Saturday, April 30, 2011

sailing around the house

We didn't sail around the house, but I combined the 2 ideas in one post.

Lily is becoming quite the little beach bum lately. She used to prefer to stay on the blanket and the little neat freak wasn't a fan of the gritty sand between her toes. But not anymore...


seriously, she could take a bath in the sand these days when it used to be a big deal if she had a fleck on her elbow. I've always preferred the pool over the beach, but the scales are starting to tip back the other way just a tad.. we spent almost 9 hours at the beach and didn't want to leave. makes me excited for this summer and a beach vacation too.



and playing hide and seek under Janet and Steve's sailboat sweetens the deal even more...



Yes, that is Steve and he's a total stud on kiteboarding. Does jumps 20-30 feet in the air, crowds gather, people are taking cameras out to capture his skillz in amazement, and always a ton of questions from all the passerbys....

we stayed on the shoreline to cheer and watch in amazement...

and we went sailing like we were Jacques Cousteau


Lily didn't like all the bouncing around once we got going, but she sure liked to jump on it like it was a trampoline when it was parked.


Grady slept most of the day on and off on the beach, but we got some cute ones of him going to church the next day...



I love this one of Julie and her godson...



someone who's name rhymes with shady is now sitting up on his own and boy does it look like a lot of work...



Lily prefers to push than swing herself these days...

Little Grady seems to look through me with these sweet little eyes right into my heart. His eyes are always fixated on the people in the room. And when a connection is made, he goes into a fit of kicks, smiles and total joy takes over his face. If you kiss him on the cheek or neck, he takes this sweet happy heavy sigh like he's so filled up with love and needs an outlet somehow.



and the 2 of them together? please someone get me a heart doctor stat.



I took this same picture with Lily around the same age and the shirts say it all. Thanks Steph! This is how they make me feel everyday.

I love his watching his little eyes taking it all in.


This shirt says it all too...

Lily will play hide and seek and hide like next to a chair with her eyes closed like I can't see her. She was yelling from behind the curtain "come find me mommy" as I was in the room looking for her. Reminded me of the witch from the Wizard of Oz. She likes to read books like this too.

and sweet Dottie came to see us and helped us fill up our kids' love cup too...she's a natural. She took them on a walk by herself that was so long I thought she was lost.

storytime is still everyone's favorite time of the day where the hustle and bustle of the day evaporates and slows down to a turtle pace where we all take turns reading a story...my favorite will always be when Lily reads them aloud to us...

Lily loves taking pictures too and INSISTED on the photo. She set both of them up, told me her vision for the photo, told me where to stand, gave me the countdown of when to take it, told me how to take it, and had to preview it before she gave the okay.

this may sound dumb (ok I know it does) but I never knew why this was called the bouncy seat. Lily used to just sit in it happily observing, but Grady makes it bounce and rock so aggressively, smiling and kicking wildly, I swear he's going to break it. Warning Wylie, but it hasn't happened yet while it's on loan to us, but it could. :)


life in and out of the house is so good.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Cousin'ly Love

We've hosted Easter the last few years because it usually falls around Lily's birthday. It works out well, but it always feels right when my mom hosts Easter. Not quite sure why, but it just does. She did it years before Lily was born and since Easter was so late this year it worked out like a charm. We counted down the days to see each other like we hadn't seen each other in months, talked about all the preparations, and didn't go to sleep until 1:30am because we couldn't stop talking once we were there. I have no idea what topic was discussed, but we were like college kids after a frat party.
And hanging by her lake feeding the birds leftover pizza that somehow wont give them indigestion or heartburn, spinning in the swing and skipping rocks like they're in the movie Stand By Me. There's nothing better than seeing lily and grady with their cousins. She's going to see her other 2 cousins in SC in a few weeks and I'm giddy with excitement. They all get along famously and there's a different and unique dynamic between each one of them. Lily's shyness is dropped at the door and she becomes this silly little giggly school girl in seconds. How in the world my sisters and I all had 1 boy and 1 girl with almost every age range respresented is beyond me. But it's pretty darn cool if you ask me. I love them all like my own and would jump in front of a bus for all of them. By far, my favorite picture of the weekend.
and yes, we have a kid table. I remember them well as a kid and can't believe I get to glance over and see this while i'm at the 'adult table' . How did that happen? I still feel 23 (ok, maybe 27)

and no one forgets this one because each time you glance his direction he acts like a professional bug catcher...you just have to say Grady and this is what you see. He blows me away. Dad, you're pretty cute too.



getting a picture of both looking in the same direction is like solving the Pythagorean theorem (yes, I had to google the spelling of that one)
discovering their treasures...

my little poser...

i couldn't pick a favorite and had about 32 to choose from...


ok, one more...
I lied...last one...

see what i mean? my mom seems like a simile for Easter...


she made these adorable cupcakes and I added the licorice from a magazine idea I had to make them into baskets so I could say "we" made them when people inquired. So for the record my mom and i made these.

Ok, not so much, but they're super cute.



and so is she...


and so are they...

and our little fishies...

lily has never been bothered by a wedgie nor does she know how to officially pick a wedgie after multiple lessons on the art of picking one...

lily insisted she go down the slide with grady - boy, i can't wait to see the 2 of them run and play together.

until then, her grandma will have to fill that role...


woopsie...



they went to an Easter egg hunt that was the most over analyzed easter egg hunt I've ever seen with probaly only 100 eggs and 75 kids ( you do the math), but the kids didn't know any different. Lily only got 2 eggs and saw Grady's basket was empty and gave 1 of her 2 to fill his basket so he wouldn't be sad. Be still my heart.


and back home they carried on like usual...


and thank you Allison for this ADORABLE shirt...makes my heart smile every time he wears one of your creations...

Jen and Molly's kids are older and I literally have a brain freeze when I imagine our kids being 5, 7, 12 and 15 because it seems like a lifetime away, yet i remember them @ 2 like it was yesterday. I love to see the bond they have and that it only gets sweeter with age.

for more pictures of the fun, check out Jen's blog who actually know what the hella she's doing with a camera..after seeing her skillz with a camera, I'm sure I was adopted.

life is good.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

blast from the past...

with so many bags with 2 kids, I don't take my camera bag with me as much as i should so i rely on my camera phone a lot...doesn't take the best pictures, but captures them just the same...showing off her matching stella and dot necklace and bracelet

hanging in lily's crib together...

visiting her friends at her school...

meeting the newest friend everyone loves immensely...

this picture is my wallpaper on my phone - i love it so much i want to kiss each time i see it...

g-money sporting the exersaucer for one of the first times...

love this picture from the fair when lily made a basket - there's such an annoying delay on my camera phone, but this time it worked in my benefit...

Lily and grandpa (she officially changed his name to Grandpa from Papa) have such a special connection..

David sent this to me when I was in Tampa for a baby shower with G...

getting caricatures done with one of her favorite gal pals Gracie Pie...(the only name Lily uses when referring to her)


and the finished product...
we couldn't leave out Gradycakes...the artist actually had this picture as his home page on his site....



this boy can't stop smiling...i wish i could drink his milk and be this happy all the time...

Lily had to get goggles like her cousins...

and Grady decided to chill out with his homies...

can you tell im terrified of skin cancer?

Lily had this same picture taken when she was a bambino too...

starting solids in the highchair for the first time....this boy can eat...good thing I like to use coupons or we'll be in the poor house when he gets to high school...

oh, this face...

Lily loves to help and thinks she has her very own baby doll now...

they were in the jacuzzi one dayuntil a man at the pool said kids' organs can shut down from the water'sheat so we quickly departed...dont know if that's true, but you mention my kids organs shutting down and i'm running for the hills...

lily patiently waiting while the 7 managers checked me out with my 75 coupons

this was taken minutes after she had thrown up all ove the place at Joe Cool (and some on the shoes of the man in the gray pants ) after she threw up, she said i had a bug in my tummy, but i shoo'd it away...she's not crying here, just reeeeeeeally wincing like the scissors are about to draw blood...

some breakfast (hence waffle/milk on the couch) while catching up on her latest nursery rhymes... blurry, but cute picture of her at bounce house with her friend Sara... http://static.photobucket.com/player.swf" allowfullscreen="true" allownetworking="all" wmode="transparent" flashvars="file=http%3A%2F%2Fvid649.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fuu216%2Fstoutie18%2F2011-03-28_11-34-05_603.mp4">

Being a counselor, we talk about our feelings a lot...





can't see video? click here

never too early to start...





can't see video? click here

I dont know how these pictures got overlooked...



I love this one because there's so much joy in their faces...

this one too...

after church one day only 2 months ago, but they both look so different now!

and one day beckham came over for a play date and showed lily all the stuff big kids do... he is soooooo handsome...

be still my heart...


feet painting with Ella...

he's so cuddly...




some oldies, but goodies that i wanna make sure make it on the blog so they're there for the blog to book printing....

life is good...