Lady Isabella Quacky-Spring Leaf....

In honor of the Royal Wedding, I thought I would pay tribute to this oh-so-momentous occasion... As if everyone hasn't heard enough about it already! Actually, there was once a time in my life that I was fairly infatuated with the royal family and thought I might have a shot at being the future Queen of England... Don't laugh. I had a pretty short lived crush on Wills after the death of his mother, and was pretty certain that we might cross paths at some point. Ya know, if ever he ventured to 'ol Acworth and was taken by my 7th grade beautiful self?I even did him a favor and got the ring for myself, so he wouldn't have to worry about it...Actually, truth be told, I'm not quite sure why this ring entered my life. I do know that it was a Christmas present from my mom when I was....well, I don't know how old I was, but it is an almost-exact-replica of the one that was Diana's and is now Kate's. Fancy, huh? Ok, it's not...it's more strange than anything...Oh well.

I guess my shot at being Queen has been sent right down the tubes...I wasn't even given an invite! But had I been invited,my invitation would have been addressed to:

Lady Isabella Quacky-Spring Leaf
and Mr Clean's would be:
Lord William Pookie-Liberty Trace

What's your royal wedding guest name? Start with either Lord or Lady. Your first name is one of your grandparents' names. Your surname is the name of your first pet, double-barreled with the name of the street you grew up on.

For the record, I do not plan on waking up early to watch the "BIG EVENT", but I'm sure I will see enough throughout the day tomorrow.

Our Little Mowgli...

Kidd-O's preferred method of outdoor travel is simply primeval. You would think he was being raised by apes! We're hoping he will evolve soon....Happy Hump-o-the-Week!!!

The Anatomy of....

...The Yawn.
We are sleepy this evening. Early to bed, early to rise.
Have a blessed Easter.

Easter Blessings...

Spring is definitely in the air, and I'm in love. Spring is a beautiful picture of an awakening after a long sleepy, dark winter.It's a time to grow. Stretch. Thrive.It's a time for people to head outside. Soak up the sun. Enjoy the colors of Spring. And my are the colors beautiful!
What a wonderful time of year to celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord! When everything is in bloom and full of life!! I was walking Kidd-o tonight and as I was pointing out flowers, trees, and birds I was reminded of the verse in Lamentations:

The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,

For His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;

Great is Your faithfulness.

I hope that with each passing year I am faithful to teach my children why we celebrate Easter and that it is a mighty God we serve...

...and not so much about eggs and marshmallow peeps...even though they are fun.

I am thankful for our church home, and I am even more thankful that I have such a faithful group of godly ladies that I have the privilege calling my friends. We have a weekly playgroup that started as just a couple girls with one or two kiddos, and has quickly grown to 9 moms and 17 KIDDOS (when everyone is present)!!!!! This week I hosted the playdate and we had a great time of fellowship, the kids enjoyed a little egg hunt and we all enjoyed yummy cupcakes made by yours truly...

Happy Easter, dear reader! Rejoice! He's Alive! He is Risen!

American by birth, southern by the grace of God...

It's no secret that I love the South. The Deep South. Dixie. The land of cotton. I love the weather, yes, even the hot summers. I love most of the accents, although, I'm not the biggest fan of the folks you might see on the news that don't know their head from their butt, and sound sooo redneck that they need subtitles. Nope! Think more along the lines of Jimmy Carter or Paula Deen. Speakin' of Paula, my greatest Southern love is the food...fried chicken, fried okra, fried green tomatoes (pronounced tuhmadus).... I could go on for days!

And one of my favorite things about the South is our festivals. I know other areas of our great country have festivals too, but I swear to you that they don't rival the ones we have down here! I'm fairly certain you won't find these Little General Clogger's north of the Mason Dixon line...
Or these mighty fine Civil War reenactments...which, if I'm being honest, I find to be really strange and very "back woods"...but southern none-the-less.
And although the booths that sell bird houses made out of beer cans are neat to look at, and the dog outfits with your favorite SEC football colors on them are enticing, I am there for one reason only. The food.
For my birthday present from Mr. Clean this year, I wanted to head over to the Big Shanty Festival so I could eat to my hearts content! and I think Kidd-O enjoyed the food as much as we did!It was a great food-filled weekend and in "Dixie land I take my stand, to live and die in Dixie..."

Have a Terrific Week Y'all!!!

Well, you must have been a beautiful baby!

I worried before I was pregnant and for an entire 9 months about having an ugly baby. Why you might ask? Well, for one, I wasn't the cutest baby to hit the Gerber generation, and secondly, my husband and I are not lacking in the Schnozola department.Lets face it, some babies just aren't cute. And I was worried that I wouldn't know if he was cute or not because I would have on mom-goggles and think everything was cute! But I knew that I would know what other people thought because we live in the South and it just ain't fittin' to tell someone their baby is ugly, so we say "oh, well isn't she sweet?" or "Bless his little bitty heart!" And those were 2 phrases I'd pray I'd never hear!

Well, whaddya know? My kid came and I don't care what anybody thinks, I think that kid is goood-lookin!When Kidd-O was born, the first thing I said was that he looked just like my hubs and his sister.And he does, but I have also seen a lot of my side in him as well! So I began looking through pics to see what I could find! Looking through my moms pics is a never ending task, because with 8 kids and 26 years worth of photos, there are millions of photos!!! So, I did the best I could and I thought I'd share what I found! I realized that time goes by way too fast, and seeing my siblings as babies made me cherish my babe and how fleeting this time is!

Now, these aren't the best pics in the world, because I only grabbed one box. And by grabbed, I mean I needed the boys to help load it. And by box, I mean, the largest, longest tupperware bin they make. Oh, and I used nicknames to protect the innocent!

For the record, I think that Kidd-O resembles V-Dizzle and Fluffyianna the most...on my side. And I don't really care who he looks like as long as he has my charming personality....HA!

And here's one more pic...just because it makes me smile!

Happy Hump-o-the-Week!

My Monday Mind Dump...On Tuesday!

• I decided that the same 3 meals I've been cooking for the past 4 years just isn't cutting it. I have never liked the idea of meal planning because I'm fickle and the thought of being bound to a plan is simply dreadful, so a friend suggested that I should just start with one NEW meal a week. It's going well so far...It's only been one week, but whatev.

• Oprah has done an awful lot of bragging about her 25th season, but all I've seen is a lot re-runs from the first 2 weeks of the season!

• Hi, I'm Ashley, and I have a problem. I have mentioned before my love for nail polish. It's truly a compulsion. If I even walk past the nail polish section I WILL buy one. The problem is that when I get home I realize that I already have that color, or in some cases 5 bottles of the exact color:

• Kidd-O is in LOoOoOVe with Mickey Mouse Club House! Really and truly! I was worried about breaking the news to Mr. Clean because he already has one Disney freak and doesn't need another one. BUT, he's extremely supportive and I have even heard him singing "Hot dog, hot dog, hot diggity dog" to Kidd-O, which is both funny and cute.

• This picture makes me smile. I think it's really neat that Kidd-O has Aunts that are this young. But I guess it isn't so strange because my aunt is a year younger than me:

• My birthday was last week and instead of a gift, my husband is taking me to eat at a festival this weekend. I've said it before and I'll say it again: I love to eat. I live to eat.

• My LEAST favorite thing about the warmer weather: shaving. TMI? Maybe. So sometimes I just don't. TMI? yes.

• My husband just informed me that his email address at his new job hasn't been translating well (clee@(whereeverheworks).com) and he had a customer call him Clee (Glee with a C)...and that's not his name. This made me laugh. I'm laughing as I type this.
  

• Kidd-O cracks himself up...which cracks us up!

Have a TERRIFIC week!