What Must She Think?

Sometimes I just wish I could get inside of a baby's head and know what they must be thinking.  All these big people moving around them at what must seem like warp speed. 

In sweet Emma Ann's case, she has some not so big, but bigger than her people, constantly moving around her.  Constantly in her face.  Constantly kissing her.  Constantly loving on her. 

Thankfully for me, EA is pretty expressive, so I like to think I get a peek into that sweet head and what she must be thinking.

For example.......

"Really, Mom?  I'm the baby here and she's climbing on my shoulders?  Are you just going to stand there with that thing attached to your face or are you going to help me out?"

"Girl, that bow!  Don't you think that's just a tad to big for your little head?  I'll talk to Mom for you about that one!"

And really, what I pray she thinks is that she loves to get to be a part of this sisterhood that is developing at our house. She sure smiles a lot when they are around!

Future Photog?

Hannah Cate has developed quite the fascination with my camera and I'm thinking that we might have a future photographer on our hands. 

I'm so thankful that she caputred this sweet moment with my baby girl.  I'll treasure it forever!

Littlest One

I could just eat this little one with a spoon! 

She's my little buddy.  I feel like we are connected at the hip sometimes. 

She continues to be such a joy and such a sweet baby. 

Laid back almost doesn't do her justice. 

I whisper in her ear all the time that she's the best one we have (for now). 

Her sisters are giving us a run for our money - but I know it won't be long before she joins in on their antics. 

For now, I'm just going to soak up her almost four month old easyness!

Staller

This little girl has become a master staller at bed time.  She'll pull out all the stops!  Her latest thing is to ask about a million questions when I'm trying to leave the room and turn out the lights.  The other night she was just peppering me with questions and I couldn't get a word in edge-wise.  Finally I was able to tell her that she could ask me one more question and that was it and we were going to bed.  I told her that she better make it good.  She must have sat there thinking for about a minute, coming up with one last question that she just had to ask before she closed her sweet eyes to go to sleep.  She looks over at the lamp on her bedside table and says "Uh, where did y'all get that lamp?".  STALLER!

Maddie Goes to School

My sweet Maddie girls started school this week. Just look how big and proud she is with that bag!

She has been wanting to go to school like "Sissy" for awhile now.  I took her with me one day to drop off HC and she cried when she realized she wasn't getting to stay!  Our problem was HC's school didn't offer a 3 day program for Maddie's age and we didn't want them going on totally different days.  So, we found Maddie a new school.  It's not ideal going to two different places, but hopefully we'll just do this for one year.  Maddie's school is so sweet and I've been really impressed with the staff and how kind they have been to my baby girl.

She's our spit-fire and I'll be honest and say that I was a little worried about how she would do. So far we've gotten nothing but glowing reports from her teacher!

On her first day she walked right in and never even looked back.  I couldn't believe it.  So proud of my girl! 

The Halloween that kept on giving....

I thought Halloween might never end at our house!  We went to a total of four different Halloween functions over a span of three days.  We definitely got our money out of these costumes!! 

Hannah Cate continued to ask where our costumes were, so maybe next year I can pull off a family theme of some kind.  Don't hold me to it!

On a side and slightly un-related note - I would like to talk to the person that came up with the idea of telling children to say "cheese" when taking a picture.  It's so, so bad!  Maybe it's just my children, but the end result is not good, not good at all!  I've got to figure out a way to wipe it from their memories! 

Find the Light

I still have a lot to learn when it comes to photography, but I'm reminded when I look back at pictures of Hannah Cate when she was a baby that I have come a long way!  We bought a DSLR camera before Hannah Cate was born - one of our best purchases.  But even better than the camera itself was a workshop I attended last summer in Birmingham (Click Workshops).  I really think it was as good, if not a better investment than the camera - because now I really know and understand how to use my camera outside of the Auto setting.

Probably the most important thing I've learned about shooting in Manual is that it's all about the light.

Today I was taking some pictures of Emma Ann - I put her in the bumbo seat for the first time and wanted to document.  I started off with her back to the window.  The pictures looked pretty good, but a little dark for my liking.   

Then I thought - it's probably better if I switch this around and put my back to the window - so much better!

Same settings on my camera (ISO 200, f/2.2, 1/200 shutter speed), same room, same time of day just a quick change of position and ultimately a much better use of the light.

Add a little editing to my "better light" pictures and we are good to go!

I was doing so good....

and then we had to go and move! And now it's been almost a month since I have blogged. Yikes!

We are tired around these parts.  All of us! 

I came into the kitchen today to fix my lunch and this is how I found Maddie.  Matt had been giving her lunch and she fell sound asleep.  She slept like this for an hour!

Moving is hard work and I still don't feel like we are really settled.  But we are getting there and I'm hopeful that I'll be back to a normal blogging routine really soon!

A Great Reminder

One of the things that I love about moving is the chance to clean out, purge and go through papers and pictures that have been tucked away.

While cleaning out my desk this morning, I found a card that my Dad gave me before Hannah Cate was born.  I'm really not a "save every card I receive" kind of person - but this one was special.  It struck a cord with me - not the card itself - but what my Dad hand wrote on the inside.  

The card itself says something to the effect of, "So many good times are in your future".

Dad wrote:

So many happy times

So many trying times

So many loving times

Cherish them all - before you know it she will be grown and gone!

I just couldn't help but think that must be exactly how he feels.  He is speaking from experience.  He's no more than turned around and both of his girls are married and he's taking gifts to our baby showers.  I'll guarantee you that he doesn't remember the crying and whining and late night feedings as much as he remembers teaching us to ride a bike, dance recitals, my softball games, Emily's band trips and proms.  He probably does remember the rate at which $20 bills flew out of his wallet - maybe those were the trying times he was talking about!  I bet he felt like a walking, talking ATM.  

I'm thankful for this reminder to cherish the time with my girls.  I know that in the blink of an eye I'll be writing my own card!   

Barnes family ~ 1981

Me and Dad at HC's baby shower - April 2008

Randomness

Emma Ann laughed this week for the first time.  She was laughing at Hannah Cate shaking her Auburn shaker in the back seat.  It was one of the sweetest sounds ever.  I'm not sure who enjoyed it more....me or Hannah Cate!

Speaking of Auburn....sad day yesterday.  It stinks to lose when you are so used to winning.....18 games was a long time ago!  I told HC that they lost and she said, "They lost?  They not doin' right!".  That's right, baby, they not doin' right at all! 

I've been cleaning out my email inbox and it got me started on "unsubscribing" to many of the junk emails I get daily, weekly, monthly.  There is something so satisfying to clicking that unsubscribe button!  I feel more organized and clean with each click!

I decided at the beginning of the summer that I wasn't even going to visit the Pinterest website.  I didn't want to know what it was about, didn't want to know what I was missing.  Then I started shopping for a new kitchen table and thought the little that I knew about Pinterest meant that it might help me in my search.  So last week I caved.  I signed up and IT.IS.ADDICTING!  So many great ideas, so little time (and money)!  However, I found an idea that won't cost me any money or any time (at least not any more than I would have spent anyway).  I'm in desperate need of a haircut, so I'll be taking the iPad with me to my next visit and we'll see what master Lee thinks about this for me....

I can't say I'm the biggest Jessica fan....but I do love that cut!  Thank you Pinterest!

The other day, Hannah Cate was playing with our home phone.  She was pretending to talk to someone and had just wrapped up her conversation.  I asked her who she was talking to and she told me she was talking to Mimi (my Mom).  Then she proceeded to tell me - "I need to call her back, no, I'll just text her!"  I guess that's just a sign of the times!

We are moving!  We bought our current house (our second home since we've been married) in April of 2007.  That was pre-kids.  Looking back, I'm amazed that we couldn't see a little farther down the road and realize that 1.  I work from home and therefore need a home office 2.  My family lives out of town and will need a place to stay when they come visit and 3. Eventually we will be adding more people to our family; though they will be little people, they will require a lot of stuff and space (I wouldn't have expected us to predict the warp speed with which we added those people, but that's another story).  We are just absolutely out of space.  Our master closet has become a nursery.  Our bath tub has become a laundry hamper.  Our garage has become a playroom/Matt's office/closet/storage/you name it.  The space between the wall and our bed (a space just wide enough that I can stretch out my arms and with one hand touch the wall and with the other hand touch the bed) has become my office.  Hannah Cate's room is also the playroom (along with just about every other room in the house).  You catch my drift, we just need a little more space.  We move next weekend and I'm super excited!

Via Pinterest, a friend told me about an incredible site for bows - Halo Heaven. 

 

I was skeptical but received my first order today and the quality is amazing, especially considering the cost. I paid a total of $24.00 for 24 bows. Pretty amazing - especially considering I have paid $8 for the exact same quality of bow at boutiques in town. You have to order a dozen at a time, but you can order assorted colors in your dozen. Around our house it seems like we lose a bow a day, so we can never have too many!

Highly recommend this site!

The other day I "accidentally" upgraded to the new Blogger site.  Oh my goodness, it's so much better!  So much easier for uploading pictures and formatting - everything is better really!  They have a link at the top of my homepage offering to take me back to the old site - um, thanks, but no thanks.  Thank you Google for the much improved functionality, I think I'll stay!



How was that for random!

Some times the days are long. All I see are the toys scattered along what seems like every inch of our house and milk splatter stains on my chairs. I hear whining and crying and arguing over one toy among the 500 others. I feel like I've changed a million diapers, all while wiping runny noses and tear stained cheeks.

Really those are just fleeting moments mixed in with some of the sweetest days of our lives.

I look at these pictures and I can feel a tugging in my heart reminding me that I'm really going to miss these days. The coordinating outfits. The pure joy a few bubbles can bring. Sweet sisters holding hands and giggling together. Long afternoons spent playing outside in the yard. Hilarious conversations only possible with a 3 year old, big bear hugs from a 20 month old and sweet smiles from a 9 week old.

An old boss once told me "Sally, you have to take the grease with the gravy". Just a Southerners way of saying you take the good with the bad. And the truth is, there's a lot more good around here than bad.  So I'll take my grease if it means I get a heaping helping of gravy with it!

Hello.

My name is Emma Ann and I am getting to be such a big girl.

I can hold up my head.

But sometimes I get tired and need to take a rest.

I'm getting stronger everyday and one day I'll be able to run around like my crazy sisters.

My Mama tells me to slow down because I'm growing too fast.  I think she better soak up my tiny-ness now because I won't be the baby forever. 

L.O.V.E.

I don't mean to sound overly dramatic, but sometimes I really think my heart might just burst with the love I have for these little girls. And it about does me in when I see them loving on each other.

I can only pray that they will always love each other this much!

2 Months

This sweet little thing is two months old today! We go for her two month check-up tomorrow, so I don't know how much she weighs or how long she is. But I do know that I just love her to pieces!

Her tempermant reminds me more of Hannah Cate at this age than Maddie.

She cries when she is hungry or sleepy.

She really likes to be held.

She loves her paci - just like both of her sisters!

On average, she's sleeping at night from 10:30 until 6:00.

She's a snuggly little thing.

Loves a warm bath.

Not so fond of tummy time.

She tolerates her car seat for the most part.

I call her Sweety Petey.

Matt calls her EA.

Hannah Cate calls her Emma Ann, but sometimes wants us to just call her Emma.

Maddie now calls her "beebees".

She has started smiling pretty consistently when you talk to her, especially when she has a full tummy.

Her smiles make my day!

Emma Ann,

It's hard to imagine our days before you.  You are such a good natured little baby girl.  You just go with the flow and for that we are so thankful.  I could snuggle you and kiss your sweet cheeks all day long.  I am so thankful that the good Lord gave you to us.  I promise we will love you and cherish you all the days of your life.  

Much, Much Love ~

Mama   

We love our Tigers!

It's that time.....Auburn football and Gameday attire! Thankfully we have a favorite Aunt Janet that keeps us stocked in AU attire!

I'm reminded everytime that I try to take a picture of all three girls together that it's just about impossible!



Oh well, maybe next time!

Hannah Cate says "What happened to #2 and #90? Are we really losing to Utah State?"
We love our Tigers no matter what, but are very thankful that they pulled out their first win of 2011.

We also love our Nini and her Birthday was last week. We celebrated after the game.
She was so gracious to let Hannah Cate help blow out the candles!
This is a pretty great reprensentation of what things are like at Nini and Da's house.....everything revolves around the little girls. They absolutely rule the roost over there!
While I'm on the subject of Auburn.....let me tell a little story about Hannah Cate's teacher and Hannah Cate's Daddy.

Mrs Reid is an Alabama fan.

Matt is an Auburn fan (obviously).

We want Hannah Cate to be an Auburn fan.

Hannah Cate came home one day after school and said to me....."Roll Tide". After I picked my jaw up off the ground, I quickly told her that we don't say those words at our house. I reminded Mrs. Reid the next day at morning drop off that those are not words we say at our house and that she was going to get Hannah Cate sent to time out if she continued her antics.

That same day, here's the letter A "art" project that came home from school:

Pretty blatant if you ask me. Matt couldn't let this one go.

Over the weekend he worked on a little art project of his own and sent it back to Mrs. Reid on Monday with a little note attached:

Fortunately, Mrs. Reid thought it was hilarious and I think Matt has successfully endeared himself to her. I'm sure he's going to have a little something fun coming his way come November!