Galloway Camping

Ok, so a few months ago, I mentioned that my mom's side of the family were almost all meeting together and going camping and I promised lots of pictures.  Well, I lied. We did get all but 13 members of the family there (which was a huge feat for us!), but I don't think I took the first picture! :( (I did actually take a few pictures and have added them to the end of the post) I was too busy running around with the kids. 

We had a chili cook-off the last night that we were all together and it decided that as soon as we were ready to serve the chili, that it needed to start raining.  Let me just tell you that trying to figure out how to get 12 people under one shade tent when it starts raining was fun to watch.  7 of the 10 Southwells headed back to the cabin (so that the kids weren't in the weather) while the other 3 of us huddled under the canaopy of the camper.  The main concern was making sure that my almost 90 year old grandparents didn't get wet.

It was nice to see everyone and watch the kids experience new things (Jay discovered lightening bugs for the first time! and he got to sleep in the camper with Grammy and Papa one night).  However, we have decided that Hard Labor Creek State Park is not the place for us to try to camp with 2 elderly adults and 4 smaller children.  The ground is unstable and it is HOT (which my cousin Leslie and I reminded the planners when the discussion was started about camping in June)!!!

Next year I think we will all be gathering in Charlotte for Granddaddy's 90th birthday party.  At least we'll all have a cool place to stay! :)





  Updated pictures (hopefully this will work)

Lily's favorite past time: play (and eating)
rocks!



Mischievous! Cute, but

mischievous.




The kids in their chairs from
Grammy and Papa

Jay being tickled by
his Daddy



  Grammy and Papa also brought a pool, so we decided to let the kids have some fun it in.  We were even able to get Rowan (a cousin we just met who is only a few weeks older than Lily and Ethan) in for some pool time!



It's a little chilly!





Miss Lily!



All four kids!







 Then, once the little ones were finished and out of the way.  I let Jay splash around as big as he could!!



The BIG finale!



Getting ready to splash around!



Posing for the camera



Catch-Up

I've been accused of not updating people as to what is going on in my life.  So here we go:

A lot of this . . .

Mixed with a little of that!

I've been working at my job and on my class work (couldn't find a suitable picture for that) and did actually take 4 days and went to the beach. I haven't uploaded pictures from that trip yet, but hopefully after this weekend (a quick trip this time), I'll have some good ones to share.

I promise that pictures of the apartment are going to be posted (may not be until after football season gets under way - only 38 days!), but I'm still getting things in the right place and thus don't want to take pictures with boxes in them!

That's what I've been up to.  How about you?

My Crazy Life

I'm slowly but surely getting things settled in my new apartment.  I've completely cleaned out my storage unit and have emptied the fair majority of the boxes.  I had a little excitement on the Sunday evening before Memorial Day when my t.v. decided to blow its tube!  Scared the mess out of me to have white smoke coming out of the back of the t.v. that I wasn't watching!  Daddy says that he has another t.v. for me. Hopefully it will last longer than 3 weeks.

We are getting ready for our Galloway Family camping trip/reunion next weekend and I promise LOTS of pictures from that!  And soon (once everything is in place) there will be a post as Tubits Tebowski (my Gator Gnome) takes you on a tour of the Oba Casa!  Ethan had some fun in the apt last night and it helped me realize that when the kids are over, we may have to rearrange some things to give them a larger/safer place to play!

Well, I guess it's back to work. Will post again (with pictures) soon!

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day this year, we were all together: 7 adults and 3 children (well, when looking at ages).  On Saturday, Mom and I had some mother/daughter time that we had been missing!  We went and did a little walking around what's left of the mall in Sebring and then had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays (salad bar and soup, yum!).  Then Saturday evening, we invited Tiffany and the kids over to join me, Mom, Dad, Danielle, and Ethan (noticed yet who is missing? That's right, the older boys - they went fishing or rather boating since they never seem to catch much) for dinner.  Dad cooked a beef tenderloin and I made the veggie sides to go with.  Delicious!!

Then on Sunday we all went to church together (we take up an entire pew at FUMC Wauchula), then went to lunch at Fred's in Lakeland.  Tiffany had heard of this amazing park in Lakeland and she wanted to take the kids.  So we all decided to join them.  Figured it would be a good energy release for Ethan before the 2+ hour drive back to G'ville.  We had a blast and so did the kids ;)  Here are a few pictures.  I wish that we had been able to get a good one of the entire family, but until the little ones are a little more picture-friendly, that will have to wait.



Jay loves to slide!



Ready, set, GO!!



The little ones like to slide too!

We had a hard time getting Jay off the slides, but eventually he joined us over near the swings (which is where the little ones prefered to be, except that it was in the full sun!)



Cutie patootie!



Ethan and his daddy
swinging



The kids loved to play with the ball
and Uncle Josh!

Oh, I forgot to mention that Ethan is walking!!!  He sometimes falls (don't we all) and on unsteady ground we help him but he will take several steps without any problem!

Walking man!

Finally a picture of just the 3 young ones and then one of them with their Oba!  Can't believe I got them all to sit still long enough to take the picture with me, I'll forgive them not all looking at the camera!



Me and my kids!



The three most adorable
children EVER!







Moving Time Again!!!

So, it's that time in my life again!  Moving!  If you know me, then you know that (although I do it often) I hate moving!  It's not so much the act of moving, but rather the act of packing up all my stuff (I am careful not to use the word "junk".



Just a portion of my stuff

 I have my furniture in my current apartment, but I also have a storage unit that is rather full of stuff as well (cause it all wouldn't fit in my small apt with a roommate this year).  I will have to take pictures along the way this weekend and give you guys a preview of exactly how much stuff we are talking about.  Pray for me (and Josh - cause he's helping) on Sunday as we move the contents of my current apt to the new one.  I will gradually move the contents of the storage unit (pictured above) throughout the rest of the month.  Stay tuned!

Birthday pictures

When Jay was born, I decided that each year for his (and any other niece's or nephew's) birthday, we would take a picture, just the two of us.  I have been successful thus far, which this year was a feat!  I almost thought that it wasn't going to happen because the kids just weren't cooperating, but Saturday they proved me wrong!  One year, I'm going to have professional pictures done with all of us (individual with each child and then all of us together) since the birthdays are so close together.

Here are this years pictures:



Me and Lily



Me and Ethan



Me and Jay

Love you guys!!!





Jay Turns 3!!

My little man is growing up too fast! I can't believe that he is already 3!  We celebrated his birthday this past weekend with tailgating before going to the Orange and Blue game.  It was perfect weather for it and Jay had a blast!  The immediate Southwell family celebrated on his actual birthday and like a ditz, I forgot my camera for that day (so no pictures of his shirt I made, will have to see if Tiffany has any good ones).  I DID NOT forget my camera this weekend!  His cake turned out so amazing, if I do say so myself!  It wasn't too bad to make either (but couldn't have done it as quickly if it weren't for Mom cutting things up for me! Thanks!).  Enjoy the pictures!

The Alligator Cake



Gatorade!



Tiffany did a great job with the
decorations

Not the best pic, but he was so
excited about his play grill!



Blowing out his candle



Picking out his cupcake (the one
with all the candy on it!)

  

Enjoying his cupcake with Papa!

We had so much fun celebrating his birthday!  Then we went to the game and look who came to surprise Jay (just kidding, but it makes for a good story):



Tim Tebow!!!