Catching Up

This weekend I have spent some time thinking about all of the things that I "have" to do. I have to hit my deadlines, I have to make product, I have to clean the house, I have to mail out bills, I have to feed my child.....the list can get overwhelming.

But last night, my husband took me out. We ate some yummy Sushi, we took our beautiful daughter to an outdoor music festival, we took a carriage ride around downtown. Basically we slowed things down a bit and just enjoyed life.

It was one of the most amazing evening that I can remember. It also made me remember something. There will always be a huge list of "have to's" in life, but we do these things, and we work hard in order to enjoy those precious moments that happen when we least expect them.

A big thank you to my wonderful husband for reminding me why I work so hard. I love you!

Ice Breaker

So....It's been awhile.  A long while actually, and it is time for me to step back into the ring.  I have plenty of excuses, that I am busy, that the baby hates the computer, the I have discovered and become addicted to FB, but none of those really matter in the least.  Therefore, I am making it my pledge to do better.  Much better.  And I promise that I will start doing just that....tomorrow.

Fresh Water Friends!

So I finally got around to putting all the pictures from this summer on to my computer.  Meaning that now I get to share all the fun with you!  See, I promised you that we had all kinds of fun, I'm just all kinds of slow when it comes to sharing!

I decided to start with what I think of as one of this summer's highest points.  My DH and I were lucky enough to get two of our nieces for two weeks this summer.  We had SO much fun with them and were sad to see them go.  But while they were here we did sneak in a few fun days!  One of which was spent at the Chattanooga Aquariums.  

The girls all had a blast, (little and big!) and we got some great shots!  Take a look!

This is the pool where you can pet the sting rays.  My DD thought it was awesome, but she kept trying to lick her hands so we had to end up just letting her look.  I think that she would have happily climbed right in if we would have let her!

In the butterfly garden M and T kept catching these beautiful butterflies.  DH wanted to hold one so bad, but we didn't think that that would end well for the butterfly.  So T held it and Daddy held CJ's hand to let her feel the wings.

The girls took the baby down this tunnel so she could see the tanks from the inside.  I don't know what was funnier, the way they looked inside, or watching my 15 year old niece try to crawl through the tunnel!

Little bit LOVED the fish.  And she loved even more that her cousins would patiently take her anywhere she wanted to go.  As you can see here, she was totally inthralled!  I miss my helpers!

My nature loving niece showing her animal skills once again.  I swear this child was born to be a vet!

This one wasn't from the aquarium, but I thought it was too cute not to post.  They made a fort and all crawled through it.  So sweet!

Oldest niece showing her bug catching skills.  I'm going to make a southern girl out of her yet!

Mommy with her sweet baby!  She is getting so big, but I love how happy she looks here!  This is why we bought season passes to the aquarium!

This was taken is the fountains outside of the aquarium.  Since we didn't let my DH play in the water inside of the aquarium we let her play in the water outside.  She loved it!  She ended up in her diaper and nothing else and soaking wet!  She also got her daddy wet and I can't tell you how much he loved it.  I don't know why but he thinks its sweet when she gets him wet.

This is how much she loved it!  So cute.

More later!

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

So it's official.  My sweet baby girl turned one yesterday and it was a very bitter sweet day for me all the way around.  While I have loved every moment of this year and wouldn't change any of it for the world, I also feel like it has gone too quickly!  As I was looking back through pictures to do this post I started to tear up a little looking at a time that I will never have again. 

Already she can do so many things that I'm just not ready for, it lets me know that I better not blink or she'll be ready for college!  Well, I promise I'll do a fun post after we have her real party on the 4th.  But for now all I can say is Happy Birthday Baby!  Mommy loves you!

Oh, and how do you all get the pictures to turn the way you want them to?  Mine go all whonky when I try to post them! 

The Babies and The Beach

Okay, I know I'm behind.  Well, to be honest I'm a bit more than behind, but I have an excuse.  It's not a good excuse, but an excuse none the less, and 

that it that its summer.  And this particular summer has been pretty full of all of these amazing things that I don't have pictures of yet.  

I mean, I have the pictures, I just don't have them off of my camera.  But one

 thing that I do have pics of is our recent family vacay to the beach.  Me, DD, and DH all went to the beach with the in-laws.  This was my first trip with them and it was an eye opening opportunity to say the least.  

On a side note, this is my brother in law and one of the triplets.  KG was a cheerleader for UT back in the day, and he is teaching all the kids to stunt.  Caia just kind of sat on his head .  We'll have to work with her on that!

 But, back to Vacay!  For starters we has 6 little girls all in one condo unit.  1 six year old, 2 year old triplets, 1 16 month old, and my sweet baby at 10 months.  If you check out the pic to the left here you can get a good idea of how it looked for the most part.  I especially love all their little matching outfits in this pic.  

 Actually, it was a lot of fun!  We did our best to wear the kids out every day, and as you can see, it worked!  I mean, what kind of self respecting 

two year old falls asleep in their dinner plate? Poor little Sarah!

The kids were all so sweet and it was fun to watch them play together in the sun and sand.  Caia loved the pool and she would happily play in it for as long as her dad and I would stay in with her.  She was so sweet!  She also decided to make the trip special by taking her first steps.  Now she is running around every where and daring all of us to keep up.

I'm going to wrap it up now because I have managed to delete my pictures three times and have no idea how they are all going to show up on the page.  I don't know how you guys make it look so good!

Happy Father's Day!

I wish that I had a picture to put here, but I think that I am just going to have to talk it out.  This morning I was trying to get the baby to kind of color on her Daddy's Father's Day card.  It took a minute, but then she really seemed to get the concept.

She clutched the marker I gave her as tight as she could and had this very serious look on her face as she slowly made marks on the card.  While we were doing this, her daddy walked in.  She gave him a big smile, and he melted when he saw what she was doing.  

I decided to stick the card in the envelope anyways and gave it to her to give to her daddy.  This was what was sweet.  She clutched that card in her little hands like it was a treasure and then handed it to her daddy.  Then she leaned over and gave him a kiss.  I have to admit, I got a little teary, and it was a great moment for her and her daddy.

My DH is over the moon and doesn't care if he has a present or not.  I just wish that I had it on film of some kind!

Happy Father's Day to all you Daddy's out there!

Creepy Crawly Critters

The other day I got a call from a friend of mine that reminded me of what it's like being a newbie living in the south.  You see, she had just gotten her very first tick.

Don't laugh, it's traumatic.....And maybe just a little funny.

You see, this is my super outdoorsy, eco-friendly, didn't shave her pits for a summer because she was working as a park ranger in Washington State, friend.  So the face that she called me absolutely freaking out was pretty entertaining.  

It makes me think back to when I moved to the South.  Granted I was much younger than she is, but I still remember my first camping trip with blinding clarity.  The conversation went something like this:

Them - "Hey, before you go to bed make sure that you check your sleeping bag."

Me - "Why?"

Them - "Ticks, Snakes, you know, things that could crawl in there."

Me - "I'm sleeping in the truck."

See, where I grew up we were taught important life lessons like, "Don't eat the yellow snow."  We were never taught to check our sleeping bags for things that could potentially kill us! In fact, all the things that can kill you in Alaska can eat you, so them hiding in your sleeping bag isn't really an option.  

Over the years I have come to term with the ticks.  We have a hate hate relationship, but I can deal with them.  Snakes on the other hand are a whole different story.  I scream, I shriek, I turn into a very sissy girl.

Can't help it.