Am I being punked??

One of the things that I love about being in my 30's is my new found security. I feel better about myself than I have in my whole life. That is not to say that I don't have "fat days" or times when I wish my hair was a different style, but most of the time I feel pretty confident. Gone are the early days of my marriage when I would have a fit over my hubby looking at a pretty girl. Not that he did it a lot but c'mon everyone looks, right? And I'm sure half the time a lot of it was made up in my mind, but whatever. I'm not like that anymore. I know that he loves me. He loves me when I'm fat, he loves me when I'm sick and snotty, he loves me dressed up or in t-shirts and jeans, he loves me when I'm cranky. He loves me. I'm secure in that.
All that said... the funniest, most ironic thing happened on the beach while we were on vacation last week. There I was relaxing on my beach blanket, chatting with my mom, watching Bry play with Luke out in the ocean. The beach wasn't that busy because it was still pretty early in the day. When out of the blue I noticed a huge group of people out of the corner of my eye. I turn to see a dozen beautiful, young, bikini clad girls walking down the beach. At first, I thought they were just taking a stroll, but then they turned and started walking out into the water. Let me mention that they came from way down the beach somewhere. There was plenty of ocean to go around from their part of the beach. I watched as these cute girls walked out into the ocean and kept walking until they stood not 2 feet from my husband. And it wasn't like he was close to shore. He and Luke were a pretty good way out and they were all alone because as I mentioned before the beach and ocean were not crowded during that time. I mean, hello! It's the ocean! It's big enough for these girls to stand at least 5-10 feet away from him! Preferably more, especially since they came from the other end of the beach!!
Anyway, I sat there in awe for a minute and then turned to my Mom and said "Am I being punked??" She just busted out laughing. As did a woman who was sitting close by reading a book who had also seen the scene unfold. My mom thought it was so funny and ironic that she started snapping pictures. Bailey took a few too. She was baffled also. She said "Mommy, why'd they come all the way down here and then go all the way out where Daddy is??" I was actually kind of grateful that I wasn't the only one who witnessed it because I probably would have thought that I was imagining things.
We all got a pretty good laugh out of the situation and also the fact that Bry kept his neck so stiff and his eyes looking straight toward the beach where we were sitting. Later, Bry told me that Luke wasn't making the situation any easier. He said Luke kept saying "Hey Babies"!
Well, here are a few of the pics they took to help you picture the situation better. Enjoy...

A New Addition to our Family!

Yes, it's true. I now have 2 girls AND 2 boys! :)
After much begging, pleading and proving how responsible she can be we finally decided to get Bay a puppy for her birthday.
He is so adorable. I really didn't mean to fall in love with him myself but he makes it very hard not to. Max is a beagle (miniature). He is 9 weeks old and he is just a sweetheart. He is very mellow and he loves to cuddle. Bay is doing such a great job with him. She is taking him out and cleaning up his messes. She is so worried that he is going to get hurt, she reminds me of a little mama.
Luke and Presley are just beside themselves! They love animals so much! Especially Presley, she has no fear of any animal. That kind of scares me, like the time she wanted to hold the snake we found in our backyard! She loves to let him kiss on her. She giggles and says "that tickles!"
Anyway, enjoy the pics of our new baby, Max...

Pics from our trip...

Well, we are back to reality. And reality is great but man was it nice to escape from it for a few days. We had so much fun on our trip. We were so fortunate that Bry's friend allowed us to stay in his beach house. It was awesome! It was a cute little house on about 12 acres of land. 3 bedrooms and 2 baths with a detached "mother-in-law" suite. It had a air hockey table (which is one of my favorite games) and was a few blocks from the beach. Luke alternated between calling it our party house and our beach house.
The kids LOVED the beach. I was really surprised at how well they did and how much they loved it. Presley's favorite things were playing in the sand, being buried in the sand, sitting in the beach chair while having a snack and going out in the inflatable boat. Luke liked playing in the sand also. He liked looking for shells, building sand castles, going in the boat and swimming in the ocean while the fish nipped at his feet. Bailey liked chilling in the beach chair, going out in the boat, looking for shells and sitting at the edge of the water in the beach chair.
Mom and D were able to come down on Wednesday and join us. We were really glad because she needed some time off so bad. She LOVES the beach and was so happy to be there. The kids liked having their Grammy living right across the driveway for a few days.
Anyway, here are a few of my favorite pics and memories from our trip...

The kids enjoying some sand play with their Daddy.
Our little Mermaid!

We finally found a way to make Luke and Presley be still!! They loved being buried like this. It was hilarious. I could not stop laughing at their little heads sticking up out of the sand.

My beautiful Bay. Grumps started calling her Hollywood this week. :)

Such a cool dude.

We took the kids to the beach the first night to watch the sunset.

Luke made friends with this cute little girl. I got a bunch of adorable pics of them but this is my favorite. He was showing her his muscles.

Bay chose to go to Fudpuckers for her birthday dinner. The kids loved Gator Island that is attached to the restaurant.
My beach baby.
Luke showing off his surfing moves.
She's even beautiful when she's covered in sand!

Daddy taking the babies out in the boat.
Bay trying to sit in her "noodle seat". The waves didn't make it easy.
More sand fun with Daddy.

Presley relaxing on the beach.
Grammy and Bay relaxing in the hammock in the backyard.
Me and my Mommy on the beach. Yes, I was there. :)
We went to a really cool mall on the last night, Destin Commons. It was an outdoor mall and they had a playground and water park. The kids LOVED it!
Luke getting soaked in the water park.

Prissy loved playing in the water too!

My Girl

Things have been a little hectic this past week so I didn't get a chance to blog about Bailey's bday. So, here it goes...

9 years ago a little miracle entered our lives and has brightened our days ever since. Our sweet Bailey is such a joy to us. She is so smart, so beautiful. She amazes us every day. She is so good with her brother and sister. She is my little shopping buddy. She is her Daddy's girl. Bailey is funny and loyal. She's shy but she has no problem speaking up for someone she loves. She is protective and helpful. She's girly but also sporty. She loves to dance and read. She loves to draw and do crafty stuff. She loves her family so much. She is so organized and has a great memory. There are just too many wonderful things about her to list them all. I truly cannot imagine my life without her.

Anyway, for her party she decided on a luau theme. We decorated the garage and had a big water slide in the back. Right before the party Bay started getting a migraine. She was so sick. I felt so sorry for her. She went straight to bed in hopes of feeling better but sadly she didn't. It was too late to cancel the party so we just went ahead and hoped that she would feel better.

Sadly she felt bad for most of the party. She stayed inside and watched while her friends played on the slide. She spent a lot of time sitting in Papaw's lap and then Grammy's. We had arranged for the "Lickety split" ice cream truck to show up and she was determined not to miss that. Bre Bre volunteered to carry her down the hill, which Bay loved! :) She was able to get in the truck and serve ice cream to her friends and herself. After that we had cake (Bay's favorite-Sand pail cake) and then opened presents. Luckily, Bay did feel good enough after that to go play outside with her friends for a while. I was so glad. I felt so horrible that she was feeling bad for the first part of it. She did tell me later that even though she didn't feel good that she had a really great time at her party.

I can't believe my baby girl is 9 years old!! Where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday that Bryan and I were praying for God to bless us with a child. Little did we know how much he would bless us or how fast the time would go by!

Happy Birthday my Baily Boo. I am so proud of you. You are my sunshine.

Wish you were here...

This is a pic of the kids seeing the ocean for the first time. (Except for Bailey- she's seen it a few times before.) :)
We're having a great time in Santa Rosa, Florida! More details to come when we get home.
Well, back to the beach...

Fishing and the Fourth

We had a pretty relaxing July 4th weekend. On Friday morning we decided to take the kids to our neighborhood lake and let them "fish". Instead of putting hooks on their line we put weights so that they could cast without hurting themselves or each other. Luke was an instant pro. He was casting his line way out there! They loved reeling it in and trying again. Bailey has a minnow catcher so she just sat there and waited for a fish to swim into her trap. :) They were so excited when she caught one. They named him Stripes. They watched it swim around for a while and then we let it go. We convinced Luke and Presley that Stripes was missing his mommy so they wouldn't be sad about sending him back into the lake. When they got bored with fishing we went for a walk and then played at the park.

After their naps we went to my Dad's house for a BBQ and swimming. The kids love to swim so they had a blast. I had fun watching my doofus brother-in-law wrestle with an inflatable crocodile. Bry had fun squirting people and being mischievous, as usual. I also spent a lot of time holding my sweet boys, Cameron and Carson.

I decided to leave before the fireworks started though. I don't like fireworks. I don't understand why we spend so much time teaching our kids not to play with fire and to stay away from hot things and then because it is July 4th, it is suddenly o.k. to hand them something with fire shooting out the end of it. I know, I know. I 'm a party pooper. My sister has already told me this.

She did talk me into leaving Bailey with her because they had bought a ridiculous amount of sparklers for the kids. I thought everyone would have a lot more fun if I wasn't there stressing out. Bre assured me that she would keep Bailey safe and return her to me with all of her fingers.

She did come home with all of her fingers and also with stories of how BreBre and Papaw started throwing snap-pops at each other. Which started a war with everyone throwing them at each other.

See, this is why I left. I would have had a heart attack if I had been there. And what fun would that have been??

Happy Fourth!!

Every year our neighborhood has a July 4Th celebration that includes fireworks, a fishing rodeo and a mailbox decorating contest. Bailey really wanted to enter the contest and I was sick so Bryan and Luke helped her out. I thought they did a really great job!! She also put this really cute statue of a teddy bear holding a flag in front of the mailbox. It's not in the picture though. She wanted to wait until the last minute to put it out there so it wouldn't get stolen. Not even 9 yet and she's already jaded. :)

WipeOut

People tripping is funny. People falling, also funny. Bumping into something, getting smacked in the head, things like that crack me up everytime. So much so, that I often have a hard time making sure that the person is o.k. because I can't stop laughing long enough to check on them. I don't know why it's so funny to me. I think it is something that I inherited. My mom will also laugh at you if you are unfortunate enough to hurt yourself in front of her.

Anyway, I say all of this because there is a new show on called Wipeout. The contestants basically go through this obstacle course that is almost impossible. They fall in the mud, get punched in the head, fly through the air, trip and land in water... and after each round the people with the lowest times go on to the next round of humiliation. Eventually someone wins $50,000. In the meantime, I get to laugh my butt off at them and not worry about someone getting mad at me. Not so with my family. They don't like it so much when I laugh at their trips and falls. :)

If you like this kind of thing too, check out the promo by clicking on the link below...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18zCarmYxnQ

Mud Island

On Sunday afternoon we met Bre and her older two boys at Mud Island. I brought little boats for all of the kids and they had a blast racing the boats in the River Walk. We just let them splash and play and do whatever. It was such a nice day and great to see the kids enjoying themselves so much. They had a great time rolling down the steep hills there. They also loved riding on the monorail.

Afterwards we rode the trolley to Peabody Place and had dinner at Jillians. The kids loved the trolley! The dinner at Jillians, not so much. Bry said his steak was like eating his shoe. (How he knows that, I'm not sure but whatever.) Bailey said her pasta with marinara tasted like soap. Bre tried it and said that it indeed did taste like soap. Bre found a nasty snot like substance in her salad, which she proceeded to wipe on my arm. Thanks for that Bre. I started to feel kind of bad so Bry took Presley and walked back to get the car while we let the other kids play in the arcade at Jillians.

After about 15 minutes we got a call from Bryan. He informed me that I had the car keys! Oops!! So he talked a carriage driver to drive him back for a very discounted rate. I gave him the keys and he took off to get the car. Again. He ended up having to walk back to the car because the trolley shut down at 6 pm. Poor guy. And he didn't even get upset! He just did his best to keep a good attitude and hurry back to me b/c he knew I didn't feel good.

He's not giving me very many reasons to pick on him these days. :) I think he knows that it will end up on my blog if he does. hehe. Anyway, overall it was a really great day.