A Visit to the Park

Donald, Emily, and I spent the morning at Carl Miller Park in Newnan with our good friend Amy Blount. We had a picnic lunch and spent a few hours playing in the spectacular castle playground. Emily had so much fun climbing, running, and jumping! She wore herself out and fell asleep in the car about five minutes after we left. I think we're going to make this a weekly excursion because we all enjoyed ourselves so much. The weather was wonderful - cool and overcast - just enough to make me forget to put on sunblock. I have a great neckline sunburn this afternoon! Luckily, Emily stayed under the castle canopies enough that she doesn't seem to have gotten any sun. Hope you enjoy these pictures of our outing!

Mommy's Helper

Emily and I took some things to the Red Door Consignment Store in Tyrone today and she fell in love with this washing machine/dryer combo. I broke a cardinal rule - I brought home stuff instead of just dropping stuff off, but she loved it so much at the store that I had to buy it for her! She has spent the afternoon loading up the washer and dryer just like Mommy does with our new "wash-ash-asheen." We love the way she says it! I can justify buying this for her because it's a front loader and therefore eco-friendly. She's been loading it up with money, clothes, jewelry she's nabbed from the dresser - basically anything she can grab and run off with. At any rate, she's busy washing, drying, and ironing while Mommy and Daddy finish up our research papers. The end of the semester is here and everything seems to be due all at once! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Craft Mania

In a fit of craftiness, Mom and I had a marathon hairbow making session this Sunday. We've been making hairbows for the girls for a while and love to dress them in outfits with matching bows. Today we had a free afternoon (Donald's away on a trip for the weekend and the girls were playing in the basement) plus several spools of new ribbon and before we realized it, we had made 30 bows! Some blood was shed along the way - literally - and we each have several new hot glue gun blisters. Overall, the afternoon was a success. Abby and Emily should have bows to match all of their spring and summer outfits. If not, we'll have to pull out the glue gun again and bedazzle some more. Have a great Spring Break!What a mess! Who knew that two people could accumulate so much ribbon?
Our finished products - ALL of them!Our favorite creation - Each girl got one.
Pink and brown for Abby

My favorites in turquoise for Emily - too bad I always have to make two for her! Twice as many glue gun blisters!

Singing and Dancing

Emily seems to be learning a new trick or phrase every day. She's gotten really good at singing and loves all the Backyardigans songs (which I secretly play and sing along with - even when she's not in the car!). I captured her on tape singing a new song the other day and wanted to share it with you. She learned this at Mimi and Papa's house and likes to sing and dance around for us at night before going to bed. Have a great week!

Happy Easter!

Emily had a great Easter this year. We were very busy all weekend and had something to do every day. On Saturday morning, she hunted eggs in Palmetto and had a great time playing on the playground at the park. On Saturday afternoon, we went to lunch with the Whites at Long Horn. Emily entertained everyone in the restaurant by offering them candy from her Easter basket. Aunt Betty also kept us entertained by posing in her St. Patrick's Day crown. Then on Sunday we attended church with my family and had lunch at Nanny's house afterward. Emily was able to stay in church for the entire service - no small feat for a two-year-old who ate chocolate bunnies for breakfast! She also got invited to hunt eggs with my parents' neighbors, the Winkles, in the evening. She and Abby made quite a haul. We actually had to hide the candy away because she had eaten so much of it! Speaking of eating, T.C. had an unfortunate run-in with some plastic Easter grass which he almost immediately regretted. Emily ran upstairs to find Donald and told him that I was downstairs cleaning up a "big stinking mess that T.C. made." All in all, we had a great weekend filled with fun and friends, chocolate and Easter grass. Hope you enjoy these pictures of our Easter weekend!

Happy Birthday!

Donald celebrated his 33rd birthday this Friday! We went out last Saturday to Andre's in Newnan, one of our favorite restaurants, with our friends Rhonda and Adrian; however, I wanted to try to surprise him because he is always so good at planning surprises for me. I think I managed to pull it off! I arranged for our babysitter to come over at 6:00 (she lives next door - it's a quick walk!) and drove him down to the square in Newnan to La Fiesta where we met a group of our best friends for dinner. We had a great time hanging out with friends for a couple of hours and I enjoyed knowing that I put something together without him guessing it first. Emily has been very excited about his birthday and reminds us often that her birthday is coming in "about two minutes." Really, it seems that way. She'll be three in August! Hope you are all having a wonderful Easter weekend! Enjoy the picture of Senor Donaldo!

Winter Break at The White House

We had a great winter break at The White House. Donald and I enjoyed spending extra time with Emily; it's going to be difficult to head back to work tomorrow! I love to sleep a little later with her snuggled up beside me and it's been a treat to give her a bath every morning and dress her in something fun - always with a matching hair bow! I put together this slide show to give you an idea of what we did together this week. Though we didn't stray far from home, we did lots of great things each day and spent time with family and friends. Hope your winter break (if you had one) was restful!

Emily's Day at the Park

We took advantage of the lovely weather today to take Emily to the neighborhood park. She had a blast on the slide, "fishing" in the creek, throwing stones in the water, digging in the dirt, and generally having fun in the sun. You can tell from the pictures that she was not happy to leave; she was, however, pacified by the thought of a sprinkle cookie at the grocery store. We are both thrilled at the thought of an entire week to spend playing with our girl. Enjoy this warm weather and spend some fun time outside!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Emily and Abby posed together for this Valentine picture, which we sent out to our friends and family this year. Aren't they sweet? Who would believe that it took about ten takes to get a picture where they weren't making faces or pulling each other's hair? Donald, Emily, and I spent a quiet Valentine's evening together and had a "romantic" dinner at Chick-fil-A in Newnan. Loads of fun! Hope you were with someone you love this Valentine's Day!

Snack Time

I am blessed to live in a household of adventurous eaters. Emily was spooning down the baby spinach while other children her age were flinging it against the wall; Donald and I had wild boar the last time we went out for a big night on the town. Today's snack time was no exception. Emily loves black olives. I think it's part of her White family genetics. Black olives are a staple at all White family gatherings and Emily really enjoys them. They're delicious, plus fun to eat - they make a really satisfying pop when you suck them off the ends of your fingers!

Hope your snack time is this exciting!

Bubbles

Emily has recently learned that turning on the jets in the bathtub makes bathtime exponentially more fun. We had a party this weekend for Mimi's birthday; she and Abby had a great time splashing around before everyone went home. I snapped some cute pictures of the two of them and wanted to share. Just a typical evening at the White House - crazy bubbles, overflowing bathtubs, and soggy towels all over the floor. See you soon!

I love this foggy picture - it's like she's wearing a bubble hat.

Cheese!

Everyone seems to get silly in the bathtub.

Abby kind of looks like Lawrence of Arabia - in bubbles. And check out Emily's corkscrew curl in the middle of her forehead!

Abby gets buried under a mound of bubbles.

Baby Einstein

Thanks to Mimi and Papa, Emily has a new trick that we are proud to share with you. This is one of the benefits of good quality childcare! Hope you enjoy this clip of life at the White House!

Snowy Days

I promised snow pictures and here they are! We had a wonderful snow day together, despite getting off to a rocky start. I had to cancel out on a baby shower at the last minute because of the weather but did get to spend a fun day outside with Emily. And an added bonus...I discovered she loves cucumber sandwiches. I originally made them for the shower but they turned into a great post-playtime snack. Her bug boots from Aunt Amy and Uncle Lane came in especially helpful, though we had to let her wear them on the wrong feet so that they wouldn't fall off. Desperate times call for desperate measures! Hope you enjoy the pictures of our snowy day and that you are bundled up somewhere warm tonight!

Emily's ABCs

I know...you were expecting snow pictures. But trust me, this is so much better! And anyway, I'll post snow pictures tomorrow. I spent the evening having fun with our Christmas present, a camcorder. So what if I had to get out the manual to figure out where to plug the cable? Emily's been singing all day and I had to get it recorded to share with all of you.

Hope you've enjoyed this snowy weather!

Fun Pictures

There's no real theme to this post - just a bunch of fun pictures that I wanted to share! Emily has been up to all kinds of stunts lately, from pillaging my ribbon box to squirrel watching with T.C. and her Daddy. At any rate, I thought you might enjoy seeing what goes on around the White House when no one is looking! Have a great week!

Building castles at Mimi and Papa's house

Playing Glamazon in Mommy's robe

Out to lunch with Aunt Liz

Photographing the damage after a round of makeuping

It wasn't me!
Explaining to Daddy how the ribbons got all over the floor

Squirrel watching

Infiltrating card night - She conned Lane into drawing with her!

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to take a moment to share some pictures from our New Year's celebration. We had a pretty quiet New Year's - we spent the evening at the Farr House for dinner and Scattergories and then came home to put Emily to bed. After she settled down, Donald and I watched the Peach drop and played Scrabble (in between prayers that the neighbors' fireworks wouldn't wake the baby!) Everyone came to our house for the traditional meal of greens and blackeyed peas on New Year's Day. As undomestic as I am, I did manage to make two pans of cornbread (one of about five recipes that I've mastered) and Donald did the rest. Thanks to Nanny for the turnip greens! It seems strange that just a few years ago, we were drinking ginger ale at our first house and toasting the new baby that was on the way. Now she's a wild-haired toddler with definite opinions on just about everything! Happy New Year to all of our friends and family. We're looking forward to a great 2008!

Two sweet girls posing for a picture with Victoria, Abby's baby.

Clowning around with Mommy. You will notice that Dora is on the TV in the background. Will she ever move through this phase?

Looking fabulous in a party hat

How does this thing work, anyway?

Trying to convince Nanny to build blocks with her. She's very persuasive!

Fun with New Toys

I know what you all are thinking - so many posts in such a short time! I'm feeling blogtastic. It must be a side effect of being out of work and out of class for the holiday break. Or it might be a byproduct of having taken so many cute pictures of Emi lately. At any rate, enjoy the fruits of my blogging. See you soon!

Emily loves tea sets. She's enjoying a new ladybug tea set from Angie and Ryan.

Cici and Granddaddy gave Emi this cool easel for Christmas. Check out our future Picasso!

Abby and Emi had a great time dancing to Dora's Dance Adventure!

Emi loves her Dora Aquadoodle from Mimi and Papa. Apparently, TC likes it, too!

Well, she wasn't playing with it anymore...

Check out this video of Emi dancing with Dora. She had a great time shaking her maracas!

Merry Christmas Part Two

I actually posted this a few days ago but the computer crashed and I lost my work! Serves me right for not saving a draft. At any rate, here we go again - Two nights before the night before Christmas, Donald and I had some family and friends over. We love having company over and really enjoyed seeing the children chase each other around and tear into their presents. They spent most of their time in the new Dora tent (courtesy of Aunt Liz) and chowing down on Ritz crackers (as evidence by the trail of crumbs all over the house - and in my bed!). We are blessed to have family so close all around us and to finally have the space for celebrating together in our home. I've also included a video clip of Christmas morning. A little dark, as videos with our camera tend to be, but still pretty fun. Hope you enjoy the pictures and are having a wonderful holiday season!

A Christmas morning video - Emily was still pretty sleepy, but she went straight for the big wheel. She's been asking about it all day while we've been visiting family and was really excited to come back home and find it still here in the living room!

Emily seems to think that she should build something on top of the present instead of open it.

Why is it that the box is always so much fun?

Abby and her new twin doll from Aunt Liz.

Santa Don treated us to a reading of The Night Before Christmas but Abby was the only one disciplined enough to sit still and listen. The others were hiding in the new tent.

Crashed out with her new pal - lifesize (well, almost) Dora.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas at the White House was lots of fun this year! We've been looking forward to the big day and it has been fun to talk with Emily about what Santa might bring her. It's also been fun creating some new Christmas traditions together. Emily slept late on Christmas morning. We were lucky - Abby was up at 4:30! When we did get up, she was pretty sleepy but still very excited about her big present - a Dora bicycle! She's been talking about one for months now. However, the best gifts of the day seem to be a package of plastic combs from Amy (she recently lost her favorite purple comb and was very upset about it) and a bottle of Dora bubbles from the Dollar Store! Too much excitement pooped her out and she was exhausted by the time we made it to Donald's parents' house. She kept begging to go home. So here we are, all in our pajamas in front of the fire with Emily alternately building with her blocks (new favorite past time) and riding her big wheel around the living room.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Eve - Don't you love those pajamas? She looks like an elfin convict!

At long last - the Dora bicycle! It's really noisy - lots of fun for everyone.

She really loved the stocking - and the jazzy Dora bedroom slippers. Are you starting to see a theme develop here?

Opening presents with Abby at the Farr House

A new comb! And by the looks of that fuzzy head, she needs one!

Emmy's American Idol Audition

Donald recently went away for a few days to attend a conference in Alabama for science educators. While he was gone, Emily and I tried to send him a few pictures and a video clip each night - just to rub it in that we're having so much fun while he's learning new ways to integrate the Van de Graaf generator into his curriculum. This one was so cute that I had to share it with the rest of you! The clip is a little dark but too sweet not to show off.

Hope your holidays are merry!

Two Sweet Girls

In a rate moment, I captured my two sweet girls on camera playing house together and felt that I should share this with the world. It doesn't happen often - although they love each other to pieces, they are generally engaged in tearing each other to pieces. I love it that they're playing with Weeble people that belonged to me and Amy when we were little. They also play with my Barbies when they're at our house. Abby asked me one time why my Barbies were dressed so weird. I told her than in 1982, they were very trendy. Remember Barbie and the Rockers? Have a great weekend!