Strawberries & Lemons

In honor of Memorial Day, and all the good food and drinks that come along with it, I thought I would share some photos from our latest adventure in the kitchen making strawberry lemonade.

From Hannah's licking the lemon to Lily's trying to eat the rind both girls agreed that lemons are, in Hannah's words, "yucky" but the lemonade was mmmmmmm.....good!

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Happy 1/2 Birthday

This month we celebrated Lily's half birthday.  We had to do it a little late because my little ones were under the weather on the actual day but we celebrated nevertheless.

18 months is such a big time in a baby's life and so much has changed over the past 6 months.  Lily's personality is developing more and more with each passing day and I love watching her grow.  This sweet child of mine is so sensitive and loving and independent and boy does she ever have a temper.  She wants to simultaneously be on my hip every second of the day while at the same time running around doing everything on her own.

Lily's bunny is her best friend right behind her sister Hannah or "Nannie" as she calls her.  Every morning when I go to get Lily out of her crib she proudly holds Bunny up and points to her and says excitedly "Bunny!" as if she is introducing us for the first time. 

It is "Nannie" though that is Lily's favorite these days.  Lily chases her around and her eyes are constantly watching and learning from her sister.  She wants to do absolutely EVERYTHING Hannah does down to drinking from the exact same cup and eating off of the exact same plate. 

Lily's favorite food is Italian meatballs, she loves black eyed peas and broccoli, and no matter how many times I try she won't touch milk with a ten foot pole.  Lily is in love with her teacher Ms. Waffa at her Mother's Day Out program and constantly asks for "Vaffa" at home.  Her favorite place to play is outside whether it is at the sand and water table or digging in the rocks, dirt or mulch (which really stresses her ocd clean lovin' mother out).

This blond headed, blue eyed little girl is, as her older sister would say, "teeny weeny" (weighing in at a whopping 19lbs 5 oz).  She thinks that the Sandra Boynton book "Blue Hat, Green Hat" is absolutely hilarious and loves to read anything that involves animals.  Lily loves animals but right now but only from afar.  The second one comes too close she starts looking up at me waving those little hands for me to save her.  She is talking up a storm, even forming simple sentences, and it seems that every day produces several new words.  (Today she asked me "'ere's MY Nannie?" aka "Where's my Hannah" and my heart melted just a little.)  My favorite words to hear her say right now are puppy and bunny.  She has this cute little intonation when she says both of those words and it is just too precious.  Lily has a gang of friends that she loves to sleep with in her bed and she calls them each by name...."Ne", "E-E", "Baby", "Puppy" and, of course, "Bunny".

In case you can't tell I love this little baby girl oh so much and I am so blessed to be her mama!  Happy half birthday my sweet Lils!

Summer has arrived!

 

It has been a while since my last post but as always there is never a dull moment around here.  School has ended, hot weather is here and, though the calendar technically doesn't say so, summer has officially started in this house.  We are in the midst of pulling hedges, planting a vegetable garden, running through sprinklers, eating popsicles, visiting family, initiating our bi-weekly dinners with friends, house renovations, preparing for the beginning of dance class, vacation bible school and swim lessons, the list goes on and on....  I love the low key, low pressure months of summer and we have a lot of fun planned for the next 3 months.  Be back soon with more on life around our house.

Mama's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there!  I have had a nice day here at our little Brown house spent with my husband and two precious little ones.  My day actually could not have started any better.  That was my exact thought as Hannah crawled into my bed this morning, snuggled close, and put one hand on each of my cheeks.  She just laid there, right next to me, with her hands on my cheeks not saying anything but just kind of looking off in the distance like she was in deep thought.  It was a sweet moment and a nice way to start the day. 

Hannah and Lily both made me little handprint Mother's Day gifts, which I will treasure.  They also gave me with this doormat that I have been wanting to help keep the dirt where it belongs....

The final gift, that my family so sweetly gave me, I have to pick out myself.  It is a large flower pot that will sit on my front porch next to my new doormat.  I knew that this would be my Mother's Day present prior to today and have been looking for some time now for just the right container.  I can't decide and so this gift will have to wait until I make up my mind...which, of course, could take some time knowing me and my decision making skills. 

After church we spent the rest of the day spreading quite a bit of this in our back yard...

and turning these ugly 'naners...

into yummy banana bread...

Banana bread is Hannah's favorite thing to bake right now and I sometimes think that she could eat the whole loaf if I left her alone with it.  It crossed my mind today as Hannah and I were baking that I grew up loving banana bread that was made for me as a child by my mother and grandmother.  How appropriate that on Mother's Day Hannah and I were spending time in the kitchen continuing a tradition passed down from mother to mother in our family.

We closed our day after supper with a little more yard beautification.  We snazzied up the front planter box with these...

We accomplished quite a bit but just being together was the best part of it all.  I am so thankful for a family who makes me feel appreciated on this special day and also for every day reaffirming how blessed I am to be called "Mama".  I hope that each of you mothers out there feel special, appreciated and blessed on this day too.

...and we're gonna get married

We had quite the weekend and I think I have just now recovered.  My sister Bekah's wedding was this past Saturday and so we traveled to my hometown for a long weekend.  Sadly, as we were packing on Thursday, we found out that my uncle had just passed away and our trip would be extended.  So we traveled home to Florence for a wedding on Saturday and a funeral on Monday...quite an emotional roller coaster. 

The wedding was beautiful and my sister was a gracious and beautiful bride.  We started the wedding festivities Friday evening with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner.  Hannah did a great job at the rehearsal practicing her flower girl duties and I was quite confident that the wedding ceremony would go off without a hitch.

After the rehearsal, friends and family met for dinner at a wonderful little restaurant in Florence.  Here is the happy couple, just hours away from their big day...

and here is a rare picture of us sisters all together...

Now I think I will take a moment to introduce a few new faces to the blog...

This is Holly, Hugh's sister...

She is super sweet and has a beautiful smile.  Holly lives in Birmingham and has offered us her babysitting services (even after seeing my children in all their glory over the weekend).  I love her dearly :)

Here is my cousin Jessie and her husband Matt...

They live in Birmingham with their two girls Ruthie and Elsie, some of Hannah and Lily's favorite playmates.  Jessie is the daughter of my uncle who passed away last Thursday so please keep her in your prayers. 

I would also like you to meet Jack and Mary Morgan, aka the ring bearer and other flower girl.  They are relatives of Hugh and Mary Morgan is Hannah's new best friend.  Hannah loved her and followed her around all weekend. 

Lastly, I am going to introduce you to the wedding weekend wild child posse.  You might have seen some of these faces before.  Here they are in action...notice the blurs at the bottom of the photo...

The posse was headed up by these two....

They were up way past their bedtime and having way too much fun to slow down...

Here is another member of the crew...Cousin Ella...

There were many other members of the group and I really should have gotten a group shot.  I could go on and on with my introductions but I think I will stop here.  It was quite a memorable evening full of friends, family and fun.  I think we all collapsed in our beds that night from exhaustion, but it was worth it.

The next morning we were up with the birds with last minute wedding preparations.  I realized after the fact that I didn't take many photographs of the day, but there was just too much to do.  Trying to juggle mommy duty, sister duty and bridesmaid duty was quite a task.  Thankfully there were professionals around snapping pictures all day.

I did manage to get a few pictures of the bride before the ceremony including this one...

So beautiful and remarkably relaxed at this point!

You might wonder how Hannah did with her flower girl duties.  Well...she made it to the end of the aisle sprinkling her flower petals just perfectly.  She was almost to the spot where she was supposed to stand.  Then she paused, literally inches away from me and the other bridesmaids.  Her little index finger popped up - like when you make the number 1 - or in this case like you are saying "wait a minute."  She then turned around and headed back up the aisle perusing the flower petals.  Prior to the wedding I had handed her a single flower petal to hold and it ended up in her basket with all the other petals she sprinkled.  So Hannah decided to go back up the aisle and look through all of the petals in search of the single petal I had given her (which looked exactly like all the others).  Thankfully Matt intercepted her at the back of the church and brought her around to me just as the Trumpet Voluntary began and Bekah made her grand entrance.  Oh my sweet Hannah!  Never a dull moment!

It was a special weekend that we will never forget.  Congrats Bekah and Hugh!  We love you!!