Fall 2013

Fall 2013

June 24, 2012

{ Nine is Fine! }

Emma Taylor turns 9 years old today....so hard to believe!  We celebrated her birthday with friends last month, but did a little more celebrating this week with just our family.

Here's Emma Taylor opening her present.

She asked for a hundred dollar bill.  She said she'd only received checks for $100 or 5 $20 bills, in the past, so she wanted the real deal.
She was pretty excited about her first Benjamin!

Me and my birthday girl! 

We had Gigi's Cupcakes after dinner at the place of her choosing...Pizza Factory! 

I love the birthday plate that she got from her birthday party at Wet Paint.  Perfect for eating birthday cupcakes! 

Hope the wish was a good one!

Since the cupcakes are so huge, I just bought 3 for us to share.  Birthday Cake, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Mississippi Mud.  Yum!

Hope you have a wonderful birthday, Emma Taylor.  Love you to the moon and back!

June 18, 2012

{ Instagram Saturday }

Instagram is all the rage these days and I've just joined the bandwagon.  Anna Grace couldn't believe I didn't have an account, so one night (since I was so very uncool not having Instagram...LOL!) I uploaded it and have been hooked ever since.  It's fun! 

Here's our Saturday in Tuscaloosa!  Started at Courtney's adorable new house in Northport.  Love it!  Then we all went for lunch at Wintzell's.  Delish and fun!







fun in the Target dollar aisles!



 waffles cones at TCBY

then back home to pick up Harrison who opted to spend the day with Ben and Cameron...probably a good choice!

That was our Instagram Saturday!  Hope yours was happy too!

June 14, 2012

{ Wet Paint Party! }

Emma Taylor decided she wanted to have her birthday party early this year, so she could easily get invitations to her friends.  She also decided she wanted to do it at Wet Paint, the new pottery painting studio in Tupelo.  She loved it!

We had a room full of girls...plus Harrison and Cameron for her party on May 22nd!
Everyone is hard at work!
Proud of her piggy bank!
Papa D even gets involved as the boys paint their Hummers
Time for cookie cake.
Making a wish!
Now time for presents!
 She loves it!

All the girls!
Ali Grace, Brenna, Chloe, Carlin and Avery Kate
Kailey, Anna Grace, Ansley, Emma Taylor, Sarah, Mia and Addi

Such a fun party!

June 1, 2012

{ Cozumel Excursion }

After sailing for a day and a half we finally made it to port in Cozumel.  The water was beautiful!  We were happy to see dry land and were ready to find the beach!



Silly girls waiting for our taxi!

We took an excursion to Paradise Beach and it was fantastic!  PB is a resort with beach access and a gorgeous pool.  It was the perfect place to spend our day in Cozumel.



The kids searched for shells and coral...


paddled around on surf boards...see our 3 girls?  Emma Taylor is the little speck by the trampoline!

They also loved playing on all these water toys.  The slides were the favorites!

Harrison and Kailey

These two little daredevils went parasailing and LOVED it!



I would have been scared to death, but they had a ball!

The big kids went diving with 5 minutes of instructions. YIKES!  Jennifer, Ann and I decided we'd pass!


Kevin and Lee had fun, Lee's eardrum didn't fare so well.  He says a bursted eardrum is pretty painful.

We ate a great lunch on the beach and spent some time in the pool. 

What a fun and relaxing day in Cozumel!

We took a taxi back into town and stopped at souvenir and surf shops.  Everyone came home with a t-shirt or hat from Ron Jon Surf Shop.  Ben and I grew up loving to stop and shop at Ron Jon, so I thought the kids might like it too!  No pictures of all that....sorry!  We were worn out after the long day at the beach, so we hopped back on the boat to relax and EAT!

We didn't get nearly as many pictures as I'd like, but we had a fabulous time on our trip.  The kids especially enjoyed every minute of it.  Such a fun experience for them!

May 31, 2012

{ Carnival Elation }

We got on the ship around noon and got started having fun!  First stop was the Tiffany dining room for our buffet lunch.  We didn't really know what to expect, but there were LOTS of food choices, so everyone was happy.  We didn't bring the camera, unfortunately, but there was food everywhere.  The kids especially liked the never-ending soft serve ice cream.  YUM! 

After lunch, we headed back to our rooms, put on swimsuits and hit the pool.  This is where we spent most of our daytime hours while we were on the ship.  The Elation had a great waterslide that the kids loved!












The kids also spent a large amount of time at Camp Carnival.  They had fun activities for all age groups.  They played Wii, colored cruise ship t-shirts and had dance parties.  Pretty fun stuff!

Kids dressed for dinner with their Camp Carnival bears.

Most of the evenings, we went to a nice dining room for dinner.  We dressed up and ate like kings and queens.  The dinners were delicious, but the desserts were fantastic!  My favorites were the blanc and white bread pudding, chocolate melting cake and they also had a fabulous, melt in your mouth, cheesecake!

In the evenings we saw comedians, attended dance shows, and even watched Anna Grace and Sarah do karaoke!  That was impressive!  Anna Grace sang, "If I Die Young" and Sarah rocked out to "So What!"  I wish I'd taken pictures of everything, but didn't want to drag the camera everywhere I went.  :)

Here's another picture inside the cabin.  Harrison started out sharing a room with me and Lee and then decided that Memaw's room was more fun, so here's where all 5 of them slept!  2 sets of bunk beds and a rolling bed on the floor!
Everyone loved coming back from dinner to find towel animals on our beds.  This elephant was one of my favorites!

The ship made one stop, in Cozumel.  We had a great time on the island.  More on that tomorrow!  :o)