A Dinner Cruise

One of my favorite things to do in the summer is go across the river by boat and eat. Sunday night, we drove to Harrison Bay and ate at Dockside Cafe. It is SOOO good.

I am pretty easy to please in the restaurant department. Give me bread before my meal, good ole southern sweet tea, and plenty of dipping sauces (I'm a big dipper) and you've hooked me! Trace has discovered the joy of dipping sauces like his mama. Here he is dipping his cucumbers and tomatoes in ranch.



I have resigned myself to the fact that Trace will grow up on the water. There is just no way around it. His daddy is a fishing nut through and through and can't wait to take him on his first fishing trip. I think we are a LONG way from that actually being enjoyable for either of them at this point, but, he can dream.

Here are Jimmy and Trace eating, what else... dessert! He honestly couldn't shovel it in fast enough.

It was a gorgeous night and we got to watch the sunset while we ate. I could not pry the corn cob away from his little fingers long enough to take the picture, sometimes you have to pick your battles :)


Trace loves riding in the boat and sits in Jimmy's lap so he can "drive". He is always asking him to go "fassss" and when that doesn't work as well as he'd hoped, he throws in a "more fassss pez". Woo Hoo...I can tell my constant nagging of "How do we ask for something?" is starting to sink in!

I look forward to many more days on the water with my boys!

Marilyn and the Chocolate Factory

Last weekend, my mom's one and only cousin Marilyn came in from Alexandria, Virginia to visit. We hadn't seen her since my wedding 5 1/2 years ago. Since then, she has become a first time grandmother and is spending her precious air miles flying to Santa Monica, CA to visit her adorable grandson Dylan. Who could blame her?

She finally made it back down south to where she still calls home. Everytime she comes, her and my Nanny have a standing date at the Krystal. Funny, she lives 15 minutes from our nations capital and probably some of the best cuisine in the country, but what she really longs for when she visits her hometown is a good ole' "burp burger". How does the saying go... "you can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!"

Friday, we went to the Boathouse for lunch and then took a tour of downtown where Marilyn grew up. Her old homeplace is now the back parking lot of the UTC Arena... sad.

Sunday, I had the family over for dinner and we did it Papaw Ned, or as she called him "Bubba" style. My Papaw was an AMAZING cook and Sunday dinners just haven't been the same since he died. Luckily, the women in this family were taught by the best, so our family dinners rival any country restaurant you can find.

I only provided the venue, sodas, bread, and salad. I've been known, on occasion, to contribute a mean spinach dip but sadly, that's about as far as my skills go.

My mom and MarilynThe Fam
My aunt Shara and cousin Emily
My dad, brother and Trace. Yes, Trace did begin the party clothed, but by the time dessert rolled around I felt he was better off topless. No amount of Totally Toddler Nursery Stain Remover can get Death by Chocolate and Cherry Cheesecake out of a white knit collared shirt!

And, who exactly was it that allowed him to eat dessert on my sofa???


I can't believe my baby brother is getting married in 4 months!

Once the hoopla was over, as we were cleaning up, we found a huge bag of Ghirardelli chocolate bars in the pantry left by Marilyn. You have to know my husband to be able to appreciate the sheer joy he got from this discovery. He has since passed this love on to our child, who needs NO help in the energy department. So the past few days he has begun a love affair with two things... Ghirardelli chocolate bars and Willy Wonka.

We taped Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory a few weeks ago, thinking Trace may someday watch it. That was a favorite of mine growing up but I figured he was still a little young. Let me back up, we taped the original 1971, Gene Wilder, version of Willy Wonka. No offense to Johnny Depp, but he has just creeped me out ever since Edward Scissorhands, and Willy Wonka is a classic... some things are better left alone. I equate that to remaking Grease using Zac Efron and Paris Hilton as Danny and Sandy. It's just unAmerican!

Trace loves this movie and watched the entire thing before church last Sunday. He even watches the part before they go into the factory and the Oopa Loompas appear. I was amazed... I wouldn't even watch the Wizard of Oz before it got to the colored part until I was almost grown. He crawls up on the couch and chants "oopas" and then says, "oh boy" when it comes on.

I don't know if you've seen it in a while, but the part that really gets him is when Veruca (the spoiled brat) is declared a "bad" egg and falls down the shoot into the ??? He always turns to us with these huge, concerned eyes and says "uh-oh". Is it too early to start explaining to him what a bad egg is? He also cheers "burt, burt" when Charlie and Grandpa Joe are floating in the bubbles and must burp repeatedly to save themselves from being sucked into the fan. (Boy, I sure have said the word "burp" a lot in this post... sorry!)

Here is Trace enjoying those many chocolate bars. Why is he always sitting on my couch when he's eating this stuff?

And here is the aftermath... NO, he did not eat all of those. Believe me, he had a LOT of help from his daddy! As I sit and write this, that shirt is in the wash drenched in Totally Toddler :)


Thank you Marilyn! We had a great weekend, the time always goes too fast. We can't wait to see you again next year... we love you!

Here Fishy, Fishy

We had some family fun at the Aquarium this week when Jimmy's cousin Millie came in with her 2 kids, Sara Kathryn and Nelson, and her mom, Sandy. It is always so much fun to have them here. The kids have a blast playing together and it lets us do some fun things we don't seem to do unless out of town company is here.

We were brave and didn't bring Trace's stroller because Millie had her "bus" and the big kids took turns riding in it. However, once Trace got a taste of freedom, there was no going back. We rarely let him just walk on his own, because honestly "walk" is not really in his vocabulary. He is usually in full sprint mode at all times. Luckily, it wasn't too crowded that day so we could run along behind him and keep up.

I believe I saw a glimpse of my future on this trip. There is a story my mom has told for years about my brother that pretty much sums up his childhood. His nickname was "wild man" and he certainly earned it.

When he was in the 1st grade, his teacher called to tell mom about a field trip they were taking to the Knoxville Zoo. She pretty much said, "If you go, then Andy can go." Ohhhh, how I remember making those exact same kinds of calls to parents when I was teaching. It wasn't that he was bad or disrespectful, he was just FULL of energy and was hard to keep up with. My mom used to call it... enthusiastic! Today, I believe they have another word (and medicine) for it, but I won't go there.

So, of course, my mom went on the field trip and she said she spent the entire day running through the zoo saying, "slow down Andy", "walk Andy", "come back Andy", "wait for me Andy", "don't stick your hand in that cage Andy"... you get my point.

I had a little "da' cha voo" while chasing Trace through the Aquarium, wishing someone would turn on the lights so I could actually see him and where he was going. Luckily, the kids were outnumbered 2 to 1 by adults so we had it much easier than my poor mother did chasing Andy through the Knoxville Zoo all by herself.

Here are some highlights of the day...


Trace and SK in the shark cage... they thought that was sooo cool!
The penguins were by far the biggest hit! I'll have to admit, I couldn't wait to see them either. I have heard so much about this exhibit. I could have stayed there all day just watching them.


That night, we put them in the tub. We will probably pay for this one day but they were so cute. Doesn't everybody have pictures from their childhood in the tub with their cousins? It's like a rite of passage.

Sara Kathryn has this gorgeous mane of long curls. But because it gets very tangly and painful to comb out, she did NOT want her hair getting wet. She was so cute warning Trace in her sweet southern twang, "Now, don't get my haaaiiir wet, Tace!" I think she got a little nervous when we pulled out the cups.



Baby Nelson made a very brief appearance in the tub before big sis hit the button that turns on the jets. The water wasn't quite high enough to have the jets on so you can use your imagination as to the aftermath of that. It's much like pulling a blender out of the bowl while the blades are still going. Needless to say, that probably ruined Nelson's enjoyment of tub time for years to come! Unfortunately, there was so much commotion and kids frantically climbing out of the tub, I didn't get a picture. We had screaming naked babies everywhere!

The day was so much fun and made even more special by getting to spend it with them. Come back soon!

Easter Memories

I can't believe we just celebrated our 3rd Easter with our little chick! It really makes it real just how quickly they grow up when you start looking back at old pictures. Here are some...

Easter 2007

Trace on his 1st Easter. He was exactly 2 months old that day. We had to literally wedge him between the seat cushions because he couldn't sit up yet. I remember it well. That was the first time he went to church, the first time he slept through the night (Momma's remember stuff like that!) and the first meeting of his posse'... the bunny, the duck, the chick and the Easter frog! They have since become fast friends.

Church was quite eventful that day. I was terrified he would "let one rip" so to speak in the middle of the sermon (he was known for that), but he slept through most of it and woke up just in time to sing along with the choir at the end. He has never been known as a quiet child.

Easter 2008

Ohhhh, my little munchkin. I love the bedhead look. It's like we literally yanked him out of bed, put him in his chair, threw a baseball Easter basket full of candy at him and told him to look at the camera.

Easter 2009

Same basket, and I'm a little embarrassed to say, same ole chick. Yes, I recycled 2 of his stuffed animals from his first Easter, but we are in a recession and they had been hiding in the top of his closet for months. I know I can't get away with that much longer. Here he is sharing his "peanut budddder" chocolate bunny with the chick.

Don't you know the nursery workers just love us sugaring them up before dropping them off at church. That has to be the longest hour of their day!

Here's our post church formal family photo op! This is about as formal as we get... and as still.
We were doing pretty good, even managed to get Ginger in the picture and then... da plane, da plane. If there is a plane, choo choo, fire truck, or tractor within a mile, he will find it and everything else stops. It's like little boys are born with radar.
I remember when my brother played little league baseball and the train tracks ran right behind the field. The umpire would completely stop the game and take a time out everytime a train would come because all the little boys would turn around and watch it go by, totally oblivious to the fact that a ballgame was going on. Now, I understand why :)

Hope everyone enjoyed a very Happy Easter!

** If someone knows why all of my words are underlined, please tell me!

Eggs, Eggs and More Eggs

Boy, Easter egg dying (sp?) has gotten much more involved since the last time I did it. Now for a mere $1.99 you get egg stickers, a memory egg game, shrink wrap for your eggs, egg holders, an egg punch out necklace and of course the egg coloring tablets. What a bargain.

We kept it simple and stuck to the basics. The school teacher in me focused more on learning the shape of the eggs ("ogal" as he calls it) and naming all the colors. I know.... DORK, but it is ingrained in my DNA to find the "teachable moment" in everything. It's a hard habit to break.

He really liked it and miraculously we got by with only breaking 2 out of the 12 eggs. Since eggs closely resemble a ball and Trace is into throwing anything and everything these days, the odds were not in our favor.

To get in the egg dying spirit, he wore his Joe's Crab Shack tie-dyed t-shirt we got in Destin. I know... DORK. I will probably hear about this from my brother.

Trace's "GO BIG ORANGE" egg. We taught him that early!
Tonight, we went to my Aunt Gail's house to have dinner and an Easter egg hunt with all the kids. They were hilarious running around the yard looking in bushes. Her poor plants will never be the same.

Since Trace was the youngest, they let him get a head start. Unfortunately, he was much more concerned with the candy hidden in the egg than actually finding any. Once he got 2 or 3 in his basket, he was content just to sit and eat the jelly beans out of them. I'm pretty sure he ate straight through several of those little chocolate eggs wrapped in foil. Didn't seem to slow him down a bit. I'll probably be seeing shiny tinfoil in his diaper for days.

Here are all the kiddos with their baskets, aren't they precious? Notice... Trace is the ONLY one with his egg out and open, eating candy.
Taking a much needed candy break. Trace is looking at Molly the dog like, "I know you're not about to take my jelly bean dog...I will take you down!"


Drew getting a little help from Daddy!

This is Trace's version of hide and seek. We have been playing it around the house a lot lately, but tonight when we told him to go hide, he laid on the ground in a ball and covered his face. It is so cute, I guess he thinks if he can't see you then you can't see him! Granddaddy decided to hide with him.

I LOVE getting together with my family and letting our kids play and make memories like this. It is so sweet to see them all interact and I want them to grow up close like we all did. It is so hard these days to do that but it is too important not to! Hope everyone has a blessed Easter tomorrow and remember what it is all really about!

So I won't be trying out for "American Idol" anytime soon

There is no bigger dose of reality than when a child tells you what they think. In this case, shows you. I got the ugly truth more times than I care to count when I was teaching. My students would tell me anytime something I was wearing wasn't very flattering on me, when I needed to get my nails done, when my hair was a hot mess and especially how fat I was when I was preggers. Oh, out of the mouths of babes :)

Tonight as I was putting Trace to bed, we had finished our books, our prayers, and our songs, but he just wasn't quite ready for night-night and he asked if we could "wock" some more. Of course, what is more precious than rocking your cuddle bug before bedtime? So, even though American Idol had already started, I was more than happy to oblige. (What did parents do before DVRs?)

It is becoming more clear to me everyday, just how fast he is growing up and there will come a day, not to long from now I'm afraid, when rocking before bedtime will be a thing of the past. So I am cherishing every moment of it. I got him (and all 5 of his blankets) back out of the crib and continued snuggling and rocking.

I have been singing a lot of church songs to him at night after our prayers in the hopes that one day he will understand the meaning and they will be as second nature to him as Twinkle, Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus and of course, the famous "Barney" song.

So I'm singing the song Sanctuary (which I LOVE)...

Oh Lord prepare me, to be a sanctuary
Pure and holy, tried and true
With thanksgiving, I'll be a living
Sanctuary for you

I get to the 2nd line of the song, singing it very softly in his ear while rocking in the dark, when Trace lifts his sweet head off my shoulder, looks right into my eyes, takes his big blanket and...

covers my mouth with it!!!

I think he was actually trying to stuff it into my mouth to stop me from singing.

Now, I am the first to admit that I have a terrible voice, but I always thought it was sufficient enough to sing my 2-year-old to sleep... apparently NOT! Looks like we have another Simon Cowell in the making!

I could not keep from laughing, but began singing and rocking again (trying a little harder to stay in tune this time) and the little stinker did it again!

Oh well, at least God appreciated my singing.

OK, I get the hint, "wock" time is over... night night!

Hotlanta, Hotnana

This Tuesday, after dropping Trace off at MDO, my mom, my Nanny and I headed to Atlanta in search of wedding dresses. My brother's wedding is August 15th and we all needed new duds. Needless to say, we had our work cut out for us. One day...3 dresses. Where else would you go but Atlanta?

We had originally planned on just going to Macy's at Town Center or "the pink mall" as I always referred to it growing up. I didn't know it's real name until a few years ago. My mom is terrified of merging (although she hasn't actually driven us anywhere since the day I turned 15) so going to the pink mall on the outskirts of Atlanta suited her just fine.

But after researching department stores, we figured that Perimeter Mall would give us more bang for our buck with Macy's, Dillards, Nordstroms, and Bloomingdales (or "Bloomies" for our Friends lovers). I had never even walked into that store before, let alone purchased anything. I'm much more of the... go straight to the clearance/sale rack and camp out for the day kind of shopper. Five minutes after entering Bloomies, I realized there were no sales racks and I quickly retreated back to good ole Macy's. Believe me, I know what league I'm in.

We considered our day a huge success in that we found my Nanny and my mom a dress! That is a lot of pressure, you don't get your 80 year old Nanny out shopping in Atlanta often, so that was our first priority. It honestly brought tears to my eyes when she came out of her dressing room. I wanted to put a link on here to show you her outfit but couldn't find it on the Macy's website. It looks beautiful on her and it was the first one she tried on! She looked so precious trying on her stunning, formal wear in her white Keds... I love her!

Now it was on to my mom, a.k.a. Nana. Anyone that knows my mom, knows her lifelong passion for purple. She left her wedding in a short purple mini-dress (it was the 70's after all), five years later, I came home from the hospital in a purple dress to my purple nursery. Her kitchen and her bathroom are purple (bless my poor dad), and for Trace's first "formal" event, she managed to find a purple striped button-down onesie and amazingly convinced Jimmy to let him wear it. He was only 4 months old... he looked adorable! She once threatened to not pay for my wedding unless my bridesmaids dresses were purple. She was only kidding, but I know a small piece of her dream died when I chose black dresses for my Christmas wedding... sorry mom!

Anyway, although she said it wasn't a necessity, I was on the hunt for a purple Mother of the Groom dress... and here it is! She looks gorgeous in it! She wrapped the shawl around her arms and tied it in the back like a shrug. We found it at Nordstroms, making the extra 30 minute drive and merging through terrifying Atlanta traffic completely worth it!

I will say, I was very proud of mom and Nanny, they have been known to sprawl in the floorboard of the backseat while driving in stressful situations. They were probably white knuckling it the entire way, but aside from the mere 20 minutes we were lost on the wrong highway, the ride was pretty uneventful.

We had a wonderful time and it was great spending the day with them. Although I am still looking for a dress, we were very happy... 2 out of 3's not bad!