A beautiful vacation

If you read the last blog you know that Jim and I were able to get away for a few days for a bit of a vacation. It's the first time we've left Jacob and only the third time we've left Megan for more than a night.

We headed down to Pine Island. It's so peaceful, quiet and slow there! It was wonderful. We ate at out of the way places like Pork Bellies BBQ, Cheeburger/Cheeburger, Red Robin (Jim misses it from TN), Lilly's Deli and my personal favorite Iguana Mia!

I was able to cash in my mother's day gift certificate for a massage and haircut! Wow what a difference. I haven't had my hair cut since I cut off my ponytail last summer.

We drove over to Sanibel Island--fantastic shell hunting! We started our day with a picnic lunch here......

We wrote messages with shells in the sand for the kids.....
and then we walked by the old lighthouse and checked out the local wildlife.....
(the sign reads gopher tortoise crossing)

The next day we headed over to Ft. Myers Beach where Jim enjoyed the waves on his boogie board and I read a book relaxing on the beach! It was an extremely restful and relaxing getaway.

Visit from Nana

My mom got to come for a visit. Her main objective was to keep the kids while Jim and I got away for a bit of a vacation. We had some sweet friends offer to let us stay at their place on the gulf and so we got away for 4 days! I'll post pictures from our trips to the beach in another post.

While Nana was here we all got to see Megan's soccer game last weekend. Here she and Jacob are cheering on team blue!
Megan's little girlfriend was out for this game and as you can see, Megan had more fun chasing ants than playing soccer! Too funny! I'm thinking we're sticking with dance next year......

We took Nana out to eat one night for Mother's Day. Megan poses for a silly face and Jacob is wearing a new birthday outfit of course with a truck on the front!
On her last day here we headed over to Cocoa Beach where Megan dove right in.

Jacob was a little more reluctant....


We love our visits with Nana. She left this morning to fly back to TN. My Megan loves her Nana and is already planning our next visit to see her. Thanks Nana for loving on the kids while Jim and I enjoyed a much needed break! We love you.


Thank you Nana and Lynne for the Nemo quilt! The kids love it! And it's big enough to share!!!!

Megan's dance pictures

Megan's dance year is winding down so we're gearing up for the end of the year recital. We went on Friday to have individual and class pictures taken. We rolled her hair on sponge rollers for the first time. She seemed to love it and kept them all in for the entire night!
After the girls had their pictures taken, they did a dress rehearsal. Her costume is super cute and she has bright blue shoes that will be highlighted during their dance to "Boogie Shoes" during the recital.
Check back after the recital for day of pictures. I'll also try my best to post footage from her dance!

Jacob turns 2!

I cannot believe my baby has turned 2! Seems like just yesterday I was waiting to hear his sweet cry as he joined our family.

Jacob is into trucks right now. Okay, obsessed is more like it! We decided on a hot wheels party and let the kids play with the train table, hot wheels and a little car game. (It's really hard to structure anything for 2 year olds!) So, we had an enjoyable playdate/birthday party with his little friends.

Here's the birthday boy ready to pitch.
My mom was able to come down again this year for a visit....you know what that means....cake by nana! Here's a picture of the truck she and Megan decorated for Jacob.
I'd love to post more pictures, but we had several guests (or customers as Megan called them.) who are currently in the foster system and out of privacy for them I didn't want to include them without their foster parent's permission.

Us recently.....

I've been lax in my blogging lately. Life has been busy and blogging was something I could put off without detriment to the family. But, I did want to share a few pictures from our recent adventures.

Megan's team got their soccer jerseys. Doesn't she have a hunky coach?

Megan also had her four year check up at the doctor. All is well and after two shots (which the doctor told me she wouldn't have at her last appointment) we had a celebratory lunch at chick-fil-a. We were also celebrating keeping her pull up dry all night. She's been dry for about a week now. Good-bye pull ups--college savings here we come!

Here are a couple of other recent cute pictures of the kids....we found a caterpillar in the kitchen one morning. Meg loved letting it climb up her arm. We freed him outside! Aren't you proud of me for releasing a critter?
We celebrated cinco de mayo a night early with taco dinner! I love how Jacob ends up with as many black beans on his face as he does in his belly! Yummy Yummy!
We are preparing for Megan's dance recital and recently picked up her costume. Here's a sneak peek of what's to come with the "Boogie Shoes" production. Papa and Gan Gan are planning a trip down during that time so they'll get to attend her first dance recital! She's so excited they get to be here.

During play time this afternoon Megan decided to take on the dining room table! Guess who didn't win?
She calls it her fluffy lip! Poor thing.

Check back soon for pictures of Nana's visit (Beth's mom). Jacob's 2nd birthday party is coming up and I'm sure will bring entertaining shots for our enjoyment.

Thank you all for praying for our pastor Jason and his family as his parents continue to heal in New Orleans after their accident. They've both been transferred to treatment facilities that specialize in their needs. Jason continues to spend the week with them and travel home to his family here in Orlando on the weekends. Continue to pray for Jen as she loves on and cares for their 4 kids here.