Wonderful Wednesday!!!

It's Wonderful Wednesday at 7 Clown Circus. Her name is Angie also and she loves for you to post a picture that you just can't quit talking about. I have many, but I decided to use old photos that I haven't put on my blog. So here we go.

This is one of my very favorite pictures of Emily. I took this one morning when she was getting ready for school and as you can see it was before Game day. We love our Crimson Tide and every Friday during football season, Emily would wear team colors to school. She is so cute in this picture....I could just pinch her face!!! I loved it so much that I used it for our Christmas cards last year. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. ROLL TIDE!!!

4th of July

This year on the 4th we went to spend the day with my parents, aka Gran and G-Daddy. My brother Jeff and his family also came over and we had a really fun, relaxing day. I'm so thankful that my parents have big shade trees in their backyard!! The best place to be Saturday was in the shade. We also pulled out the slip-n-slide for the girls to cool off in. Robin, my niece, could slide like a pro, but Em was not so sure. It didn't take her too long to catch on and soon they were screaming and having a big time. Little Gracie had to make do with the baby pool since she is definitely not big enough for the slip-n-slide. Don't worry G, in a couple of years you'll be able to slide just like the big girls.

Emily, Robin, and Gracie

Uncle Jeff helping set up the pool.

Gracie couldn't hardly wait to get in that water!!!

I hope to get some better looking ear plugs for Gracie soon. The plugs that work the best so far are a hunter's orange!

Em making sure G-daddy doesn't mess up the homemade ice cream.

I do believe my mother was pretty happy to have all her family together.

My brother and his wife Tessa

G-Daddy riding everyone on the beep-beep.

We had the best day, but it was tiring to say the least. When we got home we started getting everyone ready for bed. I fell asleep around 9:30! That is way early for me these days. Usually the last thing I do is go through the house and make sure everything is turned off and the doors are locked, but because I fell asleep watching TV, Chris had to do that for me. He went in Em's room to check on her and this is what he saw...

I think Emily had way too much fun.

I hope everyone had as much fun as we did on the 4th.

Later all.

Happy 4th of July

America, America
God shed his grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea.
-America the Beautiful

We hope you have a safe and wonderful 4th!!!

Show us Where you Live Friday!!! Yards

To say my yard is grand and glorious to look at would the the understatement of the day. But a couple of weeks ago, you wouldn't have anything to look at. We moved into our house almost a year ago, and through my husband's blood, a lot of sweat(very humid where we live) and tears(mostly mine-ha), we have beautiful landscaping in the front yard. Chris got smaller plants so they would have room to grow and he is still wanting to but a few Crepe Myrtles in the front. Do you know where we can find any on sale!!!




Many of you know the names of flowers. Not me....I can hit the most popular ones: Roses, Ferns, Ivy (which I can kill down to nothing. Who kills Ivy!!!). I was real impressed with my sis-in-law, Maggie at http://maggielizabeth.blogspot.com/, she knew all the names of her flowers she put on her post. Not me!! I call this "yellow flower in my front yard".

I'm pretty proud of my ferns. I have two modes in gardening: I water it too much or never water it. My ferns were looking a little dry at the beginning of the summer, but I worked at them, gave them fertilizer and cut all the dead stuff off of them, and now they look pretty good if I do say so myself.

I love this garden flag. I got it at a yard sale for a $1.00.

We have a rather large porch and it is wonderful to sit on and be shaded. But it gets direct afternoon sun and you will burn your hair off it you sit out in the afternoon.

I hope you enjoyed the little tour. Later all!!

A Great Day of Doing Nothing!!

I woke up this morning with going to the pool on my mind. But sometimes plans change, so we had a day of doing nothing and it was great!!!

The girls woke up in great moods and Emily even let Gracie play with her toys. This is the first time they have ever sat and played with each other quietly. It warmed my heart to see Emily sharing (which if you know Emily, that is something she never does) and talking to Gracie and telling her about every toy. I just watched them for good long while. Then of course, I had to take a picture.

When I decided to do this blog, I knew it would contain the good, the bad, the ugly parts of being a stay at home mom. A real BAD part is that I am not great at organizing. Never have been.

One blessing we have in our new, almost year old house, is that we have a playroom. Most of the toys we have, and we have too many, stay in this room. We have a basket of toys in the in the living room, and when it gets full, I haul it back up to the playroom. I have been known to stand at the bottom of the stairs and throw stuff up to the top. (I'm sure my mother is dying reading this) As you can tell, I do NOT clean this room every day. To me, that is the benefit of it being out of direct sight!!! But every now and again, it just gets too out of had...and today was that day!

I had to take a before and after picture!!

Of course this is the before!!

And here is the after. Not much better, but at least you can walk with out killing yourself. There needs to be a great exodus of stuff, but why get rid of it just to buy more!!

After the Great Playroom Cleanup of 2009, I had to run some stuff to the Post Office. While we were getting ready, Emily informed me that was her mad face.

I got tickled because if you know Emily like her family does, you know this is not her mad face. Well she didn't like the fact that I was laughing and I got the opportunity to take a picture of her mad face.



Now that's more like it!!

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, I LOVE our neighborhood. Our neighbors Tammy and Landon have been at VBS all week, so tonight they came over to our house for pizza. Landon, Em, Gracie and I went to get the pizza and after we ate, we met outside for our weekly "neighborhood meeting".



This is the infamous Landon. This boy is a mess for the word go!!! He won this bicycle for bringing the most kids to Bible School!!! Now that'll get you motivated!!!

I told you Gracie can say the word "more" and do the sign.... well I got it on camera. Last night we sat outside with Mrs. Bertha and Henrietta (some more neighbors) and they gave Gracie a piece of cake. And yes she ate the whole piece (Chris did take a few bites). Well Little G was up until 10:00 and I know it was because of that cake!! When Mrs. Bertha asked Gracie if she wanted some "more" cake, she said the word and did the sign. Everyone laughed and cheered, so she kept right on doing it. I do believe that's pretty smart for a 10 month old!!

This is Tammy. She would let me get any closer with the camera.

This is Mrs. Bertha and Henrietta. They just love us and we love them. Henrietta buys Emily her favorite drinks and buys snacks they know she'll like. They have her spoiled already.

Like I said, we had the best day of doing nothing!!!

Ready for the 4th

Today we got our things together for our July 4th celebration!!! I have wanted an American Flag for the front porch for awhile, so we went to Nelson's Variety Store on Broad Street to find just the one we needed. I love going in that store...it's like an old dime store, right down to the creaky wood floor. Emily loves to look at all the toys....they are just simple toys like the ones we all had when we were little. We really had to look fast because I carried Gracie in instead of putting her in the stroller and my arm was about to fall off. Emily had to have something before we left and her choice was chocolate milk!!! That girls loves her some chocolate milk!!!

After we left Nelson's, we had to make our weekly pilgrimage to WalMart. I do believe this is Mecca to all stay-at-home moms. We had to return some sippy cups that we didn't use and it seemed to take forever. But soon we were shopping and Emily was a big help marking things off of our list.

Once we got home, I had to put up the groceries, feed Gracie, and get her put down for a nap. Gracie woke up and had a little snack. I have been trying to teach her sign language for the word "more". Can you believe she said it and did the sign!!!!! Well, she did 100 times....and when Chris got home she wouldn't do it for love nor money!!! That's just the way it goes!!!
We also played our daily game of "Duck, Duck, Goose". Emily loves it and so does Gracie!!! When Emily starts saying "Duck", Gracie's face just lights up.

I do believe that sisters make the best friends!!!!

Night All!!! Have a good day tomorrow!!!!

Happy 10 Months Gracie

Gracie's 10 month birthday was actually on Sunday, but it rained and messed up my plan for outside pictures. We had our photo shoot this morning and I had to work real hard to get a few good ones.
I'm telling you this baby is such a sweetheart. Many folks tell me they have never heard her cry, and I hate to brag, but she doesn't much. She is "crawling" everywhere now. Her crawl is like none other I have seen before....it's more like a scoot. She can say Momma, Da Da, Up, Ugh-O, Hello (sometimes), waive bye bye, and clap. I am teaching her to say "one" and hold up her finger....that will be her big trick at her 1st Birthday party. She is sleeping all night, but as soon as I brag on her, she will be up all night. She loves baths and playing with her toys. Her smile could melt the coldest of hearts, and I'm in love with everything about her. Thank you Lord for this beautiful baby!!!

After our photo shoot, I had to get some cleaning done. My sis-in-law, Maggie gives Sophie Clare Popsicle and she says they really keep her busy. Well, anything Maggie does I will try, so I gave Gracie the Popsicle in hopes that I could clean my kitchen.

She liked it for about a second....and then everything went South!!!

Oh well, I guess she didn't like lemon!!! I think where I went wrong was not putting the Popsicle in her teether, but by the time I realized it, she didn't want the teether or the Popsicle. So much for cleaning the kitchen.

Later All!! I hope I have something interesting for you tomorrow.