trick or treat

We had a busy and CANDY-FILLED Halloween. The girls went as Dorothy (thanks DeeDee!) and the Cowardly Lion. Lilly was so excited about her costume. I just tried to steer her away from being a princess again this year, but I had no idea she would get so excited about being Dorothy. Mamie absolutely hated her costume (screaming and flailing on the floor) until she realized that she got candy when she had it on. Then she wanted it on all the time. She's been waking up in the mornings asking for candy first thing. She is all about the candy.

At trunk or treat at Brentwood Hills with our friend (who we didn't get any pictures of :) Cal the fireman and his cute little sister the dalmatian

Lilly's class party at school

Lilly's class with Mrs. Sandra and her husband, Grumpy :)


This year we were seriously spoiled as far as trick-or-treating goes. Cade invited Lilly and Mamie to ride on his "hayride." There were twinkle lights on the trailer, blankets and hay! I don't know if the girls will ever want to go back to walking again :) We definitely had the fanciest trailer in the neighborhood--thanks Clark!

Cade and Mamie led the way to the candy. Cade literally fell inside the door at this house when Mrs. Carol opened the door!

our cuddly lion and the cutest little chicken

Dorothy and Toto thoroughly enjoyed the ride

Happy Halloween from Lilly, Mamie, and Scole!

welcome to the family, aunt kellye!

Jon's brother, Jeff, and his fiancee, Kellye, got married on the beach in Destin this past Saturday. We all went down on Tuesday and got to spend a few days at the beach, which was nice and relaxing considering we moved the week before. The wedding was beautiful and the weather turned out perfect. I'm pretty sure no one is going to be asking Lilly and Mamie to be in their wedding anytime soon. That's all I'm going to say about that. I also have no pictures from the reception, because we left with our food in boxes and two crying children. Jon and I are pretty sure that the restaurant would have asked us to leave if we hadn't chosen to. No nap combined with a day full of pictures and excitement was just too much.

Jeff and Kellye Carman :)

The only family picture I got and none of us are looking at my camera

cousins--lilly, hollis, and mamie


Papa Al and Sassy

the flower girls getting ready to go

sweet little mamie smelling her flower petals before the ceremony. she went back down the aisle trying to pick all of them up during the wedding (when she wasn't walking around handing her binky to strangers, fighting with me and kristin to have lip gloss, wrestling out of my arms, playing in the sand, or digging in purses)

jon and i in the kayak. very fun, but i'm just was too scared of being eaten by a shark to really enjoy it.

kellye and lilly at the rehearsal dinner, which was a dinner cruise.

cruisin' cousins in their matching outfits

hollis hitching a ride on zach's back on the way back from the crab trap at lunchtime

mamie was so content to just sit and play in the sand--it was wonderful

the girls with uncle jeff in his last days of bachelorhood

my new favorite thing i discovered on our trip--mamie's pigtails!

One thing I wish I had pictures of happened on the way home. We had a crazy wreck on the interstate above Montgomery and neither one of us understand how we are all alive. Two cars in front of us hit each other and we lost control trying to miss them, spun across the north bound lanes, slid backwards about 100 yards in the median and wound up nose-down in a pretty deep culvert. I know that God was taking care of us through all of it. None of us were hurt, no one hit us, amazingly, and we didn't flip over, which no one who saw it happen could figure out. So many wonderful people stopped to help us, and the man that owned the local tow truck company was right behind us and saw us have the wreck. Jon and I didn't think we would ever be able to drive our car again, and somehow the man pulled it out for us and got it back on the road. It had been resting on the front bumper at a 45 degree angle with the front wheels off the ground. We drove it home like almost nothing was wrong with it. (Go buy a Yukon!) We feel so blessed and I can't help thinking about how differently it could have turned out. The girls didn't even cry--it was like a strange peace just came over them. I even looked over while they were trying to pull the car out and a fireman was standing there holding Lilly and she was just as calm as she has ever been. When we got back in the car we asked her what she was talking to the fireman about and she said, "Um, I'm Lilly and I'm three." Thank you God for taking care of my babies.

sold!

Here's what I've been up to the past week...

Here's what an 18 month old does while you're working on packing all those boxes...


and here's where we're going to be living! (just kidding--but it was questionable for a couple of days!)

Well, we've had our house on the market for about four months now, and about two weeks ago we got an offer and sold our house quite suddenly. We have to be out by next weekend and we needed a place to rent for a few months. Luckily, a couple at our church is letting us rent their house, so we're starting the move today. We were seriously thinking we may be living in the pop-up camper for a while! (How do you like it, by the way? Some of my cousins were getting rid of it and we were both so excited to get it. I think it's a 1976, but it's in pretty good shape. Jon and I are dying to take the girls and go on a camping trip in it, but it looks like that may have to wait a while with everything else we have going on right now!) I can't believe how much stuff we had in this house. We have never moved since we've been married, so we have 6 years worth of stuff in every closet, the garage, and the attic. It is really not fun at all, and to make matters worse, my mom and dad are in Hawaii for 2 weeks and won't be back until after we close. Oh well, I guess I should just be glad we sold it!

lilly's first field trip

Last Monday, Crieve Hall went on a field trip to Walden Farm. We have been so many times, but the field trip experience was great--they had a lady who took the kids around on a very organized and educational tour of everything (including informing the class of four year olds that bacon comes from the little pink piglets and that hamburgers come from the sweet little black and white calves.) They all had so much fun and I loved getting to see them all interact with each other. Three and four year olds have some pretty funny conversations.

Mrs. Sandra's class

Ellie and Lilly sort of posing with their pumpkins. This was the "when is lunchtime?" part of the day.

Lilly's turn to pump water at the well house

Looking at the precious hamburgers...I mean cows. Seriously lady, couldn't you just say milk comes from cows?

disney on ice

Last Sunday, Jon and I took the girls to see Disney On Ice. We had no idea what to expect, but it was actually a really neat show and Lilly and Mamie loved it. The show featured the Little Mermaid, Cars, the Lion King, and Tinkerbell. So, of course Lilly had to dress up like a Princess, which meant Mamie had to dress up too. I think Jon got a little worried that our girls were the only ones dressed up as we were walking in from the parking lot, but once we got inside there were princess dresses and tiaras galore.

getting ready to leave--and just waking up from our long Sunday nap :)

posing in front of the Ariel display before the show--Lilly wore her Ariel mermaid dress
(Mamie has started keeping the ring on her binky flipped up under her nose like this.)

Ariel, Flounder, and Sebastian

I thought the Lion King was the best part of the show. It made me cry and I promise I am not pregnant--I think I have a problem.
Does anyone cry at Disney On Ice? Seriously.

Lilly with her Tinkerbell hat that comes "free" with the $10 cotton candy

love the 80's

Here's what our senior pictures would have looked like if we had met in 1980. Pretty funny. If you haven't already done it, you should yearbook yourself .

that is one sexy guy!

1st day of school & maternity show

Friday was the first day of school for Lilly and Mamie. Lilly is actually on the pre-school side now, which blows my mind. I can't believe she is getting so old! They both have the BEST teachers this year, and we are all excited about school. I wanted to take a picture of Lilly with her teacher, Mrs. Sandra, but I think she was embarrassed. I was taking my camera inside and she asked me why. I said, "Don't you want me to get a picture of you and Mrs. Sandra on the first day of school?" and she said in a very big girl way, "Well, no thank you, mom. Alright?"

We had to have the backpack picture

Cheese!

(I could not get Mamie to put the baby down for the picture.)

And this is where mommy was on the first day of school--selling paintings and personalized cards at a maternity show at the Hampton Inn in Green Hills. Jon's sister has a friend that bought Mama Mason's (that used to be in Grace's plaza) and is selling designer maternity wear.
http://www.mamamasonsmaternity.blogspot.com/
She had great stuff. Unfortunately I wasn't in the market for any maternity clothes right now, but if anyone is, you should check out her blog. Anyway, she let me set up a booth and try to sell some paintings for nurseries, kid's rooms, etc. If anyone is looking for a piece of art for their nursery or kid's rooms, email me at bamalyla@bellsouth.net and let me know. I can match any fabric or bedding and love to incorporate their name or your favorite scripture.