Family Vacation 2013

So, you've known this blog was coming.  I have over 300 pictures from the week...so I tried to limit the blog to my favorites.  It still ended up being like 30 pictures...so bare with me!  We had a great week.  Emma & Evan did much better with the ocean than I had expected.  By the end of the week...they were playing in it by themselves!  Enjoy a few snap shots from our week!!

Our mini village!!

The guys hard at work fixing our favorite "Beach" meal!!

The group playing "Rook".  Daddy was already in the bed & Matt was taking our picture!

Feeding the birds!

 

Emma & Katie at the Battery!

Little man knocked out on the golf cart ride from the grocery store!

Evan feeding the birds!

And the bird finally took the cracker out of Justin's hand!

Family photo!

Emma & Evan photo!

Enjoying his new chair!

The shark a guy caught right where we were swimming.  That ended our swimming time that day!

Our morning story time with Aunt Katie!

My two sweet peas!!  LOVE this picture!

We are already on top of Christmas gifts for E&E's class this year!  We are making sand dollar ornaments that we find in the ocean.  If these never make the blog again...they didn't turn out! :)

My sweet boy loving the water!

And of course...Emma had to try!

 

Sorry this was so long...but I wanted to share some of our fun time!  Hope you all have a great week.  I personally am dreading dropping them off at school Tuesday.  Little Miss Clingy isn't going to do well with that!  Prayers please!! :)

Welcome to the 21st century...

I know you guys are wondering what in the world this post is going to be about.  Well, I FINALLY broke down and got an IPhone.  Yes, I was probably the last young person in the world that didn't have a smart phone.  Those of you that know me know I am cheap and do not like to spend my money on telephones or anything that will be outdated by the time I buy it...but I did it.  Tonight we headed into town for the BBQ Festival.  I love a small town festival.  It kind of reminds me of Sweet Home Alabama, one of my all time FAVORITE movies!!  It's fun seeing people you haven't seen in a while and eating.  All good times revolve around food!  Here is a picture of my sweeties before we left the house.  

Please note this picture was taken from my IPhone!!  They didn't eat any BBQ this time but I sure did and it was yummy as usual.  Well, that is about it for this update.  Justin is packing his things for the beach as we speak.  We went to Costco on Wednesday and bought our groceries for the week.  I am heading to town tomorrow to finish getting all my stuff and we are pulling out Sunday morning.  We are praying for good weather, or at least not the rainy days we have been having!!   Also, just a side note but we are already in party planning mode for Emma & Evan's 2nd birthday!!  Our theme this year is going to be "owls".  I won't get to have a theme much longer so while I still can...we are having one.  We already have the location, the date, the time, the guest list, and LOTS of decoration ideas, cake ideas, food ideas, clothing ideas & invitation ideas.  I know this isn't supposed to be as big as the 1st birthday and it won't be...but it will be just as fun planning.  More details to come on that as we continue to plan!!  Alright...that is it for tonight.  I have WAY to much to do to stay on this computer.  Hope everyone has a great night!!

A Day at the Zoo

Okay.  So, I know I have posted a lot lately but this will be it for a while.  Well, probably not because we will be heading to the beach next weekend...so that will be lots of post I am sure!!  We got up early this morning and headed to the zoo.  We were going rain or shine and thankfully while we were there the sun was shining!   Here are the pictures from our day!

For those of you who know Evan, know his favorite thing to say is "What's this"...so here he is asking that question.  We only heard it 10 million more times today! :)

The strollers went back to the car quite early.  Emma was more interested in them than the animals.  Buckling the straps will keep her entertained for quite a while!

Our first animal picture...the monkeys!

Walking around like a big boy taking it all in!

The lions.  The tiger was right next to the lions but wouldn't come out.  He was the only main animal we didn't get to see.

The ostrich and the zebras. 

The alligator.  I wasn't a fan of this little fella!

Evan feeding the giraffe it's lettuce like a champ.  He isn't afraid of any animals!

Up close and personal with that giraffe!

The turtles!

Emma loved to hang over the wall until an animal appeared!

The elephant!

Here are my two boys listening to the man talk about the elephant!

No words for this crazy animal!

The gorilla.  He has only been at Riverbank Zoo for 4 months!

The kangaroo.  We literally could have walked up and petted this one.  We actually got to go in where they keep them.  People were walking right by and they didn't mind at all. 

Emma wasn't coming any closer to that turkey!

Evan petting the cow.  He LOVES the cows at MaMa & PaPa's....so this was right up his alley!

 

The bears were wrestling with each other.  It was good entertainment!

We had to take a family photo before we left.  It was HOT by now.  We all were pretty gross & sweaty!

After the Zoo, we went to Rush's for lunch and then headed home.  We hadn't even made it back to the interstate and this is what we had....

One knocked out baby...

And another knocked out baby!!!



 It was such a fun day.  As soon as we got home...it started raining again...so we were back to being stuck inside.  We did manage to get he garage cleaned out this afternoon though!  The fish fry tonight was as YUMMY as always.   Emma & Evan both cleaned their plates!  They are my kids though and I am a HUGE fan of fish!   They both had a fun-filled day! They didn't even make a sound when we laid them down tonight.  I'm thinking we might get to sleep in a little later in the morning.  Justin will be glad since he didn't get in from fishing until 4:00 this morning!  But that's our life and we are loving every minute of it!!

Happy 4th!!

I had planned to just include this post with the zoo post but I thought that one may too long to add this to it.  So, here goes! Well, we'd planned to spend the morning outside with Daddy and as soon as we got out there it started raining again!  So, it was back inside for us.  So, we watched Mickey Mouse and ate cheerios! 

 

These two love Mickey Mouse! You can't really tell here but Emma has on her church shoes!  This girl has a shoe fetish!!  She LOVES shoes!! Janice had given me this neat idea of making stepping stones for your flower beds using their foot prints.  You are supposed to do it every year & watch as they grow!  So, I decided to give it a try.  Might as well...we were stuck inside anyways right??  I got everything mixed while they watched TV.  You just mix salt, flour, & water.  Then form the dough and make the footprint impression.  Then, you bake it for 3 hours.  Here they are still cooling on the pan.

 

I think they turned out pretty good.  I am not really sure where these are going in our yard...but it was fun making them!  Justin was finally able to get the power ran to the building outside this morning so he worked on tearing off the part of the building the tree hit this afternoon.  We're hoping that little project will be completed by the weekend!  Then, tonight we headed over to Katie's for supper with some couple from church.  Emma & Evan were both dressed patriotic for the occasion!!

 

 

Aren't they the cutest things ever??  The food was delicious as always, thanks to Katie!!  They guys left about 8:30 to go jugging for the night.  So, I brought E&E home and got them ready for bed.  The girl next door was shooting fireworks.  Every time one would go off Evan would say "Boom".  I tried to get them to watch them out their window but they wouldn't.  Oh well...maybe next year for the fireworks!!  So, they are in the bed snoozing now and I am heading that way soon!!  Hope you all had a safe & fun 4th!!







Just living life...

I am so excited to be sitting at home in my pj's, watching TV and knowing I am off for the next 4 days.  Davis & Floyd NEVER closes so the fact that we have Friday, the 5th, off is definitely a first.  It has been a crazy three days though.  Mrs. Gail is back from vacation and I have spent lots of time this week going over all the stuff that happened while she was out.  It never fails, I think people wait until she's gone to come up with new things for me to have to do!  No worries though...I handled it all pretty well!!  Rebecca has been off this week, so not only do I have twice the work load as before but I still had to find time to do the mail.  Come to think of it at some point in the 10 years I have been D&F...I have done every other lady's job in our front office, at some point in time!  Monday night we had bible study again and it was awesome as usual.  I have to share one of the stories Priscilla shared.  She said when her oldest two boys were 3 & 1, she & her husband took them to Disney World.  The oldest boy was playing in a little play area and of course the after a while of watching his big brother play...the youngest decided he wanted to play too.  So, Priscilla got up and took him to let him slide down the slide.  She said when they got to the bottom she started looking for her oldest little boy and he was no where to be seen.  Of course...immediately she started panicking and asking everyone around if they had seen her oldest little boy.  She said staff members surrounded her asking her a ton of questions like what was he wearing, what name does he answer to... things like that.  She said that she literally sat down on the ground and started crying praying for God to bring her son back.  She said about 15 minutes later one of the park attendants came rushing toward her holding her son's hand.  She said she grabbed him up and just held him for a while.  In this reunion, she said she heard God say to her...you couldn't last 15 minutes without your son and I was willing to give mine up for you!  That story has stuck with me all week.  I know right after the babies were born we celebrated our first Christmas together.  I remember sitting holding Evan one night crying thinking what God did for us by giving up his Son.  I can't imagine willingly giving Evan's life to save this world.  God not only did it for those who love Him but also for those who don't love Him.  It's just amazing the love God has for us!  Anyways...for those of you looking to do a bible study...I HIGHLY recommend this one!!  I didn't get home until 10:00 that night.  That makes for a long day, when you leave at 7:15 in the morning and don't get home until 10:00 that night.  E&E were already in the bed so I didn't even get to see them Monday.  Then, Tuesday was just as hectic at work!  It was busy again plus Lauren's Daddy was having his brain surgery...so Lauren was texting us all day with updates.  Thankfully as of right now, everything went as planned, they were able to get all of the tumor and he is doing good.  Last I heard he was still in ICU but they knew he would be there  right at first.  That is definitely an answered prayer!!   After work Katie & I were meeting KG & Angela for supper.  We meet at 6:30 and it was still 10:00 again before I got home.  I didn't get to see my babies another day!!  You know you're having fun when you sit at a table for 3 straight hours talking and eating!!  I love getting together with old friends.  We have a play date set for next Friday with all the kids.  Poor Emma is still being surrounded by BOYS!!!  Angela got the waitress to take our picture...so I stole it to put on the blog.  We have been friends forever and no matter how much time passes without us seeing each other...it seems like we just pick up from the last time we were together.  Here is a picture of our night out. 

 

Well, that's about it for this update.  Hoping the rain holds off tomorrow so we can get outside and enjoy the pool.  Then, hopefully some BBQ.  It can't be a 4th of July celebration without BBQ.  Then, Friday...we are planning to try the Zoo again...if the weather cooperates.  It will just be us this time.  Lauren is still in Charleston with her family.  Then, we are having a fish fry Friday night.  We had planned for it to be last Thursday and Justin had a ball game and Alison had something come up so we change it to this Friday.  I love some good fried fish!!  YUM!!. Come back to hear all about the zoo experience!!