the farm.

We met my friend, Dana, and her family at Southern Belle Farm last Sunday.  Poor Taylor had to work.  My kids will never, ever get tired of this farm.  It is the absolute best!

EK would have nothing to do with posing for my camera on the hay bales.  P thought is was hysterical!

Love this pic!  Dana and Millie on the other end of the water pump :)

Some of the few pics I have with my babies.  This jumping pillow is crazy, I tell ya!  It is difficult to stay on but so much fun!

P ropin' the calf.  He loves this!

One of the few times I've been in a corn maze and probably my last.  Seriously.  We were lost.  No lie. When do you call for a search party?  After an hour?  Two hours?  P thought it was hilarious.  Me?  Not so funny.

The kids had a blast!

And my favorite horse.  Ever.  This sweet horse will give you hugs and lovin' all day.  Why won't Taylor just let me sell our house in the "city" and buy a big ole' plot of land in the country with horses and cows and chickens? That would be my dream come true.  

We had a blast, Dana!  Thanks for taking a few pics of me with my sweet babies.

halloween.

Halloween was a blast this year!  With both kids finally old enough to really get it.  Love it!  EK was dang determined to be Minnie Mouse.  I tried very hard and for a very long time to get her to be a cupcake, since I bought her the most adorable cupcake costume for super cheap on clearance last Halloween.  And we call her Emma Cupcake.  And every single two year old girl is Minnie for Halloween.  But she is definitely head strong, maybe even more so than her mama, so she won the battle.  I will admit she made the cutest Minnie Mouse ever, so I guess it will be okay.  

Checking out her shoes.

 Holding the treat bag I made her that is bigger than her :)

Ans as for P, he wanted to be a pirate.  Easy peasy since he just had a pirate birthday party at which he wore a perfectly adorable (and expensive) pirate costume.  Works for me!

Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhh!!!!

Jake sword with a map.  He loves that sword!

Sweet, sweet Minnie.

Wow!  Did I actually get a pic of both of them????

They love their daddy.  Melts my heart.

EK got the hang of trick-or-treating pretty quick.  P still doesn't love it.  He'd rather stay at the house and pass out candy with granddaddy.

EK loved watching the other kids.  "Who are they, daddy?"  "What is that, daddy?"  Too, too sweet.

EK went to about 10 more houses than P.  She loved every second of trick-or-treating.  She even rang our own doorbell to get candy from grandaddy.

It was a fantastic Halloween with our family.  I love our traditions that we have created!  It only gets better from here.  

fourth of july.

I did not take many pictures Fourth of July weekend, so here are the few that I have.  We played a lot, ate too much, and enjoyed each other's company.  Love my sweet family.

My crazy EK.

Ready for a cupcake.  Look at that tongue!

How does this boy look so grown?  He is still sweeter than ever but I know that he will be too cool for his mama one day too soon.  Time, please stand still.

My sweet, patriotic babies.

Random pic but check out this arrowhead that P and Jackson found while digging at the Crosby's.  Pretty cool, huh?

Thank God we live in a country in which we have so many freedoms.  And thank you to those soldiers who fought so hard for our freedom.  Happy Fourth of July, everyone!

the best summer ever.

Have I told you how much we like daddy's new job?  He gets a three day weekend every other week.  Awesome!  We head to the lake on Thursday and don't come back 'til Sunday.  Four straight days on lake time with my favorite peeps.  Life is good.

By the way, EK's new favorite past time?  Touching fish eyes.  I cannot make these things up.  She screams if we throw back a fish before she gets to touch an eyeball.  Seriously.

Fishing with daddy.  Crickets are the key.  P's attention span is way too short to use artificial bait.  Crickets are a fisherman's Concerta.

We have found a new favorite spot.  We pack a picnic and drinks and towels and 10 other bags of stuff and head out to goat island.  It really is just right around the bend from our lake house but for some reason the kids love it so much more.  Maybe because it's shady.  Or there's a beach.  Or it feels like camping.  Not sure, but they love it.  We love it, too.  When our babies are happy, mama and daddy are happy.

The babies enjoying our S'mores To Go.  Yes, this was my brilliant idea.  I told you it feels like camping.

EK watching the waves.

We have also been taking lots of boat trips to our friends, the Crosbys', lake house.  The boys adore each other.  And they have a pool.  We also meet them at Jackson's for dinner or in the middle of the lake to tube.  It is so much fun!  Here is Jackson and P at dinner one night.  Best buds.

I'm not lying when I say this has been the best summer ever.  Lots of family time and loads of fun.

legoland.

We met Amy and her kids for a day of fun at Legoland.  P had been begging to go since it opened in March, but tickets were always sold out.  We finally found a day that we could all go and tickets were still available so we packed up and headed to Atlanta for a day of legos.

We spent most of our time in the 4 and under area.  The kids all loved the soft block legos and EK could.not.get.enough of the slide.

EK loved the cupcake legos.  I really wanted to buy them for her in the gift shop but they were sold out.  Imagine that.  The only girl legos in the entire Legoland.  Sold out.  Hmmmm.

P and Nicholas loved the tower building station.  You built a tower and then pushed a buttom that made the foundation shake.  They cracked up when their skyscraper came crashing down.  These boys have too much fun together for us to live so far apart.

Is this thing safe, mom?

P and Nicky.  They loved this place!

I was pleasantly surprised with Legoland.  We all had a great time, including EK, and there was plenty to do to keep us all entertained for 3 or 4 hours.  We finished our day with burgers and fries at Johnny Rockets.  We will definitely go back to Legoland again soon.

father's day.

 We love daddy's new job.  He gets to spend way more time at home, no on-call, crazy, late night phone calls, and he gets a three day weekend every two weeks.  You can't beat that!  The only downfall?  He has to work some holidays.  And this year, he had to work Father's Day.  Boo.  We made the best of it and spent the afternoon with my sweet daddy.  Love him so much!

The kids love my parents' backyard.  Lots of shade, green grass, and a fish pond.  EK's new favorite, bird watching.  She takes after her grandpa.

Kickball with grandpa.

Sweet girl checking out the fish.

Happy Father's Day to my daddy and Taylor, the two best dads I know.  I love you both very, very much!

splash pad and food trucks.

We seem to always be running errands in Atlanta.  There are just so many more options.  Heck, I even go grocery shopping at Whole Foods in Buckhead once a month.  Our poor kids get carted around so much.  Taylor and I decided to make this particular trip fun for all.  After all errands were complete, we headed over to the Old Fourth Ward park to check out the new splash pad and playground.  The area used to be a little shady, so I made sure we had Taylor with us, but, boy, was this place cool.

Check out this swing!  (And check out how high daddy is pushing my sweet babies.)

After about an hour in the 95 degree heat, the kids were hot and hungry.  We headed over the Howell Mill to the Atlanta Food Truck Park.  I'd been wanting to give this place a go all summer, and we finally got a chance.  This was so cool, too.  Lots of selection so all hungry bellies left happy.  P picked Nana G's Chicken and Waffles.  Minus the chicken.  Add some chocolate chips, whipped cream, and honey.  Healthy lunch, huh?

And King of Pops popsicles for dessert.  Yummmm!  

Chocolate sea salt for this little girl.

 My sweet little family.  We had such a good day.