thanks for the help, buddy.

What I heard...
"Mom. Haywee (Hayley - the cat) was hungry. So I gave her some food."

What I saw...

I know I've said it before, but I'm so glad he's cute. 'Cause it helps.

kitty and the beast

So - we got a cat at Christmas this year.

Correction: Avery got a cat at Christmas this year.

And Charlie loves to torture it.

A lot.

The first week we had her, I caught Charlie "hugging" her tightly around her tiny neck at least twice.

Thankfully, after only a few months of life with Charlie, Miss Kitty has definitely become smarter and more protective of her nine lives.

This picture, taken in January, may be the last one I'll ever see of Charlie holding Kitty. Because now, as soon as he comes near her she takes off in a full sprint.

And I can't say I blame her.

halloween

It's Fall, I'm obsessed with Pinterest, and I'm not afraid to copy a good idea from someone smarter than I am.

inspiration source

...So that's what I did.

 A lot.

inspiration source.

A whole lot.

inspiration source

These guys, however, are total originals.

Happy Halloween!

avery's 5th birthday

On September 14, Avery turned 5.
In the Magic Kingdom.
To celebrate, we treated her to breakfast with Cinderella and the Princesses in the Magic Kingdom.

Avery was so excited to be dining with the Princesses in the castle.

Charlie was excited about breakfast.

But was not so excited about waiting for it.

The Princesses came out one by one, and each one greeted us at our table - taking time to give Avery a hug, and pose for a picture or two.
Sometime during breakfast, the waiter brought Avery a special treat - her own lighted cupcake.

When Ariel saw her cupcake, she said, "Cupcakes for breakfast? Oh man... all I had this morning was seaweed!"

Charlie greeted every princess with the same look... which made me giggle. The Ladies make my brave little man a shy quiet guy.
Who knew?

Belle was one of our favorites. When Charlie asked her where the Beast was, she answered by saying, "The Beast went on a beastly run this morning... and he is taking a bath."

At the end of Breakfast, Avery made a special wish with her wishing star and magic wand.
Ariel helped her close her eyes to make her birthday wish...

And... Charlie got... a sword. A sword.
Giving Charlie a large object that is designed to be used as a weapon can only lead to certain disaster.
And multiple injuries requiring swift medical assistance.
They may need to reconsider that idea.
And my Charlie may be the reason for that.

It was such a fun experience for the family.
But my favorite Princess was definitely our sweet little 5 year old princess.

back to school

It's that time of year again. My favorite time of the year... A time for new backpacks, school supplies and (to quote my favorite movie) bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils.

Avery and I made a special banner to celebrate the start of the school year.

And, like her Momma, Avery could barely contain her excitement for the start of a new school year.

Here's how Charlie felt about it.

sweet.

georgia on my mind.

A couple of weeks ago, we traveled to Atlanta with our friends The Malahy's.

The trip there was unbelievably long. Due, in part, to the actual mileage from our home to our destination, but mainly because we made approximately one bathroom stop every 20 minutes.
No seriously.
No. Seriously.

Thank you, God for Crackerbarrel.
 And portable DVD players.

And...washable markers.

By the way - Take a good look at the stylin' outfit Avery has on in the next picture. It's from The Avery Tillman Summer Traveling Collection.

Four-year-olds have some amazing taste in clothing, don't you think?

I'm guessing that those pants are like 2 sizes too small. At least.
They are supposed to be full-length pants.
Niiiice.

She was so happy to be wearing it.
And if I would let her, she'd be wearing it every day of the year. Rain, shine, sleet, hail - those pants would be on her body.
In fact, she's wearing those pants at this very moment - sitting right next to me here on the couch.
Hey, Pants. Good to see 'ya again...

When we arrived in Atlanta, we went straight to Hotel De Malahy. Josh's parents were super generous to allow our motley crew to stay in their home during our visit and we tried our best to keep our kids from totally destroying it.
I'd say that we were mildly successful regarding the non-destruction of said home, but I'm not sure that we were able to do the same for their sense of peace and quiet.
That was definitely destroyed within the first 5 seconds of our arrival.

My friend Maribeth and I had one main objective for our trip: to go to the famed Scott Antique Market.
So, early one morning, we left the kids and the husbands to their own devices and took the hour long drive to the market.
The market did not disappoint.
Not only did it not disappoint... it was just a little bit of Heaven here on Earth.
It was the mecca of antiquiness...the utopia of vintage...and a bunch of other analogies I'm not smart enough to come up with.

Normally, there are 3300 vendor booths.
That's three THOUSAND three HUNDRED vendor booths.
There are two gigantic buildings full of lovelies. In order to go from one gigantic building to the next one, you have to get on a shuttle.
on. a. shuttle.
In addition to the two gigantic buildings, there's a large outdoor space that houses tons more vendors and a big 'ol building full of fabulously rusty and dusty junky stuff.
Maribeth and I were totally overwhelmed. I think we looked at each other in total disbelief and said, "oh. my. goodness" at least 15 times.

And, oh, what I would have given for a U-Haul to carry one of these home...

 Here's a few pictures of what I could fit into my SUV - and my budget...

While the mommas' main objective was to do a little antiquing, the little ladies' had a different objective.

Avery was beside herself with excitement.

 

She took no time to pick out her very first American Girl doll.

And look! Charlie found his doppelganger there. Kinda eerie, huh?

Here he is feeding a sweet little baby doll...

 

And here he is banging the sweet baby doll's head against the wall while grunting, "Ugh! Argh! Ouch!".

 

That's Charlie.

Avery was completely thrilled to take her new doll out of the store.

And Charlie was completely thrilled to take off his shoes. 

In the middle of the mall.

During our trip, we did a little outlet mall shopping, ate some good food, spent the day at Ikea, and went to visit Passion City church.

Where---stop it --- Matt Redman was leading worship that night. 

Yes. That's what I said.

And Christy Nockels was singing background vocals.

And Louie Giglio gave an awesome message.

I can't even say how cool it was.

It was so cool.

So unbelievably cool.

On the drive home, we stopped at one of our favorite places to eat in Nashville -  Loveless Cafe . I had every single bit some of this...

 

(fried green tomato BLT)

David got their ahh-mazing fried chicken, the kid's got the mac and cheese, and everyone had way too many homemade biscuits and a little of this...

oh my.

Loveless makes my heart happy...but my arteries are glad that we don't live in Nashville.

Our Atlanta trip was just what the doctor ordered. We totally needed this great little getaway....and Maribeth and I are already planning our next trip to Scott Antique Market- and devising a plan for getting our hands on a gigantic U-Haul or two. 

completely two.

Charlie brought this to me the other day.

Just handed it to me.

I think I said, "What is this?"

To which he responded with the usual, "Nuffing."

It looks like I arrived just in time to save his favorite racing car from being lost forever.  Who knows what else is in there.

He's so two.

And totally inquisitive.

And curious.

He's fearless and adventurous.

And a total mess.

Sometimes, his curiousity can be kind of expensive.

But mostly, it's just really, really messy.