Beach Babies

Our little last minute trip to the beach this past week was wonderful!! I have to admit that I was a little nervous to see how the kids would react to the sand and water. Thank goodness they loved it because we will be making so many more trips down there!!! I had a really good friend of mine join us with her two sweet babies and it was wonderful company. I couldn't imagine it going any better. The mornings were pretty windy to be out on the beach, so we did some shopping one morning and took a trip to the zoo the other morning until it warmed up. The sun was out every day but the wind made it just a tad too chilly to venture out there until after lunch.

Lance was able to come down for one full day at the beach and the kids loved the surprise of seeing him. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to get off of work to come down and I am so glad he could!

I went a little crazy with taking pictures this trip...maybe it's because all four kids were great subjects and the beach was too pretty. I had a hard time narrowing down the 200 shots to put on the blog, so here goes. There are also more pictures on facebook as well!

Landon and Jake playing in the castle that someone else built!!

The boys looking at a 15 alligator at the zoo

We decided to have an Easter egg hunt in the condo and here is Jake snaggin one up!

this poor castle didn't last long...it was a fight to see who knocks it down first!

the boys...

and the girls....

this is one of my favs...its from the first night when we got there. He doesn't even have a swim suit on and jumped right on in!

Happy Birthday Lance!

This week we celebrated Lance's birthday. I say week, because that's basically what we did!! Sunday, I gave him my present which was the private cooking lesson. His birthday was actually on Wednesday, so he asked his mom to cook his favorite meal for us and his parents came over to have dinner and hang out with us. And then Thursday night, we had 4 other couples get together with us at Steve Davison's house for a private 6 course meal cooked by the head chef and owner of 102 Bistro (ruston) and Sage (monroe). This was FABULOUS!!! Each course included a different wine and it was super yummy! Then our friends gave Lance (another) cake to sing Happy Birthday to him.

What a wonderful week for my sweet, hard working, adoring hubby!! Happy Birthday! (or shall I say birthweek!!! ;) We love you!!

Easter school party

This past Wednesday, Landon's class at Temple's Mother's Day out had their Easter party and I brought Kennedy with me to enjoy Landon's festivities (she only goes 2 days a week). Thank goodness his class had their's one day earlier because it was nicer weather and both kids missed the next day with snotty noses. Poor Kennedy missed her party that day, but at least she got to join in on the fun with Landon's class. It didn't take long for her to catch on.

L with his teach Mrs. Sarah, who he loves!!

L showing is sister all the eggs he found

His teacher had each child wear a tag with which egg they were supposed to look for. Landon's eggs were the basketball ones (sooo appropriate!!). I thought that was a super idea and went great!! They each had the same amount and no one fussed!

Kennedy joining in on the fun

As of today, we are now proud, part-owners of a beach condo in Orange Beach, AL. I have to admit, we are pretty excited about it!! We closed today on it and there's a really good chance that I might get to take the kids this Sunday!! I am interested in seeing how they will enjoy it!! It will be challenging to drive 8 hours down with just me in the car (lance will be working) and two little ones. I will keep you posted!!! ;)

Cooking lesson

Tonight was a very unique night for me and Lance. His birthday is this week and he is very difficult to buy for. So, i decided to do something a little different. I brought in our local Pampered Chef consultant to give us a cooking lesson and it was an absolute blast!! I surprised Lance with it and I was a little nervous about how he would take it. He rolled with it and had such a great time! It helped that Tish was such a great person to help us in the kitchen and give us great pointers too.

I thought about making it a 'romantic' or 'gourmet' dinner, but I went practical instead, getting some reciepes the entire family can enjoy. I was also able to pound her with questions to get great ideas for meals. With lots of laughs, food and fun, I highly recommend doing that at some point with your spouse! It was also very nice to have it done in our own kitchen.

I also can't post this blog today without mentioning this crazy we are having. Yesterday, we were in short and enjoying some warm Spring weather, while today we have been outside because it's been snowing all day!!! It's nuts! And tomorrow is a high of 65 and the next day will be 74 degrees!

In other news, my camera has been shipped off to be repaired (i dropped it last month) and i am short on pictures here lately. I have decided to post some pics from last month instead!! I forgot to post that Kennedy had her first haircut!! Although, I really wouldn't consider it being a real haircut, just a small trim to shape around her face. In fact, Lance couldn't even tell she got it cut!

BEFORE

AFTER

making cupcakes with Landon for KK's birthday

Fast and Furious February

It's hard to believe that February has come and gone so quickly!!! Wow! We had a winter blast that came through and brought us about 5 inches snow for about 20 hours. We took advantage as much as we could. Landon loved it and Kennedy just wanted to eat it! She didn't care for walking in it which might have had to due with putting Landon's old boots on for the first time. Since we hardly get any snow, it's safe to say that we don't have ANY snow clothes which made several trips inside for some warming up and hot coco!

Kennedy taking her first taste of snow

Our first snowman!! Landon named it "Ava" (after a friend in class)

After naps, the snow started to melt and so did our snowman... :( Notice that our grape 'eyes' and carrot 'nose' have mysteriously disappeared!!

Other events that took place in February were several basketball games in Ruston and we also took a quick road trip to Waco to watch Baylor play Texas Tech. Both teams had former coaches that I adore and it was great to see all of them on one night. I especially enjoyed visiting with a good friend of mine, Brooke Stoehr, who is expecting her first baby. I know it's hard to believe, but in this picture, she only has 3.5 weeks left!!

My favorite three words!

Lance went to Vegas these past four days celebrating a friend's 40th birthday, so I had the kids to myself all weekend. It was bad timing because me and both kids came down with a nasty cold. I am pretty sure we will be home from school this week so it will make for an even longer week as well!

I had to share this video of Kennedy from this morning. She is picking up on a ton of words and today, out of the blue, she said "i love you" and I about fell out! Even Landon started laughing and saying it too. Notice that she says, "Cheese" when i first put my iPhone in her face...i guess I take too many pictures???? Nah!

Blogged out

Geez, I knew it had been a while since I had posted, but I just haven't been motivated to get back into the blogworld!!! Nothing too exciting has been going on around here. Just surviving the cold front that came through (at least we got some flurries) and then enjoyed the warm weather that followed. And somewhere in the middle of that, we all went through a nasty stomach bug that needed us to cry for help from my parents. They were troopers to step in.

Kennedy is walking like a champ now and it has made my life so much easier! We can play outside now without her getting soooo filthy and ruining all of her tights and pants. She is still doing the Frankenstein walk, but she is really close to running!

Here are some pictures:

Kids watching the snow flurries

playing in the 'snow'

Landon doing sparklers during New Year's. He LOVED them this year after being really scared the last two years. Kennedy enjoyed them too, surprisingly!

Cotton bowl game with some of Lance's Ole Miss buddies

Cowboy's playoff game..

Ok, I probably deserved getting flamed for posting this of my sweet boy, but I really couldn't resist!! At least it's not on facebook and not too many people find my blog (i think!!). We went over to a good friend of mine, Mandy Cauley, to play and obviously the kids start playing dress up. For those who don't know, but Landon has been obsessed with Snow White the movie because of the dwarfs (his fav is Grumpy). He calls them 'hi-hos' because of the song they sing. Anyway, he was thrilled to find that Harper had a snow white dress he can wear to play along with Harper. This video is priceless and I won't post any pics...this is enough!!! ;)

c

And this is a video of Kennedy dancing with my dad when he came over while we were sick. Thought it was cute