guess where we went...

any ideas yet?!

what about now...

can you see the eye? we went on a swamp tour while aunt marion and the fam were in town...we saw LOTS of gators. up close and personal. but not as close and our guide... 

meet "baby." baby is the big one. this guy has named them all--crazy. i think he thinks that they are dolphins. he would dangle the chicken and wait for them to come up and get it. 

and then he brought out a tame one that had been in an ice chest. their insurance policy states that the one handled has to be less than 24 inches--this one only made the cut by half an inch. 

to get this baby one, they went and stole it out from under the mother in the middle of the night! that is one job i will never have! 
elijah immediately said that he wanted to hold it... he took baby steps. first a good look. then touching with one finger while barrett was holding it. {barrett says that he doesn't do kids, but elijah LOVES him so!}
then he held the tail while aunt marion had it. 
and then once the other children on the boat {not renee} held it, he was ready! YES, CRAZY! my baby boy held an alligator--even crazier, he wanted to bring it home!
{all photos taken by lauren broussard. she's like my personal photographer these days :)}

she knows pirates...

Our friends were over the other night, and Amanda started talking to the kids about pirates. She convinced Renée and Elijah that she was friends with "the pirates." She told them that she would ask the pirates to share some treasure. I guess she really does know them...this was on our doorstep!

you've been waiting long enough...

So besides Renée loosing her 3rd tooth...each child had a milestone!!

First, Elijah got SUPER brave in the pool! He started with jumping in from the side. after a few rounds, i asked if he wanted to put his face in the water and he said yes! he did. then he decided to get VERY brave and "dive" for his sticks. in reality, it was me pushing him under the water and then he would get the dive stick and "swim" up. he was quite proud of himself! he even started swimming around with his "skateboard" {aka kick board!}

{just imagine that he's in the pool swimming, since i was in the pool too}

i was seriously SHOCKED! this is the boy who last summer would barely let you hold him in

the water without clawing your shoulders! he spent most of his time at the pool playing with his dump trucks on the pool chairs. serisouly, amazing the difference a year has made!

After watching elijah for only a few minutes, Renée decided to follow suite. She has been capable of swimming for the past 2 summers, but has been too timid to try. She dove right in and started swimming away!  

I told them that they were swimming like fish. Elijah named himself Nemo, and Renée quickly corrected me--she was a mermaid, not a fish! Melody to be exact. That is Ariel's daughter for those of you not "in the know" ;)

this little baby slept though all the excitement, but she made up for it the next night...

she started crawling on her hands and knees!! she was quite excited..

beach pictures!

i wasn't sure if these pictures were ever going to happen...first the rain, then when i sat down to upload them off the camera something happened to the sd card and they disappeared! luckily, orum used his hacking skills and recovered them! 

this is elijah after he sat down for the wedding and spotted a  sailboat on the sand...it was all he could think about! i told him as soon as katy and jacob kissed he could go see it, and when they did he took off running!

he loved the boat and wanted it for his own. he did all the proper tests...he "drove" it, walked it, and even did some flips on the ropes to test their strength. 

i'm thinking that i might have to frame a few for his "boat room!"

this little one just wanted to eat the sand! anytime she saw sand, she tried to eat it.

such sweet sisters! elijah was too busy on the boat to stop for pictures

see the ever-growing hole in renee's mouth!? she lost her 3rd tooth! this time there was NO pulling involved. she pushed it out with her tounge. it was misplaced between falling out and bedtime, but the tooth fairy still came! 

finally....after lots of coaxing...elijah joined in for a few pictures! not all smiling, but all looking. i'll take what i can get!

beach preview...

We went to the beach to see our old babysitter, katy, get married. the kids were SOOO excited because we went down a  couple of days early! they were super excited to find out that she was getting married at "mo's beach," but VERY disappointed to learn that we could stay at "mo's beach house" since I didn't plan ahead...oh well, they lived & got to go to the beach...

{Renée also told me she knows why the tunnel is in mobile, al...because you have to go that way to get to mo's beach...apparently she thinks that mo must own a lot of beach!:)}

although it rained MOST of the time that we were there...we got a couple of VERRRY eventful hours in. {more on that tomorrow!}  

and this little baby LOVED everything about the beach--the water, the sun, and especially the sand! if she could have gotten there, she would have been down by the water digging a hole with these 2--they were digging for treasure. apparently, one of them saw an "X" they didn't uncover any treasure, but they did build a nice little pool for the baby! {camera died, so no proof.}