Thankful...

Now that Lee is back and I am no longer home alone...I feel comfortable posting that I spent 5 nights (well really only 3 since Mom came for the weekend!) at home by myself with the girls!!! And if you know me at all, you know that this is a huge accomplishment - I am a big scaredy cat and hear every creak and crack! But...I prayed a lot about this fear and the need to conquer it and God really sent a peacefulness over me and I wasn't really worried at all. Lee, Les, and Justin went to New Mexico last week on a guy's hunting trip. It definitely sounds like they had a blast (even though they didn't kill anything) and I know that it was special for them to be able to spend some father/son/brother time together without all us women around!

They drove out to their good friend Jerry's house in New Mexico and then they all set up tents, camped out in the mountains, and hiked out each day to hunt.

Lee said this is where they set up camp - beautiful fall setting. I wish he would have taken a pic of the actual camp!

Life was definitely a "little" busier for me as a "single" parent during that almost week, but we did pretty well and had some really good girl-time as well! My birthday was the second day of Lee's abscence and our family and my co-workers made sure that I got plenty of attention! I got lots of texts and phone calls and had breakfast and goodies all day at work. Mom came in for the weekend and we did lots of fun stuff! Saturday, the weather was beautiful so we headed up to Lake Caroline's clubhouse for the annual craft show and I got started on a little Christmas shopping. Next, we drove into Ridgeland for the Annual Fall Festival that is always a lot of fun (Kellis Moore is in charge so I usually get to see lots of CA alumni and their kiddos and that is always fun!). It is a free event for the community - chili cookoff, hay rides, bounce houses, petting zoo, pony rides, characiture paintings, face paintings, rock climbing walls, and cookie decorating!

After an eventful morning, we went back home for some afternoon rest and relaxtion on the back porch since the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Once we were rejuvenated, we took off to the Renaissance to do some shopping and eat out for my birthday.

Now on to Sunday...in case you haven't guess, we love living where there are sooo many fun things to do close by and sometimes even "free". We bought an annual family pass to the zoo earlier this year for 2 adults and children for $40, and since it was so pretty outside...mom and I decided to get some more use out of it! We didn't tell the girls where we were going. We had a picnic by the railroad tracks at the zoo and headed in to play and spend time with the animals. They had a great time!!! Maggie really enjoyed it this time - she seemed a LOT more into all the animals now that she is two.

As you can tell, Maggie was completely worn out! So...I am so thankful to have my husband back home and very thankful to my mom for coming to spend the weekend with us so that we weren't lonely (and I didn't go crazy!!!)

Maggie's 2nd Birthday Party!

For Maggie's 2nd birthday party, we hosted a "play date" in our backyard and other than it being a little hotter than any October birthday should be, we all had a blast! The kiddos jumped on the trampoline, swang, slid on the playset, and played ball. Shelby at Sug' Cakes made the amazing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake and it tasted even better than it looks (strawberry cake and cream cheese icing). Maggie received so many wonderful gifts and she has wasted no time breaking them ALL in! Thanks so much for your extreme generosity!!!

About a month ago, Maggie's "mick mouse" that she sleeps with every night "disappeared" while we were in Starkville. Me, Pap, and Lee searched everywhere for about 30 minutes before giving up. Pap began his search to find a replacement not long after we left. Last week, Suzy found "mick mouse" upstairs behind a door and Maggie was so excited to be reunited. In the meantime, Pap collected quite a few and wrapped them up for her party. She was so excited every time she opened one!!!
We hope everyone had just as much fun as we did and we appreciate you spending your afternoon helping us celebrate 2 wonderful years of a very vibrant little girl! Thanks for stopping by!!!

Happy Birthday to Maggie....

Friday morning, October 8th, our baby girl entered the "terrific two's" She had a wonderful day celebrating!!! Thursday night, we made Mickey Mouse sugar cookies (Lee cut them out and I iced them!) for she and Addison to eat with their breakfast while we sang!

Taking one of her many phone calls of birthday wishes...this smile, in particular, was her giggling and smiling to the sweet sound of KK, Sloan & Molly singing "Happy Birthday"
Maggie is TWO!
Birthday Girl!!!

Friday afternoon...Lee and I showed up at the daycare after naptime with cupcakes for Maggie and all of her friends! They were so excited to see us...please notice that Maggie's class is ALL girls (and they have hair! I just thought Addison didn't have any hair...poor Maggie).The poor little boy that will move up next won't know what hit him!!!

So hard to believe that our "baby" is growing up so fast and working on getting out of diapers! Hopefully I will get birthday party pics up before the end of the week!

Pap's 60th Birthday!

Well...as usual, I am late on this post! Pap turned 60 on August 8th and we ALL spent all day with him on his birthday (more meaningful than any gift he got!). Not only did he enjoy it, but it was awesome to all be together in one place.

Suzy pulled off a HUGE 60th birthday bash on Saturday night! I have to say how impressed I was with all the food, decorations, etc. that they all put together - I was absolutely no help at all (I hate that we don't live closer together and Lee has to work ALL day on Saturday). I don't have any pictures from that night because we were late getting there, but I have some great ones from our Sunday by the pool on his actual birthday...

Having a little fun in the pool!

One BIG HAPPY family!
Pap and all of his kiddos!
And his favorite little people!!!
Happy Birthday Pap - here's to many many more!

Orlando 2010

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Day 4 - Character Greetings Galore!!!

So...I have been a little behind on updating the blog, but I have good reason!!! Shutterfly sent out an email offer for a FREE photobook so you guessed it...I have been working non-stop in my "spare" time to get it finished before the deadline.

We were at Magic Kingdom bright and early for opening ceremonies and headed straight to Fantasyland. We rode all of our favorite rides (Dumbo, Tea Cups, Small World, Peter Pan, etc.) with minimal to no wait times! At the rope drop for Toontown, the girls were excited about seeing all of their favorite princesses and fairies. Based on past experience with the long lines for the princesses in the afternoon, we knew to be standing there when they opened the door. We walked right in for the princesses which both girls loved and were in such awe! Next, we lined up for Tinkerbell and her Fairy Friends which are the new big hit at Disney (the line was already 30 min. long)! It was very neat...they had all of the decorations larger than life size so that the Fairies appeared small! Princesses/Fairies are my girls' favorites because they interact so well with the little ones - listening so intently and acting interested in everything they say! We even visited FairyTale Garden where Addison listened to Belle read a story.

For lunch, we dined with Pooh & Friends at the Crystal Palace and it was delicious. Maggie was so excited she nearly jumped out of her chair and even knocked Da'be's drink off of the table! Addison, on the other hand, wouldn't get near anyone other than Piglet (because he is just a little guy)! We headed over to Epcot for the afternoon where we saw all of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters (except Daisy). Both girls were beside themselves! A storm tried to blow in that afternoon and with it came 75-80 degree temps, but no rain! It was wonderful!!! We enjoyed lots of rides and shows with no waits before closing out the night watching Illuminations which was a beautiful fireworks and light show illuminating all of the worlds.

In our opinion, Epcot is the best place to go catch all of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters - they have them all lined up in one building one right after the other!!! The girls were in hog heaven!!!

Day 3 - Disney's Hollywood Studios!

On Tuesday, we moved to the Disney All-Star Music Resort and started hitting all the parks at Disney World! Staying on Disney property was the best decision we ever made - it was so convenient with the little ones and very affordable! First up was Hollywood Studios...the girls loved Playhouse Disney Live where all their favorite Disney characters put on a pretty good puppet show. Maggie was in awe of all the bubbles that descended from the ceiling! We spent a lot of time in the Animation Academy where Maggie had her first encounter with Mickey Mouse and Addison enjoyed an art class in which she learned how to draw Pluto! Maggie was sooo excited when she spotted Mickey Mouse...she couldn't decide whether to touch him or not and just kept giggling and pointing! Addison, on the other hand, relished in the teacher/student setting. Later that afternoon, we took part in the Block Party Bash parade. Both girls jumped and danced to all the fun music then the kids were invited out into the streets to join the parade. Addison went running out all excited and spun around to find "Jessie the Cowgirl" right in front of her...needless to say she came screaming back to her daddy in no time (almost before I could catch in on film)! That night, we saw the highly anticipated "Fantasmic!"show. People started lining up outside the gate over 2 hours before showtime. We joined the line about 90 minutes before showtime and it was well worth the wait! Laser lights, fire, dancing water, Disney music & animation, and not to mention tons of Disney characters were all very stunning! It was a long hot action-packed day, but we loved every minute of it! I must admit that I am convinced that Hollywood Studios is the hottest park!

Sea World - Days 1 & 2 of Vacation!

Well...it might take me a few weeks to get all these posts up, but I am still going to try! I am trying to make a Shutterfly photobook of our vacation so I will probably wait until I make those collage pages before I post (these days I have to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, you understand right?!).

We DROVE to Orlando (11 to 12 hours) with both girls and it wasn't too bad at all!!! We left out of Jackson on Saturday around 1:45. We had the car loaded down with clothes, strollers, snacks, activities, books, LOTS of DVD's, etc. For many of you that know my sweet Addison, you will not be surprised by this at all. Addison was so excited about the trip in general and ALL the things that we had packed in a basket to "do" on the way that before we even got an hour out of town, I think that she had picked up every single one of them and read or doodled in it somewhere! She had me turning around "playing and reading" and I was already thinking that this was going to be a LONG trip. On the other hand, Maggie didn't even make it to I-55 before she was asleep for her afternoon nap (perfect timing!). Addie eventually calmed down and settled in with a few DVD's, but she only slept maybe 1.5 hours of the whole trip (she is definitely my child - it is so hard to sleep when you are soooo excited!). Lee drove to Crestview, FL, we had dinner then I finished out the rest of the drive (more than half of the trip I might add!). Maggie only struggled for about an hour after supper so we have to definitely count ourselves lucky. We pulled in to Orlando a little after 2 AM (lost an hour to time zone change) and only made 3 stops total! Not bad considering that we set out on this journey not knowing whether we would drive the whole way in one day or stop and spend the night halfway. My mom was already down there for a conference so we awakened her to let us in her room and we had 2 giggly girls for about 30 minutes, but we eventually settled in and everyone slept till almost 9:30 the next morning (except Da'be, of course, because she had classes)!!!

We got dressed and headed out to Sea World (which was so close that we could walk across the street!). We spent Sunday afternoon and night and Monday morning and afternoon at Sea World (they have a 2 days for the price of 1 deal going on right now). The girls LOVED the animal shows, exhibits, and especially the rides! Our favorite family show was "Blue Horizon" which is a dolphin and bird show with platform divers and acrobats, but I would bet the Elmo and Friends show would run a close race as far as the girls are concerned! Maggie and Addison loved seeing all of their Seasame Street friends...from afar of course. They jumped, danced, clapped, sang la-la-la, but the opportunity to get close came and no-takers! Maggie enjoyed giggling and pointing at Elmo (I think Addison being scared to get anywhere near made her a little leary as well)! We saw sharks, polar bears, manatees, penguins, dolphins, sea lions, whales and even touched stingrays! I have to brag on my Addie because she rode the Journey to Atlantis with me (which is the big boat that makes the large splash drop at the very end). It makes a winding journey through several rooms telling the story of Atlantis and she was ok with that...but, when it started to crank up she decided that we needed to get off now! But, she was smiling when it was over! We made it around to Shamu's Happy Harbour where all the kiddie rides are and needless to say, everyone was happy! We rode and rode and rode and everytime we passed a ride, Maggie would point and say..."I want to 'wide'!" We were a little disappointed that Clydesdales are no longer at Sea World because this was Addison's favorite 2 years ago and we were looking forward to showing them to Maggie :(

We left late afternoon the second day and headed over to Joe's Crab Shack for a wonderful meal! Even though we didn't use it often, we LOVED having our car to be able to come and go as we wanted without having to rely on someone else to get us here and there...Enjoy the pictures (I hope I can get them to load so that they can be clicked on to enlarge - looks like it worked!)

Disney/Sea World Sneak Peek!

Here are a few of my favorites that I decided to share since so many of you have told me you are anticipating seeing some of our vacation pics. I hope to do day-to-day posts soon

My newest favorite picture of my our two girls - can you tell they were having a good time?!!

We are pretty sure that Maggie's first complete sentence was - I want to "wide"! This little girl rode everything that she was allowed on in Sea World and Disney World!

First Sighting of Mickey Mouse - Maggie's favorite!

All dressed and ready for dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table - it was very special and worth every penny! Special thanks to my co-worker, Miss Lea Ann and her two little girls for letting us borrow the princess outfits and to Da'be for being our very own Fairy Godmother and keeping us out of Bibbity Boppity Boutique - Addison's hair looked just like all the other little girls!

More to come later!

10 Year Reunion!

It has been a very, very busy July to say the least!!! A special shout out to those who have let me know that they have missed my posts - it is nice to know that someone enjoys my hard work and misses us when we go a long time without an update! I promise that I will be working on my Disney trip soon - it is just very overwhelming right now because...as you can imagine I took just a "few" pictures! But...we had an absolutely amazing trip and it was really special to see the sparkle in my two little girls' eyes!

Earlier in July, I enjoyed an awesome weekend with some of my best friends and those that I share lots of wonderful memories with...the Class of 2000!!! We had a great time hanging out and meeting all of our families and children. I didn't have my camera during the children's gathering at the lake on Saturday afternoon - it somehow got left in Lee's car and he didn't come until that night - I was so upset at first, but it worked out for the best because I wouldn't have been able to use it because chasing two kids around at the lake took all the hands and feet that I have plus a few of my classmates as well! The kids had a great time and the adults did too! Below are pics from the "party" that night - I have to mention that it was really nice to have a night out without kids to visit. We missed those that couldn't join us and hope we don't have to wait 10 years to see you guys!