Emma Frances

I meant to publish this post a little closer to her birthday, but I was waiting to get a picture of her in this sweet little dress my parents gave her for her birthday. I have wanted her to wear it every Sunday since her birthday but it has been too cold for longsleeve. Today was finally cool enough. She loves this dress because it has a ballerina on it just like her. She looked so pretty today. I put her hair up in a bun. I wish I could have taken this photo before we left for church, but we were running late, so I took it when we got home. Her hair had fallen some, but she still looked so sweet. A bunch of people commented about how different she looked this morning with her long hair put up.
Anyway, I just want to say to Emma how much your daddy and I love you and how proud we are of the sweet little girl you have become. We can't believe how fast these first five years have gone by. You just get sweeter with each passing day. We love you, our princess.

Ready for Easter

We got ready for Easter yesterday afternoon. The girls had so much fun getting their Easter baskets out and putting out our few decorations. Here they are after placing the last few wooden painted eggs in our kitchen table centerpiece.

When our decorating was complete, we went outside for a few Easter egg hunts. It got a little cold and Anna Kate decided she wanted to go back inside, but Emma didn't want to quit. In fact, she dumped out all the eggs and plopped down on the ground and ASKED me to take her picture. I couldn't run get the camera fast enough. So, here's a sweet picture of her. I hope she and Anna Kate will be in the mood next Saturday to have their picture made as I plan to do their Easter portraits. Keep your fingers crossed.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Has it rained a ton this week, or what? I was so happy to see clear skys this afternoon. The pictures below were taken one morning before we left for school while it was raining.

Emma Has Fun Too

Emma loves going to Anna Kate's softball practices. While Anna Kate is practicing, Emma is having a good time too. I brought her tee ball set to Tuesday's practice so she and a couple other younger siblings could play. I may bring her bike for the next practice. At last night's practice, I was visiting with other moms when I looked over and found her trying on Anna Kate's batting helmet. Isn't she cute?
Next thing I know she has Anna Kate's bat too. She is going to be so cute next year playing tee ball at the park. I think she will love it.

Softball Time

It's softball time again, and Anna Kate is so excited. This is her fifth year to play. After two years of tee ball and two years of coach pitch, she is now in her first year of regular pitch. She loved fast pitch this past fall, but her favorite is definitely slow pitch. It's my favorite too, but I am sure that's because slow pitch is what I played growing up like her and in high school. Today was her four practice for the season, and I think she is doing great! I thought practice might get cut short because of a short rain, but they continued on. I have my doubts about Thursday's practice. I hear we are in for a lot of rain. Hope everyone has a great week.

Romantic Mountain Getaway

After spending a few days doing fun things with the girls around home, Tim and I left them with grandparents and headed to the mountains to finish our Spring Break. Thanks Meme and Daddy Bill and Granny and Granddaddy. We had such a great time. The mountains are so beautiful. This is our third year in a row to go there. We love Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and all the neat things they have to offer, but our favorite reason for going is the explore the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Below is a pic of me on one of our geocaching stops in Georgia on our way to the Tennessee mountains.

We loved this beautiful mountain view in Georgia, which really got us excited about completing the drive to get to the Smokies.

On our second day in Gatlinburg, we made a short hike in the park and saw tons of abandoned cabins and homes that were taken over by the government to preserve the park. They were beautiful places -- so many of them perched right next to the water.

We stopped at this house that had tons of daffodils in full bloom all over the front yard. It was so pretty. I have never seen so many daffodils in one place.

Here's a view of the house with daffodils surrounding it.

In the middle of a row of cabins was this tiny cabin. We guess it was a play house for the kids of one of the cabins next door.

Here's a look inside the tiny cabin. It even had a fireplace.

The next day we went on a couple more short hikes. This one took us to an old school house. It was neat.

The school was sitting on the bank of a stream. It was so pretty that we stopped and took a pic.

Here's another pic of the stream at the school house from the other direction.

Then we took another hike to a corn mill perched right on the side of the stream. Of course, they used the water to run the mill. You can see the hollowed out log in the foreground that brought the water to the mill. It was such a pretty spot.

I could have stood there and listened to the sound of the water forever. I know we are going to have a ball this summer on our family vacation to the beach, but it is going to be hard to beat to spectacular views of the Smoky Mountains.

Here's a shot of the mill, which has stood the test of time.

The third day we took a scenic driving tour. It was beautiful, but I can just imagine how great it would be in the fall. Tim and I decided we would come back in the fall one year real soon.

Here's another stop we made on the that driving tour. It seemed every curve we went around we would find another beautiful spot. The pictures just don't do it justice.

At the end of that day, we went for a cache called "a view from heaven." That's exactly what it looked like up there. Here's a pic.

On the way home, we took another short hike to Look Rock. It was a great hike.

Here is a view from Look Rock at the Maryville/Friendsville area below.

The view from the other side gave us the mountains, including a view of Clingman's Dome where we went on a short hike last year with the girls. It is the tallest point in the Smokies.

On our last night of vacation, we dressed up and had a special night out. Before eating supper, we decided to go back on the driving tour to take some sunset pictures.

The mountain view at sunset was absolutely beautiful. I wished it had lasted longer.

Here's a silhouette of us as the sun was setting.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We had another great Spring Break day. We met my mom at Lee Park and had a picnic lunch.

The girls had so much fun playing. It was a beautiful day to play.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring Break Fun

Anna Kate and Emma are enjoying Spring Break. The W is closed this week, so even I got the week off. It's great. I definitely think we all needed the break -- sleeping late, doing whatever we want, NO homework! Yep, it's going to be a good week. Today we went to the library. The girls enjoyed picking out books and playing games on the computers. Then we went to SnoBiz for snowcones. That was a fun treat. We followed that up with a little bit of clothes shopping. We are planning on more fun tomorrow, maybe a trip to the park for a picnic.

Spring has Sprung

Was today a beautiful day, or what? I just loved it. I love spring time because of the warmer temps and the flowers that begin blooming. It seems the first flowers to bloom around here are the daffodils. We usually take pictures with the bright yellow ones at a neighbor's house, but this year I found a great patch of white ones at Plymouth Bluff. Here's what we found...

Look What I Found?

Tim and his siblings helped their parents clean out some stuff today and Tim came across several things from his childhood. He had fun showing them to Anna Kate and Emma tonight. He found his microscope and a case of Matchbox cars. I think he, Kevin, Derrick and Samantha had fun reminiscing.