Mimi's Visit!!

Mom split her Spring Break between our home and Kris and JP's and we couldn't have been more grateful for the trip!  It had been 7 months since she departed last and it was as if she'd never left.  She didn't miss a beat jumping into our daily grind, the kids wouldn't let her out of their sight, and her company made even the mundane extra special for me.  She'd barely gotten to the curbside check in line before I started missing her already.

Making Italian Easter Bread!!

So many helpers!!

This is seriously a cream come true for me: cooking with my mom and all my girls. :)

As soon as we got back from picking Mimi up from the airport, she was at the bottom of a Horn baby dog pile. :)

"I love you so so so so so so so much Mimi!"

Emmy is the quintessential accountability partner.  You mindlessly mention something and she will hound you relentlessly until you make good on said comment.  Dying Easter eggs was one of them.  I told her we could do it when Mimi arrived.  The day got away from us and so we found ourselves frantically coloring Easter eggs and making dinner at the same time...

Mimi's still got it...Managing two at once. ;)

Juju couldn't take her eyes off of Mimi during mealtimes...Mom joked that she was giving her a complex watching her every bite. :-P

The girls couldn't wait to share Frozen with Mimi. :-P  Sis picking all the chocolate chips of their apple/peanut butter nachos.

Reading "Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?" to Mimi and Juju.

Everyone was dressed and ready to go to the Easter festivities!

Climbing the steeplechase at Percy Warner Park.

She made it! What a trooper!

Middle age swag.

My loves!

Super Dad!

Our food truck picnic at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens' Easter event.

The kids are like locusts sweeping through the field to pick up eggs.  Even though the age limit on the egg "hunt" was supposed to be 5, there were plenty of much older egg hunters. :-/ Sweet Sis, though, was so excited to pick up the broken eggs that kids had tossed aside after taking the candy out. :-/

It doesn't look like it based on the smile on Juju's face, but these two were DONE!

(and so was Sis.)

Nick snapped this picture after he took James out of the Kelty pack...Poor boy didn't even flinch.

Springtime Mayhem

Hannah found some of Emmy's "yip" (lipstick) and helped herself...

James has cut TWO TEETH!!

Emmy and Hannah's Mom's Day Out program offers "school pictures" twice a year...One of the moms has her own photography business and offered, ever so kindly, to take a picture of all the kiddos together on picture day.  I was cautiously excited about the prospect of having a quality photo of all the kiddos together.  We arrived at picture day a mere 15 minutes late, after a frantic clothes-finding, hair-doing, diaper changing, breakfast-eating, dressing and re-dressing frenzy...I realized when I arrived the picture day had been postponed due to a chance of rain.  So, I decided to consider it a dress rehearsal!  The make-up picture day was the next school day, so we did it again, but this time with fewer hiccups since their outfits were laying out already and I didn't have to hunt any accessories down.  Turns out James and Julia left their usual happy-go-lucky personalities at home because neither of them were pleased and screamed the whole time. So, because I refuse to be thwarted, I forced them all to take pictures when we arrived home from school that day....  

For some reason Hannah always ends up with James who covers up 3/4 of her little body. :-P

Preparing the fire with Daddy!

Sis' first time making a s'more.

She's a pro at getting comfy...Except for when it came time to go to sleep in the tent.  Hannah was voted out by Emmy and Daddy around 1030.

630 the next morning!

Happy campers!

We went to Nick's Battalion Easter party...They even had a petting zoo!

Sis would have nothing to do with the Easter Bunny....Emmy loves anything holiday-related!

Eight Years, Seven Months & 22 days later...

After hours of driving through the stormy effects of Hurricane Katrina on August 29th, 2005, Nick found the perfect spot to pop the question at the steeplechase at Percy Warner Park in Nashville.  That cobblestone staircase cut into the side of one of the rolling hills holds a very special place in our hearts.

We found ourselves back there last weekend as we were driving around the area waiting for a parking spot to open up at the Cheekwood Botanical Garden Easter Egg-stravaganza (to avoid the need to transport our crew and all their equipment on a shuttle van from a remote parking lot.)  We all stretched our legs and climbed to the top of the steeplechase to snap an updated family portrait....

Our Week In Pictures

I took the kiddos out in our behemoth stroller because we needed a change of scenery.  Emmy fell in love with the dandelions lining the road and begged me to get out and make a bouquet for she and Hannah.  She was so grateful for the abundance of them, that I decided to wait and tell her that they are weeds another day.

Hannah loved her gift from Emmy.

Nick got up with the kids one morning while I finished pumping. :)

Happy Happy JuJu!

These two are SEVEN MONTHS!!!