The wedding

No, not THE wedding, yet. On April 2nd my youngest cousin Shannon married Joey in Memphis. I was honored to read the first reading and Audrey was one of the flower girls. Here she is in practice mode.

The rehearsal dinner was catered at the Pink Palace, a beautiful setting for the evening. Wayne & I were seated next to the bar.

And also with my brother & Megan, Tiffany and my parents. Shannon came to greet us after the toasts.

Here are the girls ready for their big debut. People kept calling them angels, but Ellie (Tiffany's daughter, the brunette) was quick to correct: "We're PRINCESSES."

The little princesses with the Princess.

I was a little nervous about how they'd do down the aisle of a packed church, but they all seemed to love the audience. They walked tossing petals and smiling sweetly all the way to the altar.

The reception was on the riverfront and it was a fantastic spring evening. The groom's cake gave a not-so-subtle nod to his favorite past time.

The best part of the whole weekend is that the two monkeys seen here...

Got to visit with all of the grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins along the way! They stayed at my dad's house, so I still need to get copies of their photos to share. We stopped and Mimi & Pawpaw's  house for a visit.

And and Aunt Elizabeth & Uncle Shay's, where we played with YaYa & B and the cousins. Here is their "crazy" picture.

It was such a wonderful weekend, and we wish Shannon and Joey a lifetime of happiness!

my baby cousin Shannon and her flower girls!

waiting for the Dr. for the 3 year check-up. She weighs 30lbs and is 36.75" tall!

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on the Friday date with Miles: his hair cut, he picked out a cute dress for me at Loft, lunch at Panera then Diary of a Wimpy Kid! fun day!

What we did on our spring break.

First we had to make a plan for spring break. Miles listed his ideas on the chalkboard.

Since the week started out rainy, we opted for fort-building. What better use for plantation shutters and binder clips, I ask?

After a few library story times we ventured out big to the Children's Museum of Oak Ridge. Of course it was a free day so it was very busy, but the kids still had fun.  We went with our neighbors Fenn, Boone and Beth. And yes, Audrey wore her Little Mermaid dress everywhere.

Today is beautiful!  We hit the zoo and stayed much longer than usual. Here they got to hold a rhino tusk.

A little farther along they met Buttercup, a 23' reticulated python in residence for the summer. Buttercup's breakfast, two big rabbits, lay freshly squeezed and awaiting ingestion. Yum and Happy Easter! We also witnessed the gaboon viper being force fed a mouse. Exciting day in the reptile cove.

Finally we caught the bird show with Einstein and his new buddies, 4 rescue pups doing tricks. They were so sweet! And we made it through two carousel rides, which is big for Miles as he usually isn't a big fan.

There I am in the mirror.

Look ma, no hands!

it's happened..

Miss Audrey turned 3, celebrating her golden birthday on 3/3. And we also figured our she was 3 feet tall. We probably should have done some mystical "3" celebration, but, oh well. I think she did plenty of celebrating, since she thought it was her birthday the whole week.

BeBe and PopPop came early to celebrate and we were lucky to have some pretty nice weather. Yay, spring!

Then came the weekend... cousins always make it a party.  Here are the boys starting their massive lego creation.

And the girls playing magnet dress-up dolls.  We had a ladybug party, hence the headgear.

Here were the ladybug cupcakes! I even found black candles with polka dots on them.

Present time was fun.  Audrey had lots of helpers.

Then we had cousin photo time.  It didn't turn out so well. But on the bright side, Miles learned how to cross his eyes.

Here's the almost-annual family photo. Miraculously, everyone smiled at the same time!

Now Miles is on the countdown to his 6th birthday. But lest we forget, someone has a rather big milestone between now and then.

happy spring break! hope the weather hold up.

Before....

and after...

Happy 3rd Birthday, sweet Audrey!

Down Under!

Hello! It's the last week of February, what have we done with ourselves? One look at my scribbled-all-over planner should tell you, we've been busy. Grad school, the main drain on my free time, has me reading through stacks of award winning kids books, which I'm enjoying immensely. Guess that's a good thing, right? Miles has enjoyed listening to a few of them, and he's been picking up some stories to read on his own.  The family favorite author is Mo Willems for his Elephant and Piggie series, as well as the Pigeon and Knuffle Bunny books. Today we went to the Clayton Center for the Arts to see a performance of Knuffle Bunny, which was hysterical and, in the words of my kids (and Trixie) "Aggle flaggle klabble!!"

With the gorgeous weather we've been having (thanks, Phil!) each kid got a day at the zoo with mom last week. Audrey loved the pigs, elephants & zebras, although we ran fast when a GaboonViper nabbed its breakfast right in front of us.  It was giving us the evil stink eye warning us not to grab at the rodent. I was going to find a video clip so you could see the sinister creature for yourself, but even the videos were a bit terrifying. {{chills.. heebie jeebies... shakes}}

Miles got to see a rhino "fight" (really some rhino dating rituals, but it looked fierce). We strolled by the Gaboon Viper but he was still full and sleepy from his kill in front of Audrey the day before. Here is Miles as a Guardians of Ga'hoole owl.

And we had a fun visit fro YaYa and B. Even Chelsea wanted to pose for the picture!

Happy anniversary!

I'm neck deep in finishing my first paper for my Children's Lit class (due tomorrow, of course) so this will have to do for an update. Wishing my sweetie a happy anniversary, 9 wonderful years. I love you!

Audrey is a flower girl in cousin Shannon's wedding soon. I think she should wear the boots, don't you?

menchies with my buddy. shhh don't tell Audrey!

Decision '11

I'm losing points in the mom department, as I don't think I've taken a photo since my last post.  So these are some old ones, from New Year's Eve, although they are new to you!

 

This morning I thought about the kids and some of their distinctive personality traits and a big one that hit me is their decision making style.  Audrey makes a decision and sticks with it.  At Christmas when we asked what she wanted, she told us ponies. Over and over. She told Santa ponies. She told her teachers ponies.  And now for her birthday she's been just as decisive and consistent: ladybugs.  Girlfriend knows what she wants.

Miles, on the other hand, wants to consider his decisions very thoroughly before committing.  He often asks, "Mom, if you were me, which would you pick?" I've already introduced the pro/con lists - choosing between spring soccer & baseball, soccer won.  So we talk through the things he should consider before making a choice: "Well, M&Ms and Reese's cups are both yummy.  Do you want peanut butter or just chocolate?  Which one would last longer?" and so on.  Very funny.

Earth to Nicole...

come in Nicole...   I'm not sure how it got to be Jan 22nd before I posted the first blog of the year, but here we are.  Oh wait, yes I know!  SNOW DAYS!  One would think being stuck in the house for weeks at a time would lead to plenty of blog time, but not for me. Sadly, these are just about the only photos I've taken in the last 3 weeks too.  I know, appalling.

So there was snow.  The kids were out 2 extra days and went short days the rest of the week while the rest of the county continued to thaw.  Here was the view out our back door. 

We were really lame and didn't get out to play in the snow.  We had movie/reading days and had family nap time each day.  Seriously, Miles, me and Audrey all piled in bed and took 2 hour naps.  It was glorious.  We made cookies and muffins and all sorts of goodies (as my jeans will attest) and watched the beautiful snow.  Tuesday afternoon we went to the library and the kids ran around like nuts in the snow.  It looks snowy here, but the roads & driveway were thawed, I promise.

Last weekend we went to Nashville to celebrate Kate's 6th birthday!  The kids had rotating slumber parties, alternating nights for boys or girls to sleep at YaYa's or Aunt Elizabeth's.

And now we're back into the routine, hopeful not to be disturbed by snow days again for a long while!  My class started and it's going to be a lot of work but so much fun.  It covers literature for children so I'll get to read all sorts of fun books.  Of course I have to do papers on all of them,  but that's all right. Miles has already listened to Charlotte's Web and now we've started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Keep watch of my GoodReads widget on the right to see what else I've enjoyed.