Haylie's 1st Picnic!!

Haylie & Julia
Daddy, Julia, & Haylie
My 1st Memorial Day
Cousins Julia & Haylie
In the flowers in the front yard

We had a really nice Memorial Day Weekend, and the weather was gorgeous. On Saturday, my entire family went to Natural Bridge State Park for a picnic. It was Haylie's first picnic ever, and probably the longest time she has spent outside. She absolutely loved it!!! It was such a beautiful day with the temperatures in the low to mid 70's and clear blue skies. My mom made her homemade fried chicken and all the fixins, so we ate like kings. We spent almost 5 hours there, and Haylie of course would absolutely not have any part of taking a nap. So she was a very tired little girl by the end of the day, but she sure had a blast running all over the place. She wore her old parents out chasing her around all day.

Then on Sunday, after church my mom, Haylie, & I spent the day together. Memorial Day weekend is always a hard one for our family since it is the anniversary of when my father died. He died on the Friday before Memorial Day, 4 years ago. It's hard to believe it's been that long--in some ways it seems like it was only yesterday. We sure do miss our Pawpaw, and sure wish he could have met Haylie--he would have been nuts over her. Anyway, my mom and I and Haylie went out to the cemetery where he is buried on Sunday. We're not really cemetery decorating people, but he is out at Camp Nelson Cemetery which is a federal veterans cemetery. It is absolutely gorgeous decorated with big flags about every 10 feet on Memorial Day, and Veterans Day. So we went out to visit my dad, and took Haylie for the first time. Of course, she loved running thru the grass, and it was also a really pretty day. We stopped for ice cream on the way home, so it was a really nice day.

Today, we all stayed home and puttered around the house. I finally got my potted flowers planted while Haylie napped. I'm posting some pictures of the picnic and also some of Haylie, out playing in our yard today. Hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend--we sure did.

My First Mother's Day

We celebrated Mother's Day this past weekend with my entire family as a 2 day event. Since the forecast for Sunday the "official" Mother's Day was for rain, we all got together on Saturday for a cook-out at my sister Marcia's house. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time and a delicious meal. We cooked out steaks on the grill, with baked potatoes, corn on the cob, salad, and lemonade pie for dessert. The entire family was there. It was really a nice evening and a great 1st mothers day for me too, as well as for my sweet mother and my sister Marcia, who is mother to JuJu. We all exchanged gifts making just like Christmas. My sweet husband, and of course Haylie, got me a gorgeous bouquet of flowers and a sweet card--he did good!!

On Sunday, sure enough it was cold and poured the rain, so we were glad we had held the cookout the previous day. After church we all went out for lunch to Bella Notte. It became an eternal wait with all the crowds out for the big Mother's Day Celebration. Long story short, we were there over 3 hours for our meal, and the manager gave us all free dessert because the wait for our food was so long. So, it was not as nice as the previous day and pretty frustrating.

However, I'm not complaining. It was such a joy to actually be a mother on Mothers Day--something I never really thought would happen. It's actually kind of surreal...for all these years I just thought of it as a day for my sweet mother. And this year I'm actually part of the "mom club". Haylie of course was the star of both our celebrations. Don't tell Julia, but I think she was a little jealous. She's been the only kiddo for the past 12 years, and now suddenly Haylie is stealing some of her limelight. Of course being the retard I am, I didn't take ANY pictures of the entire weekend, so I am posting some recent shots of our princess...I apologize for the red eyes...I can't fix them on this particular computer.

Hope everyone out in blog land had a great Mother's Day too.