florida - me & my little loves

at the end of february, not long after the cabo trip (yes, i’m that behind!) i packed up even more stuff and the girls and we flew home to florida for three weeks!

we stayed busy visiting family and friends, going on adventures and creating our own little adventures at home.  i took oodles of pictures – heck, i had three weeks to capture.  so, here we go!

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first peanut butter toast – perfect date with grandpa

we made it out to pensacola one day to visit my sorority sister, rachael, and her two handsome little men, mac & coe.  it was so great to catch up, talk about mommy life, meet each other’s kiddos, and just be with a sweet friend.  thanks for the great picture, rach!  i’ll let you know when we head back home again.

my mom came along on the mini road trip.  she’s pretty great company.

 

 

fun around the house

 

my parents borrowed some baby goodies from a friend. 
anabelle happily referred to these mats as ‘the park’.

 

hanging with her hippo, eli, and learning how to do ‘thumbs up’.
we met a lovely grandma on our flight to florida who offered to sit with us and even helped the three of us get on the tram in houston so catch our second flight.  she had been here visiting some of her grandchildren – one was named eli.  thank you miss denise!

our return trip wasn’t quite as graceful but we made it all in one piece.  i will say that i don’t recommend taking two littles with you into an airplane restroom to clean up and get them in their pj’s

 

reading and snacks with grandpa

 

so thankful for a cozy spot to come visit

 

my mom created a little store for anabelle.  it was a huge hit and so fun to watch.  anabelle was a very loyal customer and usually bought out the entire store, scanned the items one at a time (waiting for grandma to make a ‘beep’ sound when the item scanned), bagged herself, paid with credit card, and put her receipt (also with sound effects from grandma) in her wallet when she was done.  sometimes you don’t realize how much they are watching.

 

i can still remember my daddy combing my hair when i was little.  he used to carry a little black comb in his back pocket and helped keep my pigtails nice and even with a straight center part.  (we both like things nice and even)  fun to watch him takes such special care of my littles too.

my mom found the dvd ‘goodnight moon’ (different stories read by different actors) and i’m pretty sure we watched it at least once a day.  it’s a great little video if you are looking to add one to your library and anabelle always sits for the entire thing.  there are five or six stories and in between there are sweet little interviews with kids about sleep and dreams.  here is the link to the video.

 

emilymae was perfecting her arm crawl and working on sitting up while we were there.  she seems so much bigger than that now . . but still so teeny.

   

yep, that’s hungry hungry hippos on the potty.  whatever works!
(and we’re still working through the occasional potty boycott)

a nice little evening walk down on the dock to enjoy the breeze and watch all the different birds.
(this was the day i couldn’t get anabelle out of her elmo pj’s so she just put a clean shirt on top!)

 

my mom used to let us stay up a little past our bedtime if we would brush her hair.  this time anabelle got to watch ‘goodnight moon’ if she gave it a try. 

if you can be a professional iron-er, my mom is.  she loves it.  she has ‘ironing movies’ and can iron while she watches the entire thing.  she even has an ironing callous and is pretty proud.  she was excited to find a little set for anabelle and to share her ‘hobby’.  anabelle called it her ‘work’. 
she would say ‘i need to do some work.’

 

on the other side of the living room . . .

 

  tried a little t-ball . . . quite entertaining!

this day i discovered my first gray hairs – or discovered gray hairs for the first time.  guess i’m officially a big girl now, or something like that.

of course we also had special dates with gran –
some shopping and lunch with a special trip to build-a-bear.

 

. . and the gulfarium

 

anabelle did a great job naming all sorts of sea life.

 

a goody from the gift shop and a yummy lunch.

 

 

the last weekend we were there anabelle had a one-on-one morning at gran’s.  she got her max and a few other treasures and was ready to go!

 

 

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visiting with grandma kookoo (my grandma).  this was emilymae’s first time meeting her.  actually it was the first time meeting chris’ mom too.  this trip was a pretty big deal!

my grandma wanted to have a girls day, her treat, so we drove out to one of the pretty beach communities, had a delicious breakfast at hibiscus café and just enjoyed a beautiful day out & about together.

 

lots of go, go, go!
(and it was pretty chilly most of the time)

 

 

 

 

i swear we were at the beach and not in the snow.

one of our final outings was a trip to the zoo.  my mom and anabelle had already been together on their date but this time emilymae and i got to go too.  it’s a little zoo but pretty great!

 

 

 

 

it was an incredible trip - so fabulous and fun and exhausting and lovely!