The last few weeks in review ...

So much is going on these days I can hardly keep up. Here are some highlights:

We had fun visits from Scott's parents. Breck was here with a volunteer team from his church so he spent his days working with Disaster Recovery. But, in the evenings he's see the kids and one night we had the whole team over for dinner. He took us out to McDonald's one night which, as usual, was thrilling for the kids! Robbie came down for a few days before she taught a conference in Alabama. She had the kids out all over town and gave me a big break one afternoon. She got to come to one of Tyler's tee ball practices too.

Then my dad was here for a long weekend. We wore him out going all around town. We ate a great bbq place called "The Shed" and went to the Mule Pull in Vancleave, MS. Of course we also worked in a Chuck E Cheese trip.

Last week was Tyler's Spring Break which meant there was a lot of extra noise, motion and energy in the house. Other than the fact that I was completely exhausted by the end of it, we had a lot of fun. Scott set up a tent in the backyard and he, Eben and Tyler all slept out there one night.


Of course, we also spent a lot of time doing various Easter/Spring activities. Tyler and Eben participated in two egg hunts, we had a Maundy Thursday service, Good Friday service followed by a "Stations of the Cross" activity for the kids, Easter Sunday with church, then decorating eggs and having friends over for dinner. We didn't get any decent Easter pictures because a)we were never all together and b)Tate was asleep the whole time anyway. Never fear though, grandparents! We're going to take some faux-Easter pictures soon!

Live, Eat and Breathe Tee Ball

It's our family's first experience with an organized sport and tee ball has been all consuming (I think they all are). We have 2-3 games a week at either 6 or 7 pm. I know, that's pretty late for a five year old, huh?! But, Tyler's having a lot of fun and Scott is too ... mostly. He has a few critics (parents) because of his "give everyone a chance to play every position" mentality but the girls are loving him and learning a lot. It's hilarious to watch them: girls bursting into tears, hitting the ball and then running to third base and more. Here are some pictures of Tyler - not great pics but they show her first at-bat and then as she ran around the bases to score a run. BTW, she's #9.

Cool Slideshows

You spin me round

It's been a long time

This is the longest stretch I've ever gone without posting. Things have been so crazy with grandparent visits (3 of the 4), colds, Easter preparation, spring break. I'm trying to catch up and will therefore (hopefully) be posting a lot in the next few days. First, I have a ton of pictures from the last few weeks. A lot of Eben, some from the Mule Pull we went to with my dad, and more. Coming soon ... Tate is sitting up and falling down (off our bed - ouch!), Tyler has her first tee ball game, and several fun videos.

Special notes on pictures: the rainbow cake is a treat Tyler and I made for our playgroup's Easter party, the egg hunt pictures are from that party as well. The weird looking close up picture of Tate is a strange face he was making all the time for a while. How do you like my new picture slideshow?! You can click on each picture to see a close up!

Cool Slideshows

Woo Hoo! A New Camera!

I literally prayed for a new camera, I even told Tyler to - I don't usually pray for luxury items like that. And, tonight I received an early Mother's Day/Birthday present from Scott's parents... a new camera! Plus, it's way nicer than the one that broke and ... it's PINK!

A Positive Mom

I'm reading a book called "The Power of a Positive Mom". In general, I would describe myself as a positive mom anyway but some of the exercises have been really neat reminders of how cool my kids are. It's gotten my mind on all the things I like about my kids. For example: Today Eben was on the phone with Nona (Scott's mom) and wanted to show her his "binoculars". He doesn't understand yet that she can't see him so he "showed them to her" and she played along. But, I went ahead and took this picture with my phone and sent it to her so she could truely see him with his "binoculars". These are some of the other things I'm loving about Eben right now: he uses his "binoculars" all the time, he wears plain blue footed pajamas (see picture) and says they're Spiderman pajamas, he calls his tricycle a "motorcycle", he gets on and off the big potty all by himself, he plays "I spy" with me in the car. He is hilarious!

St. Patty's Day Parade

Today we went to Gulfport's St. Patrick's Day Parade after church. First, it's weird to me that Gulfport has a St. Patrick's Day parade. Second, it was so funny to be there and see young dads with their beards dyed green, old men jumping for green beads, everyone dressed in green. The throw the traditional bead necklaces but also wooden nickels, cabbages, potatoes and carrots.

Highlights of the day:

A man that had to be 90 years old with a green sequined hat on, pushing his oxygen tank with a big tobacco chew in his cheek. I was beside him when he reached down to grab a handful of beads and then he looked at me and said, "I hit the jackpot"

Tyler being handed a paper flower by a man in the parade who stuck out his cheek to receive a kiss from her and she drew back, he stuck his face out further, she drew back further, etc.

Eben holding his sweet hand out about an inch from his chest hoping beads would magically fall into his hand and then giving up to eat a peppermint.



Scott holding kids on his shoulders the whole time and also getting plugged in the face by flying necklaces.



Tate sleeping in my new (borrowed) mei tei through crazy loud music, me leaping this way and that way to avoid various "throws" that were being pitched in my direction.

The downer of the day: I was holding our digital camera in my hand when a huge bunch of necklaces hit it and it flew out of my grasp and onto the road. It's broken for good - I was able to rescue these pictures off the card but otherwise, it's a goner!