beach day

welcome baby lauren!

i am so proud to announce the birth of our good friends' heather and ryan's daughter, Lauren Bailey!

today the kids and i went to visit the diggs family at the hospital. as much as natalie LOVES babies, i thought she would be ecstatic to see lauren, but for some reason she shied away. maybe i scared her a little when i gave her the talk on how we don't touch new babies :( little russell did better than i expected -- he didn't seem to be jealous but instead he kind of just ignored us altogether! as for me, i was on cloud nine holding precious little lauren. i even had the privilege of changing her poopy diaper and swaddling her up like a little burrito :)

lauren was born on monday afternoon, and although she came two weeks early, she weighed a whopping 8lbs11oz! she is too cute for words as you will see in these photos:

is she cute, or what!

check out that enormous bow that heather's mom made - how adorable is that!

the whole time i thought she looked like heather, but when i saw this pic on my computer tonight, i totally saw ryan's face

seems like just yesterday heather was visiting ME at the hospital when russell was born...MY HOW TIME FLIES!

corey's wedding

last night my friend heather's sister, corey, got married :)
russ and i were asked to help at the reception, and we were very happy to do so. we had a lot of fun while working during the reception, and worked extra hard cleaning up after everyone left, but in the end, i'm just glad we were able to be there. it was such a beautiful event, every little detail was thought out and carried through as you will see in the pictures below. i hear heather and corey's mom is nicknamed "martha stewart" and trust me, that is an understatement! their family did all of this themselves!

can you guess what the colors were? ;)

it's the little details that make a world of a difference

trying to keep clean, here russell sports a nifty apron

look how gorgeous the sister of the bride looks, and she is due any day!

me, russ, ryan and heather

logan chillin on the floor

he was soooo exhausted but somehow made it through the night!

boy, was i thirsty

sorry, no pictures of the bride and groom, but CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU BOTH, COREY & MATT!

daddy's race

russ ran the jacksonville corporate 5k with the firm i work for last thursday night and me and kids came for support!

his time was 20:24 by the way -- almost broke 20 minutes which was his goal.

waiting for the race to begin

of course, only one kid smiles at a time!

resting after the race

russell hiding from the "momma-razzi"

yay! i got a laugh out of him!

robots are cool

mommy's on the left

natalie's copy of mommy's on the right

russell's scribbles in the middle :)

did you know...

...that at Applebees, kids eat for FREE on tuesdays AND they have a clown for entertainment???

WELL, NOW YOU DO!

so fresh and so clean!

i braved a trip to the dentist today... not for me, but for BOTH kids! natalie was long due for her cleaning and check-up, and little russell had not yet had one. so it was time to go!


at natalie's first trip to the dentist, she was very hesitant and frightened. she had to sit in my lap and barely opened her mouth. she cried just a little which was fine because crying meant that her mouth was open for the hygienist to clean her teeth! about a year had passed and lately she's been talking about going to the dentist VERY excitedly! today she went in like a big girl, sat very still for two x-rays, and then sat all by herself for her cleaning and exam. she also really enjoyed watching wall-E which was playing on the television up on the ceiling! i couldn't have been more proud of her!


i was more worried about russell's first visit... of course, he had seen the dentist twice before, when he bumped his front tooth (how can we forget!) and both times he wasn't very cooperative. this time, however, he did really well! he did sit on my lap for the cleaning but when the dentist came in for the exam, he sat all by himself! he was very well-behaved and not once did he shed a tear!


the outcome was two brave, well-mannered kids with clean, health teeth! i don't know why i ever doubt my kids, they are good at proving me wrong! :)

here's a [poor cell phone] picture of natalie in the chair. i didn't get one of russell because when he was sitting by himself, i was too busy paying attention to what the dentist had to say.

cecil field air show

laughing hyenas

for some strange reason my kids thinks the show America's Funniest Home Videos is HYSTERICAL! they crack up laughing everytime someone gets hurt!

the lighting is terrible, but as soon as they started this laughing frenzy i ran to get my camera and started filming...

***scroll down to stop the music so you can hear them laughing***

hanging out at grandma and grandpa's house - they LOVE the playground!

clifford spotting in jacksonville!

we heard clifford was going to be at our local bookstore, so we decided to go check it out this morning.

russell was a bit more shy than natalie but i was just glad i was able to get him in the picture one way or another!

they both got new clifford books that clifford "signed" with his paw print stamp :)

sponge bob!

regardless of the fact that i find this show quite funny and entertaining, i don't let my kids watch it. they might have seen it once or twice here and there and they definitely see sponge bob pretty much EVERYWHERE we go. -- i mean really, is he popular or WHAT???

despite the fact that they don't watch the show, my kids LOVE spongebob! so i buy them little things here and there, like their bathroom rinse cups, a puzzle, etc. but the other day when natalie ran into the corner of the wall, we pulled out a spongebob icepack that we inherited from aunt susie when packing up the cooler to head home from virginia. she was so excited about using it and the moment she was feeling better, she grabbed her new drawing board she got from the easter bunny and started to draw spongebob. i had to take a picture because this is only the 3rd time she drew him and this was the day after her "booboo" and the ice pack had already been put away.

and while natalie was drawing, russell stood at the window watching the rainstorm.

happy blessed easter!

after mass today, we had both families over for a cookout. the weather couldn't have been more perfect! natalie and russell went on another easter egg hunt and then had fun playing with their cousins.

russell was in one of his "moods" and this was the best family picture we got

look what the easter bunny brought!

nana's coconut easter bunny cake =)

happy birthday, dear susan

i just had to share this card i found for my dear sister-in-law, susan. there isn't a more perfect card for her...


doesn't it look like her???


and in honor of susan's birthday, i chose a rockin LOVERBOY tune, who i am told she worshiped as a teenager. And for those of you who grew up in MY era, you may remember this song from the Saturday Night Live skit with Patrick Swayze and Chris Farley as Chip N Dale dancers... ENJOY!

we love you susan! hope i didn't embarrass you too much ;) besides, i know you're good at getting me back!

happy easter eggs!

yesterday was the day we dyed easter eggs. natalie had been looking forward to this for DAYS! she was so excited. titi celena happened to stop by and was a huge help :)

all he wanted to do was play with the water

here's natalie writing her name on the egg

showing off their eggs!

we'll be using these eggs in our easter egg hunt on Easter Sunday...

but we are having another egg hunt today with our friends isaac and isabella :)