My 30th Birthday Surprise

Let me start by saying my husband is totally a keeper.  He planned the perfect birthday surprise for me.  And it couldn't have come at a more perfect time.  Right when I was started to feel better.  2 days after my birthday, we boarded a cruise ship headed for paradise along with 2 of our best friends.  What an amazing trip we had!  We got to eat a fancy dinner every night, dress up, soak up some sunshine, take a daily nap, go to shows, sail through a tropical storm, swim with dolphins, and just have a great time!!  Warning...my pictures are terrible.  I was afraid of something happening to my good camera so we went to Walmart the day before and bought a cheap point and shoot.  Well the pics speak for themselves.  Next time I'm bringing the good camera.  And I hope that next time is sooner than later!!

The muddy Mississippi - true to it's name!

God sent this rainbow just for me.  I know he did.

One of my favorite things on a cruise - towel animals!  Next time I'm totally taking the towel animal folding class!

Dressing up!

Gorgeous Views

One of my top 10 life experiences - swimming with dolphins!!  Seriously - it was amazing.

Soaking up some sunshine

My eye candy ;)

Loved this slide!  My camera lens fogged up on this pic - but I think it made it look neat.

They also showed movies on the big screen out on deck at night.  This night was the latest Harry Potter movie.

Sunrise on our last morning

New Orleans welcomes us home

Thank you so much to my husband and our friends for planning this great birthday trip.  I will NEVER forget it :)

Father's Day

We were able to make it out of the house to go to church on Father's Day.  My poor husband ended up taking care of me most of the day.  I'll have to make it up to him soon ;)  Since it was a pretty day we took advantage and decided to take some pictures before we left.  There's nothing like a daddy and his little girl.  Or a mommy and her little girl for that matter.  Enjoy the pictures  :)

Stay tuned for a post on my surprise birthday trip.  Happy Monday everyone!

The Aquarium & the Green Goddess

In June, we decided to take a ride to New Orleans and take Addison to the Aquarium of the Americas.  It was her first trip there and she loved it.  We went on a weekend so it was pretty crowded, but other than that it was an interesting and fun place for her to be.  She wants to go again soon.  Some pictures from our day...

After the Aquarium we met up with my parents and went to eat at the restaurant where my brother works as a Sautee Chef.  It's a fusion restaurant which in my understanding is where they pair some weird or unusual ingredients together.  I'm one of those poeple that gets the same exact thing every time I go to a restuarant.  But this time we let Matt pick our meals for us.  Every single thing he brought us was awesome!  Seriously - I loved it all!!  Especially the caramel bacon ice cream for dessert :)  I can't wait to go back and eat there again!  Would you like to go yourself?  Any time you are close to the French Quarter in New Orleans, check out the Green Goddess.  You won't regret it!

Here's a picture of "Uncle Matt" with Addison...

We miss you Uncle Matt!!  And Happy Birthday!!

Welcome Sophie & Sadie!

Our family likes dogs - and big dogs to be specific.  Mom has a German Shepard named Scout that is 12 years old. 

We got her while I was still in highschool. She has been the family "baby" for a long time. Since she is getting older, Mom decided to get a puppy that she can "train". Sophie was welcomed into the family in early March. She was adopted from a local breeder. Erik and Addison went with mom to help pick her out (I was feeling way too bad to go). She is now known as their dog. While she lives at my mom's house, she is very much Erik and Addison's puppy.  She's beautiful - and huge!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The vet says to watch out once she grows into her paws.  She looks like Rin Tin Tin and is very energetic.  I joke that she has ADD.  She was basically worrying Scout to death.  Following her every second, chewing on her legs, trying to eat her food.  Just the normal mischevious puppy stuff.  Mom decided to adopt another German Shepard puppy to keep her company and take some pressure off of Scout. 
 
I wanted so bad to go and help pick her out.  I have a reputation in my family for choosing the best animals.  Although I totally believe that they choose me :)  Well, I wasn't able to go with them, but they brought her straight to me after picking her up from the breeder.  She was terrified.  Wouldn't make eye contact, wouldn't make a sound, wasn't panting, and was trying to be as still as possible.  I stuck my fingers up to her nose and she sniffed them and her little tail started thumping.  She licked me a few times and finally looked up at me.  It was love at first sight :)  I was at a very difficult point in my recovery and I think we both needed each other.  She is to this day very gentle and very meek.  I make no bones about the fact that she is my very favorite.  There is just something very special about that sweet girl.  It's a good thing we don't have a fence around our yard, because I might just have to dognap her.  
 

These girls have brought a lot of joy and happiness into our lives over the past few months.
We've all had a difficult year, but animals have a way of soothing the soul - at least that's what I think.

Nana & Addison with Sophie

Sophie & Addison

Sophie & Sadie at 3 months old & 40 pounds!

A girl and her pups - all three of them :)

Now for obedience training....I wonder if they would take Addison too?  ;)

A "Ginormous" May

We actually didn't do much during May.  I was still feeling pretty bad.  BUT we did have once crazy little incident right here on our street.  One morning I was in my bathroom fixing my hair, (yes even though I'm a stay at home mom I still fix my hair every day ;), and I heard a loud commotion outside.  I looked out the window and I saw an Animal Control officer running down the street waving a rope like a lasso.  I immediately thought, that's a little excessive for someone's dog.  I went to my front door and peeked out the window and gasped.  There was a ginormous (trust me people, there was no other way to descibe it) hog running down the street.  I grabbed my cell and started taking pics and shooting video.  I even brought Addison outside to see it - as soon as I was sure it wasn't dangerous. 

Someone finally came with a big trailer, loaded the pig up and took her away.  But not before several neighbors suggested a Cochon de Lait (for you foreigners that's Cajun for pig roast).  Later that evening there was a knock at the door and there was a news reporter there wanting to do a story on the big pig running loose through the city.  I was apparently the only one home at the time, so guess who got picked to be on the news?  You guessed it!  I was totally classy about it too.  I even demonstrated how the animal control officer waved the rope like a lasso.  Thank goodness whoever edited the clip took pity on me and took that out.  One thing that did make it into the piece though was me described the pig as "ginormous" - yep, Redneck!  He asked me to describe the pig - what would you  have said??  Lol.  We later learned that this was not a wild hog as we first thought, but just someone's really big pig that escaped from their farm.  Do I have a copy of the news clip?  Nope!  But I do have it saved to the dvr at my house so if you REALLY want to see it, just come over :)

The only other thing we did during May was go to baby Elizabeth's 1st birthday party.  She is one of the cutest baby girls ever.  Always smiling and oh so friendly.  We had a great time at her party.  Addison was really missing all her friends and was so excited to see them.

Stayed tuned to see the two newest members of our family :)

April Fun!

Athough we only actually left the house a handful of times in April, it was for great fun each time. Mama's don't get sick days with toddlers! So I did my best to keep her busy and entertained.

Our first event...Jackson's Birthday Party!! Live bunnies, great friends, and lots of sweets. We had a great time!

Next we were invited to an egg hunt at Mrs. Haynes house.  Addison had a blast hunting for eggs with Hannah and Ryleigh and all of their friends.  The Easter Bunny was even there!

We also had an Easter party with our playgroup.  We love our playgroup - both of us!  Addison loves her friends and I love mine!  She was a pro at hunting eggs by this point.  Another fun day :)

Ahhh, Easter Sunday - a turning point for me healthwise.  As bad as I felt I wanted to celebrate our Saviour, so we got dressed and headed to church (after our Easter Bunny festivities from that morning).  After the service our pastor, his wife, and some other church members prayed over me.  That very day I started noticing a slight improvement that continued to increase throughout the week.  It was a very wonderful and welcome blessing.  Some pictures from the day:

That was April in a nutshell!  Stay tuned for May's recap :)

Where have I been???

Tap tap tap...  anyone out there??  Yeah I know, it's been forever.  A little over 4 months to be exact.  My last post was about our local St. Patrick's Day parade.  So what has been going on?  Well, I had surgery on March 30th.  And I did not recover well.  Not at all.  It was long, painful, hard and I'm still not quite 100%.  But I am here and I'm happy and I'm working on being healthy!  For all of you that know the details thanks so much for the thoughts and prayers.  They are much appreciated. 

So I have lots to catch up on!  Especially for all my readers without facebook who have been completely in the dark.  Get a facebook Nana!!!  Ok, I got my jab in. 

I'll leave you with a few pictures.  After my surgery I got some beautiful flowers.  They totally brought a smile to my face.  Thank you thank you to those who sent them.

We were also sooooo blessed with people bringing us dinner.  We literally had food for weeks!!  Let me

share a big lesson I learned.  When someone wants to cook you dinner - let them do it!  Not only is it a burden off your shoulders, but it really makes people happy when they feel like they are helping you.  Not to mention that we probably ate the best during those weeks then we have in a long time, lol.  Thank you thank you to those of you that cooked for us!

I'll be posting like crazy to catch up. Maybe even more than once a day! I've got some cute pictures to share. It feels good to be blogging again :)