Easter photo essay + some words

isn't that vegetable tray with the sculpted bread turned bunny adorable!? my step-mom always makes the coolest food displays. she made the cute bunny cupcakes for the kids too----and sent them home with all the leftovers. grams is good at spoilin'.

every Easter my kids look forward to spending Easter day with grams and papa (my dad).

dinner is usually mid-day with ham and lamb as part of the main meal, dessert immediately following (to know my family is to know dessert never waits), with an Easter egg hunt to follow---one where even the big kids can't always find where the eggs are hiding, then of course, opening every single egg and sorting the candy and money into ziploc bags and labeling them.

then the the grandkids open a gift from grams and papa---always a new pair of pajamas, flying kites or playing yard games, and this year meeting my brother's girlfriend, then standing around watching him try to fix said girlfriend's brakes while the kids sat in the side yard and colored in the shade, then ending the visit with several games of bunny bingo.

our eggs are usually colored before Easter, but we just got ours done last night.

late is better than never in my book.

as usual, they each got a dozen eggs. spidergirl dropped 5 into her cups as soon as they were set in front of her. ashlyn, on the other hand, took 20 minute just waiting on her first egg to get to just the right shade of hot pink. two completely different children, they are.

in other news.........it's tax season. and when you work for an accountant during tax season, it means you come home exhausted every single night. especially when you're usually only a part-time employee, but now you're working full-time hours.

7 more days........
7 more days..........
7 more days................

that's what i keep telling myself. ha.

i have nothing creative to share at the moment. i haven't been in the studio in 7 days.......say what!?

i'll have to remedy that, tonight, maybe? that is, after i find the top of my tables. it's bad. real bad. maybe i'll get brave and take a picture. maybe.

did you have a lovely Easter?

a quick photo share...

i don't have time to give a report on the wedding at the moment, but it was GORGEOUS! i'll hopefully have time to put down some more details in the next few days.....maybe it'll be a little here and there over the next week. who knows. i took over 750 photos between the rehearsal, dinner, wedding, and reception. shocking, i know.

i know the family is anxiously awaiting seeing the girls in their dresses. hopefully this shot will hold you over until i have a moment to resize pictures.

but first.........my new favorite photo EVER.
my brother, Greg--the groom, sneaking some time away from the dance floor to sit with Grandma. not sure what the conversation was about but knowing Grandma it was a little gem of wisdom that he won't soon forget.


and the girlies....


happy tuesday....

my bed might not be made...

but i got to play with my big 'ole box of new goodies from Little Yellow Bicycle. heeheee. making your bed is so overrated, don't you agree? although i do make my bed before i get in it at night----a little random quirk of mine.

anywho...........this is what i accomplished instead of making my bed:

this Zinnia line is my new obsession. i've been waiting for a very long time to document this little story and every little thing was perfect for it. mom loved the color purple. and always wore it proudly on her fingernails. i always thought it was kinda wild looking, but it was her little thing that made her happy. i think i might just go buy me a bottle and wear it on special holidays and her birthday and mother's day. just for her. if only i could quit biting my nails and grow them long enough. i think i'll do that. oooops, another rabbit trail. sorry.

okay. so back to the Zinna Collection. the patterns are so bold and vibrant and the colors are a beautiful fushia and goldenrod yellow and purple and they are sprinkled with glitter and , well, here.........let me just show you more.


and you know me. i couldn't resist using my cuttlebug again. those swiss dots steal my heart.


and the glittered raised embossing on the papers..........so, lovely.


and the clear overlays and accents, oh my. and felt. i am just gah, gah over all this texture. and completely in love with this layout. i'm so glad i waited until the timing was right and i could sit and visit a while with some memories of their relationship while putting this together.


and it still cracks me up to this day, all the little nicknames she has for her grandparents. her own terms of endearment. and there you have it. my new favorite layout.


have a lovely friday.

Grammy and Papa at the Beach...

as she so loving calls them. as i mentioned in a post or two ago, everything with ashlyn is so very descriptive. everything. so, she's always trying to make sure you know exactly what she is talking about. she's easily frustrated and really hates to repeat anything she's said. so her way of adapting to that is to be as descriptive as possible, so there's no confusion.

so, thus we have........the extended names for all the relatives, otherwise known as her terms of endearment. good method of distinguishment, i suppose.

anywho. got off on a little tangent there.

memorial day weekend, we had a lovely visit from grammy and papa at the beach (doug's parents, if you didn't click on the link to read). since they live just outside of myrtle beach, we don't have the pleasure of seeing them often. we haven't been to the beach in 3 years. although they've been here a handful of times.

as usual, it was a lovely visit.

they always stay at the hotel in town which is met with eager anticipation by the girls. weeks before they arrive they start looking at the calendar, counting down the days which is usually measured by the number of sleeps they have to take before the day of arrival. so funny how their only comprehension of time is based on the number of sleeps.

our visits, although short, are always enjoyable. the girls think it is the coolest thing to get to go to the hotel to visit and oh, how they love to swim. which is then always followed by a little party in their room stuffing their faces with white powdered donuts, pringles and capri sun.

so, here's a little photo share with commentary of the time we spent together at the hotel and our memorial day cookout. (family: i'll be sending a cd of the photos soon)

first, the photo above......this photo totally CRACKS.ME.UP. first you see emma totally amazed by papa's chin, all while she's clinging to her fuzz (remember her fuzz addiction), with her right thumb stuck straight up ready to plug back in---she was getting tired. and usually she sucks her left thumb, but it had a "boo-boo" on it. then, there's ashlyn totally thrilled with herself that she's learned to snap. and there she is, every day, every 2 seconds stopping what she is doing, snap, snap, snap, then she goes right back to what she was doing, hahahaaa. hysterical.


okay.....here's emma in her lifejacket at the pool.


and ashlyn...


this is grammy at the beach's brother and wife....uncle johnny and aunt kathy. (also, mom and dad to "aunt" suzi and andrea)


johnny is the baby whisperer. he seriously has the magic with baby's. i think he missed his calling. he can calm any baby down and put any baby to sleep just like that. it's quite a talent! this is johnny with our great niece addison. she's a doll.


"aunt" suzi and andrea. doug's cousin's, but my girls call suzi, "aunt" suzi. i might of started that. oops. they really are cousins. gorgeous ones, at that.


here's me sneakin' a liitle love with my little twin, emma.


and the totally beautiful miss lyndsey jo. doug's neice........his brother's youngest girl. i'm so incredibly jealous of her complexion. she's flawless.


lyndsey jo and her momma jill....jill has that flawless skin too and always a smile on her face. she hates to have her picture taken, but i am SO glad i snapped some anyway. i'm sure she got over it now. *wink* jill is nana, to that sweet baby addison. i didn't get a picture of addison's mommy.


oh yeah, can't leave out the adorable mr. jeffrey! andrea's boyfriend. aren't they cute?


miss em, startin' to get a little sassy (and tired), but still oh, so cute.


and the only picture i got with ashlyn, because she was busy pouting about not being able to play cornhole with the big kids. i'll save the pouting pictures.....LOL.


wow. that was a lot of pictures. now i have to get busy resizing pics from the historical farm and our family photo shoot at Inniswoods Gardens. it's been a good picture month.

miss emma....

and her not so pretty mouth full of......hmmmmmm.......what exactly is that?
any guesses?


here. let me spare you the brain cramp.
it's a lovely handful of this...


oh, and she's not partial to just the tub of butter.
she'll gladly unwrap a stick of the artery clogging yumminess and take a bite.

ick!

but word has it that it is an inherited trait.
from little papa.
(and i would insert a picture of him here if i had one. *ahem* it's time for that photoshoot dad.)

terms of endearment

ash has an amazing way of remembering things. and a quite interesting one too. she takes after her daddy that way.

it often makes me jealous at how good of a memory they both have. i blame my lack of rememberance on mommy mush brain, but i really think it was a problem looong before that. i used have a fantastic short-term memory. served me well in my school years. much studying was never necessary, because facts were easy for me to recall. oh, and i could hear a phone # once and have it memorized. now, not so much. my short-term memory has been dead and gone for some time now. never had much of a long-term memory, but it's coming around. been remembering lots about growing up lately.

anywho. doug and ash, they have an amazing situational memory, visual memory, or maybe more commonly known as a photographic memory. they don't forget a single detail. they can watch a movie once and know exactly what's next and replay it in their brain (or vocally---so annoying) word for word. oh and they never tire of watching the same movie or episode over and over and over. i don't quite understand that one. if they watch it once and remember it word for word, why in the world do they want to watch it over and over and over. it's beyond me.

ash remembers things from when she was 15 months old. doug remembers his childhood vividly back to the age of 2. he's now 33. i wonder if ash will keep her memories as she grows older too. time will tell, i guess.

anywho.
all that to say this. she has quite a quirky way for putting her associative memory to work for her. especially when it comes to distinguishing her grandparents. something that i'm sure over time she might grow out of, or something i'll eventually forget and i don't want to. maybe not though.

here's the rundown.

(note: read papa as pronounced pap-paw)
big papa (my step-dad)
big grammy (my mom)
little papa (my dad)
grams (my step-mom)
grammy at the beach (doug's mom)
papa at the beach (doug's dad)
little grandma, aka grandma with the crumbles on her face (as she used her hands to tickle her cheeks as a visual to me) (my dad's mom)
great papa & grandma (my mom's dad)
grandma in florida (my mom's mom)

peony flowers

my house smells heavenly!
these are the flowers ashlyn brought home from grandma's sideyard.
a handful of peony flowers.
i honestly think this is the most fragrant flower i have ever known.

i definitely need to remember to dig up a start this fall for my garden.

not only to enjoy the beautiful blossoms in my own yard, but to have a piece of grandma right here everyday. after moving so many times i am thrilled to be settled somewhere for a while. it's really hard to take plants with you when you're constantly moving in the dead of winter. thank goodness we aren't doing that anymore.

anywho. the first spring we were here, we took starts from my dad's place (again----for like the 3 or 4th time) to start our landscaping. last spring we added some flowers from my mom's garden, some from my aunt's garden and then some from doug's mom's garden. i have yet to get something from grandma's garden.

but this fall i will.
i won't forget.
i pray ashlyn gets over her fear of bugs by the time she is ready to get a place of her own. then i will pass along starts from all these plants to her.

it's more than just a garden to me.
it's a family history.
kinda like passing down recipes, i guess.

tonight i'm off on a date with my hubby!
sooooooooo incredibly excited!
months ago he surprised me with tickets to a show.
i'll tell you all about it tomorrow.

three years ago today...

today, may 21, marks three years since my grandpa pearce passed away.

around this time i always do something with the girls to celebrate the life he lived and do things that remind me of him. so this past week i took the girls on a little jaunt to picnic at the park and visit the historical farm.



the sights, the smells, the simplicity of farm life---it all reminds me of him.
as a little girl most of my memories revolve around grandpa's house and the farm. feeding the animals, collecting the eggs, milking the cows, bailing hay and yes, even shoveling manure. definitely a tomboy back then.

ashlyn was not quite 2 1/2 when grandpa passed, and, yes, we took her to the funeral. at that age, we simply told her that papa was sleeping forever. it took her a while to understand that he was not with us any longer. since then, i've tried many times to explain to ashlyn what death is.....and for the most part now she understands. but i could tell the concept of a cemetary just never quite kicked in. while, the trip to the farm isn't a long one from our house, it is a scenic one. one where we drive past a cemetary only marked with flowers, no monuments.

she piped up from the back seat, excitedly...."mommy, look----it's a bone yard!" a what? it finally clicked for her----but, where in the world did she hear it called a bone yard? after a little conversation, i discovered that the concept of a "bone yard" was learned from a cartoon she frequently watches.

so this afternoon over lunch we talked about grandpa and about visiting the cemetary. her mood immediatley turned somber and sad. she gets it. she knows that he's gone, and she's sad. i offer to take her to his grave and show her his name. she loved the idea. made my heart smile.

she conjured up all sorts of ideas of picking flowers, going to the neighbors to tell them about grandpa and pick their flowers too--the ideas spewing from her mouth so fast i could hardly keep up with what she was wanting to do. then she stopped. "mommy, can we call little grandma to have her come with us?" so we did. she finished lunch, hurriedly ran out back to pick all the wildflowers left in the garden, flew down the stairs to the studio and cut a length of sheer purple ribbon, got dressed in pink with a pretty skirt, ran halfway down the stairs and stopped.

"mommy, it sure is good i still have a picture of grandpa so i can remember him forever." yes, sweetie, it is.

and for that one reason, i am thankful i take pictures.
for her.
for me.
because i miss him.

so we went to grandma's, where ashlyn talked her into cutting even more flowers for her bouquet. then drove to the cemetary. i told ashlyn all about the momument and what all the engraving on it means. the girls washed the grass clipping off the momunent and left their flowers. grandma spoiled them with some icecream sundaes on the way home.