make new friends AND keep the old

We had the extreme privilege of welcoming J's longest-known friend and his fine family into our home. Dr. Matt is...well, clearly, a doctor. But he's not just any doctor. He is a missionary doctor serving with his family in Niger, a physical healer who prays that God can use him to spiritually heal people, too.

We sat around with him and his amazing wife and listened to just what they do--and, let me tell you, it's incredible. For just a tiny small glimpse into their life, you can watch this video:

Anyway! This post is about keeping the old friends (ie: Dr. Matt) and making new ones. The new friendships were formed between our children. Cutie Face still talks about her time with them and it was over two weeks ago. (...just maybe the shenanigans illustrated below might give you a clue why she still talks about her new friends!)

(please excuse very poor quality--iPhone pics only)

after dinner at a local pizzeria (cut short when the electricity went out--they wouldn't let us dine in darkness with only the "exit" light to illuminate our food), the kids took a bath (no nude pictures on this blog--sorry :) and then went crazy!

  "I" ran the kids all over the house in the cozy coupe

i think they would have stayed on there forever if we hadn't

rounded them up for a Bible story reading

In the morning (post-pancakes and syrup), the kids were at it again

this time with baby Cutie Cakes!

 she thought it was awesome to be included with the big kids!

 at least...i think...

eek! what are you thinking!?! stop taking pictures and SAVE me!

Then we decided to be one of about 5 families to brave the cold weather (legitimately cold, not just Hotlanta cold) and visit the zoo. Those petting zoo animals need love regardless of the temperature!

We had so much fun together and hope to see you guys again soon!

*note: Baby A not pictured--hopefully she'll make an appearance the next time around!

Grandma in the ATL

The last few times we've seen Grandma have been in Hillsdale. Cutie Face LOVES visiting Grandma's house because of her lake, swing, and puppies.

We, however, were thrilled to welcome her back to the ATL for a week-long visit that coincided with her birthday, Cutie Face's birthday, and Cutie Cakes' baptsim. Talk about a full week!

As if all of those events weren't enough, we still managed to go to the zoo, the doctor's and out to dinner. Thanks for tagging along with us, Grandma!

the birthday girl ordered a fun TV dinner tray--complete with lemon cupcake!

a day after all the birthday and baptism celebrations, Grandma accompanied us to the 2-year and 6-month doctor's appointments.

(six-month sitter)

(two-year sorter)

Cutie Face was weighed and measured
and found to be in the 99th percentile for height (37.5")

Cutie Cakes is our "petite" kiddo, 

measuring in the 69th percentile for both height and weight

We LOVE our PA! She's great and examined Cutie Face's new doll from Grandma before she performed any "tricks" on Cutie Face. 

we were very thankful that Grandma was with us, especially after the vaccine shots!

post-doctor, we headed to the zoo. Grandma bought us our zoo membership but she'd never been with us. We were very glad to share the animals with her!

it was a bit steamy at the panda exhibit

Despite the heat, there were SO MANY animals playing or lounging

the highlight was seeing the newborn, 4-week old giraffe

she barely stopped running. It was adorable!

we even saw two elephants--seriously, we've never seen more animals at one time before--they must have known that Grandma was coming to see them!

Grandma is a minister in the Episcopalian church so we decided to take her to one of the most beautiful Episcoplain cathedrals we've ever seen--The Cathedral of St. Philips. 

We first discovered this church when we started attending their weekly Saturday farmers' market (the best in the ATL!). One Saturday, we sought cover from the rain, and stumbled upon their incredible bookstore. So that's where we took Grandma...

The girls were a little antsy so we played on both of their playgrounds (yes! they have TWO!)

and Cutie Face practiced for preschool

It now appears that it isn't a visit to the Cutie household
without a Move it Move it dance party
...of which Grandma was happy to partake!

Thanks for coming to visit us, Grandma!

we love you!

chill-out day

despite the soaring heat, we chilled all day trying to recuperate from our illness. 

Yuck. 

All 3 of us are officially in the throes of this bug but i'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Cutie Face is looking and acting soooo much better than yesterday it's just remarkable. 

After a popcorn (+raisins) picnic...

we decided to finally get out of the house...and go to the zoo. Thankfully, the zoo is very shady and there was a great breeze. It was also about to rain which meant there weren't too many people milling around. So despite the heat and threat of rain, it really, it couldn't have been better timed!

The highlight of our visit was experiencing the new exhibit--sun bears, tigers, African turtles, etc. I was too excited about seeing the {gorgeous} tiger and the cool sun bears to stop and take pictures...so all we have are a few shots from the iPhone:

This turtle was so excited to see a human that it literally looked like it was running over to greet us--i think it just wanted food!

Cutie Face enjoyed petting the sheep (and there were even some pigs in the petting zoo today--we'd never seen them there before!)

and Cutie Cakes enjoyed watching.

J came home LATE (10:40 PM) but we were so excited to have him come home that Cutie Face couldn't sleep (she hasn't figured out that sleeping is key to getting healthy). it made for an interesting and slightly delirious night but we survived and it's the weekend!

watcha wanna do?

Hey Cutie Face!

Hey Cutie Cakes!

watcha wanna do today?

You don't know? I know...how about

THE ZOO!

(checking out the "'mingos"--flamingos)

 at music class she learned to put her arms behind her back like flamingo wings

one day we'll have Cutie Cakes put her face through a hole, too

we took a page from the otters & ran home--straight into the pool

seriously--we only stopped to take off clothes!

^definitely my favorite photos of the day!˅

PS Cutie Cakes is now sleeping 11 & 12 hours at night! We think it might be because she adopted her sister's habit of thumb sucking...and we couldn't be more pleased!

Thankful for Thursday

sorry to just jump into the middle of the week without catching up from...oh TWO MONTHS...of unposted happenings. But...we'll get there, someday, if only for posterity sake

Back in my Monkeys on the Bed days, I wrote a weekly Thankful Thursday post. Every day I find something where I think, "now this would definitely make the Thankful Thursday list". 

Today everything would have made the list.

early this morning we headed to the zoo with cousins x two

the girlies gear up for the zoo!

Sweet Pea and Cutie Cakes rode in our carriers

BUT they were happy to be together, too, once we finally let them out!

The first stop was the Panda exhibit!

In honor of the panda, Cutie Cakes wore her Panda dress from Aunty Hunny

The twin schlepped the girls all over the zoo

We had the extreme pleasure of being at the zoo with my pseudo-sister-in-law (she's my twin's sister-in-law but we know her from college so we love her like an aunty :)

Mr. S was loving his apple

and Little Miss was forced to love the broccoli

in true kid conduct, the kiddos were more fascinated by the termites on the tree

than by other animal attractions!

The zoo playground was also a huge highlight!

After the zoo, we had some good naps by both girls and then we headed to Starbucks. On the way over there we ran into a group of people that were headed to the Caterpillar Ball, a precursor to the Inman Park Festival.

After our Starbucks run, we decided, "ehh why not head over there?" Well we're glad we did--the time flew by we were having so much fun and we ended up staying until it ended!

popcorn ... yumm

can't get enough!

many patient kiddos waited in a long line to get their face painted

We tried to figure out if Cutie Face could be that patient

But decided she was just a bit too young for it

Maybe next year her face will be this cute!

So fun!

To end the day, Cutie Face and J took a ride home on the tractor (he literally let them out right in front of our street!). SO FUN for sure!

Oh and PS
Cutie Cakes WAS in attendance at the fesitval, too:

OH MY something clearly went wrong in the HTML captions thing...sorry for this disjointed post. Hopefully i can clear it up soon!