Mother's Day

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day. Here's my first 'handmade' Mother's Day present from my little girl--almost had me in a puddle.

All I wanted for Mother's Day was time with my family. And luckily, I got it- we spent the day together. Since we're making the rounds of getting our 'LASTS in Memphis,' we hit up The Arcade for breakfast on a rainy day. The best thing on the menu? Sweet potato pancakes!!! We used to eat here before we moved to the 'burbs.' 

Here's my girl dancing with Daddy outside the oldest diner in Memphis:

Then we hit up the Farmer's Market and Cort had me pick the flowers for my bouquet--I got to have lavender and an artichoke in it! 

We strolled along the river and picked flowers we won't see in Chicago: 

 

I asked, 'Caroline, do you know who  made me a mommy?' And she deadpans with, 'Daddy.' Can't argue with that.

We came home with green onions, basil, peaches, squash. YUM! The beginnings of summer! And then got to use our sweet neighbor's pool in the afternoon. We ended the day by watching a woodpecker from our kitchen window and listening to his pecking while eating dinner (can you see him in the middle of the picture with the red head?). 

All in all, a fabulous Mother's Day--felt so lucky to have a day without Cort studying. Next year, I will actually get to see my own mother on this day--can't wait!

Maggie Goes to Missouri

For some time now, we've known that we would not be able to take our Great Dane, Maggie, to the big city with us and it was very hard to accept. The weekend before last, my dad came down for work and also took a few days off to be with Caroline. They're old pals.

Eating out at Caroline's favorite--Mexican. I guess those sharing lessons are paying off...

Dad's visit was a HUGE help as it allowed Cort time to study and it gave me the time to take Maggie to my sweet friend's house in Missouri. I still can't believe that people like Heidi and Nate could have stepped up and taken our 83 lb. dog in such a generous and loving manner. We will owe them forever. I was so fortunate that they fed me well, let me spend the night, and we got to catch up. Made me remember why I always loved that girl. Here are a few pictures I took of Heidi, Nate, their sweet kids, and their weimreiner, Jake--LOVE this family!

Here is our last photo, taken before my trip, as a 'family of four' for a while. I was very emotional all weekend (poor Heidi must have wondered about my social skills). Caroline is coping well and said, 'Good-bye Maggie. Thank you for coming. You're a good girl.' And headed off to the park with grandpa. The sweet oblivion of childhood.

By the way, this dog has NEVER had it so good. She'll probably never want to come back as she is living a life of luxury at this point. We are SO grateful! A BIG thank you to such sweet people.

TWO YEARS Later! We're back! With A Birthday Girl....

Well, it's been two years since our last blog post--and on April 29--our baby turned into a little girl.  And we couldn't be more thrilled. Caroline Reese has brought so much joy into our existence. Life has been busy, busy, busy. Just as it has for most of our friends and family. Therefore, this mom had given up on family blogging. This mom is lucky to get a shower most days lately, truth be told. But, considering we have some big changes coming up, we thought it might be fun to start blogging again and not clog the Facebook 'airwaves'.

We're nearing the end of our NINE years in the Memphis area and preparing for our move to Chicago (Cort is doing a cardiovascular imaging fellowship at Northwestern Hospital). And lately, it's been chaotic with selling a house (and dealing with the joys of repair contingencies), finding a new preschool and place to live, studying for boards (Cort), mothering an active toddler (Me), and purging to prepare for packing. Therefore, due to the temporary pace of our life, Caroline Reese missed out on the opportunity of a 3rd birthday party. We'll make it up to her somehow...

Instead, we spent a quiet weekend as a family, appreciating Cort's presence back at home (he was gone for a second review course out of town this spring). The day started out with a birthday breakfast at Brother Juniper's. Most likely the last time we would eat here before we moved. Just check out one of my favorite breakfasts--the Pacific Northwest open face omelette (also featuring potatoes, spinach, portabellas, & feta)--gotta learn to make this!

And this is what we do at restaurants to entertain ourselves while waiting for food....

Full stomachs for all!

And since my Pinterest 'best frosting' recipe was a failure, we ended up buying some delicious cupcakes from Whole Foods.

We got our birthday girl some flowers and then she got to facetime with the extended family, blow bubbles with daddy, and open up some fun presents. All in all, a really good day!

Some tidbits about our birthday girl at 3:

She loves to sing. And it doesn't matter what. But the Veggie Tales theme song & 'Twinkle Twinkle' are continual favorites.

Her teachers at Mother's Day Out/preschool tell me her personality is 'chill' & laid-back. 

I'll often find her practicing 'ballet' in her room. And she's excited to start lessons in Chicago.

Her best friend is Elle (cousin), then Kaitlyn (school friend). And sometimes Lindsay (neighbor & Mommy's friend).

She misses the beach.

She loves dresses. And dressing up. She loves to match her clothing.

Her profession of choice when she grows up is to be a queen.

She helps me with laundry, dishes, and sweeping.

She's super positive--'That's ok, mommy!' after any spills or accidents.

Daddy would be lost without his little butler laying out his toothbrush, toothpaste, & hairbrush every morning.

She quotes from her favorite kid music 'Hide 'Em In Your Heart' when afraid.

Her favorite outing is going to 'the ice-cream store' & picking out all the toppings.

She continues to find the human heart a very fascinating organ & begs to listen to ours.'Lub Dub,' she says.

Her stuffed Minnie Mouse fills her with joy.

She thanks Jesus for the dogwoods & remembers to ask him to stop the rain so we won't get wet.

Her concern for my happiness melts me, 'Are you happy, mommy?' whenever she fears she is in trouble or sees me get bad news (as has been the case with repairmen lately). 

She loves to have her back rubbed before bed.

Her favorite book is 'My Very Fairy Princess.'

She greets the dog daily with 'Good morning Maggie!'

Her favorite thing to eat out is Mexican. Because of the tortilla chips.

Lastly, Caroline is the BEST THING WE EVER DID & the highlight of any of our days. 

We wish the daughter of our dreams a Happy 3rd birthday--we love her so much!

New Cooking Blog

Because I'm so busy, I've decided to start a new hobby (ha!). It's my new cooking blog. I'll be attempting to add new recipes & comment on my trials with these recipes. Hope you'll join me on these adventures & let me know how your experiments go as well.

Here's the site:

http://www.haystacksandchampagne.blogspot.com/


As can be seen below, there are some who look forward to my "experiments" in the kitchen.

Spring Sprung Forward

But we are terribly behind on capturing the last few months. Though we were not able to celebrate Easter this year due Caroline being sick and then passing the virus on to her mother, we still enjoyed time together as a family at home. Here is our little "funny bunny"....



And these are the budding trees in our backyard announcing Spring.

Life has been very, very busy for our family, but we are glad spring is here; we welcome more sunshine, the fact that we can take Caroline outside (her favorite place ever), flowering trees, and longer days.

Here is the view of the horses in the neighbor's yard behind our house:

I will miss the chill when the oppressive Memphis heat that I despise so much rears its ugly head in a month. But at the moment, we are making the most of Spring. It's going to be a busy one!

Here is our little darling enjoying the weather on the porch.

Many mornings, it feels like we wake up in the aviary section at the zoo. Due to the amount of trees around our house, we have an overabundance of bird friends (but not compared to the squirrel population). This is the discovery we made in our front yard on Easter weekend: a Robin's egg.

It's herb planting weather-I was fortunate to have Cort plant these for me because I was too busy with Caroline....love him! So if all works out, I can't take credit. Like last year, we have planted basil and parsley, but this year we added dill, lemon verbena, and a couple bell pepper plants. The bell peppers are my first experiment with vegetables. Should be interesting. If it goes well, we may try tomatoes and squash and/or green onions next year. Fun to see it grow!

This is a terrible night shot & you may be able to tell that my rosemary bush in the middle may not come back....may be time to replant.

It's also grill season! Woo-hoo! We've been eating dinners out on the porch as a family now on nights that it's pleasant outside & loving every minute of it. There's something about eating outdoors....

Cort has been at Le Bonheur (the children's hospital) during the months of February & March and taking call every 4th night. It's been vastly different from his Baptist months, but for the month of April, he is enjoying his rotation at the women's hospital. He still has some short calls (5pm-2ams)-not so fun.

In addition, our new hobby has been to look up in the attic & in closets to see what we can purge & sell on Ebay. I finally have learned to sell on ebay (just a little) & I can see why it's addictive. Spring cleaning is in full force.....we just need more time!

Hope everyone is enjoying the incredible blessing that the Spring rebirth is providing. I'll be trying to catch up with events from the past few months in posts after this one (if you've kept up with us from FB, please excuse repeats).

Holidays 2009/2010 (Monster Post)

Hope you all enjoyed the holidays! We sure did. Our little trio was able to spend Christmas morning together. It was our baby's first Christmas and Cort came home from another night float in time for whole grain chocolate chip waffles and presents. It was wonderful to have him home!

And it was fun to see Caroline tear apart wrapping paper and try to climb out of the boxes.

Spencer was feeling generous and let Caroline get close to him. Of course the treats on my knees did help. He actually thought she was taking them away & sort of smacked her--to which she giggled.

I got this from my friend, Kaylee, another stay at home mom that really "gets" it (b/c I never stop "working")!

Later that afternoon, we drove up to Chicago to see my family--where they were eagerly awaiting their first grandchild. When we got off the highway at 11pm on Christmas night, we played Christmas music and watched the snow fall peacefully on the eerily quiet and empty streets of the western suburbs. Even Caroline Reese sensed that something different was happening; she awoke to gaze out the windows at a magical world with mouth agape. What moments! We had a white Christmas after all. Here is a video of me breaking the law because I "forgot" what it's like to drive in snow......:

Cort was so sweet to go help Dad clear the driveway of snow the next morning.

My parents loved spending time with Caroline.

And since Caroline is bigger now, we put her in the booster seat for the first time & brought her to the table with us. She enjoyed that very much. We had our Romanian meal and she had puffs. Of course.

Here is our little snow bunny with her uncle:

We enjoyed spending time with cousin Matt, who was home from his nursing program at Florida Hospital; Aunt Cami and Uncle Gabi who were so happy to show her snow and teach her to play with her new toys.

We had a terrific dinner out in the city with Ryan Kelley--a classmate of Cort's from Mount Pisgah Academy that recently moved to Chicago. It was great to catch up and flip through old pictures. We are hoping to see more of Ryan from now on--thanks to him, we now have a love for Flat Top Grill.

In addition to the night above, Mom & Dad also got us a gift certificate to this wonderful Italian restaurant (Antico Posto) and we had a great night out just the two of us again. Thanks Mom & Dad!

We drove back home in time to spend New Year's Eve with Cort's parents--it had been a long time since they last saw Caroline too. I must admit that although CST midnight found us in bed, we were still able to toast the midnight hour on EST (we're wild & crazy like that). And as our annual New Year's tradition continues, we enjoyed a fabulous Gruyere fondue dinner.

On New Year's day, Caroline had a third Christmas with gifts from the Asheville/Knoxville/Greenville crews. Lucky girl. This is going to be a hard habit to break. I think we're going to need some new Christmas rules. She received a bunch more toys and clothes. We are SO blessed to have such a generous family.

Here she is with Grandparents Sommerville & the new doll she received from them:

Here I am helping her put together the new wooden train set she received from Grandma Luci & Grandpa Mike. (The abacus in the background will hopefull be used as a numbering tool & not a standing prop as has been the dangerous case lately.)

Here is Caroline feeling out her new doll (Polly) made by Great-Grandmother Marje. Polly is a recession doll (Great Grandmother Marje was born during Depression years).

I'm SO proud of Caroline! This is the first documented case of sharing. Her favorite thing in the whole world, right now, is puffs. And here she is sharing her puffs with Grandma Carol:

Holidays are so special when shared with children!

Caroline apparently LOVES to play the piano! She first played with Grandpa Mike in Chicago & then played with Grandma Carol. This is her "jazz face".

We're still ironing out this gchat business, but we somehow managed to see Jen, Ryan & cousin Elle too! Elle's shriek at seeing "Ca-lick-a-line" was priceless!

Unfortunately, as has been the pattern this winter, we contracted some other virus (are there any left we have not met?) and spent most of the weekend hacking. Even so, I had a wonderful highlight that weekend: Carol taught me to make her famous double almond toffee. If anyone has had this toffee....they will know how incredible it tastes and what a lucky girl I am! Here we are making it:

And here is the finished product...I've been caught chocolate-handed:

It was also very good to get some rest before facing the work of the new year.


Happy New Year to all of you! Our daily reminder for 2010 will be: "This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." -Psalm 118:24