It's a....

GIRL!


We found out this week that Baby 2 is a girl! We are so incredibly happy and feel doubly blessed to have a delightful little Bug and now a pink little Bean.

I'm a happy mama. :-)

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

For teaching me to ride a bike. For teaching me to cook. For teaching me to use my creativity when I was bored. For teaching me I could aim high and reach it. For teaching me that a mom can be an awesome mother and still be successful at something other than being an awesome mother. For charging us 25 cents when we were mean to each other. For paying us to do chores. For coming to my room in the middle of the night when I was scared. For coming to all of our school ceremonies and recitals. For coming to our classrooms dressed up like a witch and teaching us how to make bread sticks called witch's fingers. For taking us on vacations. For taking us on summer picnics at the river. For taking us to state parks. For taking us to the pool. For letting us pick our own friends. For letting us pick our own colleges. For letting us pick out our own clothes and never commenting that my purple and yellow shirt didn't really match my pink sweatshirt. For letting us get whatever pets we wanted, even if the cats ate the pet mice, the gerbils had 87 babies in 6 weeks, the cats ate the pet chicken, the hermit crab died and stunk, the fish spent more time swimming in the toilet than in their bowl, the cat ate the gerbils, the hamster wheel squeaked all night, and the parakeet went through more newspaper in a week than a recycling center. For insisting on blinking, colored Christmas lights on the tree. For insisting on early curfews. For insisting on always knowing where we were and when we'd be home. For making us homemade cakes. For making us homemade Halloween costumes. For making us whatever meals we wanted on our birthdays. For making us real hot chocolate on snow days. For making 300 gingerbread men every Christmas and inviting every child we'd ever met to come to our house and decorate one. For making our house a creative, secure, loving place to grow up.

Thanks, Mom.

Vintage Easter Decor

My grandma was a ceramic artist. At least, I guess that's what you'd call her. We just always said she "made dolls"-- even though, as you'll see, she made much more than that. Every summer, we'd visit her in West Virginia and spend hours in her basement, making trinkets out of ceramic and porcelain and firing them in her kilns. It was grand fun.

My grandma passed away when I was a senior in college, but every holiday she is memorialized in my house through our holiday decor. Like these little treasures here...

Surprise! It's not a dozen eggs!

Look at this little cutie.

And this little bunny is my favorite ~

She also made me and my three siblings personalized bunny mugs. (We have Santa ones, too. :-)

These treasures from Grandma make me happy each Easter when they come out of the box: little pieces of my childhood that have been reborn in my own family's traditions.

Happy Easter, everyone!

"God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”-Romans 5:6-8

News Flash

Bug spelled out a message with his blocks, below....

That's right! He's going to be a big brother (on or around October 16).
We are very excited!!!

THANK you, once again, SUMMER, for capturing this shot for us! This was all her idea (the photo shoot...not the baby).

Spring Pictures!

Summer Adams, one of the awesome photographers for our magazine, called this weekend, asking if Bug, Hunk and I wanted to be her "test subjects" for a new location (the Marietta Educational Garden Center) that she wants to start using with clients. Eager guinea pigs, please raise your hands? Us! Us! Us!

We had so much fun with Summer (it's hard not to), and I really love the pictures she took. She totally captured Bug.

Summer, thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
We will treasure these pictures always.

To admire more of Summer's artistry, go here. :-)