maeve at eleven months.

Sister-Roo {that's one of your many nicknames} my how you are growing.  My heart is completely aching because you becoming a toddler is right around the corner.  I'm so excited for the new things that come with you getting older but I'm also sad that my baby girl is getting so big.

You are becoming quite the little drama queen.  Your girly tendencies are coming out and you are 100 percent girly.  It's funny how we can already see such a huge difference in you and your Brother.  Boys and girls are so funny at how different they are.  I didn't think we'd see such a big difference at such a young age.  But boy can we.    

{You really don't like laying flat on your back, unless you're sleeping.}

You are Mommy's best friend these days.  You keep your eye on me 24/7.  You are definitely starting to recognize strangers and aren't a fan of older men.  {That doesn't bother me at all.}  You look at us sometimes like "really?"  You are starting to get silly little facial expressions.  You love making noises with your mouth and gritting your teeth. {It's like nails on a chalkboard, please drop that habit.}  

{Your face.}

You love balls.  Brother has several, that he never plays with, but you love them.  Of course whenever you grab one he suddenly wants to play with it.  I see many many fights in our future.  You want whatever toy he has.  He loves giving you very hard hugs.  We are constantly saying "easy Asher, easy!!!"  You don't seem to mind.  You are super tough and want his love.

I love your face.  Good Lord, I could kiss it all day.  You are the sweetest thing on the planet.  You make it impossible to get frustrated at.  There are moments when I wish you would climb all over someone else because my body aches from your constant touching but then I look at you and want to grab your face and kiss it.  

You've been crawling for a few weeks and you get faster every day.  Brother likes to drive his riding toys into you.  You've learned to quickly move out of his way.  You'll crawl anywhere and on anything {carpet, hardwood, concrete, grass, the bed}.  Doesn't matter, you're going.  You pull up on somethings but haven't completely mastered that skill yet.  You still HATE to roll over.  We've only found you sitting up twice in your crib.  You don't move much at all when you sleep.  

This picture makes me laugh.  "Really lady?  A laundry basket?"  

You love stretching your arms out to reach for us.  You will let us know that you want to be held.  You love being held.  You don't have to be held which is great but you do enjoy it.

{I guess I love torturing you with the basket.. Only a few months ago.}

Sister, you're learning how to say "bye-bye","hi" and wave.  We are working on blowing kisses.  Your smile is so silly and makes everyone around you smile.  You have six teeth.  Four up top and two down bottom.  You have the sweetest gap in between you two front teeth.  I'm obsessed with it.  {I had one, too so it secretly makes me happy that we share this trait.}

You love your sippy, finally!!  It took us a while to get to the "love" department but you are finally there.  You love apple juice mixed with water.  I'm hoping you transition easily to whole milk.  We shall see.  You love food.  You are kinda getting over being fed baby food but we are still super careful with what we feed you.  You love everything though.  So once you get a few more teeth I think eating will easily become a favorite habit.

{What I see all day.}

Maeve, keep growing sweet girl.  You're so perfect and we love you so much it hurts.  Thankful that you call us Mommy and Daddy.

wives club weekend in nashville

Dental school brought some wonderful friends into my life.  Without these girls, dental school would've been a lot harder and a lot less fun!  We've done pretty good at making plans to get together since graduation.  But we normally are with our families.  This was our first trip with just us.  No husbands.  No children.  It was perfect.  We met in the middle, Nashville, early Saturday and stayed until late Sunday morning.  The weekend was full of shopping, Mommy drinks at noon, laying on hotel beds laughing like teenagers, serious talks about life and just much needed Mommy time away.  

{lunch at Rippy's BBQ}

{Dinner at Pub 5}

{After dinner drinks at the Big Bang Piano Bar.}

{Puckett's for breakfast.}

Thankful to be going through Mommy-life with friends like this.  Cannot wait until our next trip!

yee-haw and sharks

Asher has been pretty obsessed with the Dukes of Hazzard lately.  His Daddy introduced him to the show and from the first moment, he was hooked.  After months of loving Yee-Haw {what he calls the show} we decided to take him to see a for real General Lee.

{He was amazed at seeing the General Lee in person.  You could see the excitement all over his face.}

We ended up coming home with one large General Lee car and a "Pee-Coe" car, too.  He sleeps with the General every single night.  We are so glad that we took him while he's still such a big fan of the show.

Since the Aquarium is across the street from Cooter's Garage, we walked right over and saw some fish.

This was Asher's third trip to this Aquarium and by far the best.  He loves fish, sharks and turtles so he was running from place to place looking at everything.  It wasn't very crowded so he could walk around a few feet in front of us.  

{He loved loved the tunnel this trip!  No one was anywhere around us so we took our time and looked at all of the fish.}

{Even Sister was enjoying the tunnel.}

{And of course, right when we were taking a picture people got right behind us.  Really?}

{He loved the tunnel.  He didn't want to come out.}

{Showing Maeve the "turdee".}

I'm sure the next time we go back Maeve will be running around right behind her crazy brother.  Now that will be a fun trip!  Read about our other trips to see the fishy here and here.

asheville, a few years later

Travis and I made our second trip to Asheville last week.  We are about to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary {what????} and wanted to get away for a few days.  Our last trip together, just the two of us, was to Asheville for first anniversary {7 years ago}.  We've been on many vacations during our marriage but we are always with family or friends.  A little getaway just the two of us was exactly what we needed.

On our way to the B&B we stopped at Tanger Outlets in Pigeon Forge and did some damage.  We were there about five or six hours and it was heaven.  We literally walked the entire place, went into almost every store and just took our time.  I haven't spent time shopping like that since before kids.  Of course I probably bought more for Asher and Maeve while I was there but that's besides the point..

Our first night in Asheville we did dinner, ice cream and walked around downtown.  Nothing crazy.  This vacation was all about relaxing!!  We went with no agenda.

{At our super cute B&B downtown Asheville, heading to dinner.  We are both wearing new clothes from our shopping spree.  Oh yeah.}

The next day, after sleeping in till 8:30 {ha} we went to lunch and then went to Biltmore.  You cannot make a trip to Asheville without stopping by this beauty.  {Why is there always a bus in front when you want to take a picture?}

{Since it was just the two of us, we took a lot of selfies.  I hate that word by the way.}

{Asheville anniversary trip 2007.}

If I remember correctly, the land at the estate stretched over 8,000 acres.  That's insane to me.  We took this picture while standing on one of their back porches.  Can you imagine this being your backyard?

{Ice cream break.  This picture is for you Sum.}

{Trav admiring their land as we make our way to their garden.}

We sat down on a ledge to take in the scenery {and our feet were hurting}.  I snapped a picture of my hunk and then said "I think I have a picture of you in this exact spot from our first trip...

{love.him.}

....and I was right.  Look at the young guy!!  I think he's aging quite nicely, if I do say so myself.

{thanks to the nice man, who offered to take our picture, we have a half decent picture of the two of us.}

{On the way to the winery, beautiful sunflowers for at least a mile.}

I thought Trav was going to kill me when I said "pull over let's take a picture!"  But he behaved and smiled nicely for the camera.... and he took a few candids that I had to share.

{On our first trip, 2007, we found some pretty flowers to pose in front of, too!}

After the flower pictures we went on to more important things, like tasting wine.  We each got a bottle of our favorite and then maybe one or two more bottles {as gifts of course!}.

After a yummy dinner at Avenue M {local restaurant} we headed back to the B&B.  The weather was incredible so we sat on the front porch for a little while.  I'm sure we talked about Asher and Maeve mostly.  What we did and talked about before kids is beyond me.

We came home Wednesday to our favorite people in the world.

It was great for the two of us to sneak away for a few days and just be alone.  It's hard to remember during every day life that our relationship is the most important one.  We have to take care of our marriage so that we can take care of our family.  We've promised to take more little getaway vacations, just the two of us, more often.  

{Being away was wonderful but all's right in the world when the four of us are together.}

Thanks GJ and Papaw for keeping our kiddos while we were gone.  They are spoiled rotten now, thanks for that.  Kidding, a little.