just saying hey

We made it safely home from the beach Saturday (in record time thanks to Jamie's amazing driving skills... and somehow even with a car full of girls he only stopped twice in the 13 hour drive!).

It feels great to be back and enjoying what is left of our summer (I start work next Thursday!). 

We went this afternoon and picked up our kitty from the animal rescue. I took a bunch of pics and will properly introduce you later, but here's a sneak peek at the abundance of love this sweet kitty is in for...

I did upload all the beach pics from my camera and the grand total was 959..! Crazy daunting amount, but I found these two to share...

(Thanks to Jamie's Aunt Brenda for snapping this photo!)

Photo credit to my brother Caleb, who lives in Pensacola now. I like this sweet photo of Jamie and I. (Even though it kind of looks like a "pregnant" photo pose... and, NO, I'm not!) 

Kind of like it better cropped...

(Too "soap opera"??)

Hopefully I won't be posting 959 beach pictures on here over the next week, but you know me- it will be a lot. So consider yourself warned! :)

Ready to be home

I can't wait to get home and upload my camera to see exactly just how many photos I took this week at the beach. It has to be close to a thousand.

We had such a great time! It only rained one day (and that day we went to an Aquarium and then shopping). The rest of the week we spent in a lovely cycle of beach-pool-nap. Repeat.

We are driving home now and have that great feeling of being happy to get home. (We are super excited because tomorrow we get to pick up our kitty that we fell in love with at an animal rescue in Fayetteville!) 

I hope to get our beach photos sorted through to share soon, but in the meantime here are a few from my phone...

Had to share this last pic because the girls felt so privileged to have their "own room" in the condo. We brought a blow up mattress in case someone needed it and discovered that it fit exactly in the walk-in closet in our bedroom. So the girls slept at night in the closet all week and loved it! (Maybe life in a tiny Manhattan apartment has changed their outlook a bit?!) ha

Off to fabulous start

We made it to the beach yesterday about 4:30pm and hadn't been out of the car 5 minutes and the girls were putting on their swimsuits ready to go! So we went straight to the ocean and jumped in. The water is perfect!

Annie is more a fan of the pool at our condo but both girls do love the waves and playing with their cousins.

This morning a group of us got up at 5:30am for a barefoot sunrise run on the beach. I've never done that before and it was pretty awesome. 

Then we've been back on the water all day again today.

The girls are loving it here!

I just woke up from a two hour afternoon nap so I'm loving it here, too! (Although we spotted a HUGE shark just a few feet from our shore this morning...) but other than that excitement things have been pretty chill around here.

Looking forward to a great week!

blogging from the road

I've tried blogging from my phone a few years ago and didn't like it because the pictures were so pixilated, but apparently they've updated the app so I'll give it another go.

We are on the road headed to Florida for a week on the beach! Super excited. We will be meeting up with TWENTY members of Jamie's side of the family! Yeh, that's a lot of peeps but its going to be a blast. Mostly cuz that's 20 people who can watch my children while I snooze on the beach! :)

Also because Jamie's family is so laid back and are content people. Easy group to spend a week with. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone!

We are breaking the 13 hour drive up into two days and it only requires 2 portable DVD players, two headphones, 50 princess movies, and enough snacks to give these girls a two day sugar coma! (And one sweet Grandma in the back seat to promptly answer their demands..! Ha)

If you've never had the pleasure of hearing Jamie sing... just know that 13 hours of listening to him belt Kelly Clarkson songs is going to be awesome!

I took a video but he threatened terrible things if I posted it..!

back in the saddle

I had my first photo shoot this weekend since moving back and it felt sooo great! 

Betty is due any minute with her second child and wanted me to snap some photos before baby Lily arrives. I took them to my favorite photo spot and they braved the heat to pose for me.

Doesn't she make 9 months pregnant look amazing?!

Her husband was such a great sport and even tried to photo bomb a few pics...

It was sweet to watch these two being silly with each other.

(I don't remember there being anything at 9 months pregnant that could make me smile..!?)

I like this last photo because (even though I cropped it for their album) you can see what they had to do to get their little boy to stand still for this pic... ha! And we can all relate, right??

Such a sweet sweet family!

Ok, I'm ready for more photo shoots, people. Sign me up!

week one

We've been back in Arkansas a little over a week now and we still have big stupid grins on our faces because we are just so happy to be here.

It's really funny the little things that we used to take for granted but we LOVE doing now. The second day we were here, I was so beyond thrilled to be able to get IN THE CAR, by MYSELF, and drive to HOBBY LOBBY!!! I cranked up the radio and felt like queen of the world. I bought a huge oversized picture frame and didn't have to CARRY IT HOME. I put it in my trunk like a real person. It was awesome.

Jamie has finally stopped giggling every time he does the laundry IN OUR HOUSE, in our WASHER and DRYER that we own. And we can do laundry WHENEVER we want and we don't have to hook it up to our kitchen sink. Jamie was honestly hovering the first couple of days just waiting for more clothes to get dirty so he could do more laundry!

Audrie and Annie have a new found sense of freedom because they can go play outside WHENEVER THEY WANT TO. We have a fenced in back yard, so the first couple of days Audrie would announce all proudly... "I'm going outside now...." and pause for a reaction from me. I had to explain a couple of times to them, that it was no big deal and they honestly could go play back there whenever they felt like it. They just couldn't believe it.

Though we did have to make some rules with them about not being naked in the front yard...!

The first day we were back, we were all driving to go pick up our second car so Jamie got out to go drive the other car back and I slid over to the driver's seat. Audrie's jaw dropped and she said "Mommy, you know how to drive?!". I laughed so hard. I guess I didn't realize that she had never seen me drive.

Another thing that I didn't realize would be odd for me to adjust to again is how large things are in the grocery store. HUGE boxes of cereal, giant tubs of butter, everything is so oversized to me that my first reaction is "I don't need THAT much!" and I look around for the smaller size and realize that everything seems huge. I'm just used to the tiny grocery stores in Manhattan and how everything they sell is designed to go in the tiniest kitchen imaginable.

Last night we were watching some old episodes of How I Met Your Mother (which is set in NYC) and in between scenes they did a panorama shot of people picnicing in Central Park. It was the first time that I had a wave of nostalgia come over me as I thought about all our great picnics there. I'm sure there will be plenty more of those moments to come, but for now we are loving us some Arkansas!

Here are a few pics of what we've been up to this week:

Annie was not too sure about fireworks. :)

Went to lunch at a yummy restaurant on Dickson Street.

Annie eating lemons! Crazy girl. :)

Annie on the pony ride at Bentonville's First Friday on the square.

Audrie being a daredevil!

Love her sense of adventure. She will try anything!

Kim, Jacob, and Emma came to town for a few days to visit!

Miss these two great kiddos!

Audrie and Emma set up a Lemonade stand in front of our house. Super cute!

Annie had her first day of gymnastics and she couldn't have been any more excited to start!

She had a blast. I was so proud of her!

Audrie loving the children's shopping carts at the Ozark Natural Food Store. Annie... well it takes more than that to impress that girl.

First week back and we already made the front page of the newspaper. :)

I have been LOVING my morning runs around Lake Fayetteville. Smells so GOOD out there!

My mom and I took the girls to see an opera production of Cinderella. Had to dress the part, of course!

It was performed by the Opera of the Ozarks and it was GREAT! We all loved it.

Playing on the pond at Wilson Park.

We went to the concert at Gulley Park this week and had a blast (despite what Audrie's face says!).

Annie got to show off her hula hoop skills.

And Jonny, too!

Our friends, Jonny and Troy (and their son Huck) moved from NYC to Fayetteville last week and it's been fun visiting with them in this new setting!

The girls and I have been doing a lot of swimming!

They are getting more brave all the time with the water.

Swimming all afternoon and then drinks from Sonic. Does it get any better?!

Birthday dinner for my brother. It's been great to be able to visit with family again!

Ok, well that's week one in a summary. Thanks for tuning in!