First Beach Trip

Natalie, over at www.npphotographydesign.com, met up with us at the beach in Miami to take some pictures of our sweet ones!  She is the one who took my maternity pictures with Logan and her newborn pictures.  It's fun to meet up with her every once and a while and let her capture our new stages of life!

Natalie is going to photograph Carolyn's wedding, so we'll be getting some more fabulous pictures from her soon.

I'm so glad she caught this--it captures the mood Logan was in that day.  Mischievous and uncooperative!

L was a bit apprehensive about the water at first.

Until she realized it'd wash the sand off of her feet.

And the little photo shoot doubled as a first birthday shoot since it was so close to B's big day.

Brody loved the sand but looks a little off in a lot of the pictures because he wasn't feeling great.  I think they came out beautifully, though!  It definitely captures him in another light.

He finally cheered up a little when we started playing peek-a-boo.

And then his face got covered in sand and life got even more exciting.

Showing off the rock he found.

Love this one.

There were so many good ones, but I might favor this one just a little.

Those lashes. 

With Logan's mood and the sick one that day, it made it really hard to catch a good one of the two together.  Although they never smiled at the same time, I think Natalie did a gorgeous job of capturing their innocence.

Big boy on the bench by himself.

Sweet kiddos.

Thank you, Natalie, for catching such precious moments of our little ones!  We'll treasure them forever.

Carolyn's Shower

One of the highlights of our week in Florida was throwing Carolyn a bridal shower!  I was so excited to get to plan one, but three weeks to plan and execute made it quite a crunch to get it all done.  We literally worked until the last second.

Here was the drink table:

 The mason jars had vinyl chalk boards on them so that the guests could write their names on them and take them home for pantry odds and ends.  They were a big hit.  The big pink bucket had diet cokes in it, they are Carolyn's favorite drink and I found ways to incorporate several of her "favorites" as clues to a game we played.

 Logan's favorite was the candy buffet!  The theme of the shower was princess and pinks so all of the candy BUT the reeses were pink.  Can you guess what her favorite candy is with that clue?

 We decorated the table with burlap, satin ribbon, pearls and wild flowers.  I wasn't sure how the combo was going to look but it worked really well together!  It was the perfect casual elegance I was looking for.

 We played two games.  One where the guests guessed all of Carolyn's favorite things and the other where they had to guess who said which phrase.  

 I set up a photo booth in the lobby and we'll be putting all of the pictures from it in a photobook for Carolyn as her guestbook for the day.  Everyone took a picture with her, it was a great ice breaker as people walked in!

 Logan, of course, stole the show.  Here she is practicing push-ups on stage in perfect form.

 We used jenga blocks and had the guests write wedding/marriage advice, Bible verses, or quotes on the pieces and then we put them back in the box and Rand and Carolyn have a game they can play with memories from the shower.  Another great "guest book" for them to have.

 Since they've had kind of a whirlwind romance, we had a little Q&A for everyone so they could "get to know" Rand a little better through Carolyn.

 Here is evidence of Logan's love affair with the candy buffet, she left pink chocolate handprints all over the place!

 Lot's and lot's of fun gifts to open up!

 Of course Logan had to jump in and "help."  

 L thought the potholders were Mickey Ears and walked around like this for quite a while after they got opened.

 We got these cute favor bags made to put the candy in.  It was a fun little reminder of the upcoming wedding date.  Which is coming up very quickly!

 I made this fun ruffle wreath to hang above the candy table.  I had intended to pack it up and ship it home so I could use it as an Easter wreath but it ended up costing less to just pick up the materials at home and do it myself.  If I make it out to JoAnne's before then!

It was so fun to celebrate Carolyn and Rand!  I can't believe that their wedding is 3 months away.  It seems like just last summer Carolyn was wondering if she'd ever get married.  Oh wait, that was last summer.  :)  They'll make a fabulous pair and I'm excited to see what God has in store for their new life together.

Zoo Miami!

I have been such an absent blogger for the last two weeks!  After Brody's party we contracted round 2 of the stomach flu, then Brody celebrated his actual birthday, and then the kids and I headed to Miami for a crazy week of wedding planning with Aunt Carolyn.  To make up for all of the time that they spent in wedding appointments, Granddaddy took us to the zoo Monday.  To say the kids had a blast is an understatement!

When we saw these family bikes being rented out I was a little skeptical as to whether or not we really needed one.  I am SO glad I let my dad talk me into it (not that he had to try that hard) as he waited in line to rent a stroller for Logan.  We needed one because we only had a small stroller since the airline wouldn't let me take the double sit and stand we purchased just for this trip because it was THREE pounds over the limit for a carryon.  I'm a little sour about this.  You'll probably see it on craigslist in the near future.  But that's not here nor there.  Back to the family bike--it made the trip to the zoo so enjoyable.

 Shortly after arriving we found a splash ground and HAD to stop.  It's one of what will be two this summer at the zoo.  The one that they're in the process of building is pretty incredible.  I'm not much into doing outdoor things in the summer but we may have to peek back in when we're down for Carolyn's wedding just to see the new splash ground.  Which really looks like more of a water playground.  

 We rode through "Africa" and saw the giant elephants:

 The zebras and the giraffes:

 And we seriously spent the entire trip trying to find the lions for Logan and Brody (who roars when asked what a lion says).  We found them at the very end of our trip.

 Logan was so excited about the petting zoo but then refused to get down and touch any of the animals.  She's a girl after mama's own heart.  I wouldn't touch those pigs with a 10 foot pole!  Ew.  Brody, on the other hand, I'm sure will be all about it in a few years.

 We finished off the trip with a ride on the carousel!  The kids had it all to themselves.  

 We timed it perfectly so we'd get there before the crowds and before the heat and as we were leaving there was quite a line to get in the door.  We got to enjoy a relatively empty zoo.

 After several attempts at a picture of all three of them I had to settle with this one:

 The kids were exhausted when we left.  Brody actually fell asleep on my lap in the bike and continued to sleep until we got home and then Logan took quite the nap that afternoon.

 It was such a fun treat after a week of accompanying us to adult appointments.

I captured this next picture on my phone and love the way it turned out--it really captured the emotion both kids had for most of the morning while we were there:

And I have to take a second to brag on the zoo a little.  I am not a big fan of Miami customer service--in general they want you in and out the door and don't seem to care how you are treated as long as you pay them.  This was not the case here at all.  Everyone we encountered talked to us, when we looked lost someone came right up to us, unprompted, and helped us figure out where to head.  Even the people carting animal food around stopped to greet us.  The zoo was really clean, very well kept and the experience was certainly one I'd love to have again in the future!  Definitely would purchase an annual pass if we lived down there.  Logan would like to make sure that I thank Granddaddy, again for the experience, she's still talking about it pretty constantly 2 days later.