Springtime at the Biltmore

Last weekend we went out to the Biltmore to see the spring flowers.  It was beautiful as always.

A Leprechaun Trap

The night before St. Patrick's Day, Myles sat down at the table and told me he was going to make a Leprechaun trap.  He told me if he made a trap he would catch a Leprechaun and it would leave him candy.  Keep in mind, this was 8 pm the night before the supposed Leprechaun would bring him candy.  This "Leprechaun" did not have time to run out to the store and fulfill his wishes.  Crap!  I was going to dash his dreams of shamrocks and pots of gold.  I quickly came up with a story that Leprechauns are super busy and he might not catch one in the morning.  This would buy me time to get to the store.  

 Myles made an elaborate trap, Grady laughed the whole time and told him he would never catch a Leprechaun.  Myles was determined.  So, I am number one mom and pulled it off. When they got home from school, they had little bags of candy from the "Leprechaun".  It was worth it to see Myles look at Grady with an "I told you so" face.

Emma got a few M & Ms in her bag.  She enjoyed every single one.

A Girl and her Cat

Emma LOVES Caesar....Loves him to death.  She wants to hold him and hug him constantly.  Even when the cat has had enough.  Em has the scratches to prove it.  As much as she loves him, he loves her too.  He seeks her out and lets her manhandle him.  It's pretty sweet.

Loving him or choking him out??

She actually let me put a dress on her.  It's a rare occasion.  

Breaking Ground and Sunny Days

Josh broke ground at our lot today.  He has started to build our "tiny" house.  If I haven't mentioned what we are doing, here goes: We are building a tiny house, only 400 square feet.  We will live in the tiny house while our big house is being built.  This, hopefully, will save us some money as we will be living rent/mortgage free.  When we move into the big house (if I am still sane from living with 4 other people, one cat, one dog and a fish in 400 square feet) we will rent out the "tiny" house.

It is going to be an adventure, for sure.  An adventure that I hope doesn't land me in a psych ward.

Imagine....these guys is a tiny house.  Scary

Josh was hard at work digging footers.  The kids were hard at work putting more dirt back in the holes.

Look, I found a Leprechaun

Seriously, what is wrong with this kid? Grady, you are something else

Look how big Emma is getting.  He adoption should be final this Spring!!

Giving Grady a ride

She prefers to push rather than ride

Gumbo is one of Emma favorite things in the world.  The old guy is slowing down enough for her to catch him.  

Myles in his "Jacuzzi tub"

Proud Daughter

Anyone that knows my mom, knows that she is an amazing woman.  She has accomplished so much and helped so many people throughout her lifetime.  Now, she can add the title of author to her long list of achievements.  If I turn out to be half the woman she is, I will be content. Way to go, Mom.  I am so proud of you.

Look at her in action.  At a book signing in her home town of Summerville, SC

Her friends think she is pretty awesome too.  They had a party to celebrate 

Snow...Hopefully the Last

Finally, we got a decent amount of snow.  I hate winter but if we have a little bit of snow to play with it makes it a little more bearable.  We hit the sledding hill along with the rest of our town.  It was busy but the boys ran into all of their friends.  They had so much fun.  Emma did not share their love of sledding.  At least we got out of the house for a bit and enjoyed being outside.

She might look happy here but this is what she really looked like.....

Ahhh...  She screamed most of the time, hated being cold yet wouldn't keep her mittens on.  The joys of a two year old.

My dad fixed up my old sled for the boys a few years ago.  It still has a bunch of sled runs in its future.

Emma stopped crying long enough to pull the sled around.

Shredding the mountain

Myles, watching the snow melt.  He likes winter better than the rest of us.

The snowman turned into a snow chair

She had to go into the tub to warm up.

Finally happy.