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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Weekend In Knoxville

This past weekend we left our base camp at Lake Martin and went to Knoxville for a baby shower. As always, the kids loved being with Granna and Granddaddy. One of the first things we did when we got to my dad's was check out the garden! I wish I would have taken a picture of his garden because it is awesome! My dad has really gotten into gardening over the past several years. I think he has become the vegetable whisper because his vegetables are huge!!! The kids loved picking the green beans, however it still did not make them excited about eating them. One day I hope that they will like to eat vegetables!





Ella has been loving feeding Sara Wells her bottles. She would not even let Granna feed her!

We discovered this weekend that Sara Wells actually loves to play with toys. I feel terrible, but I have not been giving her that many toys to play with because usually she is entertained by Ella and Miller and the time has just gone by so fast I just forget to introduce new things to her. Poor third child. She seems to be coping okay though, look how sweet and happy she is! Ooooo, don't you just want to eat up those cheeks! (Sidenote: The dress that Sara Wells has one was mine! Definitely makes me glad that I am holding onto the kids clothes for their kids one day. Even though they take up so much room in our garage!)


Can you guess what this is?

That is right, we are back into baby food mode! I pushed it off for as long as possible, but I think Sara Wells is officially sick of rice cereal. Usually when I go through the trouble of making baby food I make more than one bowl, but I did not want to deal with transporting frozen baby food. I think Sara Wells enjoyed the variety!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Our Adventure Continues

Just a few more pictures from our adventures.

Back to the barn. I see some horseback riding in our future.



Sara Wells lovin' some Daddy time. She usually doesn't get this kind of uninterrupted time with Daddy. So, when they get it, they soak it up!

Friday, June 25, 2010

I Did It!

If you have noticed, on my side bar I have started collecting projects I want to try. I usually have at least 10 of my own projects going on in my head at any given time. Most of the time they are centered around the kids clothes and I don't get to branch out too far from that. But I saw these cute little caterpillars on Ruffles and Stuff and really wanted to try them. Most of the time when I see cute things on blogs that I want to try, I think I will remember where it is but never do and cannot find the blog again. That is why I started my side bar collection. I have a baby shower this weekend for two friends from high school and thought this would be a perfect time to try these cute little caterpillars.

The baby shower I am going to is for two little boys, so I thought the kelly green minky dots was just too cute! When I went to pick out the fabric I thought while I was at the store I might as well get some fabric to make pink caterpillars too since it is definitely not as easy to get to the store as it used to be. I made these the other night while I was by myself at the lake. After I finished the two for the baby gifts I figured while I was going I might as well keep going. Can anybody guess who the extra three will go to?



Sara Wells' caterpillar did not make it into the photo shoot because she took it to bed.


Baby tested and approved! She has not really latched on to many toys yet, but she really does love this caterpillar (and I am not just saying this because I made it). It is crinkly, so it makes noise and she loves the tags!



Is definitely a pretty easy project. One of those that if you are making one you might as well make a few because it takes a little bit of time to get everything together to make it, but not a big deal to add a few more to the assembly line.

You can get the tutorial here.

Tips: I tried a few different techniques. The tutorial calls for zig-zag stitch. I did that on the minky fabric and did a straight stitch on the fleece and I like the look of the straight stitch much better. Also I tried using batting like the tutorial suggested and I tried stuffing and I think in the end I liked the batting filled better. They ended up looking a little more homemade than I would have liked, but I am hoping it will just be endearing. I will say the more I look at them the cuter they get! I know the babies will like them, I just hope their mommies do too!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Relocation

The Lee Clan has relocated to Lake Martin for the next few weeks. The kids have swim lessons down here the next two weeks, so because of the way that the two weeks fell between birthdays and holidays, we have moved our base camp to the lake for almost 3 weeks! I know it seems a little ridiculous to go to another city for swim lessons, but I could not find swim lessons for both Ella and Miller in Birmingham. All the lessons I found the kids had to be 3. Ella definitely needs swim lessons, but Miller is the one I am really worried about. He sees Ella swimming and jumping off the side and does not realize he cannot do everything she is doing. We are two days into the lessons and the kids are loving it! It is absolutely amazing how quickly they are learning. So, poor us. We are stuck at the most beautiful, relaxing lake for 3 weeks. Whatever will we do?

As I mentioned earlier, this past weekend was the first weekend that all the cousins were at the lake. It really was not as crazy as I had thought it might be (although I did get a few glimpses of what it might be like next summer with 5 under 5 running around). Probably because Chloe and Fitz are still newborns and sleeping (or at least trying) all the time. Sara Wells is only 5 months old and yet I have already forgotten how much newborns sleep! Just when you are ready to hold them and love on them it is time for them to go back to bed. That is probably why I have so few pictures. However we will all be together again for the 4th, so hopefully I will have better pictures.

You know Ella was in heaven. I think Ella's greatest joy in life is to take care of babies. Stephen took this picture with his phone. I was not there when this happened, but if I understood correctly, Wellon put the babies on the couch (without Ella) and one started fussing because their passy fell out. So Ella hopped up on the couch (without anyone aware of what she was doing) and put both passies in and just held them there talking to the babies, calming them down.


These are not the best of all the cousins. I had to snap these pictures very fast. Chloe looks like she is not too sure of the situation her parents have just put her in and Fitz looks so laid back, go with the flow.



We have had lots of boat rides. Our newest entertainment on the rides is feeding the fish. Ella and Miller waited so patiently, but the fish just never came.


Tuesday morning we went to Russel Stables. They were build last year and are absolutely beautiful! By far the prettiest stables I have ever seen. Really made me miss riding horses. Who knows, maybe I will get out my old riding boots! Ella and Miller loved, loved, loved it! We stayed for an hour petting all the horses and watching them get new shoes.




Ella is telling Grey goodbye. This was her conversation to Grey, "Goodbye Grey. I am so sorry that I have to leave you. But don't worry I will be back very soon." It was the sweetest thing. We may have another horse lover in the family.



Ella loves picking the tomatoes! The cherry tomato plant is overflowing with tomatoes that are as sweet as candy. Picking all those tomatoes did not change how Ella feels about them. As excited as she was to pick them, Ella still does not like the taste.


Last night Murray brought back some squash blossoms from our garden. We have heard over and over again about how great they are and have been dying to try them. Murray stuffed them with ricotta, parmesan and rosemary and then sauted them. Delicious!


Miller's first jump off the pontoon boat (and the dock). I took these pictures with my phone, I am pretty impressed with the quality! Today Coach Sammy told me that I needed to be careful with Miller at the pool these next few days because he now has a lot of confidence but is not quite there yet. Amen to that one! Miller would not even think about jumping off the dock and after one day of swim lessons he decided to jump off the pontoon boat all on his own! I wish there was some way to take a little bit of that confidence back:)


Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day

To all the Fathers in my life, Happy Father's Day!

To my Dad, I love you! Sorry we were not with you today to make your day special, but we cannot wait to see you in a few days!

To my husband, Wow, what a wonderful Father you are! I cannot imagine a better Father to our children! We love you!!! You are the best!

Daddy with his girls.

Daddy giving Miller a very important lesson in how to build a fire.


To my father-in-law, What a wonderful Papa! We love you Papa!
We could not get a good picture with Papa and the three kids because Papa kept trying to get Ella to cover up the T on her cheerleader costume. I am a little surprised he even took a picture with Ella in the bright orange.

Papa teaching Sara Wells a very important boating lesson.


When it comes to getting Murray presents I usually have a very hard time. Whenever Murray wants something he just goes and buys it. He loves to cook and anything that goes with cooking, but we have a ton of cookbooks and really don't have the space for any more cooking supplies or gadgets. So I have put all cooking related gifts on hold. You can always fall back on clothes for Father's Day, but in a subtle way Murray made it known he did not want another dress shirt or golf shirt for Father's Day. I have been wracking my brain for a couple of months for a great gift and nothing was coming to my mind. Then about two weeks ago the perfect gift idea popped into my head. If you remember this
post, while I was away at the beach Murray and the kids came up with their slogan for the weekend. Murray asks, "What are we having?" Kids answer, "The Best Time Ever!!!" And the slogan has stuck. They love it and so does Murray. I thought, how great would it be to make t-shirts for them. Now the best would have been if I did not say a word about it to Murray and totally surprised him with the t-shirts. But it is so hard for me to keep a secret from Murray, especially when it comes to gifts. I did not tell him what it was, but I kept telling him how excited I was about it and that he would love it. So, he knew something different was coming. I started to second guess myself as today grew closer, but in the end I was right. He loved the t-shirts and was totally surprised. And the kids absolutely loved their own t-shirts that matched Daddy!!!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Drum Roll Please...

He did it!!! Miller is potty trained!


Honestly, I am shocked. I thought it might happen, but I really thought it would be more Murray and me who were potty trained than Miller. But he did it! He tells us every time he has to go. I am so proud of my Miller Man! My advice: underwear that they love, setting the timer, not caving in (even with lots of crying and begging for diapers, that is if you are pretty confident they are ready) and lots and lots of M&M's (Miller got two M&M"s every time the timer went off and he had dry underwear and then two more if he went on the potty. And if he poops, he gets a blow pop!). Now that he is officially potty trained, we are somehow going to have to wean the candy!

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Tomotoes

I cannot believe that I have not posted about this yet, but we have a garden!!!


Murray worked so hard (I mean every evening after work and every weekend) all spring to build our backyard. This has been a huge ordeal, way bigger than boiling it down to one sentence. But it is too hard to go back now and chronicle all the work he has done so you will just get glimpses of it here and there. One aspect of our new backyard that I am so excited about it our garden! Murray built 3 beautiful raised beds that we filled with tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, carrots, green beans, okra and some herbs.




Murray has been very kind and patient with me by not laughing at all the stupid questions I have had about our garden. I am definitely learning a lot. Everyday I go out and check the garden just to see if anything has happened overnight. Pretty soon after we planted our tomato plants, two roma tomatoes popped out. I have been waiting patiently, watching them grow. Yesterday Miller and I were out checking the tomatoes and I showed them to him for the first time. I had not shown him earlier for fear that he would pick them too early. I still wanted to wait a day or two before picking, but I thought Miller would really get a big kick out of seeing the big tomato on the plant. Miller and I talked about the importance of leaving the tomato on the plant and why we were not going to pick it yet. So, of course as soon as I turned my back, Miller picked it. He was thrilled and so proud of himself that he picked a tomato. In all of his excitement, there was no way I could be upset. We came upstairs and put the tomatoes in the window sill to fully ripen. Both kids are thrilled to eat the tomatoes that they planted (they have never like tomatoes before, but maybe this will change their minds)




While on the topic of our new backyard, another favorite part is our fire pit. I cannot give Murray enough credit for how hard he worked on this. He dug out each on of those step, which meant digging out huge rocks! All of the sweat and back breaking work was definitely worth it! I feel like I am in my own little paradise in my backyard! He created one of the most beautiful, peaceful places I want to be! I know we will have lots of family memories at our fire pit.