Backyard-The Finale

Okay, so until now, you haven't really seen the "redneck" aspect of the backyard and may be thinking I over-sold it....so here it is in all it's glory--the remainder of the backyard! Haha. Reid is sporting a comb-over just for this occasion. (c:

This is one of our two blow-up pools. Lilly is mad in this picture because the water isn't spraying out of the dolphin's nose (like it does when it is hooked up to the hose).

I picked this pool out because it had two areas with two different water levels. A shallower (word?) section for Reid and a deeper section for Lilly. Somehow it never crossed my mind that Reid would constantly be trying to climb into the deeper area of the pool to get to the spraying water. Oh, and please note the water hose in the background that had to be strewn about in order to hook it up to said pool.

Mr. Handsome!!

This pool was a HUGE hit and I would HIGHLY recommend it.

Lilly practicing her kicks and Mr. Adventure diving in the deep end.

"Cheese"

Lilly sitting oh so lady-like. Haha.

I had to include this because Reid just crawled in and out of the pool whenever. Such a smartie!

Lilly sitting in the storage coffee table.

Reid thinking about shutting her in there! Hehehe.

The swing set. And, yes, we do mow our yard. It had just been raining daily for weeks and the grass was growing at unbelievable speed!

Lady-like and fully dressed...nice!

Ah, here we go! Blow-up pool pushed under the slide-check. Babies running around in diaper and underwear-check. Blow-up pool #2 -check. Water diapers in the background-double check.

Matt liked this pool because it had a basketball goal and ring toss for the "kids" (wink, wink).

Playing around the yard in the swim diapers. Some days our backyard had some skinny dippers (the babies...not the adults!)

So, there you have it--the end of the backyard tour. It may not be the most aesthetically pleasing yard, but it has provided us with a summer full of fun and great memories. We are so blessed and I am so thankful that our kids have these fun things to keep them entertained! (Thanks in large to DeDe and Mike...(c:)

Beach Wrap-Up

Well since we have been home for over two weeks, it is officially time to wrap up the beach. Plus, I need to blog about a few other things that have happened in the last couple of weeks and finish the backyard tour (the finale is really the best part...haha) BEFORE this weekend because we have a ton going on INCLUDING the BIRTHDAY PARTY that will need to be blogged about so it is time to catch up! So, without further adieu, here is day 5 and 6. Wednesday night for some reason nobody slept. So, both kids took a morning nap and I used that time to get a little beach time by myself. It was marvelous! There is just something so calming about being on a beach!!

Aunt Becca pushed Lilly and Reid all over the place in this laundry basket--they LOVED it!

Almost every night, we would play for a while before bed at DeDe and Mike's condo.

Reid really started walking more and more at the beach. Now, he is pretty much a walker around the house. It is still so weird to see him bop right past me!

Lilly and Reid are playing together more and more...they will both head back to the playroom at the house and just play away. Soooo sweet....but I am digressing.

Lilly is in a bit of a "wrestling" phase. Maybe I can blame this on Uncle Bert??? Probably not since I don't think he wrestled with her but I think I am going to anyway. Haha.

She likes to tackle Reid and really thinks it is hysterical to tickle him.

Sometimes he agrees with her.....

sometimes not so much!! She also tries to tackle him when he is walking across the room. A lot of people say to just let her while she has the chance since he will be bigger than her soon. I say no because I am not going to let him tackle her either! Haha.

We went to the pool both Thursday and Friday. Lilly was so impressive in her swimming abilities. There were so many times throughout the trip when I would look at her and see a little girl instead of a baby. Tear. Sigh. I am so happy seeing her growing up--it just happens so fast!

On Friday we decided to just do lunch at the pool. Believe it or not, Lilly typically eats more when she can eat a bite, run around for a minute, eat another bite, run around, etc.

Thursday night we did our annual beach photo in khakis and white shirts. My group one is really dark but here are a couple of awesome ones that Becca took of Lilly and Reid.

This is my first 8 X 10 photo of them together. LOVE IT!!!

I also just love this picture of Lilly and Reid with their DeDe. They love their DeDe and Mike! And DeDe and Mike love them and spoil them beyond rotten....or just really ripe as some might say. Ha.

We went to dinner at DarWell's on Thursday night. It was another place that had been on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. OH MY GOSH--this was the BEST place we ate at the whole trip...and quite possibly EVER...it definitely makes the top of the list for sure!!! In fact, we liked--scratch that--LOVED it so much that....

we ate there Friday night too!! They had these cute little drawing on the cups for the ladies. I believe this was the "rocker chick".

This was it at night. It has bands play every night and the food is to die for! The crawfish etouffee was SO DELICIOUS.

Lilly and Reid really loved getting to spend a whole week playing with Uncle Bert....

and Aunt Becca! (Mommy and Daddy really enjoyed having extra people to entertain the busy twins too!)

We had such a great time and can't wait for next year!!! Oh, and the guy to the right of Becca is Papa Darwell. He used to run the place but now his son does but he still hangs out and makes it a really fun place to go...if you look close you can see that there is a rubber chicken hanging out the top of his shirt.

Beach Day 4

Lilly and I headed to the beach while Reid was napping. We were at the beach for about 15-20 minutes just playing in the sand and water when all of the sudden Lilly stops and starts walking to the pool. So, then we spent the next little while at the pool. DeDe met us there and we had a good time relaxing and playing in the pool....that was until Lilly refused to listen and tumbled down some concrete steps. Other than a couple of scrapes and a bruised ego--she was fine. Then, I wanted some Mexican food because I can not go an entire week without it so we had lunch at a place called El Saltillo. It was really good and it seemed to help heal Miss Priss's pain. Haha. Then, we headed back to the condo and took a nap--our whole family. LOVE it when that happens. We woke up from naps and decided to go to Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream shop. I was SOOOO excited. I LOVE Ben and Jerry's. I don't eat it very much because it affects my girlish figure...but I love it.

I think I built it up too much, though, because I thought it was a bit of a let down. Some of the ice cream was freezer burnt and it tasted okay...but there just weren't the taste bud fireworks I was expecting.

The kids, on the other hand, were not let down! Lilly--in true Lilly fashion--HAD to feed herself.

If you look closely you can see that she has her baby in her stroller with her.

These two are all smiles when it comes to ice cream! The B & J was in the Hard Rock Casino. There really wasn't much to look at in there so we walked over to the Beau Rivage and did a little shopping in there.

Lilly is just too cool! She loves wearing her sunglasses and being all prissy. We had dinner at this burger place called Mug Shots. It was really good and they had awesome onion rings.

Trying to get a picture of Reidster in his size 5 shoes.

But he wanted to play with the camera instead....

Sooo stinking cute! Bert and Becca drove down to Gulf Shores that day and they were sooo sweet and brought back my FAVORITE dessert from my favorite restaurant there...peanut butter pie. I was SO HAPPY! Then, we all headed to our condo and put the kids to bed and watched It's Complicated. It was pretty cute.

Mr. Man cracked us up the entire trip by all of the stuff he was eating. He wanted nothing to do with the grilled cheese and french fries....he wanted the good stuff!

I thought I would add the pictures of our condo. This was the master bedroom...having kids paid off for us this time because we got our own condo! Sah-weet!!

This was the view from our room! Double Sah-weet!!

The living room

The balcony/view from the balcony

The kitchen. I didn't take a picture of the second room or the closet that was big enough to be another room. It was really nice. We had such a great time!!

Beach Day 3

Day three started out as every day at the beach did. Reid wakes up around 7-8. One of us would take him upstairs to Mike and DeDe's condo and hang out with him so he didn't wake Lilly up. Then, Matt and I would bring Lilly up as soon as she woke up. Mike cooked breakfast every day. Then, Reid went down for his morning nap.

We decided that once Reid got up from his nap we would run to TJ Maxx and Marshall's. I had never been to a Marshalls and was on a search for a painting for my living room. (No luck on that.)

It started off as a great trip. Lilly took this stroller and baby doll and pushed it around TJ Maxx for a little while. She went off shopping with DeDe and Daddy while I looked around in a different part of the store. All was good....

Until Matt tried to take something that she had found to buy away. She threw a fit. So, he tried to give it back to her just to make her happy (and DeDe was saying she would just get it for her--spoiled?? Haha.) but she took it and just threw it down and started screaming at the top of her lungs. I tried to just take her out of the situation until she calmed down (which took quite some time in the glass (as in everyone could see us and was watching us) entry way of TJ Maxx. She finally calmed down and gave a "sorry hug" and started using her words. Then we went back inside to find the rest of the gang and as soon as she saw Daddy she ran to him and started screaming all over again....like I was the bad guy. At that point-it was time to just leave. It was horrible and embarrassing and I left the store in tears.

So we grabbed some Taco Bell and headed back to the room. We had lunch and the kids went down for a nap. I needed to get out and some alone time. So, I went to Marshall's...which was a let down!! It had the exact same stuff as TJ Maxx did...and I was in no mood to be reminded of TJ Maxx at the time! Haha. After that I went to Kohls. I can always depend on Kohls!!! They had the BEST deals. I was able to get my shorts for our beach photo for $6 and found this package of clear magnetic frames for the fridge and the Deceptively Delicious cookbook for only $5. I was pumped and the morning trauma (or drama) was forgotten.

Lilly, Reid, and Daddy were all happy when I got back as well. Win, win, win, win situation. LOVE those. We decided we were going to do kid-friendly things for the rest of the trip.

So we got ready and went to the pool. DeDe had left this hat in our room and Lilly thought she needed to wear it!

Putting it on....

Almost got it...

There we go! It is a good thing she is so stinking cute!! Haha. We had a good time at the pool and just relaxed for the rest of the day.

Then, Matt's dad cooked shrimp, crabcakes, and some kind of shrimp/crab dip that was really good. Becca also made these little appetizer-type things that were made with apricot, jalapeno, and bacon...it doesn't sound good but they were super tasty!! All in all, day 3 still turned out to be a pretty good day! Is it really possible to have a "bad day" at the beach, though??