Discovering the treasures in our backyard

I have lived in Douglasville for four years.  Right around the corner from us is the Sweetwater Creek state park.  In all of the time I lived here yesterday was the second time I have visited the park.  It was a lot of fun.

Evan is a born hiker.  He loved every minute of it.  He was six steps ahead of us and showing us the way.

 

 

Obviously it wasn't much of a hike since we could take the stroller.

At the end of one of the trails there are the ruins of a civil was era textile mill.  I didn't think that I would get too excited about seeing this but once we got down there it was really, really cool. 

 

 

 

Very beautiful

What have I done?

Let my first words be "I hate it!" (see below)

Until now my world did not include hair clippers or boy's hair cuts.  Poor Evan is taking the brunt of my being introduced to these two things.  Ever since Evan was born he has had a tuft of red hair that pointed down his forehead, until now.  I would have cried had I not been trying to not freak Evan out about loosing his hair.

Now there are many reasons Evan's hair ended up like this.  Evan inherited some amazing hair issues from his father, a cowlick that doesn't quit, the front lays perfectly flat to his head and everything else stands on end until it is well over two inches long.   There is no styling this hair.  It does what it wants.  You can see what James has resorted to to deal with these issues.  Yep, he shaves his head.  He keeps telling me to just give in and do the same to Evan.  I have insisted that my little boy is going to have hair.  Especially Evan's beautiful copper colored hair.

Well I decided that I would get Evan's hair cut short for the summer because he gets so hot.  I paid for several haircuts that always turned out a little goofy.  I also felt that there really wasn't much to taking the clippers to a boys head and that if I did some experimenting I could figure it out and save some money.

As this hair cut progressed Evan got more tired and more frustrated with the hair clippings falling in his face and itching his neck.  I all I could thing to do was get it to some point that it would look fairly decent.  Well this is where it ended up.  Okay it is going to take A LOT of practice.   I am not giving up yet though.  As soon as it starts cooling down we will be growing his hair out and starting over.

Summer Fun

We have really enjoyed eating produce from our garden.  All plants did survive Evan's "helping".  I am so blessed to have children who LOVE vegetables.  As you can see they especially love tomatoes and will eat them like apples right off the vine.

We have also enjoyed picking and eating LOTS of blueberries.  We look forward to planting our own blue berry bushes this fall.  Evan and Emma would eat blueberries all day long if I would let them.  You can only imagine what that does to their diapers.

 

We broke out the kiddie pool the other day and it was a grand hit. 

Evan is so excited that Emma is up and walking now.  She is so much more fun.  They get along great and love to make each other laugh.

 

 

I hope you enjoyed pictures of our summer.

James & Elizabeth

My sister tagged me with the following questioner about James and I.

1. What is his name?  James E. Thompson

2. Who eats more?  What kind of a question is this?  Openly we probably eat about the same.  But I am a bit of a closet eater so in the end I probably eat more.

3. Who said I love you first?  James

4.Who is taller? I am by about an inch

5. Who is smarter? James is extremely smart.  He is in school now and even thought he usually only has a few hours a week to study he still is a straight A student.

6. Who is more sensitive?  We are equally sensitive.

7. Who does the laundry?  It is mostly my responsibility but James pitches in and helps a lot.

8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Looking at the bed James does.  What does this have to do with anything anyway?

9. Who pays the bills? I do

10. Who cooks more?  Cooking is how I earn my keep :)  Cooking is about the only thing I do really well.  Housekeeping, not so much.

11. What meals do you cook together?  Like I said...

12. Who is more stubborn?  We can't think of a time when one or the other of us was being overly stubborn.  So I guess neither of us. (that is probably because James lets me have my way most of the time.  What can I say...either I am spoiled or James is even smarter then I thought.)

13. Who is first to admit when they are wrong? Once again James...hum very, very smart.

14. Who has more siblings? James has 5 to my 2

15. Who wears the pants in the relationship?  Despite my comment in question 12 James and I work really well together.

16. What do you like to do together? Other then the obvious...play with he kids,  sharing a rare relaxing evening.  Time is pretty limited these days.  Life before school and kids included good times camping.

17. Who eats more sweets?  James has a sweet tooth that never quits.

18. Guilty pleasures? Ice cream

19. How did you meet?  James helped me move into my first apartment when I moved to Atlanta.  When we finished moving everything in he proceeded to juggle hammers, screwdrivers and other various tools in my front room.  Talk about leaving an impression.  I am not sure it was a good impression because it took me two years to think of him as more then a friend.

20. Who asked who out first? I am still not sure I have ever been asked on an official date.  James had this sly way of inviting me to do things without it actually being considered a date.  But to be fair.  James invited me to go with he and some friends to a baseball game a few weeks after I moved in.

21. Who kissed who first? James kissed me first.

22. Who proposed? James

23. What is his best feature? He would say his mustache.  I say that he has great hands.

24. What is his best quality? I really can't narrow it down. He has amazing integrity.  He would give anybody the shirt off his back.  He is very down to earth, no pretence with him.  He is who he is and he makes no apologies and he doesn't need to impress anyone.  He loves me despite all of my weaknesses.  He is a wonderful father and provider.  I am a really blessed woman!  I love you Handsome.

Now I tag... Heather Shepherd, Emily W., Kristen C. and Deborah A.  I can't wait to learn more about you.

Emma's First Birthday ! ! !

We had such a great time celebrating Emma's arrival into our family.  On her actual birthday, July 3rd, we had a small family cake eating celebration.  Emma was pretty hesitant to dig into her cake.  She is not too keen on having messy hands.  Then on July 7th we had some friends over to celebrate Emma and Elizabeth's birthday.

Our guests included Gi Gi and Rebecca and the Adams family, Liz, Ryan and their children Gabriel, Eme and Oliver.  Emma also enjoyed opening gifts from Nana, Papa and Uncle Richard who sent their love from Colorado.  We are so grateful for the love and support of our friends and family.