Our own personal Masters scenery

When we moved into our house last September, I had no idea what was waiting for us come spring.  There was A LOT of shrubbery that I wasn’t crazy about, and we had lots of ideas (still do!) for lawn improvements down the road.  Some beautiful daffodils popped up in February, and a few purple irises have bloomed.

Now, though, we are in the middle of a beautiful spring in the South, and our back and front yards are starting to look like Augusta National.  (Except for the grass - it's hellacious.  This will be a major overhaul to be completed after all home renovations and associated construction equipment have come and gone.) The azaleas are out of control, in terms of both size and frequency.  And they are all kinds of different colors.  Russell and his dad cut down a 15-foot holly tree, and my instructions to them were to cut down or dig out anything that doesn’t have a flower on it.  We have a hydrangea that is about 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide, and I can’t wait for it to start blooming.  We actually have quite a few things that haven't started blooming yet.  There are also some amaryllis about to bloom right in front of our house.  I have never actually seen them growing from the ground, only in floral arrangements.  Clematis vine, a big dogwood tree, various sizes of gardenias, tulips...the list goes on and on.

We’ve spent a lot of time outside trimming and mowing and mulching, and we are far from done.  Emma loves to be outside with us, just watching us work.  She likes to watch us work from inside, too.  I’m finally really thrilled with something about our house – it has been one major headache after another, but now I just love looking out the windows at God’s beautiful springtime creations.  Here are some pics of just a few of the beautiful flowers in our yard.

The amaryllis:

 

Watching from her favorite spot: the front door.  Kind of like those cats that sit in the window all day.

Anndie's Baptism

Last weekend, our sweet niece Anndie was baptised at her church in Clemson.  Emma was great for the little bit of time she was in the service, and then we took her out for a lovely spring walk during the rest of the service after Anndie was baptised.  We didn't really want to leave her in the nursery since the workers would probably all freak out if she choked.  Anndie, though, was wonderful.  She didn't get to sleep as much as she probably would have wanted to in the morning, so she slept all through the lunch in her honor at Monterreys.

The definition of a baby

The other night, a friend of mine called Emma a baby, and then she said, "Well I guess we can't call her a baby anymore!"  My response was that as long as she can't walk, she will always be my baby.  That's a joke, folks.  She literally, physically CAN'T walk.  So she will always be my baby.  Silver linings here.

In sooo many other ways, though, Emma has definitely grown up.  She had a wonderful second birthday, and it's actually not even over yet!  My sister is still going to come celebrate!  Here is a pic of Emma on her birthday morning, happy to be awake and ready to celebrate!

We took Emma out to eat for birthday lunch with Aunt Leigh, Va-Va, Mama Jan, Dada, Nan, and Mama.  Thanks to the Cafe at Williams Hardware for giving us our own little birthday room :)

Emma went to sweet Garren's birthday party and had a great time in the gym in her mobile stander.  She also really enjoyed the train at his party!

Then Emma had her celebration with our family.  We have a large yet close family, so a good time was had by all last Saturday night. 

Papa, Christeen, and Emma

Mom and sweet baby Elsie

Big boys and little girls

Mason and Zeezee



Wagon rides!

Mason was quite excited about opening presents, and he thoroughly enjoyed helping Emma open her presents.  Poor Emma, every time we opened a toy that was inside another box, she would say, "o-PEN!  o-PEN!" As you probably know, opening toys is never that simple.  So we distracted her by moving on to other toys.

Since then, we have "o-PEN"ed most of the gifts, and Emma loves them.

My mom made Emma her very own birthday cake, and it was adorable.  And DELICIOUS.  Emma did great while we sang happy birthday, and she even blew out her own candles!  However, we all got so excited when she actually blew them out herself that it scared her.  So I ended up feeding her her cake while she sat in Granddaddy's lap.

Waiting patiently.

You can put it right here.

God has blessed us with an amazing little girl.  My heart just doesn't feel big enough to hold all this love.  And she will always be my baby.

It's not what you think

My last post was about how Emma was almost two.  Logically, you would think the next post would be about Emma's 3 birthday cakes and cupcakes, her family dinner/party, her birthday lunch, and all the pictures documenting this milestone.

Wrong.

I haven't had the time or energy yet to devote to the birthday post.  But in the meantime, here are some Emma-isms that are unique and precious to our 2-year-old baby girl.

• Russell and I were talking about a couple whose last name is Green.  Emma chimed in by saying, "Bean!  Bean beans!", referring to one of her favorite foods.
• Every morning on the way to my parents' house, Emma repeats a billion times, "Na-un, na-un, na-un."  Good old Southern girl pronounces Nan (my mom) with two syllables. 
• Lola (our dog) has been replaced as the favorite dog.  Now it's "Maaa-eee," my parents' little 3-pound, 9-year-old tiny toy poodle.  It's pronounced like Maggie with two syllables but without the g's.  Emma needs to know where Maaa-eee is at all times, and she usually needs to boss her around.  "Maaa-eee DOWN!"
• Emma enjoys reading magazines and newspapers.  Children's books don't last very long with her.

• She loves her crayons and never uses them in a coloring book.

• The absolute best form of entertainment is a box of "shishoos."  Tissues, that is.  Unfortunately, Emma is getting much faster at pulling them out, which leaves me less time to do whatever it is I needed to do while she destroyed the box of shishoos. 

• Emma loves "Mo."  Elmo, to the rest of us.  This particular Elmo sings the Hokey Pokey while putting his arm and leg in and out and spinning around.  Emma puts her arms in every time, one parallel to the floor and one up in the air diagonally.  For anyone with a ballet background, they are classic third arabesque arms; every time I see her do it, I have flashbacks of the years and years of placing my own arms in that position...just not set to a mechanized Elmo Hokey Pokey soundtrack. 

PS - I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures; they were all taken with my phone.  The birthday pictures are much better, whenever I can get myself together to put them up.