Memphis Botanical Gardens

This past weekend Paul and I took Madeline to the Memphis Botanical Gardens - for two reasons... 1. We wanted to get outside and be in the air and the sun, and 2. We wanted to see if we could find a pretty, flowery place to take pictures of Madeline. I have been wanting to get a really big picture done of her for a while now and you can get an 11 x 14 printed for like $8 or a 16 x 20 for $18 on shutterfly.

We accomplished one of our reasons... to be outside. We found a really pretty place with grass that had this wall of white flowers as a background that, any other day, would have been perfect, but it - all of the sudden - got really windy, it was too shady, Madeline was way to interested in the grass, and, well, it just didn't work so we gave up. Some other time.

It was still really nice to be outside - other than the gigantic bees that were everywhere. It makes sense though... the place is a garden. Madeline had a pretty good time though. She was happy and smiling the whole time. Paul carried her most of the way.

One of my favorite gardens was the iris garden. They had PEACH iris' that were so beautiful. And I really love the dark purple ones.

These fish were so big and fat. Apparently they have little food machines all over the garden where you can purchase fish food and feed the ducks, geese, swans, and fish. We didn't have any money on us or we would have.... next time definitely. There was a couple that fed them though and these fish went WILD. It was so cool.

Pretty...

The rose garden was really pretty too. I would have gotten more pictures but it was pretty hot outside and we were too busy dodging bees to stop and smell the roses or take any pictures.

Spring Cleaning

The weather was so nice and "Springy" today so I thought it was time to do some spring cleaning in the house. The bug hit me around 11 am this morning when Mads went down for a nap. Also, we recently bought some Pine-sol - not the orange smelling kind that is gross - but the lemony scented kind, and I have been wanting to scrub the floors for a while now. I can't seem to get it out of my head that Kitty buries her own poop and then walks all over my house. That, and Mads and her allergies (I've decided that's what they are since they come and go and don't seem to be getting worse - by the way thank you for the advice and well wishes LaNae and Michelle!).

So I started on Mads room, then our room - YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE DUST THAT WAS ON TOP OF THE FAN ARMS - No WONDER Paul and Madeline both have the sniffles - I feel like a horrible wife and mother. Then I started on our bathroom. We have this issue with mold in our shower drain (Mold is part of life in the humid land of Memphis), and I recently read an article about mold and how it can actually CAUSE asthma in children, so I wanted to tackle that big time!

Of course, in between all of this Madeline woke from her nap and wanted attention and milk and diaper changes and playtime, so 3:00 pm came quickly. Paul called and said he was stopping somewhere before he came home, so that gave me a little more time to finish our bathroom. It just amazes me how little I got done. What I DID do was done well though so that makes it okay. I even cleaned the windows people... that is a big deal, and Madeline is such a trooper. I didn't realize until today how dependent she really is on attention. I had her in the jumperoo, in her playpen with toys galore, on the floor with blankets and pillows and more toys galore, but none of it mattered. I would look away for one second and she was screaming at me.

Anyway, so I didn't quite finish cleaning the house, but I have planned to finish in chunks, and probably more when Paul is around so Madeline has the attention she so desperately needs and deserves.

When Paul got home, we decided to take Mads to the park, it was such a beautiful day outside! After sniffing all those cleaning chemicals it did me some good to get out of the house.

This is the same Park our friend Misty and I went to a while ago, but this was Paul's first time there. We put Madeline in the swing and I started shooting pics while Paul started swinging Madeline. After about the 4th or 5th shot I realized Paul was swinging Madeline unusually high and fast for a 6-month old (look at her face. I left this picture big so you can see it. Look at her little hands clenching the swing... click on it.).

So Mommy reminded Daddy that the baby is 6-months old, and we slowed it down a bit...

That's better (still clenching).

Paul also took Madeline on the slide for the first time. He was very careful and it looked like she had a fun time!

I think if I'd stayed couped up in the house cleaning the rest of the night I would have gone mad. So thanks to my babe for reminding me that the "Springy" feeling means getting out in the fresh air too!

Thanks for stopping by!

Lets! Go! Fly! A Kite!!

Today when Paul got home from work, we went to the park and flew our Shrek kite. I haven't flown a kite is such a long time! It was so much fun. The weather lately is perfect, so we are spending as much time outside as we can.

(You can click on all photos to get a much closer look if you so choose)

This is our Shrek kite. It was cheap, but it worked great.

This is a picture of Paul flying the kite from far away.
I think this is a great picture.


After a while, we decided that we wanted to see how close we could get to our eyes with our camera, without it going blurry. Pretty darn close! I love this picture of Paul's eye because he looks eeeeeeeeeevil, but he's really just squinting from the sun. Or is he? Muuuwahahaha.


This is a close up picture that Paul took of MY eye. If you look at the blown up version (click on the pic) you can see Paul in my eye and the reflection of my eyelashes also. Pretty neat!


This is a picture of some tiny little flowers that were scattered throughout the grass. They were really tiny, but very cute, so we snapped several shots of them.

The End.

On Spring

Today is the first day of spring... and what should EVERY person do in the springtime?

- Fly a kite!
- Watch a sunset
- Watch a sunrise
- Have a picnic
- Plant something! (It can be potted if you don't have a house yet like us.)
- Spend as much time as you can outside!!!




Sometimes we get so caught up in work, school, and other responsibilities we may have in life, that we forget to just take a moment to be in nature.

I was outside the other day, after working a 12-hour shift, and I dropped my keys as I was trying to get into my car. I mumble some garbage talk under my breath while picking them up again, but then my eye caught two birds about 5 feet away from me. They were jumping around, tweeting incessantly... it was like watching a Disney movie they were so happy and playful with each other, or, what the pessemist would call - Puke worthy. But it changed my outlook. I noticed the sky was unbelievably blue and clear and there was a temper-perfect wind hitting my face (not to be confused with temperpedic).

I drove the whole way home with my arm out the window making waves. We WILL be spending some time at the park in the next couple weeks regardless of how busy we are, you can bet your bottom.