Florida beach pictures!

We made it to Destin and had only one day of rain. I hear Arkansas got a few days of rain or people say lots of flooding. It was a wonderful vacation. We went with some of our good friends named Adam and Laura Harrell and Daniel and Jill Edwards with their 5 month old baby, Clarke. We actually stayed right outside of Destin at Mirimar Beach in a house that I found online. Since it was the end of summer and I guess "hurricane season" we got the house for half price! This was well worth it.

Noah and Ally loved the beach. Noah played on a little boogie board and he called it "surbing." He would say, "do you want to go to the ocean and ride on my surbing?" I kept telling him it was called a surf board, but it kept calling it the other. Too cute though. Everytime Ally would go to the beach, which was usually only for an hour or two, she would get sand all over her. She would then touch her face and eyes and constantly say, "My eyes, my eyes!" in this deep voice like it was sooo painful. Neverless, Travis would take her back to the house and swim while Noah and I would play at the beach.

It was so nice getting to spend an entire week with Travis and the kids. Since I work some, I am not with them everyday, all the time, so I don't know what that is like. It was definitely wonderful, but exhausting. I got to really see some things that they have been learning or maybe just learned. For example, Noah was eating M & Ms (it was vacation, we didn't eat great) and he was actually counting them one by one. I think he got to 9. He knows how to count pretty far, but he was taking them one by one and lining them up and counting them. It was pretty cool. It may not be that big of a deal, but I have never seen him do that. As for Ally, she talks so much and talks so well for her age I am told. She told me while we were downstairs, "I want to go upstairs and watch Barney!" That is an eight word sentence. It was a clear as can be too. It was just fun for Travis and I to get to spend every waking minute with them. We really appreciated it. We celebrated Ally's 2nd birthday in Destin on Sept. 1. We got her a cookie cake and she got to blow out 2 candles. Another funny: My husband has a silly personality and I think it is rubbing off on Noah. Travis says as a joke sometimes that if he doesn't want to do something or doesn't like something he will say "that is for the birds." Well, we were talking about getting Ally a cake and Noah with a sweet little grin on his face says, "Birthday cakes are for the birds." It was soooo funny. It cracked everyone up and the whole trip we kept repeating that line.

As for the adults, we had fun as well. We enjoyed watching the Republican National Convention for 2 nights, which was sooo good, we watched a few movies including the Notebook (my favorite), Cloverfield (I don't recommend) and 3:10 to Yuma, which was pretty good for a western. I got to read 2 books. I love to read so on the way up and back from Destin and while the kids were napping, I got my read on. I have never read the Chronicles of Narnia series, so I read The Magicians's Nephew and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Very good and hopefully I will get to read the rest soon.

I hope to get more pictures of them actually on the beach later. Thanks for everyone thoughts and prayers for a safe trip for us. It turned out just perfect.

Yes, we are here!

We are here in Destin enjoying wonderful weather and beautiful beaches! We had one day of rain on Monday, but besides that it, it has been great! Thanks for your prayers and thoughts! We are having a wonderful family vacation and will be back soon. Will update with pictures when we get back.

Hurricane vs. Tropical Storm!

So, we plan to leave on our family vacation to Destin early Saturday morning. Have you heard about the tropical storm brewing in the Atlantic? Gustav!! What do we do now? The weather men are not sure where it is going. They say that it will hit the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend and they can't exactly predict which way it is headed. They are giving it a 300 mile radius of where it could go. From the panhandle of Florida (where we plan to be) all the way over to Texas. They just don't know. As of this morning, they are predicting that it will be on some sort of land by Tuesday. They say that if it stays more west, it will probably weaken. I hate it that there is a hurricane anyway, but the selfish part of me hates it even more that it is possibly going to ruin our vacation. Isn't that awful of me? What would you do? I really don't want to put my kids in a harmful situation, but there is a possiblity that it will not hit there. I guess we could still head down there and just see in the beginning of the week. I don't know. Any suggestions? Please pray that the hurricane will disspate and that no one will get injured in it. We did know that this was hurricane season, but I thought what are the chances really of one being where we are going.

Noah's first day of PreK!

Noah started PreK3 today! He did so well. I was really proud of him. It worried me that he wouldn't want to stay or he wouldn't want us to leave, but he was fine. He looked like such a big boy sitting at his desk. His friend, Eli, is also in his class, so I think that was comforting to him. When I picked him up, he said he had a "great time" and he wants to go back. What a relief and an answer to prayers. His teacher, Mrs K., just called to see how his first day was. I thought that was very sweet. She said he did a good job and that he was very socialable. My Noah! Sometimes he acts shy, but I guess at school, he comes out of his shell.(I guess he takes after his momma in that way).

After church conversations!!

Mommy: So Noah, what did you learn at church today?
Noah: We learned about Jesus.
Mommy: Oh, that is good. What did you learn?
Noah: Jesus died.
Mommy: Yes, Jesus did die. What else did you learn?
Noah: That there was a big rock and He went round and round and round it.

Hmmm, you really can't just make these things up, can you? I have no clue what that means.

Another Noah funny: Ever since Ken(our wonderful pastor at FBC) talked about how he hopes that Michael Phelps "destroys" everyone in the Olympics, Travis has been walking around the house saying the same thing about Michael Phelps. He has also just loved saying that word: destroy. So this morning before church, Noah and Travis were playing and Noah says, "I am going to destroy you daddy!" Isn't that just wonderful! It was so funny at the time though. I don't really know that Noah knows what that word means, but it was really cute and we cracked up at him.

Ally's new room!

 
 
 
 
Here is Ally's new room! Thanks to Memow and Mimi for helping paint the room. It was a lot of hard work, but it turned out great. She loves the color pink just like her mommy. Can't wait for her to start sleeping in it now :)

It has been awhile!

 
 
 
 
I know that it has been awhile since I have written, but we have been very busy this summer. We have gone to the lake some and just enjoying the summer. Here are a few recent pictures of the kids. They love going with their Memow to the "lollipop store" aka Cracker Barrel and getting huge suckers. As you can see, we have to eat them outside.
Noah loves to wear his John Deer boots and hat. He went with Travis one day to the John Deer store and they gave him a little green hat. He loves to wear it because daddy wears hats. This picture of Ally is precious to me because she carries around her blanket and cup all the time together. She attempts to pick other items up too but it frustrates her because she doesn't have enough hands.