Birthday Fun

This past Friday on the 15th, we celebrated our sweet Savannah's first birthday at Dewayne Hayes Campground. What a blessing this girl has been in our lives this past year!  She was surrounded by family and friends that love her the most and she had a wonderful time!

The gift table.  Everyone was so thoughtful and sweet.  She received some of the cutest things!

Since her party theme was in ladybugs, my mom made these cute ladybug pops.  Courtesty of Pinterest, of course!

A banner we made to display her monthly pictures.  It is crazy how quickly they grow! 

Digging into her birthday cake.  She loved it!  It was made by Creative Cakes in Tupelo.  They always made my birthday cakes growing up, and I wanted her first one made by them, too.  They are seriously the BEST!  Aaden's cakes have always been from Creative Cakes, and we will be ordering another one soon when he turns 4 in August.

They have an awesome little spray ground next to the pavillion we rented.  Aaden had so much fun playing in the water.  He basically had it to himself.  I wish we could install one of these in our backyard.

Savannah, my mom (Di Di), and my Mammaw (G.G.)  Savannah has her hand stuck down in the cup because she was shoving handfuls of Sonic ice in her mouth!

Girlfriend did some damage on that cake.  Loves sweets...just like her Mama!

Savannah and Mrs. Haley.  Mrs. Haley keeps her in the afternoons at school.  We love her so much!

Savannah and my dad (Peepaw).  Bad picture...sorry dad!

Aaden and Tyler's dad (Peepaw).  Aaden has THREE Peepaw's.  One day we will have to rename two of them, but for now all of his grandfather's are called Peepaw.

We ended up opening gifts up at home.  Savannah was exhausted, it was getting dark, and mosquitoes were biting like crazy.  We got home, changed our clothes, and settled into the living room to open gifts.  Aaden opened most of them.  He's a pro!

This is Ben, Lacey, and Mrs. Naomi from Aaden & Savannah's school.  Mrs. Lacey taught Aaden's class when he started at Kid's Point, and now has Savannah's class.  Lacey and Ben are expecting a sweet little girl in August.  Mrs. Na is Lacey's mom and is the director of Kid's Point.  They are so special to us and we're so glad they were there to help celebrate our Savannah's birthday!

We had a great time and lots of fun!  Savannah is so blessed to have so many who love her.  Happy birthday, sweet girl!



Baby blues

About a week before Savannah turned one, I got in contact with Julianna at Shuttered Smiles Photography to schedule a session.  My friend Leah from work knew her and she has taken some precious pictures of her little girl Abby.  Julianna has been so sweet and so incredibly easy to work with.  I got the CD of pictures in the mail today and I am in love with them!  Even Aaden was able to sneak into a few of them. Thank you so much, Julianna!  Here are a few of my favorites...

Don't your just love those blue eyes?  I keep waiting for them to change, but so far they haven't.  My grandmother and Savannah are the only ones in our family (that I know of) that have blue eyes.  I love that she shares that trait with her great grandma.  We are so thankful for these sweet babies.
Thanks again, Julianna!

Happy (almost) birthday, Savannah!  We love you so much!

A Year Later

We are deep in planning a first birthday party for our sweet girl.  I can't believe she's almost 1!

June 17, 2011

(almost) 1 year old

I probably don't need to say this (see pics above!), but a certain big brother is totally in love with his little sister.  And, little sister thinks Aaden hung the moon.  What in the world did we do before these two sweeties?

Sand & Sun

We just got back yesterday from a little vacation to Pensacola Beach, FL.  We had so much fun!  Aaden and I were both sad that we had to come home.

We left Friday morning headed down south.  I am so thankful that Savannah and Aaden are both great car riders.  Savannah was a little fussy, though.  I can't hardly blame her since she had been in her car seat for at least 7 hours!

Our first stop was in Ocean Springs.  Tyler played a few songs at a place called Coffee Fusion.  While he was playing, we took Aaden down the road to Monkey Joe's.  I wish that we had a place like that here in Columbus.  Lots of jumpers and games.  He was in heaven and was able to burn off lots of energy from being stuck in a van for so long.  No pictures from there... I was too busy chasing him around!

After Tyler finished, we headed on into Pensacola.  We are so fortunate that we were able to stay at the hotel on the Naval Station.  We were able to stay all four nights for around the cost of one night in a good condo.  We got there around 1 am.  We were so tired from driving all day (plus I had worked the night before!).  And the air conditioning in our room wasn't working.  They offered to move us, but by that time we were exhausted so we just dealt with it.

The next morning we got up and headed straight to the beach. Aaden has been talking about going to the beach for a few weeks. He's been so excited!

He spent lots of time running back and forth from the sand...then into the water.  We also bought him a shovel, bucket, and net.  He would dig up lots of sand, then throw it into the water.  One time he accidentally hit a lady with his sand...oops!

Savannah loved the beach, too! I sat with her at the very edge and let the water wash over her little legs when the waves came in. She apparently loves the taste of sand (yuck) and tried eating it by the handfuls.  She also decided it was time for a nap on the 2nd day we were at the beach.  I don't blame her...having so much fun can wear a girl out!

Savannah has always been a very laid back baby, but there must have been something about the beach that totally relaxed her.  I'd hold her and walk about waist deep into the water, and she'd just lay her head on my shoulder and cuddle up to me.  So sweet..

One night we went to Sam's Fun City (another place I wish Columbus had--we'd probably go broke though!).  Aaden has been dying to drive a go-kart.  He loved it!  He's 100% boy, for sure!

Here he is riding another ride.  The little cars would go up and down.  I think he enjoyed it, but definitely not as much as the go-karts.

Another ride...if you are semi- amazed that a 3 year old would ride this, don't be.  Our boy is a daredevil! 

Our nights consisted of eating yummy seafood and riding down the strip of Pensacola Beach. It..was...perfect. 

On our way home, we stopped at Lambert's! One of our favorites!

Thank you LORD for allowing us time together as a family.

I think vacations serve two purposes... 1. to get away from our daily life "stressors" and 2. to make fun memories.  Aaden may or may not remember going to the beach, but our babies will only be little for so long.  Tyler and I are also so thankful that our jobs permit us to take little trips like these and make such sweet memories with our kids.

Bad, bad blogger

I know I've been a horrible blogger, but don't worry... I've been keeping up with my "blog stalking"!  When it's been 6 months since you've blogged, there's alot to catch up on!

Let's start with this pretty girl.  She'll be 11 months old in ONE week.  Lord, help my heart.  We are starting to brainstorm things for her 1st birthday.  Let's get real..I've been thinking about her first birthday since she was just a few months old!  She's growing so fast.  She can say Da Da, Ma Ma, Bye Bye, and sometimes I really think she tries to say Aaden.  She only hears it a million times a day!  She's been our little "sickly" one.  Most recently getting over strep and an ear infection.

She is the sweetest, most laid back baby ever.  I'm not sure what we did before she was born.  We love her so much!

Aaden is getting big, too.  He just recently started t-ball.  He's a pro at hitting (left handed!), but could really care less about playing in the outfield.  Playing with dirt is much, much more fun!  We opted not to start him in Pre-K this year.  He has that funky August birthday.  He would either be the oldest or the youngest in his class.  Since boys tend to mature a little slower than girls, we thought it'd be best for him to wait a year.  He loves it at Kid's Point, and frankly we love him there too!  We'll be sad when he has to leave there next year...

Melt my heart....

At the Easter egg hunt this year.  No big deal... He's got it ALL figured out now!

The Easter Bunny came to see Savannah and Aaden this year.  He brought Savannah some puffs and sandals.  Aaden got a paddle and ball, bubbles, a magnifying glass, and candy.  Love making these sweet memories.

Now you're (mostly) caught up!

I promise I'll try to do better with the blogging!

Tiny Prints!

Friday was a gorgeous day and we met our friend Renee to take our Christmas pictures.  We  had originally planned on taking them last Tuesday, but because of our crazy weather down here in the South, we had to reschedule because it rained all. day. long.  So glad we waited because Saturday was just gorgeous! 

Renee took my maternity pictures with Aaden, then Aaden's newborn pictures.  We didn't have any newborn pictures taken of Savannah, so we decided to take Christmas/family pictures.  I can't wait to get them back so we can start sending out our Christmas cards.

By the way,  if you go to this link and blog about Tiny Prints' Christmas cards,  you will be eligible to receive some free!  You can find their adorable Christmas cards here:
http://www.tinyprints.com/shop/picture-christmas-cards.htm
Just blog about which of their cards you like the best.

Here are some of my favorites...




I love the circle Christmas card...so unique!

They have an awesome selection with so many adorable cards to choose from! 
http://www.tinyprints.com/

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!