Congratulations, Aunt Mare!

I already posted these pics on Facebook for Mare, but I wanted to blog them too for my memory's sake, and to pay even more tribute to her accomplishment of becoming a nurse! It's very hard for me to realize that my baby sis is actually a grown up, has just finished college and will be married soon. Very soon. In like 3 weeks!

Last week we traveled to my alma mater, Southern Miss, to attend Mare's pinning ceremony and graduation. Here are a few pics from the two events:

Congratulations, Mare! We are so proud of you!

Mother's Day

I hope all my mommy friends had a happy Mother's Day! I had a nice weekend being treated extra special by my fam. Cliff surprised me Friday with having the house clean when I came home, as well as touching up some home repairs that I had been nagging reminding him about. After I soaked in the clean house, he led me to the bedroom where I saw this:

It was a gift certificate for a mani/pedi I had hinted to Katie that I wanted, ha. Thanks for passing that suggestion on! Even better, the yellow note from Mimi told me that she had planned a day out of town with Daddy to give me the day to myself to spend at the salon and doing whatever else I wanted! Mimi also gave me this precious happy that she made at school.

Of course she wouldn't pose with it for anything. We even tried to get a pic together, but it resulted in a meltdown.

I thoroughly enjoyed my pampering session on Saturday, and took the rest of the day to lay around and do nothing. It was fabulous! It was around 7 p.m. that I realized that although my day off had been wonderful, none of my usual Saturday chores such as laundry had magically been done for me. Dang. So I stayed up until midnight doing that, ha. Oh well, the pampering was fun while it lasted. Cliff and I also helped Mimi to make a little present for Grammy for Mother's Day. She showed us how to do it the way she made mine at school.

Thankfully, since I missed Amelia's day out with her Daddy, Katie took some photos so I could see how they spent their day. The three of them went to Laurel to visit their grandmother. Amelia is so cute when she says "Nana." I'm not sure if she knows that's actually what we call Nana or if she just thinks she's talking about a banana. Either way, I'm sure Nana loves it. Here are a few pics I swiped from Katie:

Then yesterday we went to teach Sunday School at our church, and then jetted over to my home church in Lawrence County to attend worship service with my mom. Afterwards, we all ate at my parents' house, and I am such a photo slacker. I wasn't feeling very good and barely took any pics. Ugh, I'm so ticked off at myself for not taking a pic with Mimi on Mother's Day. I did take this one on the way over.

She felt about like I did that day, ha. She was pretty good during the song service, but Mare had to take her to the nursery when she started being loud while my dad was leading Children's Church. I thought she was ready to walk down and sit with him while he spoke to the kids, but she took the opportunity to walk around the church. So embarassing! Mare grabbed my camera out of the diaper bag and snapped a couple of Mimi playing with this fun kitchen set. She said they had so much fun cooking and pretending to eat. Mimi is in a fun stage and likes to pretend. I can't wait to see what fun imagination play time we will have in the next couple of years.

When we got to my parents' house, Amelia was suprised with a Mother's Day gift of her own. Remember my last post when Mimi threw a fit when she had to get out of Gabi's car? Well someone (ahem, Grammy) thought is was just the saddest thing ever, and decided Amelia needed a car of her own.

This girl is just spoiled rotten, and there's nothing I can do about it! She did love her car, and it is staying at Grammy and Papa's since she has so much at our house already. It will be a fun treat for her to play in when she's there, and of course it can be passed on to any future grandchildren. (Ahem, Mare and Justin! Just playing, we'll give y'all at least a year before I start campaigning for a niece or nephew!)

The pic is fuzzy, but Amelia is wearing her helmet to ride around the house in her car, ha. At the speed Uncle Jeremy was whizzing her around, I am glad she was wearing protection!

It was nice to be treated extra special by my family on Mother's Day, but I couldn't help but feel sad for those who have lost their mothers, and for women for want desperately to be mothers but have not yet had the opportunity. While I enjoyed my special day, I had those people on my mind and in my prayers constantly. I'm just so thankful to be a mother, and I do not take it for granted for a second that I am blessed. Thank you to Cliff and Amelia for giving me that gift!

"Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." Proverbs 31: 28-30.

O.P.P.

Yes, I am down with O.P.P. Other people's pictures, that is. Just a little 90s rap reference for y'all. Ha!

I just had to share these recent photos that Katie and Lou Ann tagged me in on facebook. Lou Ann is a longtime Furr family friend, and she and her husband, John and their adorable children have lived in Las Vegas for the last several years. They have recently moved to D.C. for John's job. I believe he is some top secret military person, but I may be wrong on that, ha. Anyway, they are just precious, sweet friends and we were so glad to be able to let Amelia play with the kids while they were in Brookhaven for a few days during their move. Sadly, I came from work and did not have my camera, so I'm glad Lou Ann took a few photos and shared them.

Mimi made herself right at home with their toys, and she liked this car in particular.

Everything was great until she got out of the car, and Gabi hopped in. We are still working on our sharing skills.

                                 

Then the other day, Katie walked over with one of Amelia's pals, Emery. We usually stop by and play with them while we are out walking, and Amelia was so surprised and excited to see her friend had come to her house for a visit.

                                      

                                  

                                  

Amelia just loves playing with big girls, and Emery and her sister, Elizabeth are so sweet to her. I'll be back eventually this week to share a few more new photos. Hope this helps tide some of you over on your Amelia fix for a few days! (I'm talking to you, Uncle Chris :) )

18 months

Dear Mimi,

We can't believe we have had you for a year and a half. You've made our house messier than it's ever been, but you've made us happier than we've ever been. You make people who used to be grouchy in the mornings smile when we wake up and see your smiling face. You make holidays more fun. Really, you make every day more fun.

We love the way your hair curls up in ringlets after your bath. We love how you like to snuggle with us before bed at night and right after you get up in the mornings. We love it when you throw your head back when you want us to keep tickling you on your neck. We love it when you say "tickle tickle" and try to tickle us back. We love how happy you are to see us when we pick you up from school or the church nursery. We love how silly you are.

We love it when you say "uh-oh" just as you are about to throw something on the floor. We love it when you pick up the camera and say "cheese" or pick up a cell phone and say "hey!" We love how much you love Dora and Jay-Z and the theme song to "The Office." We love how much you love your grandparents and your aunts and uncles. We love to hear you call us Mama and Daddy.

We love how much you love your Lovie the lamb and how dirty and worn he is from all your loving. We love to hear you say "paaaaci" in the saddest, most pitiful voice when you want us to give you your paci, even though I totally planned on taking it away by now. We love hearing you repeat words that we say, and watching you learn new things so quickly. We love to pull you in your wagon, and to watch you play with other kids. We love how much you love to read books, and how you will actually be still and listen to a story now when we read. We love that you are obsessed with the words ball and baby and duck.

We love to see you growing up from a chubby-cheeked baby into a cute, precocious little girl. We love your independent, sassy nature, even though it tells us that there are more difficult days ahead in our parenting journey.

Really, we just love everything about you. The "new" has still not worn off, and every day we just marvel over how cute you are and the fact that you are ours. You are the light of our lives, and we are so thankful that God has trusted us to be your parents. You make us so, so happy, and in case you didn't know it, we love you.

Love,

Mama and Daddy

Fun in the tub

I've been slacking a bit on videoing everyday Mimi cuteness, and I've been trying to do better the last couple of weeks. She is doing all kinds of fun new tricks like when you ask her where certain body parts are, like her eyes, she will squeeze them shut. If you ask where her nose is, she blows it, etc. I was trying to get her to show me while she was taking a bath last week, but instead she instigated a wash cloth fight. I got soaking wet in the end, but it was hilarious to her!


Washcloth Fight from Angela Furr on Vimeo.

More fun new pics!

Gallery from our fun little shoot with Lindey and Pailyn is up! As always, to view them, go here, click on the photography site, then client viewing, and the password is 'mimi0410.' I just love them! My early faves are easily 5, 6, 8 and 15. Which ones do you like best?

A fun weekend

We were so excited to have a weekend with absolutely no plans! I know- times have changed, right? Friday we spent the evening with our friends, Chad and Anna, and their sweet daughters. Chad and Cliff have been best friends since they were six, and we are so fortunate that they live right around the corner from us. Before babies, we used to spend every Friday night hanging out with them. Now that we both have small children, and Cliff is gone a lot during basketball season, we haven't gotten to spend as much time with them as we used to.

They have a fabulous back yard for the kids to play in, and Mimi and Ella had fun running around, swinging, and jumping on the trampoline while the grown ups ate and chatted. I also spent a lot of time holding this precious girl.

I'm not gonna lie, snuggling her makes me slightly entertain the thought of doing it all again. YIKES! I quickly snap back to reality when I hear Amelia throwing a fit because Ella took her sidewalk chalk. No, I am not interested in going there for quite a while. But I should probably tone down my Lily cuddling for a while though. It was snuggling her big sister as a newborn that made us decide we were ready to start our own family.

After the girls got totally filthy and wore themselves out playing, they each got baths and in PJs and the grown ups got to hang out for a while longer. Oh, and I got to rock a freshly bathed and PJ clad Lily. Seriously I need to get away from that sweet baby!

Saturday we did some chores and played outside around the house. That afternoon, we decided to go for a ride in the jeep (not ours, we borrow it from my dad sometimes to play in). We rode over and got snowcones and went to the park. We swung by and picked up Katie to come with us, and she of course took some photos. In fact almost all of the pics in this post were snatched from her, except for a couple of blurry ones I snapped. I can't take a good photo to save my life, ha!

After we got home from the park, we hosed Mimi off in the (slightly cold) sprinkler and my parents dropped by for a bit. Just when we were thinking we'd rent a movie and hang out at home for the rest of the evening, Chad and Anna wanted to know if we wanted to do a repeat of the night before. Um, yes, please! So we went over there again for yummy grilled food and more fun grown up conversation. Katie lives a few houses down from them, and she and Sweet Pea walked over and joined us.

Here's one of the few pics I took of the girls playing. I always put my camera away when Katie's taking pics because I know hers will be better and I will just steal them when she posts them on facebook. Ha!

This one cracks me up! Ella had been being a little bit dirty and tried to snatch things away from Mimi. You can totally tell what each girl is thinking here!

Amelia loved baby Lily, and actually didn't freak out when Cliff or I held her, as she has been known to do when we've tried to hold other babies in front of her.

Then yesterday was church, as always. Mimi had on such a precious yellow seersucker dress, and this is the best photo I got of her in it. This is actually post afternoon nap. I've gotta work on getting us ready earlier to get photos before we leave for church.

We were invited to a Sunday afternoon crawfish boil, but Amelia wasn't feeling great, and we were all pretty worn out from all our socializing, so we called it a day, and hung out at home. Great, low-key weekend, my favorite kind!