Saturday, October 22, 2016

Wild One

We celebrated Ethan's birthday last weekend! We had BBQ sliders, pigs in a blanket, chips, and apples with caramel. 

My friend, Lauren, from work made his cake. She makes the cutest cakes, and I think this is my favorite cake ever! It turned out SO cute and it tasted amazing! 


She even put so much detail into his smash cake...I really had a hard time cutting them! 


I made a little favor table...I just bought some stuffed foxes for each kid. They looked bigger online but the kids still loved them. 


The drinks...


My sister and I made his high chair banner...super easy and way less than what I would've paid to order one. 


Outside we had a table for smores...by far the biggest hit of the party. Kids love fire...lesson learned. :) 




It definitely looks like Annabelle's hand is on fire, but her mom was right by her! 






After smores we did cake and presents. 



He was pretty tired by this point, but he loved the cake. He just banged on it and clapped his hands. SO Cute!!! 






We are so grateful for his sweet little life! Sometimes I look at him and it doesn't seem possible that a year ago he wasn't part of our family. I am immensely blessed...not a day goes by that I don't think of all we have been through and how God wove this beautiful family together. 







Thursday, September 22, 2016

Sweet September

We started September with a hurricane warning for Hermine...it went way east of us but it cooled things off for a day or so. We went to the park to celebrate the cool temps...this sweet thing loved the swing and Madeline loved pushing him. 


Our town has two parks and this one is right on the sound side...it is so pretty! 


They crack me up...sometimes I think my heart might burst. I worried so much about Madeline adjusting after the adoption. I couldn't be prouder of her...she has the sweetest spirit about Ethan and absolutely adores him. 


Terry turned the big 3-5! They wrote Perry on his cake and we got a good laugh out of it! 



He's no ordinary guy...Madeline stuffed the toilet full of toilet paper and who knows what happened to our plunger. So he made this contraption...I freaked out - but it worked. He was so proud. 


We've finally found a church home. We've been going for several months and will start a home group next week. It's so different from our last church...4 services, casual, and contemporary. The funny thing is that's why we didn't try that church first and here we are at home there. I am so grateful for God leading us there. 

They don't match every Sunday but when they do, I have to take a picture! 


We've been watching lots of college football on Saturdays!




This past Saturday Alabama was struggling until my favorite cheerleader started cheering us on...the outfit is from 3 years ago and it's a little too short but gosh she is cute! 


Then she came out in this...it's a 12 month! She's got Terry's genes for sure! 


Speaking of funny...what's not funny is how she gives me a fit at bedtime. But then I'll walk in her room to something like this and I can't help but adore her. 


We've been trying to get out at night around the neighborhood now that its bearable. Ethan yells the whole way and Madeline likes to look for rabbits and collect pine cones. I know it's so simple, but its one of my favorite things that we do together. 


And this guy...I have been so bad about doing monthly updates. But he is out of control. He is SO funny and the happiest baby I've ever known. He is eating mostly table food and still takes about 3 bottles a day. 

I feel justified that we get our money's worth out of Madeline's kids meals now when we go out. Ethan will always eat! 


He got his first real haircut in a salon. He was so good. He laughed and yelled and basically flirted the whole time we were there. He's figured out how to get attention and he uses it to his advantage. 







We don't go out to eat very often but Terry had a friend come in town and we went to Crabs...the beach is my happy place. It was nice to get out and the view is just so pretty. 


I can't believe September is almost over! 









Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Lucky #13


Terry and I celebrated 13 years of marriage this year. We decided in January that we would go away just the two of us this summer so we planned it around our anniversary. After a hard couple of years, we knew we needed it. 

We chose Sandals because we've stayed there before and loved it. You don't have to do anything - just get on the plane and they take care of everything else. Here we are on the plane to the Nassau. We chose the Bahamas because we've never been there and it was the most cost effective. 

I may or may not have had a large margarita before boarding the plane...just keeping it real. I still hate flying. 


 Terry upgraded our room a couple of months before we left and with the upgrade they gave us a private transfer from the airport. They picked us up in a Rolls Royce and I was so pumped! haha I was taking pictures and Terry was basically dying from embarrassment. Pretty sure that was the first and last time I'll be in one so I had to document the occasion! 




The resort was beautiful...






Our room was okay... I thought for the money it left a little to be desired but we still had a good time. 


This pool was right outside our room - it's a swim up room, but that pink building you can see is another hotel and it was so loud. I'll just say it didn't quite live up to the pictures. We did make the most of it though. 


The pool really is pretty but you share it with everyone on that side of the hotel on the first floor so it's not really very private at all. It was still nice to have though. 


We ate dinner out every night and we loved this one steakhouse on the water - like it was literally on a deck over the water. It was so pretty and they had lights at the bottom of the water so you could see all the fish. It was our favorite restaurant on the resort and we ate there twice. 



We snorkeled twice...we used the go pro to get most of the pictures we took during the day so we didn't take the chance of messing up our phones or having to keep track of them. I think that's the least attractive picture we took...hahaha



 The snorkeling was AMAZING...I have never seen anything like it. I've snorkeled several times but the Bahamas is by far the prettiest I've ever seen. Tons of beautiful fish, coral, sting rays, and even a shark. It was the best! Terry got some good pictures with the Go Pro.






You can see the shark in this one if you look close...he was little but he was still a shark. Terry was fascinated and followed him until he could no longer see him. #daredevil 

One day we went to the private island that Sandals owns. It was pretty and we had a good time while we were there. 


The island has a pool and a restaurant...


The other side of the island felt a little survivor-ish to me. haha


The water is crystal clear there...you can see to the bottom just about everywhere there. 


On Saturday while we were there, they celebrated our anniversary. They made our room pretty and sent caviar and a cake. I tried the caviar...I wasn't grossed out but i wasn't impressed either. They really did cater to us. 






One day while we were there we went into town. People had told me that the Bahamas has nice jewelry for good prices and I wanted to look so we rode the bus into town. It was a fun experience. The people are super pushy and in the straw market they are obnoxious - I had to tell them not to touch me. But we went into about 10 jewelry stores and found this one who does custom work. The owner is from New York and makes his own jewelry and sells it in 5 islands in the Caribbean. Terry told me to pick out a new wedding ring...I think my mouth dropped open because I just never thought we'd replace my old one that was stolen two years ago. Well, he did and he even proposed. It was the sweetest, best day ever. The owner even gave us a ride back to the resort. 


The last day we just relaxed...we were kinda ready to go home. We missed Madeline and Ethan! 
We ate dinner at our favorite restaurant one last time and called it an early night. 



We had so much fun and are so thankful we were able to get away. It was nice to reconnect and just focus on each other. We were glad to come home though!!