We are headed to the beach!!

We leave early tomorrow morning for a week in Pensacola, Florida.

We will try to post pics midway through the trip if we can!

Pickles!!

My children have inherited my LOVE for dill pickles. Pickle might have been one of my first words and I'm sure I was eating them in the highchair! SO yesterday when we found some great looking Kirby cucumbers at a farmer's market, Isaac and I decided to make pickles. It was our first time trying this. He loved doing it! He was involved with every part of it, except the use of the knife-of course! As soon as he woke up this morning he asked me if the pickles were ready so they both got to eat one at 7 a.m. Hee! We are going to enjoy them with BBQ sandwiches and cole slaw tonight for dinner. yummy!

Weekend Plans

This weekend Billy and I will be enjoying a night at the DoubleTree hotel courtesy of Lutheran Social Services, a support network for families who have adopted through CPS. They will be feeding us dinner and breakfast as well as teaching us about attachment and bonding issues in adoption. Since we have not ruled out the possibility of adopting through CPS again- we always like to take these opportunities when they come up. And who would turn down a night away with your spouse!!

The sad part is this will be the last time I see my dogs for a whole week!! When we get back on Sunday, we will be packing to leave for Florida before sun-up on Monday. So the dogs will be heading out and not coming back until we get home from our vacation. How will I sleep without my Oscar?!

The happy part is that we are going on vacation!! I'm so happy for Vivi to have her first of many childhood trips to Pensacola Beach. Billy's aunts live there so we get to stay with them....loving family members are always a bonus! We are going to Panama City to play on the boardwalk too. And we will be seeing Seussical the Musical. The aunts will get to enjoy 5 whole days of Isaac and Vivi sweetness (we can hope)!

Well, speaking of sweetness- Vivi is swatting my leg and squaking at me to get off the computer so I better go. I will post about our "pickling" adventure later tonight or tomorrow!

PUPPIES!

The Scribner's Veterinarian neighbor's lab had her second litter of puppies. We got to see them at 3 weeks old this time! They are so cute...there are 9 of them!! We carried them out of their box into the shaded part of the lawn and the mother, Chloe came over and let them feed for like 2 minutes. Then she shook them off and hid in the bushes. I feel that way with my litter too sometimes, and I only have two!

My favorite was the golden one, in the pic above with his tongue out. You can also see him in the feeding picture, he stands out from all the white labs. Of course "he" might be a "she"...I never checked! We will go back in a couple weeks when they are older and frisky. But then they will be over the cute and cuddly stage and into the nibbling and sharp nails stage so Vivi might have to stay in the golf buggy!

Vivi was in puppy heaven as "puppy" is her favorite word and her word for all animals. We went to a kennel over the weekend to check it out for boarding Lucy and Viv cried when we left! A girl after her mother's heart!

Family Fun

Billy and I took the kids to a waterpark for a picnic dinner Friday night. They had a blast, of course. I am beginning to think our kids have gills.

CHEER

Give me a V!
Give me an I!
Give me another V!
Give me another I!
WHAT DOES THAT SPELL?

VIVI!

Vivi Laughing

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Ahhhhh!!! ***UPDATED AT BOTTOM***

Ya'll may or may not know I am NOT a fan of Angelina Jolie. So I do not follow her or whatever umpteenth children she has adopted or is pregnant with. I have heard many a story of adopted moms who have had obnoxious comments made in reference to them and their child. One mom was in Ethiopia adopting her daughter and had an American man snidely say as he passed by, "Hey Angelina, where's Brad?" Intended or not, they have made it somewhat "trendy" to adopt outside of your race, which really makes my blood boil. And in my opinion, have set the public's opinion of international adoption back. They have also made it hip to be pregnant as the pregnancy and birth of Shiloh was also ALL over the news. I passed a magazine the other day at the store with the headline "Most beautiful baby in the world." Really? We saw a news announcement of a highschool where over 17 teenage girls are pregnant or have had babies. They blamed all the media attention given to celebrity pregnancies as a reason for this sad new trend. So if you've gotten this far, you are probably thinking for someone who doesn't care for these people-I sure have devoted a lot of time to them. Well, that brings me to why I am writing this post. As we were up way early this morning with our youngest, I hopped online to avoid falling back to sleep and right there on Yahoo is an announcement of the birth of Brad and Angelina's twins. To my horror I read that they have named the girl Vivi!! Well, Vivienne to be exact....but you know what they will call her. Oh my!~

Billy's jaw dropped when I told him as he too is not a fan of this overly publicized couple. Great. Our daughter will now be compared to a Jolie-Pitt. Fabulous.

THIS IS AN ARTICLE WE FOUND ONLINE ABOUT THE NAMES. OH BROTHER...LOOKS LIKE VIVI IS GOING TO BE SHARING HER NAME WITH MANY IN THE COMING YEARS!


"Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt "have proven once again that they are the leaders in original baby-naming, even by Hollywood standards," baby name expert Pamela Redmond Satran, coauthor of Cool Names and The Baby Name Bible, tells Usmagazine.com.The actress, 33, gave birth to twins Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline at the Fondation Lenval hospital in Nice, France on Saturday."Vivienne is the French version of the ancient Latin name that means 'alive,'" Satran explains. A common English variation is Vivian, which was the name of Julia Roberts' character in Pretty Woman. Except for Rosie O'Donnell's daughter Vivienne, the name "has not been on the fashion scope in the U.S.," Satran adds. Jolie and Pitt's choice of Knox will boost its popularity among new moms, Satran predicts, "the same way they have with all their other children's names." Knox -- Pitt's grandfather's middle name -- also "matches" big brothers Maddox and Pax as a name that ends in X, Satran points out. As for middle names, Marcheline was the name of Jolie's mother, who died of cancer last year, while Leon is Jolie's great-great grandfather's name. Satran gives Jolie and Pitt credit for their name choices."I applaud Brad and Angelina for being truly creative in a way that many other parents -- celebrities and the rest of us -- claim they want to be but aren't brave or individualistic enough to really achieve," she says. Tell Us: Do you like the names Knox & Vivienne? "

Seasons

I love seasons. I love looking back at pictures I've taken of the kids at waterparks in the summer, pumpkin patches in the fall, all bundled up in winter coats in the winter, and dressed up in pretty spring outfits. Fall is my favorite season and it's too bad in Texas, summer lasts more than half the year! But I love summer. I love the laziness of the days that go on forever (although I also get restless). I love the smell of sunscreen and the heaviness of a big towel. I love flipflops and sunglasses, blonde hair and bright pink nail polish (on my toes of course). I love the way my baby's skin tans to a nice golden brown even when it is coated in SPF. I love seeing my kids in shorts and swimsuits. I love eating cold fruit and hot corn-on-the cob. I LOVE icecream and smoothies. Summer is a time to relax from the busy-ness of Fall and the holidays. I love walking into a blast of air conditioning. The sun warms me and lifts my spirits. It also can make me hot and grouchy...but this where the icecream comes in. :) I love summer.

Yesterday

Here are the dogs with their latest captures. Oscar jumped on the kitchen chair one night as we were cleaning up dinner and swiped this giant tortilla from the edge of the table. It was hilarious! I let him keep it since I wanted to take his picture! Then last night, we thought it would be funny to hear Lucy crunch on corn on the cob. So we gave her a little one (no butter or salt of course) and she ate the whole thing- cob and all!! We were all laughing at this one! Later I took her for a long walk with an old college friend I've been chatting with, and when she came home she wheezed and panted for like an hour! A bit out of shape, maybe? Brooke- I think we are going to need to make our walks a regular thing...you know for the sake of our dogs, of course!

Yesterday morning I had my friend's girls, Jaimes and Gracie, over for a few hours. They played and ate lunch. They really enjoyed each other's company. But as you can see from the bottom picture, it didn't keep Vivi out of mischief!


I took this shot from the kitchen while I was cleaning up dishes. What am I going to do with this girl?!

Summer Vacation

"Daddy, did you say we are going to Florida in a few weeks?"
"Yipee!! I love my great aunts... just wait until they see this tan!"
"Okay, we're ready for the beach!!"