Thursday, May 28, 2009

Burnett Pictures

I recently took pictures of the Burnett girls. Savannah is one of McKenzie's friends at school. She's takes dancing and has done several pageants so she's used to having her picture taken, which is always helpful when one of the subjects is under three! Here are a few shots from the session. Click here to see more.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

"Our Beach Is So Fun!"

For the Memorial Day weekend we went to Orange Beach, AL. The title of this post, "Our beach is so fun!", is a quote from Matt that he repeated several times over the weekend. He and McKenzie really enjoyed themselves as you can see in the picture to the left. I'm not sure if Matt thought that was "our" beach or if he was saying "Orange Beach".

We were very worried about the weather. All the forecasts said that we could expect 80% chances of rain every day without much chance of any beach time. We got there Friday afternoon and it had rained a little bit but had stopped by the time we got to our condo. Here's Matt and McKenzie right after we got out of the car at the condo...

...and here's the view we had from the condo.


We decided to go eat early so we could get back and try to take some pictures in case it was the only chance we had before the rain started. We went to Lulu's and got to sit by the water and saw a couple of dolphins swim by! I also took advantage of the "Butt Bucket"! I guess that's what they were for. :)


We were able to get a few pictures of the kids Friday evening before the rain started. Here are a couple....




Saturday morning was pretty depressing. We woke up to rain and the Weather Channel saying the rain chance for the rest of the day was 80 to 100%. We decided to say a little prayer there in the condo. We started to pray that God would give us just a little sunshine but if not, that we would have good attitudes and have fun anyway. When Matt realized we weren't saying the blessing and about to eat, he huffed off and stood in the kitchen with his arms crossed!

We decided we'd go to Target and maybe a movie and just try to find some other non-beach fun things to do. While we were in Target, we came back around to the front of the store and looked outside and saw........SUNSHINE!!! We wrapped up our Target visit quickly and hurried back to "our beach". Here are a few pictures from our RAIN FREE beach time on Saturday.



Matt made friends with an empty-nest couple and they let him play with their football.


Worn out from beach football!

After a few hours on the beach, we were ready to EAT. We went to Lambert's in Foley and stuffed ourselves silly.

Here's what I had.....

Oh, and it rained while we were at Lambert's. The sun came back out later in the afternoon and we hit the beach for more pictures.......





I love this one of Betty.

I checked the weather again Saturday night and the 80 to 100% chance of rain for Saturday and Sunday had changed to 5 to 10%!!! Amen!

Sunday was more beach time, more eating, and a little golf.

Matt was so focused on playing "golfball" that he didn't even realize that he cut his ankle on one of the bricks and rubbed a blister on his finger while he was playing.


"Where's my ball?"

Monday morning we ate a late breakfast at Tacky Jack's.

The food was great and the views were great, too. Betty had shrimp and grits and was still talking about them today!


One last picture before we left....Matt in his patriotic Memorial Day shirt and cool dude Mickey Mouse shades.

We had a wonderful time and of course took lots of pictures. If you want to see some more, click here to see some on my photography web site.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Last Day To Be a Second Grader!

I can't believe it but McKenzie finished the second grade today! Time has flown by this year. It is hard to believe she is officially a third grader! McKenzie has had a great year. Mrs. Welch is a great teacher and she is going to miss her over the summer. Today McKenzie had a half day and the last hour they celebrated the end of school with a pizza and cake. Everyone was so excited to begin their summer! Here is a picture of the class with Mrs. Welch.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Happy Birthday, Grand!

Today is my Dad's (Grand) birthday and we'd like to wish him a very happy one!!! I told Grand the other night that I hope I look as good as him when I get his age. To tell you the truth, if I don't start losing some of this middle age spread, I might take the trade now!

Here's a picture of Grand doing what he does best.........whatever the grandchildren want!



Happy Birthday Grand!

(Don't forget to check out Betty's post below about our beach trip.)

Monday, May 18, 2009

Orange Beach

We are really getting excited around here about our trip to Orange Beach...three days and counting! McKenzie finishes school at noon on Thursday, so we will leave early on Friday morning and head to the beach. Matt and I went to Walmart today to finish up some last minute shopping for things that we need for the trip. McKenzie is really excited and Matt says he is, but last year was not a big fan of the loud ocean and the sand. He did enjoy playing with his toys out on our balcony, though. So, hopefully with him being another year older he will like it better. All I know is that I have got a ton of packing to do, so I am trying to start early so the task won't be so overwhelming! After we get toys, suitcases, groceries, towels, etc. in the back of the suv, we will look like the Beverly Hillbillies. I remember last year, poor David loaded everything on a cart once we got to our condo. Next, we all headed up on the elevator to the third floor. We then both pushed that heavy cart around many corners to get to our place. It was so hot that I thought we were going to pass out. We stopped for a brief second to catch our breath and I looked down and saw two older couples at a nearby pool smiling at us and probably laughing to themselves that that use to be them with all the junk! We are not complaining though because we love the memories we are making with McKenzie and Matt.

Here are a few pictures from last year's trip. We ended up with more of McKenzie than Matt so we are hoping he will cooperate more and not be scared.


This is the first picture David took after we first arrived. We like to check everything out before unpacking the car.




I love this picture of McKenzie. It shows how happy she is to be there.




This is my favorite picture of them. Right now I have it in a frame on my end table with a basket of shells that we found last year.

We had many "photo shoots" and I thought David captured some great memories.


Friday, May 15, 2009

Happy Birthday Davis!

We would like to wish my cousin, Davis a happy birthday! We hope you have a great day.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Brothers and Baseball

Recently, I got to take pictures of Connor and Ian McCullough. We had to reschedule a couple of times because of all the rain we've had. We were even getting chased by a storm on this day, too! We finished up the last shots just as it was starting to rain. This is my favorite shot from the session. Click here to see more.

Matt and I went to another Memphis Redbirds game Wednesday. Matt was calling it the "Redball Game". The game started at 11:00, so I took the whole day off and we left about 9. The weather was great and the game was good, too. It was 0-0 after 9 innings and Las Vegas went ahead 3-0 on a homerun in the top of the 10th. Memphis tied it in the bottom of the 10th and then Las Vegas won 4-3 on a homerun in the top of the 11th. The guy who hit the winning homerun had some relatives at the game who were sitting right behind us. They were quite excited.


Matt got to see a fire truck before the game while wearing his fireman backpack.


Matt played the little hitting game. The girl started to try to help him on the first swing and he just stopped and looked at her like "I'm not a kid!!!" He hit one liner into the holes. I had to drag him away from there.


He started asking for ice cream in the 3rd inning!


The obligatory train shot.


He passed out on the way home.

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Mother's Day Eve

We celebrated Mother's Day on Saturday. Betty wanted to go to Memphis for her day, so that's what we did. She wanted to go eat at Carrabba's and then go to a new Target on Poplar Avenue. You know we can't have a Target within driving distance that she hasn't been to!

Well, we got to Carrabba's and found out that they aren't open for lunch on Saturdays, so we went to the Olive Garden which is just down the street from Carrabba's.



I had to take the kids outside after we ordered to run off some energy. Matt smelled the flowers and proclaimed, "It smells like waffles!". Who knew?


The Target on Poplar has now been conquered.


Betty decided at lunch that she'd like to go to a movie. I got on my Google Maps app on my BlackBerry and found the Malco Paradiso which is just off Poplar, close to Target and the Olive Garden. I sound like a cell phone commercial. There's an app for that!


The kids and I went to see Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D! Matt looked like he was on the Aliens' side! Betty went to see Obsessed. By herself. Alone. Without kids. I'll remember this on Father's Day.


The Paradiso is a nice theater. Here's McKenzie relaxing by the fountain waiting for Betty to get out of her movie. Matt later threw his Red Sox hat into the fountain. Did I mention that Betty got to spend over an hour and a half ALONE in a movie enjoying popcorn and a Coke???


We walked over to Ben & Jerry's after the movie and this is what I got - the Cookie Cookie Sundae!!! I think I earned it.

Happy Mother's Day, Betty!

Happy Mother's Day, Nana!

Happy Mother's Day, Mimi!