Church trip to Horn Island

Our church planned an outing to Horn Island this past weekend and it was a great turnout. I think about 10 families took their boats out and the church also rented one of the Biloxi Schooners to take people out who did not own boats. All the church kids had a great time running around looking for "buried treasure" and collecting anything living in their buckets. I think the crabs were glad to see us all go because the moms made all the kids leave their crustacean friends on the island. The spot we anchored to was pretty shallow, probably only a couple feet deep so the kids could have a lot of area to play. At some point during the day I went on the boat to nurse Addison and let her take a rest in the shade. My friend Kristen came with me and we chatted away. After awhile Kristen said, "Have a we drifted?" I said, "No, I think we are fine." Then I looked around a little bit more and was like, hmm, we seem a lot farther away from the beach. Our anchor had come off the rope! We were off to sea. Lucky Stephen had noticed and was hightailing it out to rescue us. It was a fun little adventure. Don't worry, mom and dad the keys were on the boat, I could have driven the boat if I needed to.

Luke jumping off the boat, always a big hit with the kids.

Amelia "thumbs up" to the fish and crabs the kids caught.

Addison hanging out on the beach.

Addison Kate is 5 months old!

As much as I try to stop her, Addison keeps getting bigger. Here is our smallest kid, looking like such a big kid.

This is classic Addison Kate. She is a little charmer and always laughing and smiling.

Mommy and all her little munchkins.

Addison is really becoming quite active now. She rolls over all the time, loves to play with her toys, which Amelia and Luke shove at her by the dozen and adores jumping around in her exersaucer. She has found her toes and thinks their is nothing better to put in her mouth. Thankfully we live in Mississippi and very rarely need to wear socks because Addison has no use for socks and rips them off as fast as I can slide them on.

My big girl, we love you Addison Kate!

Summer Fun!

We have been taking the kids swimming a lot in the indoor pool at the YMCA because then we don't worry about our skin so much. Addison loves the pool and this last time she was so relaxed she fell asleep! She slept for close to an hour like that.

Here she is after her nap, having fun with daddy.

Everyone who knows us, knows how much Amelia and Luke love movies. They glue their eyes to the TV and will not move for anything. Apparently their is a training regimen to become an elite couch potato and Luke is teaching Addison the ropes. I was cracking up, they sat like this forever, eyes glued, not making a peep.

My three little couch potatoes, content as can be on their beanbags.

Jumping off our boat deck at Deer island with Sophie and Ben.

Daddy Day and Blueberry Picking

Happy Father's Day ! Daddy and Addison Kate's first Father's Day together.

These are three lucky kiddos because they have an awesome daddy! The kids got daddy some fun presents this year. They bought him new ear phones for running, a level (since mommy always has something new for daddy to hang on the wall) and a video game (I don't know why he was more excited about this than the level). The kids and I also made daddy three garden stones, one for each kid with their hand print and their name on it. The kids decorated them with stones, gems and glitter. They look very pretty in our backyard; although I wouldn't actually step on them. I am certainly no mason and could not figure out how to get the darn stones smooth, you will certainly cut up your feet if you step on them. Oh well, we tried!

It is blueberry season again and we could hardly wait to get picking! Addison got to join in on the fun this year. Poor baby though, she could not taste blueberries yet, next year Addison Kate! What a good daddy, carrying the baby and the blueberry bucket.

Luke shows his approval. Luke picked berries for about 15 minutes and then proclaimed, "Mom, I have done enough picking." He then sat in Addison's stroller and ate blueberries for the next hour. Amelia even tried to bribe him into more work, she said, "Luke, if you don't pick you aren't going to get as many blueberry pancakes, blueberry smoothies and blueberry cheesecake bars." It did not work, Luke had punched out his time card.

Amelia is quite the little picker! She did not want to leave when Stephen and I had called it quits. I promised her she and I would go picking one more time before the season is done and let her pick to her hearts content. Man, those blueberries are so good, they are warm from the sun and so juicy and sweet. We pick as many gallons as we can and freeze them for the rest of the year.

The Midwest Tour, Take Two

We found ourselves in the month of June and it was time for our annual summer Midwest Tour. This year since Stephen was not deployed, we dragged him along with us. Even better, Stephen drove all the way from Mississippi to Minnesota with Amelia and Luke; Addison and I met them in Minnesota courtesy of Northwest Airlines. Our trip started in Minneapolis visiting my sister and her family. Here are the kids, Max (4), Amelia (5) and Luke (3) splashing around at the beach at Lake Harriet. The water was, hmm how do I put this nicely, frigid; but the kids did not seem to mind too much. We had a fabulous time in Minnesota and enjoyed the cooler weather except one day when it was FREEZING! The high one day was only 46 degrees and it was raining! Brrr, our wimpy little Mississippi behinds were freezing.

Here we are at the Como Zoo. It is a great zoo because it is small but has all the essentials: giraffes-check, gorillas-check, tigers-check, sea lions-check, but we could still do the whole zoo in less than two hours which is perfect for Traci and I, as we are not what you would call zoo fans. I used to think I was an animal lover, as I get older I am learning, not so much but hey, we do it for our kids, right?

Traci and Addison Kate.

Max holding baby cousin Addison. As before mentioned, it was freezing and I had so smartly packed all sundresses and shorts for the family. I had one long sleeve outfit for Addison back from the Amelia baby days and this was it. It's looking quite 1980's though with the Adidas pink/grey. All Addison needed was a jazzercise CD of "Let's Get Physical." Oh well, better to be warm than fashionable.

From Minnesota, we drove to Madison, Wisconsin to visit my sister Amy and her family. Here are all the cousins in their jammies. Luke, Amelia, Evan (9), Addison and Annie (5). We had a fun visit with lots of dancing and playing outside and we even got to watch Evan's baseball game. Go Marlins!

Here we are feeding the ducks, illegally I might add. Can you tell which sister is the animal lover in the family?? When Amy came to visit us we fed the seagulls (yuck, yuck, gag) and now we got to feed the ducks when we visited her. At least the baby ducks were a lot cuter, I could at least watch the kids feed the ducks without having an anxiety attack.

Okay, this is our friend Tommy doing a flip, I don't know how this picture got in here but I don't know how to get it out either. It is supposed to be of my sister's family and my family at Ella's deli having giant ice cream sundaes. Hmm, I'll have to work on that.

From Madison, Wisconsin we drove to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to visit my parents. Here is Grandpa Jon cuddling Addison Kate. Addison definitely got a lot of hugs, kisses and cuddles on this trip, what a lucky baby.

Grandma Nancy with Amelia and Addison and the musical dolls she and Grandpa brought back from their trip to France. Addison really loves her doll and just stares at it while the music plays, at least when she is not trying to eat her. Addison is at the age when she tries to taste and eat everything she can get her chubby little hands on.

Luke showing off his brand new shield from France. Grandpa picked it out for Luke and knew it was a perfect gift because Luke is always playing sword fights . . . and gun fights and light saber fights, you get the idea. The joys of having a three year old boy.

Grandpa Jon and Luke battling it out with wooden spoons.

While in Wisconsin, Addison learned to roll over! Here she is so excited to show us her new skill.

Grandma Nancy played tennis with Amelia and Luke on our visit.

Mini-golf time with Grandpa Jon and Grandma Nancy although Luke spent most of his time shooting us with his golf club. Grandpa even got a hole in one!

After our visit in Wisconsin, it was time to drive to Indiana. We were able to have breakfast with my other "mother-in-law," Donna Yankey. The kids were super excited to see her and her dog, Maddie, of course. It was great to be able to introduce Addison to her and catch up.

Donna and Addison Kate.

While in Indiana we got to hang out with our best buddies, the Ruzas. The kids are so sweet together and have so much fun running around. This year they even had an official sleep over at the Ruzas house. They were so excited to get their sleeping bags and watch a movie and eat popcorn. Addison stayed with us at Grandma Joan's, she can join in on the fun in a couple of years. The coolest thing is that this was Luke's first sleep over at a buddie's house and it is the same house that Stephen had his first sleepover in 20 some years ago when the previous owners lived there.

Luke on Uncle Craig's Harley, such a cool dude.

Aunt Mary Kay and Addison.

Grandma Joan snuggling Addison.

Pretty girl.

Stephen, Addison and her Great-Grandma. I love this picture, they are both smiling right at each other.

The Dubczak side of the family.

Great-Grandma Pouka with Luke and Amelia.

We had a great trip, a lot of miles, a lot of smiles. We had such a fun time seeing all of our family. To our friends and family we were not able to see, we miss you so much and hope we have a longer trip next time to fit everyone in. We were only in each city about two to three days so it was a busy, busy trip.