A Girl and Her Garden

I come from a long line of green thumbs...my Papaw always had the most beautiful garden that yielded potatoes, cucumbers, tomatoes, okra, squash, you name it...he grew it...and then my Granny spent weeks canning tomatoes and making my favorite...dill pickles. My Grandma grew the most beautiful flowers and could save just about any dying plant my mom sent her way. The green thumb gene is strong with my daddy too but where my mom is by far the smartest person I know, she doesn't have a green thumb...and I'm kinda afraid I don't have one either. The only thing we try to grow here at McCarty Acres are tomatoes...which we haven't had much luck with the last few years. My cousin Lynn, my dad's oldest niece, has been studying to become a master gardener and her sister's oldest will be working at a gardening center this summer...I'm hoping where Ruth Ann looks nothing like my family, she at least inherits some of my family's gardening skills. Arch's parents also have a beautiful garden every summer so she's been given a double dose! She dug holes in the dirt for hours this weekend...I hope she saved some energy for all the weed pulling ahead of her this summer...either way, she has some great-grandparents who would be very proud of her budding interest in gardening!  I did ask her who taught her how to use a shovel...and she said I did...at least I've got her headed in the right direction! 

Memory Lane

This past weekend I was picking up around the house and I ran across this picture...

 

 It's the picture I took of Ruth Ann and mailed to friends who don't live close to let them know we were expecting a 2nd baby. What's crazy about this picture is Ruth Ann is the same age that Tripp is now...I knew a long time ago (like while I was pregnant with Tripp) that he would be our last. But when I look at this picture and think back to feeling like Ruth Ann was no longer a baby and I was ready for another I kinda think I must have been out of my mind...why did I think she wasn't a baby?? She still has the look of a baby to me when I look at this picture but I also remember feeling so sad that my baby girl was now a big girl. With Tripp, I still look at him like he's a baby...it's so crazy how time changes your perspective. I'm told by mommas of boys that it's because he's my little boy and we mothers of little boys look at our baby boys differently than we do our daughters and try to keep them a baby longer. I'm also told my mothers with more than one child it's because he's my 2nd and we don't let them grow up as quickly...I think it's a little of both. Either way, I'm thankful my babies look like a baby for a really long time thanks to the extra layer of chub they carry around. I'm also thankful for warmer temperatures so I can start enjoying my last summer of dressing a baby in a bubble...

 

 Thighs like these need to see the light of day and be enjoyed by one and all...especially his momma!

Easter Part 4...Easter Sunday

For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook &/or in real life, you know I had set out to make Ruth Ann and Tripp matching Easter outfits for Easter 2012. For Ruth Ann's 1st & 2nd Easter my mom bought Ruth Ann & my niece matching Easter dresses because we also had the girls spring pictures taken together around the same time each year. Last year, I decided at the last minute to make Ruth Ann's dress but this year with 2 to make for I knew I had to get a jump on it...I'd also never used the pattern for Tripp's outfit and I would be making it solo since I no longer take lessons. I was pretty proud of how both turned out...Tripp's may be my favorite only because I felt so accomplished by completing it all by myself. I scheduled to have bunny pictures and a portrait picture taken of Tripp and he lasted all of about 5 minutes before melting into a puddle of tears.  Why the tears??   Because in order to take a picture of Tripp and just Tripp alone, I, mommy, must stand at least 3 feet from him and he wasn't having any distance separate him from his momma...sweet, yes...but also hair raising as I mentioned in the previous post. My sweet photographer offered to meet me again later that same week to try again...but the results were the same...I may start keeping hard liquor in my car when I take my kids for pictures!

But I didn't give up, I knew I had another chance to get a great picture on Easter Sunday...but once more, this is how most of my pictures looked...



My mom said Ruth Ann looks like she's not sure what to do...oh trust me, this girl knows what to do when you pull a camera out...I think she's just saying "Here we go again!" since she's been along for all the previous attempts at getting this picture.

I've told my photographer I'm convinced Tripp just hates his outfit and he's letting me know very early just how much he hates wearing smocked clothes. Everyone has an opinion on smocked clothing & little boys...and some people are just rude enough to say it out loud...if you don't like smocking on little boys then I say to you "Opinions are like b-holes, some people's stink!"...I personally believe if you don't like smocking on little boys then your opinion stinks! Tripp clearly doesn't appreciate smocking and I've changed his diapers so I know just how stinky things are down there, so my statement is correct...both Tripp's opinion and his b-hole stink!  I got an A in Logic in college...can you tell??

We did however manage to get a good family picture thanks to the tri-pod Arch got me for Christmas...it's also the same tri-pod that allowed me to get such a great group picture in the previous post...



We spent the day with my parents and my in-laws watching the Master's after we ate the traditional ham, mac & cheese and deviled eggs...all of those items scream Easter lunch to me. The Easter bunny also made a stop...and he left me with a few extra pounds thanks to my love of his seasonal candy...here's what the kids got...



I have to interject here and just say...is he not the cutest baby boy on the Earth??!! But I'm totally bias!



And this will conclude the McCarty family Easter 2012. I hope everyone had a great Easter, that the Easter bunny was good to you and also that you were able to get a better picture of your children than I did...your picture may be better, but in hind sight I think mine might be the funniest...I totally didn't feel that way Easter Sunday...time heals and also calms my nerves!

Easter Part 3

To kick off Easter weekend I invited the Clarks and the Browns over for a cookout.  The warm weather had me itching for a cookout and they were all just as eager to eat, drink, and hunt eggs together...here's the whole group...



It's so crazy how much this group has grown and changed...with the addition of the baby Brantley is holding we have officially let the children out number the adults...and Justin & Sally are adding the children population since they are expecting a baby girl in August. Before dinner was ready the kids all played a little in the backyard...Roper passed out kisses...



With a smile like this...girls are not going to be able to resist him...



I tried to get a picture of the other boys...but Tripp wasn't being cooperative...



Lately, taking a picture of Tripp is a "hair raising" experience...



He's on the go now and it makes it hard to remember the days when he was just as small as Baby Duncan...



Then it was time to hunt...the blurriness of the photos is due to 1)low lighting, 2)my poor photography skills and 3)the kids were just as fast as they appear...



The next morning we met one of Ruth Ann's friends from school for another Easter egg hunt...



There was a gigantic monster truck there...



And Ruth Ann's cousin, Ethan, was there too...



Ruth Ann comes home talking about this sweet little boy almost every day...and I can see why...



Then we spotted the Easter Bunny. Ruth Ann wasn't too bothered by him...



But JB wanted to keep a safe distance...



Eventually he warmed up and took a few steps closer...



I can't say I blame JB, this was a strange looking bunny. Then we waited for the Easter egg hunt to begin...I believe it should be renamed the "Easter Egg Mad Dash"...after looking at the field littered with eggs I knew there would be no hunting involved...



Then the okay was given and they were off...the whole hunt was over in about a minute...I told the kids to head straight for the middle and start grabbing eggs...no need to waste time in the crowds around the edges...JB followed my instructions...



And here's their egg collection...



We had such a fun morning. We still have Easter candy at our house so I would say Ruth Ann's egg hunting was a huge success!

Easter...Part 2

I have many  more pictures of Easter I need to load to Flicker and then post on the blog, but that task has been push way to the bottom of my To-Do list in recent weeks.  But I did have one more picture I wanted to share from Ruth Ann's school Easter party and sweet story to go with it...

One of the stops during the Easter extravaganza at school was a tattoo station.  They had a whole table covered in press on tattoos for the kids to pick from.  There were girly polka dotted eggs that I thought were really cute and I, in my typical fashion, kept encouraging Ruth Ann to pick one of the cuter tattoos.  She kept her eye on a tattoo of the cross & insisted it was the one she wanted...it was probably one of the more boyish tattoos and I just need to come except the fact that I'm raising a tom-boy...but she's going to be a tom-boy in smocked &/or girly clothes for as long as I buy the clothes!

Here she is showing off her tattoo...



See, not girly at all.  Later that night I asked Ruth Ann why she picked the cross tattoo instead of the cute eggs...her response "Because the cross is my favorite thing."   Please don't read this and think my child is a budding evangelist...anything she wants right now is her "favorite thing"...but very often I feel like my kids were given to me as my little accountability partners.  As Easter got closer I started thinking more and more about her tattoo selection and what she said.  It's so easy to get wrapped up in the materialistic side of any holiday...for Easter in the South it's having the perfect Easter dress and looking your best on Easter morning.  I've also noticed Easter being the new Christmas in regards to what the Easter bunny brings...I'm not sure why the Easter bunny is trying to compete with Santa in other homes, but at my house growing up the Easter bunny always kept it simple...stuffed animal and candy.  Besides, the Easter bunny shouldn't be jealous of Santa at all...in my opinion, Easter has the best candy of all the candy holidays so the Easter bunny has the edge on the candy as far as I'm concerned.  But even though Easter candy is my favorite candy and getting my children dressed in their very best is a lot of fun (trying to take of picture of these same children was the exact opposite of fun),  but all those things should not be my favorite...I should have the same attitude as my 3 year old...watch out, you won't hear me say that phrase often...and the Cross should be my favorite thing too.  I love Ruth Ann's school and how they have taught them the Easter story.  I love hearing her tell about Jesus rising from the dead & the amazement in her voice when she says he was gone from the tomb.  I needed a reminder to forget about the polka dotted eggs, the delicious candy and the pretty clothes...and God sent me that little reminder through my sassy & stubborn little 3 year old...He does work in mysterious ways!

Easter...Part 1 of 3 or maybe 4...

So we started our Easter festivities on Wednesday by enjoying the Easter party at Ruth Ann's school.



It was quite the production...games, story time, coloring, tattooing..faux tattooing that is...snack and pictures...it was a bit of a whirl wind...

My little lefty...

















Here is Ruth Ann's sweet little class...



She's only one of four little girls in the class...but I've come to except I've been selected to raise a rough and tumble tom boy...so I'm enjoying the (limited) days where I can dress her and style her hair as a like. Until then, here are the sweet little girls in her class...at least for now she has one of the biggest bows in the class...



I've said before what a hard time I had with moving Ruth Ann to a new school this year...but it's been the best decision. We loved our old school, but there was just no way she could have gone multiple days a week due to my work schedule. I'm so thankful to have her in a school with sweet friends and teachers...we love Mt. Hebron and we'll be here until kindergarten starts in 2 years!