Happy Birthday Maren!

This past Wednesday my baby girl turned one! I can hardly believe it. Here is a picture of her and her teacher, Ms. Aida. I wanted to get a picture of her with Mae because she is usually leaping out of my arms to get to her. Of course when I tried to take the picture she was having a Mommy moment.

Happy Birthday Maren Clare!

You are such a bright, beautiful light in our life.

Happy 2nd Birthday Emily!

We celebrated Emily DeFusco's birthday last weekend. The theme was all about lollipops and Mel did a great job. Michael decorated Emily's adorable lollipop cake. Check out our fun!

Em & Uncle Lipps getting ready to decorate the cakes.

Maren & Mason loved the sand and water table!

The kids had a blast outside. The big kids and the "men" played touch football.

Em & Will enjoy the lollipops!

We finally get a shot of the whole crew! Ths is the village that is helping raise our kiddos!

Still Can't Shake It

It's been just over 3 years and the panic still sets in. I think those of you from New Orleans know exactly what I'm talking about. I tried to ignore it for the past few days, but now the Gustav frenzy has made it's way to me. Just go to nola.com and it will hit you too. I made that mistake and it just sucked the wind out of me. Seriously, my hands start to tremble. I see the map and look at the projected path. Unfortunately, I looked at the message boards. I see the titles of the entries- Tennessee still has rooms, Go towards Meridian, Storm Drains, Try Birmingham, Re-Entry Placards-- it's like it all comes back. I'm talking about that panicked feeling of having to make the decision to go and where to go.
For the past few days I have been able to pretend it didn't really exist and feel really relieved that we are far away from the storm. But, in just a few clicks I can't deny how close it hits.

Nana's Visit

My mother-in-law came in town this past weekend for a quick visit. We always love when Nana visits! William was so excited to spend time with her. Here are just a few pics from our two cameras. For those of you who don't know, Mrs. Mary is the family photographer. She always has her camera around and snapping pics. I usually try and get some shots of her with the kids if I can since she's usually behind the camera.

Nana travels with 2 suitcases- 1 with clothes and 1 with goodies for the kids. Maren kept climbing in her hanging bag. She loved it!
My Sweet Babies!
This is my happy girl. She loves to eat!
Here are her new "tricks"- when you ask her how big she is she puts her hands in the air. Since she caught on so well we also taught her touchdown. It's never too early to get ready for Tiger Football, right? She is also pretty good at peek-a-boo.
Mae and Nana

Pre-K!

We were at the beach for William's first week of Pre-K so last week was his first week of school. He is still going to the same school, but this year he is in the private Pre-K program. His teacher's name is Mrs. Thomas and she is also a New Orleans transplant due to Katrina. He is doing great so far! He has his adorable uniform and backpack. He loves to wear it in the morning. He also has a little bit of homework. It's nothing more that a little worksheet or exercise. Last week I had homework! I had to put together a photo collage of some of his family and friends. Anyway, we are doing great and Will is adjusting well.

Look at my handsome little man!

A morning snapshot!

The Beach

We are finally getting settled after a wonderful beach vacation. My Dad & Stepmom rented a house in Santa Rosa for all of us to come down and have a family vacation. We had such a good time together. We had all kinds of weather. The first two days were really overcast, but we spent time at the beach and didn't have to worry about the heat or sunburn so that was great. The next two and a half days were pretty rainy. We got out of the house and did a little shopping and bowling. Our last 2 days were beautiful and sunny and we really enjoyed the beach and the pool at the house. Of course we all took a million pics so here are some (a bunch) to share.

Here's a shot of the house. Thanks again Dad and Louise for a great trip!

This was Maren's first time at the beach and she had a blast! She didn't mind the water or the sand. She was quite a tropper and hung in there with all of us.

Will and his Papaw-- nearly inseperable all trip!

We went straight from the beach to the pool and Mae loved it! She is my fearless one-- yikes!

This is how we looked most evenings! We were glued to the Olympics. We just couldn't help it. God Bless all of those swimmers and their lovely bodies!

We're on vacation of course pancakes and sausage are for breakfast every morning. My Dad taught him to cover the pancakes in butter and then add extra butter to the syrup and stir it up! This is a request almost every morning at home!

Not a bad place to take a conference call!

The forecast wasn't looking so good so we got in as much beach time as possible!

It wouldn't be a complete day at the beach without a giant sandcastle!

Family dinner! We had the best meals! We only went out to eat for our last dinner because we had such great food every other day-- Dad's white beans, Christy's meatball's, Louise's roast and Shrimp Poboys & BBQ Shrimp! Yummy!!

The house had this great wrap around porch with rockers. Every morning (and all day long) we would go out and relax. The kids loved it and Maren esp. loved rocking herself in the rockers.

The day wasn't looking to hopeful for sunshine so we tried to squeeze in what we could.

Uncle Mike, Will & Papaw

It's all fun and games until a wave knocks you out!

What a good Uncle to take off his shirt to keep Will warm!

This was just too sweet. Will was wiped out from playing outside and it was time for his nap and he wanted to rest with Uncle Mike. The two of them passed out on the sofa.

Since it was clear to us that the rain was going to be hanging around all afternoon and maybe the next day too we decided to go bowling. The lanes were pretty cool because they could raise and lower the bumpers just for Will. He took it very serious and was not happy that he didn't win.

We were all just happy to be out of the house and forgetting about the rain for a little while.

Uncle Mike was taking his bowling form serious!

Maren keeping herself entertained.

We celebrated Meme's birthday at the beach with a birthday cake made special by Michael and William. Will loves to help in the kitchen and esp. when he get to lick the bowl and taste the sprinkles.

William in his glory- singing Happy Birthday, blowing out the candles and licking the icing!

A little cuddle time with Dede.

Finally, a beautiful sunny day! Louise brought this great tent to set up for the kids.

It worked out just perfect.

Just chilling with Uncle Mike!

Maren was such a good sport! She had a blast!

Maren loved the sand. It ended up everywhere- no surprise, but I had to do what I could. I tried to feed her some goldfish so that her sandy hands weren't always in her mouth. Am I setting myself up for trouble here?


Here's Michael being buried in the sand.

If you know my husband then you know what a big deal it is for him to be at the beach, getting some sun, buried in the sand and riding the waves! He ceases to amaze me! I love you, Michael!

My little bathing beauty! She loved to get inside of the tents.

It made for a nice break out of the sun.

Dede got in on the burying too!

We celebrated another birthday at the beach- Maren's 1st birthday! Meme made it very special for Maren by doing a lot of the same things she did for Will. We loved the photos and special cake and hat! William enjoyed decorating the cakes too!

The Birthday Girl!

Can you tell how thrilled she was to be in the spotlight!

Maren wasn't quite sure what to think of this. That's my arm in the picture right after putting her hat on her head. She wanted nothing to do with it!

Meme made it special for her and I love it!

We decided to get out of the house with Will and have some togther time with Michael and I and give Meme & Papaw a bit of a break. We went to play Putt Putt. This was his first time and he was pretty patient. Of course most of his putts were constant strokes from the start to the hole. He barely let the ball stop before he kept sweeping it along. Thanks for coming with us, Dede!

Ok, so I know this is rather juvenile, but I couldn't help myself. Come on, seriously, this was right at the beginning of one of the holes.

These places always get you! They make you pay for the putt putt in the building with all the arcade games. Of course William didn't forget so we had to go back for a quick game after we golfed.

William and Maren love to play on the bed! Maren would walk over to the bed and just whine until someone lifted her up. It made Dawn totally nervous to watch them. The two of them just throw themselves around and roll all over.

This is the face that my sweet, precious little girl gives when she doesn't get exactly what she wants! We usually just laugh because we see it so often!

While we were at dinner I snapped this pic of William and then thought it would be funny to get pics of the rest of us taking a big bite of our hamburgers. Why not? It's our last night and we needed a little laugh.

I caught Dad off guard! He didn't get a retake like Louise!

Once it caught on we decided to pose.

That's what family's all about-- who else can you be silly with?!

Papaw, Maren & Meme

What could be a better ending then a full belly of chocolate ice cream?