the big one

For months now this little girl has wiggled and wobbled her teeth just to get them loose and now for about a week we have seen this...

A tooth hanging by a thread because she is too afraid to pull it out and won't let us near it!

However, today she came home after school with a very wide gaping hole right in the middle of her smile. The thing finally came out while she was at school.

Now for the next one to come out....

a walk in the woods

It has only taken us 18 months to explore the trails on the range right behind our neighborhood but we are so glad that we did. What better day to spend some quality time with the ones that you love than Valentine's Day? After breakfast we told the kids we were going on a "hike" and they were raring to go.

Only one block over from ours is the entrance to the range. The trails start out by a lake. We were able to see several beaver dams along the way. Elizabeth was especially interested in how the beavers built their dam and how the sticks all stayed together.

The kiddos were anxious to explore the trails and find all sorts of nature along the way.

Elizabeth recently took a field trip to a state park so she was able to be our tour guide on our trip through the woods telling us all about the trees and the moss and some of the flowers we saw.

I had to take advantage of the rare sightings of all three of them together and smiling.


By the end of our walk, they were pretty tired and actually getting along enough to hold hands. This too is a rare sighting.


I think we are going to have to take advantage of all of the trails again sometime soon before the weather gets to warm and humid and all of the bugs come out. It was certainly beautiful on our walk through the woods.

Mardi Gras Destin Style

When the weather is nice we head over to Destin for some fun with the kiddos. We had no idea that the Destin Commons was having a Mardi Gras celebration but we certainly enjoyed stumbling upon it. The kids got their faces painted, we watched a parade and collected way more beads than one family could ever want.

Once the parade was over, we watched a dance school put on a performance that the kids were mesmerized by. It was a great day to spend a Sunday afternoon!

a night away

Thanks to some ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL friends of ours Mike and I were able to leave the kiddos at home and hit the road for Pensacola for the night. We headed out right after school and drove right along the coast. We knew the sand was white here but honestly it looked like blankets of snow. It was so smooth and pretty.


We actually went to Pensacola to run in the Double Bridge 15K. To our surprise, my Dad was working there that weekend so he met us the night we got in and then met us again at the finish line the next morning.


The race was awesome! We ran over two bridges and through 3 towns. Who knew you could do that in as little as 9.3 miles? Anyway, it was beautiful to see the sunrise over the water. The weather was cool but sunny and the wind was at our backs. Good times.

After the race we headed back home with my Dad in tow it retrieve the kids and have them spend the rest of the weekend with their Pappy. The kids were so surprised to have Pappy spend the weekend with us and they showed off nonstop the entire weekend.

It was a great weekend! Thanks Dad for spending time with us!

Guitar Princess

So obviously I am way behind in finishing up the Disney posts but thought I would throw this one up just to tie you over for a bit.


Elizabeth went to a Rock Star birthday party and came back with hair extensions and her makeup all done. And of course Jacob (in all his wanna be like ways) jumped right into the role playing of being a rock star. I walked around the corner and this is what I found them doing. I love when they play together so nicely. It's even better when they don't know I am watching. :)