Happy 40th Anniversary, Mamaw & Papaw! June 19, 2008

This past weekend, we headed back to our hometown to join T’s sister and brother-in-law and numerous other friends and family members in surprising T’s parents with a 40th anniversary party.  T’s sister has been planning this since last year, and I’m thrilled to report that Mamaw and Papaw were definitely surprised. 

The plan was for them to think that they were only going out for a celebratory lunch with T’s sister and brother-in-law and niece.  The first surprise was that they would be taken to lunch in a limo!  The second surprise was that T, The Bean, and I were waiting for them in the limo when the door was opened.  Since we live a 7 hour drive away, our visits back home aren’t run of the mill, and the fact that we were there was a treat for us and for them. 

Here’s a picture of them when the door was opened to reveal The Bean sitting in her car seat.

I couldn’t get around fast enough to get a clear shot of Mamaw’s face since we nearly forgot to have the camera out to catch their expressions until it was too late!  But if you look through the window, you can kind of see her face too.  T’s mom said her first thought upon seeing The Bean was “that baby looks just like The Bean!”  She quickly peeked in the car to see if we were in there too to confirm to herself that it really was The Bean in person!

Here they are in the limo on the way to Red Lobster for lunch.

After lunch, we all used the “girls-need-to-lie-down-for-a-nap-just-ride-around-in-the-limo-for-a-little-while” excuse to keep them occupied until the driver would drop them off at the surprise reception T’s sister had planned a little later.  The girls did get naps, but we also used the time to finish setting up before T’s parent’s arrival.

They were surprised again to see so many friends and family waiting for them when they were dropped off at the reception site.

 

Here’s the whole immediate family at the reception. 

It was a lot of fun, and we were so happy to honor such a special anniversary milestone. 

If you look closely at the table decorations, you’ll notice a small, metal, heart-shaped basket on the table.  The baskets were filled with red hots which The Bean discovered are quite tasty.  Every time I looked up, she was scoping out which table had a chair positioned close enough for her to reach the red hot basket on each table.  She ate so many that she threw up when we got back to the house a couple of hours later.  We’ll see if she still wants them the next time she has a chance to have them again!

Hats off to T’s sister, K, for spear heading the whole thing and doing so much work to make it happen.  Other family members definitely contributed as well to make it a special day! 

Congratulations, Mamaw and Papaw on 40 years of marriage.  Thanks for being such a blessing and a wonderful example!

Happy Mother’s Day May 11, 2008

Here’s the sweet Mother’s Day card The Bean made for me at daycare. 

The flowers are actually made from a tracing of her hands.  So cute!  I am so blessed to be her mother. 

Thank you to my mom and my mother-in-law for the blessings that they bring to my life.  There isn’t space enough here or time enough to say how much I appreciate the women and the mothers that they are.  Thank you for helping me be a good mother to The Bean.  I love you both.

Pondering Motherhood April 30, 2008

Susan and Janice over at Five Minutes for Mom are hosting a wonderful contest that is also a way to share a photo that makes you think about motherhood.  Quite good timing since Mother’s Day will be shortly arriving.  I had a difficult time choosing a photo, so I’ve got several to share.

Here’s my mom with my brother and me.  (My sister came later.)  My brother and I are “Irish twins” so to speak since we’re only 10 months and 8 days apart.  When I was old enough to realize what kind of toll that had to have been physically, I remember exclaiming to her, “Mom, you were pretty much pregnant for a year and a half!”  I think her exact reply was, “Don’t remind me.”  As difficult a time that was for her, literally having one baby right after another, I remember that she took the time to do things with us.  I think in this photo, we’re playing with our Sesame Street Colorforms set. 

Ah, yes.  This photo is famous in my family.  Here I am with my brother again after an afternoon’s play.  Mom said she looked out of the window to check on us while we played in the backyard one day to see that we were wallowing in the mudpatch that had been our garden earlier in the year.  Instead of getting upset, Mom said she remembers thinking to herself, “Well, they’re already messy.  I might as well let them have fun.”  Did we ever!  We slid around that huge mud puddle on our rear-ends and had a blast picking up huge handfuls of mud and glopping it onto each other’s head.  I love the fact that she allowed us to have fun and be kids and just kind of took it in stride.  She could have stormed out of the house and yelled at us for getting messy.  Instead, she let us have fun and just hosed us off afterwards.  Thanks, Mom.

 

This photo is me holding my daughter in the NICU when she was almost a month old.  I love that she’s holding my hand in it.  Although, we still had a ways to go in her preemie journey (and may still have twists and turns ahead of us), it was about the point that this photo was taken that I was feeling fairly confident that she would be okay.  I spent many hours praying to God that she would be fine, but also asking for the grace to make it through if she died.  She taught me more about God’s love and about being a parent right from the beginning and teaches me more every moment of her sweet, Beanish life. 

Kid’s Day At The Farmer’s Market March 29, 2008

Today was Kid’s Day at one of the local farmer’s markets.  So The Bean and I headed out with Gran this morning (Gran and Paw are visiting this weekend) to check things out. 

There was lots of yummy produce.  The whole place smelled of herbs and strawberries.  The live music they have each week was an added bonus.  It was great.  We came home with some pastured eggs, fresh mushrooms, tomatoes, and fresh strawberries.  Those strawberries filled the car with their wonderful aroma on the entire ride home.

They had a number of things for kids today, like a clown walking around and local school groups selling the produce from the students’ gardens.  A number of vendors brought animals for the kids to see.  There were ducks and a noisy donkey, as well as rabbits and baby chicks.   As always, a number of patrons also had their dogs with them.  The Bean was in heaven.  She loves animals and didn’t know where to look first. 

There was almost an unfortunate incident with the baby chick that The Bean got to hold.  Luckily, Gran intervened before we had to compensate the nice man for the loss of his chicken.  It seems that The Bean wanted to see the chick’s face.  In tightening her grip to try to turn the chick towards her, her hands got a little…um, secure… around the chick’s neck.  Of course when Gran tried to get her to let it go, she only tightened her grip more so as not to have to let go of this precious, downy treasure of a bird.  It was close, but the chick made it safely back to its cage.  It was a bit ruffled and missing a feather or two, but alive and well enough to go on and lay many an egg in the future.  Whew!

Here are a few photos of the near-miss with the chick.  Notice how both The Bean’s and Gran’s hands get a little tighter in each shot.  That poor chick had a close call! 

 

All in all though, it was a great morning.

A Bean At The Zoo March 22, 2008

Since the weather was so nice, and T had today off, we headed to the zoo this morning to break in our recently purchased family membership.  The Bean had a blast looking at all the animals.  She was more excited today to see the animals than she ever has been before.  We didn’t get to see everything before it began to get exceptionally crowded since it’s spring break and a holiday weekend.  But with a membership, we’ll be making regular trips to spend some time checking it all out. 

Here are a few photos to enjoy!

She REALLY wanted to pet this guinea fowl.

She took off to crawl down a tube that went through the pirhana tank,

and she made it out the other side.

The fish were a big hit, especially when the clown fish swam by and was immediately identified as Nemo.

The meerkats were also a big hit.

There were two baby giraffes to see.

The cheetahs were quite active.  She enjoyed watching them play.

She also watched Mac, the baby elephant, for a bit.

We had a hard time prying her away from the bear in the zoo shop.  No, we didn’t come home with it.

A Beautiful Day February 17, 2008

Today was my day to be Manager on Duty at work which is a responsibility all department managers share on a rotating basis.  Luckily, there are enough of us that it only amounts to one day every 8 weeks or so.  However, it does mean a precious day away from T and M. 

Last night’s storms blew through and left us with some amazing sunshine today, so T took M to the park for some playtime.  Since I wasn’t able to enjoy the time with them, T was sweet enough to take some photos of the fun they had. 

Here are a few of my favorites.

What’s That?

Windblown Bean

Noteworthy Exploration

Under It All

Down the Rabbit Hole

The Queen Bean

Joyful Wind

The Bean in motion.

Prayers For Comfort January 28, 2008

I just wanted to do a quick post to ask for prayers for comfort this week.  One of our aunts (on T’s side of the family) died this morning very unexpectedly.  Everyone is understandably quite stunned, especially our uncle and cousin, her husband and son.   

We take comfort in the fact that she was a believer and is now enjoying perfect happiness with God.  I was told that this morning when they woke up my cousin’s 2-year-old daughter and only told her they were going to visit PawPaw, she out of the blue said, “PawPaw is sad, but Nana is happy and dancing in Heaven now.” 

Pray for comfort for our uncle and cousin.  Pray for guidance as they consider the changes her death brings to their lives.  Pray that T and I will know how to be a comfort to the rest of the family and to each other.  Thanks.

And A Good Time Was Had By All January 19, 2008

We spent last weekend and several days this week making our belated Christmas visit to family in Louisiana.  It was so nice to see some of my aunts and uncles and cousins that I rarely get to see.  We also got some good visiting in with both T and my parents and our grandmothers. 

Of course, we all know that M was the real attraction here.  Her Mamaw and Papaw and Gran and Paw were glad to get in some good hugs and snuggles with her in person.  Our webcam visits are nice, but nothing compares to the real thing!  M loved playing with her cousin, M, and with Gran and Paw’s dog, Gisha.

Since it was our Christmas celebration with our family, there was lots of present opening.  M had to “help” everyone with their present opening.  We got to partake of Johnny’s Pizza (a locally based pizza chain that is delicious) which we traditionally do while we’re there.  We just can’t visit family without one meal at Johnny’s.

All in all, it was a wonderful visit.  I’ll post some photos in a subsequent post as soon as I sift through them all.   

Enjoying Christmas January 1, 2008

Christmas at our house was so much fun this year!  This has been the first year that M has a concept of what’s going on and really got into the opening of presents.  It was a blast to watch her pull the paper off of a gift and then exclaim “WOW” when she saw what it was.  It doesn’t get much better than that.

T got me a Flip Video Ultra Recorder, which he was sweet enough to give me on Christmas Eve so we could take some video of her opening gifts.  To say that I’m excited about finally being able to take some video of The Bean is a monstrous understatement.  He gets big points for such a great gift. 

Here are some photos of M opening her gifts and enjoying the day. 

She made short work of the wrapping paper. 

Books are ALWAYS a hit…especially Charlie and Lola books.

    

The BIG present was this play kitchen.  She really likes it!

         

We just have to teach her not to stick her head in the oven.

Merry Christmas! December 25, 2007