beach bums

Last week, my moms side of the family all got together at the beach for a week filled with good food, lots of laughter, sunshine and fun, fun, fun!!! The plan was for all of us to arrive on Saturday and depart the following Saturday. As this crazy life would have it, most of us weren't able to stay all week for various reasons. We did managed to all be together in one spot, for one full day, and it was a blast!

About 10 years ago, my grandparents lined all 8 of us (their grandchildren) up on the beach and took a picture. This picture has become one of their prized possessions and they even had it enlarged (I'm not exactly sure of the size, but believe me when I say it's enormous), matted, framed and hung in their living room, to show off to everyone that enters their home. It's not a matchy, matchy picture, with everyone dressed in white, just a random snapshot of all 8 grandkids. Since we were all together again at the beach my grandmother (Gigi is what we call her now, since she became a great grandma) requested that we take another picture, just like the other one. So here we are....

I'd like to take another one of these when I'm not pregnant, please. :)

Love him so much!

Ella Claire had an early morning swimming lesson from cousin Allison!

She taught Ella Claire to kick her feet and blow bubbles under water, all nudie pudie! 

This chair came in handy since Ella Claire absolutely refused to touch the sand. Surely she will outgrow this, otherwise she has lots of miserable beach trips in her future. :)

This is about as close as she would get. Look who finally got pig tails!!!

Always ready for a snack!

Crystal clear water is my kind of water, and I've learned to love a farmers tan!

Sweet, sweet sugar!!!

Snoozing away! Not real sure how Ella Claire slept in that position!

I know you can't believe this, but I actually have more beach pictures. I'll be back for a part 2 to share the rest. 

Real quick and in other news, I am slowly making progress on Ella Claire's room. I found a fabulous antique wardrobe from the early 1900's that I had painted and distressed in white. It came from this amazing place in grand bay called White House Antiques. Check out their website and take a look at all the beautiful things!

Here's a picture of the wardrobe the day I purchased it, before the white paint....

And after a little distressing and a splash of white paint....

You can see the footboard of the bed I have decided to use in her room. We are going to paint it too. I still have a long way to go, but I'm getting really excited about the things that are coming together. Originally we were going to buy a twin bed, then I decided to paint this full iron bed we already had in our guest bedroom. I'm excited to save a little money and also this bed is so special to us. It was Jeremy's grandfathers bed as a child, Jeremy's dad's bed as a child and then Jeremy used it until we got married. AND THEN...yeah you guessed it, we used it the first year or two we were married until we upgraded to a larger one. So, Ella Claire will be the 4th generation to sleep in this bed. I think it will be perfect!

Even though we already celebrated and showed these great men how much we love them, I want to give a great big blog thank you to my dad, Jeremy's dad and Jeremy for being great dads! I am so thankful for all of them and hope they each had a wonderful father's day!

This little girl is already wanting to be a cool cat like her daddy! 

Jeremy received a copy of this book for father's day, per his request. I read the reviews and it looks like a really good book. Neither one of us have read it yet (I plan to read it too), but after we do, I'll let you know what we think. I'm hoping we won't be disappointed and don't think we will, Jeremy learned about it from Christian talk radio. We will see! :)

Father's day has always been special to me, but now that Jeremy and I have a family of our own, I truly understand how important a Godly father is to a family, and appreciate my dad all the more. A father is so much more than the family provider. I am so thankful that Jeremy is such a loving daddy to Ella Claire and soon to be Gracie and most importantly that he is living his life for the Lord everyday! More than being the most handsome thing (which to me he is ;), more than wearing the coolest clothes, more than being a handyman, more than bringing home a nice comfy pay check, more than anything else that this world labels "cool", I love Jeremy more for being a Godly husband and daddy. All those other things seem nice, but they don't bring peace like knowing you are in and doing God's will!

Happy Father's Day Jeremy! We think you are the best!!!

Okay, one more thing. I passed my glucose tolerance test today! I really wasn't worried about it, but I'm thankful to have it behind me and glad to know I don't have to go back for the 3 hour test. Can you believe it's already time for this?!? Last month when they gave me the drink at the doctor's office and told me to bring it home and put it in my fridge, I did just as I was told. Well, to our surprise, Jeremy and I came home from the beach to a refrigerator that was 75 degrees. We had somehow left the door open as we were leaving for vacation. It must have been as we were walking out of the door because neither of us heard the door alarm sound.  Needless to say, everything was ruined including my bottle of 50 grams of glucose! I had to pick up another bottle (thanks Steph!) so I could drink the drink before I left home and wouldn't have such a long wait today at the doctors office. For some reason I didn't throw the ruined bottle away and when I got home with the new bottle, I noticed one was labeled 100grams and the other 50grams. After a quick phone call to my OB, I found out that it didn't matter what the bottle label said as long as the same amount of liquid was in each bottle. Thankful for that, because I just knew I a) was going to fail the test because I drank too much sugar or b) did have the wrong bottle and would end up having to drink the liquid at the dr's office after all this trouble. Glad it's over, glad I passed!

Be back soon with beach vacay part 2!