julia and I just returned from a very happy and memorable vacation to Bar Harbor, Maine. This trip was one of my all time favorites. Even though I had visited this same house and town five years ago, having Julia around makes everything so much more fun!

Here's Julia seeing the ocean for the very first time.
Feeling the cold water for the first time!

Making silly faces

Nothing like feet in the sand

We went to a sandy beach in Acadia National Park. The first thing Julia did was hit the ground and rolled! Over and over again. She laughed the entire time and had a mouth (and head) full of sand! There were people there who were taking pictures of her and videotaping because of her very unique reaction to the sand.

Julia and Daniel digging and talking.

Cute Julia....

Most of the pictures that I have of her involve a lot of sand. Usually on her face. We have been back in Arkansas for several days, and I am still washing sand out of her hair!

Taking a hike at Acadia and throwing some leaves.

They found a rock to slide down.

This is a couple of days worth of sea combing. There is lots of sea glass on the beach behind the house where we stayed. All of us spent hours searching for it on the beach.

Julia, Mattie and Daniel having a picnic in the den.

Standing beside a whale skull at a small university in Bar Harbor. The only major there is ecology. They had a neat museum and the kids loved it.

Julia taking a break to color her daddy a picture at the museum.

Keeping us cracked up

Julia and Daniel entertaining us with a puppet show.

They also had a touch tank with lots of live sea creatures that you could pick up. Julia loved touching the live starfish.

Just had to post this picture of me telling Julia to "look up and smile!" HA!

The towns in Maine are very quaint, with bakeries, home made ice cream, neat little coffee shops, and this cute New England style library.

Julia having fun

Our hostesses....Mary Katherine with Daniel and Mattie

What we had for dinner.....every night. And even some mornings, we would have lobster omelets! Yum. I made the mistake of feeding Julia some lobster the very first night we were there. Of course, she LOVED it and wouldn't touch her chicken strips after she had a bite dipped in butter. Who could blame her?

The back of the house that we stayed in. This is the view from the beach.

This is the view of the beach from the inside of the house. It was an amazing sight to wake up to every morning.

Mattie set up this neat little sea glass "store" on the beach. She would search for sea glass and then put it in shells. She would sell it for 50 cents per shell. What a bargain!

Another night's dinner.

Maine is an amazing place. I am so grateful to have had the experience!

Lovn' Summer!

Julia got a new pool at Jee Jee and Paw Paw's house. She loves playing in the water and calls getting in the sprinkler, "taking a shower!"

We celebrated Father's Day at Jee Jee and Paw Paw's house. Julia happily announced, "Happy Valentine's Day" when she handed Paw Paw his gift!

Juicy Julia loving a juicy strawberry. I think she could eat a gallon a day!

Fun at home.

All of this from my delicious garden. Ha...I so wish. Our Wynne Farmer's market is my favorite stop after work on a Tuesday afternoon. I am going to try not to market it too much because I don't want to give away Wynne's best kept secret. I'll just say all of this, plus a dozen country eggs, for less than $7. WOW!

I went to pick blueberries one night and had a hard time keeping a little hand out of them while I was putting it in freezer bags.

Julia has been having a good time going to the summer reading program at the library. They have story time and a craft every week. This week, Jee Jee took Julia and she made this "art wrok." The fruit loops are the rainbow, cotton balls are clouds and then the sunshine.

I think the summer reading program is working to encourage reading. John and I have spent literally HOURS of reading to Julia the past few weeks. She will sit still and read for an hour or more at a time. Makes me very happy!

Silly Julia, keeps us smiling and so happy!

A Conversation with Julia

Julia's building something with her blocks and I asked her, "Are you building a castle Julia?" She says, "No Mommy, I'm building a architecture." Um......okay.

Farmfest 2010

We had a great time at Wynne's Farmfest this year! Thursday night was armband night where we could ride all the rides we wanted. Julia loved the cars the best. We probably rode this at least 7 or 8 times! Here's Sol and Julia!

Becca snagged this little gem of a picture on the roller coaster. I called it the car wreck roller coaster because that's what I felt like I had experienced when we got off. Julia entertained with a very loud, hearty laugh the whole way!

Here's the Farmfest family of the year, minus baby Rose hanging out listening to some music. Thank you both for coordinating this huge event and for keeping this long time Wynne tradition going! It's a full circle moment for me to watch Julia having a good time at Farmfest. I remember looking so forward to it when I was a kid....it was like Christmas!

Heres Tara and sweet Emmy listening to some music on the courthouse lawn. We also went to Julia's first Redbirds baseball game Friday night with Tara, Emmy and John. It was a fireworks game and our girls loved them! Julia kept blankie wrapped around her head like Mary Magdalene to protect her ears from the loud pops! I was so glad my John got to go with us. He's been missing out on most of our weekend activities because of his music playing/work schedule. He's having fun (well, sometimes) getting to play music for a living even though it can be a rough schedule with lots of driving and crazy all night hours!

Julia eating her first snowcone! She kept saying, "Momma, this is a very special treat!"

Taking a cool, much needed break from Farmfest inside the library.

Back at home, these popsicle breaks after dinner are becoming habitual. Julia and I like to go outside and sit on the deck with a popsicle and talk about our days. You just never know what Julia is going to say. She was telling me about the comode this morning and I couldn't make sense of what she was saying about it. Finally, I asked her to show me what she was talking about and she went and showed me the remote. Oh, should have know...the comode/remote. Close enough!

She also told me that she was building an architecture with her blocks this morning. Ha!

Another first. Here's Julia's first drawings of something other than a circle. She drew these fish on the bathtub the other night. She drew the bodies first, then the tail, the eyes next and ended each drawing with curly hair....lol! Pretty good, huh?