cell love

This is my profile picture on facebook. I'm not even in it. It's grainy and blurry, but the cell can sometimes capture the best moments. It makes me smile every time I see it; especially the way Grady is tuning in...
This video also makes me smile ear to ear....took her awhile to get up the courage to jump and there were even a few trips to the end of the board, tears and a u-turn down the steps, but once she did it, she couldn't stop and has probably jumped 324 times this summer.
i almost like the nervous stutter steps walking to the edge of the diving board more than the actual jump. This whole jumping off the diving board is so symbolic of how we all raise our kids. Watch them figure this world out one step at a time; some harder than others while we coach and cheer like cheerleaders on crack from the sidelines.

It cracks me up seeing her in line with all the big kids. She doesn't understand the line concept so much; in that she has to step up and stay close to the person in front of her.

our little cubby in training; thanks for the hat Allison...means so much!



another camera phone picture which I love...there's such a delay on the cell camera, but still managed to capture this shot...Grady is in a cloth swim diaper which we LOVE and no he's not naked.



Somehow I was lucky enough to win a $200 gift card to Publix. Holla! They decided to send me 20 $10 gift cards. I'll take it.

Lily's new favorite toy from her pals Chase and Cal...the ball rolls around the ramp then air shoots it through the top like it's a blowhole from a whale. Rinse. repeat.

Grady hanging with the boys...

and Lily hanging with the girls (before she mastered swimming this summer)

the big boys doing chest bumps....


and Grady with one of his favorite friends Elliot ...Grady's head is about twice the size of Elliot's but Elliot doesn't mind. I love seeing babies interact and wonder what they're thinking when they finally see someone "their kind"
Hey, look Grady has a new mom

Okay, that's better, here's the real deal, super cute son Rossy Boy with Elliot's cute momma



Grady went to see Jordan play Lacrosse in bfe (so far I cant remember the name of the town right now) and the boys did some serious bonding. I swear Grady is like a magnet for love.


and a great lure to get a teenager outta bed.

Jordan is such a stud on the lacrosse field. Seiously he's like a gazelle out there with his fluid moves. I think I'm supposed to say he's blazing. Or dope. Or chill. Or hot. Or a bro. Can't remember the adjective teens prefer, but I think he's awesome. And super cute too... just don't tell him his Aunt Kelly said that.

I had a particular rough day and David was out of town so I whisked the kids to the beach for sunset at Lily's request. I think she knew I was in a funk and needed a change of pace. Thanks for that Lil. It was a magical night.

It seems like any problems in life literally wash away at the beach and worries float away. And I love that I found these pictures on my camera the following week Jen secretly snapped.


having friends impromptu there help too of course. text it and they shall come.


When I see people love Grady and Lily I am a complete pile of mush. I would give them a million dollars in that moment of gratitude.

we missed daddy, but lily told me to look in my heart when we talked about him not being there. Lily is turning into a serious daddy's girl the last few months and it is so sweet to witness. I've always trumped daddy in the lily department, but I've suddenly turned into chop liver so I'll happily watch from the sidelines.


Today Lily and I were having a deep discussion on our pizza date; topics ranged from gumball machines to her new flip flops from Rayna that finally fit her feet, then favorite colors, where she wondered why black wasn't allowed in the rainbow and might have his feelings hurt. Then we changed topics to our (not so) little guy Grady. I told her my favorite part about Grady was his happy heart and I asked her what her favorite part about Grady was and she said "My favorite part about Grady is his daddy"

I seriously can not believe lightning struck twice in our home and we're lucky enough to raise these 2 beautiful souls under our roof. They're like a double shot of perspective everyday laced with unending happiness. Even on the toughest of tough days..

life is good.

Sweet Thelma...

Some heartwarming videos...

Look at sweet Thelma loving on her Great Grandbabies...this is the first time meeting Grady and she's like a magnet to him. It's hard for her to talk, but you can tell her arms just long to hold him...





can't see thelma? click here


Grady loves to play with any type of ball possible; he one hand palms it and investigates every nook and cranny of every ball like he's inspector 47 about to send it to the toy stores. This boy is too sweet for words. I really didn't think it was possible to be this sweet.










can't see Grady, click here

We have 4 kids...

We were able to add 2 kids to our family for a few days and yes, it was busy, but the fun outweighed the busy. What helped matters was the kids were Douglas and Grace, the sweetest kids on the planet. Molly and Dan went on a mini 2nd honeymoon so we got to hang with their awesome kids. I can't wait to do it again. I love to be busy so this was right up my alley.

lots of bonding over dinners discussing if they wanted to use the noodle or the water rings next...

a few mishaps where we gathered together to discuss the misunderstanding, talk about feelings, apologies and hugs exhanged, and carried on despite the wedgies.

and this boy just took it all in....I can't wait to see what's going on inside that big , cute head of his.


David with 2 of his 4 kids....


it was the most comfortable parade ever. It started at 10:00 so my dad said he'd go down early to get a shady spot for everyone with our chairs. A new job for him was set for sure. It started at 10 so I thought 9:30 would be appropriate for him to get there. He got there AT 8:15 lugging all of our chairs setting them up for us!! 8:15 people!?! I can't imagine how early he's going to get there for St. Patty's since it's one of the biggest in the state.
I'm smelling a tent in his future.

here's the herd minus a few...

the cousins...before we left it was amazing to tell 2 of the 4 kids to go get dressed and they walked off, dug something out of their suitcase and came out 5 minutes later all dressed and ready to go. No diapers to change, no wiggling to wrangle. They came back with teeth and hair brushed. Talk about easy peasy?

our little firecracker


and she made the front page of the local paper. Go Lillers.




Grady was all smiles before the parade started...once the first gunshot went off, there were tears heard for miles. He'd calm down and compose himself, sighing to himself like "hey that was scary, but I'm cool now. I got this" and then the fire siren would go off and it would start all over again. Rinse. Repeat.

the original 2 kids...

after naps, we headed to the beach for the fireworks....I was nervous Grady would cry through them all after the parade debacle, but he was all smiles.


flying high...

our little narcolepsy girl didn't fall asleep, but said she needed to "west her body" for a couple of minutes before the big show. She insisted on bringing her "cozy pants" to wear after swimming.

and Grady fell asleep mid-pop...

post fireworks sparklers....

Lily is a tough nut to crack. She makes you put your time in. She needs to know your ss#, DOB, full life story, spend unlimited hours with you, scoping you out to make sure she can trust you and once you cross that threshold of trust, you're as good as gold with her. She'll talk your ear off and talk about you behind your back nonstop. Bob is one of the many who has crossed over to the other side. She got to choose any lap to sit in for the fireworks and he was the chosen one.

Grady has been in the pre-crawling/rolling all over the room stage for weeks and I keep saying he's days away from crawling, but he keeps tricking me. Still doing the up-on-knees-rocking-back-and-forth precrawl. Here he's getting a lesson from Uncle Dan....

The Briggs were in Georgia so our herd shrunk a little. Jen, close your eyes and don't look at this next picture.


It may be already the 15th, but the 4th was still lots of fun. life is good.

Happy Birthday Allison

There are friends you know you'll have forever no matter how much you talk or see each other. You can go a year without talking or seeing each other and when you do, it's like you spoke an hour ago. The good thing about Allison is we don't speak once a year and the girl has a memory stronger than an elephant. I'm not kidding, she'll retell HILARIOUS stories and I'll be laughing so hard because it's the first time I heard it and I'll say "omg, that's hilarious, who were you with when that happened?" and she'll exclaim "YOU"!!!! She will even have pictures to prove it. We met in 6th grade at Boca Middle and I knew she'd be in my life forever. I trust her with everything and I do think she knows more about me than I do myself from the above illustration. Well, we took a road trip to see her and it wont be the last of many. Oh, and today happens to be her birthday so go wish her a happy birthday on her facebook. If you're not friends with her on fb, become one here because she's the sweetest, funniest, most resourceful person ever. Your life will be better for knowing her. I know mine is. She turned me onto blogging, facebook, miracle blankets, couponing, Club Med, and a million other things. I swear if I had a question about flying rocket ships in outer space, she'd pull one out of her garage in 5 minutes.

Oh and did I mention she has the cutest kids on the planet?? Meet Cal and Chase. Yummy boys!

and
Oh and Guess who took these pictures of these delish boys?






I've never had a brother, but I think it'd be pretty neat to have after seeing these two together.


A future geologist...

and the next president...





Cal's baby pictures are uncanny similar to Grady - I felt like I was with an almost 3 year old version of Grady the whole time together, like a kid time machine.

and Allison's hubby Dawson's twin; like an adult time machine...


if you're ever in Orlando, you must visit this restaurant everyday...the turkey sandwich is to die for.

and go to Downtown Disney afterwards for some more fun...

Happy Birthday Allison, I'm so glad to know you and thanks for being the best hostess with the mostess. It was like our high school sleepovers... except this time we were allowed to drink. I love you!



Grady in Cal's shirt looking cute as a button. Grady is only 9 months old, but this is a 3T shirt. I checked Grady's birth certificate and under ethnicity, it said "Part- Moose".

I wish I could describe this boy in 1,000 words or less. It's just not possible. His face tells it all. We were at lunch today and 12 year old Blane said "that boy is the highlight of my day". I couldn't agree more.


Allison is coming to Naples in a few weeks and we'll be taking the trip back to Orlando so we can pick up right where we left off and Allison can tell me more stories about my past. Apparently I have amnesia and didn't know it. Happy Birthday ZimZim! xoxo