what was your "favorite thing" today?

http://www.amazon.com/Favorite-Things-Kimberly-Bradley/dp/B000KHXBTK/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1195095324&sr=8-3

mm has a book called favorite things...it is one of my favorite children's book. the story is great and the illustrations are so vivid and imaginative...just like a child (or maybe their creative mommy) would dream up. the mommy asked the son what his favorite thing was that day... he dreams up all these crazy things that he did like a elephant driving garbage trucks in the race to school or giant squirrels named Rex that draw pictures of race cars...anyway, at the end of the book the little boy hugs his mommy and says that this (her asking what his favorite things were) was his favorite thing...it is so sweet.

anyway, i have thought about this a lot. wouldn't it be great if at the end of every day we ask ourselves what our favorite thing was during that day... i think that it's so easy to think of all the little things that don't go quite right in our day... so here goes....

my favorite thing today was going to mighty joes for dinner with friends & enjoying the walk home afterward (it would have only been better if john could have joined us...only 2 more weeks!)

now it is your turn...what was your favorite thing today?...leave a comment letting us know (you know how nosy i am!)...we might be surprised and remember that there are good things that happen everyday even though we might only think about the bad things.

dinner at home...what's that?

well..needless to say we haven't eaten dinner at home much lately...john is studying for his CPA exam so after i get the kids home from school i can't think about making dinner. well, this weekend i decided that we were spending WAY too much money on eating out so i thought that i would try this cooking thing again...as you can see the kids loved it! grady ate it all up. we will see how long it will last! bon appetite!

the many faces of mm

i think that mm has the best expressions...you can tell what she is up to by the look on her face. the last one is the "mommy...i want to take pictures NOW!" face...when i look at it, i see a teenager that is going to give her mommy fits!

a great day

sunday was an awesome day. after we got home from the wiggles we went out to eat, got some ice cream and came home. the kids were in such a good mood. mm & grady were racing each other across the room and laughing so hard...it was a really great day!

a wiggly good time...

we went to see the wiggles with our friends molly and walker today. it was really fun...
even though as soon as they came out first, mm said...i'm ready to go home! we did stay for the whole thing. i was very proud of her for staying still for that long!

this is proof that i am a bad mommy...

my mother and every other good mother that i know would have said..."don't make that face or else it will stick like that"...do you think that i said that ... oh no... "i said oh quick hand me my camera"...sorry dermot & aimee if will's face sticks...i take full responsibility!

school pictures?

we all remember our school pictures right?... you took so much time and effort determining what you were going to wear... you made sure you brought your brush to school so your hair wouldn't look bad in the pictures ... then finally the day came and you walked onto the school auditorium stage and they rushed you in front of that blue backdrop and sat you on that stool while the photographers wife fussed trying to put your hair where you didn't want it! he would look through the lens and say "put your chin down dear" (never good for the turkey neck...see previous post) and he took it...weeks go by with anticipation of waiting to see how they were going to turn out...finally they came and they looked like every other school picture. boring!

fast forward 10-20 (deep sigh) years...my little girl is having her school pictures at montessori...it starts all over again. i made sure her hair was just right and hoped that she wouldn't pull it out before the pictures...

here is the result...


ouch!...that is really bad...as you notice i thought that these needed something so i took the liberty of adding mm's crimes to her lovely pictures. (as most of you know...mm has had some issues with biting...she does look like the class bully doesn't she)

the best part of this story is that on the same day as our kids were getting pictures made at montessori, lindsey was hired by first methodist early learning center to do their school portraits. these were her first school portraits and she was very nervous...i am sure it had something to do with her worrying about how parents would react to their babies school pictures...well on the same day that we got mm's proofs back, lindsey got hers back. i went across the street to look at them and was blown away! they were incredible!

this, my friends is a real school portrait that families will LOVE to have!...


this is sweet abby grace...her mommy is the smart one who hired lindsey!

maybe next year everyone will come to their senses and use linden tree photography...my fingers will be crossed!

by the way... here is her website in case you were looking for a photographer... http://www.lindentreephotography.blogspot.com/ ... she is a great photographer, neighbor, and friend...even though our politics might be a little different :)

for the kiddos...

i had the pleasure of chatting with friends last night. we talked about lots of stuff, but one thing stuck with me...we talked about how we always hate pictures of ourselves...why is that...i am sure that it is because i always see my turkey neck or muffin top...etc. you get the picture. anyway. lindsey said and it is so true that we need to let go of our insecurities and just take pictures of ourselves so our kids have them when they are older...she is right. maybe mm & g won't notice my turkey neck or muffin top!

ps-did you notice that i picked a picture of myself that doesn't show my neck or muffin top...i guess our insecurities will always be there...oh well.

okay, okay...

sorry y'all... i hate bulk post, but i had a lot of content from the weekend. i will try to do better!

one day...

this is my dream...i am going to one day buy some sort of property that is not a home (ie: a barn, school, church,etc) and renovate it into a home. we saw this barn coming back from huntsville..it would be perfect except for one thing...i would have to cross too many bridges to get to it. :) (that is a joke between my family and i...i told john once that we can't live in a house that you have to cross a bridge to get to...the reason you ask?...if you have to cross a bridge, that means that it is too far out. i always want to live in town...close to everything)

i already have my sights set on the old coca cola building downtown lagrange...i am sure lots of other people do too...i will have to save my pennies!

here is lots more pictures from this old house.com... http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/photos/0,,20052183,00.html

katie't baptism

sweet katie

sinead's family

dermot & aimee minus will who was playing on the playground with mm

here is our whole waters family...aren't we cute.
(this was a difficult picture to get!)

daylight savings sweetness

the night before

after the baptism

we're back!we went to huntsville this weekend for my nieces baptism. the ceremony was as 12:45 Alabama time, 1:45 Georgia time, and 2:45 before daylight savings...needless to say that the timing of it wasn't the greatest...it was right in the middle of all of the kids nap time. pair that with a 4 1/2 hour drive and hard core playing with the cousins...the kids are pooped...parents too! i will take it though for the sweetest kids ever...as you can see in the pictures above, you can't get any sweeter than that!

mary maddox the photographer

mary maddox has taken up photography...anytime the camera is out she wants to take "pechers" giving it to her the first time was a big mistake. i do think that when she is a famous photographer that we will be able to say, we she started taking pictures when she was 2...as you can see from above her composition needs a little work...uncle dermot was good at following her lens.

i heart etsy!

Okay, I don't have any pictures of the kids tonight...y'all are probably sick of looking at my kids anyway! What I do have is some examples of why i love etsy.com SO much! This place has everything...it is like an ebay for creative people who make stuff. here are a few things that i pulled that i thought were fun.

Also...i will be gone again for the next couple of days...we are going to huntsville to my sweet niece's baptism. i'll be back with lots of great family pictures!




http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=36690

These adorable t-shirts are made by Nissalisa. i think that mm & g would look so cute in them.








http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5418

This shop takes children's drawings and turns them into toys...i saw something like this in the fao schwartz catalog...says that she will even do custom toys based on your own drawings...pretty cool, huh?



http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5134403

I love these simple earrings









http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=40325

i love hand stamped jewelry! i need a bracelet that says...put down the fork! ha...do you think it would work? probably not!



http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5255069#

i just love these tags...grady bug might need those!

i know, i know

alright...sorry it has been so long since my last post...(pelham, i think that you were the only one that missed us!) we have been busy! i will try to do better!

happy halloween!

halloween was really great this year. the kids loved it. mm figured out pretty quickly that if she brought grady's bucket with her up to the houses, she would get twice as much candy...the great white grady shark wasn't into the trick or treating.

here are amos and leighton getting ready to go. aren't they cute?


i love this picture. they all look so excited. look at leighton dancing!


one last pause before we went...check out mm's mouth...she got into our candy dish early!


our first house.



another neighborhood perk...we met up with neighbors on the way. thanks for joining us abby grace!


nobody home...i think mm thinks that there is still hope that there might be candy on the other side of the door waiting with candy.


another neighbor pick up...mm was sweet helping river to the next house!


this shark sure looks scary doesn't he?

run dermot run!

we went to washington dc this weekend to help cheer my brother dermot on while he was running the marine corp marathon. it was really awesome. really 26.2 miles...i can't even imagine. what an accomplishment. john and i were really inspired to get off our butt and start running again while we were there. i haven't picked my shoes back up yet, but maybe soon...

here we are waiting for him.


mile 7



mile 11



mile 22



here we are at the finish...looks pretty good for running 26.2 huh?

halloween take one!

here is halloween take 1...we went to our great friends the lingenfelters friday night for the annual halloween pary. here are a couple of pics...

doesn't this shark look spooky? i think that i see grady-bug under there...

here is mm being a total drama queen! she had to go back to the house to get her "cinderella" how many mermaids do you know that don't want to get wet.