Easter

I know I'm totally late on an Easter post, but I wanted to document our memories for my own sake more than anything.

We had such a fun Easter weekend this year. Amelia is at such a fun age to enjoy all the little things that go along with holidays. This year I just wanted to capture every single moment on video and in photos because I know this time is fleeting. I know it won't be long when finding candy in a plastic egg won't thrill her as much, and getting dollar store happies in her Easter basket won't have nearly the appeal as it does now.

As always, I tried to cram as much fun and family time in our few days off as I possibly could. I actually didn't wear myself out as much as I usually do, so that was a bonus.

Here are just a few a million pics from the weekend.

Amelia was finally old enough to enjoy coloring eggs this year. It's so fun to experience these things through her eyes now.


Amelia caught on to hunting eggs quickly and loved it this year, so we ended up going to 4 egg hunts- one at our church, one at school, one at my parents' church and one at my grandparents'.

Katie snapped this pic at the hunt at my parents' church and it makes me LOL. What other kid had an entourage of six family members cheering along at her egg hunt? The answer would be none. What can we say- she is one loved little girl!

 In her Easter dress at my grandparents' after church on Sunday.

She picked up this egg, said it was dirty and threw it back down. She much preferred eggs that had candy inside. She wasn't even impressed with the one she found with a dollar in it, ha.

It was so fun playing Easter Bunny this year knowing how excited she would be about all the little things in her basket. Her reaction did not disappoint! She was so excited to see all her prizes and even broke out into all three verses of Mary Had a Little Lamb for Cliff while he was videoing her. I know that we will treasure these home videos for years to come as she grows older.

The Bunny was generous even though she wanted nothing to do with him in person. This year we didn't get Santa or Easter Bunny pics :(. Even so, he brought her a couple of DVDs (Charlotte's Web and Veggie Tales), some play dough (which she calls mato or tomato for some reason), bubbles, a swimsuit, some bracelets, new crayons and baby bottles, a lollipop, and of course peeps and a chocolate bunny.

I'm sad this is blurry. The light was dim due to the fact that she likes to wake up incredibly early on days that we can sleep in a little.

After a nutritious breakfast of bunny and lollipop, Katie came over to snap a few pics of her in her Easter dress before church. Her hair was still a little wet, but I thought these turned out so cute! As always, we are so grateful to have Katie around to document our lives with great photos!

Katie actually bought Mimi that dress last summer and she wore it once. I had another dress that I had bought at a consignment sale that I thought I'd let her wear for Easter, but after I looked at this one in the closet, it just screamed Easter to me.

And yes, I actually got a new dress too. You may recall last year that I ended up wearing the same dress as the year before due to an unforunate incident of me forgetting that I had planned to lose a few pounds to fit in it, ha.

After church, we headed to my grandparents' house to enjoy food with the family and egg hunting with all my cousins' kids. Amelia and Belle enjoyed eating together at the little table. They are only a couple of months apart in age.

 I love this pic I snapped of Amelia and my dad. Those two are so crazy about each other. Daddy's eyes look so blue with his pretty blue shirt and I love how it matches Mimi's dress.

Sadly, the only pic I got of her and Grammy was this one of them running after the big girls.

Speaking of big girls, Amelia is crazy about her big cousin, Janie. Janie is so sweet and patient with her. I adore this pic!

It reminds me of how crazy I was about Janie's mama, my cousin Tess, and her younger sister, Mandy, when I was little. I thought they were so cool and wanted to be just like them. They were always sweet to me too.

Ok, that was our Easter 2011! Just for fun, I will end with these fun pics of 2009 and 2010.

It's funny that she was making pretty much the same face in those pics. It reminded me that she wasn't great about smiling for photos when I wanted her to back then. While I'm glad she finally learned what to do when a camera is in her face, I am wondering, where did that baby go? I miss her!

Mimi-isms

Thanks to those of you who commented, texted and emailed to let me know that we are not alone in raising a SWC. It helps to realize that even though other parents might look like they have it together and have perfectly behaved children, we all share a lot of the same struggles. My Dobson books are encouraging me that we are doing the right thing in our discipline and I know that Mimi will benefit from it in the long run.

But enough about that. Today I want to share some of her recent funny quotes. Everything that comes out of her mouth these days makes me laugh, but I am bad about remembering to write them down. When she isn't being terrible, she really is so sweet and funny and cute.

• Me: "Amelia, you need to go put baby Allison back in her bed in your room." Mimi: "But she's not sleepy, Mama."
• The other day I was calling to Amelia from another room. She couldn't understand what I said and instead of just coming to me she shouted, "What you telling about, Mama?"

This doesn't look like a girl that could be sassy, does it?

• calls her Mrs. Potato Head "Mashed Potato Head."

• sees a bird in the yard and grabs a blade of grass in her hands and holds it out saying, "Here, sweetie, sweetie. Come here, little sweetie." What?!

• loves to dance around in the yard flapping her arms around and jumping and calls it her "Happy Dance." She also encourages everyone around her to do the happy dance. My parents are especially good at the happy dance.

• She talks to her baby dolls as if they are real people. When she's bringing them from one room to another with her she says, "Come on, girls." She had them in the bathroom with her while she was on the potty the other day and when she was done said, "I need to get these girls off this nasty floor!" LOL. Now, I don't have the cleanest bathroom ever, but I wouldn't call the floor nasty. I'm sure she's heard me saying to her in a public place to get off that nasty floor, or don't eat something off the nasty floor, ha.


• She's big on saying "each one" right now. i.e. "Each one of these babies can't come to school with me." "I ate each one of my Tinkerbell dummies (gummies)."
• She's so obsessed with junk food, and I really do try to limit how much of it she eats. This was obvious the other day when I was cooking supper and had a yummy poppyseed chicken casserole in the oven and she walked in the kitchen and said, "I smell chips!" I'm like, "Um, no, you smell actual food cooking." Maybe I need to cook more often...

I know there are so many more that I can't remember right now. I love that funny little girl. I will post more as I remember more Mimi-isms.

The Strong-Willed Child

Our sweet girl may look just like her Daddy....

  ...but her personality is all me. Yikes!

Yes, we have a Strong-Willed Child (SWC) on our hands. She is sassy and dramatic, and if something is not her idea, she is not interested in it. Do not even think about asking her to do something she doesn't want to do, or say something she doesn't want to say (i.e. "I'm sorry" or "Yes, 'mam") without a struggle. We have had some dramatic days recently with this girl. Sometimes I'm at a loss for what to do with her. We want her to be obedient, kind and respectful, and we are doing our best to be consistent with our discipline. Surely that has to pay off soon.

We've tried some different methods on our own, but it's time for some reinforcements. I have this on its way to me as I type:

And my friend Allison (mother of four) loaned me this one:

Dr. Dobson is a renowned parenting expert, and is sure to have some solid advice for us as we attempt to get our toddler under control before she turns into a Strong-Willed Teenager. Rumor has it that my own parents purchased his books years ago when they were raising a SWC of their own. I am aware that I deserve each and every trial we face with our girl.

On the bright side, having a strong will isn't always such a bad thing. I like to think that my strong-willed personality kept me from being a crowd-follower and led to some good decisions in life, and I would hope that Mimi's inherited traits will equip her to be a good decision-maker as well.

But in the meantime, your prayers are appreciated as we try to be tough and consistent with our little drama queen! Luckily for us all, when she isn't throwing a fit or refusing to be obedient, she sure is sweet and cute.



Spring Break

Warning: Ridiculous amount of photos

What a busy and fun spring break we had! Cliff had to spend the week in Kansas at the national basketball tournament again this year, and Amelia and I stayed behind. We thought about going with him, but the 17-hour bus ride just would have been too much for Mimi (and her parents. and the bus driver. and the team.) I had plans for a trip to New Orleans to spend a couple of days and take Mimi to the zoo and the aquarium and was bummed when I found out we wouldn't be able to do that. (Of course, still happy for Cliff, Coach Young and the Lady Wolves, but two spring breaks in a row? Dang!)

Since Cliff had to leave on the Saturday night before spring break and wouldn't return until the following Sunday, he suggested we at least go to the zoo on Saturday before he left. We had such a great time! It was actually Amelia's first real zoo visit, if you don't count the little Hattiesburg zoo, which I do not, since hello, no monkeys, giraffes or elephants.

Here are a few of my favorite pics from our fun day at the Audobon Zoo. We all had a great time.

To avoid sitting around and being sad about missing Daddy the rest of the week, Amelia and I decided to pack as much fun into our spring break as possible. This meant lots of fun and great photos, but one exhausted mama when it was all over. But that's ok. One day I will have an empty house and plenty of time to rest and clean and organize my closets. Right now, I am going to choose fun with Mimi every time.


Just a little swinging after church in her smocked dress. She cried when I made her change out of it later.

Fun day at the Children's Museum with Pailyn





We spent some time in Hattiesburg with Aunt Mare and Uncle Justin, and went to Gattitown for a another carousel ride. I discovered a few months ago that a carousel is probably the only thing in life Amelia loves more than swinging.

Then we went to my parents' for a couple of days, and Amelia enjoyed hanging out with Grammy and Papa and helped Papa add some landscaping around the new playhouse he built for her. Well, it's hers for now, but her new baby cousin will be here in a few months and then she will have to share it! (Can you all just start praying about that whole situation now? Ha!)



Isn't it awesome? If you know my daddy, you know that he doesn't just build any old playhouse. It has fancy windows, ceramic tile and electricity, and will soon have running water and a TV that will be hooked up to their satellite. I wouldn't mind living in the playhouse, ha! I will share more photos of the inside when it's all complete.

There's a swingset on the back that Daddy built for us when we were little. I was pretty fond of swinging myself, and it's so fun to see Mimi enjoying something I played on as a child. Papa has re-painted it bright red and is planning to add some new swings to it soon.







Walking in the woods with Papa is one of her fave things to do at their house.

We finished off our week with a visit to Laurel with Katie to see Mimi's great grandmother, Nana. She had a great time, but sadly, I failed to take any photos. I don't know what I was thinking. Then we attended a fun birthday party on Saturday, which I will be sharing some cute photos of as soon as Katie puts them on facebook for me to steal, ha.

Finally, Sunday morning came and we had to go pick up Daddy! He was glad to get home to his girls and we were glad to have him back. They have been loving on each other and catching up ever since, and I have enjoyed getting to take a bath in peace. We made the most out of our spring break this year, but we're hoping next year Daddy will be able to join us.

Trike-a-Thon

Amelia wanted me to thank everyone who contributed to the St. Jude's Trike-a-Thon at Co-Lin. She had a great time riding her trike with her friends, and her pre-school raised money for St. Jude. I haven't heard a total yet, but the last couple of years they have raised over $3000. Thanks again to everyone who helped make it a success!