Shrimp Festival

Yesterday started the 38th annual National Shrimp Festival here in Gulf Shores. Filled with crafts, music, and lots of food, it's a huge weekend-long event that draws several hundred thousand people each year. We're not sure yet if we're going to be able to make it this year, but trust us, it's a fun festival that's definitely worth experiencing!

DIY Projects

After seeing some cute baby craft projects online, Tanner decided to see if she could make these on her own. Using stuff we already had, we were able to make a cute baby wipe case as well as dividers for the baby's closet. The dividers will definitely come in handy, since we've collected baby clothes in several sizes. Here's what you need to make them, in case you want to try, too!
All you need for the closet dividers is a pattern for the item, some cardboard, a sharpie, glue sticks, and coordinating scrapbook paper. The pattern Tanner used was a list pad and a Diet Coke can for the circle....so easy!

For the wipes case, we used Huggies wipes, leftover fabric from the curtains in Hampton's room, batting, a glue gun, and ribbon for the trim. It was time consuming, but we think it turned out rather cute!

Happy Belated Birthday!

Happy Belated Birthday to our niece, Mira! We hope you had a wonderful day and we're looking forward to seeing you in December!

Special Delivery

Last week, we received an unexpected package in the mail. Inside, we found the cutest gifts from our dear friends Sam & Sarah Neil. They sent little Hampton the cutest clothes and burp cloths ever!

What makes the gift so extra-special, though, is that Sarah Neil actually hand made each of these items. She is so talented at sewing that we just had to brag on her skills and show off her handiwork. We can only imagine the time and effort that was put into these pieces, especially since they're so adorable!

orange seersucker jon jon with cute little fish buttons

pair of cutie-patootie burp cloths

2 reversible bubbles in ginghams and cute prints

the reverse side of the bubbles....Bo loves the Florida one!

Yard Sale Recap

We survived!!! The yard sale was exhausting and a ton of work, but it ended up being well worth it. The weather definitely cooperated, and we had a huge turn out. We started at 7am, which meant we were setting up well before that. We sold way more than we thought we would, though, and the rest was boxed up and sent straight to Waterfront Rescue Mission (a local company similar to Goodwill). Bo and Bob were the heroes of the day, since they stayed busy "wheeling & dealing" with the crowds. We had so many people tell us how organized we were, which made us wonder how unorganized other sales must be!

Luckily, we were done right around 4pm and were able to head home to watch football. Of course, we came home to an invitation to participate in the upcoming neighborhood yard sale! This may be one community event we have to skip.........

Working Weekend

We're gearing up for a very busy weekend! Saturday is the big yard sale that we've been getting ready for forever! We're excited to get all the stuff out of our garage so we can finally park in there, but we're not looking forward to hauling all this stuff out so early in the morning. After the yard sale, we've got to sort the leftovers and get ready to donate them to local charities, because once the stuff leaves the house, it's not coming back in!

Today, Tanner & Randi are putting up the signs and organizing all the junk. Tonight, Bo will have the fun job of hauling the rest of our yard sale stuff up to Randi's house. We're having the sale there, since they live in a much more central location than we do.

We aren't looking forward to all the hard work, but we are excited about getting rid of so much stuff. Check back on Monday for a full update of how it all turned out!

Name Dropping

With our delivery date soon approaching, we realized that we haven't shared our baby's name with everyone! So without further ado, we're naming our son

Hampton Robert Howard

Family names are very important to us, so it took us a good while to settle on one. We're very excited that he'll be named after 2 of his great-grandfathers (and in the case of Robert, his grandfather and 2 great-great-grandfathers as well). We'll be calling him Hampton or Hamp for short. Bob pointed out that the initials HRH will make our child His Royal Highness, and with all of his Grandparents spoiling him rotten, this is sure to be a fitting monogram!