In a great green room...

...there was a telephone, a red balloon, and a picture of...

Sound familiar? I have had this book memorized for YEARS! My sister loved this book as a child and requested it every night there for a while. Then, Olivia was introduced to it and we read it over, and over, and OVER. Well now, Isabella as fallen in love with this old classic.

In fact, she goes to bed hearing it each night, and sometimes wakes up each morning, knocks on her door to get out (b/c of the childproof doorknob covers) and has it in her hands...giving it to us before she even says a word. It is so adorable! I don't ever want to forget that!

I just love the fascination of this book. I remember being in a children's literature course in college where they talked about things that made it a classic. How it starts out light, but with each page, it gets darker and darker till the light is gone, and how there is a tiny mouse in each page. And I guess all kids love the part about the old lady whispering, "hush".

So, here's to another generation growing up on Goodnight, Moon...
"Goodnight noises everywhere."

Cooper is 6 months!

I just can't get enough of this kid! He is just so squeezably cute!! He was happy last Wednesday until I pulled the camera out...then his smiles disappeared. Of course, happens to most babies. But Emily and I worked like crazy to get him to forget about it all and have fun. I think we got some good ones. (He even decided to show off his tooth for us!)

Easter Sunday

I love Easter. I love the spring colors, Easter dresses, dying eggs, and egg hunts. I love the Cadbury bunny commercials (which I haven't seen in a few years, actually) and even bunnies and chicks in general. I love our family's annual Easter meal at my mother's house: ham, hashbrown casserole, baked beans, baby sweet pickles, and rolls...YUM! I love the excitement of day...and I love the meaning behind the holiday.

A few years ago I saw a skit at a youth group event that depicted the crucifixion of Christ and it really got me thinking. I bet Satan was absolutely beside himself, doing a victory dance--thinking he had won. But can you imagine the look on his face when the stone was rolled away and Jesus was not there!?! And even more so, when He joined his Father in heaven once again...

I think with so many holidays with fun activities and traditions, we forget the reason why we even celebrate. Now, that being said, we did have a great time yesterday and I have a lot of pictures to share!

First of all, trying to get a picture of BOTH girls in their Easter dresses is next to impossible. I had to settle for this! Ha!



So trying to get a picture of all THREE grandkids was absolutely impossible. And we had to settle for this! Sorry mom...



Coopy was all smiles during his diaper change... He is SO adorable!



Mr. Nathan and Mrs. Dorothy came also and had fun gifts for the kids to play with after lunch. One of the things in Bella's basket was a cool spinnng light toy in the shape of an egg. She loved it!




And I always love each holiday I get to spend with my Mamaw...




Look at these 'hard to find' eggs we picked up this year. Believe it or not, Bella found more of them than Olivia did!





When we were dying eggs Saturday night, I made one with each kid's name on it. You know how when you dissolve the dye tablet in the vinegar how hard it is to tell what color it is going to be? Well...I thought I was dying Cooper's red, but when we took it out, it was PINK! Oh well...he didn't care this year.




After the egg hunt, the girls looked for other ways to have fun outside!



Then we had a little mini-celebration for Emily's birthay. It was a long (but fun) day!

Daily blessing

Each night there is a particular blessing we say over our children before they go to bed. We've done it for years. Well, last night when I put Isabella to bed I said her blessing and she started blessing me back! It was so precious! She's done it a few times before (and I remember when Olivia started doing it at this age as well...). It is just SO precous! Makes you really see the heart of a child...

Tea anyone?

We had Olivia's Garden Tea Party this afternoon. It was the best birthday party I've EVER had at my house! We had 3 little girls come--two canceled today and a few were no-shows, but honestly, the 3 that came + my 2 girls made the perfect number for tea. Each girl got a white hat and gloves. We played a few games (new spins on the classic birthday games: pin the tea bag on the teacup, musical teacups, and hot teacup), and then moved outside to the gazeebo for tea.

My original plan was to have everything outdoors and have the girls play a modified version of croquet, but with the recent thunderstorms, our yard was very marshy! So, I settled for have the tea party itself outdoors and luckily it 'mostly' warmed up enough (only one little girl said she was cold the whole time we were outside).

We had fruit, and I made petits fours and tea sandwiches (consisting of PB and cheese). I also found a variety of fruit teas for the girls to choose from. Most did not like their hot tea as well as a traditional iced tea, but loved add sugar cubes anyway!

Olivia had a fantastic time and EVERYONE was so polite with 'tea manners'. I couldn't believe it! Even Bella sat at the table and drank from a real tea cup! I wish every birthday party would be this successful. It is certainly one Olivia will remember!

Oh, how the years fly...

On this day in 2002, my life was forever-changed...I became a mother. I am not sure of any other event in my life (other than becoming a Christian) that has had such an impact on my life as this. Somedays, being a mother is so tiring and unappreciated, but mostly, it is an unmeasurable blessing.

After my sweet Olivia Brook (named after my sister) was born after 18 hours of HARD labor, I was told that she was a girl. I immediately asked what any mother would ask as she sees her child for the first time from across the room, "Is she pretty?" Well, I thought she was beautiful that day, and I think she is even more beautiful now... She is such a sensitive and artistic child. She beams when she wallks in a room which makes the day is so much brighter. She is the best big sister ever and a fantastic artist (she draws the most amazing things for a kindergartener...seriously). We just couldn't be more proud of her!




And how do you like those glasses? She LOVES them!


Here's one of her amazing drawings. It is of a wall in my studio. I can't believe she draws in layers/perspective already. I think she is incredible!

Deadline

I, by nature, am usually not a late person...but a procrastinator?? OH YES! I seem to leave everything until the very last minute to get done. So why should today be any different? A canvas supplier that I am using for my business was having a huge spring sale (35% off) for large gallery-wrapped canvas prints...but the sale was going to be over this past Tuesday. I was going to be attending a photography conference in Charleston so I didn't figure I'd make the deadline. Well, the owner of the canvas company spoke at our conference and said he would extend the deadline until the end of the week for those of us that attended. GREAT!

I had taken a few snapshots of the studio with me to the conference to ask other photographers for their advice on decor and such, and it was suggested to me that I get a 40x60 canvas to put above the couch. Now, once I realized how LARGE that actually was going to be, I decided that if I was going to have so much space (not to mention $$) invested in a canvas, I wanted it to be of my own girls. I started hatching a plan and decided today was the day...the day of the deadline.

I had a shoot this morning scheduled already so we just went to the studio early. I shot two image in particular that I just loved, but after asking for advice to help me make my decision, and making several revisions of both of them...I finally decided on the horizontal one. Yes, I do realize you can't 'see' them very well. I wanted more of an 'emotional/relationship' image. Those are the kind of moments I want to remember... And the kind of things I am trying to educate my clients on as well.

So my order is processing as we speak--hours to spare before the sale is over and now I can't wait to see it on the wall! Once it is hung, I'll have to post a picture of it for you all to see!

Better late than never...

Well, we went to bed last night thinking we would be getting 8 - 12 inches of snow today... So, of course, we'd prepared the girls for a snow day...but also making plans in the back of our heads for school just in case things didn't pan out. Well, we woke up this morning to a wet ground AND school closings all over the state. Olivia woke up and asked where the snow was. As it turns out, the front could not get past Hot Springs during the night. As you can imagine, we did not have a happy 5 year old. She could not understand why we had no snow (and neither could we for that matter!)

Well, Brian and I talked and decided that if we didn't get any snow (or enough to matter) that we would drive the girls to northern Arkansas tomorrow for them to get a real snow day. So we started our errands that we had planned to do tomorrow in case we were traveling north. About lunch time, we started to see a little bit of accumulation on the ground. And after Bella's nap, there was about 2 inches on the ground. Not as much as we had hoped for, but enough to play in anyway...

So, we got bundled up and went outside...all of us except Isabella. She was cranky from a short nap and REFUSED to put on her coat and hat. So we left her to watch us out the window until she decided to get dressed for the winter weather. Once outside, she didn't know what to think. She never actually grabbed any snow (but she did reach out to touch the snowman--oops, I mean 'snowgirl') and once the snowball fight started, she was at least laughing at all of us getting hit with snow.