Trick or Treat!

The Pink Princess.

The Princess with her minions.

The Daddy pulls the Princess.

Enjoying the loot.

Easter's on its way . . .

The first Easter egg hunt of the season was at church on April 17. They had hunts for different ages all over the property, so the little ones didn't have to compete with/get trampled on by the big ones--yay! Mary Lawton was mildly interested . . . a little more interested when she realized there was candy in the eggs.
The next Saturday we dyed eggs-our first egg dye! I made Mary Lawton take off her shirt and wear an apron when I thought I might let her dip eggs in the dye, then I had a change of heart and let her color and put stickers on the already dyed eggs. That was just fine with her.

Happy (belated) Valentine's Day!

The best part of the day: Chocolate croissants for dessert

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing.

After a few years away, I returned to the kitchen to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. It was for just the three of us, so not really a big cooking deal, but we had a lovely dinner. We spent the week leading up to Thanksgiving writing down on little cards the things we're thankful for and dropping them in a bowl. During dinner we took turns reading them. Hopefully, I'll remember to do this again next year and make it a tradition!

Mary Lawton seemed pretty happy to be eating from a real plate and fancy cup.

She commented several times on the leaves on the table.

After dinner we headed to Bruce and Jan's house for dessert, football, and love.

So many blessings. So much for which to be thankful.

And as we prepare for Christmas, Happy Halloween!

We had a jam-packed, over-the-top fun Halloween weekend.

Friday night we went to the Fall Festival at church. Mary Lawton was a little overwhelmed, but she wore her costume most of the time we were there and played some carnival games. My favorite part of the night was when she "won" prizes for the games, like the ball toss, and then tossed the prizes through the holes, too. My second favorite part was when someone asked if I made her costume, and when I said yes, she said, "I can tell. It looks too good to be store-bought." Score!

Saturday night we went to Carol and Frazier's pumpkin carving party, even though it looked like Sweet LJ and Mary Lawton were coming down with colds. Mary Lawton stayed up until 9 PM--an all-time record--and she was perfect. She loved the pumpkins, expensive cheese, and dogs at Carol's house. I told her the M&Ms on the coffee table were dog treats. She was happy eating chili and parrano.

By Sunday morning the colds were full-blown. Sweet LJ stayed home with Mary Lawton while I went to Lilly's 3rd birthday party. I didn't want to be the mom who brought the sick kid to a party. I sort of sneaked out because Mary Lawton had been talking about "Lee-Lee's pahty" and singing happy birthday to her for days. She was happy that I brought her a Disney princesses flashlight and stickers and never wondered where I got them.

Mary Lawton took a long nap that afternoon, and we decided to take her trick-or-treating in the neighborhood that night. We met up with a neighborhood group for pictures, then went out on our own to show off our lion to some friends. Mary Lawton loved it. She said "trick or treat!" and thank you a few times and seemed proud of her costume. She had no idea that the treats people were giving her were candy.

Look carefully and you will see a lion after she climbed the hill with Daddy.

"Lion in pine straw"

The neighborhood kids

Loot!

Goodnight.

Labor Day

Last Labor Day, Mary Lawton and I ran our first race together. We planned to run the same race this year, and I even recruited cousins Alisa and Lilly to run with us. As we were walking to the start, I realized I was having trouble controlling Bob. He was pulling hard to the right. The right rear tire was completely flat. Poor Bob.

I registered, anyway, while I considered my options. I could try to run on the flat--it was only 3.1 miles. We could cheer for Alisa and Lilly in their first race together. I could call Sweet LJ and tell him to try to get there asap to fix the tire or stay with Mary Lawton. I could ask a race worker if he had any duct tape to tape the flat tire around the rim, so at least the rim would have a little protection.

Sliding down is for babies

In the end, the nice race worker found me some duct tape and taped the tire to the rim. Soon after, Sweet LJ met us at the race after his bike ride--which he'd planned to do all along--and bravely tried to patch and pump the tube using his bike supplies. The tube was completely blown out, though, and too big for all his patches. I ran with Alisa and Lilly while Mary Lawton played with her dad on the playground, and they cheered us on as we finished.

Post race

A couple of clowns

It was a lot of fun, although I did miss running with my little Shorty. Thanks for the good times, Alisa and Lilly!

From the 4th of July

Taken by a kind stranger

Independence Day!

We had a fun 4th of July weekend. Biffy and Granddaddy hung out with us on Saturday and treated us to a delicious dinner at Farmstead 303. On Sunday I ran the Peachtree Road Race and finished in a respectable 55:53. My biggest fans were there cheering for me.

Alas, I missed them and this fabulous sign.

They were near the finish on the right side of the street. I was on the left. Oops.

But I did get to see it afterward.

That afternoon we headed to Jan and Bruce's for family fun, bbq, and fireworks. Mary Lawton didn't make it through the fireworks, so we took her back to Bruce and Jan's house, put her to bed, and watched the fireworks from their backyard. There were lots of people there--cousins, aunts, uncles, friends--but this seems to be the only picture I took. How embarrassing!

I made her this outfit just for the 4th of July.

Father's Day

A little late saying we had a fun Father's Day weekend, and I think the father in our house enjoyed his day! Church, breakfast out, swimming, a bike computer, lots of hugs and kisses...what more could a father want?

Love you, Daddy!

Happy Easter!

We had a lovely day.The Easter Bunny brought Mary Lawton an outfit, a beach towel, and her very own bunny ears.


After church, we went to Joe, Alisa, and Lilly's house. Mary Lawton had so much fun playing with Lilly's toys, and Lilly was so sweet to share.

Alisa planned an Easter egg hunt for Lilly and Mary Lawton--Mary Lawton's first hunt! Her daddy helped her find eggs, and she filled up the egg hunt basket Biffy and Granddaddy sent her.

What a great day! Happy Easter.

Merry Christmas!

Our sweet girl woke us up around 6:30, and we proceeded directly to the den to see what Santa had left. I put her down to discover the treasures on her own. She was a little unsure at first what she was going after, but then...TOYS! She grabbed her new phone first.

We had a great morning opening gifts, digging into stockings, and eating my traditional homemade cinnamon buns. I got some fabulous gifts. My husband really knows how to shop.

Then we packed up for St. M to see Biffy, Granddaddy, and the Braces. I was so busy helping Mary Lawton open her gifts, that I didn't take any pictures. Trust me, though, she had a lot of fun playing with her cousins, trying to eat tinsel off the tree, and playing with her new toys.

After a couple of days being spoiled by Biffy and Granddaddy, we headed to the beach.