Happy Birthday Nola!

One year ago today, August 31st, our little Nola was born.

This year of her babyhood has not been easy because from day one she has had a strong and determined personality but I really adore this little girl and Nola has been such a wonderful addition to our family.



She knows what she wants and has no problem letting us know when she is not happy.




Although, she can be challenging at times, when she smiles and laughs she makes it all worth it.


Nola completely gave up crawling as soon as she started walking and has gotten better and better over the past month. In addition to walking, she has also started becoming more vocal. She likes to say uh-oh and will say it over and over just for fun. She also likes to squeal, scream, and yell just for fun which can be quite difficult for places like church.


Over the past month, she also has finally discovered the stairs. Our stairs are by our front door and not near the main living areas so it has been somewhat easy to not let her go over there but she finally discovered them and now we can not keep her away. She is really fast at climbing them and only climbs faster when she thinks we are coming to get her.
Nola is curious and adventurous. She wants to know what everything is and what everyone else has. As soon as she sees anything new, she makes a beeline for it. She is always exploring everywhere she goes and give us lots of exercise chasing her around. She loves music and that is always an easy way to distract her or make her happy. Her favorite toys lately are a play pot and spoon, any purse or bag to put other small toys in, and any book.

She looks a lot like her daddy but is also mommy's girl.

Happy Birthday Nola! We love you!

Another School Year Begins

For a start of school/end of summer celebration and to use the coins the kids had earned for good behavior and chores, we took the kids for the first time to Build-a-Bear. Our kids love stuffed animals so we knew this would be a hit with them.
Their excitement was priceless and they had so much fun picking out their animals, stuffing, dressing and naming them.

Jack made a camouflage doctor(what he wants to be when he grows up) bear, Callie ended up with a dachshund in a Tangled princess dress and Hudson made an alligator dressed like Captain Hook.

This past Monday, Jack started 3rd grade.

Callie is now in first grade.

The first day of school was also Callie's first day of dance. She is taking ballet, tap, and tumbling. She loved her first day and asked me when she got home if she could go every day.

Anna Maria Island Beach Trip 2011

For this summer's family vacation, we rented a beach house with my sisters and parents for a whole week on Anna Maria Island which is just north of Sarasota.

The kids were so excited that the beach house had a pool and wanted to spend almost every minute swimming.





After a week swimming, Jack and Callie really strengthened their swimming skills and were doing cannonballs after only a few days.
Hudson was so content in the pool and just wanted to float around in his many flotation devices as long as he could.

When we could wrestle the kids away from the beach house pool(which was really hard to do with the little kids), we went down to the beach each day which was about a two block walk.
Nola surprised us all and LOVED the beach especially the sand!





She also liked her ride down to the beach.

Jack loved boogie boarding in the ocean. Except for Nola, he was our only child who begged to go to the beach every day.



The cousins all had the best time playing together



Playing with the little clams they found

Another popular activity with all the kids was building sandcastles.





Hudson did not love the beach. He liked playing in the sand and collecting water in his bucket but he refused to go in the ocean and mostly just begged to go back to the pool.



One day we drove down through Sarasota to Siesta Key beach which has always been voted one of the country's best beaches. We were curious to see if it lived up to the hype. It was a beautiful beach but very crowded.
Statue of famous end of war kiss in Sarasota





To take a break from the pool and beach, one evening we went to a Big Cat rescue which takes in lions, tigers, bears and other animals.
The kids got to feed the bear strawberries

The kids also liked feeding the many goats


The goats liked licking Nola's toes and she did not mind



We only ate out a few times and the kids really enjoyed one restaurant at the end of the pier that was directly on the water.



While we did not eat at many restaurants, we did go out for ice cream A LOT! It was fun to try the mom & pop ice cream shops and all of their unique flavors.


Another favorite find was the Shake Pit. It has been around since the '50s and had the yummiest shakes and really good hamburgers and onion rings too. I have been craving their shakes almost every day since we have been home.



Katie took advantage of having the whole family together and took great family pictures.
The whole family

Grandparents with all the grandkids







Callie jumping
Me jumping

Unfortunately, we had two very rainy days and had to find other activities to keep ourselves busy. The kids played many rounds of Monopoly and learned card tricks off the internet.
Katie and I went shopping at St. Armands circle which is full of great shops and restaurants.
We also had to break down and take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese to get them out of the house.


At the end of the beach trip, we decided to do another non-beach/pool activity. We went to Mixon fruit farms and took a tour through the fruit orchards.

The farm is also a sanctuary for animals and in the middle of the tour the kids got to interact with the rescued animals.

This was the smallest and cutest owl I have ever seen.



Feeding grapes to the deer

The kids also loved feeding the fish in the Koi pond. The fish would go crazy and practically jump out of the water for the food. It was very entertaining.