Oh Atlanta.......I hear you calling

BellaRose and I were in the homeland last week and boy did we have some adventures. The schedule was jammed packed and this baby was a super star. No fleeing Atlanta in the middle of the night this time! We kept her up way past her bedtime, I stayed up way past my bedtime and not much crying from either of us :)!
We went to the zoo on Wednesday. I don't think that B-Rose was very interested in the animals but she sure loved the kids flying all around her. My friend Erin and her son Walker meet us there. She was such a good sport about it too because we had a crew with us.
Below is the a picture of one of the gorillas. They are my favorite to see. They are just like people, it is so amazing. My dad asked a good question, if we came from gorillas why are gorillas still gorillas? Hhhhhmmmmm good question! I wish good ole
Willie B was still alive but he has past on to greener zoos in the sky. The panda is the baby panda that you might have heard about. He was the size of a stick of butter when he was born (talk about easy labor), but now he is close to 100lbs. He was SO cute!

Uncle Tom and Aunt Carol stopped by for a visit on their way home to Memphis. It was so wonderful to see them even if it was such a short visit. BellaRose managed to slopper banana (see story below), strawberries, and bread all over Aunt Carol.

We also got some good quality time with Grandma. Of course that time is never long enough either. Grandma just loves babies, and especially ones that are named after her! Grandma will be 94 in August. Can you believe that?

So I was bold in a parking lot again. You know those annoying people in the grocery store parking lots that feel they can leave their cart where ever they please (sorry if you are one)? Well I have just about had enough of them. I am tired of taking their carts and putting them away. I manage to do this with a baby, why can't they do it. I am sure that they also would be the first to complain when a cart hit their car! Well anyway we were parked at Publix in the handicap spot for grandma and this woman takes the effort to put the front wheels of the cart on the curb right by my cart. I yell to her "excuse me ma'am, aren't you going to put your cart away?" She looks at me stunned and then tells me "You can, I can't leave my car". She managed to leave her car the whole time she was in the store and she did not have baby in the car. So like a good customer I took her cart. I am proud of myself even if I did take her cart. oh well!

One little monkey sitting in a tree.........

This little girl is such a monkey! You should see this kid eat a banana. She LOVES them! She stuffs the whole thing in her mouth and then she has to use her hands to keep it in her mouth.

Easter, 10 months, and ........cake!

We celebrated (well we acknowledged) BellaRose's 10 month birthday on friday. She has been "out" as long as she has been "in". I think that she is getting a handle on this world as much as she can. Her latest accomplishments are saying "aahhh boo" as in peek-a-boo, crawling everywhere, pulling up on everything, making us laugh ALL the time, fighting naps, making us look at pictures of her while she is asleep and us saying "she's so cool!", and basically just being the sweetest thing ever.

We also got to celebrate a Easter brunch at Highland Lake Inn with my sisters, their families, and my Mom (thank you Mom!). It was so much fun. As you can tell the kids all had a blast. Look closely and you will see Taylor's head getting smashed on the ground as they all fall out of the hammock. See......FUN! Sweet Girl is not so sure she is ready to join in all this fun yet. This place we went was pretty cool, they had tukeys, and baby goats, and a jack russell that killed and ate a mole in front of us. So much to do.

As you all know this is B-Rose's first Easter. She loved her Easter basket even though there was not a whole lot in there that she could eat. She did try to eat the reeces egg with tin foil. I am not so sure how good that was. We tried to let her have a bite of her chocolate bunny, but I don't think that she liked it so much either. Oh well, I am sure that won't be a problem in a couple of years. Just look how cute she is in her Easter best!

And on to cake. Bill, our neighbor and good friend's birthday is this coming week. He loves chocolate, I mean really loves chocolate. I found this "Starry Night" chocolate truffle with chocolate glaze cake out of my Whimsical Bakehouse cookbook. I knew I had to make this cake for Bill. I made the stars and his name out of melted wafer chocolate, and put pearl dust on the chocolate to make it sparkle, of course! This cake was out of this world. I don't mean to brag, but this was seriously my best effort yet! Worth, the man who does not like cake, even said on several occassions that this cake was SO good.

Well I have to go, we are heading to ATL this week, and my baby refuses to nap today. She is in her room screaming standing up in her crib banging on the bars acting as if she is in prison. It really is doing wonders for my nerves..... no really!

Lame-O

I have an announcement, Worth and I are lame. There it is, it is out there. I know, I know, you have trying to tell us this for years, but we have just now come to that realization. As I told you on the last post, we went to Franklin to see about Worth getting laser vision correction. Well this is a beautiful area folks and we were going to go see some water falls after his appointment. Pretty much as soon as we get on our way we realize we forgot the camera. Isn't this always the way. Pretty much the rest of the day followed suit of things just not working out. The doctor's office told us it would take about 2 hours for Worth to get his exam. In the meantime I had found a nice little park and greenway on the internet that BellaRose and I would go to while we waited. Well we get to the office and they tell us that it will only take 40 minutes. So we drop off Big Daddy and we try to find this park. I mean how hard can it be, we are only in this small town of Franklin. Of course in this small town all the roads are one way and they all seem to be the wrong way for me. I finally find the park, put BellaRose in the swing, and Worth calls me, and not sounding to happy at that! Head back to the office and he informs me that the doctor is NOT in!!! We just drove and hour and a half for the doctor to not be in. They say he does not have to be there for Worth to get approved to be a canidate for this lasik, but he is having other issues of seeing double and the doctor would need to check that out. We have another appointment in 4 weeks and will be heading back to Franklin, hopefully with the camera in tow. Well this did not end out misadventures. We headed towards Highlands, NC after lunch in hopes of seeing Dry Falls and being able to walk behind this gorgeous waterfall, nope not going to happen. It was CLOSED! How do you close down a waterfall? Well they did, closed, do not pass go. Okay we will try again, lets go see Bridal Veil Falls no again. We are officially sent to jail! I did pull over and take a picture of this other waterfall with my cell phone, but of course my cell phone says the file is too big to send to my e-mail. How is that even possible on a cell phone? So the only picture I have of the day is the one of BellaRose playing on the trunk of my car b/c we finally had to get her out of the car because she had been in it for hours and this was the only thing I could think to do. The one highlight of my trip was getting ice cream at Kilwins in Highlands. The best ice cream, ever! I know big statement, but so true.

Well we can't say the whole day was a total loss. We got BellaRose's swing up given to us by Big Poppa and T-Love (Worth's parents). Here is the progression of the swing going up from right to left (I know it is backwards, but hey so was the day). At times B-Rosey was more interested in eating acorns than the swing, but once we got her in it she loved it!

It feels so cool to pull up to our house now and see this sweet little swing in the tree right next to her two rose bushes that were given to her when she was born. We are officially a kid house. I love it! I know I have said this before, but I never thought I would love this gig so much, but it is awesome. I can't wait to go swinging with her, even if I am not actually the person in the swing. Next to come, a Sand Box!

Babies!

So many babies being born and about to be born! We would like to say a big congratulations to Catherine and her family for the arrival of their new baby girl, Charlotte. She is a sweet little precious bundle of joy. I cannot wait to meet her. I am blown away that just yesterday it seems like BellaRose was just a little newborn and now she is pulling up on everything and crawling everywhere. Embrace this time Cat, as I am sure you will. We are all so proud!
We would also like to thank Uncle Ben for this wonderful new vest that he got B-Rose. We love it, and so does BellaRose. Thank you so much, what a wonderful surprise.
Also we would like to annouce the GRAND OPENING for Annie's Etsy shop. She is doing these amazing, gorgeous, grid paintings. They are perfect for any kids room, and eventually for the whole house. She is one of the most talented artist I know, coming from one of the most talented families I know. Go and enjoy her shop, and check out other etsy shops. You can spend hours on there finding beautiful homemade items!

We spent a very lovely weekend in Concord, the birthplace and terrorizing grounds of Worth. We rode the gator, went out on dates, I got to go to Anthropologie, and Worth got to kill an already dead skunk (tell you about that one later). Fun was truly had by all.

Worth is going tomorrow morning to see if he can get screened for Lasik surgery. Courtney told us of her experience so we are heading to Franklin, NC to check out this doctor. He has several offices in Georgia and NC so I figure he has to be good to have so many offices and for Courtney to speak so highly of him. I will let you know how that goes. He is just so tired of wearing glasses, and contacts just kill him.

Back in the boat

Went on a walk with Annie and Will not too long ago after music class. We thought that Will and BellaRose would talk while Annie and I talked recipes and planning meals for the week. Well the little babies had a different idea. I guess our talk was SO boring to them that they could not help themselves from falling asleep. Music class really wore them out!
BellaRose's top two teeth have finally broken through so I think that the hurting for her will stop at least until those terrible molars I keep hearing about come in. She is crawling like you would not believe and pulling up on everything. She falls at least once a day and screams like you would not believe, but then gets over it and goes on her way. I know those falls will continue to increase as well. She waves to everyone and everything, especially her reflection.




Special Find: Method Baby Detergent LullabyScent
You know when you smell a certain scent and it takes you back to an event or a time in your life? Well that is what this detergent does for me. It takes me back to that time while I was pregnant preparing my sweet girl's room and cleaning her clothes in this amazing smell. I love Method cleaners anyway, for all they stand for and the goodness they put in their products. I mean how could you not like "people against dirty"! I thought I had lost this detergent forever because the people at Target don't always know what they are talking about. I was at Babies-R-Us with Becky and she found the detergent. I got so excited I almost cried. That picture of me pregnant up there makes me think of that smell. We were so excited, and scared, and nervous at that time, thinking about our baby and all the unknown that comes with bringing her home. I get butterflies right now just typing about it. That time was so precious, and now I have my scent back and everything seems right.




Speaking of good times, Worth is back in his boat again, well at least he was on Sunday. He has been on a long hiatus from boating. There used to be a time when Worth did not work when it rained and people knew they could find him on his beloved river. Well those days are gone now and Worth sees the rain as something different. But last week he got that old spark back when the rain came pouring down. He was able to enjoy the river and go boat with a good friend and he was like a little kid out playing, like what BellaRose does when she sees any kind of food. I am happy for my man, I know he has been wanting this for a long while and hope he continues to go to the river and maybe, just maybe, one day he will take his sweet baby!

Hope

BellaRose and I went to her 9 month check up this morning. I missed the appointment a couple of weeks ago, completely forgot. So I guess this will be her 9 1/2 month appointment. Want to know the stats? Well she is a tall one, she is 28 inches tall. I don't believe they like to give out percentiles at our doctor's office, but the nurse sort of whispered it to me and told me she is in the 50-75th percentile on height. Want to know her weight? 16.3 pounds. What a little bean!!! She is in the 10th percentile on weight. The nurse told me she is tall and slim, that she was just a little ballerina! How sweet is that.
She is also working on her top 2 teeth now. She got those bottom ones so early, at 5 months. I was beginnning to wonder if she had teeth up there at all, but low and behold she does. A part of me sort of wishes she did not have any teeth there b/c then she would not have to have hard enamel cutting through her gums causing her to wake up at night crying and me sleeping on her floor until 2 in the morning just to soothe her when she cried. It was fun...... really.

Yesterday it seemed I just had "one of those days". You know the one, where nothing goes right, I mean nothing. Well that was yesterday. It was a rainy stormy day. Usually those kind of days don't get to me, but yesterday it did. Worth could not work because of the weather, and BellaRosey was whining ALL day because of those teeth I mentioned earlier. I tried icing my cake for class tonight and it just was not working. The I tried to make my bread and it really stuck to the towel, but it actually did turn out okay. Worth and I were on each other's nerves b/c we could not get outside and he was restless wishing he lived anywhere but where we do. I know you guys know this kind of day. So to solve this Becky and I went to get a pedicure. It was perfect, just what I needed.

This double rainbow helped end the day. Hope at the end of the rainbow. Hope that things do get better that tomorrow is a new day. It was spectacular. It was completely over my house. It was the kind of the thing that drew people outside. I could see neighbors slowly start to trickle out of the confines and safety of their homes, to view this amazing gift in our sky. We took a million pictures, well Worth did, but this one was simply taken from my cell phone and pretty much sums it up.