Lake weekend

We spent the long weekend at my family's lake house and had a great time despite some stormy cool weather. Bryce has recently learned to swim!! Swim with his face in the water, arms out, legs kicking and he could not get enough of this weekend! He was swimming while the rest of us were sitting out watching him in long pants and long sleeves! The water did feel warm, but when he got out he was miserable. Today his lips were purple by the time he got out. Sunday morning we all went in to Montgomery and had great visits with my Grandmother and Grandpa. Blakeley got some pictures from the visits on her camera so hopefully I can get those soon. I can't believe I left my nice camera in Pensacola but I got some pictures with my phone. The quality is pretty bad, but you can still see that we had fun!

CeCe enjoyed the boat more while it was docked! She hates having to wear her life jacket.
Bryce loved fishing!

Cappy and Papaw Ruff with their 3 grandkids. They were all playing drums on the table.

One rainy afternoon we let the kids jump on the beds to get some energy out. They LOVED it!

Jude and CeCe at lunch on Sunday. They had the best time eating together this weekend. They both pig out and end up eating for more than 30 mins each time so they liked having the company!

Reagan having a spa moment (getting brushed before her lake bath)

Hanging out on the porch on a rainy afternoon

More rainy day fun (oh yeah, CeCe can pull up on anything now!)

My little fish, I'm so proud of him!!!

Hemingway's

Cappy is here!! She flew in this morning and we've had a great time already. We played at home all day and went to Hemingway's on the beach for an early supper tonight. It was so yummy!!

I know you aren't supposed to let your kids (or anyone) wear your glasses but they didn't keep them on long at all and man, it is cute!!!!

Horses

It seems our little birdie (CeCe) is very afraid of horses. We have this awesome rocking horse that my aunt and uncle got Bryce for his first Christmas. I tried to put CeCe on it about 2 weeks ago and she freaked out. I thought it was just because I had the sound effects going and was rocking her and laughing out loud. I took her off immediately and she kept looking at the horse with a scared look on her face. She even cuddled into me (which she never ever does!) for a minute or two after. Here is the sweet horse that started it all......

Here is Bryce at 10 months old loving his horse so of course I thought CeCe would too.

Yesterday I was doing something in the kids bathroom (which has a cowboy theme from when Bryce was an only child, I need to girly it up a little bit!) and put CeCe down on the floor. I could tell she was about to get into something so I opened a drawer and pulled out the first non dangerous thing I could find. It was this stuffed horse basket thing.

I handed it to her and turned away. Next thing I know she is screaming bloody murder like something or someone was really hurting her. I turned around and found her almost hyperventilating trying to get the horse away from her. I scooped her up and put the horse on the counter and left the room. Before supper Anthony took her in there to wash her hands and before he could even sit her on the counter she started freaking out. I heard it from the kitchen and knew exactly what was going on. I ran in there and put the horse up and told Anthony that I thought she was scared of the horse for some reason. Even with the horse put up she wouldn't let him wash her hands in there. He had to take her to a different bathroom and she was fine. Today we were playing in the playroom and I pulled the rocking horse close to her and she screamed again. No sound, no movement and she still screamed and cuddled with me. Where in the world could this phobia be coming from?

My new favorite picture

One of Bryce's favorite things to do is to lay in a blanket and have us swing him. He asked to do that this afternoon and we decided to let CeCe join him. She loved it as much as he does! I tried to take pictures of them, but the blanket was too heavy for me to hold with one hand and snap pictures with the other. Anthony figured out a way to do it and ended up with this great shot of the two of them!

Here is the unedited picture. I love how CeCe has her leg kicked up on Bryce's stomach!

And I cropped it and turned it to B&W here. I've already picked out a place on the wall for this one!

We've had a great weekend. Yesterday one of Bryce's friends from playgroup, Wyatt, had his 4th birthday party at the beach. We were out there for 3 hours! Bryce swam the whole time and CeCe had a blast crawling and playing in the sand. Today we were supposed to go out with our friends Robin and Steve on their boat but we woke up to thunderstorms. We were so bummed!! But we did get a lot done around the house. Anthony got some CeCe-proofing done so things are a little safer for her around here! And I got the whole house cleaned!! Woohoo!!

Happy Mother's Day!

I want to say Happy Mother's Day to Cappy and Kiki! Thank you both for being wonderful, amazing women and mothers. You have taught me everything I know about mothering and so far I think I'm doing a pretty good job!! I couldn't do it without your support and friendship. Thank you and I love you both!!

We've had a pretty low key weekend and it has been great! The weather is perfect so we've been outside the whole time except for nap and bedtime! Here are some pictures from our weekend.



Before we went out for dinner last night--Dharma Blue of course!
Playing outside with Daddy yesterday

CeCe thought the water was too cold to sit in the pool with Bryce but she loved sitting just outside watching him and getting splashed!

Playing outside this afternoon

Splashing in the pool this afternoon

Enjoying It While We Can!

We are trying to get all the beach time in that we can before the oil gets here! Last night some friends of ours invited us to go out in the bay with them on their boat. It was awesome! We packed a picnic supper and left around 5:30. While driving out to the island that was our destination, the Blue Angels flew right over our heads. It was amazing!! We ate supper, watched the sun set and rode back to the boat dock. It was a late night for the kids (we got home around 8:45) but totally worth it. How many nights will we get to spend like that in our lives? Thanks Robin and Steve!! Here are some pictures from last night:

The Duke family as the sun was setting

Bryce and James playing in the water

Today the kids and I met some friends at the beach for a picnic lunch. Bryce has been having a great time swimming this year. He and Wyatt stayed in the water the whole time today! The weather was great today, warm with a nice breeze blowing so we never got too hot. CeCe had fun sitting by the edge of the water and letting the waves run over her feet. She doesn't mind the sand at all and luckily doesn't eat too much of it!

Here is Bryce and Wyatt swimming

CeCe eating a shovel

She and I hung out under the umbrella most of the day to stay shaded.

CeCe at 10 months old

CeCe turned 10 months old yesterday! She is crawling everywhere now and is getting into more and more everyday. Yesterday she discovered she could open the bottom drawer of the oven and get to all the pots and pans under there. She was so proud of herself, I've never seen her grin so big! She is talking more now too. Her list of 'words' now include:
Dada-Daddy of course!
Mama-Mama of course!
Bubba-brother
GiGi-Reagan the dog
Nana-she says this when she wants to eat something that she can chew, not mush!
Mama-sounds just like Mama, but when she says it while eating, it means more more!

She is pulling up on me and wants me to walk around with her, but she doesn't pull up on furniture just yet. I can tell she is getting close though. She still loves her brother to death and they have a blast playing together.

She is a great eater! She has a long list of likes and a short list of don't likes. I can't get her to eat chicken sticks (don't really blame her though!), cut up green beans (although pureed green beans are one of her favs), or cottage cheese. Avacado used to be her fav. pureed food, but not anymore. I have to mix it with something to get her to eat it now. Banana's are probably her favorite food. I will either give them to her plain or rolled in wheat germ. She LOVES to feed herself. The days of pureed foods are coming to an end I'm afraid! Here is a picture of her crawling that I took yesterday, she was chasing Reagan around the house!