Free Legal Advice

We already can boast a veterinarian, architect and teacher in the family and now, we've got a lawyer! My baby little younger brother Bo graduated from (and this hard to type, but yes, they have a great law school) the Universtiy of Alabama 2 weekends ago. Pending the big, bad bar exam in a few months, we'll have free legal advice from now on :).

We had a fantastic time being together as a family at the graduation and at a celebratory dinner afterwards here, and were so glad Aunt Betty, Uncle Bob and Cousin John were all able to make it. LG and M did AMAZING - it was a long day and they were pretty tired at the end of it (as indicated by the delirious, non-stop giggles in the car on the way home), but we had just enough people around to keep them occupied, entertained and sans-meltdown during both the ceremony and dinner.

 

{yes, I can verify that IS Bo on stage}

{These two L-O-V-E each other - it's so cute}

 

 

{M wasn't fond of the cap and gown to say the least}

 

We are so proud of you Bo!!!

Not so sure if M is annoyed with all the UA folks around her or truly at the lemon. We're working on her being more discreet either way :)

Seeing The Light At The End Of The Tunnel

For real - I am going to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not figuratively, literally. I finally put on my big girl pants and decided to push my fears aside and do LASIK. I received contacts for my 10th birthday (actually got my first glasses only a year before that) and if you are keeping track, a very important birthday of mine - the big THREE-OH - is happening next month, so that means I have been in contacts for right at 20 years. Crazy!!! My sweet and generous dad who has had LASIK done (and loves it) has been encouraging me to do it and offered to even foot the bill, so I thought, why not?  Thanks daddy :)

 

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This picture has been me for over 2 weeks now - glasses 24/7. I am SO READY to be able to take these things off. I think that yes, you have to be out of your contacts for so long to reshape your corneas, but also I think they make you do it so you'll be so tired of your glasses that you don't chicken out of the surgery. I mean, have you tried running in glasses lately? Not ideal. Truly though, technology is amazing and I am grateful that my eyes are healthy enough to undergo surgery. I have no idea what it's like to just see. I am way blind and if my contacts or glasses are off, everything is a blur, I can't see many colors and if you are 5 feet away from me I probably won't even notice you have on 10 inch earrings. I think the surgery will be life changing!!

 

I did pre-op yesterday and am scheduled for LASIK tomorrow. Still a little nervous, but I know it's nothing that Jesus and valium can't handle. Prayers are certainly appreciated! SEE (ha, ha) y'all later!

Wishful Foodie Thinking

I don't know about y'all but there isn't a ton of free time in my day, and when I do have free time, it is usally devoted to these two....

When I can squeeze it in (after work, laundry, cooking, running, and being mommy and wife), I read blogs. They entertain me, they educate me, and they make me hungry. This week, being the pre-cursor to Mother's Day, so many blogs have "food for mom" posted and when reading recipes, one thing leads to another and before I know it I am 3 blogs away looking at random food! I'm not sure about you, but it really makes me want to take a day off work just to go home and cook and pretend I work in the Southern Living test kitchens or the Food Network labs (am I the only one who fantasizes about that stuff? Yea, probably.) Here are some of my favorite things I've stumble upon this week that I am dying to try out....Delicious!

Sweet Berry Lime Cake, via Joy the Baker

 

 

 

Breakfast Panini with Herb Butter, via Annie's Eats

(herb butter? Yes please...)

Olive Cheese Bread, via The Pioneer Woman

Orange-Vanilla Monkey Bread, via The Pioneer Woman

Asparagus Leek Pizza, via Dinner a Love Story 

(we've actually tried this recipe already...love!)

 

Spring Vegetable Potstickers, via Smitten Kitchen

 

 

So if this mommy goes MIA one afternoon, you'll know where to find me...the kitchen!!

April Recap

This past weekend we miraculously stayed at home. It was wonderful. We chilled, ate with friends and family, painted, played playdough and got the house messy (and yes, when I say messy I mean that in a truly scandalous way due to how clean and picked up it's been for the past 3 months).

{with our boyfriends/male protectors, Hubb and Henry}

 

April was a busy and fun month for us. Happenings around the Bennett household included:

M trying her hand for the first time with a big girl toothbrush

 

 

LG having her first taste of a s'more

{which she LOVED by the way}

 

 

Chad and I taking a much needed, kids-free weekend trip to Seaside where we walked idylic paths, ate fresh, delicous food and laid in the sun all day...

 

 

...All with great views

 

 

And while we were gone and the kids were at the in-laws, they somehow managed to make the front page of the Selma-Times Journal. I tell you, the paparazzi is everywhere.

 

 

With the bizarre, still-cool-weather that we had in April, we spent lots of time outside. The girls are growing and are hysterical together and always find something to get into together. In April we snuck in a trip to Auburn and also went to Camden... 

 

 

LG is such a good big sister...she's attempting to putting M's socks and shoes on for her in the picture below. LG is really becoming such a 'big helper' as we call it. The other night Chad was gone for work and LG took it upon herself to dry off after her bath, put on her pull-up and nightgown and then come into M's room and close the blinds and pull the curtains to so that we were all ready for bed. Sweet girl!

 

 

Thank goodness summer and tomatoes are on the horizon. Our girls eat tomatoes like candy. M steals them off my plate at supper time when hers are all gone. It's insane. We need an entire field planted just in tomato plants this summer to keep us stocked! But there are much worse things they could want to eat and I am thankful that my girls are [for the most part] good eaters.

 

In other news, M's tubes seem to be doing their job and we haven't had any major illnesses lately. M is a bottemless pit and eats CONSTANTLY. I wish I were kidding. The funny thing about it is that we think that she just now broke 20 lbs. She is so tiny for eating so much! M is talking a lot lately (though we can't understand much of it) and is getting really good at pointing out her nose, eyes, ears, tongue and hair to us. She sings. Again, we don't understand it, but there are mornings (like today) where by 5:30 a.m. she is just hanging out in her crib...singing...I think she's going to be our muscial one! LG is enjoying school and gearing up for the ballet recital at the end of May. Lots of fun stuff coming up this month...can't wait! 



Our Maggie-Boo

Maggie-Boo, Mag-pie, Margarita [more recently by her father], and "Mags" [by anyone and everyone]...these are just some of the names for our precious little 14 month old. Cute as a button and already a strong-willed child. Cuddly and smiley and seemingly hungry all the time even though she still doesn't weigh 20 lbs.

 

She amazes us daily with what she understands [which is EVERYTHING] though she plays it off sometimes to get away with things. She can sign the words for "more" and "outside" and kind of say those words too. She likes to tell the dog [and people] to sit, can say Da (dad), Hey Da Da, Papa, Sis, bye bye and a few random things. Refuses to say Mama at any time other than 3 a.m...We knew early on in the womb that this was going to be a stubborn one. But, luckily, I love her no matter what. She can melt a heart in about 3 seconds flat with a wave, a smile and a downcast set of eyes.

 

Mags, you are the second child and I always feel like I don't give you enough time. Your sister had my undivided attention for 27 months, and you from the start have had to share. I love that you like to snuggle and just sit in my lap or be held. I probably indulge you in those things a little more than I should, partially out of mommy-guilt and partially because life is too short not to.

 

 

 

 

Sweet M I love you to the moon and back!

 

One Last Time

Tuesday after work, on a kind-of-sort-of-not-really whim, we drove over to Auburn to see the Toomer's Oaks one last time. For my girls, it was the first time to see the trees up close and personal, and it was their last. As a child brought up in the deep traditions of Auburn Unviersity, it saddens me that my children will never know the Toomer's Oaks the way that I did, or get to experience something that has literally spanned decades upon decades and multiple generations. The rolling of Toomer's Oaks, like so many things, is uniquely Auburn - a seemingly odd and even crazy thing to outsiders - but something understood completely by the Auburn family.

But then again, things change. I think back to the stories my mom told me from when she was at Auburn...about the Kopper Kettle explosion of '78, about the Sani-Freeze (aka The "Flush")...about things and places that were not there even by the time I made it to campus. And here I am, only 8 years removed from my collegiate expereince, and I am the one saying "The campus looks so different" and "I can't believe my daughters won't have to live in the same sorority dorm that both my mom and I lived in" (okay, yes, they were due for an upgrade). But y'all - I was dumbfounded as we rode out of town Tuesday night that a CVS is going up on College Street. It broke my heart. To have a commercial, ubber generic store stuck in between The Barbecue House and [what once was] The Heart of Auburn Motel  - things that make Auburn what it is and define it in an unique way - just didn't seem right.

But then again, things change. And so, we took pictures with the Oaks and with the notorious brick Auburn University sign. And we had a picnic supper on Samford lawn...and you know what? Not everything changes. I love Auburn. I love the fact that I met life-long friends there and a life-time partner. I love that I can bring my kids back there and share just a little bit of what a special place it is. I love that LG kept asking over and over Tuesday night if we could "just stay a little while longer" which tells me that at 3, she's already starting to get it. She is understanding why it is so hard to leave Auburn, why it is so hard to put into words how it makes you feel and what being part of the Auburn "family" means.

{Cheerleaders in the making}

 

And so I will keep on preaching to the girls that they need to study hard to go to Auburn, and hope one day that they can carry on a family tradition...One that extends beyond football and sororties and fraternities and even Oak trees.

WDE!

Pictures

We've used the same photographer here in Montgomery since LG was 3 months old. Suzanne does a wonderful job capturing the girls and is a joy to work with. She just updated her blog to show some of the girls' 9 month and 3 year pics. We did them out at the Waters on a gorgeous Fall day. Such sweet memories of the girls at these ages - Enjoy!

 

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