This is what Southern life is all about

3rd Anniversary

Wednesday was our 3 year anniversary. We decided on taking a dinner cruise down the Savannah River. The sites were exquisite. Savannah truly is a beautiful city.
As we sailed along we couldn't help but think of the rich history of the river. Of the many slaves who traveled these waters to be sold. Of the many settlers from Europe who came to start a new farming life here in Savannah. Of the men in battle during the Civil War who sailed it to fight to keep their way of life on the plantations, and the men who fought to restore the Union and stop the Confederates. We feel grateful to live in a city full of such history.
Would an anniversary post be complete without saying how grateful I am for Charles? Or how amazing he is?

Last Sunday our Young Women lesson was on Temple Marriage. I found this cute idea on Sugardoodle.net to make these darling hangers for the girls. I was up late making them and loved every minute of it.

These aren't very good pictures. Here's what it says:

Hang onto your values
Hang onto to your testimony
Hang onto your goals
So that someday you can hang your temple dress on me


I loved that I was teaching this lesson just days before our anniversary. It fills me with joy to see these girls with so much of their future ahead of them. I love hearing their "Husband To Be Lists". I am grateful that I made those lists as a teenage girl. I am grateful I hung onto my values, testimony, and goals to be worthy to enter the temple and marry a man that was also temple worthy. I married the man I hoped and prayed for, for so long.

How merciful is the Lord? Merciful enough to let this love I have for Charles and Azure to last eternally, not just for this life.

I am grateful I get to kiss both of these cute faces everyday:

Life is good :)

Cute Shirts

I will be filming for The Generations Project in 4 weeks! I have been asked to wear mostly solid colored shirts and am on the look out for some really cute ones.
If you've seen any cute shirts lately, please let me know!

Catch Up

We've been a bit busy and therefore behind on our blogging.

2 weeks ago Azure got sick. Sunday morning she woke up with a temperature of 103. Luckily there were no other symptoms and by Tuesday her fever broke. Just being on house arrest with her for 2 days made me go crazy! My sanity relies on me getting out of the house everyday and having social interaction with other adults.

Her appetite only went down slightly. Here's her somewhat delirious fever hairdo.
Last weekend we drove up to Chapel Hill, NC for Evelyn's graduation from Law Sch. We ate at a spectacular Italian restaurant and had an all you can eat meal consisting of salmon, baked ziti and sausage, raviolis, spinach and artichoke heart dip, chicken parmesan and more. Wow! We haven't eaten that well in a long time :)
Gratefully we got a spot in the restaurant that had a lot of space where Azure could run around and look out over a balcony.
Evelyn's roommate had a beautiful rose garden in their backyard.
On our 5 hr drive home Azure requested to listen to "Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam" and "I Love to see the Temple" about 100 times. After listening to "I Love to see the Temple", she would exclaim, "Beam!" then, after that song was over, "Prayers!" (she is in the habit of praying after listening to that song because we often sing it for opening and closing song for Family Home Evening). After prayers, she would ask, "Temple?" And the cycle continued numerous times. Even though it got kinda old, it still warmed my heart that she loves these primary songs so much :)

After our arrival home we visited Azure's favorite farm where she got to run around and look at all the animals.
I really wish you could see the cow's entire face in the picture.

Lovin' Life

Last weekend Azure got to go in a "bouncy house" and ride a pony. She loved jumping.
And she was pretty excited to get on the horse, at first...

Then, she made these faces...
No crying or whimpering at all, just some serious reflection, possibly mixed with a scosh of uncertainty and distrust. (I don't know why her shirt is sticking up)

Later that night she took a bath and was all smiles again.

Mostly because she tried out her very own poof for the first time. She loves that thing!
In other news, I canned for the very first time in my life and now finally feel like a real homemaker. Thanks to my friend Leslie for showing me the ropes.
Our beautiful diced tomatoes with basil. Yummy!

Silly words and Bob's newest fan

Because it's been so hot this last week we've gone swimming a few times. I told Azure that we had to put on our bathing suits to go. She looked in her drawer for it and when she found it exclaimed, "Okay, baby soup!" I almost died laughing. She is so fun! After she was dressed, we applied her spray on sunscreen. She likes to pretend she's spraying it herself and then rubs it on, even on her bathing suit. Being a stay at home mom is truly the best career move I've ever made :)

Another cute word she says is caterpillar. She adds 2 or 3 extra syllables in there. I'll have to get her saying it on video. At the temple last week we saw a caterpillar on the grass. I put Azure's arm right in it's path so that it would crawl up her arm. She loved watching it crawl up and down and wiggled with delight since it tickled. Almost everyday since then she's been talking about her caterpillar friend, always followed by the word "arm" and then the sign for caterpillar.

Aside from the theme songs of Signing Time and Backyardigans, Get Up, Stand Up is now one of Azure's favorite songs!

Hair cut, animals, videos

Last week I cut my hair. I wanted to try it somewhat short to prepare for the hot, humid summer we have ahead.This is the shortest my hair has ever been. I'm starting to like it more and more. Mostly because it only takes 10 mins to style straight, and only 5 mins to style curly. Gotta love that! My natural curl even curls better, now that it's shorter. On Fridays Charles doesn't have class until 9am so Azure gets to see him before he leaves for school. She wanted to ride on his back, but was still a little sleepy.We bought a membership to the Wilderness Park here and usually go on Toddler Tuesdays. Azure likes the farm and the wolves the best. In the car on the way there she excitedly repeated, "Farm, cow, *moo*, sheep, *baa*, donkey, horse, *neigh*, pig, chicken, *ca-doodle-doo*." And of course, she can do all the signs too, thank you to Signing Time's Leah's Farm. One of our favorites! We check them all out from our library.

Preface to this video: I had Azure on my lap as I read her Hokey Pokey book, which is just the lyrics to the song. I grabbed her arm and shook it all about, and then her legs, and so on to help her learn the movements. Well, she copied me exactly!


Doesn't she just make you smile? Today after coming home from choir rehearsal, I was feeling pretty depressed. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. As soon as I opened the door, Azure greeted me, "Hi mommy!" She came running and wrapped her arms around my legs. I bent down and she gave me a kiss. I could feel the love that the Lord had for me through that sweet, little girl. What a blessing children are!