thanks to jack, my ears are bleeding

my feet hit the ground running this morning so that i could have a nice lunch prepared when josh's family arrived. cornbread dressing, green beans, corn pudding -- you name it, and we had it. as i was skipping around through a light haze of airborne flour and sugar at 10:45, josh came in and asked what time we were eating. "i'll have it ready pretty much as soon as they get here -- in about 30 minutes," i said. josh looked at me with an expression of 85% confusion/15% panic and told me that he thought we were having them for dinner and that they may have already eaten lunch.

thankfully josh's failure to pass along that tiny bit of information didn't matter, because not only had they not eaten already, but they brought hungry tummies along for the ride. i'm pretty sure i heard papaw whispering sweet nothings to the sweet potato casserole when nobody else was around.

but before the marietta crew arrived, josh put together the gift that my parents gave izzy last night at our party -- a red radio flyer car!

she was in hog heaven riding all over the house in her little getup; unfortunately, when it came time for a picture, jack wasn't quite as excited about her getting to cruise solo in her new gift as she was...

but he really perked up when he saw his gift from us...

to say that he likes his little guitar would be like saying i kind of dig photography. he has played it almost* constantly today. all. day. long. (remember this post?)

*the few breaks he took were to play the drum he got last night from my parents.

but his head almost exploded with excitement when josh got his guitar out, too. nothing beats hanging out with daddy on the couch and playing some tunes on the guitars...

izzy's head almost exploded with excitement, too, when she pulled these out of her stocking. she loves them. clearly.

but this next one is my very favorite from the day. panning is a really fun and unique way of photographing a moving subject. too bad i really stink at it. but i had a vision for what i wanted this next shot to look like, so josh pushed izzy in laps around the house until i finally got it (on the third try!)

unfortunately, the cough that i thought was finally gone made a reappearance yesterday, and i'm not feeling so hot again. i actually coughed one of my lungs out into the macaroni as i was making it this morning.

hope nobody noticed.