A Memorable Weekend

My sweetheart Emmy Ruth turned three on Valentine's weekend and Julia and I made the trip to Memphis to celebrate. Emmy had a great party with everything fun....a jumpie, the ball pit (Julia's favorite), delicious cake, and most importantly, good friends! I cannot believe that Emmy is three. Everytime Julia and I head to her birthday party, I get a little teary-eyed thinking about the many conversations that Tara and I had before we had our babies. I think we both agree that motherhood is so much better than either of us could have ever imagined!

Fun in the ball pit!

The Birthday girl!

Sweet Sol and Julia

I think she was first in line for the cake!

Without going into too much detail, I have to post about my most traumatic experience ever in Memphis. I decided at the very last minute to send Julia back to Wynne to spend the night with Jee Jee and Paw Paw. She left the party with Neall and Becca who insisted on taking her back to Wynne with them (THANK YOU!!!). The plan was for me to stay and meet up with John later where he was playing at a restaurant/bar. While I was waiting on John, I had a few glorious hours in Memphis to shop and hang out by myself. I went to one of my favorite stores on Summer and was just about to check out when Tara called me. I put down my things to look over them one more time before I headed to the register and chat with Tara. I was in the middle of telling her what a great time I was having shopping when I hear, "This is a hold up!" about five feet behind me. I looked and saw a man with a black mask and sawed off shotgun at the register. I hid behind a rack of shoes and thought about Julia. He fired two shots, one in the ceiling and one at the register. He got off with the drawer, but noone was hurt. Well, noone was hurt physically anyway! I am grateful for so many things. First, that Julia wasn't with me! Second, that we all got out of there alive because I know that it could have been much worse. Wow....I am not sure that I will ever be quite the same.

To balance out the horror of the experience, John and I had a great time in Memphis and got to celebrate Valentine's Day in style. It's always fun to watch John play guitar (makes me fall in love all over again!) even though I don't get to see him play that often anymore. We spent the night in Memphis and then saw Jersey Boys at the Orpheum. It was definitely one of my favorites! I loved every minute of it and was sad when it was over. Thank you John, for my very best Christmas present ever! We had dinner then raced home to get our sweet girl who didn't want to leave her Jee Jee and Paw Paw's house. I hugged Julia extra tight when I got to see here and know for sure that I am one lucky Momma.

Disneyworld February 2010

I am still not sure what came over me when I decided to book this trip, but it was a blast and we made lots of good memories. We were able to leave Wynne in the midst of LOTS of ice and snow and make the long drive to Northwest Arkansas to catch our flight. Thanks so much to my friends in Rogers, we were dropped at the gate and had a great $29.99 each flight on a large airplane (no prop plane!) to Orlando. Julia flies like a queen and never skips a beat. I would leave tomorrow for Paris with our little traveler. I brought lots of snacks, books, and a DVD player to keep her occupied during our travel time and never once even opened the DVD player. The snacks, on the other hand, well we needed those from time to time!

Julia waking up with a smile the morning we left for Disneyworld!

Riding the bus to our first RAINY day at Animal Kingdom. It poured all day long. Looking back on it, John and I decided that we preferred the first two rainy days at Disney because there were NO lines!

Had to post this picture because you can see my jeans and how soaking wet we were!

Imagine what the tennis shoes felt like.

This was as close as Julia ever got to one of the characters. She loved them all....from a safe 10 foot distance. She would stand back and wave at them. She got really close to giving Tigger a hug here, but changed her mind just in the nick of time.

Miss Independence wanted to push the empty stroller instead of ride in it. This is where the snacks came in handy. Bribery does work.

We loved the safari ride, Lion King show, and parade best at Animal Kingdom.

Julia loved the parades more than anything! They were loud and colorful and Mickey was waving right at her, of course.

See those little happy eyes? Now that's why crazy mom and dads take their 2 year olds to Disneyworld!

It's a small world after all....never fails to deliver. May have been my favorite!

The 36th (I'm exaggerating) parade that we saw at Magic Kingdom. Anytime Julia heard music, she asked us, "Is it a parade?" and we had to run and find where the music was coming from.

A family teacup ride!

Oh she loved that castle!

Julia is a heavy little thing, but I will hold her until my back breaks when she needs a blankie break!

Seeing the first fireworks

Swiss Family Robinson treehouse was another of Julia's favorites.

Dumbo is all that she has told people about since we came home. She didn't seem to love the ride near as much when we were there, but she sure loves to talk about it now! When asked if she had a good time at Disneyworld she say, "I rode Dumbo and he flys up in the air!"

She really loved the shows too. Nobody quite does 3D like Disney.

Hanging out with Miss Piggy at Disney Hollywood Studios on our last half day.

John's favorite part of the trip were the 3D movies.
A great and very memorable vacation. Not the greatest pictures. I think we were too busy having fun to waste time with the camera!

Snow Days 2010

We've had more snow here this year than I can ever remember. Fortunately, only two hours without electricity. There are a lot of great things about living in the country, but snow and ice are not one of the benefits. Our road is rarely, if ever, traveled and it makes leaving difficult. I missed two half days of work and only made it in because a friend with 4 wheel and cookie sheets DO work just fine. John says this one will never be the same......

First, Julia and I

Then, Julia and Dad

Then, Julia by herself...again and again and again! As soon as the "sled"starting slowing down, she would scream, "I wanna go again!" But then would cry when she realized she had to walk up the hill to get the 3 second downhill rush! She made the curve and missed all the trees just fine.

John was proud of himself for capturing this masterpiece.

Julia and I sporting our matching mother and daughter aprons hand made by by Aunt Amy and shipped from California. It was such a treat to get these beauties in the mail! The only challenge with these was trying to explain to Julia that she could not sleep in the apron.

Trying her first bite of snow ice cream. (Excuse the ugly princess pajamas....I so swore I would NEVER!)

What Started as an Innocent Search for a Flight......

ended in a trip to DisneyWorld! And we leave this Sunday.....yes, as in two days from now! We are flying out of Northwest Arkansas Sunday evening to spend 3 and a half days in 2 year old wonderland. I went when I was 3 and again when I was 13, but John has never gone. We are thrilled and I am trying really hard not to have a bad case of buyer's remorse. I think it will go away quickly as soon as I see Julia's happy face!

John bought me Jersey Boys tickets for Christmas for tomorrow night at the Orpheum in Memphis. Julia will be spending the night with her grandparents, so everyone is excited about that. Tonight was the annual Chamber of Commerce Banquet in Wynne. It was great and I have to admit that it feels really nice to sit there and enjoy the banquet and to not have a role. My friend Keeli did an amazing job!

Here are some random January pics...

Blowing bubbles is a favorite past time.

Making bubbles with the wand is an even better past time!

My good friend Tracy and her family came over last Friday night. The guys were in the basement playing loud music and we just let our kids run wild! They loved singing back up on the mic, playing piano and dancing as fast as they could. Julia was soaking wet from all of her dancing! Here is Julia and cute Dempsey backing up the band with the piano.

Here is sweet Joanie and Julia at 100 o'clock. We partied until past midnight and finally had to wind down! Julia takes frequent breaks with her blankie and fingers when she gets tired. Tracy and I did look at eachother at one point and asked eachother, "Well, did you ever think?????" She was referring to our sweet children running around the basement to the very loud music having the best time ever. Tracy and I have lots of our own memories from high school days that involved lots of loud music. We agreed that kids make everything more fun and that we have both come a LONG way!

Julia passed out in about 30 seconds when she got in her bed!

John decided to make smoothies one night this week. Julia decided she wanted ALL of them. I guess you can tell who rules the roost around here.

Playing "puzzle pieces." Another favorite activity lately.

Silly Julia sticking play doh on her face.

Then cracking when it falls off and screaming, "Mommy, my so funny!"

Just because every now and then I crack up when I see John doing these that I never dreamed I would see him doing. Like sitting in a chair, with a bowl full of goldfish beside him, a pink playhouse in the yard behind him, coloring Piglet in a Pooh coloring book!

Our gingerbread house that we made way after Christmas.

Julia was eating the candy as fast as I could put it on the house. It was a race!

Here's what the box looked like...

and here's our version. They make these things look a lot easier than they really are!

There's a lot of things going "night night" around here lately. Here are some green beans that got covered up in a paper towel and told, "Night Night!"

The Terrific Two's

I will probably regret posting this when it really hits, but so far, I can't see why everyone calls the two's the terrible two's? Julia is such a little sweetheart and is really a good little girl. She still hasn't climbed out of her big girl bed! Every morning when I go in to get her after I hear her talking, she says, "Mommy, I want to get up now, OK?" When I say ok, she slides down off the bed. Is this unheard of? She is not one to get into things and has never even opened a kitchen cabinet door to get something to eat or pull anything out. I can reason with her most of the time and she rarely fusses. She loves to sing, play with her little people and read books. She also likes her Jee Jee and Paw Paw and Sarah. She gets so excited when she sees them!

Sticker legs....aren't they juicy? Oh yeah, and those are orange play doh worms on the couch that you see.


The snow day. I had to go to work, but John said he spent 20 minutes bundling her up to go outside in the snow and she was ready to come in after about 2 minutes! He said she asked for a paper towel to wipe her hands when she got snow on them.

She is a little artist and spends a lot of time coloring. This was a paint with water book that she was really proud of.

Contemplating life....

John and I are loving every minute of being Julia's parents. We ask ourselves if every little girl is this good or this sweet or this pretty. We think we got pretty lucky.

I got to go the movies last night to see The Blind Side and really liked it, even though it was a little bit sappy. John has netflixed a couple of interesting independent films lately. One was called, "The Real Dirt on Farmer John." Incredibly quirky and right up our alley. I am about to finish reading a fascinating book for book club called Olive Kitteridge. I've had a hard time putting it down this weekend. In our spare time, I am still sewing like mad and John is playing a lot of music. He is playing an exciting gig tonight in Little Rock that is sponsored by the Oxford American magazine.

Life is good!