Blooming Beauties

As April comes to a close, I couldn't resist sharing pictures of my beautiful roses. I just love them! They make me so happy with their sweet smell and beautiful petals.
Each Spring and Summer that they bloom, it reminds me to "stop and smell the roses" both literally and figuratively.

May you stop and smell the roses in your life whatever form they may come in.

Goodnight Gorilla!

If you know the story Goodnight Gorilla, the zookeeper unknowingly takes all the zoo animals home with him for the night after the Gorilla unlocks all of their cages and they quietly follow him to his house. We spent this past Saturday morning at the zoo with our friends Karley and Abby. I think the girls only saw the penguins before they were side tracked by the new interactive play area, "Wee Play" at the Knoxville Zoo. It's a great area for the kids where they are able to pretend they are actual zoo keepers. There are different job areas like zoo veterinarian, animal feeders, etc. They really got into their zoo role playing. Maybe one day, Emma-Caroline or Sophie will have a job as a zookeeper. Let's hope that the gorillas and other animals won't follow them home.

Wee Play

Riding the carousel.

Brushing the goat

Two friends watching two friends.

Caring for the goats.

A Double Happy Birthday!

Today is my Aunt Linda and my Aunt Brenda's birthday. Yes, they are twins! When my grandmother was pregnant with them, the doctor was unaware of the fact that she was having twins as only one heartbeat was detected and there were no ultrasounds.
The doctor was constantly on her about her weight gain. When the time came for the "baby" to be born, the doctor was very apologetic to my grandmother when she gave birth to two babies instead of one with each weighing just at 7 pounds. No wonder she had gained so much weight! She was carrying 14 pounds of babies!

Aunt Brenda and Aunt Linda with Emma-Caroline at age 6 weeks.

My Aunt Linda and Aunt Brenda are wonderful aunts whom I love very much. They are so loving and caring and have always made me feel so special.

Aunt Linda with Sophie at age 6 weeks

Aunt Linda and Aunt Brenda, I hope you both have a wonderful birthday today! You deserve it!

Here's Looking at You Kid!

OK, so I stole the title of this post from Casablanca, but it fits with these pictures. I thought these pictures of the girls were cute. Sometimes, I guess just a couple of cute kids is enough for a blog post.

Emma-Caroline' s Many Faces

All you moms know what it is like to try and get your child to cooperate for a picture. I think Emma-Caroline has had it with me and the camera. I saw a perfect opportunity to get some good close ups of her. The lighting was good and she was sitting still. But she was wise to my attempts and so it started out like this . . .

Which turned into this . . .

Then this . . .I'm slowly wearing her down.
Oh my goodness. . . is that a possible smile?
Oops! Spoke a little too soon!

Oh no you don't Mommy! I will hold my face out of a smile!

But, ah yes, Mommy always wins and a true smile emerges!

And a good picture is taken.

Only to end where we started in this . . .

But in the end, Mommy wins. All the pictures turned out pretty cute. Now to just put them in Photoshop!

A Day at Dollywood

We ventured to Dollywood yesterday and had such a fun time. The weather was perfect and now that Sophie is older, we all had fun riding on many exciting rides. We're looking forward to our next trip to Dollywood very soon.

At the Dollywood entrance.

On the Shooting Star. This shoots you up in the air and bounces you up and down. Emma-Caroline liked going up, but wasn't so sure about the coming down.

Emma-Caroline, driving already?

Sophie driving too? They grow up way too fast!

Having fun on the carousel.

Demolition Derby. Emma-Caroline was disappointed that Daddy hogged the wheel.

Riding the Pig Parade

Lucky Ducks!

Bee Hive!

Only picture of me as we were leaving Dollywood.

Reading with Daddy

The girls love to hear their Daddy read a bed time story to them. Howie really puts a lot of feeling into the stories he reads to them each night. It is one of our favorite moments of the day.

Photoshop and the Pioneer Woman

I have been inspired by my friends Amanda and MaryBeth to try my hand at Photoshop with my pictures. I do not have the full on Photoshop that cost so much, maybe one day. I do have Photoshop Elements and it does offer a lot of tools that Photoshop has. I found a great site called The Pioneer Woman that offers tips on photography as well as Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. I didn't realize that my friend Amanda also has a link to to The Pioneer Woman site. I came across it from one of my friends who is a professional photographer. The site has been very helpful and easy for me. I've just started playing around with it, but I think there is a huge difference. If you know of any other sites like this one, please let me know. Take a look at these before and afters.

Before After.

Before
After, a little brighter. I couldn't seem to get that shadow on her face to brighten.

Before

After. Howie says this one looks fake, but I like the color pop.

Before

After. I think the pop of colors in this one is good.

Sophie's First Tricycle Ride

Sophie has been itching to ride Emma-Caroline's big red Radio Flyer tricycle for quite some time now. Her little legs, however, will not quite reach the pedals and probably won't reach for at least another year.

So off to the store we went to find a smaller version just right for Sophie. We found the perfect one at Wal-Mart, still a red Radio Flyer, but much much smaller and with a nice little seat back to boot.

Sophie LOVES it and was able to pedal, well almost. She'll probably need to grow just a little bit more for it to be the perfect fit, but for now, it is working out just fine.

Easter 2009

We had a wonderful Easter beginning with a beautiful church celebration, then brunch, and finally ending with spending time together on a beautiful spring day. It was a very blessed day.

Brunch after church at Bravo

In the gardens in Sequoyah Hills

Having fun!

Sophie in our backyard.

Hopping like the Easter Bunny