Spring Break 2014

For Spring Break we didn't go on a vacation or out of town. We had a so much fun right around home, we went to Hattiesburg, Jackson, Children's Museum, ChuckECheese, The Zoo and spent a lot of time with cousins! Here are some of the highlights from that week!

Sleeping in (which that term is used very loosely, maybe 7:30am) and making breakfast together.

The Children's Museum in Jackson was so much fun!

Saylor, Hudson and Grayson turning the conveyor belt of rocks.

Harrison loved making spin art!

Kali made her Mom and Dad a card.

Saylor helped paint a new mural for the museum!

These two woke up and went fishing with Daddy in the "Beaver Lake". No catches but a lizard got in the boat and Hudson reportedly screamed like a girl and wouldn't touch it :)

We all went to Kali's 8th birthday at the Bowling Alley!

Saylor was not awake until the party was half way over, she still needs her full nap everyday!

Kayla, Ava and Kali

Saylor loved bowling and loves her girls!

Joel beat Matthew in bowling and that was highlight of his week, although the next day he could hardly move his hand  and arms from being out of bowling shape.... but who is?

Audubon Zoo ... a first

Saylor, Joel and I had never been to the zoo in New Orleans so as the weather started warming up a little we did an impromptu (this is how we roll best) trip to the zoo with Nanny, Pop, Uncle J, and Liam. It was a great day! We stopped at Cracker Barrel in Slidell and then went to the zoo.

All four under the leopard rocks.

Selfie!

Family pic.... you know how this goes, this was the best one.

These two..... LOL

The grands with the kids at the zoo.

I said, "Show me the toy you picked out!" and they struck a pose, naturally.

To conclude this post I will leave you with this...She found a pair of hand-me-down jeans we had and fell in love. This is the first denim that has touched her body and she wants to wear them everyday and has asked to sleep in them. I can't stand it...no more just putting on what I dictate :(

Snow Days!

   Ok, my blog is no longer "broken" I'm forcing myself to catch up! Here we are in February, it was a cold and wet winter, we had 3 snow days! Look at what we did!

Mercy girl loved the snow!

First place they went when the snow/ice finally stuck was the trampoline, they were so excited :)

These are two goofy and real "outside-boy-dirty faces"

Saylor on Valentine's Day, she was taking her cards to pass out at Mother's Day Out.

Harrison read his first book ALL the way through to me and Saylor!!

These are the Valentine's Day mailboxes they made for school....next year we might just buy a basket, slap a heart on it and go with it :/

This was so funny, it is a Valentine's Day card from Harrison to me, it says "you r the a jul uv my lif!"  (you are the angel of my life), and then he drew a picture of his family..... minus Hudson. LOL

A New Year and a New Start

    For my little booth at the Southern Antique Mall in downtown Laurel, I was going to go to market to find some new great things for the year. I also accepted a part-time teaching position at Laurel Middle School, teaching 7th grade English. Some great things to report.... Harrison and Hudson got their star reading reports after the 100th day of Kindergarten and they have both made tremendous improvement and are almost independent readers. Kindergarten has been wonderful and they are learning so much. I got accepted into the Dyslexia Therapy program at William Carey University and will start this summer. I am really excited about and can't wait to start helping kids become life long readers! This is dear to my heart but that's another post!

Here is me, Andrea and Chrissy ready to get after it. It is no joke, a lot of walking, thinking, looking at maps, timing, buying and planning!

Guess who this is?? Christopher Radko! We have a lot of his ornaments but I'm sad to report he has sold his ornament business and is into lavender now....who would've thought?

After drum lessons one day we were in town and it was such a nice day so we went swinging at Gardiner Park, my favorite park in Laurel.

Their 100th day of Kindergarten! They did a poster to represent it and it was all their work, except I helped glue on a few balloons when the melt downs started showing up :/

These sweet babies (Lucy and Grayson in our wedding) turned 13 in January, is it possible?? They were the first babies in our family and stole my heart from the first mention of their existence. 

She wanted her hair rolled too, she is little tender-headed, we will definitely have to work through that, I see many of tears and arguments ahead over that head of hair!

Besties for sure! Kayla and Saylor are the sweetest girls together and to hear them laugh and giggle is the greatest sound.

The girls stayed with us one night and we spent most of the next day at the park, fresh air is the best therapy.

Nelson Christmas and New Year

After we got dressed we went to the Nelson's Christmas, we always have a huge spread here and play a great game of Dirty Santa!

Mawmaw and her girls waiting to start the game.

After the Nelson's lunch, we went up to Mawmaw and Pawpaw's for dinner and presents, which is always fun! We got them new bikes this year, don't they look great on them !!?

Sweet Uncle "Maffu" (Saylor calls him) gave Hudson and Harrison a set of horns from a deer he killed a few years ago that he had just gotten mounted. They loved it!

This little hunter was so proud like they were his own trophy!

This was at home that evening, these two were whipped!

At church in their new clothes Aunt Julia and Uncle Matthew had gotten them.

No words......

This was the first year that Laurel Junior Auxiliary hosted the Casino Night New Year's Eve party and it was a GREAT turnout. We raised over $11000 for the children of Laurel and Jones County!

My dear sweet friend Courtney, we always feel like we are out of the loop on fashion etc but we pull through together ;)

Happy New Year!

New Year's Day we went to BWW for some wangs.

The "girl side"

Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning 2013

I always do this... after Christmas is over it takes me forever to go back and post about each event! Here is our last late Christmas post! :)

Here is the view I had on the day before Christmas Eve, running our last errands. They were over it.

We got a new TV and Hudson squeezed in the box one day, I had no idea where he was and I laughed when I found him....so typical. It was a great hiding spot.

We were going to the Pierce family Christmas and every year there is a theme, this you as you can see is "Redneck Christmas" Saylor got her ink on her arm and was ready! This is as redneck as she got, she still wore a smocked Christmas gown :)

The rest of us, however, went with it.

This was some of the decor in the yard, hilarious.

The cake, and yes it was blood red on the inside.

That night Nanny, Pop and Granny came to stay with us. It was so nice having them there Christmas morning!

Saylor got a new kitchen and that was the first thing she wanted to do!

Christmas Morning 2013

A slingshot!

Harrison got one too! Knock on wood but no injuries to people or property have been reported yet!

Sweet Granny got some fancy new PJ's!

Say and her new Minnie high heels that light up!

It was the best yet! I say that every year but each year it gets better and we get more thankful. WE are so very blessed and had a wonderful 2013!