Dreaming of.....

Key West

Two summers ago we came down here to Key West.

I have always wanted to see "pretty blue water".

I have been many places and lived in Europe for a couple of years during high school

but I have never been to Hawaii or islands of anykind.

After a few days at DisneyWorld Ben suprised me with a 4 day trip.

Well, the kids were with us and I was 4 months pregnant but it was great.

We were there for the 4th of July too.

It was amazing!

{We stood here}

{Its hard to tell where the sky ends and the water starts}

{Lots of little islands like this. Some you can literally walk to all the way out!}

It was completely relaxing and gorgeous.

It was very hot and humid but worth it!

I want to go back again!!

I think the one thing that did weird me out was how small we really are.

This little island, surrounded by all this water.

I was in awe!

Day in..day out

I was sitting here while the baby naps trying to think of something to blog about.

I can't think of anything,really.

I mean, we do pretty much the same things day in and day out.

1) The kids have 4 more full days of school left....

Friday. Monday. Tues. Wed.

and then Thursday and Friday are half days.

Tomorrow is the 8th grade cook-out and

yearbook sigining during school.

Next week is field day for Carsen and L&B have a ceremony to attend

in the evening of the 4th. I can't believe my babies are now highschoolers!!!

2) Emersyn is officially walking. Everywhere. It is precious.

She shuffles her feet when she walks on the wood floors like

a little old person. It's hilarious.

3) Carsen has another loose tooth.

He already looks like a jack-o-lantern.

4) Logan will be going to the elementary school

next week for his preschool assessment. We are

hoping he get's to enjoy a full year of prechool with

Ms. Body and Ms. Weed like Carsen did!

5) We will be heading over to Pigeon Forge Tenn. in a couple weeks.

We are meeting my parents there.

My parents are taking L&B on the cross country drive to California.

There they will see their cousins, Lunden's best friend,

Disneyland, Coronado Island, etc. They will be there a week or two.

I guess there is quite a bit going on with us in the near future.

We just need to get through these next few days of school!

Hope everyone is doing well!

Monkey Ice

We were introduced to Monkey Ice a few month's ago.

It is so tasty!!

What IS "Monkey Ice" you ask?

Monkey Ice

A.K.A.

Shaved Ice

Shaved ice is made with fine, fresh snow that is shaved

with either a cubed ice shaver or a block ice shaver.

Ice is never crunchy.

The flavors don't end up at the bottom of the cup either.

Most commonly called

Hawaiian Shaved Ice throughout the United States,

Sno-Balls (New Orleans),

Shave Ice (Hawaii)

or Shaver (North Carolina).

And of course it is now called Monkey Ice in South Carolina!

Monkey Ice serves more than 70 different flavors!

Some basic flavors:

Cherry, grape and orange

And even some strange flavors:

Dill pickle, frog in a blender, Barbie and red velvet cake

Cherry is the only flavor I get!

It's just simply the best!

We are going for one later today.

( I didn't realize it was almost 1am!)

Yummy!

Just plain awkward

What NOT to do during a photo shoot!

See if you can pick the problem in these photos....

I laughed so hard at these!

Enjoy!

{"The bird"-pose}

{"celebrity"-pose}

{"Get a room" pose}

{"Battle of the hair"-pose}

{"divorced and want you out of the picture"-pose}

{"kill two holidays with one pose"-pose}

{"I see dead people"-pose)

{"a mother's work is never done"-pose}

{"the choker"- pose}

{"The heimlich"-pose}

{"Grin and Bear it"-pose}

{"Happy as a pig.."- pose}

{"Note to self: Take the yarn away from Grama"-pose}

{"fun with squash"-pose}

{"mom wears the pants in the family"-pose}

Taste the rainbow

I think this is cake is so fun!

1.use TWO white cake mixes. Following the instructions on the box.

2. Then divide it up into 6 bowls evenly. About 1.5 cups in each bowl.

3. Use Wilton Icing colors. (find them at Walmart, Micheals craft store)
**the drop kind of food coloring will NOT work for these bright colors.

Unless you are going for a "pastel" rainbow!

4. Add a teaspoon of color into each bowl and stir.

5. Grease/baking spray (6) 9" round cake pans.

You want those bad boy's to come out of the pan easily!

Cakes are done in about 12 minutes.

6. Flip them out on to cooling racks and let them sit till they are completely cool.

7. Take a big knife

(or even a tool that is made just for flattening cakes)
and cut off the round part of the top of the cake that rises in the oven.

Then you layer it up...

rainbow style.
Spread frosting in between each layer.
Then around the whole thing.

I think it would be fun to make this and not tell anyone about the rainbow colors.

So, when it is sliced its a big suprise!

The kids will love this!

Emersyn's new BLING!

Is it possible that this face could get any cuter??

Ben and I had talked about it for awhile. We made the decision to get Emersyn's ears pierced.
And I took her in on Monday.
I picked out some pretty little "diamond" studs.

We think Emersyn looks darling with her ears pierced!

And an added bonus...
The stupid people might actually pay attention
to the fact that she is a GIRL now.



Wishful thinking??


Here are a few photos taken today to show
off those pretty ears!


{She actually said, "Dodger"}






{our look-a-likes}


{Yes, this IS Emmy. Not Logan}

She did cry when having her ears pierced.
But
big hugs from mommy and Lunden

and some new sparkly bracelets fixed everything!
That's our girl!

16 and counting

Emersyn is 16 months today.

How she is growing and changing!

27 pounds (91 percentile)

34 inches (91 percentile)

Some of her milestones this month:

started walking this month! yay!

climbs up on the couch

She also:

loves to wear her bracelets

uses toys, rolls of masking tape,etc for bracelets

likes to drink water from my water bottle

use a fork/spoon

loves to sing "head,shoulders,knees and toes"

can say the word "toes"

loves to sing "if your happy and you know it"

likes to watch her "baby can read" dvd's

we think her "no" means yes. lol

wears the boy's baseball hats

likes to wear sunglasses

is scared of Grandpa

pretends to clean/wipe the table ( my fault)

she still loves HSM movies and songs

she goes nuts over Lady GaGa songs

and the song "that's not my name" by the Veronica's

she sleeps all night (pretty much always has)

takes one good nap a day

Favorite foods:

avacadoes

shredded cheese

saltine crackers

diced peaches

diced apples

She is just a dream. I love her with all my heart.

She is Brennen's "best friend", Logan's playmate,

Carsen's baby sister and Lunden's favorite.

She is Daddy's "Chicky Boodles" ( don't ask) and Mommys "pretty".

She puts a smile on anyones face that comes in contact with her.

We are so blessed to have this little one in our midst!

Enjoy some fun photos and a video at the end........

{She threw on brothers hat. Go Angels!}

{Pretty girl}

{Love this one}

{sassy}

{At Monkey Joes}

{Emmy loves her sissy!!!}

{Daddy,Mommy and Emmy singing song's}

You will need to stop my music player below to hear

Until next time.....

One of my favorite things

I LOVE thunderstorms!

We have had storms moving in and out all afternoon.

I'm just waiting for thunder and lightning to kick in so I can get some video.

{I loved this because there was a little bit of blue sky peeking through}

We have the craziest downpours here

and thunder and lightning that booms and flashes right over our house

ALL the time!

I love it!

Until next time!

Carsen's tonsils

A couple of weeks ago I took Carsen into the pediatrician

because he had been snoring really loudly.

I would say for a good month or two

I slowly started noticing this.

His snoring got so loud that I could hear him from

his bedroom, door closed, all the way downstairs.

I knew we needed to get him in to the doc.

Our ped. said that the inside of his nose was inflamed

and his tonsils were really enlarged.

She put him on Nasonex nose spray for allergies

and wanted to see him back a 3 weeks later.

Over the last 3 weeks his snoring has gotten better

but his tonsils are huge and he isn't sick.

Thursday, before school he had his follow up appt.

She said his tonsils are definatley too large and she is

going to set him up with an appt with an ear,nose and throat doc.

She said that more than likely, the tonsils are going to have to come out.

Poor Carsen thought he was going to have his tonsils taken out

right there on the paper covered exam table.

Poor baby.

I will keep everyone posted when we find out more

Ruffles in the bathroom

I was flipping through the pages of my 'Country Living' magazine

tonight and saw this great bathroom make-over.

Don't you just love white?

It's so crisp and clean and bright.

The chandelier is PLASTIC.

So cool!

This shower curtain is from Anthropologie

I love the petticoat ruffles!

Also from Anthropologie
This really amazing shower curtain. I love everything about it.

The color's are amazing and it's flirty and fun!