Look who's rolling on two wheels

I cannot believe I've let this news happen without reporting it: Amelia has finally mastered the art of riding her bicycle without training wheels! She's been tooling around on two wheels for a couple of months, but I just last week remembered to snap a photo of her doing so. Getting to this point has been no small feat considering Amelia basically taught herself how to ride without training wheels. Having inheirited by hard-headedness, Amelia refused to allow Jeff or I to offer advice or assistance in her quest to ride sans training wheels. Since I keenly understand the desire to accomplish a goal all by oneself, I also know the tons of pride one feels upon having mastered the task at hand. I think it's evident by the smile on her face in the above photo that Amelia is immensely proud of herself.

Prior to receiving the two-wheeler from her cousin Payton, who logged a good many miles on it before passing it down, Amelia's main mode of traversing the driveway and carport was this tricycle, which we got from Jeff's former boss. This tricycle, which Amelia named The Super Bike, was built to last, I tell you. When we got it the thing was over 20 years old and had survived being run over by a mini-van. It was red, but Jeff painted it pink for our little princess and added the basket, a bell, a horn and a new seat cover. Although Amelia has a bicycle, she's still able to ride The Super Bike and does so from time to time just, I guess, to mix things up. I have no doubt the ever-sturdy Super Bike will last for Lola to get lots of enjoyment from it. Heck, this thing may even last to become an heirloom to be passed onto the next generation. I swear, I've never seen a tougher or better-built tricycle.

Amelia's very first tricycle was this pink and purple Radio Flyer we gave her for her third birthday. It took her a while to get the hang of pedaling; but once she did, there was no stopping her. She's way too big to even attempt riding it these days, but it's the perfect size for Lola, who loves it despite it's faded paint and missing streamers.

 Apparently, Lola intends to follow in her sister's footsteps and teach herself how to ride anything with wheels because she outright refuses to allow anyone to help her figure out how to propel this tricycle or any other mode of transport. Last week I was trying to get her to understand that she must place her feel on the pedals and push when she screamed, "No! Leave me 'lone! I do it!" I backed of and watched her scoot the tricycle up the driveway Fred Flinstone-style while realizing she too has inherited my stubborn streak. Oh well, she'll get it eventually and when she does, I'll be ready, camera-in-hand, to capture her prideful smile for posterity.

A birthday trip down memory lane

My firstborn is celebrating her seventh birthday today. I am so blessed to be able to mother this sweet, smart, talented, compassionate, beautiful child. She brings joy to my life everyday and never ceases to amaze me with all the things she does and says. In honor of her special day, I've put together a photo retrospective of all her birthdays. Please enjoy while I go find a tissue {sniff, sniff}.

This is her today. I made this shirt especially for her to wear to school because Amelia loves attention - especially good attention - so I thought what better day than her birthday to give her lots of the attention she loves so much.

This photo was snapped at her sixth birthday party. She's displaying her Pillow Pet, a bunny named Thumpy. He's become a beloved member of her stuffed animal entourage.

I captured this moment on her fifth birthday. She's posing in front of her preschool at which her teacher always made sure to announce each child's birthday on this lighted sign. Amelia loved this birthday wish and felt like a superstar all day.

Even though it's blurry as all get-out because I was trying to photograph a moving target, this picture is my favorite from Amelia's fourth birthday. We celebrated with a Disney Princess theme, and I love that in this photo Amelia is sporting her crown and princess necklace as well as riding her Disney Princess Hippity Hop, which is still a favored mode of navigating the backyard.

This messy face is a product of Amelia thoroughly enjoying the chocolate cake she picked out for her third birthday. We had cake a couple of days before her actual birthday because for the big day we took her to Chattanooga for two days of fun at the Tennessee Aquarium and Creative Discovery Museum.

My mom is helping Amelia celebrate her second birthday in this shot. Sadly, GrandJan, which is what Amelia called my mom, died just over a year after this photo was taken. On another note, you can just barely see the sling poking out from the right-hand side of Amelia's bib in this photo, but, trust me, underneath there is a bright orange cast Amelia earned when she fell from the love seat on the eve of her second birthday and broke her arm. It's a tragedy I'd prefer we never repeat.

Here Amelia is chowing down on her first birthday cake. The look of uncertainty on her face comes from the fact we'd had to wake her up for her party. This girl has always enjoyed a good nap and to this day doesn't appreciate being made to get up before she wants to.

This is the first moment I held this precious child. She stole my heart from the moment I laid eyes on her and still owns a piece of it today. Momma loves you so much Amelia!

Future artist? Maybe

This post is dedicated purely to bragging on my little Lola's artistic skills. Lately, she's been mad crazy about playing with the various doodle pads we have in the house. The other day she came into the kitchen and said, "Look! I drawed a picture of momma!" I was overjoyed with her creation and made a mad rush to get my camera so I could document her work for posterity. I think she really captured the essence of me in her portrait. Don't you?

Can you see a resemblence?

I ran across this photo of my husband and his brothers recently and couldn't resist posting it to show how much these guys favor one another.

My husband Jeff is in the middle doing his best impression of a cowboy. He would be unhappy with me if I didn't share that he does not spend his free time ridin' and ropin' broncs. His attire in this photo was for a Halloween party at which I was dressed as a rodeo queen and he was my rodeo champion.

The oldest of the three is Scott, pictured on the left. I would call him the big brother, but that wouldn't be an accurate description since the baby of the bunch, Jason, on the right, is actually the biggest of the three. Their momma likes to joke that it's a good thing she stopped having kids with baby number three because the next one likely would have been seven feet tall.

The genes in this family are strong because not only do these boys look alike, but each has one or more children who are the spitting image of their daddies. Scott, who is the father of 14-year-old triplets, has a son and daughter that look just like him. Jason's oldest child, who will be 14 next week, looks like his dad cut him from his side; and our daughter, Amelia resembles her daddy in so many ways. They even have the same crooked bottom front teeth.

On more than one occasion people have mistaken the brothers for one another. In fact, someone once talked to Jason for about five minutes before they realized they weren't talking to Jeff. More often than not, though, it's older folks who knew the boys when they were growing up who can't tell who is who. They usually just look at the guys with a quizzical expression and say, "I know you're one of Bennie and Priscilla's boys, but I'll be darned if I know which one."

It's, like, a blast from the past, man!

 I am crazy in love with this photo of Amelia rockin' a side ponytail!

It's been my intention since snapping this gem to locate and post with it a photo of me about the same age sporting the same hair-do; however, I have tore this house up and cannot find said photo. :(


It aggravates the stew out of me that I can't find this photo because I know it's around here somewhere. In fact, I can recall the exact way I am posing, which is kind of like how Amelia is posing in this photo. Oh well. C'est la vie!

I wore a side ponytail a lot growing up as did most girls my age. It was the '80s after all and Cyndi Lauper was boppin' around in a side pony while teaching us all about being a girl and wanting to have fun.

However, for a long time I thought everyone was wearing a hairstyle invented by my daddy. You see, on the rare occasion he was called upon to style my mass of hair he invariably went with one of two options: combed straight with a headband or pulled into a ponytail. I suppose the practical drill sergeant in him didn't see the point in attempting anything more elaborate.

Anyway, most of the time the ponytails fashioned by my daddy ended up more on the side of my head rather than in the back. I loved it and considered his styling technique very fashion-forward. Little did I know that he wasn't on the cutting-edge of 1980s hair styling, but rather just had a very hard time pulling all my hair toward the back of my head and  wrangling it into a hair tie.

Since I've always had enough hair on my head for at least a couple of people I guess daddy was just proud to have managed the task of corralling all those tresses and wasn't too worried about where they ended up positioned on my head.

Regardless, I thought for years that my daddy was the genius behind this hair-do and was ever so proud to see so people jumping on the bandwagon and sporting his creation on the side of their heads. If he were alive today, I like to think he'd be excited to see his granddaughter looking so much like her momma in a hairstyle he erroneously received credit for inventing.

Maybe she'll be a stylist when she grows up?

With outfits like these, I feel Lola's services for dressing others would be in high demand.