Spring Break- Orange Beach

So, you already know that my princess niece, Palyn, came to spend a few days with us on Spring Break. She is such a little priss and anybody would assume she is mine because of it. We couldnt stop smiling and giggling on our way to our house. She was so happy and you could surely tell! She kept asking for a little wedding booklet with dresses on it, she was calling it a princess book. She and Caden get to the point to where they miss each other so bad, but after the first 10 minutes, they are aggravating each other and screaming! 

 

She got this doll house from Santa at out house and hasnt been able to play with it yet! It was the first thing she found and got into. She calls it a castle, because everything to her is for a princess!

I planned to wait until closer to Easter to give her the goodies we had, but while she was rambling around the computer room, she kept bringing me different things. First, she brought me her shoes saying, "Awwww, I lub them!", "I wanna wear them, pleeeeeease?!"....Then it was the movie, then puzzle. So I knew she couldn't wait until later!

The Easter Bunny brought Palyn a monogrammed dress, 3 big bows, a monogrammed bathing suit, new summer shoes, Tangled, a princess puzzle, princess coloring pages, and the tutu below.

We found her "hi hi" shoes from Cmas.

How adorable is she in her new bathing suit?! She's a natural!

We spent the afternoon jumping on the trampoline, watching Tangled, putting the puzzle together a few times, and loving on Shane. The next morning we went to the zoo, which you can read about here. After the zoo and a short nap, we went for yogurt treats. I am sure you all know of these type places. The ones with every type yogurt and topping imaginable. The price you pay is determined by the weight. So Caden- "Baby, dont fill it up because you know you wont eat it all" (and Mama doesn't want to spend $10 on yogurt today)

My little one listens so well...

Isnt she presh?!

At Publix, Caden hopped in next to Palyn. I was shocked that he could fit with those long legs of his!

The next day, we cut our time at Shane's short and went to my mom's a day early. We went straight to The Wharf to buy our concert tickets for my upcoming Bachelorette party.

Of course we had to ride the ferris wheel! This place was like a ghost town. It is usually so busy in the summer time. The sweet guy gave us a few extra times around.

Our Luke Bryan tickets were purchased.

Confession- After buying the tickets, Mom and I got to talking in the car. Later, we wondered where I put the tickets. (7 of them) We still have not found them, but thank goodness we paid by credit card and they were able to replace them. Whew! I would have been in trouble! I should never be responsible for anything important like that!

We went to Lulu's and let the kids play.

My mom and sister work there, so Palyn goes there a lot. She acts like she owns the place. They have these tubs of water that the kids can play in, and she runs over and just plops down in them like it's her own mini pool.

We went over to The Hangout afterwards. They have a bubble/foam machine that comes on once an hour and all of the kids run over and play in them.

Check out his big smile!

I know he is very skinny, were working on that.

The next day was a beach day!!

I love this picture, he looks like he is protecting her from the water.

Mom had to go to work, so I took the kids over to the splash park at the outlets. They had so much fun!

Since it was just me and the kiddos, I had to find the easiest and most affordable entertainment for them. So...we went back toLulu's to play more!

Here is Caden by those tubs I was telling you about.

We spent the next day at the beach.

Tired man.

I had to leave the next day for Mary Kay's Career Conf. in Mobile. But these cousins had one more day of fun and even a little more fussing!

 

(Sorry, all of these pictures are from my phone. That is when I take most of my random pics)

The Zoo

When we had Palyn for a couple of days during Spring Break, I was excited about all of the fun activities I had planned for us. My mom had been telling her that we were going to the zoo and she was already making little monkey noises when I picked her up! "We goin to zoo?? See monkeys?? eee eee, ooo ooo!" And she would do her little arms like monkeys.

When we first arrived to the zoo, we came upon a black bear. And what do you think the first thing sweet cousin Caden said to her? "Look Palyn, there's a bear! He is coming to get you!!" So this is P, screaming that she's scared and doesn't want it to come get her. Bless her, (and me!)

The monkeys that she had been so excited to see!

Passing here, I asked, "Look Palyn, what's that?"

Her response? "A cave. Ive been in there."

Really?

Of course to her, this was "Baby Jaguar"

You know, from Diego.

This little man meant he was getting some leaves.

His arms were stretched way out at one point.

Showing Palyn a turtle.

They have a nice park, and the kids loved running around and playing.

Monkey see, Monkey do

We found a few peacocks strolling down the path, and they thought it would be great to sneak up on them. They didnt scare them or anything though!

This one hopped right up on the fence, then hopped down into another animals exhibit.

And wahh la! It was very pretty!

Then we went into "Parakeet Cove"

The kids can feed the birds in there, theyll even land and sit on you.

Palyn trying her best to feed one!

She was scared again when one came a little too close to her!

sweet love birds!

After making our rounds with the animals, they asked to go back to the park. They played a bit more before we made another round of visiting animals. We found out that a zoo membership for a family of four is very reasonable and plan to get one once we are moved and settled. If your family goes twice, you have already spent more than a membership. It only makes sense, especially since we will be so close. We spent about 4 hours there and she was worn out! She feel asleep on the way home, however when I layed her in bed and tried wiping her feet off, she was up and ready for round two. We stopped for a yogurt treat on our way to Publix, and later had CiCi's Pizza with Shane. The next morning we headed south for our Tata's and the beach. I always enjoy my time with our sweet girl, but those two together are SOMETHING ELSE!

Easter Weekend

Ok, did Easter sneak up yall this year or was it just me? I usually stash anything I get Caden or Palyn (niece) from after Cmas- Easter for the Easter Bunny to bring. This year it was no surprise that Palyn's basket was ready to overflow, while all Caden had in his stash was underwear. (not kidding) Daddy Easter Bunny ran and picked up a movie earlier in the week and an overload of candy. Also earlier in the week, Caden and I put these cute favors together for his 2nd grade class. The free printable and idea came from here. 

Our new church was offering 5 services at our campus. Saturday night, Sunrise, 8:15, 9:15, and 11. I was excited about the Saturday night service because it gave my dad's family a chance to come up and check out our new home and church for Easter without having to miss their service at home.

Shane said this was a grandma dress,

what do they know??

But yes, I should've taken off the glasses!

My sister Calan with me, our brother is too cool for family :)

After dinner at Outback, we arrived at church a good bit early. We went and checked out the golf course from the back patio. It was nice to have them join us for such a meaningful service.

Caden's candy filled basket,

with underwear and Chipwreaked movie!

I had never attended a sunrise service before, but knew this would be a great spiritual service. It full of praise and worship and a brief message about the resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. I knew I would want to begin this as part of an Easter tradition for our family.

When I was picking out clothes for Sunday, Shane wanted to wear this dark green shirt. I explained to him that we needed to wear pretty springy colors on Easter and that was just a dark, fall/winter shirt. His response of, "But baby, its the Masters!!" was priceless. As you can see below, I had nothing to say back to that!

After a yummy breakfast at IHOP, I helped with the nursery for the other services. Let me just add that this was my first Sunday ever helping, I had planned to just wait until I was living here for good and could make a more regular routine out of it. Easter always needs extra help so I went ahead for that day. Well, I was put with the 2/3 yrs. and stayed in the floor playing and reading most of the time. I stayed on crouched on my knees and kept smoothing the back of my dress down in the back, when I felt a huge rip split right below my bottom. I was thankful for my cardigan and stayed in the chair during the next service! Embarrasing!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter celebrating the Risen One with your family. If you are interested in anymore information on a relationship with Jesus Christ, just leave your email in the comment section! I would love to share Him with you!



Golfing like my Daddy & Recreational Companionship

At least once a week, (HUUUUGE understatement) Shane heads out to the golf course. He loves it, and I love that he loves it. Everyone always jokes with him about, "getting in his time while he can", or "Brittany let you come out here?". I know they are all kidding, and I know as our family grows our schedule may get a little more hectic and less free time, but I am seriously not the "wife" that demands we be together 24/7. I always joke back and tell him that if I dont care about him going on the weekends while I am visiting here, I am surely not going to care if he goes on the weekends when I live here. I kid saying that Ill probably want him to go!! Seriously kidding, I love being with him. Although, I do feel like it is important in a marriage/ relationship for you each to have your own recreational time. I also think it is essential to participate in some recreational time together.

Recreational companionship is actually one of a man's 5 basic needs in a wife. I have thought about our "recreational time", because I do not play golf, watch it or other sports on tv. But I dont mind going every now and then to "ride along". I know Shane already despises shopping, with the exception of Belk. (He hates Target the most) And yes, to me shopping would be an activity, at least its not an addiction!;) So the things that we spend our time together doing is walking/running- Shane has been very consistent in walking 3 miles everyday for the past 6/7 years. I enjoy running and he joined me when training for the 5k we ran recently. We get Caden to walk with us too. I will always want us to make that family time a priority. He also used to bowl a lot, so that is something we all do together as well. I am thinking later that we 3 may try a little tennis too! So I am not saying you need to stay stuck up your man all of the time, but try to make that time to just have fun together doing what the other enjoys. It has been effortless for us so far, but I know life will get crazier at some point and it will have to become a priority.

The intent of this post was to document the last time we all went out together to the golf course, but it looks like I got off track a little!

Caden, as you know, has not found his "thing". I of course hope that he wants to play golf like Shane, but will not push anything on him. The only thing we wonder about him playing golf is his ability to focus. Which is no surprise to anyone that knows us! His favorite things about the golf course right now are....

Playing on the driving range

Checking out Shane's awesomeness

ha! Im partial!

Cleaning the balls, and getting water in those cone cups

His favorite, of course, is driving

and playing on the hills!

I love this photo above!

After the wedding craziness slows down this summer (July), we are signing him up for Jr. golf lessons. He will know after that if he likes it or just likes goofing off!

BTW- I was cleaning out Shane's closet a few weeks ago, and trying to make a little room for myself. When I was finished I was amazed at how many clothes he still had after getting rid of those that didnt fit anymore. This man has 45 "golfing" shirts. Seriously. Not including regular Polo shirts, Im talking Ashworth, etc shirts. I was in awe that a man would take up a walk in closet. "Scoot over", I tell him!! In the back of my mind, I may have been rejoicing a little due to the fact that he can never complain about how many clothes I have!!!

Catching Up

I should be fairly good at playing catch up by now! It has been more than a month since I have found the time to post about anything going on. I have found my self missing it, but when I get the slightest amount of free time, I remember 1000 other things I have to do instead of blog. However, since I cant sleep AT ALL tonight, Ill catch up on as many posts as possible. Way too many sweet memories in this time that has passed!

Mostly for myself to not leave anything out, here is a list of posts to come:

• Golf Course
• Weekend with Palyn
• Zoo
• March Beach trip
• MK Career Conf.
• Wedding Wednesday
• Easter Weekend
• Bachelorette Weekend
• Apartments Easter Egg Hunt
• Family Fun Day
• Random Leftover Pictures

Whoa! I didnt realize how much I had until I just wrote that! I am pretty sure I wont ever let it get this out of hand again! Hope you're all ready to catch up on what has been keeping us so busy!!

Easter 2012

Note to self- Remove sunglasses