Wordless Wednesday: Swingin' with Boogie edition

Wordless Wednesday: "Saturday in the park" edition

Great grandparents

According to Wikipedia, "National Grandparents Day is a secular holiday celebrated originating in the United States in 1978 and now officially recognized in a number of countries on various days of the year."  It always falls on the first Sunday after Labor Day and is meant to "...to honor grandparents, to give grandparents an opportunity to show love for their children's children, and to help children become aware of strength, information, and guidance older people can offer".

To us, Grandparents Day means paying tribute to the people in our children's lives who:

Come and take care of them for a week while their baby's in the hospital giving birth to her new baby,

take wonderful pictures of them with your fabulous camera to give them happy memories of being little,

delight in their every last word and encourage a tremendous love of reading,

drive fours hours without blinking an eye every time they get sick to love on them and make them peal with laughter,

push them in a swing until their arms get tired, take them boat riding, and pretend to drink their "coffee",

and get in the car for a road trip at the age of 92 just to smile as they watch their only great-grandchildren coo and play.

We are just so very thankful for the ways that all of the grandparents in our lives love us and our children unconditionally.  I pray that my daughters will one day develop the kind of relationship with them that I had with my Mammaw.  I miss her so much today that my heart aches, and I'd give anything to hear her voice or get one of her letters in the mail.  Her love shaped my life in such a positive way and I'm eternally grateful for the person she was and the way she lived her life. 

I can't wait to introduce Hannah to my Pappaw soon -- I think she looks a little bit like Mammaw, and I know that will touch and delight him to no end.  Happy Grandparent's Day!

Things that delighted me this weekend

Pop Pop watching Sesame Street with his two best girls

Andrew's first attempt at Mickey Mouse pancakes

A swaddled baby Hannah napping in my bed

Andrew and his dad taking Lucy on a boat ride so I could rest and catch up on e-mail and paying bills

 A beautiful bouquet of summer roses picked out by my husband and delivered by a beaming toddler 

 Pop Pop supervising Lucy's afternoon play session while we cooked a delicious steak dinner

Hannah's still eating almost every 3 hours on the dot (including at night), which means I'm pretty much in a constant state of exhaustion.  Combine this with the release of some serious post-pregnancy hormones and the picture is not always pretty in our house right now.  So... I'm trying to revert back to the idea of the gratitude journal I kept in college and make it a point to recognize all the small things that I'm thankful for, no matter how mundane.  Today, I'm grateful that I finally got to talk to my mom on the phone and that the laundry got put away.  It's the little things...

Better late than never

Dear Pop Pop,
You are developing quite the devoted entourage of young ladies around here.  :)  Thank you for all that you do to always shower love and support on our growing family.  We truly appreciate everything you do for us!  Here's hoping this new year of your life brings you abundant health, joy, love, and success.  Your girls are looking forward to seeing you again very soon.  Happy, happy (belated) birthday!!!

Snuggling with newborn Hannah in the hospital

Reading Shel Silverstein with Lucy before bedtime

Bathing beauty

Some scenes from Hannah's first bath, a few days after we came home from the hospital ~

The obligatory blood curdling screams,

followed by some tender emotions from Lucy as she watched her baby sister cry.

"Shhh! It's okay, baby" is a new favorite phrase at our house.

A post-bath snuggle with grandma makes everything better!

Many thanks to Honey for all of her help as we came home from the hospital and made the rocky transition towards becoming a family of four.

Easter people, raise your voices

Our Easter weekend started out with an egg hunt at Lucy's daycare center.  We didn't do Easter baskets last year and hadn't really talked about the concept of eggs last year, much less dyed or stuffed them, but baby girl acted like a pro when it was time to start hunting and gathering!  She's a fast learner, that one -- as soon as she figured out that there was candy in the eggs, she spent the next few days begging asking for "some". 

The biggest hit by far was an egg filled with a mini-wand and bubbles. Our most favorite phrase these days is, "I blow bubbles!" The child wakes up in the morning wanting to go outside to blow bubbles and is still talking about them before she goes to bed at night. :)

Boogie and Pop Pop came in town for the weekend to help us turn what is now the guest room/study ready into a pink bedroom for the girls to share.  Handy Andy once again worked his magic by undertaking the following tasks: scraping the popcorn ceiling and then patching and painting it, ripping out old carpet and installing a new floor, painting walls, and installing crown molding.  It's becoming a room fit for a princess (or two!).  Meanwhile, us girls enjoyed a much-needed pedicure and some shopping time!

On Sunday morning we did Easter baskets and headed to church.  This was about the only picture we could get of Lucy looking at the camera in her Sunday best (I came down with a wicked stomach bug that would last for 5 days, thus my ghostly appearance here).  Our church has an amazing choir, and they always pull out all the stops on holidays.  A truly magnificent rendition of the "Hallelujah" chorus and sharing communion with other believers in celebration of the new life we've been granted can cure almost any illness.

In between snuggle time with Lucy, Boogie cleaned and did laundry and helped us get organized.  We got down Lucy's old clothes from the attic and starting sorting them for baby Hannah.  There was much disbelief over the fact that Lucy was ever small enough to wear any of it and it helped us anticipate our new arrival! 

We are so incredibly grateful for all the love and support we continue to receive as we prepare our house to become a home for a family of four.  Even though we're already out of space, I'm starting to think that we'll finally get our house completely remodeled if we just keep on having babies!  :)

Pictures of Lucy's big girl bed and the new pink palace to come...

It's Carnival time

We decided to skip the extended Super Bowl/Mardi Gras celebration (a.k.a. "South Louisiana has completely lost its mind") and head up north to Shreveport to spend some time with friends and family during our mini-vacation. It was sleeting and snowing the morning before we planned to leave, so we even scored an extra snow day off! Nothing stuck to the ground down here, but Lucy sure did love trying to catch the snowflakes. And she rocked her pink cold weather ensemble quite well.

Uncle Mike and Aunt Katie came in town (from Arkansas and Texas, respectively) to love on Lucy, and we got to spend a lot of quality time with Boogie and Pop Pop, too. Lucy especially enjoyed getting to play "pajama dress-up party" in all of Boogie's jewelry. Don't we look like the height of fancy?

We took in some lunch at Superior and had a grand time at the annual Hank & Audrey birthday party/Mardi Gras bash at the Welch household. It's so nice to get the chance to hang out with so many friends our age with kids and to just let them all run a little wild! The Cate girls were nice enough to let us ride with them in their Barbie-themed float, so Lucy got to participate in the kiddie parade that rolled up and down East Kings Highway throwing candy and beads.

On Sunday, we got in a short visit with Nana and PawPaw who were visiting from Dallas and then had lunch at Imperial Cathay with Honey. Lucy's a lucky girl to be able to see all of her grandparents in one weekend! Honey had a super special Valentine's Day present waiting for Lucy at the restaurant. His name is Max and he is so huggable!

And because we completely and totally refused to nap pretty much during our entire visit, Lucy missed most of the visit I had with my wonderful high school friends Lisa and Jen. We met at the park, but it was so cold that we had to move to library to keep talking (in whispers). Lucy threw a tantrum and had to go home, but cutie Caroline Walls was an absolute perfect angel. Love that little one! I miss these ladies like crazy and it was great to catch up and learn about all the happiness in their lives right now.

Special thanks to Boogie for keeping Lucy so we could go out on a Valentine's double date with Aunt Katie and Dave at Olive Street Bistro. It was cold in the restaurant, they weren't offering their regular menu (big disappointment), and the musical entertainment was horrid, but... it was a Date Night, people!!!

There's never enough time to do everything and see everyone we want to on these visits. I wished we lived closer to everybody so these fun times could happen more often, but we so cherish the times we get to share with those we love. Laissez les bon temp rouler!

Thanksgiving road trip, parts III & IV

This post is outrageously late, but as my mother likes to say, "Better late than never." So... we continued our road trip by pulling into the Big D on Wednesday afternoon where Mom (Nana) and Glen (PawPaw) treated us to a really yummy Mexican dinner -- Lucy's favorite!

Part III

Aunt Michelle held down the fort while we waited for a table.


Getting Lucy to hold still for a proper picture these days is like trying to wrestle a deranged and highly pissed off monkey. At least Nana & I were having a good time!

We had cabin fever after our delicious feast on Thanksgiving (featuring Glenn's amazing smoked turkey and ham and my pumpkin cheesecake), so we headed to Breckinridge Park in Richardson to let off some steam. Uncle Allan volunteered to accompany Lucy down the "big slide" and realized that he'd have to take her through the tunnel to get there.

Lucy went plowing straight down the hill in order to get to the ducks. She spent the whole time we were there yelling, "Quack, quack!". Of course, this resulted in the ducks flying away as fast as they could... which led to a major pouting/crying session. :)

We headed back to the park the next day for PawPaw to take pictures for the Powers Christmas card -- this was by far my favorite outtake.

Part IV

On Saturday, we began our journey back home and made an overnight visit to see Honey in Natchitoches. Lucky for us the annual Christmas Festival was already in full effect! We strolled the river to see all the lights, enjoyed some meat pies and crawfish pies, and visited some of the truly unique downtown merchants.

This psychedelic Christmas tree was gigantic and really interesting to watch -- we hung out under its branches while watching Lucy doing the "toddler butt dump" dance to the local band performing on a nearby stage.

Honey made us a delicious breakfast the next morning while Andrew and Lucy checked out all her old picture albums. So precious to see her point to pictures of Andrew when he was little and exclaim, "baby!". She called all the pictures of PopPop "Daddy" -- to be fair, he did have brown hair and a constant beard at that age!

We finally made it home on Sunday afternoon (after a speeding ticket fiasco) and Ella was beyond thrilled to see us! We have so incredibly much to be thankful for this year -- most notably our large, extended family who loves us without fault and the promise of new life.

P.S. Did I mention that we're really, really looking forward to staying home for Christmas?

Sunset cruise

I know you've all been waiting with baited breath, so here they are... more pictures from our recent weekend at Toledo Bend!

Pop Pop psyching Lucy up for her first boat ride!

The result of Lucy and Boogie's "day at the beauty shop" playdate.

Getting loaded into the boat with Daddy. Yes, this life jacket looked crazy (and gave Lucy the appearance of a dog with one of those plastic cones around its head), but... it was the only Coast Guard-approved one we could find for babies. We'll just call it outdoor chic.

Ready to go!

She was a little scared at the sound of the motor at first, but Lucy soon settled into Daddy's arms and started to enjoy the scenery.

Boogie strikes a pose

Hand-off to Mommy in the back of the boat. Lucy really enjoyed watching for the birds flying over the lake -- she'd point them out and exclaim, "dog!".

We had a wonderful, relaxing boat ride (even thought it was around 97 degrees outside) and are already looking forward to doing it again next year. Andrew's completely convinced Lucy will be ready to fish next summer, and yes -- she does already have a fishing pole. It's black with hot pink glitter and is called the "Lady Angler." Pop Pop picked up it from Bass Pro for one of my baby showers last year. It was a big hit. :)