Random Stuff…

A few random things about our weekend & lately –

I took pictures off my cell phone and memory card and came across a few of these…

- My Dad came home on Thursday from a work trip. He had been gone for a whole month! We’re so glad he’s back! AB was excited that we got to ride with Grammy to the airport to pick him up. On our way in, we saw a plane overhead and AB said, “Look! It’s Pop! That’s pop!” Then she leaned over to Maybree and whispered, “It’s Pop, Mamie! It’s really Pop!” She welcomed him home with a sign at the airport.

- We stayed home all weekend long. I love lazy weekends. My parents came over Saturday afternoon and we had boiled peanuts, grilled out, rode the 4 wheelers and had homemade ice cream. It’s feeling like summer around here!  I laughed because DW & AB both had their “cowboots” on with shorts. :)

- Mamie girl got her first taste of rice cereal on Saturday night! My Mom gave all of my babies their first baths and their first rice cereal, so I guess it’s tradition. :) Mamie LOVED it and did so well with her first solids. 

- We’ve been trying to eat supper one night a week with my Granny. Momma cooks something and we all go visit and eat with Granny. It’s been sweet and AB loves to go. Her favorite thing is playing ball with Great-Granny.

- She is starting to want to drop her afternoon naps. She fights it hard some days and other days she goes and lays right down. Most days she lays down for a little bit, then plays then lays back down and goes to sleep. One afternoon last week, I checked on her during nap time to find that she had gotten out of bed, put a princess dress on and then fell asleep in her big chair.

- Several weeks ago, I was in the sunroom working on Easter party stuff, when a big skink came in from the garage and chased me all over the room. I chased him, then he chased me. I tried to shoo him out with the broom, but nothing worked. He ran behind one of my curtains and then CLIMBED up the back side of it! A couple of minutes later I saw his sneaky little head poke out of the top. I tried to scare him down, but I was the one who was scared- scared he would jump on my head! I didn’t know they could climb, so I was a little freaked out. After fighting the thing for 30 minutes, I had to call my MIL to come help me! Nie-Nie saved the day and didn’t even laugh at me.

- One evening last week, AB had a little accident on her scooter. She ended up with a skinned knee, but you would have thought it was a broken leg. She wailed and screamed and cried and told us how bad it hurt at least 150 times every ten minutes. She insisted on laying on mine & DW’s bed to watch some TV, and even asked her Daddy to “sit wif me for a while” – when he went to sit on the side of the bed, she said, “NO! Daddy- in dat chair over dere…pull it up beside the bed.” She was SOMETHING. She had me bring her sister in the room so she could tell her about it. Mamie was allowed to lay on the bed beside her and AB had to recount the entire accident for her and started the story out like this: “I’s got a boo-boo Mamie-girl. A very, very bad boo boo.” Every few minutes, she would let out a fake cry or whimper. I know it did hurt, but she was so over the top. It was hilarious. She told us she couldn’t walk on it, so we had to carry her around for the rest of the night. The next morning, I was starting to think she might have really hurt something when she was still saying she couldn’t walk on it and telling me how bad it hurt…UNTIL mid-morning when she decided laying on the couch was no fun and she hobbled into the playroom only to come back running---when she remembered her boo-boo she started limping again, except on the WRONG leg. Ha. She’s too much. Her band aid fell off in her bed during nap time and she cried about that, too. When I offered to get her another, she said, “No, I don’t need one. I just miss my first one.” We don’t lack for drama (or laughter) around our house. :)

- I love this picture of AB & Mames asleep in the car, holding hands. :)

- Big sister sure loves her Baby Sister. AND her baby sister’s clothes. She’s always sneaking into Maybree’s room and squeezing into her tiny clothes. When 13 year old Maybree wants to borrow 16 year old Annabelle’s clothes and she says no, I’m going to remind her of this. :)  

AB thinks if she gets it on, it fits. The funniest is when she comes out sporting a onsie.

- I made this fun dip a while back from a recipe I got off Pinterest.

It said to serve it with graham cracker sticks, but I couldn’t find those- the closest thing was “Scooby Snacks” graham crackers, so that’s why they are shaped like dog bones. :)  It was good, but even better with cold green apple slices dipped in it. Yum.

Monster Cookie Dough Dip

8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 Cup Butter, softened
1 Cup Creamy Peanut Butter
1 Cup Powdered Sugar
3 Tbsp. Brown Sugar
1 tsp. Vanilla
1 Cup Oats (regular or quick)
1 Cup Miniature Plain M&Ms
1 Cup Miniature Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

 

Happy Monday!

~amw~

Beachin’ Begins…

This last weekend was an exciting one at our house. Beach season officially began for our little crew. AB was so excited all week that we were headed to the condo (which she calls, “Pappy’s Beach”) on Friday.

We were excited to introduce our tiniest sweetheart to the sun, surf & sand.

My in-laws’ condo is special for a lot of reasons. For one, it’s the home of many great memories for our family and friends, and it’s one of the places we love to go to just take a deep breath and relax. For me it’s particularly special because after this weekend, I can now say that all three of my babies’ first beach trips were there. Things that tie all of my children together are beyond special to me.

We were packed and ready to go as soon as Pappy & DW got off work on Friday afternoon. (Nie-Nie & Kelsey were on a mother-daughter cruise.) It’s always nice to go off with either sets of our parents because of all the extra help! :)

As soon as we got there, AB was ready to play Barbies! We set up a tiny version of what my cousins and I would call, “Barbie Town” and played for a while. AB assigned me and Mamie our own dolls.

I love the doll she picked for Mamie-girl

I worked at the clothes store:

and she was Ms. Aubrey at the hair salon.

After playing for a while, DW came in to see what we were up to, so he got assigned a doll, too…AB was excited we had someone to be a boy! DW, who is the sweetest Daddy ever, told her he “didn’t know much about playing Barbies, but he’d try.” I broke the news gently, that in another couple of years he will know more than he ever wanted to about Barbie dolls. :)

AB LOVES to sleep in the closet when we’re at the beach. She thinks its “her room” – and she loves sleeping on a pallet. However, the excitement didn’t help in actually getting her to go to sleep. Sister stayed up until 11:30 that night! FINALLY we convinced her to go to sleep.

Once she did, she slept great, and so did Mamie.

Saturday morning we woke up to, “It’s wake up time 'erbody! Let’s get ours beach clothes on!”

We walked down to the pier and had breakfast over the water. AB LOVED it. She sat and looked out the window for most of the time we were there. I was a big girl that morning and tried a bite of DW’s omelet. Even the thought of eggs makes me gag, so this was huge for me. It was a tiny bite, and was mainly cheese and bacon, but it still counts.

The weather was overcast pretty much the whole weekend, but I always think that’s good with kids. We got to enjoy a few hours outside on Saturday morning.

AB is so into it this year- it’s going to be such a fun summer with and for her! She loved building sandcastles (well, actually her Daddy would build them and she would knock them over…I’m not sure if I should be nervous about that or not).

She’s such a girl and expected her Daddy & Pappy to go fill her buckets with water.

She’s been a bird chaser since she was old enough to walk…

She also loved playing in the waves. On the way down on Friday night, she yelled from the very back of the car, up front to her Pappy and asked if he had a surf board for her. She didn’t forget about it either, because Saturday morning, her Daddy had to go up to the room and get her one (a boogie board) when she remembered. She was adorable on it. She started out on her knees and then wanted to stand. It was so stinking cute and I think she’s got some pretty good balance!

When she was done with that, she and Daddy swam in the pool for a while.

Maybree spent her time watching the waves and then sleeping the morning away.

It started to rain a little after lunch so we called it a day and got showers and naps.

We went to dinner and then walked back down to the beach for a little bit.

Pretty girls ready for dinner…

Of course we had to play some more Barbies before bed that night.

Sunday morning, Nie-Nie & Kels got off their ship in Port Canaveral and then drove over to the condo, so we got to play on the beach a little while with them.

AB “spider walking” around the pool 

It got rainy again, so we packed up. We had lunch at Red Robin before heading back home. I’d been dreaming about their jalapeno coins since last year.

We came home feeling rested, relaxed and ready to face the real world again. :) It was a great start to the beach season. I hope there’s lots more sun and jalapeno coins in our summer forecast.

~amw~

Prom!

Saturday night, I laid in bed, and couldn’t stop smiling over all the fun I’d had that afternoon/evening. The day we’ve been anxiously waiting for - Kelsey’s Sr. Prom - was FINALLY that night! I’m not kidding when I say we (well the women in the family) have been counting down the days for it for weeks! I just THOUGHT we were excited about last year’s prom. I seriously don’t know what we’re going to plan for, think, or talk about now that it’s over.

The whole experience from shopping for the dress to taking pictures the night of, was so much fun and I am so glad to have been a part of it.

Kels could not have been any more beautiful. Her dress was just as gorgeous and it was absolutely perfect for her.

The day we found the dress back in March

A few weeks ago, she had a practice run for hair and make-up and so we took some pictures in the phlox that afternoon. I can only imagine how crazy we looked on side of the road with her in that big poofy dress taking pictures! We had a big white sheet under her to make sure the dress didn’t get grass stains on it!

On prom day, Kelsey and several friends met up at a local horse farm to take pictures together before heading to dinner. We were thrilled to get to tag along! I was so relieved when she said we wouldn’t embarrass her if we went out there, too! :)

It was so precious to see all those sweet friends together- most of which- we’ve watched grow up right alongside Kelsey. Hard to believe those “little” girls will be graduating high school in just a few short weeks. The old saying about blinking and them being grown is so true.

AB had been planning to wear her princess dress on prom day, too. In fact, she even insisted her green Tiana dress hang right beside Kelsey’s at in my in-law’s. She was as excited about “pwom” as we were!

She ended up wearing her Belle dress and “glass slippers” that night, though.

AB was pretty quiet and reserved when we got to the horse farm to take pictures. She watched and took it all in. You could tell she LOVED all the girls in their dresses. When we left that evening, she said, “I had so much fun with the girls”… (like she was as big as they are). :)

She was also excited about Kelsey’s date for the prom. She went with a friend, Travis, this year, and AB said he looked like “Pwince Charmin’” wif him’s fancy suit on.” :)  Precious.

AB told Travis’ mom that he looked like Prince Charming, so she asked if she wanted her picture with him. She wouldn’t take her picture with him by herself, but she did want one with the three of them together.

DW & little sister

“Kelsey’s Kids”  :)

After a gazillion pictures (on a side note, I took our camera but the memory card wasn’t in it, so I took no pictures) , we watched the limo pull away and stood around talking about how great they all looked and how much fun we hoped they would have. Then we all (DW, me, the girls, Pappy, Nie-Nie & Travis’ parents & little brother) ended up going to dinner together. Of course, the women talked some more about the prom go-ers. Later that night, we went over to my in-laws to see the pictures and Kellee & I got to gush one more time about how beautiful Kelsey was and how perfect it all went!

The next morning at church, I was ready for the scoop. I even made sure we were all ready EARLY and that NEVER happens. Kelsey reported that they had a great time! :)

It’s like her Momma said – if she had just a tiny bit of as much fun as we had watching it all, then she had the best night!

Kelsey is what my Momma calls, a “true beauty”- she is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. She has the kindest and sweetest heart. She is such a good girl, too, and we are all so very proud of her. It has been a joy to be a part of her life and to get to watch her grow up. I can’t believe graduation is up next!!!

~amw~

Phlox 2012

We took these of the girls on Sunday afternoon.

 

  

 

 

 

I’m crazy about them…the phlox, the pictures and the girls… :)

~amw~