First Sno Cone Ever

Now that Hill is a bit older and can appreciate something good when he sees it we've decided to introduce him to the finer things in life, like a triple cream extra juice bubble gum sno cone.  I'm pretty sure he gets his mama's addictive personality because once he had the first tate of the sugary goodness it was like baby crack.  I couldn't get it away from him.  See for yourselves.

Hmmm.  Pretty good.

Yes, yes.  I like it a lot.

I need to hold it closer. It's so tasty.

If I stir it then it gets juicier.

Ahhh, Heaven.

I need to feel it's goodness with my hands.

Birds Eye View

Who cares if I have boogers in my nose,
I have a sno cone and life is good.

Wonder what color sno cone he ate?

I tried to get a picture of all four of my babies but Katie wouldn't cooperate.
Foster, Foxy Mama, Hill & Katie Lou

Hill telling Foster how good this stuff is.
Foster is trying to get in on the action.

If you take the straw and put the blue sno cone on the patio it looks like paint and you can color!

Hey.  Did I tell you I love sno cones?

Even though the sno cone is so good it could potentially be bad news.  Makes you look like a little crack head when you go into detox!  Poor fella, we will have to wean him off the sugar next time.

NEVER. EVER. Take a sno cone away from a homeless looking little boy.
That is food in his hair, sno cone everywhere, dirty outfit and untied shoes.

Children's Museum - Round Two

We love us some Lynn Meadows Children's Museum in Gulfport.  I think we just went like 3 weeks ago and we loved it so much we decided our buddy Harvey had to check it out too!  These little guys crack me up! 

Hill driving the rocket ship while Harvey shifts gears.

 All was fun and games until an older little girl wanted to show Hill how the steering wheel moved and slammed the metal bar into his leg.  I know she meant well, but Hill cried every time he saw her after that.

Cutie Patooties!
Harvey & his sweet mama, JJ.

Can we get a clean up on aisle 12, please?
He has his little grocer smock on.
Hilarious!

Harvey working hard too.
He's restocking the dish detergent.

Hill kept trying to give me this box.
It's all empty boxes of food stocked in the pretend store.
Little did I know he thought there were Cheerios in it and he wanted a snack!

Harvey in the check out line.

Produce Fight!
They both wanted the orange.

Hill decided to transfer from stocking shelves to the seafood department
as the Seafood Specialist.
He had a time keeping all the lobster and crab contained!

Once he got all the seafood organized

He had his first customer!
Yes, Ma'am! Two fresh crab coming right up!

Ok, this is absolutely hilarious.  I might have explained it before, but there is a greenroom with a kayak in it.  Outside of the greenroom is a television that has a pretend background like you are rafting down the river.  So here you have it...Harvey in the kayak and Hill in the water trying to get into the kayak.  It's like he's fighting for his life in the water...

Harvey! Help me into the boat!

This is what it looks like inside the greenroom

Then we went to the train station.  Hill has lumps of coal in his hands.
Wonder if that's setting the precedence for Santa this year?

Capt. JJ & her first mate Harvey!

Hill the Sailor Man



Hill loves this tunnel outside.
He'd go back and forth, back and forth.

Here is the little man in action walking outside in the leaves!

Don't you just love those little tiny squatty legs?!?

Watching Harvey play in the tree with water in it.

Hey!  Up here!
I'm in a tree house!  I see you down there!

Hill says, "Ok Harvey, we need a plan to get across this bridge!"

Little boys, little boys.  You sure know how to melt a mama's heart. You make me smile.

I love to see you play and explore, I could watch you for hours!

What a fun fun time we had!

Thanks Warrington Crew for an awesome weekend!

Peek-a-boo, On The Coast With Harvey!

Hill and Harvey made a trip down to Diamondhead to the condo last weekend.  They let us parents come and partake in the coastal activities.  The dads went fishing and caught all the fish in the bay while the moms hung out and chased two 14 months old boys around.  Yes, you heard me right...Hill decided he can walk now.  I'm pretty sure I can claim he started walking on my birthday (Thursday the 10th.)  I can say for sure that 14 months to the day he became confident enough in himself to walk.  He still likes to crawl because he's so fast at it, but I have to say that he is doing an awesome job as a newbie walker.  Go Buddy!

 Here is Hill on the way to the coast sharing his Mr. Potato Head glasses with me.

(reminds me of Tanner Pettit always wearing his yellow Mr. Potato Head glasses- cracks me up)

Harvey & Hill played so well together!

 They played peek a boo through the sliding glass door.

Harvey was outside & Hill was inside

Peek-a-boo!

There you are!

Peek-a-boo again!

Hill says, "Oh My Goodness!  This is so much fun!"

We had a lot of fun.  For my birthday dinner Friday night we went to the Jourdan River Steamer...of course, it's the only place I eat...ever.  Saturday we took the boys to the Children's Museum (pictures on that to be posted seperately) then Saturday night after the boys went to sleep we set up the baby monitor down by the pool and ate boiled shrimp and crawfish.  Yum!  I hope this weekend sets the standards for what the summer holds in store!  It's going to be great!  Sunday we left around lunch time. 

We have our little literary genius that read us stories all the way home from the coast. 



"da ya ta bah da see bah"



Got that mom?

My Birthday and GNO Part Deux

I had a fabulous day on my birthday.  I woke up to Hill wanting to celebrate at 3:00 am.  He just wasn't tired and wanted to play.  Oh to be young again and be able to function on no sleep.  So at around 8:03 am (my time of birth) I received my annual birthday call from my sweet mother.  A birthday is not complete until you are sung "Happy Birthday" from Nancy Lou.  It's most definitely the highlight of every year.  I love it. 
My dad called and my step mom called to wish me a happy day!  That was a ray of sunshine!
I received over 100 birthday wishes on Facebook alone, it's always so nice when people take time out to wish you a happy day.  Maybe I should start looking at the birthday calendar on Facebook and wishing people well.  I always figure my well wishes to them will seem cliche and will just get caught up in the rest of the mass of posts.  I will have to reconsider this now.
Everyone at work wished me a happy birthday and people in other departments sent me emails. For my birthday lunch we did the annual analyst lunch.  My friends and co-workers, Shareta & Jeremy took me to lunch.  Every year on everyones birthday or birthday week we do lunch.  I love them and am so greatful we keep in touch.  They are awesome people and friends.   It was just an all around great day!

Chip had me finally pick out settings for earrings and a necklace to put the stones from one of his mothers rings in.  That is really special and I can't wait to see the final product.  My mother in law got me a necklace that has my name, Chip and Hill with a cross  on it.  It's sweet.  My sweet friends Whitney and Gena took me to dinner at the Mexican restaurant the night before and had me a Mississippi Mud Cake from Seasonings.  Yum-o!  This made me smile becaue it meant that Chip actually heard my going on and on about how fabulous their mud cake is!  Gena got me a really cute cup and Whitney got me this beautiful handmade pottery bowl with an R in the middle.  Love it!  Love them! 

So pretty much in a nutshell everyone in my life is awesome and I love them all.

Then it just so happened that Girls Night Out (GNO) landed on my birthday!  Here are a few pictures of the people there and our final masterpiece.

Whitney & Kayla

Jennifer & Shea

Sassy Sharon & Misty

Kayla, Me, JJ & Whitney

I had a great birthday, which landed on a Thursday.  The other awesome part was that I took Friday off and we headed to the coast!  More on that later!

Fat Tuesday at Church

Tuesday before last (March 8th) we had a pancake dinner at church.  I snapped a few pictures and thought I'd share them.

The men are in charge of cooking.
To the right: Papa (Chip's dad) and Mr. Manderson look like
they are chatting and observing while all the others cook.

Always great to see Tonya!

Rev. Mary Berry giving out Mardi Gras beads

Sweet Hill waiting for his Hill-cakes
that Mr. Greg made him.

Such a fun time hanging out and eating breakfast for dinner...my favorite!  We love us some St. Matthews.

Busy, Busy!

I have a dumb pet peeve.  When I call Chip, whether it be to ask what's for dinner or what is the air speed velocity of an unladen swallow, no matter the importance I can always tell when he doesn't really have time to talk to me.  I usually ask if he's in the middle of something and if he is he always replies, "I'm busy, busy."  Or when I ask him how his day was he replies, "Busy, busy."  I don't know why it bugs me so much - it's like when you are looking for something and 'that' person says, "It's always in the last place you look."  der der der.  No joke Sherlock, once I've found the item do you really think I'm going to keep looking?

Anyway, now that I have prefaced the title of this post I now can say that we have been "Busy, Busy" this past week, and the future doesn't look like it's going to slow down either.

I went and visited our beloved Dr. North this past week.  Usually that's the doctor every lady dreads to go to, but I love me some Dr. North and Toni, they are the best.  I've missed them over the past year.  I love how candid Dr. North is and how friendly and upbeat Toni is.  They make me happy.  Dr. North has a new book coming out this year and also has a screen play to his book Fresh Frozen which I hope to see come out in the next year or so.  He said as long as he makes enough money to redo his kitchen for his wife, he will be satisfied.  Sweet Dr. North, I bet his wife is just as precious.  Anyway, it will be filmed in Mississippi and hopefully I can find a role for myself in it.  I'll have to sit down and find time to read the book and find my character, and possibly one for Hill.  I'm not sure though, it is a murder mystery so I'll have to choose wisely and work on my blood curdling scream for the murder scenes.

Other than that it's been work, work, work.  I have been running.  I know I've briefly mentioned that I was doing the couch to 5K program with my fearless leader, Whitney.  My first race is in 5 weeks and I just hope I am ready.  I'm not in it for the time, just the feeling of accomplishment.  I've been training 3 times a week and can do about 1.75 miles but that's only half way there.  Gotta bust my bootie these next few weeks!  Although, I did find out that I can walk during the 5K if needed.  Not that I want to, but I won't be a total failure if I do walk a tad bit.

This past weekend I cleaned the house and put things in the attic that I've been throwing in that special catch all corner.  I'm ready to pull out summer clothes, but I must have jinxed the weather because as soon as I started it got cold again. *Sigh*

What's Hill been up to?  He's been busy, busy too...
Hill has kind of been a Sponge Bob Grouchy Pants lately.  We don't get him out very often because he's in that "BUT I WANT IT" stage.  If he has something he's not to be playing with and you take it away it's as if you have stripped the poor child of everything he owns.  It's pretty dramatic. He's also a super duper clingy Mama's boy.  I can't leave his sight.  I think I've mentioned I expected this at around 8-9 months but we are going on 14 months and it's traumatic for us both.  Don't get me wrong, he has still hung the moon and is the sweetest kissy faced little boy in the world.  I just question my parenting skills and if I am reacting correctly sometimes. 

He's still not walking.  I think that he thinks it's so much easier to just crawl.  He can crawl faster than I can run (which is why I'm in the 5K for the accomplishment, not the run time.)  I'm ok with his not walking because I know he can, he's just stubborn like his mama and doesn't want to.  The kid gets it honestly, I can't blame him.  I saw him take 11 consecutive steps and Chip said he did 21 steps the other day that I missed, but if he wants to walk...he can.  He chooses not to.  When I was growing up we had a swimming pool and people taught swimming lessons at our house every summer.  I had the opportunity to learn how to swim each and every summer, but every year I told my parents, "No, not until I'm 5."  Each year they'd ask me, "Rachel, are you going to learn to swim this summer?"  I'd reply, "Nope, not until I'm 5."  Then the summer of my 5th birthday my parents asked again, "Rachel, are you going to learn to swim this summer?"  "Yes, I am 5 now, I can learn."  And I did.  See that's what Hill gets from me, my stubborness.  Bless his heart.  He also got my sweaty feet and my awesome dance skills. Again, bless his little heart.

He still eats like a truck driver.  He prefers vegetables to fried foods and sweets, and as much as I swear he is going to turn into a puff (the kid snacks) because he eats them 24-7 he chooses english peas over puffs.  I couldn't be more proud.  I often wonder if it has to do with my feeding him fresh made baby food.  Or possibly that my prayers were answered that he didn't get his picky eating from his daddy.  I also prayed that he didn't get my stinky feet...at least God answered the picky eater part.

Right now in Hill's vocabulary everything is still Dada.  He can say dog and associates what it is, baba (bottle) anytime he is thirsty - even though he drinks out of a sippy cup during the day, everything is 'this' (dis), shakes his head yes or no, says hello as he holds everything from the tv remote to his trucks to his ear as if he's on the phone.  He uses his pointer finger - he points at everything as well as uses it to single fingeredly crush goldfish crackers, smash english peas, or play the piano.  Just one finger is all it takes in his opinion.  He's very detailed and uses his pointer finger with such intricate precision.  It's quite funny.

He is still very very advanced when it comes to playing the drums.  When he gets on Charlie's (Chip's dad) drums he doesn't smash around like a wild child he taps with rythm, much like he uses his finger with it's accuracy.  He's very concentrated in all he does.  I can just see his little brain working 24-7.  He's a smart little fella.

We continue to love him.  I don't ever see that changing.  He cracks us up all day every day and I don't think I ever stop starimg at him.  He's turned into such a little boy and it makes me marvel in how awesome our God, our creator really is.  This little boy never ceases to amaze me, he is absolutely brilliantly special.

Where Is Hill?

Has anyone seen Hill?

I can't seem to find him anywhere!

Hill....where are you?

Ah!  There he is!

This is the most fun game ever and we can play it for hours and hours and hours.

Even during dinner.