Outside

Addie and Ben love playing on the screened in porch at our house. Usually they go out there while I cook dinner, but this week they went outside right after breakfast. I thought they were too cute out there in their pjs playing together. This was a sweet moment when they were playing very nice together, I try to enjoy them when they come. Most of the time Addie is trying to run Ben over with her tricycle. At least he is big enough to defend himself now.

A softball game

We got to watch Jon play softball this week. Quite a few of the families came out to watch the guys play so we had a good time visiting with our friends. Sarabeth and Addie enjoyed the cookies with frosting and sprinkles.

Ben said hello to his friend Nathan, he is Sarabeth's little brother.

I realized at the end of the night that I didn't get any pictures of Jon playing. Ooops! He did a great job though, we were very proud and his team won!

Happy Birthday Addison!

This Saturday we celebrated Addie's 3rd birthday. We had a princess bouncy house, yummy food, cupcakes, crowns, and presents. I want to thank everyone that helped us celebrate our wonderful little girl, it was a great day!


This is the same banner we used for Addie's first birthday.

The present table and Addie's little throne.

Crown decorating table.

A beautiful wreath that our friend let us borrow. We got so many compliments on it, Thank you Jodi!

The food table.

The yummy fruit tray, I think this was my favorite part.

Addie's cupcakes.

Addie and her 'frenemy' Sarabeth. They are very close in age, both oldest children, and so competitive with each other. They are so much fun to watch together.

Sarabeth and her sweet mommy, April.

Nathan having a great time pulling the wagon. Who knew the wagons we have would be such a hit.

Lindsay keeping an eye on things in the bouncy house. The kids loved bouncing and had so much fun.

Another big hit was the water table. David had a little bit too much fun with it and ended up soaking wet.

Mommas keeping an eye on things outside.

Addie, Sarabeth and Jackson bouncing around. Addie had so much fun with the bouncy house. We were able to pick it up Friday afternoon and we return it on Monday so Addie has gotten several days of bouncing in. Jon, Ben, Addie and I were out there at 8:30 Saturday morning having a great time, it was so much fun.

Addie on her throne ready to open some presents.

Addie got some help opening some of her presents. She had a lot of fun opening all of her gifts and showing them aournd.

Ben had so much fun having a house full of people. Here is our little ham smiling for the camera.



Addie posing for the camera.

Mommy helping her open up presents.

A picture of Addie and me! She is getting so grown up.

Adalee and Jack, Ben's friends. We have a hard time getting pictures of the three of them because Ben crawls away too quickly.

Addie giving her Daddy a big hug and a kiss. She was so excited to blow out her candles and have people sing "Happy Birthday to Me".

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

Getting some help with her candles.

Miss Ashley helping Ben try a little bit of unfrosted cupcake. We are withholding the real thing until his first birthday in a couple of weeks. He did seem to enjoy the cupcake he did get though.

Ashley and her little princess Grace. They made some snazzy crowns for themselves.

Krystal and her princess Adalee.

Addie getting one last birthday hug from her friend Nick.

Addie had so much fun, but she was pretty worn out when it was all over. We had to wake her up after a 3 hour nap.

Thank you to everyone that helped us make our little girl's day so special.

One more day

When we got back to Florida we had one more day before our trip home. Addie and Ben love the animals at my parent's house. The cat, Abigail, we got as a kitten when I was in high school. She was technically my cat, but she loves Florida so we are going to let her stay there. The dog, Mondi, is my sister's dog. Both animals are so good with the kids.

Addie was so good about being gentle with the animals this time.

Mondi gets so jealous of Abigail if she gets any attention.

Ben loving some blueberry pancakes that Nannie made for him.

Ben was enthusiastic about the animals, but not so gentle. They learned quickly though how to get away from him when he got too rough.

That night Aunt Laura painted Addie's finger and toe nails. Addie sat so still while she did it. Addie decided she was hungry when she was sitting their letting her nails dry to Aunt Laura fed her her dinner. One little princess training the next generation, too cute.

The next morning we were up early to drive back to the airport for the kids and I to fly back to Texas. This was the part of the trip that I was most nervous about. I didn't know how I would handle both kids by myself. They were so good all day I really had nothing to worry about. We made our connection just fine and they both feel asleep on me during the worst turbulence I have felt during our second flight and slept the whole way to Texas. I'm glad my kids like traveling because we love to visit all of our friends and family.

The Good Stuff

The reason we drove to South Carolina is my cousin Justin was graduating from Army boot camp at Fort Jackson. My Aunt Lorie and other cousin Austin drove down from Maine/Canada to pick him up so we were all able to have a nice visit.
We went to Fort Jackson for Family Day, the day you get to see your soldier and the day before they graduate. They did a little presentation of what the soldiers have been learning, this involved some loud booms. Addie was not a fan, at all.


Austin, Nana, and Aunt Lorie watching the deomonstration.

Ben was not bothered by the loud noises at all. Here is having a good time with Nannie.

Blowing rapsberries, one of his new favorite activities.

Addie still not liking the loud noises.

The soldiers were back in the woods on the back of the parade field and when they gave the signal they set off colored smoke and the soldiers came running across the field. It was really neat to watch.

Basic training is 10 weeks long so everyone was happy to see their soldier again and the soldiers were happy to be almost done. Here is Justin with his mom and brother.

We took a lot of pictures, it was a lot of fun.

The next part of our trip was vey special for the kids and I. Our good friends that we knew in Colorado are now living at Fort Jackson. We were so excited to get to see Keri, Micah and Skylar. We met them at the park for a fun afternoon.




We had so much fun at the park they came over to our hotel that evening for another little visit.



GeeGee getting some good snuggle time with the kiddos.

One reason I was so excited to go back to South Carolina was to visit the campus of the University of South Carolina. I hadn't really been back since I finsihed my classes almost 6 years ago. We put the kids in the stroller and walked around the campus. It was so beautiful, all the flowers were blooming and the sun was shining. We went to one of the bookstores and I got new Carolina t-shirts for everyone and then we got ice cream. It was a great time.





These are just two cute pictures of the kids in the hotel room. It is always so much fun trying to entertain kids when you are traveling. They did very well sleeping and with all the car rides. It was a lot of driving, but it was worth it to get to see all of our friends and family.