Yay...

I’m so excited that tomorrow I get to see my niece Amy, and her beautiful new daughter Caroline. I haven’t seen them since right after the birth when they first got home (they live in Florence). Check back in the next few days, because I’m sure I’ll have lots of pictures to share :) In the meantime, here is a precious shot of my adorable little great-niece that her mommy sent me the other day:

Been a while…

... since I posted real thoughts, etc. Yeah, I know – I’m a horrible blogger! In a few months when it gets cold; hunting season starts back; and possibly things slow down for me personally; I’ll find myself with more time to share and write thoughts again. It was hunting season last year when I started my blog after all. I do spend a lot of time on Facebook – but that’s mostly because I can access/update it from my phone (usually while sitting in traffic).

So on this ‘occasion’, here’s a couple things – I recently had “another” birthday (boy they sure do come around quickly now). My sweet family took me to dinner and for ice cream and I really enjoyed it, luckily Isabella was here and got to join us! Thank you Cookie, Kristin, Josh, Ella, Bull and Bella – we missed you Patrick, Beth and Alston! Ella, and her mommy, made me the best birthday card I have ever received – I love it!!









Also, we got to have Bella again this past weekend! Having her 2 weekends in a row is so wonderful!







Oh, and by the way - we knew Bella loved ketchup, and we had discovered she really likes ranch dressing... but this past weekend I think we may have found her true love: honey mustard :)

Happy Anniversary...

To Josh and Kristin!! I love you both very much :)

Blue Angels at P'Cola Beach 2009...

You had to know it was coming; after all, we choose the date for our family vacation to Pensacola Beach based on the Blue Angels Air Show!! Kristin asked me during the show this year how long we had been coming to it… I had to think for a minute and gave her a ballpark figure. But I couldn’t really remember the exact number of years, so of course it bugged me and I had to trace back the dates!

I attended my first show on the beach with my sister, Gayle, by accident of just being there that weekend, the summer of 1996. Even though it was raining that day, the Angels had to do their low show, and we had to sit in the rain to watch – I fell in love and have not missed a show on the beach since!! It probably took me at least 5 years to convince Cookie to go with me… ‘just one time’ I kept telling him, ‘I promise you’ll enjoy it’. Needless to say, he MORE than enjoyed it, he too fell in love and the two of us haven’t missed a show on Pensacola Beach in July since :) So, that means I’ve faithfully made the show now for 13 years!! And even though I didn’t think it could get better, having all the kids join us now as a family tradition has literally made it my favorite time of the year!!

I hope you enjoy the slideshow of the “Best of the Best” pilots performing these amazing flight performances. I tried to put it together so you can see some of the maneuvers in action – with some still shots in between! Go Navy :)

Happy Birthday Grandpa Cookie...

Grandpa Cookie turned 50 yesterday! We had a great time with family celebrating his birthday :) All of us was very sad that Isabella couldn't come to the celebration for a little while and we missed her a lot... But we saved her a piece of cake and a couple candles - we'll do a special little "party" next time she's here :) Here are a few pictures from a fun afternoon! I think G'pa had a really good time with Bull, Josh, Kristin, Ella, Molly, Patrick, Beth, Alston, MawMaw (his mom), and of course - me! We love you Cookie/daddy/grandpa.

Family Pictures at the Beach...

Whew, what a job! But finally I've put together a few of (I think) my favorites from our family photo shoot at the beach. These were taken with both mine and Kristin's cameras - some by us and some by Beth... it really is more stressful to get these beautiful shots than the end results of the pictures would have you think, lol. Enjoy! As before, you can click on any photo during the slideshow and it will take you to the album where you can enlarge any picture :)

Beach Snapshots...

I finally picked out some pictures to put a little album together of snapshots from the beach. This was not easy!! We took so many pictures and all of them are adorable, so besides having a ton to go through, it was very hard to choose which ones to share. *you can click on any picture to take you to the album to see full view*



My next task (which will be much, much harder) is going through the family photo shoot. The pictures below will give you an idea of why it is going to be so difficult to pick through those :)

I hope you enjoy the slideshow... we sure had fun in the moment!!

Beach with my kids...

Since the kids got here, I really haven't had much "quiet" time to myself - so while Bella and Alston is sleeping and Ella is getting a bath, I thought I'd take just a minute to post a few adorable pictures of my oh-so-beautiful family at the beach!! Click here for some cute pictures! You can also visit Kristin's blog to see some really great pictures :)

Just Sayin’…

Well, I’m at home today feeling rough – sinuses, yuk! So I thought I’d take this opportunity to put on paper (or on ‘screen’ as it is) a couple things. I just don’t seem to have time lately, or maybe it really is lack of things to say, to blog much. This is really strange since I do enjoy it so much :)

Even though this happened a few weeks ago, I want to tell you about the latest “fun” thing with my dogs. Certainly it is true love between those two – always has been. Fancy was a little over a year old and had recently gotten over her surgery of being “fixed” when Kelso came along as a little puppy (you can actually see her scar in this picture; and how little they both are). It was an instant bond! Kelso clung to Fancy like she was his mommy, and Fancy reciprocated thinking he was indeed her baby!! The bond has only grown over the years, and they are inseparable! That is until one fateful day…

Cookie was the last one to leave and unknowingly closed our bedroom door with only Kelso still inside the bedroom (he is very quite and won’t bark to let you know these things like Fancy will). So all day the two were separated in the rooms by the door – and they DID NOT like it, as you can see in these pictures *which is what it looks like now, I didn’t think to take pictures of the mess on day of* (obviously Fancy was the more determined one and Kelso was the more traumatized one)…

Fancy’s attempt to “dig” him out from the living room side of the door

Kelso’s attempt to “dig” himself out from the bedroom side of the door

So, this time two weeks from now I’ll be lying on Pensacola Beach – WooHoo!! I am counting down the days, trust me, I’m more than ready for vacation. It has been a very busy, very stressful year!! Of course the most excited thing about our annual trip to P’cola for the Blue Angels Air Show now is the babies!! I’m absolutely giddy over having the kids and grandkids there (which of course includes Beth, Patrick & Alston). Cookie and I are leaving on Saturday, July 4th, also very exciting because we love the fireworks at the beach; and we will be there until Sunday, July 12th – man, that is music to my ears :) The kids are all coming down on Tuesday and will be there until Sunday; won’t that be fun!! Josh, Kristin, Ella, Bull, Isabella, Patrick, Beth, Alston, all together with G’pa Cookie and Nana at the beach… God is good and I’m so thankful for Him blessing us with this special time! Be sure to check either mine, Kristin, or Beth’s blog for updates while we are there – I’m sure at least one, or all, of us will be posting about our big fun… I hear it even includes a trip to the Gulf Breeze Zoo :)

Well, for any of you that stuck it out for this long post, I’ll end with these few pictures of my beautiful granddaughters :)

Ella brushing her teeth with Nana last time she spent the night

Her beautiful hair – she insisted we use all the clippies she picked out

Just being her beautiful self :)

Isabella showing off her new Alabama swim suit

Bella was tickled about going swimming with her daddy

Eating a hotdog and cheese curls with Nana – and being way too cute for words :)

Introducing...

…Miss Caroline Sheree Seay, my new great-niece. She is just beautiful and such a sweet baby! I went to Florence Sunday and spent the day with her, her mommy (my niece Amy), her great-grandmother (Nanny), and her grandparents (my sister Myra and her husband Tony). I wish she didn’t live so far away, but I hope to see her again as soon as possible!!

Short & Sweet...

Wow, I know it has been forever since I've posted anything in here! I have a "wordy" blog I'm thinking through / working on - but until then; I have just a few pictures loaded on my computer that I realized I haven't shared yet. Instead of posting all of them, or trying to decide which ones to post, I just made a little album. So please click HERE and visit the world of Ella and Isabella :)

I hope everyone is enjoying Spring and I'll be back in the world of blogging full-time soon!!

Ground Breaking...

Aren’t we something? This is ‘almost’ all of the Birmingham gang; the Children’s Hospital Foundation staff that works out of the main office. Only two are missing, they had to be at a Golf Tournament early that morning. Others on staff that are missing are the Outreach Coordinators that work (and live) in various locations across the state.

Of course the picture also includes the hospital CEO, Mike Warren (holding the shovel). It was a great day – the official ground breaking for our new facility; see the rendering of it behind us in the photo? It is going to be an awesome hospital for our precious little patients!!

It really is an incredible feeling to know that the group in this picture is very much a part of being responsible for the reality of this new facility – we successfully ran a $100,000,000 campaign!! YAY us :)