Splashing, Beaching it and Addison is 18 months old!

Oh my, oh my Addison Kate is 18 months old and thinks she is queen of the world.  Here she is helping herself to some cereal (this is on Daddy's watch, not mine I might add).  She has a lot to say and she says it loudly.  She will say, "cereal, pwease daddy" but if you don't move fast enough the above picture shows you what happens.  She will say, "book pwease mommy" but if I don't sit down to read it fast enough, I know to duck because the book will be flying at my head.  Thankfully she gives us all enough hugs and kisses that she has each of us wrapped around her cute, little one and a half year old finger.

Hooray!   I am a big girl!

We have been visiting the splash playground right down the street from our home because it is a great way to beat the heat.  That day it happened to be raining so we were the only ones there which was fabulous.  Why let the rain stop us, we were getting wet anyway and in Mississippi it is always hot, even in the rain.

We also bought season passes for the local big waterpark this year so we have spent lots of time whipping down slides and riding tubes in the lazy river and the wave pool.  Here are Amelia and Luke with their buddies Caroline and Anna.  The matching suits were actually a coincidence, my sweet friend Katie and I just have similar tastes in our children's bathing suits, even Addison has a matching one but she was home sleeping.  I had many people ask me if the girls were triplets that day, thank goodness no; I could have never handled three babies at once.

Still beaching it!  After dinner the beach is always breezy and cool and beautiful.  Thankfully our waters are still open and our beaches are clear so we are thankful for that.

Addison shouting something joyful to me.

This is what I love about the beach, all three kids mind their own business, find their own adventure and there is no yelling, hitting or throwing of any kind.  Ahh, relaxing.

Big sis showing little sis the waves.  I love my girls!

The sweet boy who has my heart, besides his daddy of  course.

Daddy and Amelia buried Lukey in the sand.

Amelia's mermaid tail.

I love this picture of Amelia laughing while she tried to get unburied.

Happy 7th Birthday Amelia Grace!

Seems like yesterday that our Amelia Grace entered our lives, she has been such a joy and blessing for the last seven years.  Look how she has grown and become such an amazing little girl.

We love you Amelia Grace, Happy 7th Birthday!

Elmo and Monet

Addison just adores Elmo these days.  We gave her a little stuffed Elmo and she loves to carry him around and sleep with him.  She gives him kisses and hugs, it is so sweet.  That is, it is sweet until she stands at our computer and screams 'ELMO!!!!" at the top of her lungs until we play an Elmo video...not as cute.

Amelia just did a full week of art camp at our local Art Museum and she adored it.  Each day we picked her up and she couldn't wait to tell us about the different projects she did, which included sculpting, painting, pastels and all sorts of other mediums (is that the right artistic word?).  I don't know where she gets her art talent and passion because it certainly is not from mommy.  At the end of the week the children put on an art show and here she is showing us a local cuisine she painted on canvas, a shrimp!  Well, it was a local cuisine until BP came to town.

Another coastal favorite, a sea turtle.  Now mommy has to get busy framing some of these masterpieces for our playroom.  Good job Mimi!  Luke had a fun week too this week at vacation bible school but he refused pictures all week so no blog appearance.  I guess he is totally over the paparazzi following him around.

Blueberries and Grandpa

Grandpa Steve came for a visit to celebrate Amelia's upcoming birthday and to help out when Stephen went back into the hospital.  But before surgery day, we decided we needed to head back to the blueberry farm one more time to stock our freezer full of blueberries.  Father and son finding the prime picks.

Addison always eats her body weight in blueberries.  Mmm.  She also helped demolish the blueberry pie I made afterwards.

Showing off the berries.  Our family went picking earlier this year and we made it on the WLOX news!  The news was doing a piece on this blueberry farm and the kids and I were on the 5:00 show picking berries, even Addison!  Luke had a close up of his picking skills.  Pretty neat, although I had my giant hat on and thick white sunscreen, I've had better looking days I think, I hope.

Loving on Grandpa Steve.

Still got to enjoy our beaches while Grandpa was there, no oil thank goodness.   It seems this will just be a long ongoing process of sporadic oil coming in.  So sad, boo BP.

Mountain House

Stephen had been on leave from work getting his pancreas functioning again and I realized, hey he can relax and take it easy anywhere right?  And even better would be if he had some cool weather so he could be outside and recover.  These were my thoughts one morning at 9:30 am and by 11:30 we were packed and in the car driving to the mountains of Georgia.  Boy am I glad we made that decision, we enjoyed an amazing week up in the mountains with nice cool weather.  It was refreshing for all of us.  Look at this view, so beautiful! 

The kids and I were able to feed the goats and horses.  This goat really liked Amelia and followed her around everywhere.  The kids and I were getting our picture taken with the goats behind us and up popped that goat and butted Amelia gently in the arm, I guess he wanted to be in the picture.  I said, "Go away goat, I have enough kids."  Ha, get it, kids?  I crack myself up.

Daddy and his three little recovery nurses.  

Look at this awesome picture.  Addison looks like a giant on top of the mountain!

Stephen set up a rope swing for the kids in the back of the property.  It was perfect, between the swing and the small creek on the property the children played the day away while Steve and I (and Addison) hung out on the deck.  Family games of Scrabble, Uno  and puzzles were in great abundance on this trip.

Luke taking a turn on the swing, whee!

At the waterfall down the street from our cabin.  The kids had fun exploring and splashing in the water which was so refreshingly freezing.  Addison learned how to say, "WOW"  this trip.  We opened the van door and she saw the mountains for the first time and she said in awe, "WOW!"  It was so cute.

We took the kid gem mining in the mountains.  This place was so cute, they have big bags of dirt and the kids have to agitate the mesh box in the running water and then search for gems.  They loved it and found some really pretty gems.  

Showing off a favorite one.

Amelia absolutely loved doing this, she was so into it.  She kept asking the owner what each and every stone was.

A little old fashioned fishing with a cane pole was definitely up our alley.

Look at that excitement!

Amelia is much braver than I am, she grabbed that fish like it was nobody's business.  No squirming or fussing at all.  

Luke caught a 3 pound trout, on a cane pole!  He had to ask Amelia for help brining it up because it was so heavy.  Amelia and Luke ended up catching 10 pounds of trout and we cooked it up for them that night.  First night in a long time they ate all their dinner without fussing because, "We caught dinner ourselves!"

Amelia and Luke and our friend Hayden made tye dye shirts.

Showing off the finished product.

Look at this cutie boy, he was showing me his pet snail.  The cabin had a tree house so Amelia and Luke had pet snails, grasshoppers and all sorts of treasures up there all week.  No adults allowed!

Where Stephen spent a vast majority of his trip.  Well deserved.  

Little diva Addison.

Addison is lucky to have such a sweet older brother.  

Quiet reflection by the fire.

Addison loved having breakfast on the deck while Stephen and I enjoyed our coffee and gazing at magnificent mountain views.  

Happy 4th of July!

Now that is one cute little firecracker :)

We stayed in Sky Valley, GA and our friends have two houses up there.  My kids and all of theirs got to be in the parade which was pretty cute.  They decorated a whitewater raft and all rode in it and waved to the crowd.

Our buddies Cynthia and Tommy.

Walking in the parade, it was oh I don't know, about 2 blocks.  Very small town adorable.

Luke, Amelia, Hayden and Mckenzie ready to board the fire truck.

We rode around the mountains atop the firetruck.

Nothing says 4th of July like a giant piece of watermelon!

Addison all pooped out on 4th of July fun.

Everyone loves a popsicle including the baby!  What a great trip, can't wait to go back.