A First Birthday Celebration!

My sweet nephew, Jeryn, turned ONE today--I can't believe it! We went to his party at my sister's house this afternoon. She cooked a delicious dinner and had a super cute cake and lots of cute decorations! We had a great time visiting with family and watching J eat his cupcake (he enjoyed every bite of it!).

Birthday boy--look at those pretty eyes!

He has the best little personality. He's very happy and easy-going.

Mic's decorated kitchen

The cake was done in the same colors as J's nursery. I thought it was really really cute...and yummy, too!




Monogram cookies

Rice crispy treat favors with pictures of Jeryn tied to them

A precious baby picture of J with Micaela's and Mario's hands on him

cherry limeade--I love any party that serves Sonic drinks! :)

Rhett & Jaiden counting out candy for their plates--I think Rhett has eaten approximately 130 lbs. of sugar today.

Alexee giving Mario's Dad a high five

Hillary Ashton's Party

Today was our kind of day...two birthday parties to go to! This morning we attended Hillary Ashton's 4th birthday celebration at a great little amusement park in town. We'd never been there before--I didn't even know it existed! It was really neat. Rhett loved it!

The birthday girl in the middle--she's so cute and sweet!

I think this one is funny--R's checking his Timex to see if it's almost time for the train to run again.

Waiting patiently (sort-of)







Happy Birthday, Hillary Ashton!

Shopping for Alexee

I'd been told that shopping for a girl was extremely fun, but I just had no idea! I've always liked shopping for Rhett, but little dresses are just so sweet!!

Strasburg Children is having their Memorial Day weekend sale, so we went there today to look at dresses in size 2 for next summer. (They look so big--she's growing too fast.) :(

I bought three things for this cutie:


(This pink one is an 18 month for this summer.)

I got this blue one for her Easter dress next spring! It has a little bunny at the bottom!

Bogart's Poodle Haircut

One of B's front legs looks like he's trying out a poodle haircut (not on purpose)...he had a check-up at the vet yesterday, and they also did a thorough teeth-cleaning, which required anesthesia. They shaved his leg for the IV. He was a little (extra) sleepy last night, but he's fine today...and has a sparkly smile! :) (I'd heard horror stories about dogs' teeth getting so bad that they got infected and caused infection internally, so this scared us into having the teeth-cleaning procedure done). He's healthy, and had even lost about a pound since his last visit. I think this is because we were out of town last week, so he missed out on a week's worth of food dropped from Alexee's high chair.

Back Yard Color

When we returned from vacation, I was pleased to find that our day lilies and hydrangea bush were in bloom in the back yard!

Favorite Room

Kelly had another fun idea for her blog...a "favorite room of the house" post. So here's mine...my son's room. I think it feels like the most complete room in our house to me--every other room seems like it needs a table here or curtains there or a table skirt on that table or a picture on that wall, etc. His room is pretty much the same as it was at our previous house, only without two-tone khaki stripes on the walls (this room is smaller, so we didn't re-do the stripes). I think I also like it because of all the different pieces that we worked on or searched for when I was pregnant with him (this was his nursery theme, too). Here's a little tour:

Lane put up the river scene mural (twice!--once here and once at our other house!) I think it's really neat for a little boy. I made these curtains once we moved here. His bedding came from Target...MK told me about seeing it there, so I went and got it when he moved to a big-boy bed!

I saw something very similar to these fish pictures at Posh Tots when I was pregnant with R, but they were $50 each and I wanted four. So I asked my Dad if he'd carve them (he can do anything), and he did. I love them way more than the website pictures--these are very special because Dad did them for Rhett. I painted each fish with oil paints.


Stuff on top of R's dresser:

Newest addition: jar of shells from Gulf Shores that Rhett picked up. He's very protective of them--he didn't want anyone to break them or get them mixed up with other shells. I thought it was cute that he was so proud of them. They're displayed proudly in his room now.

Mom found this canoe bookshelf somewhere--I thought it was perfect for all the books that he loves to read over and over again!

This rocking chair was the one Mom used with my sister and me. She let us have it and paint it. I had the chair pad made along with R's crib bedding. When I took sewing lessons, these pillows were my first project.


In this frame is a picture of R's first fishing trip--he's sitting on his Great-Grandmother ("Mo Nina's) lap on the pond bank--a picture I'll treasure forever!

My friend, Heather, gave R these letters for a baby gift. I recently tied them to the oar with leftover, torn strips of the bedding material. Lane's Mom found this cute mirror somewhere...it has fishing lures in the top part of it.

His closet is probably the most organized one in the house, so I like that. It's a nice-size.


And, of course, my FAVORITE part of the room...the boy who lives there! :)

Home!

We're home safely! We got home around 7:30 last night. 

It was such a fun week, the weather was beautiful, the house we rented was perfect, the kids played well together, we laughed a ton playing Taboo (the girls ruled at that game!), the seafood was delicious, it was wonderful to see two of my college friends, the guys caught lots of fish on Thursday, the girls had lunch out and saw a cute movie (Made of Honor) on Thursday, it wasn't crowded at all, it wasn't too hot, we ate fresh key lime pie, etc. etc.

With all that said, it was also very nice to be home...back to the routine and back to our own beds. The kids loved the beach at the beginning of the week, but the new wore off of it for them I think, and Alexee didn't feel well toward the end of the week--I think it was teeth (my on-going excuse). She cried and cried and only wanted to be held. This made it very difficult to play on the beach. Maybe she was just homesick...I think Rhett was a little homesick toward the end. He started crying on the way home and said that he missed Bogart. :) Rhett also broke out in yet another rash (Lane suggested scheduling an appointment with an allergist, which I plan to do this week), so he had to take Benedryl before the drive home. Something didn't settle well with me at lunch on Friday, so I had a stomach ache the last 24 hours of the trip. So I guess it was time to come home and recover! I'm SO glad we went though--it was very much worth the drive! I think it would have been easier if Alexee was just a little older. Rhett was super easy and content watching DVDs in the car, but Alexee would get bored and there's not much reasoning with her right now. She's not much of a car sleeper either--two 30 minute naps on the way down (out of 10 hours) and two 30 minute naps on the way back. They were so cute in the sand though, and the ocean is always so amazing just to look at! We had a beautiful view from our room and slept with the windows open so we could hear the waves.

Here are just a few of my favorites from the week. Click here and here to view albums of the entire trip if you're interested.