one more thing

I just want to let everyone know about this fun place here in memphis at the botanical gardens... the big backyard for kids... so much fun... the girls and teresa and grandma and i had so so so much fun. It was fun the whole time. you could burn a whole afternoon there without even thinking about it and to top it off... it is free on wednesdays from noon to 6... i mean can't beat free fun.

Elly M. at 2

I started to think for a couple of days that two was going to be absolutely horrible. the girls were both screaming, neither or them were sleeping and i declared to the Great God above.... "have mercy on me" and He did. I took them to the doctor to find out that they both had double ear infection! i was greatly pleased to know that this was not my future with two small children, i would soon have my sweet elly m. back to normal.. or her new normal of potty training and having big girl bed and just not being anything like a baby anymore. She is doing an excellent job potty training...my mom and many others told me that it would be easy once they decide they are ready to do it. I am shocked that one saturday about 2 weeks ago, she just flat out told me "no more diapers mommmy!" that is after spending the entire morning in them, but from that afternoon on, she has been a big girl. i am amazed at just how fast she has grown. She is a rather amazing two year old... as she grows.. she becomes more and more entertaining. she definitely has her two year old moments, especially with her little sister, but that is to be expected. i am trying to think of a couple cute things she says at two, just so that she can remember later...swimsuit is swimsoup, everything that starts with f comes out sounding like s, for instance flower is souwer, frog is sog, fork is sork.....but most words she says and she says mostly well... yesterday sitting in the bathroom we had a very important conversation, or she made it feel important... sitting on the toilet she says "mommy, piglet has a butt!" in the most excited tone... "mommy has a butt", "daddy has a butt", roosie(ruthie) has a butt", "my baby has a butt"... what two year olds discover!!! fun and entertaining to discover everyone has a butt!

cuteness to the max...

I couldn't help but blow up ruthie in this picture. It just captures her fun personality to the T. She is a blast most of the time. Elly m., ruthie, and evie spend most non-nap times together doing fun things. We are so fortunate to have little miss evie and her parents as are friends. We get to do lots of fun things with them. I noticed that I have a lot more pictures of ruthie recently on the blog. i think i would like to say that most of my pictures of elly m. are of the back of her head. She will not look at the camera anymore. She is too busy doing other things like dancing and running and looking around at her surroundings. her world has opened up past just her mamma and daddy. it is fun to watch her be so curious. she loves to sit and talk about everything that she has just seen. at the end of the day, she will often lay in my bed with me and just talk about the things that she enjoys doing. She is definitely a little girl that needs to her word quota done before she goes to sleep. sweet little thing she is.

How old are you ruthie?

Happy 2nd Birthday Elly Märta

10 year reunion...

I mean i couldn't believe that it had been ten years since i had seen my classmates. of course lives have changed, spouses have been added, many have children and many have moved quite a ways away... but there was still the bond of spending almost 1/2 of our lives together so far. It was fun.. many laughs.. many pregnancies talked about, just lots and lots of fun for me. I am looking forward to the next reunion.. they talked about a 15 year... it would be fun to see how everyone's lives have changed!!!

more of cousins.

Here are some more of the cousins.

Fun with cousins.

My aunt brenda had a birthday and the whole family went out for pizza. the children had a blast afterwards just running around like chickens with their heads cut off from ice cream sugar highs!!! they have so much fun with each other... there is nothing like having cousins the same age!

Time at Meme and Papa's house

we had a great time spending an entire week at meme and papa's house. It is so nice to get out of the city and enjoy the country life for awhile. The weather was beyond perfect and almost a little bit chilly for this time of year. We would spend lots of time outside just playing and swimming and being children, all of us. Ask my mom!!! Ruthie was especially fond of my mom's homemade jams!!! yummy... i am definitely a fan too!

a family photo and more b-day

I just realized that I haven't been doing a very good job explaining things about the pictures and life. I find myself in a hurry trying to just get pictures up here so that I can get on with what is going on in life right now.

another kitty cat birthday!

Here is Elly M. opening presents and ruthie relaxing under a balloon at the birthday party. The other little girl in the pictures is cousin brooklyn. All of the little girls love love love the kitty cats. We had to get the girls each a kitty for their birthday because our three legged wonder cat got eaten and killed by two stay german shepard dogs. The kitties are still a big hit among all the little girls, except for evie maybe, she tries her hardest to stay away from them.

a few more pics. of the big 2 b-day!

here are a few more of elly m.'s birthday and guests. My brother and his baby owen are just too cute. I love little owen's chubby chubby cheeks! he is so cute! and the cake, I am still impressed with my own cake making abilities.

not always happy

It seems these days that Ruthie has changed from the not so happy baby to a very happy one year old. she is such a character!!! Here she is with her little cousin owen, whom is only little by four days! They are thoroughly enjoying an ice cream cone together, for not the first time, but second time. Meme got quite the kick out of these two eating or devouring their ice cream cones.