Why???

Mary's new favorite word: "WHY?" 

Only because she uses it in almost every sentence she says. I know it's her way of learning/figuring everything out, but really, by the end of the day ... my brain is exhausted. Some questions are legitimate "why" questions, but others are TOUGH. The hardest thing comes when she doesn't understand your explanation, she'll ask "why" 15 times until she figures it all out. I love that she's so curious about everything, but dang, it wears me out.

"Why is is cold outside?" ... "Why is it winter?" ... "Why do we have seasons?" ... "Why does the sun keep us warm?" ... "Why is the sun burning hot?" ... "What are planets?" .... "What's outer space?" ... 

By dinner time, I am positive that I cannot answer a single "why" question without losing it.

Thankfully, we get some pretty cute questions throughout the day that keep me loving her 3-year-old curiosity.

This morning:

"Why is that sheep looking up when everybody is supposed to be looking at Baby Jesus?!"

We decided he's looking up at the star, and she's perfectly content with that answer. Whew. 

I didn't want to have to go into an explanation about manufactured plastic toys and how we can't really change the direction of his head.  

Unpacking

I've been going through phases of unpacking this month. Our main living areas were easy to unpack and set up, only because the extra boxes were stuck in the basement, the office, the "pantry", and what will be the baby's room. I've been working in each room little by little, but I swear the stuff multiplies.

My goal this week is to pick a room every day and stick with it all day until everything has a place. So far, my work has paid off beautifully.

Monday - The Office

Tuesday - the "pantry"

It's really just a hallway off the kitchen/dining area ... but for now it is my pantry.

I can't argue with a little extra space for food and storage.

Our own tiny grocery store.

My goal for today was to finish the baby's room. We need to paint, furnish, and decorate this room before April. It would be nice if I could clean it out. Too bad Mary is a little under the weather and running on not enough sleep (leading to an unhappy girl and a day full of melt downs), so the room still looks like this:

I'm hoping to have my grumpy/tired child in bed as soon as she finishes with her dinner and a bath, and then ... and then I'm hanging out with Paul watching American Idol in my pajamas.

So, TOMORROW! I will conquer this room.

I think my goal for next week will be finishing the basement ... wish me luck on that one.

Nashville Getaway

We wanted to get away together before the boy arrives, so we headed up to Nashville, TN for a weekend getaway. I had no idea how the weekend would pan out, since neither of us were familiar with Nashville at all ... but we had a blast. Although I'm definitely looking pregnant all over, it was still super easy/comfortable to travel and what-not at 29 weeks.

We were so impressed with Nashville. We only spent time downtown and on the West End, but we loved it. Some highlights of the trip ...

*A walk through Vanderbilt and a fabulous dinner at Bound'ry

*A trip to the Nashville Temple, where we met up with Paul's parents and sister. SO nice to be there with them.

*Sleeping in late and taking long naps in a super cozy hotel bed

*An evening in downtown Nashville, full of tourist shops, live bar music, and local bbq, topped off with a concert at the Grand Ole Opry's Ryman auditorium

*Paul threatening to walk out when they sang "Rocky Top."

*Meeting the "legendary" Ronnie Milsap (too bad we don't know anything about old country music ...)

*discovering Nashville's full-sized replica of the Parthenon ... who knew?!

*a gorgeous drive through the West End and Belle Meade and some serious southern food at Loveless Cafe

Downtown Nashville

Mr. Ronnie Milsap

Cuz we didn't take pictures of anything but ourselves ...

The Parthenon

Hercules?

Now on my list of favorite restaurants, 

Loveless Cafe.

Snow Days

We take our snow once a year around here.

Play in it two or three times and you've had a good winter. 

"Come on Mommy, come hug 'yis tree."

Except the snow and ice has stuck around for four days this year. It's chilly.

Location Location

Why I'm loving our location.

Publix: 2.5 miles
Perimeter Mall: 3.5 miles
Super Target: 4 miles
Costco: 5 miles
Church/Temple: 5.5 miles
Paul's Office/Downtown/Children's Museum/Aquarium, etc.: 13 miles
The ZOO: 17 miles

All the important things in life.

The Big Reveal

Now that I've updated everything else about our life, I will finally post pictures of our house.

After scoping out (too much of) metro Atlanta, we finally decided to house hunt in the Duluth/Suwanee area. It would put Paul 30+ miles away from work, but he was willing to commute because everything in our price range was big, new, with good neighborhoods and great schools. Not so happy about being so far  out of town, but everything else looked perfect. After looking at about 20 homes, we weren't excited about any particular place. All of the houses seemed so similar, we felt like we would be happy in just about any one of them.

Then it hit me. I thought I was a suburb person, but I'm not. The cookie cutter houses, the HOA fees, neighborhood ordinances, tiny yards, etc. were just not what I wanted. Easy enough. Except every time we had looked in town in the past, our price range turned up tiny, old, unrenovated homes, with the washer and dryer in the kitchen (can't do it). On a whim, I checked the areas we had considered in the past and found two homes that I wanted to see. The first one had a contract, so we had ONE home in town that we would even consider looking at. We met with our realtor and fell in love with the place.

Not too impressed with the house from the road, but it's pretty simple, so not bad. The inside immediately won us over. 4 bedrooms/3 full baths with a perfectly renovated kitchen, a huge basement, a great back deck and a huge backyard. I was ready to make an offer that day. Paul, the less impulsive one, took some time to think it over and we had a contract by the end of the next week. We closed 30 days later and here we are, home sweet home.

Our Sunbeam!

Mary has graduated to the big kid Sunbeam class at church. Good news ... she loved it!

When Paul picked her up from class, she came running out the door shouting "DADDY, I had SO much fun!" Talk about a good day at church. Let's keep it up little lady!

Christmas 2009

We skimmed through Christmas with only a few pictures this year. I think we were using the camera to take video the whole time, but those take too long to upload. So, here are our holidays!

We spent Christmas Eve at Paul's Dad's house in Marietta, then spent the night at his Mom's in Ringgold (for a few hours of sleep) before the 6am Christmas morning. Paul was in heaven. It's so fun to watch him with his brothers. There are still eight kids in Paul's family at home for Christmas, so there's no shortage of excitement on Christmas morning.

Mary, waking up to put make-up on her Strawberry Shortcake doll.

We spent Christmas night in Athens with my family. All of us were there! My Mom's Christmas wrapping always makes me laugh, and this year didn't let me down. She knew we needed barstools for our new kitchen and had me send her the link to the exact set we wanted. I was happy to see she wasted no effort in disguising the surprise.

A Christmas trash bag shaped liked a barstool.

Last but not least. We did Christmas at our new house and Mary got the one thing she wanted from Santa; Hungry Hungry Hippos!! She got a few extra games to go along with it and Candy Land has won out as the favorite. 

Our first Christmas in our own house!

Ballet Day

Parents' Day at Mary's Ballet Class.

chasse'

arabesque

FREE STYLE

A Long Drive and A Camera

View from the Back Seat 

Jupiter shots

Hanging on the beach

Just to redeem myself. I didn't pack a swimsuit because a)that pregnant belly you see there and b)the weather forecast was cold through the weekend. When the weather turned warm our second day there, I make shifted a suit with a tank top and some rolled up sweats.

And then...

When you wear your comfy 10 hr. travel home clothes to the beach all day and you're left with nothing clean in your suitcase, you end up wearing your husband's clothes to dinner that night.

That's as classy as I get people. All in one day.

May I add that Nicole has no excuse for wearing hammer pants to dinner.

Our hosts. At Dune Dog. The two things I love most about Jupiter Island.

Jupiter Island

After spending Thanksgiving in Ocala, Florida with Paul's grandparents and all of his aunts and uncles, we went to visit David and Nicole on Jupiter Island. This was Paul's first vacation time since May, so the only things on our itinerary were to relax and eat some good food. Luckily, that's what South Florida is all about ... so we had 3 extra days of Thanksgiving to sit around and eat. Really fantastic. 


Some highlights of the trip include: David and Nicole's amazing old lady condo, an introduction to regretsy, sea turtle and shark sightings, dinner at Dune Dogs, and at least five cartons of Publix ice cream. 


Oh, and some ridiculous ocean views. 

From the balcony

From the bedroom