Friday on the Farm

Cassie called Friday afternoon to invite us to dinner at her Meme & Papa's.  It was a welcome distraction from this current (today) status:

Besides the fact that we really enjoy their company and Ivory has a blast when we go to "the farm."

Ivory will at random ask about Meme & Papa.  She was fascinated with the goose eggs.  Actually, she's fascinated with anything bird.  She talked about seeing the goose & chickens all the way over.  Well, that's when she wasn't too busy jamming to Grandma's 50s tunes.

Meme & Cassie prepared a delicious dinner.  Mom contributed a delicious strawberry upside down cake & a reese's dessert.  I contributed my favorite bread focaccia.  I'll have to post the recipe one day, it's so delish!

Ivory screamed Cassie's name when we pulled into the driveway and she saw her sitting on the porch. 

And, of course, she was rather excited to see her Bobo as well:

I enjoy so much having my parents here and was glad they came along for dinner.  Though, they didn't get much Ivory time that night with all the excitement!  That's okay, I'm sure I can arrange some quality time for them today...

This was an extra special visit because Christina's sweetheart, Nate, & his friend Aaron were in town.  We enjoyed seeing Nate, but all vote that next time he better come with his beautiful wife.

Ivory had fun playing with the indoor toys, but this lasted in very short spurts. 

I think her motto is "why play inside when you can be outside?"  And I can't blame her, chickens, geese, gardens, gorgeous weather...I vote for outside, too!

The chickens have grown!  Ivory asks, "What happened?"

Ivory followed the geese around yelling, "Fred, FRED!!" (one of the geese).  I took a video of this preciousness, but lost it somehow.  Tragedy.  "FRED!" was soon followed by, "Go get 'em."  And then we'd run after them.  Somehow we never could catch those geese...

Imagine her little voice accompanying this wave with, "Hi, chickens, hi chickens, hi chickens..."

From May 2010

Poppa joined us later and became Ivory's friend for life when he shared his reese's dessert with her.  Ivory was sweet and gave hugs & kisses to everyone before leaving.  My little girl is precious.

We had a great evening, but we missed you, Christina.  This post is dedicated to you, lovely.  And Nate, you better bring her along next time!! ;-)

Wednesday Mom & I decided to train Ivory in the fine art of shopping.  She did extremely well even helping pick something out for her soon-to-arrive cousin.  She was so fun to have along with us behaving like quite the little lady.  I'm proud of my little girl!

She discovered this lego table in the Carter's store and I just had to snap some pictures. It seemed like such a BIG GIRL thing to be doing.

She did such a good job interacting nicely with the other kids, too.  No, she's not stealing that little girl's legos--that's just where the "community chest" of legos was located.

Peek-a-boo

From May 2010

We arrived home in time to see the teenagers at church--one of Ivory's favorite things to do--and welcome Grandpa!  He snuck in early and pleasantly surprised us all.  Now if only Micah would agree to do the same...Current status:

From May 2010

Trundle Bed

My parents graciously gave and delivered this bed for Ivory:

We will be moving her into it in a few months once Micah outgrows the Moses basket and needs the crib.  Before then my goal is to do some major work on it.  We need to add a rail so Ivory won't fall out of the bed.  Jason plans to paint it antique white to match the rest of the Nursery furniture.  I plan to make a trundle bed skirt, some bolster pillows as well as a large pillow for the back of the bed.  We'll see how far we get before Ivory's debut into her big girl bed.

I also still need to finish hanging up things in the kids room now that all the furniture is moved in.  Guess I better scram and get working!

Monday & Tuesday we visited Mamaw (Jason's grandmother) as she's been in the hospital.  She is home now and doing much better!  We missed seeing Jason's mom by a few hours on Monday so were glad to catch her yetserday.  We told Ivory we'd see her Monday but then it didn't work out.  Well, the girl continued asking about her until we saw her yesterday afternoon--she doesn't miss much!  Example: 2 months ago Addie had a birthday party with balloons.  Last week we went to Addie's for dinner and Ivory was searching for balloons.  Guess she takes after her Aunt Debi with this crazy good memory of hers!

All this visiting wore our little girl out last night.

We've also been thouroghly enjoying seeing Grandma everyday.  And contrary to what her below expression displays, Grandma is enjoying herself as well. =)  Don't hate on me, Mom--you still look beautiful!  And yes, I know you didn't realize I was taking a picture of you--I'm tricky like that. ;-)

From May 2010

We look forward to Grandpa arriving tomorrow...and hopefully Micah?!  1 day now...give or take a few.

Tomato Sprouts

From May 2010

Kitchen Curtains

Went from this:

From Spring Fever

to this:

and hoping to soon hang these:

in love with the new color in our kitchen

Thinking about trying my hand at stenciling some blue flowers between the cabinets and counters on the stove side of the kitchen.  Will let you know how that turns out...

Beach Day

From May 2010

Bathroom Valance

I've been getting a little excited about accessorizing our windows lately...

From LA Projects 2010

Mother's Day

I'm certain I have the best family ever.  What a special, special day.  I-am-so-blessed.

I woke up to this (grandma & Ivory made the vase for me a few weeks back!):


My mom & dad came in yesterday (5th wheel).  My mom is staying until Micah's birth add two weeks.  She's amazing.  (My dad will be coming back Thursday, some important things he has to take care of back home before going on grandkid duty for the next month--between Micah and my sister's quickly coming due date they're in for a busy month or so!)

Grandma came in to find this (something Ivory & her daddy worked on):

I had the privilige of being celebrated as a mom and celebrating with my beautiful mom.  So. Special.

From May 2010

And if all that wasn't enough to overwhelm any mom with love and sweetness, I received this before nap time (we all got naps--can I hear three cheers?!):

Ivory came walking up with her daddy and this little book under her arm so very proud of herself.  She excitedly handed me the book and with great enthusiasm showed me each page and told me all about it.  She took such pride in her work and was so excited to show it to mommy.  Then, she had to show grandma.  Then mommy again.    The cycle would probably have continued had we not taken a break for nap. =)  I seriously have such a brave, creative, and thoughtful husband.  Try to imagine the patience, skill, and creativity it took to work with a not-yet-20-month-old on this project where she did most of it.  She mixed the glue and glitter, laid out the artwork, helped write in the book, cut the yarn with scissors, threaded the yarn through the holes, etc.  This is why I use the word brave.  Ivory and Jason worked on this in 3 different sessions--it took hours.  I am so incredibly touched.  I only wish I could express with words what this means to me.  Before napping I just had to stare and stare.  And thank my husband again and again. 

I sure hope all of you had a special mother's day with loved ones.  Though Micah did not decide to make an appearance today, we still had a wonderful day. =)  And I have to say, labor isn't really my idea of a relaxing mother's day...Oh, and I did manage to get THE mother's day rose in church--again.  I got it for the first time last year for having the youngest baby and again this year!   I'm soaking this up for as long as I can because it'll take a while before I can get the rose for being the oldest mom...

Moses Basket Rocker Skirt

O please come little one and make me the happiest mother on mother's day!  As you can see--we're all ready!  So really it's okay to come today--REALLY.

From LA Projects 2010