9 months of baby love...

I can't believe I am writing that Bree is 9 months old!!! What has 9 months brought us:
Crawling EVERYWHERE!
Pulling up EVERYWHERE!!
Eating everything!!
Still no teeth
Her first dance recital - she bounced and hollered the entire time :)
She now likes to sing along (read - yell really loud) while we are singing at church
REAL Pig tails :)
First Owwee - hit her head pulling up :(
First time in pool (pictures coming soon!)
Size 5 diapers (18-24mos clothes) - my growing chubby girl

Love this girl more and more everyday!! She is developing quite the attitude and cracks us up. She is still attached to me, Shane and her "circle of people". As hard as that is at time, not going to lie, I love that she loves me so much! She loves her brother and sister, but she loves to follow Owen around. He is starting to get protective of her (caught him yesterday pulling her away from picking up a little bug, he was soooooo stressed out!). I know that she is going to be PUMPED when the kids are out of school and home all the time

Happy 9 months Bree!!! I have been begging for time to stop, but every month we have enjoyed seeing you grow so much!!!!! We love you!!!

Claire's Big Night

This past Saturday was Claire's dance recital. It was a long day Saturday of Rehearsal all morning and back there that night for the big recital. What a great night!!! Claire did soooooo well and we were all so proud of her!!! I cry every time she is up on stage and love EVERY SINGLE SECOND of it! She loves it too and is so happy she has so many fans :)! There was a point in the night that me and Shane both thought the same thing and did not realize it until we were talking late that night driving home...two seniors danced solos that night and were then presented flowers by their families, the girls and families all cried. Shane and I both thought that about the fact that before we know it, that is going to be us up there with Claire and we will remember that moment of her second recital then too! TIME PLEASE STOP!!!!! Here are tons of pictures of her BIG NIGHT (sorry blogger hates me tonight and I cannot get anything in order!)!! She looks so old in all these pictures and it makes me want to cry like a big baby!!

How I stopped the oil spill from hitting Gulf Shores....

On this rainy, gloomy, want to stay in bed and not make breakfast for whiny kids morning, I am dreaming of the beach...we leave in 28 days, but not for Gulf Shores, for Myrtle Beach! Shane and I booked a ocean front house in Gulf Shores back at Christmas for our family. We found a beautiful, new home that was perfect for our family. We have all been looking forward to it and have been counting down the days since (literally counting every day, Claire Brown is soooo ready to go)! Well a couple weeks ago, Shane called me and said we need to start looking for a Plan B due to the this STUPID oil spill. I thought he was over-reacting and kind of blew him off. Well we started looking into it and it was not a question of IF the oil spill would hit the coast, but WHEN! All the news outlets had very bad forecasts and even Gulf Shores official website was stating it would hit in 48 hours (at the time) so we had to face reality and start looking for other options. This family did not take a vacay last year due to me being pregnant (remember this post =)), so I don't care if we had to hike, (well maybe not hike), we were going to a beach somewhere!! We researched the internet and finally decided that Myrtle Beach/ Garden City, SC was our best option!! Surprisingly, we found a great house that could fit all of us really quick and we booked it immediately! When we called to cancel our Gulf Shores home, they were really great about it, completely understood. The bad part about going to SC, the drive is almost DOUBLED!! We are talking 18 hours with a van full of a 6 year old, 3 year old and 9 MONTH OLD!! We are going to have to leave a day earlier, stop over night, and make our trip in two days. As much as I love a good road trip, this does make me nervous (read: want to pull my hair out at the mere thought of it!). I also was kind of sad to not go back to Gulf Shores. I love it there and we know the area. I also was so sad for all the businesses and families that would be affected by the sudden decrease in business =(...But, we had to do what we had to do...

So now, WEEKS later, the oil spill has not hit Gulf Shores. I am SERIOUS when I tell you that once we re-booked and cancelled, the forecasts changed and they are being optimistic it won't hit that bad IF at all! I told Shane that once I book the new house, the oil spill will probably disappear. Well not exactly, but it definitely has changed!! Seriously!!!??? So, all of yall that are stalling and waiting it out to cancel your trip, you can thank me for stopping the spill from reaching the coast...your welcome. Oh and BTW - there is a really great house available if you are looking =)...

We are looking forward to going to SC, we have all always wanted to visit. Anybody been there/ live there? Recommendations for fun things to do/eat at night with kids? We are so excited...Claire's most favorite place is the beach. Owen cannot remember when we went last time, but we have been talking about it and telling him all the fun things we will do. In true Owen fashion, he is asking EVERY SINGLE DAY "Can we go catch crabs?" (Shane laughs every time =)) and we have to tell him how many more days...

Here are pictures of the kids last time we went...look how much they have grown!!!!!!

Big Stuff for my BIG girl!

Time is flying by and I can't believe that is already the end of the school year!!! I CAN NOT BELIEVE that Claire's kindergarten year is almost over **TEAR**! She has grown up so much this year and becoming quite the little lady. Lots of things have been going on lately for Miss Claire and some of it became official yesterday....

Shane and I have been thinking in the back of our mind for awhile about Christian Private school. We have a fabulous one here that is affiliated with our new church. We have always talked about it, but never really dug into it much because we have been so pleased with our school district and had the BEST TEACHER EVER this year. At Church a couple Sundays ago, our Pastor brought up a sweet young lady and told us all about her plans after graduation this year from the private school and we were both really impressed. That sparked some conversation, lots of praying, and a meeting with the Admissions Counselor. Let me just tell you, once we toured the school, met with a few teachers, and most of all saw the Christian based curriculum, we were so impressed and both of us knew this is where we wanted our kids in school. So we prayed more and took the steps to apply.

Yesterday, she had her official interview with the Dean and her testing (ever want to feel the ultimate nervousness, make you want to jump out of you skin, take your 6 year old to an interview with the Dean of a prestigious Christian School, about DID ME OVER yesterday, we never know what in the world is going to come out of that girl's mouth =)) and she did really well and she is officially a Shiloh Saint!!! We owe so much to her current Kindergarten teacher as she did extremely well on her testing! Claire is really excited and so are we! We are so excited to cheer on this new school next year as a family and the years to come with Owen playing ball there (BIG, HUGE Sports school) and eventually (make me want to throw up) Bree attending (and Mama and Daddy officially broke with three kids in private school). Let me say though that this was bittersweet as we are supporters of public school, especially her current school and teacher. I call Mrs Muller our Angel as she has helped us so much this year with Claire and developed her soooooo much!!! We are going to miss the Gators, especially sweet Mrs. Muller!

This weekend is Claire's big dance recital and we are all excited! This year she has three dances (opposed to ONE last year) and we are constantly practicing around here! We are talking three costume changes and tons of make up, hairspray and fun!! I am actually working backstage this year (say a prayer) with her class and getting them ready for each dance. My favorite night of the year is Recital night and I am sure I will bawl like a baby!!!

Now at the rate Claire is going lately, she may not make it to the Recital! She has officially mastered the art form of sassing and that is making for some fun times around here!!! I have been told that this age is one of the roughest and I have to believe it. She already thinks she is smarter than us and argues with everything we say...that is when she is not being mean to her little brother. I think it also has to do with the stress she is already feeling...constantly practicing for dance, studying for spelling test, practicing her reading, memorizing her lines for her kindergarten program next week....I am telling it's all BIG Stuff for this little girl!!! We have an official countdown (29 days!) to our beach vacation and I cannot wait for the stress free week for all of us!!!!
These are some funny pictures of Claire playing outside with her friends, pouting bc they would not listen to her....=)

Then end with a sweet one of her playing with Bree =)

Lord help me when I have more than one, eventually three all over the place in school, etc!!!! Now I am off to get Owen out of Claire's room...that will set her off the minute she walks in the door this afternoon!! Happy Wednesday!!!!!!