99 Balloons

So Oprah is a show I love watching and I do actually try to get the kids occupied with activities so I can watch-yes, I love Oprah.

A few weeks ago, I watched the Miracle Children and Celine show and learned about little Elliot.

Elliot's parents were told he would not survive past birth, and so they celebrated the 99 days of his life with letters and photos, which they turned into the video below. Inspiring, amazing, and a true testament to celebrating life.



I hope that no matter what happens in life, I'm always able to find a way to celebrate and find the joys.

Red Fish, Blue Fish

One Fish, Two Fish

We have a new pet! Little Dude has gotten old enough that Bill and I decided a low maintenance pet would be perfect for him to care for, so we took a family trip to the local pet store.

And we found this cute little guy:



Since I'm crazy, I agreed that adding the weekly cleaning of a fish tank to the list of things I do around here would be a piece of cake. Actually, I really am excited about it (though let us be honest-it may not get cleaned every single week). My favorite college roomies (Joey and Susan) and I shared a fish tank while we lived together and it was SO FUN. We even had a water frog, a white crawfish guy and some Mickey Mouse fish-yes, those were mine-but I digress.

Anyways, as soon as we had purchased our new family member, (he is a beta fish if anyone is wondering) we decided we would let Little Dude pick out a name for him.

Little did we realize we had opened a can of worms with that one. He suggested names like, Construction Worker Man, Fire Engine Truck, Taco Bell, Red Lobster, (as I mentioned before, my son is an advertiser's dream).

So we did our best to try to guide Little Dude to a name that may not take 5 minutes to say, or involve fast food. We also had to rule out all Thomas the Train names, as that started to lead to conversations about our fish riding on the trains, or the trains visiting him in the tank, and I could only see bad things happening from there.

In the end? His name is Red. He is peaceful, calm and super fun to watch as he fans his tail. Little Dude is also getting a kick out of feeding him each morning and letting the kids watch the fish eat as I fix their breakfast has been fabulous for me. Getting Red has drastically cut down the amount of time the boys spend tugging on my legs, so all the time it takes to clean his tank is worth it.

Here is Little Dude getting Red's fish home all set up. I caught some on video too that I will try to find the time to upload tomorrow-now it seems I need to go, as instead of the nice quiet of nap time, I am hearing hysterical giggles....

Lucky 13

13 Months on the 13th! I really can't believe time is flying so quickly. So on that note, I'm going to jump off the computer now and take the boys to the park. Perhaps, for just a few minutes, I can make time seem to slow down for at least a few minutes.

Save the Last Dance For Me

I have a little dancer:


We went to The Shed Barbecue and Blues Joint in Ocean Springs, Mississippi a few weekends ago and it was so fun. I loved the live band and a REALLY loved watching JR groove to the music. He danced the whole time we were there!

Little Dude was content the whole time with his food and playing in the dirt ( I never realized just how dirty little boys can be) and it was fun to listen to his imaginative play.

The Shed was pretty awesome-amazing food-and everything there looked like it had been pulled from the garbage. Seriously, there were chairs with desk tops that looked like they had come out of a school, and there were roles of paper towels to use for clean up. It was the perfect place to take two little boys to eat!

If you happen to be down this way, I would suggest going to The Shed for dinner, but be sure to go later in the day when it is cool so you can sit outside and enjoy the band.

Walk Like A Man

My Little JR is walking! Well, he still needs some help, but every day he stands a little longer unassisted, and walks a little further between the furniture.

Now he is walking fast along the walks, and crawling less and less.

My baby is growing up, making me very happy, and very sad all at the same time.



Also, if you watch to the end, you'll see my elusive Little Dude, hiding in the bathtub, because apparently I am like the paparazzi and he has to hide from my cameras.

Happy 4th Of July from Mobile

We had a great time out boating around the Gulf Shores area with some of Bill's co-workers. All the kids that came did great and were so super cute in their life jackets, too!

Today I had planned on sharing a video of my toddler reciting "The Pledge of Allegiance", but as you can see, there is no video.

We practiced all week long, saying the pledge a few times a day, and Little Dude has done GREAT memorizing it and being able to say it with only a little prompting. I am super proud of him. And we even got the hand-on-heart part going, too.

So, I felt he knew it well enough to get it on tape-but every time I pulled out the Flip, Little Dude would shut down and walk away. Not only would he NOT say the pledge or put his hand on his heart, he wouldn't even look at me.

Sigh. Toddlerhood.

Anyways, we did work on it, and he does, for the most part have it down, but for now my toddler is not doing any photos, so maybe later. In the meantime, we are going to eat a fun flag cake I made, cook out hamburgers, and check out the best place for fireworks here on the Gulf Coast! I'm super super excited for the boys to see the fireworks. Little Dude lost it last year-just like me-and was just amazed with them. Last 4th was our first family outing after JR was born-he was only a few weeks old at the time-so I am really excited to see how he enjoys the celebration this year.

And I'll work on getting another family photo together so I can finally update the one I have on here that was taken last year before the fireworks started.

Happy Fourth Of July to all of you from my family!