Let's Get It Started

Well, our to-do list is officially in overdrive!  We wanted to wait until we knew what we were having until we started our projects, but now we are ready to go!

We have plans to move the boys into one room, which means new furniture, big boy beds, etc. Then, we need to repaint the nursery & froufrou it up a little. The big project, though, is turning our patio into a sunroom that we'll use as a playroom. All of these we hope to have done well before the baby arrives. 

Add in going through baby gear, tagging stuff for the upcoming consignment sale, getting ready for school & church to start back, dealing with dozens of monogramming orders, and just life in general, and we're swamped! But, hey...it sure beats being bored!

Randomness

Here's some random things that have been going on around here lately:

Tanner dropped her phone & broke the back glass in a billion pieces. Luckily, the apple store was able to fix it for cheap in about 10 minutes. Yay!

Hampton was mentioned in the sermon at church this week. Our boy definitely knows how to make an impression!

Bo is feeling much better after his surgery. He got a great report from the Dr. and is now just working on getting back to normal.

Hampton has named the baby. He's telling everyone that her name is "Taco Bell". Which is especially hilarious since he's never even been to a Taco Bell! 

Tanner has been taking an awesome Bible study at church with the rest of the children's ministry team. It has been such a great growing opportunity & fun to spend time with friends. 

Harrison has really become his own little guy. He knows what he likes, what he doesn't, and he'll let you know either way! Trains are definitely at the top of his love list. 

Bo's dad has a friend that owns a condo in Orange Beach. Since some mutual friends of theirs were staying at the condo over the weekend, P&J took the boys down there to play. They had a blast both on the beach & on the condo's huge wraparound patio.  Here's a couple of pics from their fun:

Crazy Buckets

Let it be known that these boys are WILD! You can't turn your back for a minute or who knows what they'll be in to....from flooding the bathroom twice while playing in the sink to dumping all toys out to find a new seat. H2 hasn't found a container that he doesn't want to get in! They definitely keep us on our toes, but it sure makes the day go fast while chasing, wrangling, and keeping them alive for one more day! Oh, well....we wouldn't miss a crazy minute!

Dave Matthews Band

Last night was a night we've been looking forward to for awhile...the Dave concert at The Wharf. If you didn't know, we're huge DMB fans....this was Tanner's 9th show & Bo's 10th. This one was especially fun, because we went with a big group of friends. There were 18 of us, and we all cut up and rocked out to the show. And what a show it was!  It started an hour late due to a storm system, but the rain passed us & the artists made up for the wait with killer sets. John Butler opened with a short but awesome playlist, and Dave came out in a great mood & had the crowd going until after the official cutoff time. 

We're exhausted today after getting in at close to 1 am....we're not the college kids who first saw DMB in Nashville, after all...but it was a great night filled with great music & great friends. After all, it's not where but who you're with that really matters! 

Family Time

The last couple of weeks have brought visits from some family we haven't seen in awhile. First, Bo's Aunt Sandy & Uncle Raymond stopped to visit while making a trip to TN. They'd never seen the boys except in photos, so it was great catching up with them. 

A few days later, Grandi's Aunt Gail & Cousin Jan came to stay for a few days, so we got to catch up with them, too. Hamp loved that Jan would let him play on her computer, and he talked to them nonstop. It was great seeing everyone & letting the boys meet some of their more far-flung family!

G-Day

Yesterday was G-Day....the day Bo's gallbladder just had to GO! He's been sick for awhile, and after lots of tests, the Doctors determined that his gallbladder was pretty much not functioning. So they scheduled the surgery, and we've just been waiting. 

Our morning yesterday started off WAY too early, but it was great that Bo's surgery got in & out. We were on the way home by 10:45! He's doing great & already feeling better, so that's great news. He's mostly just sore & exhausted by the meds, but as long as the recovery stays simple & safe, we'll take it! 

Here's a pic of post-op Bo, happy to have that unfriendly organ of his gone!

Swim Blessin's

Hampton is in swimming lessons this week, which he lovingly calls "swim Blessin's". We knew he loved to swim, but we've been surprised to see how much joy the lessons have brought him. The boy just loves it! We have enjoyed it, too, because it ended up that lots of our friends were taking the same class. So we've gotten to actually have some adult time while others are watching our babies ( but you know we're also watching like a hawk!) 

Hampton got to watch a swim meet, and now he's telling us that he wants to be on the swim team in a few years. We're just thrilled that he's learning, getting great exercise, and having fun with his friends! These lessons have been a "blessin" indeed!

This Says It All....

we're all exhausted! This sweet boy couldn't even stay awake to finish his meal!

Pensacola Childrens Museum

We've been wanting to check out the Pensacola Children's Museum since it opened awhile back, and we recently got our chance. It was very cute...it had lots of history about the area & fun things for the boys to play with. Of course, their favorite thing by far was the train table. We had to pull them away from it! That's just evidence that our boys will seek out a train wherever they go. Hampton has been telling us non-stop how much fun the museum was, so we're sure to see those trains again sooner rather than later!

 

Were You Surprised?

Ok, so now you know our exciting news! We really surprised a ton of people yesterday with our announcement, especially since most people didn't even know we were even pregnant. Actually, our plan was to tell no one until we found out the gender, but sickness & a baby bump made it a little hard to hide from everyone!

 

Anyway, we can pretty much guarantee you that no one was as shocked as we were when we found out it was a girl! Tanner is usually pretty good at calling gender...only missing it once with a friend...so when she "just knew" it was a boy, we went with it. She even bought new boy clothes! So, when they told us it was a girl, we didn't believe them. So much so, they gave us 2 ultrasounds to make sure! We now believe them, but we've realized that we have TONS to do now, starting with a name! We will say our boy's name was super-cute, so hopefully we can come up with something just as cute for this little girl.

 

We took 2 different sets of photos for our announcement yesterday, and had one ready to go no matter what we found out. However, we thought the photo for the boy card was a little cuter, so we wanted to share it today. It cracks us up, because it really captures the essence of these brothers...H1 giving H2 the stink eye because H2 wouldn't leave the bear alone. We definitely aren't living under the delusion that just because #3 is going to be a girl that we are in for any less chaos! We'll just have a few pink toys to trip over along with all the ones we have now!

 

Guess What?????

The Fireworks

 

One of our favorite nights of the year is when we head to the beach to watch the Perdido Beach Resort's annual fireworks show. We love seeing the show set against the backdrop of the condo lights and the sea. We were afraid that this year might be rained out, but we were determined to try and see them if we could stand it! We were not disappointed at all. The rain let up about 30 minutes before the show...giving us plenty of time to get to the beach & stake out our little spot. Not that we had to worry...there were hardly any other people there besides us! We watched an awesome show that both boys loved, then we headed home. We pulled back into the driveway to the rain starting up again. We just laughed because we knew we were given a small but perfect window in which to enjoy our beloved show!

 

July 4th Recap

Well, the long holiday weekend wasn't exactly what we were expecting, but don't think for one minute that we let the almost non-stop rain dampen our parade! As a matter of fact, we packed so much in to the last 4 days that it's going to take us awhile to show you all of it & to regroup ourselves! We only ended up missing out on two things...the Gulf Shores fireworks that were cancelled 4 minutes into the show, and a party that we ended up being too worn out to attend. Other than that, we had a big time this weekend!

 

We'll start our little recap with the 4th itself. We had a delicious BBQ lunch at Bob & Randi's, enjoying the company of Bo's parents & Tanner's cousin Ben. Lunch was just too, too good....it really doesn't get better than BBQ sides, let's be honest. The weather stayed dry long enough for the boys to get their fill of the water slide & outdoor toys, and the weather also kept it cool enough outside for all the adults to enjoy sitting around & laughing at their antics. We stayed almost all afternoon, until we headed home without the boys, who went home with Paul & Jan. We were so exhausted by all the fun (and by Bo being up at 3:30 working on his smoker), that we were asleep by 7:30. Party people we are not! It was a great day, with lots of laughter & family.....just the way we like it!

 

 

Let Freedom Ring!

Hope everyone has enjoyed a wonderful July 4th filled with friends, family, food, & fellowship! We are so blessed to live in a country with so many freedoms, and we thank all of our past & present service people for all they've done to protect these precious rights. God Bless America!

 

Here's a photo from our public beach, as well as our monkeys enjoying the celebrations. Have a great rest of the holiday weekend, and we'll see you on Monday!

 

It's The Final Countdown

The countdown to the long holiday weekend is almost done! The salsa is finished, the BBQ is on the smoker, and the boys' outfits are ready (priorities, people!). We still have a few event plans to finalize, but we're definitely in the mood to celebrate! The main thing is we need to keep praying that the projected weekend storms don't wash all of our plans out completely!

What Goes Up....

The way Harrison says "up" is one of our favorite things. Instead of just saying it correctly, he says "uppy". It's so cute!! Especially when he's asking to be picked up. "Uppy?" as a question just doesn't get cuter! 

In other "up" news, Hampton told us last week that something was stuck in his nose. Tanner just had a conversation with a bunch of friends about this a few days before, so she jumped into action. We grabbed the flashlight, tweezers, and Hamp to investigate. Amazingly, Hamp didn't enjoy this & freaked out. We didn't see anything, so we calmed him down & showed him how to blow out one nostril at a time. We sort of forgot about it, until Hampton brought Tanner this slimy bead & told her it came out. We were thankful that this whatever it is came out of his nose, but we weren't too thrilled to have to deal with it in the first place! 

Beach Week

Since the fourth is Thursday, it seems like every person on earth is here at our beaches! It's been years since we've seen so many vacationers at one time. We're busy making fun plans for our favorite week of the summer, and we've also found some great un-touristy places to hide out. Our new must-have Mexican restaurant is on the list, as well as the fountains. It's never crowded & always a blast for the boys. Plus, it's great to be able to run to the grocery, play in the fountains, then make the short drive home, all without getting on the uber crowded hwy 59!