Family Traditions

All families have traditions. One of my favorite is Sara's ability to weasel her birthday presents and Christmas presents from me early. She's been able to do this since she was a little kid. There's always a reason she needs them early :) Sara's birthday is not til August 29th...but she needs this t-shirt nowwww. lol. So tonight I ordered it to be drop shipped to her home..Happy Birthday Sara! You can wear your new shirt to your dad's family reunion! I'll bring the boca burgers!

Summer fun

I don't post very often..I think I've finally figured out why. I have a very good friend whose pictures are always so good they border on spectacular. I come on to post, look at hr photography, and say, oh well, mine just need to stay hidden on my little Picassa file for me lol.

But this week end we went camping. My mom and dad, who brought along my nephew, Jesse. Chuck and Sara came. The four of us, all met at the James River and had a true camping week end with fishing, swimming in the river, s'mores. Best part of the week end was Chuck cooking breakfast on Sunday morning, as far as I'm concerned :) Taylor's favorite part was the water balloon war that pitted she and Chuck against Emilee and Jesse.

It was hot, but everyone did their best to stay cool and share some good times.

Sara called us this afternoon....and we are awaiting the birth of Penny Jean Brown!! I can't wait to go out and look at little girl baby stuff, I had just made myself wait til I knew whether to look at little boy things or little girl things but now we know! Taylor is beside herself with joy and plans on throwing a party tonight to celebrate..wish we could be with Sara and Chuck so we could celebrate with them, but we'll get somthing pink (sorry, Chuck) and see them soon!

Camping with Yogi

Taylor was very brave about the waterslide but was scared to death of Yogi, BooBoo & Cindy!

Scroll down to see her shooting out of the big yellow tube :)

Camping ?

We are camping, well sort of. Taylor said she wanted to go camping, as I've told her many stories about taking Sara and Emilee camping when they were little kids. When we took them it was to state parks where you rode your bike and hiked and played in streams and if you were lucky you had a lake to swim in. We came camping to a place we'd camped at years before by the James River. Boy, have times changed. Now this campground has cable, a pool, waterpark, mini golf and water slide! And activities by the hour. oh, and obviously wi-fi. This is one happening place. Its a beautiful spring day, but only in the lower 70's and overcast. This did not keep Taylor from trying out the water activities - the water is ice cold! but she's determined to try everything this "campground" has to offer. I'm just glad Tom is taking a couple much deserved days off, and we're getting ready to make Chinese green beans outside with our electric skillet. This is a Yogi Bear campground so I've got to get outside, Yogi, Cindy and BooBoo are scheduled to tour the campground in about 1/2 hour!

Morher's Day - Part 2

Today, for mother's day we went to our church and it was a very special service. Before we left for church this morning, Taylor gave me the newest Lady A CD and Emilee gave me a 'lazy susan' to put in my pantry for all my spices. And both gave me some flowers for our front porch. Taylor made me a card at school and gave me a pack of seeds of zinnias that we are supposed to plant together..haven't figured out yet where to try this horticultural mom & daughter feat :) We went to my mom's for lunch and she'd fixed enough food for a country church potluck - she always makes me eat too much! And this afternoon, Emilee had to work but Taylor and Tom planted flowers in our garden. We are gardening organically and marigolds help keep some bugs away from the vegetables so today's job was to put in the marigolds. Taylor was so busy that even in the low 60's degree day, while I wore a hooded sweatshirt, she had to roll her pants up to make shorts so she could get her work done.

Sara called and she and Chuck had visited their baby goat, Ethel Louise (I think Chuck came up with this name, lets hope Sara names their baby). Ethel is still being bottle fed and Sara got to feed her. After she and Chuck had been home for an hour, she convinced Chuck that she cannot wait til the first of June when Ethel would be weaned so they will probably go back next Sunday and pick her up and that will give Sara the opportunity to bottle feed the baby for a few weeks til she's ready for 'big goat' food.

To my mom, who is the greatest, and to any and all moms who read this, Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day Part I

This past week end Sara came home for a visit as Chuck had gone fishing with his dad. It was a hectic week end with Emilee's Jr/Sr and I had a thing I had already committed to at church on Saturday morning (which was very inspiring), and Tom and I hosted a get-together with a few families from our Sunday School class on Saturday evening. And in between all that we had a chance to have some fun with Sara and enjoy seeing her as she is definitely a true mom-to-be! she had on her maternity jeans, she's gotten some really cute tops and Taylor followed around marvelling at everything Sara ate (I'm sure Sara appreciated the play by play from Taylor). Sara bought me this beautiful hanging flowering basket but the highlight of the week end was when she and Emilee and Taylor (OK, mostly Sara but she generously let the other two take some credit) cooked a meal for my mom and I on Sunday for lunch. Sara made fettucini alfredo from scratch and this really, really delicious tomato sauce complete with fresh basil and tomatoes and garlic and onion, she poured this all over top of rigatoni and baked it, it was mouth watering! Both dishes were amazing - she really is Jamie Oliver, Rachel Ray and Paula Deen all in one ;) The girls topped it all off with baking pound cake and brownies and serving those with fresh straberries and icecream. I will now be fasting for the next five days lol. Sara got to spend one-one-one time with Taylor Saturday morning and Emilee Saturday evening, so glad she got to spend time with both her sisters.

So here's to the mom-to-be, hope her mother's day is as special as she made mine (she is going to visit her new baby goat on her mother's day next Sunday! Little girl, with blue eyes, awww). Can't wait to see pictures!