Summer Fun!

So, I have been waiting per my dentist's recommendation to take Miss Priss to the dentist until 3 1/2 because they feel like they are less afraid. Overall, she really did fine but there was a little drama! Basically the only way she would lay in the seat was if I was laying down holding her, and my 26+ week pregnant belly was in the way! She did get most of her teeth polished and let the Dr "count her teeth". No thanks on the floss though. They said everything looked good and to try and keep up the good work at home. Whew. 6 months til the next appointment and Daddy may take her :)

Last weekend my aunts and uncles from California and Wyoming were in central Arkansas for a cousins wedding and we got to see them for a dinner at the flying fish. Below are my 2 sweet aunts that I loved getting to catch up with.

Sydney and Uncle Bill

My dad and brother

The Eagle clan downtown

The OBU girls got together for lunch because Jennifer and her TINY baby bump were in town, and we got a take an amazing tour of Katie's new house. WOW. She has done some amazing things already! I will wait for pictures until the house is complete, but it is going to be so beautiful!!!

After lunch and a quick nap, Brent and I took Sydney to her first real movie in the theater!!!
Toy Story 3! We decided to go all out and saw it in IMAX/3D. Hum. Rookie mistake #1.
After spending $33 on tickets, we realized that 3D movies look a little blurry if you don't wear your glasses, and since her glasses were GIGANTIC she didn't keep them on well. Rookie mistake #2, we didn't at first grab her a child's seat to keep the big seat from closing up. Rookie mistake #3, save the snacks until the movie actually starts because she was a little bored 15 minutes in the movie, which leads me to one smart thing Brent did. He spent $16 on 2 drinks and a refillable popcorn bucket, and it was a good thing cause the whole thing dumped about 35 minutes in. Whew- Dad got fresh popcorn and that got us through most of the rest of the movie, with her climbing in and out of my lap and her chair. It was a very sweet movie (I teared up and I'll admit it!) and we were able to stay for the whole thing!

3 tickets to IMAX/3D movie= $33
Popcorn and 2 drinks= $16.50
Having your daughter say in the car afterwards "Next time, can we go see Dora?"= Priceless!

Let's see, Sunday afternoon was Emma's 6th birthday party at a skating rink! I was very nervous and picturing Sydney breaking at least one bone, but when we got there they had these GENIUS inventions!!!

Haha, it did sort of look like "seniors night out" with all these tiny walkers rolling around, but it really helped Sydney skate! She, of course, fell a couple of times, but laughed it off and loved skating with her Daddy!

My camera died before I got a picture of the Birthday Girl, but here is her little sister Elli showing her skating skills!

And this morning Ashley and I took the 3 girls to the pool to enjoy the break in heat and humidity (Thank you Lord!!!!)

Sydney was so brave and decided to slide and jump off the board for the first time! I was floating with a noodle in the deep end, but she kept telling me "Don't catch me Mom!" so I let her do all the swimming!

Sweet friends- Elli and Sydney- age 3

So that is most of what we have been doing. And every available minute I am working on Kate's room, or rather trying to attack what Brent has named "Lauren's Room of Shame". It is our extra bedroom upstairs, that for the last 5 years has been my sewing, scrapbook, extra clothing closet, storage for yearbooks, photo albums, and OK I will admit it, everything else I didn't know where to put. After 1 huge load donated to Arc of Arkansas, 1 huge load of trash, and literally re-organizing 4 closets in the rest of the house, I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. My Mom commented that the carpet looks brand new in there! I will admit, it has been awesome to have a "Room of Shame" in the house, but it was like a black hole that sucked stuff in and never looked organized in any way. In my dream house, I will defiantly have another one, and Brent agreed as long as he can have a "Man Cave" too :).
Have a blessed Fourth of July weekend y'all!!!!!

Florida- 2010

Hi y'all! We just got back from Rosemary Beach, Florida and my mom is busy shaking sand out of our suitcases. We went with the Luce family, and the whole trip was one big ole' blessing! We ate, played, slept, ate some more, and basically relaxed in a beautiful place. My mom and Scarlett took over 500 pictures, but since this is my digital scrapbook my mom narrowed down to her favorites and apologizes for all these pictures!!!

Florida- Family Fun

Both families enjoyed the relaxing week. This is one night walking to get ice cream at the Sweet Shop in Rosemary Beach while enjoying the beautiful sunset and the 101 heat index. Yes, it was that hot. At 7:45 pm.

In fact, it was SO HOT that ice cream sounded great in theory, but wasn't the best thing to sit on a park beach in the quaint Rosemary Beach square and eat. Especially chocolate in a cone like Sydney ordered. Thank God for spray and wash! Bless her heart, it was half melted before she even started it!

Waiting on the adults to finish packing up the beach bags. I asked "Who is ready for the beach???" and they all screamed me!!! :)

We tried to have some balance for dinners and ate 3 wonderful meals at the house (note to self: take Scarlett on trips with you because she is turning into a great cook!!!) and we ate out 4 nights. We ate at Bud and Allys in Seaside (which is about 10 miles from Rosemary Beach) and actually enjoyed sitting outside under the shade with the breeze coming off the ocean.

The guys wanted fried seafood one night, so we ate at Reggae Jay's another night

I had to share this picture. One of Sydney's favorite times of the day was bath time, because we had a big ole "bubble tub" as she called it. She laid back and relaxed this night and I had to share!

Sincerely, most of the days were spent: sleeping in (a little with 3 kids!), beach in the morning, lunch, nap, pool in the afternoon, cleaning up for dinner, dessert and an early-ish bedtime. I felt so relaxed and not rushed or on a plan any day. Such a blessing for a planner/busy body like me!!!!!!! I had 2 days off before the trip and they were spent packing, doing laundry, taking Sydney and I both to dr appointments, and basically having a long "to do" list. It was so healthy and relaxing for me to take a vacation. Seriously. I had forgotten how good for the soul it can be to get off your regular routine and wake up without a set plan for the day. Thank you to Brent, Scarlett and Jason for making me relax!

This was the ocean one afternoon walking back to the house. Absolutely beautiful. Heartbreakingly beautiful because this was taken on Thursday late afternoon, and on the news that night there were reports of the oil sheen 6-8 miles off shore. Of course, the oil spill had been a concern of mine. The ocean. The wildlife. The environmental impact. The job impact. Small business owners trying to make it in a tough economy. The impact on probably thousands of families who were planning on relaxing vacations like the one we were blessed with. Heartbreaking stuff.

And then we spent a week with probably the most beautiful water and beaches I have seen in the US. And we met shop owners, restaurant workers, property owners, and people whose entire lives depend on tourism and a clean, safe ocean. And it really hit home with me how HUGE this oil spill is. HUGE. This was a bumper sticker on one of the golf cart shuttles-

I asked if I could take a picture of it and the driver said "Uh, yeah. That stands for Florida Against BP." Yeah right it does :)! I have been swinging from "Let's all boycott buying any product that would benefit BP" to "Let's all go and buy only gas from BP so that they will stay in business and be able to afford to clean up and restoration of the gulf coast!". I certainly don't know any answers to this HUGE mess, but please remember the people in the Gulf who are going to be tremendously affected by this disaster for who knows how long!?!?! It is not just about having to cancel your week long vacation! This is about their entire economy! OK, that is all I know to say about the oil spill. Thank God we were not directly affected on our trip, but please God help us as a country move towards effective and quick clean up! We spent our last full day on the beach, and the water was clean and beautiful, but...

Hardly a mile off shore, 4 US Coast Guard ships passed by several times monitoring the situation. This is everyone (but me) floating in the water that morning. I heard that tar and oil are on the beach as of this morning. Heartbreaking!!!!