Special Delivery

Mara Kate got a package in the mail from her Aunt Laren (and uncle Patrick) a few days ago that had two really fun old purses that Laren's grandmother had come across and told her to pass along to Mara Kate for her dress up box. Mara Kate was thrilled to have a couple new accessories to play with the past few days and she was also excited about this lollipop which was also packed in the box that arrived from Birmingham earlier this week.

She thought the purple part of the lollipop looked like a snake all curled up. :)

"Look, Mommy, it's as big as my FACE!"
Yes, it is!

Now sure why, but every time she went to lick it she'd shut her eyes. It looked like she was really making out with that lollipop---so funny, Kane and I were cracking up. Or maybe she didn't want the stickiness to get in her eyes---not sure, but it was funny to watch her eat it. There is still lots left and we'll be eating it in stages for sure!

Yumm! Thanks Laren & Patrick! As you can tell, it was a hit!

Recent Knoxville Trip

We spent last weekend in Knoxville. We went to attend the funeral service for Kane's great aunt. She was a dear woman and a strong believer. She lived a long life and although I know many will miss her greatly there is peace knowing where she is now.

It wasn't a weekend of relaxed visiting, but nonetheless it was good to be with family for a few days, hugging and loving on each other.

I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are a few I snapped while we were there.

We arrived on Saturday afternoon. Kane's sister and brother in law also drove in that day. His parents were actually out of town until Sunday morning, so we had the house to ourselves that evening. We decided to go out to supper together at a yummy restaurant we all like. Mara Kate's kids meal came with a dessert so she was excited to have an ice cream Sunday. Otherwise I'm not sure she would have made it through the supper hour as she was very tired and looked like she was about to fall asleep right in her chair. But, once the icecream appeared she perked right up while we finished our supper and conversation. We really had a nice time visiting with Elizabeth and Choonghwan.

While we were in town Aunt Pat gave Mara Kate this moon pie "lollipop" and she thought it's BIG eyes looked funny, so she tried to copy them for the camera!
Thanks Aunt Pat. We are still slowing eating away on this treat.

Just a lazy morning at Tuie's house.

Friends and Fun

Earlier this week two of my dear friends, Andria and Katie came up from Atlanta for a day-visit. We really had the best time just visiting and hanging out. We pretty much stayed inside as it was raining the entire day, but the kids played hard and had fun with Mara Kate's dress up accessories. I think they were all butterflies at one point. Also, Diego really enjoyed walking around with Mara Kate's umbrella. It was really great seeing some of my sweet friends that I miss and don't get to see as often now that we are in Rome. It was also fun watching our kiddos play together as well.

Diego, Mara Kate and Ella Ann

The "younger siblings": Alexia and Rane crawling around in the background.

Thanks Andria and Katie for making the drive up!!

Then, later in the day, after we said goodbye to our friends, we went to Chick-Fil-A and picked up supper for us and took it over to Shorter College. We ate quickly with Kane then headed over to watch the Shorter volleyball game. One of Kane's students is on the team and it was the last home game of the season so we decided to go and show our support. Mara Kate had fun (at first), but eventually got tired out. Shorter won, of course and it was a fun evening.

Mara Kate took this picture during the game. :)

Weekend Project

This past weekend we began a painting project. We are painting some of Mara Kate's furniture white to make it all coordinate and match. Her walls are a light green color so I think the white furniture will really pop against the colored walls.

She is getting the bedding below (found a great deal on it at TJMaxx) for her birthday next month, so I think her room will look super cute with a white bed, nightstand, bookcase and small chest.






We just got through the sanding and priming steps on the furniture and it has been sitting inside in our extra bedroom all week drying. We'll try to get everything painted this weekend and will still have a couple weeks to let it dry completely before putting it back in Mara Kate's room. After her birthday, be looking for a post of the finished product! I can't wait to see it all come together!

Mara Kate helping Daddy. She knows we are painting her furniture white, but she doesn't know about the bedding yet! I think she will love her "big girl room" once it is all put back together.

Office Prank

OK, so for those of you who don't know, this week is National Chemistry Week.

It's ok, I didn't know either until Kane told me.

The Science Club at Shorter is celebrating this week by decorating the doors and offices of all the Chemistry professors and they are doing it to the theme of an old 1990's cartoon called Captain Planet. Every professor has had a different theme used in the decorating of their office. The cartoon had Earth, Fire, Wind, Water and Heart. Well, Kane's office was decorated with the water theme sometime in the wee hours of the morning and he came into work to this.

On the other side of the door water balloons were waiting to drop on his head, but being the scientist that he is, he used extreme caution while opening his door and was able to disable the "trap" before it exploded.

They went pretty crazy with the decorations...

...and balloons everywhere

Poster they made and hung behind his desk

They even left a present of a light saber (as Kane has several star wars things displayed in his office) and a pack of play dough for Mara Kate. She is very excited about it!

Look carefully at the streamers and you will see that they say, "H2O"! ha!

Photo Shoot

On Friday I had two dear friends come to visit from Atlanta. One came that morning with her two little girls and visited until mid afternoon. After she left another friend, Bobbi Jo arrived early evening for a sleepover visit. We just had the best time hanging out together. On Friday night we got pizza and had a laid back visit. We even ended up watching Twilight together as Bobbi Jo had never seen it.

Saturday morning we lazied around for a bit then headed out to do an outdoor photo shoot. She took some really great shots of us as a family, individually and Kane and I as a couple. It was fun having some couple pictures taken as I don't think we've had that done "professionally" since our wedding.

She has also been practicing taking close up shots of different rings lately, so I asked her to take some shots of mine---especially now that I have my anniversary band too. So, those shots are at the end of the album, as well as some of Bobbi Jo herself that I took! I did have her amazing camera to work with, but I was happy that they turned out as well as they did as I don't have near the talent or experience she does. To check out the entire album click HERE! Enjoy!

Let me know which are your favorites----I know I'll have trouble narrowing the choice down for the prints I want to order.

Shorter Football

This past weekend was homecoming weekend at Shorter College. Kane took Mara Kate to the football game Saturday afternoon and although it was fairly cold, they had a really good time just Daddy and his little girl! Shorter won and Mara Kate liked to copy the cheerleaders and yell, "DE-FENSE" outloud.

I didn't go as my friend Bobbi Jo was in town and I was hanging out with her, staying warm at home!

Are you as shocked as I am that Mara Kate let this hawk hold her?!

Sometimes Mara Kate watches football on TV with Kane, but this was her first time to go to a real live game. I think she'll go to many more with her daddy as she grows up!

Fun Slide Show

My dear friend, Bobbi Jo, put together this slide show of pictures of Mara Kate. These are pictures she took of her awhile back which I still haven't gotten around to ordering, but thought it would be fun to post the slide show on here for everyone's enjoyment.

If you are interested in a booking a portrait session with Bobbi Jo, you will definitely get your money's worth. Click here to get to her website.

Visitors Take Two

My parents were our second set of visitors this month. They stayed with us for one night on their way to a conference they were attending in South Carolina, then after the conference they came back and stayed for three more nights. It was really fun having them here, showing them our new home and also a little bit of Rome. We had a blast just visiting and hanging out.

One the one night they were here on their way to South Carolina we made sure to take them to the lake to feed the ducks that evening after supper.

Here is Mara Kate with Mimi and Grandpa before they left after their first night here.

Then when they came back, we showed them around town a bit and went over to Shorter College so they could see Kane's lab, office and the college campus.

Here's Mara Kate with Grandpa near a fountain at Shorter College.

Mara Kate fell asleep on my bed sort of randomly one day while they were here---she must have wore herself out! I really can't get over how tall she is getting...her legs look SOO long to me in this picture.

Watching the Swan Princess with Mimi before bed one night.
She wasn't really wanting to smile at the camera, because I was distracting her from the movie she was so enthralled in.



And, Saturday morning Kane made pancakes for us all.

He even made them in special "shapes" just for fun!

Mine was a heart. :)

A question mark for Dad...

and he also made a triangle for Mom....although the pic just disappeared, so who knows.

For supper that evening I cooked a pot of baked potato soup.


And we took some family photos after church on Sunday before they left.

Mara Kate stood on the couch to take this one---she got us centered on the first try!


While on this trip, Mom bought a kitchen torch and it came with the little custard dishes too, so for dessert on Sunday she made creme brulee...

Mmmm! It was really good.

I'm almost 30 and I think this was my first time to eat creme brulee...Mara Kate on the other hand tried it for the first time at age 3!

The Fair

The Coosa Valley Fair is going on all this week and we went last night. It's right here in Rome, so it was so convenient to go. Mara Kate and I went over to Kane's lab about the time it was finishing it up and picked him up. We made a pit stop at Moe's for a fast supper and then headed over to the fair grounds.

Mara Kate had never been to a fair, but she was sure she knew what it entailed because of seeing a fair on her movie Charlotte's Web. She had a pretty good idea and one of the things from the movie that she remembered was that the little girl, Fern rode the Ferris Wheel. So, Mara Kate was determined that she was going to ride it too! I'm not sure she realized how tall/big those things are, but after she saw it, it didn't sway her in the least. She was ready to GO!

We started out with some of the smaller kiddy rides and of course the first one she rode ended up being her favorite of the night (besides the Ferris Wheel).

Ready to go on the "lollipop swings"

Flying high with Daddy---giving Mom a quick wave!

Her face after riding her first ride of the night! She was so excited!

Driving a car---appropriate since she wants to be a race car driver when she grows up!

Enjoying every second

Her first bite of "cotton ball candy", as she called it. Yumm!
You just can't go to the fair without buying cotton candy.

The Ferris Wheel---the BIG one---yes, my baby rode this! (I don't even like riding Ferris Wheels---I feel like it goes too slow to be up that high. I'd rather be on a roller coaster that goes that high than a slow moving wheel)...but, she loved being up so high and loved seeing all the lights. Kane said she kept standing up in the cart to look out at everything!

In line ready to ride

Last ride of the night---motorcycles.
Next year we may invest in the unlimited ride armbands. If we had bought any more tickets we would have come out ahead getting the armbands, but you live and learn.



One last shot with Mommy---
not a great smile, cause we had just told her it was time to leave.