Boutique & a busy summer!

Well, I am currently tagging my items to sell at Boutique for a Week – an upscale children’s consignment sale!  It is so exciting to be able to move these great clothes out of my house in order to make room, well, for more clothes – bigger ones for the kids!  It is amazing how at times it can even be a little bit emotional (not crying emotional) but kind of sad to realize my cute little boys are so little anymore!  I am only getting rid of a few of Ella’s things – mostly the boys’ stuff.  Hopefully I will be able to sell a lot! 

If you are in the Orlando area, be sure to check out the info at www.boutiqueforaweek.net  The sale is next week, if you are interested in shopping!  It is really great!  I always look forward to it!

Our summer has flown by…can’t believe it is August and almost time to start school!   I have hardly had time to do updates this summer – I hate that.  I have some catchin’ up to do.  Hope to do that soon. 

The kids and I just returned from a week-long trip with my parents to Evansville, IN to see my grandparents and then to Nashville, TN to see Tall Tree in concert at Belmont University.  We had a great time away, but it is good to be home.  On the way home, I had a major allergic reaction to something (no idea what) and my whole face, lips & tongue were swollen & huge!  It was awful – very much a “Hitch”-like experience – so embarrasing!  It required a trip to a walk-in clinic just outside of Nashville, a steroid shot, a round of oral steroids, ointment for the itching (oh yes, I had terrible hives!) and lots of Benedryl.  I was jumpy and sleepy all at the same time!  Ughhh…It has been several days and the swelling is pretty much gone (just a tad left in my cheeks) and I still have itchy hives.  I have  a follow-up appt. with my doctor tomorrow – sounds like they are going to run lots of tests to try to figure out what happened!  Oh joy! 

Well that is a quick update.  Hopefully I will be able to stay on top of this once we get into our school routine!

Have a great August day!

Trying to get caught up…

Life has been busy around here.  Immediately after completing our school year, we headed up to G’ville to attend both Angela and Allison’s graduations.  It was a busy trip!  But we had a lot of fun.  My Mamaw & Papaw were able to come down from Arkansas, so it was great to visit with them as well.

Here are the pics from that weekend:

The day after we got home from G’ville, we left for vacation with Chris’ parents.  This year we decided to stay in-town, so we had a resort just minutes from Disney.  The weather was hot, but beautiful!  (Thankfully we didn’t have all the rain that has been pouring down this last week.)  We enjoyed the time away.  Of course it didn’t last long enough…it never does! 

We got to spend a day at Disney and a day at Sea World.  We kind of had a “tourist” vacation, but it was great.  We DO live in the vacation capitol of the world!   

Our day at Disney was a lot of fun!  We went to Magic Kingdom in the morning and did fun stuff for Ella.  She especially loved the carousel and meeting the princesses!  Then Andy & Emily met up with us and picked her up.  That way we had the rest of the afternoon/evening with the boys!  We went to Hollywood Studios. 

Our afternoon was especially exciting as Chris was chosen to compete in the American Idol Experience!  He sang in the first round against two other people and won!  Then he went to the “finale” round – competing against the six other winners from the day.  He won that, too!  It was so fun!  He won a “golden ticket” – basically a Fast Pass to get him to the front of the line at any American Idol audition!  Unfortunately, he is too old to use it!  He is just above the cut-off age.  Oh well…it was so fun watching the crowd LOVE him!    He was amazing!

Here are the photos – this slide show is long!

During the rest of the week, we spent a lot of time in the pool!  It was so nice and relaxing.  My kids are part fish, I think!  The boys have always loved the water and Ella is no different!  She has NO FEAR of the water!  She holds her breath, blows bubbles and even went down the BIG slide all by herself!  She just smiled and laughed. 

As I said before, we spent a day at Sea World.  Andy and Emily joined us, so that was a nice treat.  We had a great time!  Chris, Caleb and I got to try out the new Manta roller coaster!  It was still in the “soft-opening”.  What a great ride!  Can’t wait to do that one again!

Here are the photos from the pool and at Sea World (another long one!):

Okay…I finally got those on here!  That feels good.  Hopefully I can keep up a little better now!    We’ll see…

Vacation – Putt-putt Golf

We went to Pirate’s Cove for an evening of putt-putt golf.  I am usually HORRIBLE at this, but still enjoy going.  But let me tell you…I don’t know what happened, but I actually played well!  For the first time ever, I beat Chris!  And not by just a couple of strokes, but by several!  I am sure it was a one-time thing, but it was fun while it lasted! 

I think this is the last of the vacation photos.  Hope you enjoyed seeing them!  Have a great day!

Vacation – pics of family

Here are some more vacation pics of the whole family…

Vacation Wii Tournaments

We recently got a Wii game system.  Now normally I am not crazy about video game systems, but let me tell you, we have had SO MUCH FUN as a family with this thing.  It is such a different concept – everyone can enjoy it and you move more than your thumbs when playing it.  (If you play the boxing game, your arms actually get a workout! ha!)  Anyway, we took our Wii on vacation with us.  It was a hit!  We had competitions almost every night!  What great entertainment!  Plus we made lots of fun memories in the process.  So with that said, here are some pics of our “Wii time.”

Kiddos at the beach

Since I have so many pics of our vacation, I am going to divide them up into different posts.  So…today’s pics are of the kids at the beach (pool)!  Both boys are FISH!  They practically lived in the water the whole week.  Caleb won the prize for getting the best tan!  ha!  Caleb was also excited about getting into the ocean to boogie-board, but unfortunately, the ocean was more like a lake while we were there.  There were hardly any waves -  very strange.  I don’t think I have ever seen it that calm.  Alec isn’t as crazy about the ocean.  He much prefers the pool and the slide!  Ella had her first experience in the pool.  That day she wasn’t a big fan – it was a bit chilly.  But after that first time, she began to like it a little more.  Ella DID like the sounds of the beach and pool!  The relaxing “song” of water put her to sleep almost instantly!  I think it is safe to say that all the kids enjoyed the time away!

We’re Home!

We just returned from our Family Beach vacation!  There is nothing like the beach to help you relax!  I guess this is the 4th time my parents and siblings, Chris’ parents and our family have all vacationed together.  We had a wonderful time!  There was lots of sun, lots of food (thanks to Emily) and lots of Wii!  The Wii was a fun treat to have on vacation!  We had bowling tournaments almost nightly!  What a riot! 

This was also Ella’s first vacation & her first trip to the beach!  She did great, although she is now thoroughly spoiled from everyone holding her!

I will post again about the trip, but wanted to put up a few photos to get started.  You know me, everything turns into a photo session!  Thankfully, my sister Angela shares that same passion!!  So she was gracious enough to take family photos on the beach for me!  She did an amazing job – as usual!  Here are my favs!  (Thank you, Ang!!)