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Category Archives: pictures

Pleasures of Spring

09 Apr

Spring is here a bit early this year.  Flowers are blooming.  Bunnies are hopping around nibbling on the grass and the robins are working on finding an early breakfast most days.  I love waking up to the sound of birds chirping as a cool, gentle breeze drifts in through the slightly opened window.

Well, usually it’s a gentle breeze but, sometimes I wake up in the arctic tundra.  The weather has been very sporadic this winter and it hasn’t changed its personality for spring.

We just returned last week from a spring break trip to a pastor’s conference in Tennessee.  What a much needed retreat for our entire family!

There was time to check out the picnic area at Cades Cove.

There was time to pause along the route to enjoy the scenery.

We took time to pause for a picture,

to learn to skip (plop) stones,

check water temperatures,

and pose for a second picture.

We went for a nice long hike!

We even had some more time to pose for another picture in front of our cabin at the Tuckaleechee Retreat Center while I played with the settings on my camera.

We took time to visit the aquarium and checked out the itty bitty jellyfish.

had a few shark sightings,

and held our breath for a cheesy picture.

We also sat for a bit outside to enjoy the weather while I played with my camera settings a little more.

Then, we rode the glass elevator to the top of the 400 foot high Space Needle in Gatlinburg, and enjoyed a beautiful rain shower that turned into thunder and lightning show before we decided it was time to head back down and visit Bubba Gump’s for lunch.

Then, we dressed up like tourists and enjoyed our final days on vacation before we took a long 12 hour drive home… yeah, we got stuck in traffic for a REALLY long time on the way home.

 
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Posted by on Apr 9, 2012 in Emily, pictures, Tennessee, Vacation

 

Playing with Sheep (and color)

19 Mar

Today’s fun picture.  (I apologize if you’ve already seen this on Facebook… I just wanted to make sure it made it into the archives of our blog!)

 
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Posted by on Mar 19, 2012 in Emily, pictures, Vacation

 

Crack-Up

08 Feb

She’s five.

She can belch the alphabet and giggle all the way through it.

Last night she had her words mixed up and serenaded us in the car on the way home.  She sang “Five Little Junkies Bumping On The Bed” (at the top of her lungs).  She had no idea what she was saying but she finally got the words right on the last verse and sang “Five Little Monkeys Jumping On The Bed”.

She was bummed out last night because when we told her “We have an appointment tomorrow night to get our taxes done.”  She really wanted to get them done right then.  This is a consistent theme with our daughter.  One year, she actually had a pretty major meltdown because there was a really big snow storm on the night we had scheduled for taxes and everything was closing early.  Through sobs and tears that night she whimpered, “But I want to get my taxes done….”

Tonight Em was cuddling on her Daddy’s lap and leaned within 5 inches of his eyeballs and very matter-of-factly stated, “Wow!  You look tired!”  She then proceeded to point out the dark circles under his eyes and the fine lines on his face.  Glad it was his lap she was sitting on.  I have a lot more dark circles, lines, and my gray hair count is catching up with The Hubs.

This girl also has a very keen sense of smell. She stuck her nose almost IN her Daddy’s mouth and asked what the smell was on his breath.  (Let me just say that someone’s nose that close to my mouth makes me very uncomfortable but apparently sniffing each other’s breath is something they do fairly often.)  He told her it might be the smell of a drink he was drinking.  ”No.  It smells like food.”  And then the investigation and inquisition began.  I’m not sure if she ever closed the case or if she chalked it up to daddy being a lunatic.

Just another 24 hours of life in our family.

 
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Posted by on Feb 8, 2012 in Emily, pictures, Ponderings

 

Snow Momma’s Life in 24 hours.

25 Jan

Created at 5:30pm one day. Melted away by 5:30pm the next.

One of the many joys of living in Ohio:  You never know what the weather is going to do from one day to the next.  Thankfully, I had informed our daughter early on that Snow Momma might not last very long.  In true form, Snow Momma was gone in 24 hours and still looks like just a snow turd in our yard just 3 days later.

 

 
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Posted by on Jan 25, 2012 in Emily, pictures

 

2nd Day of Sledding (and Snowmen!)

22 Jan

Tap, tap, tap… “Mommy, it’s light out, ya know?”

“Yeah — but I’m not done napping yet.  I’ll get up soon.”

Ten minutes later, I managed to crawl out of bed after my Sunday nap.  Man, I love those things!  (Well, who am I kidding?  I like any kind of nap!  I’m really good at them!  But I digress…)

When I find Em, she’s sitting on the couch with a new set of clothes on.

“Mom.  You know I accidentally slept with my clothes on last night?”

I’m wracking my brain and specifically remember her picking out a pair of “summerish” pajamas that she wore last night.  I’m sure of it.

“Em, you DO realize that this is still Sunday, riiiight?”

“Oh, no!  I thought it was Monday and I was going to school today!”

Fast forward about 20 minutes and we were back out in the snow.

This kid has been looking forward to building a snowman since our first dusting of snow.  Around here, you never know when or if you’re going to get this kind of snow again so we had to take advantage of it.

Now remember, it feels like it’s been forever since I’ve made any sort of snowman.  I always have this idea in my head that it’s going to be really fun and really easy (because everyone’s snowmen always look really good).

However, those dreams are hardly ever my case.

(I apologize for the bad lighting in the pictures… we didn’t get outside until about 4:30pm and we were losing daylight fast!)

Example #1: Frosty the Termite Mound

Example #2: Lumpy the Snowman

Almost done... Snow Momma

Em's very own Baby Snowman

I started to make my own baby snowman and determined pretty quickly that my gloves were VERY dirty. Can you tell?

My Baby Snowman and if you look really close you'll see the hubs in the window.

Now that Daddy was up from his nap, we begged him to help us find a carrot from the fridge for Snow Momma’s nose and then finished our creation!

Nose in place and a kiss goodnight!

Momma Snowman and her maker

And when the Snow Momma was finished, we took a final opportunity to sled once more in the backyard before it melts this week.  The track was fast and fun!


…. as a follow-up, when we came inside we told Daddy how tough it was to make the snowman and how much work it really was.  He didn’t seem to be buying it.

Later, I found out he thought THIS was the snowman that we had been working SO hard on…

...really? This took an hour to make?

It wasn’t until he went outside to pick up pizza for supper that he became acquainted with Snow Momma!

Ah, family life.  Hehehe…

Soooo. What are your thoughts?  Do you like to make snowmen?  Do you roll them or have to sort of pat them together like we ended up having to do?  Are there special tricks to making snowmen?

 
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Posted by on Jan 22, 2012 in Emily, Family, pictures, Videos

 

Her Love Letter

07 Jan

Shortly before Christmas, Em got to have a sleepover at Aunt Shell and Aunt Laura’s house.  She was surprised with a few early Christmas presents while there and got to work right away on them. 

Aunt Shell presented us with this picture at Christmas.  Em was unprompted and had written this on her own without copying it from anything. 

I think I’ll keep this one around as a reminder for those tough days. 

 
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Posted by on Jan 7, 2012 in Christmas, Emily, pictures

 

Fashionista

05 Jan

There are some mornings when Em dresses herself and I just have to grin and shake my head. This was one of those days….

 
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Posted by on Jan 5, 2012 in Emily, pictures

 

First Eye Exam

02 Jan

We’ve been long overdue for some eye exams in our family.  When we did kindergarten screening this past spring, we received a referral to have Em’s eyes checked.  They told us she was a borderline case and it wouldn’t hurt to have her checked out by our family’s eye doctor.

I was due for my exam as well so we turned it into a mother-daughter visit.

Em thought these glasses were the bomb!  :-)

A depth perception check.  (Which we later found out that she struggled with this exam… she couldn’t see the shapes that were “floating” in the pictures.)

 

Emily is still “borderline” as far as needing glasses, but we were told that at this point glasses aren’t necessary.  In another year or two when text starts getting smaller in books at school, we may be ready to check into glasses.  Em was a bit disappointed because I think she actually wanted glasses. 

In due time, girl… in due time.

 
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Posted by on Jan 2, 2012 in Emily, pictures

 

Wednesday at Disney: A Lazy Day!

17 Dec

The following is a recount of our recent trip (put together by my husband shortly after our trip) to Walt Disney World to help us remember all the details as time goes on.  You may find some tips (especially at the end of the week) if you are planning a trip but this is mostly for our memory! =)

(Copied from The Hubs’ blog at tomhypes.com and I added in a few tidbits and pictures!  — jenni)

Wednesday: A Lazy Day of Shopping and Eating
It was time for us to slow it down a little so we enjoyed a relaxed pace.

On the way to Downtown Disney, we had to take some of the buses.

We relaxed while waiting for the buses.

Snoozer Extraordinaire

While at the stop, Jenni noticed a plane doing skywriting. As we watched, we found the man was doing “Witness Writing” including the phrase “Love U Jesus” and “Jesus 4 Gives”

Love U Jesus

Jesus 4Gives

At Downtown Disney, we had lunch at the Rainforest Café (one of our favorite restaurants).

Giraffe Legs!

Emily also found another small carousel she wanted to ride. Then we did some shopping before calling it quits and headed back to the cabin for some naps. We were considering swimming after the naps but we got some unexpected rain so we skipped it.

Instead, we took a boat ride to the Wilderness Lodge for some dinner. We settled in at Whispering Canyon Café (which we HIGHLY recommend).  Whispering Canyon Café is a perfect fit for the Wilderness Lodge environment. The great Christmas decorating of the lodge also set the tone. The staff is fun and energetic.

WE NEED KETCHUP!

Our favorite part was “I NEED KETCHUP!”  When you need ketchup, that’s what your whole table yells in unison. Then whoever, needed it last, brings it to your table. Not one bottle, not even two…. but 28 bottles parade to your table and you have to keep them until you hear another table yell, “WE NEED KETCHUP!” Then your family parades all 28 bottles to them and drops it off.  Emily loved it and still talks about it.

A boat ride back for a walk, the end of Survivor, and some sleep!

 
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Posted by on Dec 17, 2011 in Emily, Family, pictures, Vacation, Videos

 

Tuesday at Disney!

16 Dec

The following is a recount of our recent trip (put together by my husband shortly after our trip) to Walt Disney World to help us remember all the details as time goes on.  You may find some tips if you are planning a trip (especially at the end of the week) but this is mostly for our memory! =)

(Copied from The Hubs’ blog at tomhypes.com and I added in a few tidbits and pictures!  — jenni)

Tuesday – Epcot

To get to Epcot, it was a matter of a couple buses, which is not bad if you bring some patience. As a matter of fact, it is a blessing if you submit to it and let yourself slow down.

Emily had been looking forward to the “golf ball” building and couldn’t wait to go in it.

Throughout the day, Emily met Daisy Duck, Stitch, Chip and Dale, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Donald Duck, and Duffy. We also had a Princess Buffet breakfast at the Kringla Bakeri Og Kafe and Emily got to meet Belle, Alice from Wonderland, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Jasmine. Emily got to join in on The Princess March and she got the autograph of our waitress, Emily, from Norway! =)

We rode Spaceship Earth, Maelstrom (Emily loved), Soarin’ (Grab a Fast Pass – this is awesome), and enjoyed the Seas including “Turtle Talk” which was awesome!

Emily enjoyed a half an hour nap on dad’s lap at the Seas.

We also ate Electric Umbrella and dinner at Via Napoli in Italy.

Jenni and I tend to believe we are not big fans of going the whole loop from nation to nation. It’s a great concept but doesn’t fully click for us.

They also had the Candlelight processional which looked interesting but also looked (like most special events) to be very crowded so we did a walk by but did not stop.  =)

 

 
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Posted by on Dec 16, 2011 in Emily, Family, pictures, Vacation

 
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