Project

I like projects.
I like watching HGTV.
This is what motivated me to start destroying the tile in the kids' bathroom shower the other night.
It has been leaking ever since we moved in and we finally decided to just rip out the floor and try to figure out where the problem is coming from.
Lewis got in there and tore it all out like the champion he is.
Aiden was there to help by reading a Fairy Princess story to him while he worked.
Lewis pulling out the soggy rubber shower pan:
This is part way through the demo:
Brooks was there to help too:
This is what it looks like now:
Stay tuned for what happens next! (we have no clue)

Science Mucenter

So we have some little words and phrases that we say in our family that are pretty unique. For example, any time that it is light outside but before 6:30 am we call "sleeping morning". Pretty sad that we had to come up with a name for that if you ask me. I think the main problem was that Lewis usually has to leave before anyone should be up and the kids would hear the garage door opening and HAVE to wake up to wave goodbye at the window. Hopefully that will be better now that we have the super duper special QUIET garage door opener. ANYWAY, back to the point.
Something else that we say is "science mu-center". It's what we call the McWane Science Center. I think Brooks came up with it and the best part is that my kids really think that is what it is called. Pretty funny. We went there on Saturday, here are some pictures to prove it.






Now if it would just stop raining for one minute maybe we could go outside or maybe even hit the pool!

Drumroll please......

........she had her big follow up weigh in today, and we are proud to announce the 11 month weight of Cate the great:


16 lbs. 5oz.


and we couldn't be prouder! But seriously, can you believe that she is already 11 months old?

In other exciting news, my lovely sister Jackie had her second baby this week, on Tuesday. I think she had the longest labor ever. Seriously, she was in labor for like 2 weeks or something. Ladies, she was a SEVEN when she went to her doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning!!!! (TMI?!?!?!) Not even in significant pain at that point. Porter Alan is his name and he is beautiful. Check him out here.

Allergies

I hate you.

What a mess

He's a nice enough old chap, but sometimes I wonder what on earth Santa was thinking when he brought that huge tub of play doh a couple of years ago.
( I just realized it's hard to see in this picture, but just imagine finding the nasty sticky stuff everywhere you look and then you will know what I mean)

Do Dah Day

On Saturday it was "Do Dah Day".
There was a parade and festival for dogs.
We went and the kids had a great time--especially collecting lots of candy from the parade.
Georgia was a nervous wreck as usual but she did better than I expected her to do.
Lewis joined us later in the afternoon.
We saw a few other Weimaraners and they were huge. I wonder how big George will get.
Luckily, we avoided all downpours and enjoyed some barbeque and good music.
Cate sure liked her first taste of barbeque. A true southerner I guess!!

Dear Lewis,

We still hate it when you're on call.

love,
your fan club
Cate the Great, President

Yard Updates

Our garden is already better than last year's. See the tomatoes already?

This is a "before" shot of the fenced in part of the backyard.
Another before.
This is today.
This is an up close shot of one of the spots that looks bare, you can see some baby grass poking up a little bit.
A before of the rest of the back.
And today. I moved 5 of the azaleas up to the side of the house last year when I was about 7 months pregnant. I also dug up the monkey grass and moved some of it to the back corner. I can't help it, being pregnant makes me CRAZY!!!!!!!!! (the picture in the header of the blog is the azaleas about a month ago--they are gorgeous)
Again, today, my oak leaf hydrangeas are starting to bloom. They are native to this part of the country and so they are EVERYWHERE. And incredibly beautiful.

Just sitting here...

...in my new mother's dayTOMS (thanks Lew!!)


thinking about Cate's wicked cool yoga poses,


and wondering if I am the only person who unloads and stacks these bowls in rainbow order.

Also, please settle this dispute: is it "southern" to say the term "quit hollerin' at me" or to use the word "holler" at all (to mean yell, not like holla you hear in rap music)

Happy Mother's Day

To all the mothers out there--thanks for all you do for us. I had a great mom growing up and so did JJ. In fact, JJ comes from a long line of great mothers. Here is a quick pic of two generations of mothers who helped make JJ such a great mom--with a fourth generation in the making (and learning from the best.)



I am sure that much of the woman and mother JJ is today began when she was a kid being raised by Deanne. I don't have any accessible pictures of JJ as a baby, but I think she probably looked something like this:



or this:



As she grew older (and wiser) she continued to learn how to be a great mother. (I think she looked something like this).




Seriously, she is such a great mother to the kids. She always puts the kid's interests first. Whether it is keeping them warm (our kids will die of suffocation before they are allowed to get chilly--but they will suffocate in warmth!),



or letting them sleep in bed with her because they are scared of monsters,



or just comforting them because their dad traumatized them,




she is always there for them and they know that, and I know that.

She is tough.


She is fun.



Thanks so much for being such a great mother to our children. (And thanks for never taking a picture of me like this!--I just wanted to get a picture of Brian in here to say congrats on graduation from law school--Way to go BIG GUY!)

Alright Ya'll

Lewis keeps bugging me to "post on the blog alreadyyyyyyyyyyy" (as Brooks would say). I don't want to post because I just LOVE the pictures of me sitting on the couch while talking on the phone. I am HOT!!! Ok, ok that's not it, I have just been so busy. Don't get me wrong, I love staying busy, but it makes it hard to sit down and spend the time to get the pictures from the camera to the computer and then from the computer to the blog. And I have been spending most of my free time working on painting the front shutters. I have finished completely 4 out of the 12 and have scraped and touched up the other 8, they just need a final coat now. It's been more time consuming than I anticipated, but I actually really enjoy painting so it's not bad. Except when I get outside and someone needs help getting a toy down and then as I pick up the brush someone needs help gettting a drink and then as I go to paint the first stroke someone needs to be wiped and on and on it goes.
This week was the last week of soccer. It was amazing because even though it has been raining cats and dogs around her the last couple of weeks, both nights of soccer were clear. And Cate has the mosquito bites to prove it. A 's team won as usual and B's team got near the goal a few times but still lost something like 15-0. And truly I try not to care because I know he is 3 years old, but let me just say that if I were to volunteer to coach say, rugby or something that I don't know a lot about, I would PROBABLY at least take the time to learn the rules. Ahem.








Today we a went to the zoo for a field trip with A's class. It was fun and HOT HOT HOT.
Summer here we come. I don't think the temperature was really that high, but it feels similar to how the bathroom feels after someone has taken a long hot shower. IT FEELS LIKE THAT OUTSIDE!! Which makes me wonder--will my shutters ever dry?!?!?!?!?!
Cate pulled herself up in her crib this week. I am happy because she IS 10 months old and should be doing stuff like this, but I am sad because I am not ready to have a mobile baby and pulling up usually leads to more movement

Welcome to our couch!

So we purchased a couch from a friend that we helped move today. We bought it without measurements, so it is a little large for the room we would have liked to have put it in. Oh well, such is life. It is a nice couch though, but where to put it . . .