23 Months

I have to break from the beach pictures because a little over a week ago my little girl turned 23 months. I have kept myself extremely busy ever since we got back from vacation so I wouldn't be able to think about my baby girl turning two (or my baby boy turning one). It hasn't helped. I can already tell that the fact that their Birthdays are so close together is going to be hard on this Mommy. Lilly--the best way I can describe you is to say that you are SO FULL OF LIFE!! You are just at such a fun (and exhausting) age where you are curious about everything and you are developing the skills to investigate!! You can open anything twist-top or pop-top...which means yet another set of things that have to be moved up/locked up. I am amazed by how much you can figure out. You are such a smart little thang! (c:

You are also into playing games such as wrestling...more on that in a second...., chase, being scared (I hide and jump out at you) and trying to scare others, peek-a-boo, tickle time, etc. You think it is HILARIOUS when I hold you on my lap where you can't move and say "Lilly get down..Lilly, Lilly, get down" or when I give you a "kissing whipping" (where I kiss her all over her pretty little face) and tell you to stop kissing me. You really get mommy and daddy's sense of humor now...and you have the quite the little sense of humor yourself. You crack yourself up---just like Mommy!

You are LOUD. Oh. My. Word! You are loud. I swear you yell just to hear your own voice. I love your sweet little voice..but I prefer it when you use your "inside" voice. You really like to be loud when we are in public--it gets you some attention. We are REALLY WORKING on finding a quiet voice.

Your words are becoming more and more clear and frequent. I still tell you 7,000 times a day to "use your big girl words". You say "nacks" for snacks. This is an improvement because for a while you just kept saying cackers (crackers) for any type of food. You call both a fork and a spoon a "pooooon". Grapes and apples are also both "appies". You love to "paaaaaay" (play) with friends. You also say your friends names...or at least some version of them...you might have renamed a couple of them (i.e. Brody is Bobby, Brayden is Baaayden, etc.). You tend to make any one syllable word have at least three syllables--a true southern belle. (c:

You have such a sweet and funny personality. You keep us laughing all the time. You are also so strong-willed. This is something that makes it tough as a parent sometimes, but I really am so happy that you have this quality! I know that obstacles aren't going to slow you down because you are determined.

A funny thing that happened last night....your nose was running and Daddy used his shirt to wipe it off because he couldn't get to anything else. For the rest of the night, anytime your nose started to run, you would go up to him and grab his shirt and wipe your nose off. We were laughing to hard to stop you.

You love your little brother. I am so proud that you are such a sweet big sister. You go over randomly during the day and give him toys, hugs, and pacis. You love to "tickle" him and you both think it is hysterical!! When he walks, you clap for him. You also make sure he is your accomplice in any mischievousness too...who wants to be told "no" alone, right??

At the same time, you are a bit of a "stinker" as a sister, too. You will want him playing with you one second..but when you have things set up the way you want--you want him to stay away and not mess it up! Your favorite thing to do right now is to tackle him while he is walking. Half of the time he loves this and half of the time he hates it. He either deep belly-laughs or squeals/screams at you. You have started to try and wrestle him. You pin him down and don't let him move. He pretty much never likes this. You two also wrestle over a paci.

You aren't a huge fan of the car. Short trips are okay but anything over twenty minutes just really isn't fun for you. Sometimes you do fine..others you make the ride miserable for everyone. You love music. In the car we listen to nursery rhymes...you watch them on DVD...Mommy and Daddy just listen. You like to dance to the music. You sing along to some of them too. "Bring Back"--you sing "Back Bing". You sing A. E. E. A. I. E. A for your ABCs. You also point to letters and say these same letters. There is also an O stuck in there sometimes too. We just love you more and more daily and just can't wait to see what you will do and say next. You are such a blessing from God and we just LOVE that he chose us to be your parents!!!

Beach Day 2

Day two of the trip really didn't involve much beach time...there was beach admiring from the room...just no actual time on the beach. We got up and Mike cooked breakfast.

Then, while Reid was taking his morning nap, we got ready to go to the Outlet Mall for some shopping.

Then, as soon as he got up, we were ready to go! Unfortunately, as soon as we got into the car, both Lilly and Reid made it clear that they were ready to eat lunch. Ugh...they did not get the "Mommy is ready to go shopping memo". I hate it when they miss those!

So we decided to stop at the regular mall on the way and eat there and see if there was anything interesting for sale there.

On our way to the restaurant, we spotted the same lamp that my mom has for sale. I HATE this lamp--it scares me Every. Single. Time!! Anyway, guess what the price on this lady lamp was?? $1599.00!!!!!!! I called my mom and told her right away! She said she could make me a really good deal on one just like it. Haha. No thanks, Mom.

Next the kids went home with Daddy to nap while DeDe and I went to do some Outlet shopping. The Saturday we arrived was the last day of the "No Sales Tax" weekend. Unfortunately, we didn't know about it then AND everything was pretty picked over because of it...so not many super good deals for us. Shucks! After the kids woke up, Matt brought the kids up to the mall so that we could find some shoes for Reid. The poor boy had no shoes. They sized his foot...at a size 5 1/2 Wide (that is the SAME size that Lilly feet are right now). So we got him the above shoes. They still have a ton of room in the toes....so at Wal-Mart last night I tried some shoes on him and ended up finding 2 pairs of size 4 shoes that fit perfectly...I think they mis-sized him. He does have one foot bigger than the other-maybe they sized the bigger foot?? Either way, I am much happier with him being a size 4 because he is already growing way too stinking fast!!

Mainly, at the outlet mall, we were on the hunt for PJs and we found plenty of those...like the ones that Miss Priss is modeling in this photo! These say Mom loves Me.

After shopping, we went to the Blowfly Inn--another place that was on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. I guess this was one of the "diners". They had grilled crabcakes that were really good. Also, they had fried green tomatoes topped with lump crab and hollandaise sauce--OH MY! Sooo good.

The waitresses were so friendly and great with the kids! This is Lilly and DeDe dancing outside. Her and Reid got a little restless toward the end of dinner.

Uncle Bert letting Reid walk it out! Now, I should mention that yesterday Reid became officially more of a "walker" than a "crawler". He walked across the room, bent over and picked something up off the floor, and then kept on walking. My baby is getting so big!!

Reid is probably so happy in this picture because he found his love for both Gumbo and lump crab meat! This kid is adventurous when it comes to his food!

Just the boys...Reid and Bert

This was the beautiful sunset as we were leaving! I forgot to mention that on Day 1, DeDe came and sat with the sleeping babies so that we could go see Dinner for Schmucks with Bert and Becca. Thanks DeDe!

Beach Day 1/ Real World Day 1

Our first day at the beach in Biloxi was great. We usually go to Gulf Shores, but since we weren't sure about oil at the time when we had to decide, we decided to try Biloxi since it was mainly blocked from the oil. We didn't see any oil while we were there but we did see some BP crews walking the beach. Biloxi ended up being really great for us because the water is really shallow for a ways out and the waves are small--PERFECT for two small babies.

We woke up, Mike made us all a yummy breakfast, and then we headed out to the beach!

The first thing Reid did when he got to the sand was taste a big bite of it! You can see him digging his fingers into the sand in this picture. He wasn't really sure whether he liked being in the sand or not.

A few feet into the ocean, there was a sandbar so we set up there. The sand on the beach was just too hot! This way the sand was nice and cool and we were in the water. Lilly decided to try and lay out like Becca and Mommy...for about 5 seconds. Haha.

Isn't she prissy??

After a little while at the beach, we decided to hit the pool. The water in the pool was cool and refreshing--sooo nice because our first day was our hottest day there!

We also learned that Lilly knows how to swim! She was wearing her bathing suit that has a built-in life jacket in it. She just doggy-paddled back and forth to everyone. I was AMAZED. I had no idea she had those skills! It also made the pool much more relaxed for me! After the pool, our little family went back to the condo and we all took a nap! Then, we got ready for dinner! Matt was really sweet and kept trying to keep the kids out of the bathroom while I got ready. I have given up on the illusion of privacy in the bathroom with small children but it was really sweet of him to try and give me some time to myself!!

That night we went to The Shed for dinner. It was on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives. I believe it falls into the "dive" category because it looks like a dump! Seriously, they named it "The Shed" because when they got a permit for it, they got a permit to build a shed. Although I have my questions about the stability of the building, the food was DELICIOUS. The ribs, brisket, and potatoe salad were soooo good.

Lilly loved all of the junk, errr...I mean decorations they had.

She loved this old type-writer.

She even managed to sneak away from Matt and I (and give us heart-attacks in the process) to find it and play some more!

We found her though!

After we ate, we went outside and hung out for a little while. Lilly shared some cheese-its with Reid. They didn't really have any "kid" options so Lilly and Reid had pop-tarts, animal crackers, and cheese-its for dinner.

Becca and Bert. Our kids LOVE their aunt and uncle.

Our little family!

I love this picture. They are all laughing at each other....I am focused on just smiling for the camera. Haha.

Mike, Lilly, Reid, and DeDe. We are so blessed to have DeDe and Mike--we really appreciate them taking us to the beach every year! Such a blessing and we always make great memories!!

The kids also love getting to spend quality time with them too!!

Well, this is the real world day 1 part of this post and it isn't nearly as exciting as beach day 1!! We were fairly lazy yesterday! I did, however, make us a healthy pizza for lunch using these ingredients! In an effort to make sure my picky Lilly gets at least one nutritional meal each day, I decided to try and create a healthy-version of pizza (her favorite). So, I found these healthy tortillas, some pizza sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. I looked for turkey pepperoni but couldn't find it.

Lilly was really excited about P-P (pizza). I just laid out the tortilla, spooned sauce on it, covered it with cheese, and added pepperoni. I baked it at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. (Spray the pan with Pam beforehand so it doesn't stick.)

This is what it looks like. I was very generous with both the cheese and pepperoni and this whole pizza is still less than 350 calories. (The tortilla is high in fiber and is only 100 calories and made with whole wheat flour.) And, it was pretty tasty--and most importantly Lilly loved it!

The only other exciting thing that happened was that Reid and Lilly collided and Lilly ended up with a bleeding and fat lip! Ironically, they collided again today and now her top lip is fat too. Geesh!!

Road to the Beach

Well, as we were getting things ready to go the beach, Lilly came down with a virus. I walked in the room to find her just standing in place shaking from head to toe. Took her fever, it was 101.8 (which the nurse kept annoyingly calling "low-grade fever"...no ma'am it is NOT "low-grade"). She also ended up "getting sick". She just sat completely still like this on either Matt or I for about 24 hours. I thought we were going to have to have her hospitalized because she is NEVER still. It was so hard to see her and know she was miserable.Friday afternoon she seemed to be feeling better so we went ahead and packed everything up and made the trip to Matt's parents house so we could split the drive up a little bit. We got there, went to bed, got up and hit the road to the beach. By this time she was feeling better but was NOT in the mood to ride in the car! She screamed the first two hours of the trip. She fell asleep for about 2 minutes before Reid threw something that woke her up and upset her again. So, we stopped for a bite to eat and moved Reid (the easy rider) into the car with DeDe and Mike. The remainder of the trip went perfectly.
We got to the beach about 5ish. Lilly was really excited to be out of the car and to see DeDe, Mike, Bert, and Becca!
We went to a place called The White Cap for dinner! It was delicious!! One great thing about being at the beach with family is that there were plenty of people to keep Lilly and Reid busy and entertained! There was a little boy running up and down the ramp to the restaurant so Lilly thought she needed to do that too.
It was at The White Cap that Reid discovered his LOVE for the crab cake (you guys will not believe all of the stuff he is eating!). This boy loves loves loves crab cakes!!!
They are delicious guys! Seriously!
Then we went back and played in the condo for a little while before hitting the sack.
Reid especially liked the coffee table!
Why do we even buy toys??...and then pack them for them to play with on vacation??
He made it all the way through the table (multiple times) and then we hit the sack...one big tired family! So far--sleeping is going fantastically (I am knocking on wood as I type this...but you can do it too as you read it). We are so blessed to be here and are loving our trip! I am so thrilled to be on vacation! (When we first left and Lilly was screaming Matt said maybe we should just go back to Little Rock...at which point I sternly told him that we WOULD BE arriving at the beach that day or he would be single because I would be going to a mental institute...haha! I was joking but I was so ready for a break...we have been to the doctor 4 times this month AND I was taking care of 2 extra kids. Thank you Lord for this trip!!)