It's a Sunshine Day

We enjoyed the sunny weather by grilling in the backyard with friends today...



Even Little David and Carmella were soaking up some of the rays.



Thanks to Sandy and her recent fridge and freezer purging, the grill was full of good eats. We had fish and chicken and veggies. Snacks were provided by Jenny, who drove all the way from Clinton for the impromptu gathering! And, for dessert...


It was a Weight Watchers masterpiece that was to die for. And, we can't forget the "porch punch" Sandy whipped up from leftover rums and frozen juices.
We are certainly hoping for more sunny afternoons like this one!

-- Post From My iPhone

BOY, Do We Love Babies?!

Lauchlin went with our friend, Katie, to find out some big news:
It's a boy!



Not a very good shot, but she did capture the moment of truth on video!
And, as the video shows, Katie's pretty happy about it...


She had been hoping for a boy even though we had all recently been talking about all of the fun ways to fix little girls' hair.
Maybe Baby Boy Carter can get some tips and pointers from David, who visited this end of National last Friday.



He's getting bigger by the minute...


And stylin' in his car and truck pajamas.
We are loving all of this baby time!

-- Post From My iPhone

We Heart...Chocolate!

In the spirit of Valentine's Day (and our temporary detour from Weight Warchers due to our recent illnesses), we decided to bake a cake from scratch.


It's a chocolate butter cake. And, they weren't kidding about the butter, either. We had to make an emergency run to the store to get enough butter for the icing.
Here is the finished product:


We haven't tried it yet. We're waiting until tonight, when we can share it with our pregnant friend, Katie - an attempt at not feeling as guilty if we were to eat it by ourselves.
Happy Valentine's Day!
(See below: Mojo's favorite part of the holiday has been hanging out on Olivia's new heart pajamas)


-- Post From My iPhone

Whoah, Snow!

So, it's no news flash that it snowed in Mississippi. Vicksburg, however, seemed to take the cake with its reported six inches of accumulation.
We tried to get our own "official" measurements...


It was definitely a sight to be seen...as were we in our early morning snow outfits...

We had our own little Winter Wonderland on our end of National Street...

We had lots of photo ops, including the debut of Olivia's new rain boots (a birthday gift from Lauchlin)...

And, then, just random poses on the blanket of white...


Olivia started to make a snowman, but this is all that was left after she rolled his body down the hill...

And, because a snow that sticks is such a rare occurrence in this great state, we thought we'd look back on some past Mississippi snows...
Early 1980s...

Olivia and her brother experienced a good North Mississippi snow sometime before her memory began to form.

Circa 1985...
Lauchlin donned a far from typical snow suit around the time the last heaping snowfall hit Central Mississippi...

Apparently, it was even enough to bring out the sleds (we're not quite sure why these were just hanging around in Clinton)...


Circa 2000...
Our last snow day dates back to our early college days at Ole Miss, where we spent the day frolicking in the snow-covered countryside...


Who knows how long it will be until we see this again! It was fun while it lasted...

From Films to Phlegm

We had a great weekend celebrating Olivia's birthday and attending our first Oxford Film Festival. The fun, however, came to a screeching hault when we both came down with terrible sore throats and all the good stuff that comes with that.
Our life quickly went from this:










To this:



After several days of hacking and snoozing (what has, apparently, become our annual February sick-a-thon), we are finally back among the well. Thank goodness!

-- Post From My iPhone

Beautiful World

We're celebrating 29 years of Olivia today. We've been going through some old photos of some of her early birthdays. Here are some highlights:








Here she is exactly 29 years ago...


And here's the birthday girl enjoying this "beautiful world" today:



-- Post From My iPhone