Memorial Day Weekend!

What a fun way to start our Memorial Day Weekend.  The kids and I headed over to our sweet friends, the Hudsons, for some water sliding fun!  What a great way for the kids to burn off some energy, they had so much fun on that thing.

All we needed that day was good friends, a good water supply and plenty of watermelon!  I've never seen kids eat so much watermelon so fast :)

My sweet Sunday School class, well we were missing a few.  This Sunday was the last Sunday School day until the fall when my little first graders will move upstairs to the "big kid" hallway!  Good luck in second grade kiddos, love you!

That evening we went to Sounds by the Sea.  It was beautiful to listen to our symphony play all patriotic music while we relaxed by the beautiful coast.  What a great tribute to all of our military and their families.  

Snow cone smiles:)

What a relaxing evening.

And of course, FIREWORKS!  The symphony played music during the fireworks too which was pretty awesome.  This year Luke was still hugging my leg and covering his ears but that is one step up from last year when he watched from the van.  

On Monday our dear friends the Steens had a good ole fashioned Memorial Day picnic.  Yummy grilled hamburgers and brats (thank goodness they are from the Midwest too so they had brats), blow up pool and bean bag toss, perfection.  Oh, and oddly enough, a very pleasant day outside.  Cool breeze, how did we get so lucky?

The kids had a blast all afternoon in the pool, sprinkler and splash table.  Brought back many fond memories of growing up.

The kids, being kids.

The men, being men.

Addison was happiest when she was on the "sing."

Chatting with the ladies.  Thanks for a great day Jamie and Sharon!

Last Day of School and Girls Night Out

Amelia's last day of school was a half day on Tuesday so we celebrated by going out to lunch.  Cheese!

Last day of school definitely calls for some special drinks.

Our big girl is a 2nd grader now!  Where does the time go?

Girls Night Out time, hooray!  My favorite nights of the month.  This is the crew all dressed up to go see Sex And The City.  We choose a character in the movie to dress as and I donned my pearls and channeled my inner Charlotte York.  We had a really fun time watching the movie and tried to go out for drinks and food after the show.  Sadly, we do not live in New York City and by the time we got downtown at 10pm, all the restaurants were closed.  I guess living in a small town isn't always the best for a big night out on the town.

Addison's Antics

Addison is 16 months old tomorrow.  Holy cow, this little girl has kept us on our toes.  She is one funny chick.  Here she is with her first little "boy buddy."  (She's too young for a boyfriend).  This is Carter Hudson, does the name sound familiar?  Remember the post from a few weeks ago with Anna Hudson (Luke's love), this is Carter, her younger brother.  Oh boy, we are in trouble in about 15 years.  Addison already gives Carter hugs and kisses when she sees him.

Carter, Addison and Alex sitting pretty at kindergarten graduation.  

One of Addison's favorite things to do is "clean her belly."  She will get a baby wipe and meticulously clean her belly.  I guess when you are the third child, if you want something done, you need to do it yourself.

Speaking of, I guess Addison wanted a "cold one."  We often find her in the fridge, or climbing furniture or we will just hear her yell, "MaMa, MaMa" and we have to hunt for her because she has locked herself in the closet, bathroom, pantry, etc.

At the jump party place, Monkey Joe's.  Addison loved it here and spent the whole party jumping in this bouncer all by herself.

No fear, this one, no fear.

My all time favorite picture of any of my children.  I said, "Addison, be a fish."  She looks exactly like a fish with those big eyes and fishy lips.  Love it, love it, love it.

Random fun...

Addison sitting pretty.

Addison waiting for the bus to bring Amelia home from school.  She stands like this, on her tiptoes saying, "Bus? Bus? Yaya?" (Amelia).  It is precious.

Amelia Grace having a ball.  I chaperoned Amelia's class field trip to the Gulf Islands National Seashore.  It was a fun end of the year field trip, lots of playground time and nature hikes through the trails. 

I was wearing a tank top the other day and told Amelia the straps were called spaghetti straps.  A few nights later Amelia came running down in a nightgown with thin, little straps.  She said, "Look mom, noodle straps, just like yours!"  Love it.

Luke and his winning smile.  Luke keeps me chuckling throughout the day.  Some of the latest Luke quotes...To his baby sister as she continues to pinch him-"Addison, NO, I am allergic to pinching."  To mommy as I am killing a large bug under the kitchen table where Luke is watching standing on his chair, "Don't be scared mommy, God is always with you!"  To mommy and daddy,"Last night while I was sleeping, I felt a tingle by my boo boo and I think it was God healing me." 

Addison found a more effective way to eat cake recently.

Just a funny picture to make anyone laugh, even on a bad day.

Scholten visit

My sister's family came for a visit this weekend and we packed in as much fun as we could.  I don't know about them but we are exhausted!  The cousins had so much fun running around together, especially Max and Luke who were in Star Wars heaven together.  Amelia would just roll her eyes and say exasperated, "All they want to play is Star Wars..."

My big sister Traci.

Day one out to Horn Island, thankfully our coastal waters were still clear and the oil hadn't come to our coast yet.

Aunt Traci with all the kids on the way out to the island.

1,2,3 JUMP!

Just chilling.

Jumping in the waves and body surfing in the Gulf.

Uncle Kent,  Aunt Traci and Max.

We took the boat out to The Dock restaurant, I love this picture of Max!

Max and baby Addi.

Traci and me at The Dock.  It was a fun weekend and we were sad to see them go.

Playing with the new camera...

We bought a bunch of new camera equipment for our upcoming European adventures and that has caused the blog some updates too.  So bear with me as I struggle through technology updates :(

A picture of our sweet, sweet Addison Kate...

The other side of Addison Kate, the" I'm about to pinch your face and scream at you face."

I love this one of Amelia and Addison giving kisses.

Oh how we will miss these beaches...

On Saturday we headed to the beach to gather up as much beach time as we could before the oil begins to reach our beautiful coast. We couldn't take the boats out because many harbors had already closed and the booms laid out prevented us from getting around the Gulf.

Thankfully our little Mississippi girl doesn't know what is coming.

It is so sad to think of the beautiful white sand covered in oil for years to come, and the devastation the oil will cause for all the coastal wildlife species. All we can do now is pray the leak can be capped and the oil contained as quickly as possible. I hate to think of our children still trying to clean this mess up in decades to come. As I post this, the smell of oil has entered the air and with it an impending sense of doom. We love our coastal life, go away oil!

First Date, First Love

Meet Anna Hudson, the current love of Luke's life. The family hears Anna's name no less than 50 times a day from our little Romeo. Just a sampling of the phrases we often hear Luke say throughout the day, "Guess who I am thinking about? Anna, of course." "Guess who I am going to marry?" "If someone even says the word Anna, I am just going to scream." She is constantly in his thoughts, if he wasn't four I would be worried he would become a stalker. So, I told Luke if he asked Anna's daddy for permission, he could take Anna out on a date. Well, the little guy gathered up his nerve ( I have never seen him so nervous) and called up Anna's daddy and said, "Dr. Ben, could I pwease take Anna out on a lunch date?" It was so cute, Dr. Ben made Luke promise he would treat her well and respect her and plans were set! So here are the lovebirds out on their first date. Luke brought Anna a flower to which Anna quickly responded, "Luke why did you only bring me one?" But nothing could wipe the smile off of Luke's face. He made googly eyes at Anna the whole time and kept whispering in her ear, "Anna, I am your boyfriend." and "Anna, I am going to marry you someday, I'm serwious." It was all pretty adorable.

After lunch I took the children to Lovelace for an old fashioned ice cream date. It was a fun day, especially for Luke :)

Addison Kate is 15 months old!

Our big girl! Addison Kate turned 15 months old this week, it shocks me every time I have to say how old she is. She is turning into quite a little ham and really enjoys making the family laugh and dishing out kisses like they are going out of style.

Addison's favorite two things are being pushed in her swing and having books read to her, over and over and over. She also reads her books to herself now which is pretty funny to listen to, she points to each page and says, "Ohbe, Ahbe, Ohbe, Ahbe." Favorite food is definitely cheese and she is so cute when she asks for it, she looks up at us with her big blue eyes and gives us this big smile and says, "CHEEEEEESE." And then as she is eating it, "MMMMMMMM."

Addison is talking more and more everyday and is saying about 30 words right now. I think my favorite is still the classic, "uh oh" whenever she falls or drops something. Also, when we hand her something like a cup of milk or a book, she says "Tanks." (Thanks) and it just sounds so cute. Being the third she has learned to be pretty self sufficient at times, after she does her business and determines it's time for a diaper change she will bring us her container of wipes and a diaper and say "diaper, diaper." Funny little girl.