Home is where your heart is...

A few weeks ago, the girls and I made a quick trip to my hometown in Kentucky.

We went for the special occasion of my Mom's baptism (yea!) and had a wonderful visit as well.

Now that Lillianna & Ellenie are getting older,

I love seeing my girls in some of the places that were special to me growing up...

Ellenie on the front porch of my Mom's house.

  This house was a one-room school house that was our "farmhouse" growing up. 

After I left for college, she renovated into a lovely, quaint house full of character.

I loved watching the girls eat their baby, cherry-dipped cones from Dairy Queen.

This Dairy Queen is special...not only do they still make the ice cream with buttermilk, they have cherry flavored dip (I can't find it anywhere else anymore), and they are only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day each year.  It's always been a special place to my family because my grandparents owned a Dairy Queen for many years.  And it's so yummy, I inevitably end up at DQ everyday while I'm home...a chili dog for lunch one day, a baby cone for a snack on another.

The lake...My family spent so many hours on the lake when I was growing up that I almost teared up seeing my girls smothered in those big life jackets.  I love that they will know the smell, the beauty, and the fun of the lake.  And I love that Aunt Kitty Cat (perhaps the biggest lake lover of all) is sharing her love of the lake with them too.  We live far enough away from Murray that we don't get home as often as I'd like.

  So it's extra special when we are there and I get to share it with my girls.

Even Boone had fun!

If you had a fabulous Fourth of July, then smile and say, " Cheese!"

Yep, we had a truly fantastic 4th!

An hour in the hose...a picture story

Princess Leah

This summer has been another season of many "firsts".

My favorite first so far has been our very first visit by a neice by herself!

Leah (one of the twins) came and spent an entire week with us and we loved every minute of it!

Leah and Lillianna went to art camp each morning. 

 They created fantastic masterpieces and learned all about primary and secondary colors.

  And they got to dress in the "color of the day" each day - the first day was red.

Some of the days their wonderful teacher painted beautiful art on their faces.

We had to take a picture before these beautiful butterflies got washed off...

In addition to art camp, we stayed very busy...

with Princess parades, swimming, tea parties, a movie night, lighening bug collecting, and lots more.

Overall, it couldn't have been a better week!

  I am so proud of my beautiful, incredibly sweet, thoughtful, helpful, patient, loving neice!

We love you Leah!

Seriously, don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

Don't hate me because I'm beautiful.

Snow White did come and live with us!

(The final potty training reward...her princess dress!)

Just a swingin'

Can you tell how much fun we had?

It is always so much fun when we get together with The Millers.

This is the last picture of the cousins like this...

the next time we're together there will be another Miller girl in the mix!  (Any day now!)

It was also very, very, very HOT!

So we tried to stay in the shade, did a little swimmin' and a whole lot of swingin'...

Thank you for such a special visit!

We loved every minute!

Sun-Shiny Day

I can see clearly now the rain is gone

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind

It's gonna be a bright, bright

bright sun-shiny day!

So this time around, not having another baby on the way,

 I havn't been in much of a hurry to get to the "big girl" things with Ellenie.

  She still sleeps in a crib, still has her paci, and still wears wore diapers.

With Lillianna I had a time line for each one and

 checked them off in a well-planned and well-executed fashion.

  This time, well, I just havn't been as motivated.

Finally, after several slightly embarassing situations in public

 where Ellenie declared she either

 needed to poop, had just pooped, or wanted me to "change her stinky poo poos" -

  I decided it was time to tackle potty training.  ugh.

Only Miss Priss could make it look, um well, glamorous...

Can you tell what her reward of choice was? 

It wasn't all pretty though...

Several times in the first couple of days Ellenie we wanted to give up

 (above, she's begging to put a diaper back on)....

but after many tubes of "meek up" and promising Snow White could come live with us,

Ellenie is 83% potty trained! yea!

Now for her big girl bed...

Summer Lovin'

The Little Turtle

by Vachel Lindsay

There was a little turtle.

He lived in a box.

He swam in a puddle.

He climbed on the rocks.

He snapped at a mosquito.

He snapped at a flea.

He snapped at a minnow.

And he snapped at me.

He caught the mosquito.

He caught the flea.

He caught the minnow.

But he didn't catch me.

(one of Lillianna's favorite poems)

Summer has already been flying by.

Toads, swimming, swinging, visiting with friends and family, treasure walks, sleeping in, popsicles, movie nights, a new playhouse (built by Brad!), and Christy the turtle (seen above).

Love it all.

Happy Memorial Day!

A couple of weekends ago, with Dandy & Wil here to visit,

we went to see something you don't get to see everyday...

An Air Force Air Show!

The girls really enjoyed seeing the planes and jets up close and getting to meet some true heros...

I don't normally put adults on my blog but I figured these two were good exceptions.

We don't know them but we sure are grateful for their service to our country!

The male pilot flies this F-16 which Ellenie loved and

the female pilot is one of very few female Thunderbird pilots (girls can do anything!).

We really had a nice time...my only complaint was

it was so hot!

Another day, another toad.