Eggs, eggs, everywhere!

Tonight we hosted a Easter Egg Hunt at our house for our Sunday School class. We were originally going to have it yesterday afternoon, but with highs in the upper 40's, windy, and a soggy backyard, we decided to postpone until today. We had absolutely gorgeous weather today - so glad we postponed! Sorry to y'all who couldn't make it today . . .

Carolina is wondering what all the commotion is about! There was a lot going on!
Walker and Carolina were definitely intrigued by something! Just wait until next year . . .

Here is an attempt at a "group shot". They were getting "instructions" - you know, since an egg hunt is so complex and all -while the momma paparazzi were taking pictures.

Here is the other half of the panoramic view . . . There were more kids than this, I'm not sure where they all were . . .

This is the best I was able to get of Lawton. He has officially entered serious, "I'm out to win and find all the eggs" hunting mode. Just two short years ago he was much more interested in the kite that was flying instead of eggs filled with chocolate. Sigh. How time flies. Even though he had a heaping basket of eggs, he was sad because he didn't find the gold or silver egg. He "didn't win". Hello! - you have a huge basket of candy (that you hope I don't get into while you're at school tomorrow. . . :)

Anna Kate and Lawton - the only shot I got of him and a friend. :( I was a little occupied with getting the food together and such for our sandwich pot-luck.

However, I did capture a few of Carolina and her girlfriends, Anna and Izzie. They were all very interested in food. :)

Oh, and I did say there were eggs everywhere! We have four bluebird eggs in our bluebird house! Yeah for spring!

Zout is my new BFF

Do y'all know about this stuff? I have heard about it before in playgroup passing (or somehow) and finally decided to try some out. Now, I am NOT the expert in stain removal . . . I am TERRIFIED of bleach . . . but my mother-in-law is an expert at all stains. I, however, do not have the patience to scrub and attack stains.

This stuff works! As long as I can remember to scour every item of clothing - mostly ALL of Carolina's clothes and the knees of Lawton's pants - and spray them down, we are good to go!

Carolina is eating everything - and making big messes! I am (proudly) just letting her go at it and feed herself in hopes that I will have a better eater than my oldest . . . Zout, I love you!

Are there any other cleaning secrets that I should know about? Because if you know something that I should know, 'fess up!

See Rock City

On our way back from camping, we stopped at Rock City. Our original plan was to go to the aquarium, but then decided that parking in downtown Chattanooga with a camper might not be the easiest. So, instead, we decided to pull our camper up the winding, drop off cliffs of Lookout Mountain. ha!
When we told Lawton that we were going to Rock City (which neither of us had ever been to despite seeing the signs ALL our lives) he was adamant "I DON'T like Rock City. I don't want to go there." yaddy yaddy ya. We just ignored him and kept on going.

When we were within twenty feet of entering the "Enchanted Trail", Lawton yelled out gleefully, "SEE! I TOLD you I was going to like it!" um- hum. We just looked at each other and smiled. Everything always has to be his idea. He can be so bossy sometimes.

Look how excited he is. He LOVED it.

Here is the swinging bridge. He wasn't too crazy about this at first (and neither was I), but at the end he was so proud because he was so "brave". :)

Here is Chad and Carolina at the look-out area where you can see seven states. (Seriously?) We indulged Lawton and actually put in a quarter in the binoculars. Chad was taking a turn and I was messing with Carolina when we realized that Lawton was standing on the stand of the binoculars trying to look in the other end at Chad - and VERY close to the railing of probably a, oh, 1000 foot drop off. We grabbed him and jetted away from there, trying to put our hearts back in our chests. Remember from the last post how he almost plunged off the cliff (again). Who are his irresponsible, not-holding-on-to-their-busy-three-year-old-boy parents anyways? Sheesh.

Here we are about to enter Fat Man Squeeze. I love this Home Alone picture. :)

We had to take Grace out of the carrier to make sure she didn't knock her head - it was tight!

Lawton has asked about six or seven times if we can go back to Rock City. I'm glad he "didn't" like it and "didn't" want to go. :)

I posted a video below - just in case you don't have anything else better to do - but you might not if you are actually reading all the way to the bottom of this post. ha! :)

Rock City video

This is not really for the video, but for the audio because he was cracking us up he was so excited. You might not get quite as big of a thrill out of it as we have. Sorry. Before we finally got the video going he was really hamming it up - but toned it down of course once we were recording. . .

Interpretation in case you can't make it out - we're in a spooky cave, (Chad is pretending to be scared) Lawton - Daddy be brave. something about a fairy godmother (we were in "fairyland"- I cannot believe it!

A camping we did go!

We waited until the last minute to firm up our Spring Break plans . . . it's no fun camping in cold, wet weather, especially with two little ones! It was perfect camping weather- cool at night to sit in front of a fire, 60's and 70's during the day! Lawton LOVES to go camping and we took Papa J and Gran-D (Chad's parents) camping for the first time (in their entire LIVES!) They survived - and maybe will go again sometime!

Here we are on a short little hike right off the campground to a waterfall.

Lawton went through about 15 "hiking sticks" on the way . . .

Gran-D and Papa J were able to get some good Carolina time in!

Lawton actually decided to join, too. :)

Thankfully I remembered to bring a hat - it was sunny for Baby Girl!

We drove a little ways down the road to DeSoto Falls in northern Alabama. It was pretty impressive! The falls reminded me of the waterfall we saw back in December.

Do you see the sign that says "Dangerous Overlook"? Oh my goodness. There was a huge drop off right beyond the rails and the railing is not the most secure. While we were walking down the stairs, I was in front holding Carolina and Lawton was right behind me. Somehow he lost his footing and lurched forward about three feet. We were ten feet or so from the edge, but it still made my heart leap out of my chest. Needless to say, someone was holding on to him tightly the rest of the time!

Here is Papa J holding on tight while we were taking in the sights!

Gran D and Papa J in front of the upper part of the falls

This was a strawberry that was in the carton for our lunch one day. Have you ever seen one like this? It looks like three grew into one!

Check out how nasty she is on her new digs! :)

"Sweet" Memories . . .

The other night we went to the annual Inner City Fish Fry at the Fairgrounds and sat at the table with our good friends Jim Bob and Helen. Jim Bob loves Lawton (as well as any other kid - he's so good and gentle) and has always sang a frog song to Lawton that makes him laugh. As we were leaving for the night, Jim Bob reached down in his pocket and handed Lawton five or six coins for his "piggy bank". You would have thought that Jim Bob had given him a million dollars! Lawton excitedly came and showed me and then ran and gave Jim Bob a huge hug around the legs. (Lawton does not give out many hugs to other people - especially unprompted!) Jim Bob then entrusted him with a few more coins for Carolina's piggy bank. Lawton took his responsibility very seriously. :)

Every Wednesday night when we walk down the hall to leave church, Mr. Andy, one of Lawton's two year old teachers from last year, always lets Lawton choose a treat even though he hasn't been in his class for a year. Mr. Andy knows that Smarties are his favorite and makes sure there are always some in the bowl. He keeps feeding that sugar habit . . .

Watching these interactions have reminded me of a few people from my youth. Every Sunday after church was over, I would always seek out Ms. Beaman, the "bubble gum lady". She had a large gray beehive and had a special shoe because one leg was shorter than the other. Without fail, she would hand me a piece of gum every time I would go see her - and I loved her for it. Then, while walking out of church, our preacher would reach up on top of the coat rack and let me choose a dum-dum out of a white, round Tupperware bowl.

Mrs. Tarpley was a jewel of a neighbor that was just a fence hop away from our backyard. The wire fence was bent down from where my sister and I would go and visit her on a regular basis. I'm not sure if she and my mom would talk on the phone to let her know we were coming or if my mom would call her in desperation saying that she needed her to keep us out of her hair for a little while. Regardless, my sister and I loved going over there and playing a mean game of Aggravation and then always leaving with a handful each of Double Bubble. She even had a special Valentine's Dinner for us one year. I'll never forget it.

Remembering how these small, kind "sweet" gestures made me feel, and then watching how they make Lawton feel gives me a "goal". Right now, I can't really be handing out sweets to other kids while I won't dole them out to my own child all the time. But, one day when the kids are out of the house, will I be the "bubble gum lady" to the next generation? I hope so.

C'mon, Spring!

Lawton and I got out the Easter decorations today - the dreary, dismal, cold, rainy day. Ugh.
We needed to add some springiness and happiness to our day! When I hung our Easter Bunny on the front door, I realized that our Welcome mat, complete with holly and red ribbon imprinted on it, never made it to the barn after Christmas. oops. It's still on the front porch. (It was cold and rainy, okay?) You might be a redneck if . . . you have an Easter Bunny on the front door and Christmas mat out at the same time. Don't tell anyone. We're (thankfully) back door people now, unlike at our old house where we were front door people.

Here is Lawton decorating the Easter tree this year. . .

And here he is last year! Honestly, I really think he looks about the same. Maybe a teensy bit more babyish here, but he has never looked babyish (not a lot of baby fat!). Notice his decorating skills here. :) Love it.

Here is this year's tree. Some improvement, but still lopsided. :) I'm not changing a thing.

And if you want to see what else I'm doing for Easter this year, click HERE. C'mon, Spring!

Why is this so stinkin' cute to me?

Caughtcha!

Look who's one!

My sweet nephew, Luke, is the Birthday Boy! (Well, actually this Friday is his birthday, but we partied this weekend because they are moving to KY this week!! Talk about a crazy week for them!)

Here he is checking out some presents, but mostly playing with tissue paper!

Ummm, do you think he liked his cake? yeah! At first he just played with the icing, but then Kathryn put some in his mouth. He dug in full force then! Adorable.

He was oblivious to the paparazzi around him. He wanted CAKE!

Not a fan of the party hat. At all. Not one bit.

He had a puppy party theme. Aren't these cupcakes that Kathryn made precious?
Here's a picture of me and Luke's number one girl cousin. :) Oh, Lawton and Chad were at home. Lawton woke up in the middle of the night Friday night with a raging 103.4 fever! He then proceeded to run a high fever and got sick all day Saturday and Sunday. Today we got the verdict at the doctor (whom I have seen WAY too much in the past two months) - Strep throat - our first case of it at our house. I now know the symptoms! :( We haven't really broken it to Lawton that he missed the party - his fever was so high he lost track of time . . .

Noni and her two babies - see how Carolina is ripping out her bow? Arghhh.

Aunt Kathryn and Carolina Grace

This is how Carolina really felt about the photo ops that we kept on subjecting them to. Attractive, I know. She can really buck her back when she's not happy! It was a beautiful day! Too bad we spent most of the weekend inside with a feverish, achy boy!

See her new 'do? She BARELY has enough hair to sweep it her scraggly wispies over. . .

I just realized that I never posted these pictures from a trip to the library a couple of weeks ago. Look at their admiring gazes (with loveys in hand, of course!)
"My cousin Lawton is so big . . . and so busy!"
"She's touching me! Get her away!" :) (Could this be a sign of things to come?)

Happy First Birthday, Luke! We love you!

Gotta love accessories!

Could there be anything any cuter? (not in my opinion, obviously, or I wouldn't be posting this . . .) I love her dangling feet, the socks and super cute shoes, and the teeny bruises on her chubby little legs from her excursions around the house! And I also love the fact that is going to be a beautiful weekend! Yippee!

See how she is kicking her leg while watching me and Brother play soccer? Life couldn't be any better!

And for the accessories - I NEVER leave the house without a bow in her hair (but she recently discovered that something is up there and will pull it out - and then try to put it back- ha!). She always has a bracelet on her - never take it off - bath and all! And I love all the consignment sale and Target clearance shoes! Her Papa J makes fun of her (me) for always wearing pink and having bows - he just doesn't have a clue because he's been surrounded by just BOYS his entire life! (But deep down - I know he LOVES all the frou-frou and doesn't know how to tell me! :)

If you haven't stopped by Momtessori lately, be sure and check it out before tomorrow! There's a give away that you or someone you know and love would surely enjoy! :) Enjoy the weekend!