Before...

This room was formally the guest bedroom/office/sewing room. I forgot to take official before pictures, and these were the only shots I could find archived. If you kept moving to the right to circle the room, you'd see a desk with a computer and black frames lining the rest of the room.

"Maybe paint?" she says...

Hunting for Pinecones

We roll straight pecan and fig trees in our yard, so hunting for "treasures" (pinecones) was a big hit on a recent trip to visit Great-Mamaw and Shu-Shu.

Birthday Fun Continued

When we got back from the beach, panda cupcakes invaded our house and were happily waiting to be enjoyed by some friends at the park. We baked them (Justin helped with sawing the ears out of Oreos) during Grayson's nap that day. When she woke up and saw them, she said "Wow!" 'Panda' is one of her most favorite stuffed animals (or "friends" as we call them).

The Dog that Ate the Doll

Grayson has been enjoying her "new" (consignment) dollhouse we gave her for her birthday. Here's a sneak-peek of her new room. More on that later (how many times have I said this on the blog recently about our rennovations?!). Anyways, the dollhouse came with furniture, a set of grandparents, a mama, a daddy, and a little girl. Before I could even snap a photo of the family's clothing makeover with my fabric scraps, I found the shredded wood pieces in the last picture scattered all over the living room floor. While I was fixing dinner in the other room even! I decoded that it was the little girl from her dog-spit covered brown dress. In Maggie's defense, this is only the second thing she's ever chewed up. A doll and an American flag. So far Gray hasn't seemed too torn up about the situation, although I'm sure tomorrow I'll hear "where girl go mama?". Um, Maggie ate her, remember? Ick.




As I'm typing this, baby sister is kicking around like crazy. Almost as if she's saying "hello! don't forget about me!". 27 weeks, still no name (not even close) but doing well. One of these days we'll get a belly shot posted here.

Family Portraits

We always seem to wait until the last night, after dinner, right before kids' bedtimes to attempt a family photo. Normally it involves 50 takes on at least 3 different cameras to get everyone's eyes open, smiles optional. This year was the shortest session to date, one camera only, and some of the best pictures we've ever managed!

Birthday Part 2

Presents, cupcakes, and princesses. Happy 2nd Birthday Grayson!

Birthday Part 1

Girl loves her some "motocykees" so it was a fitting balloon choice that daddy picked up that morning.

Then it was off to the aquarium.


Which ended with a favorite "foomie" (aka smoothie).

Giant Sand and Water Table

3 cousins ages 3 and under + beach sand + buckets of ocean water = fun in the sun. We quickly learned that burying the buckets was the way to go.

Oh right, we have a blog...

Backtracking here...

Day 1 at the beach. Looking a bit concerned about the ocean.

Ok, if daddy can walk to the water, I sure can.

And then retreat to stare at it from a distance. She did swim with Justin a couple of times, but for the rest of the trip if she was playing on the beach near the water and a wave came in, we heard "Uh-oh, it's water coming!" as she ran back up the sand.