Southern Mamma

The beautiful Turks & Caicos

2012-02-13T15:08:00.004-05:00

Day 7: Grand Turk, Turks & Caicos

Ah! This island was SO beautiful & the water was UNBELIEVABLE!!! I feel like I've said this about all the islands, but this one really was stunning! It was small- which is one of my fav. qualities in little islands- I like the small feel where I can get around easily and it's not very commercialized.

This was a good one!

We had some time before docking, so Livie got a little extra pool time in- Greg requesting "payment" in order for him to go in the pool with her (payment is a kiss)..... she is politely declining :)

BUT- that pool is calling her name, so she gives in :)

First view of Grand Turk

Docking beside another ship. Livie is eating an ice cream cone (yes, again) and waving at the people on the ship as we come into to dock.

We didn't dock until 11 am, but we were one of the first off the boat...thanks to us having a STROLLER!!! This happened to us every time! We were already telling Livie that she would be in a stroller until she was 15! :) Everyone was trying to get on the elevators to go down to deck 0 in order to get off the boat- but when the elevator doors open up at deck 0, it is roped off, with a sign saying please wait on your deck until called, unless you have a stroller or wheelchair! Well, none of the crew members ever knew what the sign said- so after telling us to please go back up and wait, I would politely point them to the sign and they'd let us by and we'd be first in line.... the look on everyone's face was always priceless as we got moved in front of all those lingering in the staircase. Also funny to see all the people almost walking out of the elevator then seeing the sign and having to go back up, as we waited in our little corner :)

And here we are! Too bad there was someone always walking by & I couldn't ever get the full sign in full view! Dang tourists! :)

So- after we got off the ship- we headed to Nathan's Golf Cart rental- I had reserved a golf cart for the day so we could piddle around the island on our own time. It was fabulous. We again had to drive on the left side of the road, which didnt' seem nearly as scary on this small little (flat) island, as it did on the mountainous St. Thomas. We wandered up to the lighthouse, taking in the gorgeous views along the way.

Seriously- the water! I can't get over it!

We walked around up at the lighthouse area (lighthouse is no longer open to go up in- dang it!) and then took our own little hike along side the cliffs overlooking the water. We were totally by ourselves so it was very peaceful & fun to take in all of it without droves of people around.

On the golf cart (Can everyone smile at once please?!?! :)

I love this picture I took- think it looks kinda cool with the doors opening to the sea :) It's actually a private residence. And I took it as we were speeding by in the golf cart- surprised it turned out so good!

View of the turquoise water- so so pretty!

This is actually REALLY far down- I can't be for certain, but a LONG WAYS! So- I thought it would be cool to get a picture of us with my feet hanging over the edge- Fail- it look like we are just sitting on the sand near the water! Dang! Where's the ariel photographer when you need one!

Horses & donkeys roamed freely around the island. Livie thoroughly enjoyed pointing out the "Horsey poo" all along the way!

We drove by something called the "Town Pond" on the map (Before we left on the trip, I thought it would be something cool to go by) However when we got there it was really nasty looking- Unfortunatly, I didn't get anypictures of it! But it was basically brown (dirty brown) water- almost rust colored, and along the rim was a frothy, foamy white substance. There were little dividers all systamtically placed throughout it- it seemed fairly shallow. Anywhoo- Greg determined that it was their sewer system- which was not nearly as cool as I had thought it was gonna be. Later on in the main dining room that night, we saw our friends from Puerto Rico who we had chatted it up with the whole trip, and we asked them about it- they said their taxi driver told them that they use to harvest (not sure if that's the right word or not) sea salt. Now that is way cooler than the town sewer system! I forget when it got shut down- but a neighboring island that was bigger took it over because they had a much more efficient way of doing it. Anywhoo- that was a pretty cool little bit of info, and so glad I asked them!

Next up, was just relaxing at the beach in front of Jack's Shack. It's a little bar/restaurant right on the beach. We parked our golf cart, and guess what I found walking to the beach.... a conch shell graveyard! It was awesome- there were hundreds of them! I of course wanted to grab one, and Greg was insisting that I was going to get thrown in an island prison (too much watching the show "locked up abroad") Anyway- there was no sign saying do not take, so I found the one I wanted and plopped in in my bag! And I made it back with it- hopefully there isnt' a high bounty on my head in Turks & Caicos for that one!

We got settled in at the beach, picked our spot, and bought an umbrella for $10. We were close to the water & the food & drinks! I only have 2 more colors to knock off on my rainbow hued drink adventure. :)

The water was so clear & Livie had a blast playing in the water & sand, and getting burried in the sand! What a relaxing way to spend our last port day! I definitely want to go back! Maybe I can start saving up for a beach house there?????

Blue drink-Check!

Delish Jerk Chicken- the sauce was heavenly- we were gonna buy some, and totally forgot! Wonder if they ship!

Gettin buried in the sand

Burying my foot in the sand

Greg made a little snowman on the beach with a lime hat :)

Time to return golf cart & do a little shopping then head back on the ship

Bougainvilla ~ my fav!

Bye Bye Turks & Caicos :(

Trying to get a pic so you can see how massive the ship is- Greg & Liv are hunched down in the middle of the pic. Can't get the whole ship in the picture!

And I'll leave you with one last picture of the water :)

Only 1 (possibly 2 if I drag it out) more post to go.

I am longing to be back on vacation-esp today when it is sleeting outside!

Vaca ~ Part 3

2012-02-09T11:32:00.001-05:00

Day 6, we docked in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico.

After doing lots of researching beforehand, I arranged a tour with Albert Alguire. We had emailed each other a few times and he seemed like a super nice guy. Didn't know what he looked like so wasn't sure how to identify him when we got off the ship- with the thousands of other cruisers & natives trying to get you on their tour bus... but there he was, with a sign with our name on it- I liked the looks of that! We were the only ones who had reserved the tour with him before hand, and he wants to have 8 in order to go- so he had to round up some cruisers that had no plans getting of the ship (Side note...I mean who goes anywhere-especially a foreign country with no plans- hello people!! Thats not how I roll, but I guess to each his own! :)

Anyway, we waited around by the pier for about half an hour and sure enough, he rounded up a few more people, so off we went on our little tour.

Waiting on our group to form

It was so nice having such a small group- I feel sorry for those that are on huge group tours! We sped by all of them in no time. Albert is seriously the nicest guy ever! If we ever go back, we will definitely look him up again! He is native to the island, so he knows all about it. I had emailed him the things that I wanted to do ahead of time, so we kept to that schedule, which was really nice! Our first stop was the rainforest. Lucky for us, it was a small group, so we got there first, and got all our pictures taken before the masses showed up in the busses. He makes the coolest hats out of these giant leaves that drop from the trees in the rainforest. Liv had lots of fun playing with them...and lucky us- he made a big version too :)

The rainforest was so lush and beautiful! I will admit, I was expecting to see lots more exotic flowers, and also wildlife...which we saw NONE! (Wildlife) Heard lots of birds, but didn't see any :(

Silly Hats! Can't remember what tree they are from

Drinking from the Fountain of Youth

Livie playing with a "pee pee flower" (African Tulip). When it rains, they fill up with water, then it falls out of this little spout on the flower and it looks like it's going pee pee! :) Albert told us that story~ Livie tested it out!

We drove up further into the rainforest to a lookout point. The views were BEAUTIFUL! You could see up to the top of the rainforest, which was surrounded in clouds & you could also see down to the ocean. So So pretty! It was much cooler up in the rainforest....and damp (obviously) (proof of that is the latter pictures where my hair is a disaster!)

I forget the exact story of this- but people (workers of some sort) built this to use as a bath house while they were working (1930's i think). It was later shut down to the public for safety reasons (no lifeguards, etc).

The trees with the orange flowers on them are the African Tulip trees.

Ocean in the distance.

Rainforest Snail

Ornery Girl!!!

We did not spend a TON of time in the rainforest- it was enough for us since we had an adventurous little girl- but it would be fun to hike higher into the mountains. Think there are also some waterfalls that you can swim in- that would have been fun to do, but we were on a schedule! :)

Next we headed to the beach area... on our way, we saw this- a truck LOADED down with Plantains.

We ate at a very SHADY restaurant (Speaking of which, I have not had any "Shady Restaurant Weekend" Posts in a very long time- I'll get working on that one!)

This kind of place was right up Greg's alley- Albert took us here to sample all the food.... I can pretty much guarentee you that no other tours would take you to eat at a place like this- it was DELISH! We sat at 2 tables and Albert ordered for us (since we couldnt' read the menu, or would even know what to order) He got us pretty much one of everything. We sat with another couple from California that we had been chatting it up with the whole day- very sweet. We all dug in suspiciously, and much to all of our suprises- it was so good! I don't even know what all we had, and I pretended that the chickens running loose around the place were pets, and not that I was eating one of them!!! There were also lots of pigeons flying around, and Greg was convinced we were eating pigeon- sick! After all that food, we were stuffed- the total was $6 a person! CHEAP! I also had THE BEST PINA COLADA IN THE WORLD at this little joint- WHY didn't I ask for the recipe! I'm gonna email Albert & see if he can round that up for me! I had to have a 2nd it was so stinkin good! Now I am LONGING for them! YUMMO! And they were only $3 each!

The one on the left is a plantain stuffed with crab meat I believe, as well as some other stuff. The one on the right is some sort of fried fritter- think there was also crab meat in it. It was my favorite.

Forget what the one on the left is, but the one on the right was a skewer of chicken. (Or pigeon???)

The little hut in the middle with the flags is where the cooked, the hut with the white awning over it is where we ate, (and the restroom) and to the very far left- kinda a peach building covered by a palm tree is where the DELISH pina coladas were from. On a side note- I had to go to the bathroom SO BAD, so I threw all caution to the wind when I found the bathroom... no lights- no toilet seat-no toilet paper..... I guess when in Rome?!?! I did however run back out and snag a napkin! :)

Livie & Greg also got fresh coconuts & drank the water out of it.

Next, we walked across the street to the beach. It was so beautiful! The palm trees sway over the beach & it literally looks just like the pictures you see in calendars or your desktop background or screensaver!

(Scary Rainforest Hair!)

Next up was the forts- Not a huge interest of mine to tour, but thought they'd be neat to see.

That concluded our tour with Albert.... an AWESOME tour! Why, oh why didn't I get a picture of us with him???? GRRR!

He dropped us off in Old San Juan where we spent the rest of the time milling around the city & in and out of little shops.

Very colorful buildings & VERY narrow streets!

That's the end of Puerto Rico- headed back to ship!

View of one of the forts from the ship

That night we went to dinner in the Main dining room again, where Livie danced the night away with our head waitress! I still can't believe she just went with her & left us behind! She couldn't stop talking about it!!!

Hanging out at the pool on the main Lido deck before heading to bed

Dinosaur!

Until next time.........

Vaca Recap ~ Part 2

2012-02-06T14:34:00.003-05:00

Day 4: Sea Day

Today we spent at sea traveling to our next port of call.

We ate, lounged by the pool, ate, explored the ship, ate, went to some shows, ate, played putt putt golf, napped...you get the picture! Towards the end of the afternoon, we were all feeling a bit sea-sick...not too bad, but Greg & Livie took some drammamine, and I popped some high dosage RX pills for sea sickness. We opted out of eating in the main dining room since we weren't feeling the best. We also checked the menu on tv for that night and decided we could skip it. This was also one of the elegant nights on the ship, and I just brought clothes for one elegant night- so we decided to just eat at the buffet. We popped some more pills and went to a show. It was REALLY good and got our minds off the sickness.

Unfortunately for us......the night we missed in the main dining room was LOBSTER TAIL NIGHT! I mean seriously- we've only been betting each other how many lobsters tails we could eat, for oh, I dont' know....3 months!!!!! So annoying! I mean of all the nights to miss! They also had St. Louis style ribs, which greg was really mad about too!!! BAD NIGHT FOR SEA SICKNESS!!!

We're still not over it if you can't tell! So basically we ranted to each other about it every other night in the Main Dining Room!

Anywhoo-- Here's a few pics from the sea day

Gazing out into the deep blue sea

Very windy on the top deck!!!

Yummy! Well on my way to completing the colors of the rainbow....had several stops in the red/orange hues however! :)

Ice carving.....it ended up being an Indian head?!?!? Still not sure why they chose that and not a lizard, dophin, parrot...something along the lines of the Caribbean?!?!

Red & White!

Playing with Mommy's cocktail umbrellas!

Rainbow!

FROG!

Kissing the frog

We ordered her room service...which she thought was THE coolest thing ever! She could hardly get over it!

Day 2 ~ St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

We rented a jeep in St. Thomas, and Greg got to experience driving on the wrong side of the road! The steering wheel was in the correct location, but driving was on the left hand side. He was pretty glad when we made it back to the rental agency safe & sound! Lots of really bad, narrow roads, and lots of driving on very tight corners around mountains!

Our Ship

In the jeep headed to Coral World

A couple minutes later we looked back and she was sound asleep!

First stop was Coral World. We've been hyping this place up for months! She got to pet a "nice shark", hold a starfish, and hold & feed birds & see lots of lizards & other wildlife. It was awesome, and she had a blast!

This was a hard picture to take, but I thought it was kinda cool...I had 2 birds on my arm, and greg had one on his. Trying to capture them all in one shot :)

Baby sea turtle hatchling....SO SO CUTE!

Not a fan of the turtles!

Sea Turtles

YIKES! Here it comes!

Stingray & shark feeding time

Petting the nice shark

We went through the line about 5 times :)

Next stop was Sapphire Beach....BEAUTIFUL!!! So So pretty- pictures just don't do it justice! We ate lunch on the beach and played around for a couple hours, then headed back into town.

Our jeep

After returning the jeep, we rode the skyride to the top of Paradise Point. It was ALL I could do to get Greg to go on this thing. I was buying the tickets for Livie and I, and last minute he said "FINE! I'll go". What a weenie! :) I am NO FAN of heights- but I thought the views would be totally worth it (Plus there was a drink at the top I wanted to try!!! (If that's not motivation enough to overcome your fears, I dont' know what is!)

View on the way up from our cable car

Made it to the top!!!

They had several animals up there, which miss missy miss loved!

Love bougainvilleas!!! And they were all over the place!!! I've put my request in at Grimm's Gardens for them to order!!!

Um yea..... the view was definitely worth the 7 minute trek up the side of a mountain...on a 1 inch cable (Greg made sure to point that fact out!)

As I suspected...this was also worth the trek! Bailey's Bushwacker

I could get use to this view! Cheers!

It started to rain right as we were on our way back to the ship... Pretty funny, everyone started making a mad dash to the ship. As we were getting back on, it stopped and I was able to snap a quick pic of another rainbow

All cleaned up and ready for departure! St. Thomas in the background

Another bad job taking pictures!!! This was the only one I got of the night...my proccuito & melon appetizer plate....greg had sushi- gross!

Cow!

That's pretty much day 4 & 5 in a nutshell!

We're Back! We're Brown! (And we wanna go Back!)

2012-02-02T12:05:00.001-05:00

We made it back from our week long trek to the Caribbean! We had a fabulous time on our cruise & are ready to go back already! I'll divide this out between a few posts as to not overload your computer with pictures!!! (I took almost 800 during the week- so I've weeded some out, and posted to my shutterfly account, and major weeded out to put on to the blog ;) If anyone wants to look at the entire collection.... http://www.southernmamma.shutterfly.com/. Not sure if you need a password to get in or not, so if you do- let me know!

Day 1: Leavin' town, Headed for Florida!

Temperature on the bank clock as we're headed out of town

Greg & Livie on the airplane ready for take off!

Finally made it to Florida & our awesome hotel...that I scored for major cheap thanks to priceline! Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa in Hollywood, FL.

Our room~ Livie jumping through the french doors that connect the bathroom & bedroom

Checking out one of the pools (Hotel in background)

Fountain in front of where we ate dinner...finally at 10 at night! Rivals sports bar, which was quite yummy!

Me trying to be a photographer and take a cool pic of a palm tree

When checking in, I asked for a room with a pool &; ocean view... and that's what we got! It was awesome! The pool changed colors continuously- so cool!

Day 2: It's Sailing Day!

Our view waking up in the morning at the hotel

Livie checking out the view & sunrise

Heading in for a quick dip in the pool at 7:30 am!

Awesome pool I might add- it overflows into a tiny crack at the base of the pool.

Time to hit the beach!

...and back to the pool. This was another pool that had a waterfall, and that round light area, you can see above into the pool on top, and if you're on top...obviously you can see the pool below. Very clever!

Another view of back of hotel

Ready to go get on the Big Boat!

Right after getting on the boat (which was a fairly seemless process, thanks to us having a stroller...we got sent to the front of all the lines!) Greg & Livie decided it was time to chow down! Livie found a strawberry cake pop...no suprise there!

Fell asleep during the muster drill....guess she didn't think she needed to worry about getting to safety if the boat started sinking!

View of Miami as we set sail

First drink in hand & ready to set sail! Livie still sleeping!

A picture of just the 2 of us...what the heck??? :) Side note- I asked a guy standing by us if he would take our picture, and he gave me a very puzzled look and asked if I wanted him to email it to us! I said- actually you can just take it with OUR camera! HA!

Sailing into the sunset!

Livie drinking out of a "Fancy Glass" as she called it :)

Eating in the main dining room. I was planning on taking pictures of all our food dishes throughout the cruise- but I did a pretty poor job of it!

Greg's creme brulee....with Livie digging out the berries!

My melting chocolate cake- delish- but very heavy!!!

Cheese platter...2 were good, the rest were disgusting and about had to spit them out in my napkin!

First towel animal of the trip! Swans! (And a very amused little girl!!!)

Greg attempting to make a towel animal.... not so much!

Livie knocking out greg's "towel animal"

Day 3: Half Moon Cay, Bahamas!

Originally, I really wasn't that interested in every going to the bahamas...I prefer more exotic places...however this private island (owned by Carnival Cruise Lines) was one of the most beautiful places! The sand was like nothing we've ever felt before- literally like powder! And the water was gorgeous! I had rented a private cabana for the day, since there isnt' much else to do besides relax by the beach. It was perfect! I chose cabana #9 out of 15 since it was down the beach a ways and more private than the crowded area towards the beginning of the beach. What a great day & fabulous start to the trip!

First morning on the ship- Livie drinking hot chocolate out of her fancy glass, and me drinking a mimosa out of mine! Ah the life! :)

Headed to our cabana

Toes touching sand for the 1st time in 11 months!

...and she LOVES it!

View of our ship from our cabana. We had to tender in on this port of call, and luckily we were on the first tender boat since we had reserved a cabana!

Headed to the water!

Livie in our cabana ~ #9 Eggshell
Came equiped with chips, salsa, guac, sourcream, fresh fruit, veggies & dip, snorkel equipment, floaty mats, air conditioner, misting fan & super comfy lounge chairs ~ paradise!

Playing with the sand toys....what she did pretty much most of the day!

Relaxin in our hammock

Food spread in our cabana

Thought she'd head out with the fins on, but that was all the further she got!

Had enough of 'em!

We'll try out the floaty mat instead!

My relaxing view while the kids play ;)

Beautiful water!

Kiddie area- towards the beginning of the beach, there are water slides, and kiddy things to do- we ventured over here before lunch & livie was in heaven! I think she went down this slide at least 50 times!

Does life get any better than this???

Little palm trees

Entrance to Half Moon Cay

Beach babes :)

Another view of ship

True that!

She did not want to walk in the water..she kept saying "Ocean going to get me mommy"! She said "Lets walk on the sidewalk"... which was actually just sand :)

Hope no one minds if I squat down right here and go potty! :)

Luckily that water was rushing right into the ocean!

Trying to capture the color of the water, which is just impossible to do!

"Bye Bye, Hamas"

Dinner in the main dining room again ~ our 2nd home :)

Going through the colors of the rainbow with my drink choices-

that's for you Steph!!! :)

One tuckered out little girl from our busy day! Didn't even stay awake to see the elephant towel animal :) She ended up throwing up at 2 am- then taking a shower to wash the throw-up out of her hair..not sure what caused that, but she was good to go the next day- thankfully!!!

Busy first couple of days! Will post more tomorrow (hopefully)!

(How was that to keeping the pictures to a minimum??? HA!!!)

January

2012-01-19T12:47:00.001-05:00

WOW! I've been major slackin on blogging...and taking pictures!!! So here's a few from the past month!

Greg & Livie made a little snowman...looks like they used up ALL the snow in the yard!!!!

New Year's Eve- with Tyse & Jack

Knocking the tower down! Favorite activity!

Playing the Wii.... not sure what that move is!!!

Playing with some "Snow" that santa left in her stocking.... This stuff is COOL!!! It's kinda like the gel stuff that is in diapers... but way funner to play with in this form :)

Hope yall are having a great January!!!! Can't believe we are almost through the first month of 2012! Where has the time gone????

Christmas Festivities

2011-12-27T15:33:00.001-05:00

WARNING...LOTS OF PICTURES!

Snow Ice Cream

Giggy wrapped the tree in toilet paper!

Giggy chasing Livie in her shiny red corvette

Decorating Christmas cookies for Santa

LOTS of sprinkles...

... Seriously!

Christmas Eve

Most of the Remmers clan~ Missing a few of the cousins

Holding little Gus

Tracking Santa

Christmas Morning!

Giggy left a North Pole breakfast, complete with reindeer kisses, hot chocolate & snow-covered donuts

Santa Came! And he ate all the cookies!

New bouncing horse!

What else is in here???

She got a present from Giggy, and once we told her who it was from, she ran into the kitchen to give Giggy a kiss and tell her "thank you so much"

Christmas at Mom & Dads

We had a great Christmas, lots of fun visiting with family, eating!, and just relaxing (if that is possible after making about 10 dozen cookies, cooking, cleaning, etc). We have 4 down, and one more Christmas get together to go!

Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Santa & Giggy

2011-12-20T10:30:00.001-05:00

We've been having lots of fun with our elf, "Giggy" this year. Last year she didn't care too much about it, but this year, she is so excited to get up every morning to see what shenanigans Giggy has been up to. We've had a lot of fun participating as well!!!

With Santa at window opening. At first she wasnt' too sure, but as soon as he whipped out a candy cane, she was good to go!

Giggy made Livie tiny elf-sized pancakes

and painted her nose red in the night.

Giggy has also strung ribbon all over the kitchen, hung all of her big girl undies on the christmas tree, brought a snowman & peppermint marshmallows from the north pole, brought her reindeer antlers to wear, and many other tricks. (I don't know why I haven't taken a picture of all of them!!!) Livie is at such a fun age and gets so into it,

it makes me wanna be a kid again!!!

Big Girl Undies

2011-12-12T14:25:00.001-05:00

Ok- Well we haven't officially made the transition from diapers to big girl's, but she is using them here and there. She looks so stinkin cute in them...and so fun to squeeze those little buns! I bought a TON of them a few weeks ago, and she loves sorting and folding them :)

Happy Turkey Day

2011-11-30T13:03:00.001-05:00

We had a great Thanksgiving week.... I say week because I think we had something going on with family every night last week! We ate tons & I am still stuffed...but for some reason- I'm still eating! Guess that's what this time of year is for...putting on an extra layer of fat for the winter! :)

Had to share this little "turkey" that I made... it was super easy & fun...and yummy! Honeydew body, bosc pear head, craisens for the eyes, then skewers of red & yellow peppers. salami, cheese, and grapes.

The little miss with her Thanksgiving meal!

(Yes....we used paper plates this year- I know- almost a sin!)

Trying to get a good pic of her adorable dress that a dear friend of mine from Savannah gave Livie last year. LOVE IT! Thanks, Kathy!!!

Crazy woman comin' through!

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving & much to be thankful for!

Science Expirments

2011-11-22T09:12:00.001-05:00

A couple of weeks ago when it started to get dark really early- we had eaten, taken our baths & cleaned the kitchen....and it was 6:30.... we were like .... what are we gonna do the rest of the night! So- we decided to do some science expirments! Greg and I each came up with 2 different ones, so we had 4 little projects all together. Livie had so much fun with them!

First up was mini volcanoes. We piled up baking soda, then used an eye dropper of colored vinegar to drop on the little baking soda piles.

Next up, we microwaved ivory soap. It puffs up and is very fun to play with! (Thank you pinterest for that idea!)

Greg's expirements were a little more detailed than mine were. He put colored water in a glass, then added vegetable oil. Next, he added rock salt and it was so cool.... the rock salt went to the bottom and the oil started globbing up (best i can describe it, is it looked exactly like a lava lamp!).

His last expirement was filling a cookie sheet with milk (at $4.19 a gallon I might add!) then dropping food coloring in different places in the milk. Then you add liquid dish soap little drops at a time onto the food coloring. It starts swirling around & looks very cool!

Livie had a blast with all these things...... and we had a disasterous mess to show for it afterwards... but it was fun, and took us all the way to 8:30!

snow

2011-11-09T18:25:00.000-05:00

Well since everyone is posting about the first snow.... I will too.....

Here is Livie in the snow last night.......

OUR THOUGHTS EXACTLY!!!

She cried & cried and wanted to come back inside! Hopefully this will be the last of it until Christmas! I don't mind a white Christmas...
as long as it melts the next day! :)

Cake ~ Catering ~ and a Wedding

2011-11-07T12:22:00.002-05:00

A couple of weeks ago I was asked to make a cake for a little cutie pie's 3rd birthday party~ the mamma said that she liked horses... so this is what she got! I had lots of fun making it, and hope the bday girl enjoyed it!

A few days before that, I also had the pleasure of catering Asha's bridal luncheon. She wanted heavy hors d'oeuvres with a Mexican theme, and it was so fun coming up with different creations for her special day!

You know I love food.... so here are some pics for ya!

~The Spread~

Quesadillas are in the roasting pan

Bacon-wrapped Sea Scallops

Mini tostadas with lime marinated chicken & avacado salsa

Strawberry jello shooters of course!

The lovely ladies feasting! Beautiful bride to be is in the pink :)

And last... but not least- a few wedding reception pictures

(not sure why I have none of the bride & groom?!?!?!)

Halloween Festivities

2011-11-02T11:25:00.000-04:00

First up.... Pumpkin Carving!

Livie had lots of fun digging out the pumpkin goo!

Just cute :)

Getting ready to go to the Main Street trick-or-treating event. Small town livin' for ya! What a fun activity- all the businesses on main street hand out candy to the little kiddos. It was lots of fun going from store to store and seeing all the costumes in the daylight!

With her peter pan cousins ~ Jack & Tyse

I thought it would be appropriate for her to be Dorothy for Halloween since we moved back to Kansas this year :)

Renyer's Pumpkin Patch

Fun in the corn!

Big Girl!

Horse swings

Someone is not cooperating with my self photo!

Happy Halloween! She is rarin' to go...and we hadn't even started the trick or treating yet! What a process that was...in and out of the car, shoving a tutu in the carseat... wanting to play at each person's house! I was worn out...and definitely should have changed into something comfy before wrangling her during the craziness!

Trunk or treat at the library park

Waiting on trick or treaters :) Love the shoes baby girl...gotta look good when someone comes to the door! :)

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!

Ren Fest & KC Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-28T10:48:00.002-04:00

We have been on the go every weekend for months it seems like... so we had to squeeze two KC activities into 1 day! We went to the Rennissance Festival in KC the last day it was open, and I'm so glad we got to go! We went with my parents, Megan & Jesse, and Sam. We had a great time milling around, and doing a LOT of people watching! These people REALLY GET INTO this time period! YIKES! It is very amusing though! We got to stomp grapes.....and RIDE AN ELEPHANT! I was so excited about this, I could hardly stand it! I've been wanting to ride one since we went to the circus in Savannah last year. Me and one of my best friends from Savannah were all about the elephants, and we finally decided we would cap it off at $100 to ride one. Well, was I in for a surprise.... it was only $5! I couldn't believe my eyes! It was lots of fun, and everything I hoped it would be! :)

Stompin Grapes

I had to get in on the fun too!

Getting ready to ride the elephant! Nice picture, Greg!

Petting zoo

Next up was the KC pumpkin patch in Gardner, KS. It was a Great pumpkin patch ,and we had lots of fun there too. Wish we could have stayed alittle longer- they closed at 6 on Sundays and we got there about 4:45. They had tons of activities to do- trains, petting zoo, slides, hay rides, a bouncy thing in the ground, pumpkin chunkin, and more. We all had lots of fun.

Look at that air!

This was perfect because she has been pretending to be a cat for the last month... crawling around, meowing and saying "nice kitty"- then licks your hand, then says "mean kitty- I scratch", then she scratches your hand.... not sure where she comes up with these things!!!

Catch-up ~ Part 2

2011-10-20T11:33:00.003-04:00

Well, it took me a little longer to do this catch-up blogging than I thought! I've been super busy lately, and haven't even had time to look at other people's blogs, so I'm catching up there as well!!!

Camping!

A few weeks ago we camped with my family at Tuttle Creek. It was lots of fun, but way too rushed! Mom and megan had gone to the K-state game & the three of us didn't get to Manhattan until about 5:30 or 6 because we worked at the Grimm's Garden's customer appreciation lunch... so by the time we got the campsite set up, and I got mom and megan picked up from the game... it was dark! Next time, we will spend the whole day there and make it worth the while for packing ALLLLLLLLLL the stuff up that goes along with camping! We did have a fun time, despite the shortness of the trip!

Watching the water rush out (at Tuttle creek dam)... Greg and I always would go to "where the water rushes out" in college. It is so mezmerizing to watch it rush outta there.

Greg re seeded the yard, and Livie helped spread hay over it... What a messy job- she was throwing it everywhere!!!

Cooking potato soup ~ YUMMY! This is the best recipe for potato soup, and it is so stinkin easy, it is ridiculous!

Time to decorate for Halloween!!! Someone was very excited about this!!!

(Livie was excited too :)

Happy Fall Y'all!!!!

Catch-up~Part 1

2011-10-11T12:18:00.002-04:00

Well, we finally got our new computer, and all of the pictures and documents off of our old computer and loaded on the new one- what a process!!!

So- I'll play a little catch-up with the blog & pictures :)

First up......the lost has been found!

Since moving back to Kansas- I have been without several of my favorite kitchen tools. I have looked high and low- in storage several times, in boxes, etc- you name it- I've looked there! I was extremely distraught about this- and really didn't want to fork out $150 or more to replenish my lost stock. So I just held out- hoping they would magically fall in my lap..... and they pretty much did! 8 months later- I'm back in business! I literally almost cried when I found them! I was going to make a crockpot of chili and my wanted my biggest crock pot for the job. I went and retreived it from a very tall cabinet and when I opened it, all wrapped up in a bunch of packing paper was all of my missing tools! I stepped back and gasped and promptly told greg to come in here and look what was in my crockpot- (he thought it was a mouse)! I called my mom and told her too........and asked her if it rang a bell that those were in there! (I did not pack up my kitchen things- so I had no idea where to even begin! Anyway- I am elated!!!!

Next up.... Homecoming!

We got dressed up in our Bluejay attire and were ready for the annual Homecoming parade~ complete with corsages from my dad!

Go Bluejays! Too bad the outcome of the game wasn't what it should have been! It is so fun to take Livie to all these traditions that I remember having so much fun participating in!

Watching the pep rally with Grandpa

Someone was VERY tired!

Drumroll please..... Witches Night Out!

My mom and I got dressed up for the 2nd annual Witches Night Out at Renyer's Pumpkin Patch. It was a great time, filled with yummy food, yummy drinks, crafts, hayrides, vendors and prizes!

I wish this picture would have been in color- she took it with the sunset right between our toasting glasses.

That's all for now- Will post round 2 of catch up in the upcoming days.

Have a great Tuesday!

Canning

2011-09-28T11:12:00.001-04:00

I have not fallen off the face of the Earth- but our computer went kapoot, so I have no way of uploading pictures... We did order a new one- but it isnt' shipping until next week, so we are trying to survive without technology for another week or so!

I did find these pictures and realized I have not posted about this yet~ so here ya go!

We have had massive quantities of tomatoes and jalapenos this year. We've given them away, eaten them raw, I made 8 batches of fresh salsa and froze it, and we were running out of things to do with them! So- I decided to CAN! That's right- I'm steppin back in time! I have never canned before so I was very nervous about it! I decided it would be best to enlist the help of my mom~ so away we went! On a side note, I told Staci- one of my best friends from Savannah that I was going to can~ and this was her response:
"Canning?- you sound like you live on a farm! Very domestic and 1933! Well, I can just picture you wearing a bonnet with a white apron hanging clothes on a line (do you have one of those?) and canning fruits with all the women folk. Now I am making myself laugh- I am going to buy you a bonnet"!

That really cracked me up! But I did kinda feel like that!

Anywhoo- on with the process- I drug a million jalapenos over to my moms house and we preceded to make hot jalapeno pepper jelly, peach jalapeno jelly, and canned jalapenos. It took us several hours to do, and a few drinks to overlook the disasterous kitchen (and numb our burning hands and eyes!) but we were successful!

Hot Jalapeno Pepper Jelly in the works

A delicious drink~ Love martini :)

Livie helping to prepare the peaches for peach jalapeno pepper jelly

(Hopefully the health inspectors don't mark us for naked cooking going on!)

Experimenting with different seasonings for ourcanned jalapenos

A week later, we decided to tackle the tomatoes. I brought 30 lbs of tomoatoes over and we got to work again! This time, we made pizza sauce and tomato soup. We also canned some pickeled green beans, also fresh out of our garden. Another late night and super messy kitchen- but I think we will be stocked up for winter by the end of all this canning!

final result of 2 canning sessions- 63 jars!

I brought about 40 more pounds of tomatoes over to mom and dad's last night so after a few week hiatus, we are back on the canning wagon- this time... tomato juice, and maybe something else tomato-y if we get creative...
Any suggestions????

Wish us luck!!!

Wedding Festivities!

2011-09-19T11:29:00.000-04:00

Wow! What a whirlwind we've been in the last couple of weekends!

Sept. 10th was Sam's bachelorette party in KC. We had a great night on the Plaza, that started out with dinner at Bucca di Beppo~ a delish Italian restaurant...we even got to sit at the "kitchen table"... and yes, it actually was in the kitchen! The servers and chefs stopped by our table to show us everything they were serving as they took it to other tables. It was really nice to see things before you ordered it! After dinner we hit the town in style with a Limo arranged by Bobby. We had a little lingerie shower in the limo complete with champagne and cute cookies.

The Bachelorette

Yes...that is a stick of butter in the mashed potatoes!!!

Cookies I made for the Par-tay

Sam being silly with her cookies :)

Next up.... drum roll please~ the big event! Sam & Bobby's wedding was Saturday and it went perfectly! The weather was threatening this outdoor event, but it went off without a hitch! It rained all morning, then cleared off for the big event. Started raining again around 9:30 that night, but we only had until 10 with the DJ, so it worked out perfectly! Even Livie did an amazing job as the flower girl- she walked down that aisle like a pro! (The rehearsal did not go so fab so I was a little worried!!!)

I was very nervous about Liv's blue sash.... It didn't match the bridesmaids colors, so I had some left over mod podge & glitter from when I made her shoes (I'm in love with mod podge!!!) so I decided to test it out on the 3 little flowers on the front of her dress... It looked GREAT but the sash then really clashed...so I mod podged the entire sash.... well then it was super stiff so we couldnt' put it in a bow...luckily one of the bridesmaids was able to create a bow with some safety pins and the black hanger straps from a bridesmaid dress!!! CRAFTY! Turned out great!

With George, the ring bearer

Cheesin it up

That's better!

Greg did a little side photography while the actual photographer was clicking away

We took the opportunity go get a cute family photo too... Liv was actually suppose to stand under the word "LOVE" but she wasn't cooperating :)

Chillin out while mom takes a million wedding party pictures :) Gotta love ELMO!

A little chilly at the reception so I brought some comfy clothes for Liv (and myself!)

Diggin into the cupcakes!

Dancin with Daddy!

Fun times!

Cousins- Livie, Ben & Hayden

Dancin with the groom!

Lovin up on my baby girl!... yep, I do have jeans on! :) Hard to chase a 2 year old in the cold, in a short, tight dress (with a major high slit in the back!) The groom's mom did it so I figured it was okay for me to do too!!! (And that was the only thing in my car)

Congrats Sam & Bobby & best wishes for a lifetime of happiness together! Thanks for letting us share in your very special day!

We love you!!!

Sunflowers!

2011-09-09T12:14:00.003-04:00

We went out to a great sunflower patch yesterday and got some super cute pictures of the kiddos. The sunflowers this time of year are GORGEOUS around here so I had to get some snapshots!

Birthday Girl!!!

2011-09-04T23:35:00.002-04:00

Is it possible that Miss Livie is already 2?!?!?!? We have had so much fun with this girl over the last 2 years! It is so fun watching her get cuter everyday, and learn so much! A little ornery too, but we wouldn't have her any other way!!!

Thanks to everyone who came to her party and help make her day so special! We love you!

Birthday girl!

new jeep!

Eating at the mexican restaurant! They sing to you, then put whip cream in your face...too funny!!!

Livie was not amused!

..... they better not be coming back!!!

with our high school mascots ~ the bluejays..... she was all about them until we got up close!

not too sure........

get me outta here!!!

Birthday party on Saturday

Butterfly fruit kabobs

butterfly cheese & salami

Butterfly cresents

homemade butterfly chips

Quesadillas ~ Corn & Black bean, Chorizo sausage & shrimp, and cilantro & chicken

layered jello

The cake

cake pops!

Livie's cake

cute little lights megan made!

the official dishwasher!!! :)

Pinata

new pink cowgirl boots!

Whew~ what a weekend! :)

Fun at the cabin, Cobblestone Carnival, Painted fingernails & SCISSORS!

2011-08-30T14:46:00.001-04:00

Can you have any more of a random blog title??? I could have separated these out into multiple posts..... but I've got a lot going on right now and plenty more to post on in the next few days! Between canning a million things, planning and executing an enormous 2nd bday bash for my little bug, planning a bachelorette party & getting ready for a Big wedding--- I don't have time to do separate blog posts....so you get a photo dump! :)

Friday we went to Pyle's cabin for a cookout- it was lots of fun and the kiddos had a blast running around! Doing a little fishin in the creek with Daddy

CrAzY wOmAn ALERT!!!

Sparring with Jack

Cobblestone parade with Tyse & Jack

Cobblestone carnival

Riding on the "Eleflant" ride

I finally broke down and pained her fingernails!!! I wasn't really ready to do it, but she kept saying "fingers, mommy"! I tried to brush it off and thought maybe she'd forget about it...but she didn't! She seems SO grown up with them painted!

This girl is a big fan of cutting..... so I decided I better get her a little pair of safe scissors so she would stop trying to get my extremely sharp ones! She went to town on a peice of construction paper and was perfectly content for about an hour!!! It was a diaster by the time she was done- I've never seen so many tiny peices of paper- but she had fun, so guess thats all that matters!!!

VERY proud of her new scissors!

Concentrating extremely hard!

....and she's off!

2011-08-24T16:50:00.000-04:00

This past weekend we moved Megan to college! I can't believe she is old enough for college! The move was a breeze and I think she is getting along pretty good! We all miss her around here- especially Livie! She keeps asking where Megan is. The other night she kept saying "Megan, are you" over and over... I kept saying she went to college at K-state. She started saying it again a little while later and Greg said "she went bye bye" and Livie promptly responded "no, college daddy- kstate". It was so funny!

I did a horrible job taking pictures of the big moving day- but I did get one picture that was kinda cute- Livie in front of the dorms~ Same one I was in 10 years ago! Greg said Livie will be going here before we know it------ why does he do that to me?????

If you want to follow all of Megan's college shenanigans.... you can follow her blog HERE :)

Just another busy, fun weekend!

2011-08-15T16:27:00.000-04:00

We started off our weekend festivities a little early~ Greg's big 30th bday was Thursday! We celebrated with Pizza & a mock Dairy Queen ice cream cake at the hospital (my gma is in the hospital right now, so we thought we'd bring the party to her!) Friday night we got together with some new and old friends for ice cream with lots of yummy toppings, jalapeno poppers, chips & salsa, beer, shots & malibu- what more do you need for a party! Felt like we were back in college with that combo! But, it was all delish, and fun to get together with friends. No pics from that- whoops! Forgot the camera!

Ice cream cake......looks very interesting because it got stuck to the freezer door!!!!

Tasted amazing- looked pretty rough!

Saturday we picked peaches, red raspberries and blackberries, then went to a little neighboring town for some festivities. Saturday night we went to the annual luau at the country club. It was fun & the food was delish!

Cotton Candy!!!

at the Luau with my sweet baby girl!

Hula Girl!

2 out of 3 looking at the camera...not bad!

Sunday we had a bday party for Greg at his parents house- again, yummy food, fun times,and again no pictures! Maybe it is a coincidence that I keep eating good food at all these places and keep "forgetting my camera"! :)

Washing dishes- one of her favorite chores!

this is for Greg

2011-08-09T12:14:00.000-04:00

Greg didn't like the results of yesterday's look a like meter, so he told me to do it with another picture........ so, here ya go babe...... she looks like me more by 5% this time!!! Do you want me to do another one...might be 10% next time! :)

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Genealogy searches - Roots

Just for fun :)

2011-08-08T14:36:00.000-04:00

We just got some family pictures taken by Deb's Images yesterday. She has a few of them up on my facebook page, but thought I'd share a few on here. Also- for the hundreds of people that say Livie looks like Greg.........here ya go.....the OFFICIAL results :) she looks more like me by 3% :) That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!!!

MyHeritage: Look-alike Meter - Family pics - Blank family tree

Tears

2011-08-03T09:37:00.000-04:00

Today is a very sad day- after 13 years of being together, by beloved lizard, Bianca has passed away. I am way more sad than I thought I would be~ I will certainly not miss buying those nasty live crickets to feed her, but I will miss that little leopard gecko! She was a fun companion all through high school, college, our stint in KC, 6 years in Georgia and 5 months back in Kansas. Rest in peace little Bianca, you were a good friend!

Gone Fishin'

2011-07-25T09:31:00.000-04:00

We went fishing on Saturday to a fun little farm pond, where you basically just throw your line in and automatically catch a fish! I was reluctant to go, not interested in fishing, but didn't want to be a party pooper, so I went along. It actually was so fun watching Livie catch fish and get so excited everytime she pulled one out of the water. Now all she can talk about is the "pish" that she caught!

My new addiction

2011-07-21T09:53:00.000-04:00

Hi, my name is Jamie and it has been about 10 minutes since I've last visited the Pinterest website!

Seriously- this is the best website ever!!! I am forever bookmarking a million websites for recipes, craft projects, things I want in my home, etc....and this website compiles everything in one place! Thank you, Staci for inviting me! The website is by invitation only, so let me know if you want an invite!

One of the cute little fun ideas I picked up off the site is shaving cream bath paints! You get a little muffin tray, squirt some foaming shaving cream in each spot, then mix in a little food coloring- get a paintbrush, and you're good to go! Livie would have played for hours in the bath tub if I let her. I had to refill the tub twice with warm water! She requests it for every bath time now! She drew some blobs, pointed to each one, letting me know one was an airplane, one was a house, and one was a balloon!

Pucker Up!

2011-07-19T09:32:00.000-04:00

I was putting my lipstick on before church and Livie wanted some too, so I bent down to put some on her and she puckered right up-apparently she thinks this is how I look when I put lipstick on!

Busy Weekend~Again! :)

2011-07-13T10:53:00.000-04:00

We have been so busy this summer it doesn't feel like we've had time to relax! Guess that's what summer's for! This past weekend, we made a trip to KC to see some out of town relatives and had a yummy bbq. We also went to an Orange Leaf (frozen yogurt place) where Megan got to meet her future ksu roomies, and we got to indulge in some yummy froyo! And I am on a mission to open one of those here in town! YUM! Livie had fun playing with her ? cousin...not sure what number it is, but Emily and I are first cousins, so would that make Livie & Hayden 2nd or 3rd cousins?? hmmmmmm..... anyway, we had a great time with everyone and didn't get home till 1:30 in the morning! Cant' party like I use to!

Livie's concoction- I think there were about 8 different kinds of yogurt and various toppings, I let her pick out everything she wanted and she thought it was pretty cool- at the whole thing!

Livie & Hayden watching the hot air balloons

Saturday I finished making Andrew Jay's bday cake~ he requested a bass cake, so that's what I made! We had a yummy party and lots of fun!

Happy 10th Birthday Andrew Jay!

huddling around to help Andrew blow out his trick candles

no idea!

We also went to a tractor parade downtown~ Livie loved looking at them and loved it even more when they threw candy!

peddle tractors

Happy Anniversary to us!

2011-07-11T09:46:00.001-04:00

We just celebrated 7 years of marriage :) Can't beleive it has been that long since we tied the knot! We went to the Country Cabin the night before and enjoyed a nice meal....just the 2 of us! On our actual anniversary (yesterday) we went to the pool, I finished making a fish cake for a very special nephew's bday, then we went to his bday party. Overall a great day! Love you, babe!

~ After eating at the Country Cabin ~

4th of July weekend

2011-07-06T15:13:00.000-04:00

We had a very busy, but fun 4th of July weekend! Saturday I ran in my first 5k~ the annual Firecracker 5k. I survived! Didn't walk! And made it in 29 minutes! (Not that great of a time, I know- but for not running in 11 years, not too bad!) Megan has been training me for a few weeks now, otherwise I probably would have gotten last :) Now Gregory on the other hand..........has not been training at all......and manages to get 3rd in his age division! Very annoying! But we are very proud of him :)

I know I look like a dork.....this is not how I run~ just waving at my baby girl as I *sprint* by!

FINISHED!

Me and my trainer :)

Saturday evening we went to Greg's parents house for a little firecracker get together then went to watch the firework show at the ball fields.

My patriotic jello~ had to take a picture of it :)

Sunday after church, the 3 of us headed to Kansas City to KC Riverfest. We spent the night and made a fun little getaway out of it. Livie LOVED the hotel! I asked for a high floor so we could see fireworks. We could hardly pull her away from the window! She loved watching everything below us, and loved pointing out the firecrackers when we got back to the hotel after riverfest. She kept saying "I see one"....even though most of the ones she "saw" was the same tower with a red light on top. So cute!

Carnival at Riverfest

She was NOT thrilled when this little boy got in the backseat of her car. She kept turning around to mess with his steering wheel too. We havent' mastered sharing yet!

Getting ready for the fireworks

Cannonball! Lots of energy at 7 am, especially since we didn't get to bed until after midnight!

Monday, we headed back home- took a nap when we got back, went to the pool for a while, then went to a neighboring little town for more fireworks, food and fun!

I noticed a few grey wiskers on Greg's face and showed them to Livie... I said Daddy is an old man! Now she will not stop calling Greg "Old Man"! It is Hilarious!

Going on a firetruck ride around town.........something tells me this would not pass safety standards in the city!

I pledge allegiance.......

College Enrollment

2011-06-29T13:27:00.000-04:00

We took Megan to enroll at K-State a couple of weeks ago...I can't believe she will be heading off to college in a couple of months! :(

Here are some pics of Livie tagging along.

For some reason this picture kinda makes me sad.... I'm thinking it's not too far off that she will be walking around on campus, headed to the union. I wonder if she will still take the time to stop and pick a flower!

Cheesin it up!

Just plain CUTE!

2011-06-24T10:07:00.000-04:00

I know I'm her mother, and biased maybe, but does this girl keep getting cuter? She is at such a fun age right now and I just love spending time with her and and watching her learn and grow right in front of my eyes!

Lovin up on TIlly cat

Don't do it! Getting ready to attack my flowers!

She walked all the way to the garden and back in Greg's shoes-too funny!

Homeade Ice Cream-YUMMY!

Anyone else notice the shedding of the clothes throughout the day????

This girl loves to be el natural!

Father's Day Fun

2011-06-22T10:56:00.000-04:00

We had a very busy but fun Father's day~ First was church, then we went to see my dad play softball, then we had a cookout...with tons of food-I am still stuffed! Overall a perfect day!

Puckering up ~ LOVE THOSE LIPS!

Kisses for Daddy

Watching "Gampa" play softball

Eating homeade ice cream

catching lightening bugs

The ever-cruel, but oh so cool lightening bug ring courtesy of Aunt Gina

Showing off her ring- can't quite see it though

Summer water fun

2011-06-16T11:47:00.000-04:00

We've been in the water a lot this summer- pools, sprinklers, hoses- you name it! Here are some pictures from last weekend~ Mostly of Greg and our nephew Andrew having a waterfight......

can you tell who is the receipent of most of the water??? :)

21 months & some roller skating

2011-06-08T09:11:00.000-04:00

I cannot believe that my sweet little girl will be 2 in three months! Crazy! She is talking like crazy & running all over the place- such a fun age!

We had a busy weekend again~ and again, I need a vacation to recover from the weekend! Saturday we went shopping in St. Joe and ate at a great restaurant-Em Chamas- a Brazillian Steakhouse, which Greg and I LOVE LOVE LOVE to eat at- so we were glad to see there was one fairly close. Gina (my sister-in-law) will be blogging about that- so GINA-get with it!

The Sunday we had a reunion to go to at Sycamore Springs- I haven't been there in ages, and it's such a fun place to go! Anywhoo- I decided we needed to go roller skating- so we got Livie in some skates-the smallest they had was 3 sizes too big, but she loved her "boots" anyway! It was very challenging skating with a little uncoordinated person between my legs, when I'm not that coorninated myself- but it was a blast!

Memorial Day weekend

2011-06-02T11:15:00.001-04:00

We had a very busy Memorial weekend! Saturday morning, we participated in a 5K- Me and Livie walked (pretty fast) and Greg ran-surprisingly, since he hasn't ran since his first year in college! We made it through and are looking forward to the next 5K on July2- I am running in that one! Yes, I am- I promise! :) Unfortunatly, when I went to take a picture of our little 5K group, I realized that my SD card was still in the laptop- so I couldn't take a picture :( Saturday afternoon I had my 10 year class reunion- it was fun seeing classmates that I haven't seen since we graduated and fun catching up with everyone- I did bring my camera...with SD card, but didn't take 1 picture, dang it! I was so mad at myself! I then helped take money at the annual alumni dance that evening- which was also a fun time!

Sunday we hung out at the pool- I did get a few pics :)

Tanning with cousin Tyse

Aunt Gina, Jack & Livie

Monday we went over to some family friends house, and spent the whole day there! We ate- way too much- went on a couple hayrides (that would be a site to see for you Savannahians :) and played in the sprinkler. Overall, a great weekend.....but now I need a long weekend to recover from the busy one! Thank goodness it has been a short week and I get off at 11 tomorrow- nap time anyone?

Hattie & Livie

Tuckered out!

Ben & Greg

COKE!

New flag :)

Cows & an electric fence

2011-05-25T12:49:00.000-04:00

We have a nice big pasture behind our backyard, and there are 2 new baby cows in it. Greg and Livie are attempting to call the cows over (Livie now has the cow-calling sound down to a T...if there is such a thing!) and feed them alfalfa mulch. They got pretty close, but got spooked and ran off. Greg went to go get something out of the garage and I continued gardening.......pretty soon Livie started screaming and crying- I looked and she had crawled under the barb wire fence and was holding on to the electric fence! I was running towards here and keep saying "Let GO!" but she just kept holding on, getting jolted- I finally got to her, which seemed like a mile away (actually like 30 feet!) and grabbed her off of it, and I was getting shocked like crazy just by touching her! I felt so bad for the little stinker! Hopefully she learned her lesson! I am also hoping I don't have to get a tetnus shot cause my foot slid into the barb wire when I was

grabbing her....hopefully it wasn't the rusty barb that got me!

Ah, life in Kansas!

Megan Graduates!!!

2011-05-24T11:43:00.000-04:00

We had a fun filled weekend with all of Megan's graduation festivities! I stayed up till midnight on Friday night making pasta salad and her cake...way past this mamma's bedtime! Saturday afternoon she had her reception and then graduated Saturday night. It was fun reliving the memories, since this is my 10 year high school reunion this year! Can't believe how fast time has gone!

Congrats Megan! We are so pround of you!!!

(And HAPPY 19th BIRTHDAY!)

Sisters

Eating one of many cake pops!

Here she comes!

Bringing the flower to mom and dad.......trying to keep from crying!

the graduated couple :)

Livie and her shoe fetish :) Showing cousin Mitchell her latest trend

Ah, to sleep like this!!!! Someone had one too many cake pops.....she started throwing up about 12:30 at night and threw up in the bed 6 times!

Ornery gril!

"Helping" Megan unwrap graduation gifts

Diggin in the dirt

2011-05-17T11:11:00.000-04:00

We decided to plant a garden this year since we have lots of space! Tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, red & green bell peppers, broccoli, cilantro, basil, mint, cantaloupe, and 3 trees-cherry, peach, and apple. Livie was having a ball helping daddy plant, and loves to help water everyday! I think she will think it's pretty fun to go out and pick our fruits and veggies!

And for all your Southerners......here is what real dirt looks like! It was so nice to dig into black soil instead of hard clay!

20 Months Old!

2011-05-10T10:33:00.000-04:00

Miss Livie turned 20 months old on May 2nd- and I cannot believe how fast it has gone---in 4 months she is gonna be 2! Crazy! We are starting to hit the "terrible twos" I am afraid- every now and again she gets a wild hair and will NOT listen for anything. She loves to say the word "No" but when I say it- you would think I had said- "Go ahead, Livie- keep doing whatever you are doing, don't mind me"! She weighs 26 lbs and is 35 inches long! For her big 20 month bday celebration, we got her a potty chair, Elmo potty dvd and a potty book. She has been taking some interest in the potty lately, so thought it would be a good time to introduce the potty chair! She loves it, but doesn't use it (properly) yet. I have a feeling we'll be going through some hefty water bills, since every time she sits on the potty chair, she wants to flush the big potty!

LoVe My GiRl!!!!!

2011-05-08T22:39:00.000-04:00

Love being a mamma to this sweet little girl....best thing ever! Thank you, Livie Elaine for being a perfect daughter...even with all your orneriness! :)

Check our her shirt! I made her walk in front of me all day! HA HA!