MFY

Yesterday (August, 26, 2010) was the BIG DAY!! We found out that our third (and last) baby is aGIRL! We are just thrilled! Her name will be Mary Flynn Yates.  

Mary, who is Rob's paternal grandmother, is such a special lady and so very dear to both of us. Rob told her we would like to name our baby girl after her, and in Mary Yates fashion said, "Well, it's about time after all these grandchildren and great-grandchildren...you would have thought there would have been a Mary Catherine, or Mary something by now!!" Rob said, "You finally got one!" We hope that our Mary has all the spunk, sweetness, and loving spirit that this Mary does, as well as her strong faith!

Flynn, who was my maternal grandmother, was one of my best friends. Not only was she a grandmother,she was such a good person who was loved by everyone. She served the Lord every day of her life (and always make sure I put Him first in everything) and was an extremely talented pianist who played the piano in her church for over 60 years. She was a wonderful cook, bridge player, and loved to travel.
Both of these women are so special to Rob and me and both hold many of the same values, beliefs, and interests. Had they lived in the same town, I know they would have been great friends. Our hope is that this little girl has all these characteristics and then some! I can't think of two better people to be named after...what a blessed little one!?!?!

And one more thing...this may not be my first sewing project for this little sister, but it is definitely on the list. I found these embroidery alphabet patterns on the Etsy store Penguin and Fish!  I am going to change all these colors to pinks, turquoise, oranges, and yellows!!!

K4!!!!!!

Does this look like the face of an apprehensive 4 year old! It was his birthday and we're on our way to 4K open house at our church, FUMC Louisville!

I didn't get a good picture, but they were so sweet to sing Happy Birthday to him and he loved it. The above picture was taken right after he found out Ms. Ming was his teacher!! 
We were so excited!

And we were also so excited to know that Hayes Caperton was in his class. Hayes' dad, Roger, and I have been friends for year and hopefully Reed and Hayes will be too!

Here he is in his seat in Ms. Ming's room!

And (tada) here he is: 1st day of 4K, August 16th, and SO SO excited!

...new backpack he got for his birthday (which, by the way, that has been filled with the most precious work). He has learned a nursery rhyme every day: Little Boy Blue, Little Miss Muffett, Mary had a Little Lamb...and the amazing part is Reed can say the whole thing when he comes home each night! AMAZING!

Such a proud mama...and boy did I cry when we dropped him off. I never cry...I guess it's hormones. I just can't believe he is old enough to start 4K!

Daddy couldn't resist a picture either!
It was such a great day and I know it will be such a wonderful year filled with so many fun memories. We didn't live in Louisville when I was 4, but everyone I graduated with talked about how 4K at FUMC was one of their favorite memories of growing up! 
I just know it's going to be the same for Reed!

A four year old has a party and it rains...

...and what does the four year old do, parties on!! Rain was NOT going to put a damper on the gigantic water sliding fun we were going to have Saturday morning. Not even when I looked out the window at 9 a.m. (party started at 10 a.m.) and it was dark as night. I told Rob, "Check the radar, pronto!" And after lots of prayers, there was a 4 hour window of no rain!

So what did we do...

...set up that slide and slid in the rain.

...and slid...

...and even Luke got in on the action.

Needless to say this was his only venture down the slide!! He was going to have a fine time, thank you, in his baby pool with the water hose.

Reed's awesome (as always) cake made by Hailey Peterson, of Cups -N- Cakes in Starkville.

Not only was it too cute, it was so delish (you can't beat cream cheese icing)!

All the dad's "enjoyed" standing in the rain watching the boys have a ball!

Time to blow out the candles!!!!!!!

Brothers on Reed's birthday. I kept calling Luke "the lifeguard" because he stood there almost the entire time (that is, when he wasn't in his baby pool...still obsessed with it)!

And here were his party favors!! I found these balls at Tarjay on the $1 aisle! I attached some Toy Story gummies and this card and voila -- cute favor!

We had so so so much fun and are still sorting through and opening up all the toys! 
Still can't believe he's 4!

Kitchen and fabric favorites

I follow (and frequently visit) the sew mama sew blog and web site and they are having a sale. I think if I had 1 million dollars I would spend at least $100,000 on fabric...I am obsessed. 

I have been dreaming lately of an all white kitchen accented with turquoise and a little bit of red thrown in there--i.e. bright red Kitchen Aid mixer (and we are having a little trouble with an air-conditioning leak so I'm hoping the "paint the kitchen" project will happen sooner rather than later)!! If it does, I LOVE this fabric for new window treatments (I am dying to try this roller shade tutorial from Design Sponge found here):

Marnie from the Poodle fabric collection by Jennifer Paganelli for Free Spirit.



with these shelves

(from Ballard)

and we are in desperate need of this bench (below and also from Ballard Designs) to collect all of our backpacks, shoes (it seems like the BBs take of their shoes as soon as they walk in the door...I counted 6 pairs in our kitchen floor the other night!)

(also from Ballard)

Here are a few more of my favorite fabrics that can be found on Sew Mama Sew:

Once we find out what this baby is (TOMORROW!!!), I may want to update some of our nursery bedding with this!!! Perfect for boy and girl...and I just L-O-V-E the name!

Grandma's Pearls from the Party Dress fabric collection by Mo Bedell for Blue Hill Fabrics.

This would also be an option for the kitchen!

Circles from the McKenzie fabric collection by Dena Designs for Free Spirit.

What a Whooooot!

My favorite: so fun and whimsical! Gotta love that round little owl!

Opal's House from the Opal Owl fabric collection by Tina Givens for Free Spirit.

Can I just say that Free Spirit is one of my favorite fabric companies! 


Anyway, I am saving all these ideas for my all new kitchen!

Friday quote...

Found this today on another blog...love it:

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." - Oscar Wilde

4 years ago today...

...we got this...

 ...which made this (terrible pic of me)...

...and now we have a precious, sweet, tractor-loving, beach bum, deer hunter wanna be, and starting Monday will be starting K4!!!  

It is funny, because we have been watching home movies over the past several nights...Reed calls them his "baby" movies and it's hard to remember back to when he was a baby, one, and even two (which he refers back to A LOT, "I did that when I was two"). I know I'm going to wake up one day and he will be grown...I just hope time moves very slowly, because I don't want to miss one minute!

Our weekend -- to the coast and back!

We had a wonderful, yet busy (and lots of driving), weekend on our Kelly's Kids tour. My mom, Reed and I headed down Friday after work and Reed couldn't WAIT to get to "the coast." It's been so fun seeing friends and family AND seeing all the precious clothes they have picked out for their children!

First stop -- OCEAN SPRINGS, MS and the Mississippi Gulf Coast for a Kelly's Kids party hosted by my good friend Vicki. Our boys are two weeks apart and could be brothers (twins if you are looking at them from the back!). They were quite the models too! They had so much fun playing together -- too bad we live so far apart! Reed LOVED the ocean and we ate lunch at the harbor in Ocean Springs and got to see LOTS of boats going out to sea! The waters of the Mississippi Gulf Coast just reopened over the weekend so there was LOTS of activity while we were eating. We braved the 100+ degree but enjoyed the ocean breeze and especially the visit!

Reed and Will

Boats at the dock -- I think they are so pretty!

...and look what we found a -- Taylor Machine works (based in our little home town) fork lift they used to (and our eyes were glued to) get the boats out of the boat storage warehouse located right behind us! Wonder if this is a Charles Bond design?! Reed LOVED it...of course he loved anything that has wheels, lifts, moves, pushes, pulls, digs, etc.

 

 

 

 

Me and Vicki -- I sure do miss you!! It's always like just yesterday in the DG house -- some things never change and I LOVE THAT!

After lunch, Reed was dying to go to the beach and "put his feet in the ocean" -- and why shouldn't we since we were so so close! SO we did! And boy was it hot, but the boys LOVED IT!

 

 Below is the AWESOME playground that is across the street from the beach. It's a giant pirate ship. It is such a lovely area with an amphitheater and little pavilion right next door that was rebuilt after Katrina. There is also a little "splash pad" that the boys enjoyed after our jaunt to the beach!

Reed (and Will) loved playing together!

And I think Reed was a little sad to leave! He loved "the coast!"

My sweet mama was SO SO excited to see her best friend Bebe who lives in Gautier and welcomed us into her home Friday night. We lived on the coast until I was 8 (mama for 17 years) and it still feels like home to her! Bebe was/is her bestie and they always have so much fun together!!

Our last stop was Shearwater Pottery, Peter Anderson's pottery place. He is the brother to Walter Anderson -- one of my favorite Southern artists. Their little "compound" is directly across a little inlet from where we ate lunch!

Mama bought me a little "souvenir"to commemorate our little trip and I love it! 

Next, on to Hickory Hills Hunting Preserve and our little cousins Will, Ben, and Charlie! Reed couldn't wait to see some deer and boy did we! I couldn't get a great picture, but there were whitetail EVERYWHERE! Reed told Shannon that he was going to hunt this year with a bow and arrow (Rob are you hearing this? Better be getting that lined up)!  

Here we all are in Shannon's truck -- a fun (and funny) ride!!!!

We had so much fun visiting with them and hated to leave right as my Aunt Laura (my mom's sister) was getting there, but we had to get home to Rob and the little BB! AND, all the Kelly's Kids parties went great! Orders are already shipping! Till next season!!

Okay -- So Luke Bryan at the Fair

This is why I am LOVING Luke Bryan right now:

  

Luke Bryan sings "California Love medly" at Neshoba County Fair and I was there!

Bancorp South Center, September 21st -- here we come (Rob, don't we need a date night!!??)

Salutations from Sunset Strip -- Part II (Rain is a good thang!)

...And the rains came...

...and this is what happens every year. A fair tradition--the flooding of the infield. It's a magnet for the old (and the young...and the younger).

But, oh, so so SO much fun!

The perfect combination of water and bright red mud...the kind of mud that stains the skin.

I think some kids were actually swimming across it...

Luke decided he had seen enough

and stood in the background with Laura and Terry 

(I wish this pic was a little more clear because it is priceless to me!)

Once they saw their cousins get in the "pool" they started to step a little bit closer, the red mud was working it's magic on them...

...and just like that, they were gone!

Stripped down to the bare bones and oh, they have never had SO MUCH FUN!

Except for some reason Luke wanted to go OVER the fence and we couldn't make him go under. He finally did and continued to wade out into the water. I got a little scared thinking I was going to have to go after him. Thankfully, a man walked by who was covered in mud from head to toe (looked like some sweet daddy who had obliged his children and took the plunge) felt sorry for the pregnant mother who had let her 2 year old wade out into God knows what and said, "Hey, I'm already covered, want me to get him?" YES!! THANK YOU! Anywhere else, they probably would've called DHS!

And this is where the mud slinging began -- a tradition that crosses over from the politics of the fair (more of that next year--just as interesting, but not quite as fun) to the children of the fair.

Gotta love that muddy belly!

The Adams boys (Charlie, Will, and Ben)

Now, what to do with all these muddy kids...

...get clean and go see Luke Bryan. 

Yes, Luke Bryan, where we come from, rain IS a good thang!

I thought it was very appropriate that he mentioned seeing all the "kids out playin' in a big mud puddle." And by the way, best show I've seen at the fair in a while. He is just about the cutest thing I have ever seen. He actually rapped (to the tune of TuPac/Dr. Dre -- California Love which he changed to "Mississippi knows how to party") so you know I LOVED that. Also, a fight broke out in the lawn chair seats which was so so SO well, the fair...but it didn't seem to phase LB who laughed it off. Reed and Luke loved the show so much that they feel asleep during about the third song. Although Reed has been walking around with his "t-tar" saying he is Luke Bryan. We shall see!

And in case I didn't mention he (as well as his stage presence) is so cute...

...glad to see his wife is cute too!

Anyway, we ended up going back to the fair Friday night to see Phil Vassar, let the kids ride a few more rides, play a few more games, and watch the always entertaining fireworks show. I got to visit with some folks I hadn't seen all week, which made my week! Like I said before, maybe in about 10 years we'll get to sit down and visit and reminisce about our younger days at the fair (probably while our own kids are doing the same things we did when we were their age--got me worrying already!!). 


Sad it's over and already looking forward to next year!