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We flew to Birmingham to celebrate Emmie's 3rd birthday. It didn't take long upon our arrival before the girls all headed to the play room. Nice shoes, Leah!

Emmie is so intent on using her computer that she has no idea Molly is about to give her a trim.

Grampa was appointed head book reader at bed time.

Emmie was insistent on having a flower party, so Aunt 'Chelle got creative with the flower theme.

Naturally, Molly and Leah were eager to assist with the present opening.

Time for cake!

It was finger lick in' good!

Leah took a quick break from the party festivities to assemble the alphabet with G'mom.

Emmie also got a kite, which was then of course flown. Apparently it's just as much fun to run after someone flying a kite as it is to fly it yourself.

Molly flying with Tate chasing. An image of timeless childhood.

Leah thought the flower balloons needed a bit of love.

The girls were finally all together to wear the Christmas jammies I made them. It was like Christmas Eve in January.

Emmie may be one of the few kids her age that knows what a chalkboard is. For those who don't, it's an upright display you write on with chalk while you stick out your tongue.

Baby rings can turn into steering wheels when you get older.

And the post the baby ring comes from can become a microphone.

Our last morning in Gatlinburg a few of us headed to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. It was literally down the hill from our lodge, so we decided to check it out. Molly and this fish appear to be seeing eye to eye.

Emmie and Leah enjoyed watching the seahorses.

This aquarium had a long tunnel with a slow moving walkway that allowed you to go under the sea. The tunnel was small enough that you really felt like you were right next to the animals.

Molly and Leah wanted nothing to do with these guys, but Emmie was up for petting this horseshoe crab.

The aquarium was full of little tunnels you could crawl in to get up close and personal with the undersea life.

Our last stop was to see the penguins, up close and personal.

Since we won't see my family in December, we posed for our family Christmas photo Friday morning.

We then headed inside and exchanged gifts with G'Mom, Grampa, Uncle J, Aunt 'Chelle, and Emmie. Molly is shocked by these socks.

She was also very excited to get a Belle doll.

Chad sometimes sticks a little Lego man on his camera to give the girls something to focus on. After using it for the pictures, Leah wanted to play with it. Even after getting a bunch of Christmas presents, she kept coming back to playing with the Lego man.

I love this picture of Leah opening her ornament from Grampa.

Emmie had to check hers out from all angles.

After the gift giving had concluded, Leah took a minute to teach Grampa a bit about how to use the iPad.

We headed to Gatlinburg, TN to gather with the Batson extended family for Thanksgiving. We arrived on G'mom's birthday, so we had to celebrate. Here G'mom is receiving her fantastic birthday hat Aunt 'Chelle made for her.

The morning of Thanksgiving we hiked up a mountain to see a waterfall (and burn some calories before the feast!).

Molly got a lot of extra time with G'mom and Grampa since we allowed her to have "special" days with no naps.

The girls are still not fond of big or active dogs, but Max is neither of these. Max enjoyed sitting quietly on Dot's lap, and Leah thought that made him the perfect dog to pet.

The house we rented had a pool table, which was lots of fun for adult and child alike.

The Batson clan (well, almost all of us).

All three girls had a blast playing together. Who needs swords when you've got shakers.

G'Mom and Grampa found this little swing and set it up on their sun porch. Of course, they all constantly wanted to swing.

Everyone loves a good book.

We visited the children's hospital in Memphis, where Grampa works.

And then headed to the Peabody Hotel to see the ducks. It was the fastest march of ducks ever! One minute the elevator door opened and 15 seconds later the duck were in the pool! The other girls eventually tired of the ducks, but Molly couldn't get enough.

The girls had lots of fun with balloons, and Leah was determined that she could blow up this one.

Cookie baking with G'mom. A little on the sheet, a little in the mouth...

And just to prove that we were all indeed there.

Both Molly and (especially) Leah like to watch Bubble Guppies on Nick Jr. When we started talking about flying to see G'mom and Grampa in Memphis the "Gup, Gup and Away" episode became an instant hit. We sang, "Yeah, we're gonna fly. Fly, fly, fly, fly, fly. fly" many, many times during our traveling. Molly was super excited when she was given her own set of Delta wings!

Michelle, Jeremy and Emmie drove up from Birmingham to visit too. We took the girls to the Children's Museum of Memphis, which was packed with fun activities. Here's Leah doing some indoor fishing on the Mississippi River.

The fishing pole was a bit hard to handle, so switching to a net which was much easier for Emmie.

Molly is ready to fight some fires.

Molly's absolute favorite part was launching paper airplanes. She got very good at shooting them and even managed to get it in the target a good bit of the time.

Leah gave us a puppet show.

The museum also had a couple green screens for the kids to have fun with. Who knows where they saw themselves on the monitor, but Chad had some editing fun.

More to come tomorrow...

We made our annual trek to Savannah to visit Chad's family last week. We flew last year, but decided this year that it had to be our long roadtrip down I-95 again. And it was a long one indeed. Add together ~12 hours on the road, plus a sick child (one girl on each leg!), and you get two very.long.days. However, the three days in the middle were quite pleasant!

The hammock was the favorite destination, and thankfully the aunts frequently obliged the girls' requests to swing. It really is very relaxing.

Grandaddy's dock is also a great place to hang out and relax.

We also spent one morning at Uncle Carl's house swimming. Leah had a great time in the water, while Molly insisted on staying on the steps. I put Leah's head under a few times to get her more comfortable with the water. She always came up shocked, but after a lot of cheering from the crowd, she'd start smiling and say "I did it!"

You can see all the pictures from our visit on Flickr starting here. And if you missed it, a reading from Molly here.

On Monday night, I made cupcakes for a combined early birthday/Mother's Day celebration for my sister and mom.

There was a yummy surprise inside these cupcakes - chocolate chip cookie dough! My BIL said they were possibly the best cupcakes he'd ever had!

Michelle was excited to finally get some homemade vanilla extract after waiting months for it to ferment.

And by special request, I made these kitchen owl towels for her birthday.

For my mom, I embroidered all the granddaughters' handprints as a Mother's Day gift.

You can see a lot more pictures from our trip on Flickr starting here.

We traveled down to Birmingham (in "Alabana" as Molly likes to say) to spend Easter with my family.

It didn't take long for the girls to get started on some cousin play. We spent lots of time playing on the back porch.

On Saturday morning, we all went to a nearby playground for some fun.

Making oatmeal cookies was a must-do for Saturday evening.

And the Easter Bunny did manage to find us in Alabama.

After church, Uncle J organized an Easter Egg hunt in the backyard.

It was busy day, but Leah found a great spot to relax and listen to Uncle J's music.

The day after Christmas we headed to Mooresville, NC for the Batson Family Christmas. We exchanged gifts with my immediate family at the hotel before the larger family gathering. Molly was jazzed about her new Disney princess slippers.

Emmie checking out her new felt bracelets.

Leah's ready to play with this wooden puzzle.

Everyone checking out Emmie's new baby stuff.

We all got together to give G'mom and Grampa a new camera. It's a Canon S90, and it's very snazzy.

Leah looking super cute in her new towel from Aunt 'Chelle.

Aunt 'Chelle, you look a little yellow!

The fam