Up!

Wednesday night, we went to see the movie Up. The kids were so excited and that made it fun for David and me. Matt kept telling all of us all day "We're going to the movie!". Like we didn't know! Matt was grinning so big on the way that you'd have thought we were going to the fanciest theater in the country instead of the number two screen at the Plaza Cinema in Grenada, MS! I got popcorn, M&Ms and Coke for McKenzie and Matt at the beginning of the movie and then got popcorn and chocolate covered almonds and drinks for David and me. Matt was so funny to watch during the movie. He sat on the edge of his seat with his eyes glued to the screen, eating popcorn like he was in a trance.

About half way through the movie, David went to the bathroom and took the kids with him. He looked like a daddy duck with his ducklings following behind! He said that on the way to the bathroom, Matt said, "The movie is so fun!!". Our kids are easy to please!

The movie was great and I even cried during parts! The kids loved it, too, and they loved the man in the movie because he reminded them of our neighbor Joe Byrd! I could just see Joe and Matt enjoying all the adventures the man and the boy in the movie had!

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

Monday was my nephew, Caleb's, birthday. He is now 14 years old and heading into the 9th grade next year. He is also Matt's favorite person on earth, better known to Matt as "Dah". Only Matt knows why he calls Caleb "Dah". He knows it's Caleb but he insists on calling him "Dah". Anyway, Dah, Andy (Chunch), Matt and I went to Memphis to a Redbirds game Monday for Caleb's birthday. The sorry bums all fell asleep on the way up there! Andy was the first to pass out.....

...then Caleb.....

.....then Matt.....


We had a great time at the ballgame. Matt sampled everybody's lunch.


Happy Birthday, Caleb (Dah)!

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.

"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.

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.

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.)

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.