My Little Swimmer

I'm so proud of this boy! It's such a privilege to see the pure happiness that oozes out of him when he is in the water.

I made it into some pictures!

We went on a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas a couple of weekends ago with some of Neal's family. We had a great time on the lake. Thanks to Kevin, there are actually some pictures of me, so I had to post them, just to show that I was there!

I'm always thrilled to get a picture of the 5 of us together. Poor Luke was so uncomfortable in that life jacket.

Me and Gabe on the boat. Gabe kept saying he didn't want to get on the tube, even up to the minute he willingly got on it. He kept the most serious look on his face the whole time, except for one moment, when he smiled. He realized he was smiling a quit really quick, it was like he didn't want us to see how much fun he was having. Then, he surprised us all by jumping in to the water before he got back in the boat from the tube. He is in a funny little stage where he acts scared to do everything, but always has so much fun doing the new things.

Sam and I on the tube. He is a little fish, my oldest, he LOVES to be in the water, so he was in little boy heaven all weekend. He loved tubing and doing flips off the boat into the water. The first time he ever got out on a tube was this weekend with Neal. He was having so much fun that Neal started trying to do tricks, like jumping the wake. Well, he succeeded and ended up flipping the tube completely over, so I'm sitting in the boat, watching my baby, hands holding on tight to the tube, that was upside down, dumping him into the water head first. It was so scary to watch, I didn't even realize that I had started crying until after the tears were streaming down my face. He bopped back up to the surface almost immediately and once he saw Neal, had the biggest smile on his face. He loves to tell that story, even a few weeks later. There was no wake jumping while I was on the tube.

Here is a picture of what Luke will look like this summer at the pool.

We did a little test run at the neighborhood pool yesterday, just to see how he would do. No surprises, he is all over the place! There is no way that I'll survive the pool with three boys without him wearing this monster of a life jacket. I'm sure I'll get some looks, but, hopefully everyone will understand the second they see his chubby little feet hit the concrete in a run...straight to the edge of the deep end.

We have babies!

Our little "fern babies" have hatched! I checked on them Thursday and this is what I saw...
...a nest full of baby bird fluff. There were 5 eggs, the babies are all snuggled up so close together, I can't tell how many there are right now. I've been checking on them every day and plan to get more pictures as they get older. Dear Lord, please don't let any of them fall out of the nest and die.

And, just for fun, a picture of a much cuter, less fluffy baby. The one who has figured out how to sit on a kitchen chair...then climb up and sit on the kitchen table, because isn't that what kitchen tables are for?

I think he is Neal's twin.

This is what a photo shoot looks like at our house...

I used to think the perfect picture would be three kids, looking at the camera, smiling sweetly.

My view of a perfect picture has changed drastically since having kids.

Perfect for me now is capturing who they are in these moments of their childhood.

Real life...

Really?

I've taken the plunge, reluctantly, but I did it. Kandice talked me into it and actually bought me a pair for my birthday. Not the Alexander McQueen ones pictured above, but a super cute black wedge sandal from TJ Maxx. I also found some flats at For Love 21 for $7.50. I'm still getting used to them and still feel like I'm putting on the sandals I wore when I was in 3rd grade, or somewhere around that age. I'm just a flip flops girl at heart, but I'm trying to break through my flips onto something a little more...I don't know, not flip flops.

What about y'all. Have you taken the plunge? What do you wear your Roman Sandals with?

Spring on my front porch

I went outside this evening to water my hanging ferns. When I walked out the front door, I noticed a bird flying out of one of them, so I wasn't surprised when I found this sweet little nest.

I was very careful to not touch it, but still had to water my beautiful fern. I've always wanted a front porch with ferns, now that I have them, I'm a little possessive about them. I'm really hoping the momma bird will come back and that we can have healthy baby birds and a healthy fern. I just want everyone to be happy.

Anyone had any experience with nests in your ferns?

Now, I'm going to go google "birds nest in my ferns".