Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday. Brad had the entire week off, which is a first! We spent most of the week relaxing - lots of sleeping in and napping. We also took a day to go to Calhoun and visit my Aunt Pearl and cousin Nancy. It was their first time meeting Abby! Pearl is my Dad's oldest sister. It was a nice visit! After that, we drove just down the road to Brad's Dad's house to celebrate his 60th birthday. It was a great trip and great food!

For Thanksgiving day we spent the day in Thomson with my Aunt Claire and her family. It was wonderful! The girls loved spending the day in the country and seeing lots of cows! It's so important to me to instill in my girls a sense of family during the holidays. I wish more than anything that they could have the same memories of the holidays that I have - spent with extended family. I think that's the most important thing in the world. There's nothing more important than family.

A few days later we went to Brad's mom's house for Thanksgiving dinner with their side of the family. We all had a great time and got to spend some great quality time together. It was a nice week!

Wordless Wednesday

Relaxing weekend

It has been SUCH a nice weekend! It is the first in the last several months that has had nothing at all planned. There's something to be said for 2 whole days of freedom. We have enjoyed every second so far!

Yesterday was nice. The girls slept in for the first time since daylight savings time screwed us up. We spent a lazy morning at the Dekalb Farmers Market and followed that up with some samosas for lunch and a long family nap. It was divine! We spent the evening snuggling and playing with the girls.

Today has found us running a few errands. Brad is getting a MUCH needed haircut (against his will) and I will be doing the weekly meal planning and grocery run. Not my favorite thing to do, but it will be a nice quick trip as Brad will have the girls with him at home. Hoping for another nap this afternoon. :) Can't beat it!

Bad Mommy-blogger!

I can hardly believe that it's been nearly 6 months since I last posted. It's ridiculous. We've been so busy living life that I've scarcely found time to write about it. I DO keep daily journals for each of the girls, but I had such high hopes of keeping up with regular blog entries as well. Oh well. That's the past, I suppose!

I've just discovered the blogger app on my iPhone, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to post a little more conveniently. I take nearly all of my photos these days (and there are usually 5 or more. a day!) on my phone so it eliminated a few steps to post from my phone as well.

Here are a few photos of the last few days!

Easter

Get ready for photo overload!  Consider yourself warned.


We had a fabulous and very laid back Easter this year.  We did a photo shoot the day before Easter with MckMama (any of you who follow other Mommy-Blogs will know of her).  It went really well and we should be getting the CD in the mail soon, so I'll be sure to share!  


We had a great time coloring Easter eggs.  Emma was ALL into it, and Abby supervised the operation.

Easter fell on Brad's 30th birthday this year, which he was very excited about (NOT!).  We woke up to see all of the loot that the Easter Bunny left the girls.  They were both pretty excited!

We headed to church and met Mimi there.  The girls did great!  They both made it through most of the service, though Abby was sleepy, but not sleepy enough to fall asleep.  We all took turns passing her back and forth/wrestling with her.  Emma even prayed out loud with the priest once.  :)


After church we went to Mimi's to have Easter lunch and an Easter egg hunt.  It was Abby's first egg hunt and she loved it!  She went down for a nap as soon as it was over.  The girls dresses were baby shower gifts from Brad's parents when I was pregnant with Abby.  They wore them for some professional photos when Abby was about 4 months old - and they still fit! Abby's is a 6 month size - told you she was tiny!

These are some of my favorites.  Love how sneaky Abby is while snatching sister's eggs!

After an awesome lunch we headed back home for a nap before dinner with Brad's family to celebrate his birthday and Easter at the same time.  He ended up with 2 cakes that day, so he can't complain too much!

It was a really nice Easter.  I honestly don't remember Easter last year.  My Dad had just passed away and it was all a blur.  This one was much better, though we certainly missed him every second of the day.

Playing Catch Up

I've been such a bad blogging mommy lately.  I've just been SO darn busy that I barely get a spare moment.  And when I do, there are ever so many things that I need to do.  The girls take a nap around the same time each afternoon, which provides a tad bit of a break for me, but it's rare these days.  Abby's naps are sometimes super short and as soon as I get Emma down and laundry started, Abby's up.  I personally think that she just wants some one on one time with Mommy to play!  

I'm going to do a bit of catching up over the next few days.  Abby is nearly a year old (AH!!!!) AND Emma will be 3 before we know it.  It feels like it was just yesterday that we brought each of them home from the hospital.  How on EARTH are they so big!?!?!

A really nice weekend.

This weekend was just really great.  It was energizing, refocusing, and family-driven, which we really needed.  We had a really challenging week last week.  It was full of late nights, cars breaking down, sleepless nights (thank you, Abby), and going through the motions.  So often lately I feel like we just put one foot in front of the other.  We don't get out of the house enough, leaving to have dinners with family, grocery shop, or just run errands when necessary.  We go through the motions of the day, exhausted and completely devoid of energy or inspiration in the end.  We NEEDED a great weekend to adjust our focus back to where it should be - on our family.


Brad had Friday off as a furlough day, but it was pretty much a disappointment that threatened to ruin our 3-day weekend.  Due to tons of errands and lots of school stuff for Brad, we ended up just staying around the house.  


Luckily enough, I won tickets to a show at the Center for Puppetry Arts on Facebook, of all places.  We had to wake up early, shift naps around, and do some seriously strategic planning, but it was all worth it in the end.  I regret to say that I don't have a single photo of the day.  Photography was strictly prohibited in the entire place, so I didn't even bother to bring a camera.  It was SO much fun!  We saw "Space!" which was a little too educational for my taste, but the girls loved it.  Both girls made it through the entire show!  The stadium bench seats were perfect, and Emma was able to see the stage easily from her seat.  Abby made it until the last few minutes when she got so excited that she started talking to the puppets.  Brad took her out for a few minutes of a break.  Just about that time, Emma told me that she needed to go potty.  We grabbed the rest of our stuff and made it to the bathroom (our very first public restroom experience!).  There, she touched everything in sight as I scream/whispered - DON'T TOUCH ANYTHING!!!!!  It was pretty funny, after the fact.


As we were heading back to the theater, Brad came out and told us it had just finished.  So much fun!!  We got to see a real Big Bird, Ernie, Kermit and Rowlf (from the Muppets).  Lots of other puppets from the Jim Henson collection as well.  


We headed home for a nice long family nap.  It was just an awesome day.

On Sunday we decided to venture to Stone Mountain (where we had planned to go on Friday) and ride the Sky Lift.  For those of you who haven't been, it's a large trolley-type car that goes up the side of the mountain on a cable system to the top.  We rode to the top of the mountain and got to walk around and see the city.  It was SOOOO windy! 

The girls had such a great time.  Abby stayed snugly and warmly in the Moby wrap, which was perfect for the trip.  Emma scared the crap out of both of us several times.  Brad decided that we might need to invest in a leash for her for next time.  :)  

Brad loved how Abby's eyes got HUGE every time she looked out of the cable car.

It was so great to re-charge and spend some quality family time.  We really needed it.  Now if we can just make it through another long week full of late work days for Brad and this God-forsaken time change, we'll be doing good!