This weekend, the aunts went to visit this little cutie pie and his mommy (Tom was on call, so it was a great time to have some quality sister-time!). Thomas is so close to walking by himself...he loves to push his Thomas the train around the house!It was a beautiful day on Saturday, so we headed to Birmingham's Botanical Gardens to enjoy God's creation! Only God could have made such exquisite beauty:

Wow!

Thomas had fun getting out of his stroller and playing:

The aunts:

Thomas is all boy! He loves his trucks and cars!

Sisters:

Thomas and his mommy:

Sisters:

The aunts again!

On the way home, we totally found us a little "street merch!" We were driving through Mountain Brook and saw this piece of furniture on the side of the road. Ivey decided that she wanted to turn around and go ask if the owners really intended to give it away....

Sure enough, they did! Kathryn was so embarrassed of her two sisters! :) Here we are negotiating a deal! ;)

Ivey lives in an older home where closests are few and far between, so having this chifferobe as an extra storage place will be handy!

It looks great! We both are pretty thrifty and love a good find...this has got to be one of our best finds in the street merch category!

We met Robby at the Silvertron Cafe and had a wonderful time together! At one point during supper, Thomas glanced over my shoulder to the TV in the bar area and said "Boot-Ball!" We couldn't believe it...he recognized the game! Attaboy, Thomas! You know your stuff! (He also has learned to raise his hands above his head when you say "touchdown!")

Ok, these nachos were AMAZING!

One of my favorite times with little ones is when they are in their PJs...either just before they go to bed, or when they first wake up! There is something so sweet about a PJ'd baby! I got up early with Thomas this morning and enjoyed him so much :)

Thomas had been fighting a cold all weekend, so Ivey decided to keep the germs at home today! Here are the aunts after church:

Enoying a yummy spaghetti lunch:

We visited the rest of the afternoon and drove on home. Don't cry, little buddy, the aunts will be back to visit again soon! :)

Weekend at Callaway Gardens!

*Note: this is going to be a really long post!


I had such a fun weekend traveling with my parents and little sister to Callaway Gardens! My dad attended the Medical Association of Georgia's annual meeting and was the recipient of the Physician's Award for Community Service! I am so proud of him, and I am thankful I was able to be there to see him receive the award! Traveling with my parents is always a blast. I have such fond memories from my childhood of how they would make everything so special for us and did all they could to make it a fun, adventurous time! Traveling with them again as an adult has proved to be the same kind of experience!

Ready for a road trip:


We decided on the more scenic route which led us through lots of country and quaint little towns. In one town, Trion, GA, there was an old Tavern that was built during the prime of the mill town. It is still a restaurant today:

The drive was absolutely gorgeous! I love traveling the country roads! We drove by several cotton fields and my sweet daddy asked if I wanted him to stop and let us get a closer look! Of course, I did!

That night, there was a progressive dinner, which was on the edge of this awesome view!

Saturday morning the girls rented some bikes to keep ourselves entertained while the docs had their meetings:

There are miles and miles of bike trails through the woods:

We stopped along the way and enjoyed a leisurely picnic lunch:

My mom is always up for adventure and suggested that we climb this tree (yes! that would be the same mom who just broke her wrist a couple of months ago playing tug-of-war with the children at church! :)

After my dad's meeting...he joined us for another bike ride to the "beach" where Kathryn and I just waded, but he took a swim! :)

Getting ready to dive into "Mrs. Callaway's pond" as he liked to call it! :)

Our bike excursion lasted for 4 hours, which left us only 1/2 hour to shower and get changed for the awards dinner :)

Here is my sweet daddy receiving his award! I am so proud of the work that he does. He is an amazing father as well as an incredible doctor! He loves the Lord and seeks to glorify Him faithfully with the calling that he has been given to serve others!

He gave the best acceptance speech!

After the dinner, there was lots of dancing, which the whole fam enjoyed! What a busy day--we were worn out!

Such a fun weekend! Here are we are on the way home today where we stopped for a yummy lunch:

Whatcha got cookin'?

I wanted to take a meal to a nurse from work who is having to take it easy due to complications with her second pregnancy, and decided to try Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie recipe. I know it's risky to try a new recipe on someone else before testing it out, but I felt pretty confident about this one. I was not disappointed! It was fabulous!! I made a little extra for myself and will definitely add this to my repertoire! I love the bright colors of the vegetables!

I decided to make a side of creamed potato casserole and also had a mixed green salad, which ended up being a super simple meal!

The finished products...(would be much prettier in a colorful casserole dish! :)

A Day in Birmingham...

Took a quick little day trip with my mom down I-59 to visit some of my favorite people! It's always fun to spend the day having a blast together...first on the agenda today was truck and tractor time... Thomas must think it's funny that Aunt RuRu wants to drive his tractor!

He looks a little concerned that I don't seem to know that tractors don't belong in the back of dump trucks! :) After truck time, we spent a little time on the floor using Aunt RuRu as an obstacle course!

Picture time with Grandmommy:

We worked up quite an appetite with all of our playing, so we decided to get some lunch:

We heard that Aldi had a great price on some pumpkins, so we went to check it out...of course, the one that I picked out would have the be the BIGGEST one in the box and it would also be the one on the very bottom, too!

Getting enough leverage over the side of a tall box proved to be a little challenging, and the fact that I was laughing so hard at my little predicament, made for quite the adventure!

With a little help, we finally got it out!

Totally worth it!

We met Tom for a wonderful dinner at the Fish Market (sorry you couldn't join us, Robby--I know you were working hard :) and headed back up the road....what a fun time together!