Pumpkin-Heads

We were supposed to go pick out our pumpkins a week ago Thursday, but because of the tornadoes and 10 inches of rain that came through that day... we had to postpone our outing until Stephen came home from Ridge Haven this week. So, this morning we went to our favorite spot to pick out some pumpkins...

Here is our family of pumpkins:
It was a tough decision, but the kids had fun... and they even picked out a baby pumpkin for their little sister, Naomi (Yes, we finally decided on a name! Yay!).

After the pumpkins, we took a picnic lunch down to the Bay to enjoy the gorgeous sunshine... It was a little windy, can you tell?

Bop-Bop and Nemommy's Visit

Stephen went up to Ridge Haven for a retreat this past week, so my Mother and Daddy (a.k.a. "Bop-Bop" and "Nemommy") came to our house to visit for the week. The kids and I enjoyed their company SO much... wish they could've stayed longer!

We spent the majority of our time sewing and monogramming... and two days out of the week the weather was GORGEOUS, so we went down to the beach to walk, enjoy the view of the clear water and find pretty shells. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera the second day we went to the beach when the weather was perfect (and when Mother and I decided to make a scene by rolling up our pants to wade out into the water to get the pretty conch shells).

Here are a couple of pictures I snapped the first day we went out to the beach right as the clouds began to roll in...

(Wish I had taken more pictures of the kids... )

Visit With The Cousins

A week ago Friday, Stephen's brother, wife and three (beautiful and sweet) children came down to Pensacola for a weekend visit. We had a wonderful time catching up with them!

First, I'll share the three pictures S wanted me to take pictures of... First picture is one she drew of the oldest boy cousin (L), the second picture is of the second boy cousin (P), and the third is of the youngest little girl cousin (E):

Now for the "real" pictures of fun at the Naval Air Museum and at the park:

Y'all come down again soon! We enjoyed seeing you!

S and J are having a little baby...

SISTER!!!

We had an ultrasound this morning... doctor says everything looks great!

S and J joined their Daddy and me during the ultrasound and doctor's visit, and S was so attentive and fascinated. She recognized the baby's head and sang to her. The ultrasound technician was so sweet to point out to S where the baby's feet, arms, heart and such were. J was more interested in the door! It was a sweet time. We really didn't go in hoping more for a boy or girl.... but we are thrilled to know that this little love is a girl and that she looks healthy. We're 20 weeks along now... halfway there to being able to meet and hold her!!! Can't wait!

And, I hesitate to even post this picture, but I'm doing it only because several of you have asked. Here's my early morning belly before heading out to the doctor today (20 weeks).

CIRCUS DATE

S and her Daddy went on a date to the circus today. It was a surprise for S, so you can imagine how delighted she was when she got there!!! She couldn't stop talking about it when she came home... she LOOOVED the elephants and told me all about how they stood on little seats and then sat down on them. She told me about the person getting shot out of a cannon, and how there were people swinging and swinging. She told me about the clowns, but we quickly changed the subject because clowns give Mommy the hee-bee-jee-bees. She even had her first taste of cotton candy... surprisingly, she doesn't care for the stuff. So, mommy gladly ate the leftovers when they came home. It was another special date with her Daddy...

Unfortunately, my date (J) stood me up. He decided he was too tired to go out and fell asleep for about an hour. So, after his nap, we managed to squeeze in a quick trip to the airport to watch the airplanes while eating Chick-fil-A before Stephen and S came back from the circus. The cotton candy made me feel better about getting stood up....

Dancing With The Animals

S and J look forward to being able to stay up with Mommy on Monday nights to watch "Dancing With The Stars" on TV. And please don't judge... what else does an exhausted preggie mommy feel like doing while Daddy is gone to a meeting at the church every Monday night?!? And S asks me throughout the week when we get to watch the princesses dance on TV. She's pretty cute about it. Tonight, as soon as the Stars started dancing on TV, S and J pulled out their biggest animals ("Polly" and "Hippo") to dance with. It was hilarious... those animals were twirled and dipped all over the living room. I had to share.

(And, for those of you who got a chuckle out of our little 10-year-old 19" TV in the picture... feel free to donate towards Stephen's 32' flat screen TV fund. He has one all picked out and drools every time we see it in the store. So sad, I know.)

Sick little boy

J woke up Saturday morning with a high fever (probably from licking the pretend corn at the museum on Thursday) and it was just SOOO pitiful! S gets sick pretty frequently, but I can probably count on one hand how many times J has been sick in his lifetime. And you know your kids are miserable when they just lay there with that blank glassy stare. With a fever, it's hard for anyone to find a comfy spot, but when J climbed up on the ottoman he seemed to finally be content. These times remind me how thankful I am that our healthy days outweigh the sick days!

A Day At The Museum

Today was Daddy's day off, so we went to the Wentworth Museum downtown. The first two floors are full of Pensacola history which is great, but the third floor is our favorite! It's a hands-on floor just for kids where they can run around and explore and pretend. They have a General Store, a house with a fort where you can sit inside and fix dinner or go outside and climb up into the lookout tower and stand guard with your wooden guns, a canoe you can row in, and all sorts of other fun things!

Anchor's Aweigh, Shipmates!

Thankfully, it's not loaded...

Come back to my Creole Cottage anytime!

Minivan Mom

To some of you, this may look like a strange post, but several of you will understand why I have a picture of a minivan on my blog... I just had to share this wonderful blessing from the Lord! We have been a one-car family for the past two years, which has worked out fine. But, now that Baby #3 is on the way, we knew that there would be NO way to squeeze a third car seat in the back of a Honda Accord. Even if we could, this baby would be crunched, poked, smothered, squeezed, kept from slumber, you get the idea...

Well, now I am officially one of those "Minivan Moms"... never thought I'd ever join the club, but it really is the most practical thing for this stage in life as many of you moms know. Yes, of course, it's a Honda. (We are a Honda family, after all... what else do you expect?!?) It's not brand new... a 2003 Odyssey... but, it is certainly new to us! And we are SOOOO thankful for it!!! :) We are thrilled and humbled to see how the Lord has provided this need for us and we just had to share! God is so good!

Labor Day

Labor Day for us was pretty quiet... which was a WELCOMED change of pace. We didn't have the typical cookout (or try to battle the Labor Day crowds at the beach). Instead we took a simple picnic dinner down near the airport not too far from where we live. They have this great little fenced-off play area right next to the runways where there are park benches, a mini-version of a criss-cross runway, a "lookout tower" and several little airplanes like you see S and J riding on in the picture. It was great! Nobody was there except for the four (five) of us... we just sat up in the tower and ate our dinner while planes zoomed by us to take off or land. Then the kids just ran around and played.

(I forgot to bring my camera, so this is a picture from Stephen's phone... we were wishing we had some pictures of them looking out from the tower while the planes were going by! Next time.)

First Ultrasound

Wanted to share our precious little baby's first ultrasound picture taken this morning. Little one is about 11 1/2 weeks along... almost 2 inches in length... and the doctor said that everything looks great! Official due date is March 5, 2008 (which could possibly mean the end of February if this one is anything like his/her big sister and brother).

At first S. claimed that it's a girl... she had names for her like "Bessy" and "Messy Lessy". Now, she is determined that it has to be a boy, and his name is "Manny". I guess we'll find out at the next ultrasound (around 20 weeks) whether or not it's a boy or girl... but I think in the meantime Stephen and I need to give a little more thought to what might be a more "appropriate" name. :)

Giggles

There aren't too many things in life that bring more joy and encouragement to a parent than to hear your children giggle... and not just the little "he he" giggling, but the down-in-the-pit-of-your-belly-about-to-pop histerical laughing. I LOVE IT!

Tonight S and I found one of J's many "tickle" spots... right behind his ear and at the back of his neck. He just burst out into this laugh where he sounded like he was about to hyperventilate. It was hilarious! Tonight was just one of those wonderful "mommy moments" where I just sat there and watched my kids laughing together and was reminded of how much my heart overflows with love for my little S and J. What did we ever do without them? And to think we have another amazing little giggler on the way...

Just had to share pictures of these little giggle monkeys with you...

Greenville visit

Just got back last week from a really nice 3 week stay with Mother and Daddy in Greenville. It was wonderful timing, especially since I’m in that “yucky” stage of pregnancy. But, now we’re home and trying to get back into the daily routine again. Thought I’d post some pics since I’ve been a slacker with this blog thing…

The kids LOVED playing with their cousins... What would we do without Play-Doh?

Got to see the firetruck... the kids enjoyed the firemen "ringing the bell and going whoo-whoooo"

One of Nemommy and Bop-Bop's trees died, but it was entertaining to watch the men cut it down and chop it up.

Dressing up for a tea party at Mrs. Doris' house. (Yes, you don't see too many gentlemen dressed for tea in their firehats!)

PaPa and Grandma drove through Greenville, so we had an extra-special visit with them for a day!

Getting ready for bed and saying "Night-Night" to NeMommy and Bop-Bop. THANKS FOR A WONDERFUL VISIT!

And last, but certainly not least... Uncle Dave and Aunt Jenny invited us up to NC to ride Thomas the Train. What a treat!!!

Exciting News!

No pictures today, but just wanting to announce some exciting news!

We just found out this week that we are expecting #3!!! Haven't been to the doctor yet, but we think we are due some time end of February, beginning of March...

Please pray with us for the health/safety of this precious little life! We are thrilled!!!

Did you miss me?

Many of you have been getting on to me about not keeping my blog up-to-date... Sorry! I've been a little busy. Without going into great detail, I've just started a little business at home doing mainly monogramming and children's clothing/accessories. My website is still in the works... and will by no means ever look as "professionally done" as most websites, but you're welcome to check it out if you are interested... http://www.littlepoundsdesign.com/ .

I can't even begin to tell you everything that we've been doing as a family since February! In a nutshell, we've had lots of family and friends come to visit, which is always nice. J turned 2 in April and we had a train birthday party because he's obsessed with "toot toots". S turned 4 in May and we had a purse birthday party because that's what theme she decided she wanted. Other than that, we've just kept ourselves EXTRA busy with things going on in the church. We cherish the rare occasions we do have together as a family... and thank the Lord for His many blessings to us!

S and J Easter morning... It was COLD! (We looked out the back door and saw hail when we woke up. S said "Is that snow?". We told her that it was probably the closest she'd ever see to snow down here in Florida!)

J with his "toot toot" cake on his 2nd birthday! He's a happy boy!

S blowing out her candles on her 4th birthday! Mmmm... chocolate!

(Sorry the pic is sideways...) S is enjoying flying a kite while J is digging in the sand. We LOVE living near the beach!!! Please come visit us anytime!!!

Bop-Bop and Nemommy's visit

For the past couple of weeks, we've had the joy of being able to visit with some of our family on both sides. January 16-18, we took a last-minute drive up to Atlanta for a CE&P (Christian Education and Publication) children's conference since the children's director in our church had to cancel at the last minute. It was really worth it. The conference was good, and we also took advantage of being able to visit with the cousins in Atlanta (and meet our new girl cousin). I'd post some pictures of the kids playing together... but, unfortunately we didn't manage to get one of all of them together. We really enjoyed our time visiting and catching up, though!

Last week (January 24-27) my Mother and Daddy (a.k.a.: "Bop-Bop" and "Nemommy" to the kids) came down to Pensacola to visit us. Even though it was a short trip, we had a wonderful time.... We took them to N.A.S. (the naval air base) to see all of the planes in the museum, which is always fun (and free!). We had a nice picnic near the lighthouse on the base overlooking the Gulf. We went out for some seafood in Pensacola Beach (yet somehow we didn't manage to actually get out and walk on the beach! Shame on us!). Mother and I caught up on some shopping (or "window shopping"). It was just a nice, relaxing time. Here are a couple of pictures of the kids with "Bop-Bop" and "Nemommy" at N.A.S.:

"I may never shoot the artillery... but I'm in the Lord's army. YES SIR!" (or ta-tillery, as S sings it)

Nemommy and S riding on the trolley to see some of the planes out by the hangar.

Curious George

We don't call Curious George by his real name around here. In our house, he goes by "Monkey George". S and J are big fans! Last Saturday, we all had the fun opportunity to go meet Monkey George and the Man with the Yellow Hat at a local television station. We (along with a hundred or two crazy, pushy parents) filed into a small stadium to watch a few Curious George shows, then walk around and do fun things at different booths, eat some snacks, get a free book, and finally stand in an amazingly LONG line to meet and get pictures with George and the Man with the Yellow Hat. It was funny how S and J were waving at George while they were in line and were soooo excited to get up there, but once we went up the stairs to stand by the scary looking costumed teenagers, they decided they weren't too thrilled about the idea anymore. So, of course Daddy and Mommy also had to pose for the Polaroid. At least there weren't any tears...

(Sorry the pictures are so blurry. I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera, so we had to take pictures with the phone.)

We're so excited to meet Monkey George!!! (or as S would say, "So cited!")

Like our yellow hats?

Date with Daddy at the park

One of the things we love most about Pensacola is the great parks... you can find one on just about every other block. One of our favorites is the "blue park" (which is not really the name of the park... we just call it that because the slides are blue).

Here are some pictures from our "date" with Daddy last Wednesday. It was a BEAUTIFUL day, so we ate lunch with him and played at the park.
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee


Oh, the love!

Can we say STATIC ELECTRICITY?

(We love all of the live oaks around Pensacola, too!)