Breakfast with the Holdings

Our good friends Ashley, Keith, and Logan are moving to the other side of the country :(  On their long drive to CA they passed through Stockbridge, so we met up for a farewell breakfast today. It's been a while since I've seen them, and I just can't believe how much little Logan has grown! And now they are expecting a baby girl!!! Hopefully I will get to meet her one day. Sophia had a blast with Logan, they always have a good time together, I know she will miss him.


To Ashley and Keith, I hope you have safe travels, and know that you will be missed here on the East Coast!
(Here are pictures from breakfast)

                        Are they not adorable?!?!?

Family Ties

Today we got together with my Aunt, cousins, and grandparents on my dad's side. It's been so long since I've seen them and it was really nice to catch up. They got to meet Eli for the first time, and get to know Sophia a little better. We had a wonderful dinner and even better dessert :)   After that we went out back and saw a couple of deer that come into their yard every evening; although, if you ask Sophia, we saw kangaroos, lol. Then we went inside and Sophia stood on the fireplace, her "stage," and made us all sing along to the Barney song.... "I love you, you love me"..... yea, we all know the song, and now it's probably stuck in your head like it is mine, haha! But we had so much fun hanging out that before we knew it, it was 10:00! I can't wait until Christmas when we can get together again. I've really missed spending time with them. Here are a few pictures from our visit:

                         Eli with Nana

     Sophia and Eli with 2nd cousins Kayla and Lauren

                                Aunt Pam and Eli

                           Aunt Pam and Sophia

                            Gramps and Eli

I wish I had remembered to get a picture with all of us together... oh well, maybe next time.

GA Trip Continued

We've been having a lot of fun here in GA visiting family! We still have a lot of people to see, but so far, it's been great. On Saturday we went and had lunch with my mom and Tommy at Truett's Grill. They got to see Eli who has changed so much since my mom saw him last and Tommy met him for the first time. Sophia had a blast and she LOVED the train that goes around the ceiling there. Here is a picture from lunch:

And then yesterday we went to visit Jamie, Tiffany, and Natalie. I haven't seen Natalie since she was Eli's age and she is 13 months old now! She is such an adorable little girl. She's so happy and she loves to dance! Sophia had a hard time sharing with her, but they  had fun playing in the kiddie pool.  I'm sure one day they will be great friends :)

Other than that we've been hanging here with Mimi and Pops. Sophia has just been eating up the attention! She even helped Mimi cook! It took a little extra time to get dinner on the table that night, but I know it's one of those things Sophia will always remember doing with her Mimi :)

 And here is Pops sneaking in some snuggle time with Eli  :)

Lori and Greg are on vacation celebrating their first anniversary in St. Thomas (I'm so jealous!!) I can't believe it's been a year already! Congratulations you two! 

             (my favorite picture from their wedding)

Baby Comparison

I've become a little obsessed with comparing Sophia and Eli's baby pictures. It's so fun to see how much (or not) they look alike at different ages. Here they are at 3 months.

Maybe I can dig up some baby pictures of me and Derek to add to the comparison....

Mother's Day / Eli is 3 months

I'm still a little behind with the blog, but it's hard to find a quiet 15 min to sit down and post lately. We've been having so much fun here in Florida, but there is a lot going on in this house with 3 adults, 4 kids, a dog, and 2 cats. lol

Mother's Day was last weekend, we spent all day Saturday on the beach. It was the perfect day. The weather was nice and both kids cooperated. Eli slept most of the time, and Sophia just ran her little heart out. She would run down to the water and then back up as the tide came it. I've never seen little legs move so fast!

On Sunday we went to church, and I won the newest mother award, which is funny because I also got that the year I had Sophia. It was a really nice service, and afterward we came back to the house for a relaxing day by the pool.

Eli also turned 3 months old on Mother's Day, and I just can not believe how much he has grown. He is finally standing up (supported of course) and he even let out an almost laugh the other day. Really it was more of a squeal, but I think it's the beginnings of a laugh. He is a lot more content these days, he will play in his bouncer chair while awake and I don't have to be holding him all the time, which is a huge relief! He's still not sleeping through the night, he wakes up usually twice, but I'm hoping that phase will be over soon. Mama it TIRED!! Here are a few pictures of Eli at 3 months:.

        
We leave Florida on Wednesday, so I'll probably update this again when we are back in GA for a couple of weeks.

Orange Beach

Ok, So it's been a while since I've posted.... this trip has kept me so busy! We've been having a blast though! Last week we made an unexpected, quick trip over to Orange Beach, AL to visit with Alice and Mimi and Pops. It was only for a couple of days, but I was so glad that Alice was able to meet Eli since I'm not sure how long it will be before we see her again (probably Christmas). Eli will already be 10 months old by then! We were also excited for a mini vacation with Mimi and Pops :) We went to the pool, ate seafood, and Sophia even took a quick trip down to the beach to look for shells and build a sand castle. We also got to meet Alice's new puppy Cocoa and Sophia fell in love!!!! Too bad daddy won't let her get a small dog one day, he says only medium-large dogs for us....  But anyway, here are some pictures from our visit to Orange Beach:

                                 (Alice and Eli)

     

                      (Sophia playing with Cocoa)

                      (Mimi and Pops with the kiddos)

(Mommy and Sophia on the water slide. She LOVED it!!)

                    (Sophia building sand castles)


Floria Trip To Be Continued......