Ruzas visit and island hopping

Addison is three months old! She is babbling and laughing all the time now. She is a very happy, little baby.

The Ruzas came to visit and we were so excited! The kids could hardly wait to see Abby and Sam and we jammed packed the weekend with fun activities. Here the kids are on the boat headed out to Deer Island.

Our little beauties. . . Amelia and Abby met when they were about 11 months old and have been best friends ever since. It is so sweet to see them together, they just pick right up where they left off and are just best buds.

Sam (4), Amelia (5), Abby (5) and Luke (3) enjoying the beach at Deer Island. The kids collected about 13 hermit crabs that day and more shells than we could have fit in the boat!

Here is little Addi enjoying her time on the island. She slept the whole time, she just loves that fresh beach air I guess. Man, will she be in for a rude awakening if we move back up north; she is such a little beach baby.

The Indiana invasion

The kids did a lot of "American Idol" while they were together. We have a karaoke type set up for our playstation and the kids loved to sing to it. However, the only songs they knew were, "Had a Bad Day" and "Move Along" so they sang those songs, hmmm probably like 20 times. I will be okay if I never have to hear those songs again.

Here the kids are at Horn Island, the back of our boat has a swim deck so the kids took turns taking flying leaps off of it. This is Luke getting some good air.

Picnic on the boat.

Abby and Sam giving Addi some loving.

Tennis anyone?

Amelia has been taking tennis lessons at Gulf Hills Country Club the last few months and I have just been eating it up. I love watching her play my sport and she really enjoys it. I'm amazed by the progress in just a short time and am in serious jeopardy of being beat by my five year old.

This was our little tennis star at about 1 week old, yes that is the same racket even. This is Amelia by the way, not Addison. Although, oddly enough, Addison is wearing this dress today.

God Bless Addison

Addison Kate got baptized today at our church, First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Springs. She wore the same baptismal gown that I wore when I was baptized and she even wore the matching booties, Amelia's feet were way too big for them. She was a perfect little angel and slept through her whole baptism and the rest of the church service. Pastor Scott really drenched her little head too, so much so that he broke his microphone that was clipped to his tie, whoops!

Happy Baptism Day my little Addison Kate.

The big kids were very good during her baptism.

We had a BBQ party ( Gulp and Gawk party) to celebrate Addison's day. We were very lucky because the forecast said 75% chance of thunderstorms all day but we had a beautiful sunny day in the mid-70's. It was perfect weather thank goodness, because we had just under 50 people here and it was great being able to be outdoors. We had lots of friends from our neighborhood and church here and the kids had a great time running around outside, playing in the sandbox and on the jumper; but the adults had fun too. . . Stephen had the fabulous idea of having Long Island Iced Tea, at a baptism party! So as the afternoon wore on, Addison's party got really hopping. Enough Long Islands were had that soon karaoke had started. Oh boy, it just got more fun from there.

The "Kristens" battling it out singing Whitney Houston songs.

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny found his way to our house again, favorite finds were Star Wars Clone Wars DVD and Junie B. Jones books.

All dressed and ready to go, phew, we made it. Although, we did go to late church that Sunday. Notice Amelia's cute Easter egg purse (thanks mom). After I got Amelia dressed for church and looking so adorably cute, she came downstairs with every bracelet she could find in the house on her arms. I calmly explained maybe she had accessorized just a bit too much for Easter Sunday, she agreed without a fight and off we went to church. Thank goodness, crisis averted. Fast forward to the service, half way through the sermon I take a look at Amelia who is digging in her purse and removing every bracelet she had previously worn and sliding them right back on her wrists. Hmm, I guess Amelia won that battle.

I just love Easter clothes pre-chocolate bunny spills.

Addison's first Easter, Happy Easter sweet girl.

Easter brunch with the Neff's, yummy. I love Luke resting his head on Hayden's shoulder, they are so cute.

BIRDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, this is a big difference between my sister and I. I have lived on the coast for two years and have never thought once that buying some bread and having 10,000 seagulls fly at my head would be a fun idea. However, Amy asked if we could "feed the birds" practically when her plane landed. So I found myself on the beach with my two eldest children, my niece and nephew and my super excited sister. I might add, I was huddled behind the group wearing the widest brimmed hat I owned hoping not to get pecked to death and/or pooped on. My sister bought two giant loaves of bread and off they went. Thank goodness Aunt Amy came to town because my kids LOVED it, they thought it was so fun and the coolest thing ever. Evan, however, was huddled with me. I don't blame you dude, way too many squawking birds for my taste.

I should win some sort of photo contest for this picture. Annie running with the birds.

See Amy looking at me like, "Don't you want to come closer??" Umm, no. In fact, I did come closer once to take some better pictures (I'll do anything for cute pictures) and I felt something fall on my head and I ran away screaming that I was pooped on. Actually, it ended up just being a piece of bread that one of the kids had thrown but that was enough warning for me.

They had so much fun, crazy kids. They had so much fun in fact, that Aunt Amy took them back the next day. Me and my wide brimmed hat stayed home.

Cousins!

My sister Amy came to visit with her kids Annie (5) and Evan (8). It was so fun to have them here in Mississippi and show them all of our favorite hang outs. Here they are loving up baby Addison. Annie was especially taken by Addison and held her and kissed her the whole week. She would say, "She's just so cute." So are you Annie.

Having fun on the beach . . . Despite record cold temps while they visited (we had some highs only in the 60's) the kids still managed lots of outdoor fun. We played on the beach a lot, went boating, explored Deer Island and of course visited the Caboose, our favorite snowball stand.

Just hanging out at the hammock at Harbor Landing.

Me and my big sis at Harbor Landing.

The Bosko Boat

Well, we finally broke down and bought a boat and now we are broke (just kidding, kind of). The kids are super, super excited as you can see. This is the first time we took the boat out and they both found their favorite spots for boating. Stephen and I even managed to get the boat off the trailer and in the water without filing for divorce so we are doing pretty well so far as boat owners.

Here is Addison on her first boat ride. Now, no need to e-mail me all sorts of messages about how uncomfortable she looks and yes, she can breathe. This little baby, refuses to sleep all day long UNLESS we take her for a boat ride. We get her life jacket on, she looks around and then, bam, like magic, she is asleep. Needless to say I would like to take the boat out every day so our little one will sleep.

Here it is, our first boat. I asked Stephen so I can tell you it is a Yamaha 23 foot bow rider, jet boat, otherwise I would have just told you it is white, tan and black.

Easter Egg Hunt

As Easter approaches we've had lots of fun activities to keep us busy. The kids both had Easter parties at school and they were great help making the bunny cupcakes.

Amelia showing off all her Easter crafts her class made at school. I love the bunny ear hats and she was especially excited about her dyed pink egg, "because Mom, you had to chose whichever color was in front of you but pink was in front of me and that's my FAVORITE color!" I had fun getting bombarded by 18 kindergarten children as soon as I walked into the classroom and hearing them trying to say, "Ms. Boskovich."

Today was an Easter egg hunt with good friends Hayden and McKenzie.

My little bunnies.

I got a picture of Amelia hunting for eggs but all the pictures I have of Luke are of him whizzing by me in a full run looking for more eggs. He's a little bit more hard core than Amelia in the egg hunting business.

Field day fun and Grandma and Grandpa

Amelia's school had field day this past week and it brought back lots of memories of my own field days. The days of standing long jump and three legged races were gone but replaced with lots of other fun activities. The kids participated in dizzy bat races, tug of war, scooter races, obstacle courses and football throw. Above is Amelia participating in the football throw, pretty good form I thought but she didn't quite have the distance. Then I realized while posting this, she was throwing with her right hand. No wonder she was having difficulty, she's a lefty!

Here she is looking cute while doing the hurdles. You know you've taken a lot of pictures of your kids if they have learned to turn to you, smile and pose while in midair doing the hurdles. She has been well trained.

We also had fun this week with Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Jon visiting . Addison was a lucky little baby having two extra pair of arms willing to hold her and give her lots of kisses.

Grandma and Grandpa with the whole crew. The kids loved having Grandma and Grandpa tell them stories at dinner. Their favorite from Grandpa was the raccoon that broke into Grandpa's tent when he was camping as a little boy and their favorite story from Grandma was the alligator that ate her golf ball after she hit him in the head.