Fountains, fishing, and family!

Ok, Ok, I know; it's been a while since I've posted. But in my defense, we've been out of town and the Internet was down where we were.... please forgive me :) See it's summer around here, and that means some much needed relief for mama and kiddos - b/c it's fun in the sun!! And as you can tell, Stephen can have fun everywhere he goes!
So off we went (a few weeks ago...... I'm a little behind) to the fountains for the first time this season, and Abby loved it!!

It's always, fun, but so much more fun with friends - ahhhhh my womb, I mean look at these cuties!

The day we headed over to the fountains my dear, wonderful husband headed off on a five day fishing trip with his childhood friend Todd. Alan needed to get away from the office, but I still can't figure out how getting on a river can take your mind off building ships?? Just kidding!

For real though, Alan's been working so much he needed a much much deserved break, and though I would have loved going - my family was in town, and sorry Todd but I kinda love them more ;)

Wow, this is a long post - I'll try not to leave you guys hanging for a few weeks next time, but at least I'm not going into agonizing detail on how I got sick, and the dentist....

So the weekend that Alan heading north, was also the Dauphin Island Regatta, an awesome sail boat race to - you guessed it Dauphin Island. My entire family tries to come down every year, and we have a blast. This year it rained and the race was moved to Sunday.....

To be honest, that was the best case scenario for me! I got to spend the entire day Saturday with my siblings and parents and friends, vs. waiting for them to sail into the island then heading home b/c my little ones where tired. But please don't tell them I was happy for the rain :)

No pictures of mama....

After going through some pictures and looking at the blog I realized that there really aren't that many pictures of me. Not that it's really Alan's fault at all - I'm the one with the photography hobby - not skill, just hobby. So I'm the one that got the fancy camera, that makes it a little bit difficult for Alan to lug around when it's just him and the kids. What did I do? I used the great excuse that Alan needed a new camera for his upcoming fly fishing trip - b/c he isn't taking mine on a canoe. So I went out and bought him his very own point and shoot - then I left town for two days.

And there you go, he loves it! Easy to carry around, and did you notice the picture of me as I was leaving his mama's house for my trip?

He thinks I bought if for him, all for him so that he could take fun pictures on his trip. Little did he know it was really all about me :)

Some friendships never die!

When I was 13, my parents broke the news to me that we were moving. I mean 13 was hard enough, not to mention packing up all that I knew and moving to a strange place. But since I wasn't asked and it really wasn't my choice - we moved. I think the hardest thing about being 13 and moving was keeping in touch with my friends. We tried, but lets face it writing long letters back then just didn't work to well. For the most part I lost touch with many of my friends. One friend in particular I have missed very much, we'd known each other since we were four, played soccer together, got in trouble together - you get the drift

For one reason or another I've been thinking about her more and more over the past few years. I wondered if she still lived in GA, was she married, did she have any children, and of course I thought about the 10 thousand memories we shared. After trying to find her on facebook and just googling her randomly I finally decided it might be easier to find her parents - and I did. I sent them a letter, praying it was the right people, some pictures and all my contact info. Sure enough a few days later her father called.

And before I knew it later that afternoon i was on the phone with Missy! I couldn't believe it, I was so filled with joy when I spoke to her father, then I called Missy - got her voice mail, put the kids down for a nap and then she called. You know what the amazing and wonderful thing is?? We talked like we had just seen each other two days earlier! I loved that, I love her, and I am so happy to have found her again!!

And since I have all my old pictures from GA either at my parent's house or at the storage unit - and I'm not exactly sure I want you to all see what I looked like back then :) I thought I would show you her beautiful family! Here's the roll call - From the top of the blog down - Missy's sister Jessica (I know, great name!) holding Missy's son Henry; Missy's father Mr. Sellers :); Missy's Mom Mrs. Sellers; Missy, her husband David, and Henry; and last but not least at all cute little 3 month old Henry! Also a great name ;)

The sweetest smile

I've noticed in the last few posts that my sweet Abby has looked a little bored. What I would like to show you tonight is the sweet smile that lights up my day, everyday. The one that she doesn't like to show the camera very often, but loves to show mommy and daddy!

That smile that says "I'm all joy" b/c let me tell you something, she is all joy!

So if you need a quick pick me up, just call out her name and she'll give you one of these! Have a great night!

Happy Easter, Christ has risen Alleluia!!

First I want to begin with, I'm done with Augie. The kids have been sick, now I'm sick and it seems just when I get the kids asleep and I'm ready to rest he barks, or whines; therefor my little tribute to Augie is over with. Maybe, just maybe I'll get back to him one day - maybe not!

Easter!! Glorious Easter, Thanks be to God, Christ has Risen, He has Risen in deed!! I'm so grateful for the time that I've had this past weekend with my family; having Alan home for a few days has been so wonderful! I know the kids are loving it - especially since they are off with daddy right now so mommy can get better :)

So what did we do this weekend? Well, we headed over to Mimi and Popi's after Mass for a fun filled day... see above? This is what happens when a almost 3yr old doesn't understand an Easter Egg hunt. He knew there was a bag full of eggs outside and inside those eggs there was candy and toys......"but how come all the eggs are gone mama?" "Stephen, Popi took the eggs and hid them for you." Enter in minor melt down mode....

Abby on the other hand got right into it, with the help of her daddy of course
And Stephen, sweet Stephen, he figured it out as soon as he looked around and noticed all the eggs in the yard..yummy!
I would like to take this moment to make a public service announcement - Abby's dress is a 12-18month dress, but it seems to be a mini dress.......I just noticed that
Happy Easter my friends, please stick around for more random rambling about who knows what and who knows when :) God Bless!!

What could a puppy really do????

There we were, driving across the bay to my parent's house. Our new little puppy sleeping in my lap; but what were we going to name him? Our first test as a married couple at naming something, and we wanted it to count, we wanted our new little dog to have a name with a purpose - so Augustine it was; Auggie for short. Little did we know that he would have the personality of St. Augustine as a young man.... I mean really, what could this small, cute as a button little puppy really do?? Did you know that dogs teeth?? I didn't, I didn't know anything - until my little hands were raw and EVERY shoe I owned had been destroyed...uhhhhhhhhhh

But the real entertainment comes later on in Auggie's life when he really gets a personality. Did I mention that Auggie was our little training ground for having kids? Well he was, we've learned very valuable lessons from this dog. 1) Don't do anything in your home, you wouldn't want your dog to do at someone's else's home!!! We still had very little furniture in our over sized living room, so we saw no harm in throwing a ball around for little Auggie, it was so cute - he even learned to jump over the couch........
On a weekend after Thanksgiving, we headed over to visit my parent's; somewhat innocent except we brought Auggie. Since my mother was trying to decorate the house for Christmas, things were everywhere; so we wanted to help her out. I believe it was my brother who threw something to Alan - Auggie thought it was a ball, I heard a gasp, turned and saw Auggie's legs in the air and going over the couch, then he started to land a little short and on the couch before I knew it an entire box of glass Christmas ball's were flying through the air and crashing on the ground. I couldn't stop laughing, it took my mom however a little longer to laugh about it, and even longer to invite Auggie back over