Orlando Trip '09

Our summer vacation has come and gone. We left on a Friday and didn't come home until the following Sunday..so needless to say, we took our time. 10 days to be exact. Uncle Bill and Aunt Brenda have an amazing,comfortable, relaxing, state of the art home down there..that could not have been more enjoyable. Thank you guys so much for letting us stay there! If we were not at Disney parks or the beach...we were in the house either in the pool or the hot tube, playing rock band upstairs in the game room, watching a movie on the 60+ inch HDTV or just reading magazines and resting on the enormous couches and chairs. Ahhhh...So relaxing!!

We did decide to leave the house once or twice...")

Early in the week we visited Melbourne Beach. Karlie and Janie both love, love, love the beach. They love the sand, the waves, and the people watching.

Monday was my 30Th birthday..so Mike and I got dressed up and went to the House of Blues at Downtown Disney. I had never been to the House of Blues and loved the atmosphere. Mike and I also love all of that Cajun soul food. We got the BBQ sandwich w/sweet potato fries and the Seafood Jambalaya..and ate off of each others plate. It was yummy!!

Tuesday we took the girls to Sea World. Karlie and Janie loved it. Everything except for the Elmo show, which was one of the major reasons for us going there. They are both obsessed with Elmo at home, but seeing him up close was just too much! Here is a picture of Karlie in front of one of the aquariums.




PS...all of the pictures were taken with the new camera that Mike got me for my birthday. I love it!! Thanks baby!

Wednesday we celebrated Janie's 1st birthday. We went out to eat..which I know...was more for us then her, but still! ") Here is my favorite picture of her..we were singing her Happy Birthday and she was acting shy!



Thursday we took the girls to Aquatica. The water park associated with Sea World. That was great because it wasn't busy..and the heat didn't bother us.. being that we were in the water most of the time. The girls couldn't do much because they are so little..so we rode around and around on the lazy river at least 100 times. My favorite part of this day was when it started raining. We decided to take a lunch break. Mike had packed some snacks...Cheese Whiz, crackers, beef jerky and Oreo's. This is what we feasted on. I just know all of the people sitting around us from other countries were thinking..."Americans" as they ate their grapes. ")

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 2nd Birthday

Karlie celebrated her 2nd birthday party with family and friends on Saturday February 28th. We loved having everyone over..and Karlie got some great new toys! I had fun decorating the house PINK..and dressing Karlie up in Her Special Birthday outfit. The theme was pretty much anything and everything girly. I had Genna Harris make the cupcakes and included some beautiful pictures of the finished product.

Texas Trip '09 Hail Storm

Mike and I took our little family on an early vacation to visit relatives in Texas this year. We ended up all getting sick and coming home early, but I was still glad that we got to spend some time together..sick or not. While we were there we witnessed a massive hail storm. I have, and probably will never again see something like this.







Here are some pictures of the girls from our picnic in the park, while in Texas... as well as some from the car ride there. Yes we drove all the way to Texas with 2 babies!

Family Pictures 2008

Uncle Bill took pictures of us for the fall. They turned out great..and we thought we would share them with you guys. Enjoy...and hope you all had a great holiday season. Happy New Year!!

Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

Mike and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary over the weekend.

Can I just tell everyone...that I have the most amazing husband in the world...he would win the Gold Medal in the Husband Olympics. It really is the truth. Anyone who know's Mike, know's what I mean. Even if you take out the fact that he is a great Husband and Father...he is just such an awesome guy! I often ask him if he is one of the 3 nephites...jokingly of course...(but would he tell me if he was???) The patience and intergrity that he shows on a regular basis is pretty amazing. And then to be so HOT on top of all that. Daaaaang Babe!!

So for our 5th wedding anniversary, Mike took the day off from work. That was a gift in itself. We then dropped the kids off at the Dawkins House for the day, another gift in that he found the babysitters. (Thank you guys, by the way!) We then headed downtown to get massages...and do some shopping at my favorite store. If that wasnt heaven enough....we went to eat at Canoe...I had never been there before...and it was amazing.


It is right off of the Chattahoochee River in between The Vining's and Buckhead. Mike made reservations for an outside table near the river. The weather was beautiful and dinner was amazing. Mike ordered the Swordfish, and I had Salmon. Guys..this is totally the place to go if you want to impress the ladies!

I also got flowers, a card, and a porch swing. Mike has learned that every true southern girl needs a porch swing.")

Thanks Mike...I love you and can't wait to spend eternity with you!

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.

Spicy Gumbo, and a New Wii! Rockband party at our house!

The other day we were invited to Laura's parents for some famous Cajun Gumbo.  For those who don't know Laura's family makes the best southern/cajun food without a doubt.  So when invited over it is always a mouth watering experience not to pass up...ever!  Well the Gumbo did not dissapoint as I gulped down 3 bowls of it.  Afterwards we spent time with Laura's grandparents who are in town from Beaumont, Tx, Jenn, and David.  

The suprise of the night was the Wii, Carl gave us a Wii with the Rockband kit which we setup and started rocking away.  It was a night to never forget with Laura jamming on guitar, Jen singin, and David drumming away.  We also got in some bowling that Laura's grandpa played, Baseball that Carl hit a grandslam on and some good ol tennis.  We are very greatfull for the new Wii and me n Laura have started a band "Your Momma's." We play almost every night which has been some fun times together.  Thanks y'all!

Hopefully we can reach the level of these guys sometime.  

What is the best way to practice? Ask these guys...

New job at CheckFree

The Geek Squad badge has been retired and I just finished up my first week as an employee of CheckFree. I was contacted by my friend Adam, whom I worked with from Circuit City about an opening for a Desktop Support Analyst and after 2 interviews I recieved an offer that we were very happy about. CheckFree is owned by a Fortune 500 company called Fiserv and presents a great opportunity for me to develop new skills and grow within the company. It is nice to finally get out of a retail environment and I have been very excited every day. talking off my family's ears off about how much I enjoy it!

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!...

Geek Squad Academy Graduation

Geeksquad Summer Academy was AWESOME!  Here are some more pics and some small videos of graduation.  We had most of the students take a survey online and it was very interesting to see what an impact this event had on the kids lives. 

More pictures can be found here

Geek Squad Summer Academy 2008 Atlanta

Since Sunday I have spent every day helping as an instructor at Atlanta's first Geek Squad Summer Academy 2008. This by far is the most meaningful event I have had the opportunity to be part of, in a work related activity. Geek Squad Summer Academy is a program designed to inspire a younger generation to get involved firsthand with technology. This year in Atlanta we are having 4 different classes for the Girl Scouts of Atlanta. There are about 100 "ladies" as Girls Scouts are reffered to attending.  Throughout the 4 days they take classes on how to build their own computer, setup and secure a wireless network, learn about HTML and design a webpage, and are educated on "Green Computing." It’s amazing to see these young ladies put together a desktop computer themselves, power it on and smile in amazement as it actually boots up. They build their own Ethernet cables and understand how to secure a wireless network. They build all sorts of solar powered electronic devices; make gadgets and jewelry out of recycled computer parts. I am one of the instructors for the web class in which we teach the basics of HTML and watch them excitedly build their own "Junior Agent" websites. You can check out mine here
 
Tomorrow is the last day of the event and graduation.  I will make sure to post some more pictures.

Karlie in the Water

Yesterday, Karlie and her Cousins played in the water. She had so much fun splashing around. My favorite picture is of her sliding down the slide on her stomach..I Love It.

I attached a video too.





Love you baby..see you on Monday!

Laura, Karlie, and Janie

Texas BBQ

I am a southern girl, and BBQ is one of my favorite meals. Nothing is more American than some old fashion BBQ beef, pork, or chicken. Yesterday my family and I went to a great BBQ place for lunch. Don't get me wrong, Sonny's BBQ is good but if you want real BBQ you need to visit places that look like this...



I ate a huge beef brisket sandwich, but what was even better was the piece of Homemade Chocolate Meringue Pie that seriously made it worth driving 750 miles to Texas for. YUM!!YUM!!





Now I need to drink water and eat soup for the rest of the trip...yeah right")

Stormy afternoon

Today we had a nice storm blow through our neighborhood. Because we live at the end of the street much of the water comes right down our driveway cuts a canyon in our backyard and joins up with a creek. Here is a video from todays storm.

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