Cake Smash

While we were on vaction I decided it would be fun to do a little cake smash photo shoot with Mr. Drake.

As expected my sweet-toothed *rambunctious little guy loved it!! I'm already excited to see his reaction to his smash cake at his party ( in less than 2 weeks -SO EXCITED) I have a feeling he will "dig" that just as much!!

*This post is part of Wordless Wednesdays

A Beautiful Mess

Live and Love...Out Loud

Wordless Wednesdays

*This post had been entered in Word Up, YO!

When on Vacation..

When on vacation a group photo is a must

 (Pretty good looking bunch, hey?)

When on vacation family photos actually get taken

When on vacation our little fish shows off his skills

When on vacation Drake takes on his very first water slide

(And then I'm brave enough to post a picture on the Internet of me in my swimming suit)

When on vacation every story is just breathtaking

When on vacation there is uninterrupted time with Daddy

When on vacation we all 3 swing together enjoying the cool morning

When on vacation I soak up every second with my baby toddler

When on vacation you don't even need water to swim

When on vacation Drake decides crawling is over rated and walking is the best way to get around

When on vacation...well... I think this face says it all

We are back from a great and relaxing trip.

I missed you all!!

Thanks for being so kind to my guest bloggers last week.

They sure brought you some pretty awesome posts.

I can't wait to catch up and see what is new with all of you!

The Start of a Great Family Tradition

Tomorrow we will start a new tradition with Drake as we set out on our first family vacation. We are not going far and will not even be gone a whole week, but we are getting away from the daily grind and have some will have some quality time as a family. My parents will also be going on vacation with us and my sisters and their boyfriends will be coming and going, so it will be one big party!
Note: I so wish I could share pictures of all these vacations but I'm still living in the stone age and my printer does not have a scanner on it and these pictures were taken the old fashioned way, on cameras with film.


When I was growing up family vacations were a way of life. Every summer we would take off for a week of relaxing, bonding, and exploring. We spent many summers in Hilton Head Island where we would ride bikes, eat ice cream, swim in the ocean and go to sing-alongs under a big old tree. We went to Gatlinburg, Tennessee where we way under packed for lunch and had 1 Lunchable for me and my 2 sisters to share as we were driving along the curviest roads ever. We went to the Black Hills and Branson and Colorado. We made several visits to Orlando where we always had to eat at the same seafood buffet because it was the best food ever and experienced our first Hurricane in Hurricane Floyd. We went so many places and experienced so many things together as a family. To this day, when we are all together eating supper around the table, the conversation usually turns to our favorite memories from vacations. They are special and sacred and I so hope to build these same awesome memories for my son, so that many years from now we will be sitting around eating supper talking about the great times we had together as a family on vacation.

Now that I got all the sappiness over I can tell you that I'm also taking a vacation from blogging, but don't worry because I have found some pretty awesome guest bloggers to take my spot in the next week. Please show them some love and leave some comments for them so they might come back again. I'm also going to be unplugging from my cell phone, not checking e-mails, reading blogs or surfing Facebook. How will I ever survive?!? Or the better question is what will I do to fill my time?!? I guess I will just have to read, swim, bike, and chase after my little man to stay busy...sounds rough, doesn't it?

Have a great week and I will "see" you all soon!

My First Vacation:By Drake

I went on my first mini vacation last weekend to this huge city called Chicago. I think I love these vacations things because Momma and Daddy let me eat real food like deep dish pizza crust, stay up late, and even bought me new shoes while we were there. 

My Momma took a million pictures of me in my swim trunks. They kept smiling and laughing at me so I humored them and played along.

Then they took me to this huge bath tub. I liked to put my head under water and loved splashing!!

How would you like it if somebody kept taking pictures of you after you were all tired from swimming and just wanted to nap?!? That is what I thought!

Daddy finally gave in and took a nap with me.

I LOVE riding in my stroller, but Momma was blocking my view of all the sites by taking yet another picture!

Oh, yeah I also started crawling the night before we left...like really crawling...really fast.

Momma seemed to not like me crawling around the hotel floor and kept saying things like "gross" and "germs". Momma then thought she could contain me on a blanket with my toys. Yeah right Momma!! I don't even like my toys I would rather play with cords, and shoes and open and close drawers. Then to top it off she was always coming after my hands with a baby wipe. She needs to relax!

Daddy and I also think Momma might be crazy. She bought me an outfit for my first birthday. I wonder if she forgot that I’m only 7 months old? She said it was just "perfect" and I had to have it! Daddy says I better get used to it because she really likes to plan ahead.

I think they will probably take me someplace again soon since I was pretty much amazing in the car and Momma and Daddy kept saying how good I was being. I kept them happy by sleeping, playing with my toys, looking in my mirror and sucking on my paci.

So Momma, where to now?

-Drake

Back from Paradise

Nothing is better than leaving the most beautiful and relaxing place on earth

to be greeted by this when you get home

In Hawaii

We enjoy fruity drinks at 3:00 pm by the ocean

We watch whales come right up to the boat

We enjoy time with each other