Lydie-Lu Turned TWO!! (11/20/10)

We love this little girl. Like she's our own.

So, on her actual 2nd birthday, when both of her parents had to work, we decided to make a special day for our Lydie-Lu!

"I two!!"

We decided to go to Busch Gardens where they have a Sesame Street land. Elmo is Lydia's one true love, so we knew she'd be thrilled, lol.

At first, she didn't quite get it. Then, all bets were off. She was estatic at all the characters! She wanted to hug them and kiss them and "Give high-five."

Lydia and "Gecka" waiting in line for Burt and Ernie

I'm pretty sure that the people in these characters thought she was the cutest kid there, that day. They all made a point of motioning to her Elmo outfit and spent a lot of time with her.

They have this adorable show "A is for Africa" that highlights several characters. They dance around, play games, and go through the audience. After the show, you can meet the characters.

Grover and Zoe

Abby and Cookie Monster

For Elmo, you couldn't take your own pictures :(. We did buy the ones they took, though. We would have bought them anyway, so I wish they could have let us get her reaction. She was awestruck that she was in the same room as Elmo. She kept saying, "Elmo!!!!!! Elmo!!!! Love you...... High-five!..... Kisses!"

One more time with Big Bird......

After all the characters were met, hugged, kissed, and high-fived, we rode a few of the rides that Lydia was tall enough to ride.

When the park was closing, Lydia started crying, lol. "Go back, go back! Elmo! Miss Elmo!! Big Bird.... Abby.... Zoe..... Grover..... Cookie.... miss them. Go back. Please?"

We promised we would come back another day and headed to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen.



This was a KID'S sundae!

After an eventful day, we packed it up and headed home.

Want to hear the cutest thing ever? Lydia singing "Happy Birthday" (I am, too..... excuse my horrible singing) and having trouble with her "packpack."

Momma Turned 50!! (10/29/10)

My mom turned 50 on October 29th. Originally, she told us that she didn't want a big party. So, instead we planned a dinner at a nice restaurant, nearby. The surprise was that we arranged for our extended family and some of her closest friends to join. She was super surprised and happy!!

Me and Lydia (wearing a special birthday dress)

Trev and his girlfriend, Lauren

Mom and one of her best friends, Sally...... They call each other Lucy and Ethel, lol.

Somehow, we missed getting a picture with her and Jan, her other best friend. :(

Mom and Ninny

Mom blowing out the candles of her GINORMOUS cake (it was really good, too!).

Mom and Uncle Jimmy

Lydia was all up in that, lol.....

Mom and her little boy

Lydia and her "Buhv"

Ninny and I

Three generations......

Ninny and two of her children!

Me and my Momma

Carrie Underwood Concert (10/25/10)

This Fall has been so busy, I just realized that I have TWO MONTHS worth of posts/pictures to share.

First up....... well, two things............

In early October, I had the opportunity to meet up with Kristen from Southern Web Girl!!! She and her husband were visiting Disney, so we got together at EPCOT for lunch. Some yummy pizza (Via Napoli), delicious dessert (thanks to the Food and Wine Festival), and lots of chatting ensued! Kristen and her husband were sooooooo awesome and welcoming. I loved visiting with them!!

On Monday, October 25th, Carrie Underwood came to town. I've been a fan of hers since her initial audition on American Idol..... I voted for her every single week.... so, I was really excited to see her concert.

Me and M went to the show!

Billy Currington opened for her. I *heart* Billy Currington.

Such a pretty set!!

I loved three things about her concert.....

1) Her amazing voice (although the sound guy took a few songs to keep her from sounding like she was on helium)

2) Her AWESOME clothes.

3) The beautiful sets.

 

In the middle of the show, she came out over the audience in a pick-up truck. Too cool!

Carrie and a guy from Sons of Sylvia. I honestly wasn't too impressed with SoS, however, I do like the song they sang together (on her album).

Her "duet" with Randy Travis......

Probably my favorite part of the concert..... Mama's Song. I loved the pictures of her growing up with her mom and ending with a picture from her wedding. When the crowd went crazy, she just looked up with a sweet smile...... it made me tear up.

Overall, it was an amazing concert and I was so glad I got to go!!!

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Today is my stepdad, Mike's 60th Birthday. He passed away almost 7 years ago and is very much missed, but we still try to celebrate his life.

Mike and I on Goofy's Barnstormer at Magic Kingdom.

Trev, Mom, Mike, and my cousin Ben at Gulf Shores.

Trev and Mike running around our front yard.

When my mom and Mike first married, we got this super tall tree. There wasn't any room for the star. So, Mike got a piece of cardboard, cut out a star, and covered it with tinfoil. We put it up where it would fit and have used the star every year since. Here, Trev and Mike are putting up the star.

Trevor's 1st Birthday! Mike's 42nd birthday was 12/27/92...... Trevor was born 12/31/92..... This was 1993.

Trev and Mike supporting the Gators :)

Today, on what would be his dad's 60th birthday, Trevor got his first tatoo..... his dad's initials.....

It's kind of a funny story..... for years, my brother has been tormenting my mom, telling her he was going to go out and get a tatoo on his 18th birthday. My mom would freak out.

Then, as his birthday was coming up and my mom asked what he wanted, he said one thing...... a tatoo of Mike's initials on Mike's birthday (which is 4 days before he's legal). My mom agreed to sign for it, lol.

On the second day of vacation.....

..... which is also Christmas Eve.....

I finished all my wrapping (at 2:30 in the morning), save for three gifts for which I ran out of tape.

I was awoken at 8:30 by a little miss who was wanting "lips"...... peppermint lip gloss that I keep in my purse. She's obsessed with it. Once she's finished with "lips" she has to put on "the crap" (the cap). It's hysterical.

After bumming around most of the day (and eating like I'm headed to the electric chair), we went to the Christmas Eve service at church. I loved it. So, so, so much. Our lead pastor is out of town, so all the worship leaders got together to lead worship. An elder at our church read a story to all the children in the congregation. Then, our middle school pastor gave the sermon. She gave the most beautiful reading/telling of the Christmas story, including a women's perspective on how Mary must have felt giving birth in a barn. The super sweet part was that her own little girl turned a year old, yesterday. She was a Christmas Eve Eve baby!

I also did something I never, EVER thought I'd do...........

I wore jeggings.

Many of you probably have comments from me about how you'd never catch me in jeggings. I honestly never thought it would happen.

However, the combination of several people telling me I should try a pair on....... swearing they looked good........ and swearing again.....  and then again..... convinced me to test it out at the service.

My Ninny wanted an impromptu photo shoot after the service, so I have a record of this occasion (so impromptu that no one had a real camera and we relied on cell phones)........

Just in case I'm not on tomorrow...............

Merry Christmas!!

On the first day of vacation.....

............. my true self gave to me.................

Full permission to go out in public with no shower, no make-up, nasty hair, and no care for appearances.

Sure enough, I ran into someone I knew.

However, it was a coworker with a long-standing crush on me....... that I have no interest in..... and, therefore, I still didn't care that I looked like poop.

OH!!!!!

Great news................ I got my eyebrows waxed! No more Decembrow for Jessica!

I also got my hair cut and highlighted.

Which is part of the reason I didn't bother with my hair. I'm fully on the "have crappy hair when you walk in the salon" train. Some of my friends are the exact opposite and will gussy up their hair before going in. They say that they want to make sure everyone at the salon knows that the stylist has great clients who take care of their hair.

Not I, said the fly.

I pretty much always have the worst hair imaginable when I walk in to get my hair done.

The ironic part? We all go to the same stylist........ one of my/our best friends. Thankfully, she loves me and doesn't care that my hair looks horrible when I walk in. She knows I can do my hair (although not as well as she can do my hair) and I prove it to her outside of the salon.

And, that was the big news of the day.

Well, not really, but posting about it would break my pact. So, I might post about it in about a week.

But, basically, the big news of the day.... Jess is a slob, but now has nice eyebrows and hair.

Clearly, I need to take my blog posts and publish them into a novel. This post being the creme de la creme of all blog posts.