School Days

Allie started school this week. She will be going two days a week this year from 9 - 1. Pretty sure she's loving it.

Gabe and I are getting some much needed together time. I miss my Allie, but I love giving Gabe the one on one attention that he rarely gets. I can see he loves it.

Cinderella

"So I will dance with Cinderella

while she is here in my arms,

'Cause I know something the prince never knew.

I will dance with Cinderella

I don't want to miss even one song,

'Case all too soon the clock will strike midnight

and she'll be gone."

~Steven Curtis Chapman

Bragging Rights

My husband definitely earned some bragging rights yesterday!!!



I'm still trying to figure out how I got so lucky marrying him.



The kids and I abandoned Stephen all last week leaving him behind to work while we enjoyed the beautiful sandy beaches of Gulf Shores, AL. I talked to Stephen throughout the day on our 8 hour car ride home; every time mentioning how nice it was to lay on the couch all day watching football. Turns out that wasn't the case at all.

I came home to a spotless house. Dinner was ready for me when I walked through the door, the vacuum had been run, sheets washed and put back on beds, towels and rugs washed, kitchen clean, dishes put away, he even went to the store to buy wood floor cleaner (I usually just use water) and mopped the hardwoods; you get the idea! And to top it off.........flowers and a card. Upstairs in our room.....2 more vases full of flowers and another card and a rose laying on our bed.

I was missed and that makes me happy. I love you Stephen. Thank you for always making me feel special.

Gulf Shores

The kids and I met Pop and Maw-maw down at the beach. We are definitely missing daddy, but somehow are managing to have a good time.

Gabe has at least one accident per day...it's only a matter of time before we visit the ER. Yesterday, fell out of a chair by the pool onto the concrete and landed on his head. He got pretty banged up, but he's a tough boy and is okay.

Future Auburn Tigers

We had an amazing weekend visiting our Alma mater, Auburn University.

We stayed on Lake Martin with our friends Trae and J and their little girl, Addyson. Allie and Addyson are 1 week apart in age and play so sweet together. (We had a great visit guys....appreciate the invite to stay at the cabin!)

Gabe tailgating at his first Auburn game....complete with a little chicken hanging off his mouth.

I couldn't resist buying this little AU hat. This is his first ball cap and he is having to get used to it....but he WILL wear it!

Gabe loved exploring and played, and played, and played on these stairs behind him.

Blue 42, Hiiiiiiiieeeeke.

Allie and Addyson found some neighboring little girl tailgaters whom they wanted to play with. But, they just stood watching and wishing the girls would invite them into their game of tug-of-war. This picture breaks my heart. Girls, you'll always have each other!

This is Auburn's tiger walk (the team walks through the crowd into the stadium). In my 4 years of going to college at Auburn, I NEVER saw it like this. It was crazy hot and crazy crowded.

The kids were a bit small to take into a game like this, but we had a great time! Gabe will never remember it, but Stephen and I definitely won't forget it. Allie was cheering along with the crowds, "War Eagle" and "Come on D". Gabe was too busy throwing popcorn and pushing the poor guy sitting in front of us to even notice the football game.

One of my favorite parts of the game was when the eagle was released in our section. Always such a rush to see him circle the stadium with everyone cheering "Waaaaaaaaar Eaaaaagle, Hey".

See you in 2025.

Movin' on Up

We have a climber!



2 to be exact. But, I find it completely amazing that this little one year old can climb like he does. I looked up and he was like this climbing up the ladder....all by himself. Impressive for a not quite 14 month old.





We quickly realized we were going to have to keep a closer watch on him. Gabe would climb up and go down the slide and walk back over to start the process again before we could blink.

He would have fallen a few times if it weren't for a dad who was right there to catch him.

And, what a great daddy these two have. Allie got her some daddy time too. How sweet!

Allie's eyes lit up when she noticed 2 other little girls coming over to play. They immediately found each other and the playing began.

Since Allie was being entertained we could focus our attention on this little guy, who was still climbing and sliding....and climbing and sliding.

Aperture priority

I was reading through my camera's manual last night and had a little aha moment.

So this morning I bribed Allie to let me to take a few practice shots. For these pictures I used "Av" on my camera (aperture priority) and lowered the f-stop to the lowest it would go (f1.4). This changed the depth of field - how much of the photo is in focus and how much is blurry. The higher the f-stop the more of the picture will be in focus, the lower the f-stop the more blurred the background will be. I like to focus on the face and have the rest blurred....that's just my style. I'm pleased with the results. I did learn that your subject has to be pretty still or else the entire pic will come out blurry. So, doing this with Gabe might be a challenge, but I'm up for it.