The Latest and Greatest

I know -- behind once again! We have been super busy. The girls are starting to go a little stir crazy waiting on school to start. I love traditions, but the tradition of their little preschool starting after Labor Day is well....for the birds! We have worn holes in our all of dress up clothes and Maggie has tortured every toy in this house!

She loves this pony and both girls are dead set on being cowgirls for Halloween.

Kylie changes clothes 500+ times a day. This one finally bit the dust last week and as for her pose, Holla!

My aunt and uncle sent the girls the cutest Columbia camphouse shirts. They love them and insist on wearing them everytime they go to the camp.

This is the last sighting of these sunglasses. Ughhhhhhhhh!

The girls picked out their backpacks. Maggie choose the hearts and Kylie choose the ponies. I was surprised, I figured their choices would have been flipped. Now if school will just start :)

We are still learning how to fix/tame curly hair! It so fits her personality but I have no idea how to fix it??? Jana-- gonna need your help with this one!

Miss Priss had her 4 year old check up with Dr. Hammad. Everything was great until she asked if he was giving her a shot and he replied "yes". But she had a blast in the waiting room, I think she took a picture of everyone that was there that day. I had a bunch of pictures that looked like this will all different people!

I went to Louisiana last week to see some projects new and old. This trip led to my very first experience with a drive through daquiri shop.

Don't worry, I was not driving.

The menu was extensive and all 32oz daquiris came with a free jello shot. Needless to say, it made the drive from Abbeville, LA to Baton Rouge much more entertaining!

My project is really coming along! So neat to see it transform from a bombed out concrete shell post Katrina to this. Just have interior finishes and all the site work left to go. We stayed last Friday night in New Orleans after a long day of meetings at the job sites. I stayed at the W in the Quarter which was a new hotel for me. The last year or so I have been in Nola, this W has been closed for extensive renovations. I loved the pool view and the courtyard!

As one would expect from any W hotel, the rooms were extremely contemporary.

The huge painting of King Edward and the black wall-papered hall corridors made for an interesting night after Bourbon Street.

The W also added a new restuarant and bar called SoBou. It is in the Commander's Palace family of restaurants under Chef Tory McPhail. Fab!

And one of the best things abotu SoBou is the bar! The tables in the bar are equipped with their own taps. So you just pour and they have a machine on the table that keeps up with the ounces poured. This was great on a rainy afternoon for us and the people watching on Chartres is great. Chartres is in the heart of the quarter, 2 blocks from Bourbon and has amazing boutiques and art galleries.

After fun in the Big Easy, I flew home last Saturday morning to prepare for Supper Club that night. We hosted the supper club at Dr. Knight's house and the girls hung out while the boys shot skeet. We grilled over 40 chicken kabobs. I was exhausted come Saturday night! Anywho -- this week has been busy with work and playing with the girls. I have been watching Tropical Storm Isaac with a close eye.

I got a picture of one of my projects yesterday and other than some trees down, the building appears to be unharmed. We have also been watching Isaac closely because we will be traveling to Louisiana today on our way here....

Roll Tide from the Jerry Dome!!! And ps-- I am so enjoying reading everyone's updates. I am sorry I have not been able to comment. For some reason, blogger issues and error when I try to comment. Think it has something to do with this blog being created back in 07. Anyway, loving your updates and it has been killing me not to be able to comment =)

30 Something

Well it is official -- I am now a "30-something year old". My fam has never been one to go over board on birthdays but this year I actually decided to do something fun on my birthday. I received a free flight voucher from Delta this year for one of my ba-zillion flight delays and I booked myself a ticket to San Antonio to celebrate the birthday with my aunt and uncle. My uncle and I have the same birthday and are exactly 20 years apart so it was fun celebrating with him. I arrived in San Antonio early Friday evening and we all immediately headed downtown to Mi Terre Cafe for some real Tex-Mex.

After a fun and GOOD dinner, we headed to the Riverwalk to grab another drink and walk around. We hit a few of the Mexican markets as well.

Such a fun atmosphere!! And a trip downtown is not complete without a stop to the Alamo. I have been before but it was really fun to see it at night...it is amazing that downtown San Antonio was built all around The Alamo.

On Saturday we got up and headed out to do some shopping!

Ahhh -- real shopping not from a computer! After shopping, we met up with the rest of the fam in Gruene, Texas. Gruene is about 20 minutes outside of San Antonio and is the coolest place ever!!! I decided if Lee and I lived in San Antonio this is where we would hang out all the time! It is basically a little village on the Guadalupe River and is a Texas music haven. It is home to the historic Gruene Hall , the oldest dance hall in Texas. Lots of musicians played here...think Lyle Lovett, George Strait, etc. It was also on the film, Michael, which starred John Travolta. It reminded me of a country Flora-Bama (no wonder I liked it so much, ha!).

I learned that Texan country music is not to be confused with Nashville country music. Basically, in Texas they believe you are a country artist and Nashville just produces pop-country. The more I thought about it, I have to agree. After touring Gruene Hall we walked around the town a bit more. Loved all of the bed and breakfasts here.

Everything was so cute and the shops were wonderful. The girls decided they want to be cowgirls this year for Halloween so I managed to pick up 2 pink cowgirl hats in the general store. We also found some bacon flavored candy for Lee, ha! After shopping a bit, we went to a little winery to cool down. Loved this place!

I would love to take all of my friends back here. The winery had a picnic area complete with misting trees and of course an acoustic musician playing. I saw some many groups of friends hanging out and I so wanted to take all of my girl friends here for a day-out! It was a great, quick trip but I missed the girls terribly. I think they were more excited to see the prizes I brought back than me, hehe. Here is Mags sporting her new shirt Aunt Judy sent her from the Lonestar State.

Everything's Bigger in Texas

This weekend I am headed here:

I am so excited. My aunt and uncle live in San Antonio and this weekend I am taking a quick trip to go visit. I had a free flight voucher from Delta that was about to expire so I decided this would be a perfect opportunity to visit. I have been to San Antonio but it was 8 years ago so I am looking forward to going back! This place will be calling my name for lunch on Saturday:

I love the Riverwalk there! Can't wait for Tex Mex and an aunthentic margarita on Saturday! In other traveling news, I am also thrilled that Lee and I are heading here on Labor Day weekend:

Our main reason for going???? The Alabama vs Michigan game which will be in Cowboy Stadium!

Can.not.wait! We are staying the weekend in downtown Dallas with friends. Should be a blast. To celebrate, I asked Lee for (happy birthday to me) this new game day scarf!

4th of July 2012

July the 4th is so much fun in Selma!!! We never want to go out of town on the 4th because of all the fun happenings here! The SCC has an annual pool party that is a blast. From father/child pool relays, to penny dives, beer dives, splash contests, etc -- it is always entertaining! The girls have so much fun seeing friends and eating their weight in ice cream.

Ready for the pool -- I swear I must have coated her in sunscreen at least 100+ times. My poor red-headed baby, she still got a little burned. (PS -- if anyone has any sunscreen recommendations, please comment. We have tried everything!)

Foggy camera

Sam managed to walk away with the greased watermelon.

The little kids were thrilled that he decided to share!

Maggie loved the ice from the grown-up cooler. She kept everyone hydrated all day =)

Love those curls!

Lee came away with 15 tokens in the beer dive, which means 15 free beers. He was a little down from his total of 22 last year, but we were thrilled when he realized there is a not a rule that says you have to drink all of them in one day. Evidently someone told him that was a rule last year!!!

Lee was also the defending champion of the biggest splash contest. He was thrilled to take home that title again for at least another year.

All in all, it was a great day!! And we are already looking forward to this holiday next year.

Kylie's 4th Birthday

We had Kylie's 4th birthday party the last weekend in June. Kylie and her friend Libby are exactly one year apart. These girls love each other so it made sense (and made it easier) to have one big birthday bash for the both of them. They both are very into Ariel and all things girly so an Under the Sea party was perfect for them. Libby's mom, Beth, was so generous to offer her home for the party. This was great because nothing is worse than a July birthday party OUTSIDE! I think everyone had a great time and Kylie and Libby were so surprised when the real Ariel arrived at the party! She even brought a pirate friend along for the boys. Below are a few pictures.

Can't believe she is now 4!!!

Father's Day 2012

Goodness, I am behind. Story of my life. I guess I will pick up with Father's Day. On Father's Day this year, we headed to Ellis Island in Camden, AL to spend the day with my grandparents. My grandfather's birthday always falls on Father's Day weekend so it is a great time for us all to get together. My family has always been really big on fishing. I have gone fishing my whole life. I still enjoy it to this day, but never get to go. My grandparents and Lee have really taught the girls how to fish. Kylie loves it.

(the fishing camp in Camden)

This was perfect for Father's Day for Lee. Lee, being a father to 2 girls, always seems to have an extra smile on his face when he see the girls enjoying the outdoors!

(our favorite pose these days...silly faces)