Callaway Gardens - Valentines and another quilt

Isn't this so cool. I loved seeing the stages of bananas growing. We went to Callaway Gardens with my parents on Valentines Day. It was free to get in for the Month of February. There is not a lot growing, but it is still pretty and fun.

Isn't John so cute. Here he is by the vegetable garden.

Celia and I by the vegetable garden. We really did have a great day. My parents are so fun. Funny story, we saw this cool rock formation by a stream. It looked pretty slick as it was a rainy day, but fun. Mom decided to climb on it and check it out. She slipped and dad helped her and I screamed. John laughed at me and said, she was fine. Still funny that the love for adventure is ever present.

Mom and dad in the butterfly garden. It was so pretty in there and even though there were not a ton of butterflies, there were enough to interest us. Especially the names. A few were called common mormon butterflies. The prettiest were of course the blue morpho butterflies.

Some of the indoor gardens. We just loved the way this looked.

Celia and her Daddy. They have so much fun together and I love these opportunities of having fun and doing stuff as a family. We really should go back with bikes during the spring or summer it would be a blast to ride around and enjoy all the beautiful nature.


My sister Rachel is awesome....she made this quilt for our friend Joanie Campbell. She is having her 3rd little one and said this is her first baby quilt. I helped only a small bit, but it is still awesome.

Snow Day

About a week ago, I took these pictures on the digital camera or our flowers. I also took some with my camera, we will see how those turn out. They were just so beautiful and I wanted them to last a little longer.
Imagine our surprise when just a few days later we leave church to kids talking about snow and have a little snow storm. Our area was hit pretty good, my parents didn't get as much snow. We certainly enjoyed it while it lasted. When I was I kid I lived in California and where we lived it never snowed, it might have left a light layer, but never even an inch, nothing you could play in. So Georgia was the first place I experienced the snow. I love the way it snows here. Just every once in a while so you can play in it and love it, but not enough to ever get sick of.

Celia kept eating the carrot nose. She really loved carrots that day.

Dad and Celia. I believe this is the first time they've been able to really play in the snow together. Last year he was in Texas when snowed and before that she was too long to play in it when it snowed (less than 1).

Celia took this picture of John when he was getting ready to go back to base.

I took this because the trees looked so beautiful and I love how big the snowflakes were as they fell.

Celia took this one, I took one with my camera. This is John leaving in the snowstorm. Others might feel like this is a little silly, but it had rained for two days before the snow hit and their was ice on the ground everywhere. The snow isn't what worried me, it was the ice. Plus tree limbs were falling everywhere. It took him 2 hours to go 20 minutes and shortly after that he didn't have any issues. Course a little after he left (about 3) we lost power and it didn't come on until about 10. It was fun and we didn't have it too bad since our stove is gas and I have enough candles to light a house, plus a few flashlights. I did realize our heat was run by electricity and I will need to prepare with wood for fires for next year. It got a little cold, but we have enough quilts to keep warm.

This is our girl snowman. She has hair and yes those are some of the branches our tree lost, it couldn't support the snow.

The next day we still had plenty of snow to play with so we made 4 more snowmen, including a girl and a dog.....it was fun. We also made a snow fort. I am in awe that anyone makes igloos and such. It is quite a bit of work. I certainly hope they have more than just one adult and a 4 year old. We had fun demolishing the small fort.

Celia and the snowman we built to kill. Yep, we kicked it down the hill. It really did get to be a big snowball and we both couldn't push it anymore.

Dogs are so silly. Maze wanted to help us decorate our snowman. Thanks, but no thanks. Next time we'll do the decorating without him. Maze really loved the snow and played in it, peed in it, and ate it (not the stuff he peed in I hope).

Stuff

So, I am making a public vow to get my knee back into shape so that I can get into shape without having to take a break to get my knee to stop hurting. I know all the physical therapy stetches and stuff I need to do, I just need to do them everyday and ice and all that stuff. No more excuses. The occured when I got my hips fixed through physical therapy. Once they were better and I don't feel the run in my hips anymore, it has affected the rest of my legs and my muscles are not strong enough to help my knees out and so it just causes pain. I have also put on a little weight and even 5 lbs add an extra 25 lbs or more of pressure to your knees. So there are two things I need to work on.

I am going to do some runs and I am getting ready. I know I will have more time now that my daughter is going to pre-k. I will just send her to school and excercise my butt off....Hopefully literally. I am not waiting for that, but I am trying to look forward to that kind of stuff and not think about my baby being big enough to go to school....she even wants to ride the bus. Mom might not be ready for that.

The near future also holds a surgery for me, another on my long road of infertility issues that will hopefully have a successful resolution. I have known spiritually that I have needed surgery for a month or so, but getting doctors and that kind of stuff to agree is another issue altogether. The surgery is the only way to figure out if I have endemitriosis. It is also a way to treat it, just a temporary solution to something I will probably battle the rest of my life. However, I feel like I am doing what Heavenly Father wants me to do and nothing brings me greater joy than knowing that.