Starting the New Year With a Bang

We started our New Year shooting off guns and fireworks at the Patricks! They live in Gulfport and have a huge yard. Apparently, fireworks are a huge part of the New Year here, just like the 4th of July. I guess that makes sense since its not cold or snowy. The girls had a blast!

And we celebrated Josh's birthday:

Sawyer at 3 Months

Sawyer is still as sweet as ever. He most always has what we call "concerned" eyebrows as you can see in this pic:

But he also smiles ALOT. I tried to get a pic of him smiling but this is as close as I could get:

He is just like the girls were. Very stiff and you have to "bend" him to get him to sit!

He has found his hands and likes to chew on them all the time.

After church:

Christmas in Biloxi 2012

We couldn't make a snowman this year so Phil helped Navy & Sophie make a sandman instead!

We invested in fake tree this year.

We had a little Christmas party with our best friends here, the Patricks. Sophie & Maddy are in the same Kindergarten class and are two peas in a pod!

Caitlin, obviously, was not a fan of Santa this year. Sophie doesn't really look like she is either!

Sawyer in his Christmas sweater.

Playing at the park on Christmas Eve:

 

Making sugar cookies for Santa.

Christmas morning. Santa ate his cookies and brought the girls a dollhouse!

We missed our Boise friends and family but it was really nice to have a relaxing Christmas and not have to run all over town. We had a nice dinner with the Crooks and then watched Elf but of course I forgot to take pics. Speaking of pics, I am so sick of our camera. Every pic I take is blurry, it is getting ridiculous. Hopefully we can invest in a new one soon!

Bronco Fans

We watched the Broncos win the Maaco Bowl the other day. Go Broncos!

Documentation

This is random but I wanted to document how curly Caitlin's hair is here in Biloxi at 2 years old: 

And also, apparently this is a good way to watch a movie: 

Jenn's Visit to Biloxi

Jenn already did an awesome post on her blog so I'm pretty much just going to steal it! :)

Thursday afternoon I flew out to visit my friend Tara.  She's living there for a year and we thought it'd be a great chance to get together and for me to see a different part of the country!  I'd never been down south except for Florida so I was excited!  Oh and did I mention I had no kids?!  I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty excited for some alone time. 

Ok, so I fell in love with this kid in about 10 minutes.  This is Sawyer, Tara's 2 month old boy, and he is precious.  Pictures don't do him justice.  He is so cute and SO mild mannered!  He never cries, just chills, coos, and smiles.  

 Tara and I....best friends for 25 years...

The Biloxi Beach is about two blocks from their house, it was gorgeous.  We sat on beach chairs, buried our toes in the sand, chatted, and life was great...

Saturday morning they took me to a YUMMY donut shop (and by yummy I mean line out the door at opening time yummy) in Gulfport.  We took them to a park to eat so the kids could run around...

 Then I had to say goodbye to his precious guy, so sad...

Saturday afternoon Tara and I headed to New Orleans for the night!  Last time the two of us were alone in a big city was when we were 14 and went to DC (little did I know I'd end up living there!) and her dad left us alone all day...needless to say we got very lost and he got very worried.  Anyways, we did great and had fun... 

After touring around we went out to a yummy dinner and then headed to the hotel.  We felt like old fogies, all we wanted to do was hot tub, play games, eat snacks, and go to bed early.  So that's what we did!  It ended up being a hilarious night though, I was crying laughing and I haven't done that in a long time!  Tara never ceases to entertain me.  We have been friends for so long (our parents all went to high school together) and yet have only ever lived in the same state for two years.  Whenever we see each other it's as if no time has passed.  She knows me in ways no one else does and for her unconditional loving friendship I am so grateful.  Thanks for a fantastic weekend Tara!  T.P.  :)

Sawyer's Blessing & A Thanksgiving Visitor

On Sunday Sawyer was blessed and my brother Ben came into town for Thanksgiving!

Everything about the blessing was special. It was special to have Josh stand in and it was special to have Sawyer wear the same outfit Ben was blessed in.

Ben spent the week with us and we had some much needed quality time together. It was the first time I've ever had to make Thanksgiving dinner but between Summer and I, we made it work and everything turned out pretty good!

The kids put on a "performance" for us.

We took Ben kayaking, went to the beach, the casino, the boys went deep sea fishing and then we showed him around the French Quarter before we dropped him at the airport.

At the waffle house:

Then we went to the zoo in New Orleans called Audubon Zoo. Impressive!

Phil & Sophie fishing:

Checking lots of fun stuff off of our checklist! :)