Road Trip!

Hey all! The kids and I went to my parents house in Mississippi over Spring Break. Joe stayed behind to work, but we did fantastic! The kids are seasoned travellers now! Little to no fighting or complaining. They watched DVD's, (mostly "Wow Wow Wubbzy") and ate snacks. We left in the afternoon on a Wednesday night and did about 5 hours of driving, stayed at a hotel in Sikeston, MO to swim and rest for the night. Then picked back up the driving around 8 am Thursday morning. We drove until 4 pm and we were there! The kids enjoyed seeing their grandparents and my niece, Christina made the trip from Alabama by herself as well! It was so great to see her! Evie took to her immediatly and the two girls played their Nintendo DS's together.


We loved the 75-80 degree weather there and Evie took time to sunbathe on the cement.



So, you know those big, fat, fuzzy bees? Forever I always thought (most of us do) that they are bumblebees or can sting you. They are much fatter and act like a bee.. but It's a type of bug.. Evie was nervous of them when we first got there.. they were flittering about everywhere because of all of the trees and flowers, but my Dad quickly educated her about it not having a stinger and not to worry about them.. and from that moment on, she never did. Christina didn't believe him so he posed a challenge for her.. he would prove it didn't have a stinger if she could catch one in his hat.. something he said was impossible.. they are too fast! She caught one.. but injured his wing a little so we're not sure he made it.. still, it was cool to see him up close with NO stinger and no way to bite.. just a big furry bee looking thing. Still can't find one online anywhere to show you or get a name.. but here's the picture I took of him on one of the flowers that Dad was holding..
By the way.. Evie picked him up freely with no qualms, as well as caught a lizard that nipped her and she just pulled him off and kept playing with him LOL


Evan enjoyed playing in the dirt...


And here are the rest of the pictures that we took with my camera.








Miss you guys already!

A Great Weekend in Chicago!

We haven't officially taken a vacation this year. Bummer.
So Joe asked the kids and I to come along on his trip to Chicago while he finished up mixing his cd. The kids and I had a blast at the hotel swimming, relaxing, going to Gurnee Mills Mall, eating at the Rainforest Cafe, and checking out this cool store/zoo called "Serpent Safari". We got a private tour of their back room zoo.. they have several of the largest boas, pythons, monitors, alligators, crocodiles.. OH MY! Here are Evie and I with an albino Burmese Python named "Banana". WHat a beautiful creature!!



Joe joined us today and took the tour and wandered around the mall with us, as well as eating at Rainforest Cafe where we got to sit facing the gorillas.. they go nuts during the thunder/lightening storm. Evan loved it! It didn't scare him at all.. and it was so loud! He clapped when it was over.

The kids and I went swimming 3 times during our visit. Evan kept dunking himself under! He LOVES to be underwater! And Evie swam the length of the pool underwater without coming up once for air! Then swam the whole way back above water! It was the perfect pool for her to practice in because it was 3 ft. going to 5 ft.

A perfect weekend!

Finishing off Christmas with Family

We just got home from a lovely weekend trip to Cincinnati with family.
The entire clan was there!

Here are some pics and videos from the weekend!

Evie and cousin Joel playing video games together:



Evie and cousin Zadee posing beautifully



Evie, Zadee and Joel




Me with brother in law, Stephen



Evie and Daddy



Angelique, Joel, Zadee, David and Lauren


Theresa and Timm


Grandpa and Evan reading



Here's a video of Evan playing ball with Joel and Josh



And lastly, a video of the group!

Back from Florida

Hey everyone! The kids and I just got home from Florida. We drove a fun car, a "Dodge Caliber" which, for the record, has excellent gas mileage. It was tough managing things with me and both kids alone.. staying in 4 different hotels because I am picky and I wanted different locations.

We went to my Grandmother's house and saw my Mom, my Grandmother, sister, aunts, cousins and uncles and my neice.

We had lovely 86 degree weather with a nice breeze. Perfect for the beach. Evan and Evie had a great time digging in the sand and Eve played in the ocean.

We also went to the Florida Aquarium and Evie and Evan played a bit there.. on the pictures in my slideshow of us and the aquarium you can see a humoungous cruise ship behind us. (The Florida Port Authority is right behind the aquarium.)
My friend, Coleen met us there and we had a nice visit.

Then on to visit with family some more.. at one point, we had four generations in a picture. Very cool! Grandma seemed to know who I was, which really pleased me, (and her!) I hope it's not the last time that I will see her, but I had to treat it as such.. us being so far away and all. It was also nice for My Mom and sister to see the kids. My sister had never met Evan and had only met Evie once when she was 2 years old.. so that was nice as well.

Well.. I'm tired, Evan is napping, Evie is crazy and I need to shower and get to Evie's kindegarten registration/open house for parents in a couple of hours.

Enjoy the slideshow!!!

(oh! And p.s. You'll see a picture of Evie with what LOOKS like a trash can... it's really a "Lalee Lolee" (shhh... don't tell Evie it's a trash can) LOL In the movie "Star Wars IV, A New Hope", there is a droid that looks like a trash can.. for some reason, she has named it a Lalee Lolee.. and it's kind of stuck with her... when you see her, be sure to ask her about it! LOL)

A weekend with the Grandparents

My parents came into town from Mississippi for a visit over the weekend! They got to see how much Evie had grown in a year and a half and got to meet Evan for the first time. Of course, my kids were on their best behavior and showed off.
I took a bunch of pics and my Dad did as well.. (Dad's pics have the date on them).
But Evie took this one.. I thought she did a fantastic job!


Here are some of My mom with the kids..





Here some of my Dad with the kids..





Here are some that my Dad took of our family.. (Joe and I with the kids)






My Dad and I carved a couple of pumpkins tonight. HEre is a pic of Evie looking at the one Dad carved... it's "Donkey" from "Shrek" Too cute! I carved the "S" logo from Shrek, (with the ears) but I didn't take a picture of that one.



And the last four are just my cute kids!






We had a wonderful visit.. they leave tomorrow to see more family in the midwest and will drop back through on their way home in a week or so. It will be nice to see them again before they head back to Mississippi.
Maybe we'll get some more pictures!!

Cinci Trip for Joel's Birthday

We just got home from Cincinnati. Evie's cousin, Joel turned 5 years old, so we had a nice time visiting with family.

Here's Evie and Joel wrestling on the floor..


What a sweet boy!


Evie looking at the camera... Joel and Lauren talking about presents! (Zadee is hidden in that pic! Oops!)


Evie and Joel playing with Joel's new Transformers mask..



Okay.. this would be an awesome pictureif Evie's hair wasn't so in her face.. you can see Uncle David's look on his face.. you can only imagine what Evie's look was like LOL


Evie and Joel with Aunt Theresa


And Joe took this picture.. I thought it was hilarious how Joel is kind of a blur.. looks like he's really in motion!


We had a great time! The drive was long but Evan slept the whole way up and back, only waking once each time to eat and visit. The kids slept well at Uncle David and Lauren's house.. except Evie had trouble with coughing for her first half of sleep each night.. other than that, we really enjoyed our visit.
Thank you guys for being such great hosts and making us feel comfortable! We love you! Zadee.. Evie and I had fun rollerskating with you on Saturday!
Miss you guys already!

And my blog wouldn't be complete without pics of my boy! I took these in the morning when he woke up at Uncle David's... he is so smiley first thing when he sees his mama!