Trip to Florida Part 2

We got to Lake City just in time for dinner and we picked up some barbecue for the whole family to enjoy!  The entire Hull family had been at their house that morning for Griffin's 4th birthday party so they ended up staying to see us and eat dinner with us.  Chris had taken some pretty cool videos of tractors and other equipment doing stuff on his construction site and he knew that Park and Griffin would love to watch them!  He didn't know it would mesmerize Jeff, too!

We did bath time x 4! 

Parker REALLY wanted to spend the night with Griffin but Griffin really wasn't all about it.  But we found a compromise with both kids sleeping on a pallet on the floor in Jeff and Lan's room... Griffin just wanted to be sure Parker didn't sleep tooooo close to him!

When we got there that evening, Caroline ran to her favorite toy ever!  We don't have one I don't want it taking up so much space in my house or my garage!  But I think I may lose this one... this girl LOVES this car!

Morgan was sweet enough to share her toys with her baby cousin!

These crazy kids had races around the house!

Caroline learned to ride cousin Morgan's 4-wheeler!  Her face LIT up when when she realized she could press a button and make it go!

Griffin is ALL boy and LOVES his tractors!

I have no idea what was going on in this picture but it was funny either way!

Sweet cousins.

Trip to Florida Part 1

Chris had to travel down to Orlando in March so the kids and I decided to tag along for this trip!  It just so happened that we were passing through Lake City around dinnertime so we stopped at Firehouse Subs and ate dinner with cousin Griffin and Morgan and Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lan!  Parker was so excited to see his best buddy Griffin again!  These two are only a month or so apart in age... so cute together.

These two little girls are about 5 months apart in age... they'll be best buds just like their big brothers are!

We got to our hotel in Orlando late Thursday night and Parker LOOOOVED being at the hotel and asked if we could stay at the hotel all the nights of this year!  We woke up early Friday morning because Chris had a 9 am meeting about 45 minutes away from our hotel.  He dropped me and the kiddos off at my cousins house who lives in Orlando.  They have 2 kids close in age to Parker and Caroline so we were excited to see their house and let the kids have fun together while Chris worked.  They made us breakfast - pancakes! - which were amazing.  Jeff, my cousin, is actually a chef and is SOOOOO good at it!  Here is Tate and Park enjoying their pancakes!

Brandi, Jeff's wife, is a Pinterest extraordinaire!  She welcomed us with this sweet sign in her entryway!

I love this...

Here we all are before we left their house on Friday afternoon!  It was a little difficult to get a picture of all of us!

After we left their house, we headed to the Braves spring training game!  We had lawn seats which we thought would be way easier with the kids... well they fail to mention that the slope on the lawn is so steep that a 1-year-old CANNOT stand up on the hill without toppling over and rolling ALL the way to the bottom of the hill.  So we played catch the chubby rolling baby game all afternoon!

I didn't see ONE thing happen at the game... it was crazy with the kiddos there and it was HOT!  The kids stayed lathered up in sunscreen that Brandi loaned us but Chris and I failed to lather up and we both got fried.

Here we are on our way out of the stadium... 'fun" memories for sure!

After the game we headed east over to Cocoa to see my Granny and to eat some awesome seafood.  Granny LOOOOOOVES baby girls!  She had so much fun playing with Caroline.

I stayed with Granny Friday night and Chris drove back to Orlando because he had to work again on Saturday.  My parents were staying with my Granny that weekend as well so we got to spend time with them!  We woke up Saturday morning and headed over to see my dad's sailboat!  He's had it like 6 years now and I've yet to see it in person!  Here we are headed to the docks.

Parker. was. in. LOVE. with Hoppy's sail boat!  He could have stayed on it all day long!  I think we may have a little sailor on our hands.

After steering the boat, his next favorite thing to do was go down into the boat and play "go to bed" in the master "bedroom" of the boat.  He would open and shut the folding door.  He also loved to pretend to eat lunch on the boat by folding down the dining room table off the wall.

Caroline and the other Caroline (Nana) strolled around the docks while we hung out on the boat.  We were starting to get hungry after a bit so we left the boat and walked over to Cocoa Village to eat some yummy pizza!

After lunch, my dad packed up all our stuff in their car while we hung out on Granny's balcony for a bit.  Nana bought Caroline this sweet smocked dress and she loved it!

Caroline squared.

Cocoa Village is right next to my Granny's condo so we could hear all the fun live music they had down there for a St. Patrick's Day Festival.  Nana loved dancing with the kiddos to the music.

It was getting close to nap time!

Back to Friday night - after we ate at our favorite seafood restaurant, Chris and I wanted to go to the place where we got married!  We (I) love going back there every time we are at my Granny's just to see it and think about our amazing wedding day.  Brings back so many amazing memories!  Here we are!  6 years (minus about a month) after our wedding day! 

Caroline was a beach bum all last summer and I know this summer will be no different!  She loved being at the beach!

After we left Granny's condo on Saturday, my parents drove me and the kiddos back to Orlando where Chris was so that we could head back towards home.  We were planning to stop in Lake City and spend the night with Jeff and Lan to break up the trip a bit.  While we were on the way back, we got this picture from my mom with a title... "Guess what Hoppy did today...."  He's crazy.

Dinner with the Russells!

We had a super fun family date night with the Russells - a sweet family we met at our church recently.  Valerie and John are Parker's Sunday school teachers and Valerie and I started emailing back and forth about something random several months ago and soon, a friendship formed and I knew we needed to start getting together with this sweet fam!  They have two kids, Emma and Alex and everyone got along great! 

Parker and Emma playing on the fort!

We made fajitas on the Green Egg for them and we had an awesome evening eating out on our back porch, chowing down on some awesome Mexican food (made by my husband!) and enjoying a bottle of wine they brought for us to share!  Thanks Russells for our sweet new friendship! 

Happy 30th Birthday Jess!

So as I start to plan one of my best friend's 30th birthday party with her boyfriend, I find out that this best friend of mine has decided to plan her OWN birthday party!  Complete with sent evite and all!  Aghh!

SO - this said friend is my freshman-in-college-roommate, Jess, whom I love and adore.  So her boyfriend, Brad, broke the news to her that we were planning her party for her and she would need to step down!  Jess' boyfriend, Brad, another close friend, Kayla, and her mom and I were able to plan a fantabulous party for her!  We held it at Ruth's Chris Steak House, my old stomping grounds, and everything was awesome! 

Amy and Reid were able to watch our kids for us and in true Amy fashion, we had to have a picture taken of us before we left!  (Amy does this EVERY TIME she and Reid go on a date and we sit the kids!)  I was all about it though cause I was sporting my new skinny jeans (first-time-owner!) and my new boots I got for Christmas (but still hadn't worn bc I didn't have the jeans yet!) from Chris' mom and a new shirt I bought while in Nashville!  So - this was a pretty big night for me apparently!  (This is now my outfit of choice when it comes to looking "trendy!")

Oh the shirt is just super cute... but you can't see the cutest part from the front!  So here is a selfie pic of the back... I had to send this one to my sisters the night of the party for the "OK"!

Kayla had a bunch of cute pictures blown up of Jess as a baby and Jess' cousin, Brittany, made a beautiful cake!  I also took all the pictures of Jess as a baby and I got pictures of Jess with each of her closest friends individually and made her a photo book.  In the photo book, I had each of her closest friends write a short and sweet message to Jess... it was a super fun project and I was SO excited to give it to her!

We had our own private room!  Here we are setting it all up before everyone got there!

I couldn't sleep for a week before this party!  I seriously was so nervous about everything going off OK!  I was SO glad to be there and to finally celebrate the big day!  And everything went off perfectly!

Her cake!

Me and the birthday girl!

Jess and her SWEET boyfriend, Brad!  Happy birthday Jess!  LOVE YOU!

Random Pictures In The Mix! Feb and March 2013

Chris traveled a ton in February so Park and I sent him kisses each night before bed!

Again - more play dates with the Markham kids... these kids just get more and more comfortable around each other!  Ha!

Laps outside on the deck at Sisi and Dylan's house!

This was Park's Valentine's box he made for school!  I let him decorate it all by himself and he was SUPER proud of it!

So this is a picture of my sister, Ashley, on the left when she was about 2.  And Caroline on the right around 15-16 months!  They look SO much alike!

Ha - this crazy little boy came to wake me up one morning singing Christmas carols!  And it was so funny that he was wearing Christmas elf PJs!  Love his silly side.

And even sillier side!

So Caroline wasn't doing too well the end of February and beginning of March... she wasn't sick by any means... just wasn't breathing 100% still.  She'd have good days and bad days... but we didn't want to keep giving her the inhaler treatments because we didn't want her body to start becoming immune to the medicine.  As soon as Dr. Halloran walked in the room, Caroline squirmed to get out of my arms, ran over to Dr. Halloran and reached up for her to pick her up!  She then proceeded to take her stethoscope and put it on her chest... you think we've done this a few times?!  Dr. H was VERY impressed! 

We decided to put her on a VERY mild steroid for a few weeks just to see if we can get her lungs to open up a little more.  She's been on it a few weeks and is already doing great!  

Just a random picture of Miss Priss at Chris' office one day.  She found this hat in Mr. Greg's office and walked around with it while we all ate lunch in the kitchen! 

Parker and Caroline got some Christmas money from Nanny Juju and it was just enough to cover the cost of the Jake pirate ship he's been BEGGING for since he saw it in the store last time!  He was way excited to go get it and it is by far his favorite toy!  I like it too since I have a good prop for his Jake birthday party next month!

Surprisingly C-line loves it too!  I love it when they love the same toys!

Park had his spring pictures at school and they turned out so cute!  I put these together... the top ones are his pictures from last year.  And the bottom ones are from this year... cannot believe how much he's changed!  He somehow grew a chin and lost his chubby cheeks (and the ridiculous hand pose!)

We went to Sisi and Dylan's park one afternoon for a quick play date... it was FREEZING so it was a bit shorter than usual!  It was NOT that cold outside at my house but I guess the wind was blocked at ours because when we got to the Fieldstone park, we nearly lost our breath the wind was so cold!

This girl LOVES to swing!  She can pick out the swings 3 seconds after walking into a play area and will go to them and reach up and say "uh uh uh" until you put her in!

This girl loves her Jack!  She squeals each morning when Jack comes to greet her and she loves pointing at him and screaming, "Ja!  Ja!  Ja!"

While I was in Tennessee, Campbell had her birthday party so she and her family came to our house to celebrate on Saturday evening!  Here is Parker with the sweet birthday girl!  Cannot believe she's 5!!!!

Chris sent me this picture while I was in TN and I thought it was hysterical!  He said she found this dr. kit in the playroom and wouldn't take it off!  Dr. Hull sounds nice, right?

Park is all about coloring... anything and everything he can get his hands on!  He found our church bulletin one day and colored all over it... he was so proud! 

Caroline is ALL about sitting up at Park's craft table now!  The girl can climb ANYTHING and will if she has a chance to!  You can see Park has a little bit of a hard time letting her play with his craft things! 

This is another picture Chris sent me while I was in TN!  He and his parents took the kids to Costco for some free samples and to get some food for the birthday dinner that night for Camo!  The only thing I had to say about this picture was, "WHERE IN THE WORLD IS C-LINE'S HAIRBOW!"