A Rolland Episode of Heli-Loggers

Over Mother's Day weekend, one of Allen's projects was to cut down a very dead and large branch from one of the trees in our yard - for some reason he has a pet-peeve with seeing useless dead branches on trees and felt oh so compelled to take it down the weekend of Mother's Day while his parents were here. Last time he decided to do this was back when I was several months pregnant with Emma and I literally stood in the driveway with a cell phone in my hand ready to dial 911 if something happened- yeah, wasn't going to do it again. I felt much better knowing that his dad was there to help with whatever he needed while several feet high in the air. Luckily he has all the equipment he needs to take on this lovely project and so before he decides to play Tarzan he politely requests for me to get the camera and take pictures of him in the tree- why? who knows! I guess he thought it to be important to document - whatever! Anyways, here you will find pictures of Allen climbing the tree...and also there are two bonus pictures at the end of Allen and his dad doing the dishes after our Mother's Day feast- NOW THAT is something to document!

Going up the tree....smile!

Still making his way up, up, up

There he is, almost to the dead branch (split in the tree)

I love this picture, as he hugs the tree for dear life, he is getting himself wrapped around the other trunk so that he can cut the other one down.

Some chainsaw action

And timber....

Mission Accomplished!

Bonus pics...weren't they sweet to do the dishes!

A Memorable Mother's Day

I could not have asked for a more beautiful Mother's Day - we had gorgeous weather and family to spend it with. We had a lovely Mother's Day breakfast complete with good food and gifts. Allen and Emma gave me a rose bush to plant in my garden, a Willow Tree Angel and a little art project that Emma made at daycare. Church was at 9:45 and then we came home to have a light lunch and enjoy the day outside. Sherry and I made a quick trip over to Lowe's (home away from home) while Emma was napping to pick up some more evergreens and perennials for the new garden that Allen and I made over on the far end of the property where we have a cluster of large trees. Allen was able to cut down a dead branch from one of the larger trees in our yard (another blog post) and do some other yard work this afternoon. We ended the day with a delicious dinner and some relaxation.

Happy Mother's Day to all the mom's out there - I am so blessed to have such a beautiful daughter and wonderful family!

Family photo

Mommy and her sugar-bean

Science Center

Today we adventured to the Catawba Science Center, which is in Hickory about 20 minutes away from the house. The Rolland's are visiting for Mother's Day weekend and we thought this might be a nice activity for all of us to do and also to get out and enjoy the gorgeous weather we had today. The Science Center had all sorts of things to keep Emma entertained, we were a little worried that it might be too old for her, but she thoroughly enjoyed herself at the various exhibits. She was able to run off a lot of energy and experience new things. We spent about 2 hours there and then we went to lunch and did some shopping before heading home.

Catawba Science Center

Emma looking at the gecko exhibit

Trying to reach one of the golf balls

Allen and Jenn

There it goes...

Not quite sure about this tunnel thing...

Tic - Tac - Toe with Daddy

Emma and Grandpa

Grandpa chasing Emma up the tube slide - priceless!

Love her face in this picture

Crazy hair from the air tube

Emma and Mommy

Rolland Family picture

Emma at the stingray and shark tank = nervous Mommy!

Catch-up Pictures

I know I've been slacking at keeping my pictures updated of Emma - so I've included a few from the last couple of weeks. Emma loves to play outside in the evenings after she's had dinner. We go out between 7-7:30pm and then we have to drag her inside to do bath and bed by 8pm. Eventually Allen would like to add to her swing-set, but until then, we bought one of those Little Tikes climb and slide things to help keep her occupied. She also loves to go for walks in her wagon, play with her bouncy ball and her lawn mower! We're starting to hear some more words out of her - she's learned the word, "NO" - yeah I know, we're in trouble now. She's so cute when she says it, but sometimes it gets a little out of hand.

We have the Rolland family joining us for Mother's Day weekend - will post more pictures soon!

NC Arboretum

On Saturday, we traveled into Asheville and went to the NC Arboretum. I have been there several times for business purposes, but Allen or my mom had not been there yet. It was a gorgeous day; 65-70 degrees, which was perfect weather to walk around the gardens and enjoy the scenery. It's very similar to a botanical gardens. In one of the buildings, they mainly do exhibits and lucky us, we visited while they were having their "Scoop on Poop" exhibit! Yeah, that was interesting; we learned a lot that wasn't necessarily stuff we needed to know, but it was fun.

I think Emma enjoyed the most walking through the gardens and exploring. She has gotten to a point where she is becoming more and more verbal, but not really saying anything that makes sense. She has said a few words like "ball", "bye", "uh-oh" & "ka ka" for Kalea. However, it's clear that she is trying to make sentences and making a lot of different vowel sounds in her speech. On March 30th she had ear tube surgery in both ears; it was extremely necessary because she was having so many ear infections and we went for a follow-up appointment on Friday and when they did the audio test again, they said that she can hear perfectly now in both ears where as before the surgery she could hear, but not as well as if she were underwater. So, I think that has and will definitely help with her speech development.

After our trip to the Arboretum we went out to lunch and came home to relax for the rest of the evening. Emma's spring break from daycare has ended, she'll be returning tomorrow and things will resume back to normal around here!

Hope everyone has a good week!