Yesterday we went to visit my Aunt Melba down in Alex City. We had not been down in quite a while and it was different being there without my Uncle Charles. He died 4 days before Arwen was born and I wasn’t able to travel to the funeral due to the long drive and being very pregnant so this was the first time I was able to go down and visit with my Aunt and cousins. It was a very good visit. Aunt Melba really enjoyed seeing Arwen and Anya and she cooked a really great lunch for Travis and I. My Aunt is known for being a great cook. She made roast, mashed potatoes, pear salad, carrots, butter beans, and biscuits. I love her butter beans, they are by far my favorite and I forgot how much I love pear salad too. And of course she made pound cake, which in my opinion, could win contests… its so good! Anya only wanted biscuits but she had a good time there, she liked her dogs Al (short for Almond) and Hershey, Almond is a blonde lab and Hershey is a chocolate lab. And Aunt Melba brought out games and puzzles for Anya to play and she got to watch cartoons too!
Then, we went to my Aunt Karen’s house. She’s actually my cousin, but she’s older than me by quite a few years and I don’t want Anya and Arwen to call her just Karen, so it seems a bit nicer to refer to her and my other cousins as Aunt or Uncle whoever. Karen lives on Lake Martin and has a beautiful house which she has been in over 5 years but we had not been able to see until now because we always lived so far away. So, we got to see her house and Travis and Anya played pool and we all visited with my family for a few hours. My cousin Grant brought his new baby, Andrew, who was born October 13th last year and it was the first time we got to see him too.
Anya liked Karen’s house too. She had a great time throwing rocks in the lake and playing pool and playing with Karen’s dog Fancy.
Arwen did great as well. She let everyone hold her and rarely cried about anything. She seemed to like everyone and was very sweet. And of course everyone adored her too. Here’s some photos from our trip…
Here’s my Aunt Melba and Arwen

This is my Aunt Karen’s house…

Here’s Travis and Anya by the lake…photo by cousin Candace…

And another photo by Candace of all of us…

I adore Bill Cosby and he pretty much sums up how I feel about dentists above. I had to get 2 cavities filled yesterday and 2 sealants put on because I tend to grind my teeth at night apparently. Of course, I have no idea that I’m grinding my teeth, but okay. Now, keep in mind Bill Cosby recited this in 1983. 1983! We are in what year now? 2009! Have we made no new strides in dental technology since 1983? I’m guessing no, because even when I had my teeth cleaned back in February everything was the same. Same hooks, same whirly toothbrush, same chair. The only thing that was different is now you get your own room apparently and a remote to attempt to watch TV with. Of course if they would put the TV on the ceiling we might be in business, but when you’re reclined in the chair and the drill turns on (which by the way sounds like it has a Ferrari engine on it) you can’t hear the TV anyway, not to mention see it. So, I attempted to watch the movie “Phone Booth” yesterday morning while I’m getting the cavities filled. Lots of fun. I think they should play Bill Cosby in every dentist office while he works on your teeth. It might make them think. However, please let’s move forward in the world of dentistry where all we have to do is open our mouth and they shoot a little laser in there, and abra cadabra the tooth is filled!

In other news, we watched the movie “Twilight” last night and I really liked it. It stuck really close to the book and was a fun movie to watch. Of course, I’m a Buffy fan so it was fun for me, being into the whole vampire world. We also rented “Australia” which we have not watched yet, but that I have high hopes for. And “Marley and me” comes on DVD this Tuesday. Yes, I will be buying that one. And I highly suggest if you love dogs, that you buy it as well. Truly a wonderful movie and holds very special meaning to me.

And finally Best Wishes to my friend Mirya, her husband Doug, and big sister Katie on the arrival of their new baby tomorrow morning. I pray everything goes well for them.

Anya participated in her Gymnastics Jamboree today and she did GREAT! A Jamboree is like a Gymnastics Recital of sorts, they perform on the floor, bars, balance beam, and vault and then get a metal at the end of the show. We went to the 830am show because Anya takes twice a week and the manager said she would like Anya to perform earlier because the 10am show was going to be really overcrowded. So, we had to get up early but it worked out really well.
Anya did such things as a forward roll on the 3 ft. tall balance beam, a forward roll after running for the vault, a superman pose on the bars, and a backwards roll on the floor! We really enjoyed watching her perform and she really loves her “Nastics”! Arwen also enjoyed the performance, she behaved very well and just sat and observed all the fun this morning.
In other news, Travis got a lawn mower. He ended up deciding on a Troy Built self propelled mower w/ a Honda engine. I think it will be a good one. Enjoy all the new photos below!
Starting with the snow that was here at our house on March 1st…

Next, is Travis and the girls from last weekend. We took Anya to the University of Alabama to watch a gymnastics meet. It was a lot of fun there and she had a great time. They were really good.

And Arwen enjoying her hand and a cute profile shot…

And finally, Anya doing her Gymnastics, the first shot is of her buddy, Acacia, who has the same birthday as Anya. Acacia is only 2 hours older! The photos in the blue leotard are from last Tuesday’s practice and the shots in the black and orange are from the Jamboree.

And Mommy’s Favorite from the Jamboree…

So, my brother got me interested in reading Dean Koontz books. I started with “One Door Away from Heaven” about a year ago, read “The Darkest Evening of the Year” right before I had Arwen, and just finished reading “Watchers” last night. “Watchers” is my favorite thus far I think. The main character’s name is Travis, so of course I’m a bit bias for liking the book for that reason alone! Needless to say, I loved the book. It was one of the first books I’ve read where I literally had to put the book down and walk away because it gave me chills.
Very fun read.
In other news, Anya’s Gymnastics Jamboree is March 21st and she will performing from 830am to 930am, contact me if you’d like to attend!
Arwen is doing good. Getting close to rolling over I think as she is quite the kicker! New photos will be posted later this week!

Travis and I had our first date yesterday…okay, so it was our first date since Arwen was born. We went to see Watchmen. Great movie. Travis had been excited about it since we went to see The Dark Knight last July and was just awaiting this weekend for it to come out. We originally planned to go down to Prattville this weekend, but decided it was still going to be a lot of work to travel with Arwen that far just yet, plus with Chance too it presented challenges. So, my parents decided to come up on Friday night and kept Arwen and Anya for us from 12 until about 3 yesterday and we got to go to the movie. Arwen slept until just after 2pm so my parents were able to handle everything well. I left pumped breastmilk for them that Arwen didn’t really want to take from the bottle but she finally did. Arwen has fallen into that pattern of liking her milk “Straight from the tap”.
The movie was really good though. I was very impressed with the storyline and message of the film and Travis had given me a good background of the comic, which if I didn’t know about then it would have been a bit more confusing. The movie is rated R for very good reasons. Quite violent and quite adult oriented material abound in this film and if you don’t really care for movies like The Dark Knight then you may not like this one, but I’m a huge fan of the actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan so I wanted to see him in it regardless, but I really did end up enjoying the film quite a lot. Its nice to see a comic book movie done with an adult audience in mind and not with the motivation of selling merchandise and toys. It was a 2 hour and 43 minute movie as well, so we definitely got our $6.50 matinee’s money worth! And we got to share popcorn which was just the icing on top!