We love the spring!

This weekend couldn't have been better. We spent Saturday at Laura's parents grilling some hamburgers and hotdogs and spending time with them before they head back to Texas. As always the food was great and it was sad saying our byes. Today we took a trip up to Highlands, NC with Stacey and Robert. The weather was perfect making it a beautiful drive. I love passing by the private school in Rabun Gap which has to be the nicest school in the southeast. There is a long windy road that twists up the side of the mountains heading into Highlands which is always fun to drive up. Laura had to remind me more than a couple times to drive within the lines. Highlands is a small mountain town with lots of antique and art shops. It sits next to Lake Sequoyah which is just a small serene lake that is created by a georgous waterfall dam. Just past the dam is a little waterfall that falls over the road. It used to be that you had to drive under the waterfall to get into Highlands but now they built a road around it. You can still drive under it if the weather isn't cold. In downtown Highlands we walked down the mainstreet looking in the shops and just enjoying the weather. Our favorite stops were the "Sauce store" where you can sample all types of salsas, sauses, and jellies. The icecream parlour and an antique shop which has a fun Ring game we like to play. It was great having Stacey Robert, and Lucie to enjoy it all with us. Here are a couple of videos of the trip up to Highlands, and Bridal Veil Falls. It is a little long but didn't feel like editing it :)

Karlie's new bed

I found a deal on a new toddler bed for Karlie about a week ago. We set it up today and wondered if she would know it was her bed so we put her favorite blankies, and bears into it and left her alone.  It was nice to come back in and see her fast asleep on her Big Girl Bed.

Ike brings family fun at Yellow River Game Ranch

Laura has had some family in town from Texas because of the recent hurricanes and it has been fun spending time with them. The other day Laura and Karlie went to the Yellow River Game ranch and fed the animals.

Florida Trip

Even though Tropical Storm Fay attempted to rain us out in Orlando it definitely did not keep us from having an awesome trip. We arrived at Uncle Bills new place just south of Orlando. They had a beautiful room waiting for us where we setup Karlie's portable crib and Janie's bassinet. The next morning we headed to Disney World with Karlie while Aunt Brenda took care of Janie for us. We were able to get some fun times in before the rain started coming down. Karlie's favorites were "it's a small world," and Monster's Inc. Laugh floor. The next couple days were rainy, lazy days but had lots of rockin fun with Rock band and just hangin' out. We did manage to squeeze half a day in a Sea World where me and Karlie went with Jeff and his family. Karlie liked pretty much everything there and her favorites were the Elmo show, Shamu, Walruses, stingrays, and the penguins. We spent our last 2 days at a condo on Melbourne beach where we enjoyed some sun finally. Karlie and Janie loved the beach. Janie chilled next to mommie in her Bumbo seat in the shade while Karlie and I splashed in the waves. Karlie was fascinated by the beach birds and spent about an hour chasing them up and down the beach. When she finally realized that it was hopeless she let me build a sand castle around her. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to go again! Here are some pictures from our trip and I will post some more videos from Sea World when I get a chance.

Karlie doin some computer work

If you have a baby you know how much they like the keyboard.  I have an extra one that I have let Karlie bang the keys on, one of those old and loud keyboards and she loves it.  The only problem is she wants to use the keyboard mommy and daddy use.  Welcome Baby Smash!  This free program allows your baby to use the pc worry free and makes it fun for them.  As babies smash on the keyboard, colored shapes, letters, and numbers appear on the screen and you can set options for laughing or speech.  If they use the mouse a bunch of colorful circles follow the pointer.  

Some other sites for your kids:

Quintura
A kid friendly search engine powered by Yahoo Kids, so all search results should be G-rated.

TOTLOL
A youtube for kids.

YUVA
Karlie is too young for this but for older tots a good way for kids to create art with shapes.  This "creative playground" (basically an online drawing program) lets kids create artwork using shapes that can be dragged, expanded, flipped, rotated, doodled, and so on. The resulting masterpieces can be saved in "sketchbooks," turned into e-cards to share with friends and family, or printed.Is not free but can try it for seven days and if your kid likes it only 29 per "artist".

Printable Car Activities
Some fun stuff to do with your kids while taking that summer vacation trip.

Free Sesame Street Ipod videos that teach kids valuable lessons
The iTunes Store is offering six free Sesame Street videos, each designed to teach kids an important life lesson. The videos range from 13-42 minutes; they're free to download and can be viewed on your PC or iPod.  You will need to have itunes installed to download the videos.  Also tons of kids audiobooks can be found here at Storynory.

Print your own coloring books
For those of you who love to color (or who have kids who love to color) coloring-book.info has a whole bunch of printable coloring book sheets.

Here is a video of Karlie mashing away at Baby Smash!...

Tuesday July 8,2008

Hey Baby,

Here are the pictures that I took today of Karlie. We went to Angie's and rode around in the VW Bug.





Also, look what else I found today at Walmart. It's Karlie's favorite thing in the whole world. An Elmo Juice Box with a Straw, Awesome! She loves it!




Hope you sleep well. We miss you!

Love, your Babies!

Our Trip to Texas...Summer 2008

So mostly this is to keep in touch with Mike while we are away so he can see pictures, etc. But everyone is welcome to read and of course comment on these posts.
So yes, I decided to take a trip 735 miles one way to Vidor, Texas to visit family. Karlie and I really needed to get out of the house and do something different. We decided to stop half way and spend the night in New Orleans. I had never been and was totally excited about sightseeing and taking tons of pictures.

Well, we got there, showered up and went to go eat some good Cajun seafood at Landry's, (an awesome seafood restaurant). I envisioned beautiful streets with trees and moss hanging down, statues, pretty much a peaceful evening in Louisiana. When we arrive in downtown New Orleans, the streets were packed due to the Essence Music Festival being in town...so here is what the Essence Music Festival is for those of us who do not know!!
It’s apparently a Black American Empowerment Seminar. The participants included: Tyler Perry, Rev. Al Sharpton, Tom Joyner, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, Louisiana Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu, Lynn Whitfield, Regina Belle, Roland S. Martin, Soledad O'Brien, Dr. Juanita Bynum, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Bishop Paul S. Morton, Bishop Debra Morton, Tye Tribbett and more."
WOW!!

We eventually decided we would still go eat at Landry's just in another part of town. We got lost on the way there...Went through neighborhoods that included houses reconstructed worth $500,000 next door to homes with FEMA trailers in the front yard. Once we finally get to Landry's, the wait is 45 minutes long. We should have turned around and gone to Taco Bell at this point, but we stayed and 25 min. into the waiting period Karlie decided to go pretty much ballistic. I have never seen her act this way. (Well, maybe that one time at Ann and Gary's) She seemed practically uncontrollable! I thought maybe when we got seated she would calm down, but she never did. I told my parents that Karlie and I would just sit in the car and wait until they were done. We went to the car and sat...and Karlie totally calmed down so we went back in. My parents had ordered my dinner, (grilled shrimp, field peas, and dirty rice) and while we were waiting on it I fed Karlie some crackers and water. Finally after about 30 minutes, they brought out my food and it was completely wrong. At this moment Karlie hits her head on the table and goes back to being uncontrollable, so outside again we went. People are of course staring and I am almost in tears. My dad comes and gets Karlie while I go back in to eat my food, but at this point I am irritated and stressed, so I ask the waitress to take my wrong order off of the ticket. Then my parents and I got into a huge fight that we did not resolve before going to bed. It was awesome. Good Times. The next morning we woke up still upset, and drove another 4 1/2 hours. Enough time to make up. ")

Here are some pictures from our road trip there...the first is of my sweet precious angel and the other is of my not so sweet precious angel.")




Love ya Baby.

Laura

Karlie is sick today

Karlie woke up this morning at about 4:30 and right away I could tell something was wrong. She has a fever and has not been herself all day. I could tell she was very miserable, she didn't want to eat or anything. All I can do to console her is hold her as she comes to me as if I have some magic cure. Its funny how a little cold can be so stressful and depressing for a father. As I learn how to be a father myself I have a greater appreciation for my own parents and family. I can't imagine the heartache I have caused them as I grew up. As kids (and even as adults) we truly don't see the efforts that are put into our lives. Nor do we realize the prayers, hopes, and wishes that are directed towards us. I am lucky to have had great parents and family members who have sacrificed much in raising me. Whatever small mistakes were made are overshadowed by the great effort, teachings, and time taken in trying to make a good life for me. I love you all and hope I can come even a little close to raising my own daughters as well as you have raised me.

Mom & Gary

Yesterday we visited mom & Gary's as I had most of the day off. Mom made a great chicken casserole which I ate way too much of. We took some pics below. They have a beautiful flower garden and farther down are some pictures of the flowers.

Pictures of Karlie and Janie

We went to Lee & Amy Dawkins house to celebrate Zane's birthday. Zane got some fun toys, and we ate some good food. Lee's sister Jenna (who unfortunately I don't have her website address) makes the BEST cakes and has done lots of weddings and such. She made Laura an awesome chocolate marble cake that didn't last long at all.

For those who don't know Lee & Amy also have their own photography business and are great. They took some time to take some photos of Karlie and Janie for us. Thanks as always for the wonderful job! To see some more of their works visit their website L&A Photography.