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!!!



One Amazing Night

On Friday, March 25 I had an amazing night - one that I won't likely forget anytime soon.  My friend Shawn and I went to a concert to see Kristian Stanfield (whom neither of us knew), Dave Barnes (whom both of us LOVE) and Brandon Heath (whom we knew and liked, but wasn't the main reason we were going).  The interesting thing abou this concert is that in January some friends of ours (D & K) got married.  In their ceremony they had a song of Brandon Heath's sung and their first dance was to a song of Dave Barnes.  So Shawn and I decided that we had to do something special for these friends (who were very upset that they already had plans and couldn't make the concert themselves).

We waited in line during the intermission to meet Dave Barnes, but ran out of time before the main show began.  So we figured that he would be back out after the rest of the concert and we'd see him then.  We were wrong.  After the concert, he was no where to be found.

However, we did get in line (and stayed there this time) to meet Brandon Heath.  We had something from the wedding to get him to sign for D & K.  Shawn told him the story about the wedding and how cool it was that he and Dave were touring together, but that we didn't get to see Dave.  Brandon (and yes, I'm pretending I'm on a first name basis with these guys) asked the security lady standing guard at the autograph table if she would go get Dave to come and sign our gift.  She informed us that he was speaking with some one and wasn't available.  So Brandon suggested that she take us to him and see if he could just pop out real quick.  It was the coolest thing ever!  We got to go to his "dressing room" and meet him!  He was so awesome.  He had no problem (like Brandon) in signing our gift for D & K and he even agreed to take a picture with me.





Me and Brandon Heath

 

Me and Dave Barnes



D & K absolutely love their gift.  Shawn framed it for them.  We were so excited!  Shawn was sure that he wasn't going to sleep that night due to his adrenaline high!  I know that Dave and Brandon will never read this, but just in case:  Thanks guys!!  You made our night!!

Ethan turns 1!!

Friday was Ethan's birthday and we celebrated with him and the family on Saturday.  We are becoming Birthday Party Pros in our house ;).  He was so adorable and did so well!  He was more interested in the tissue paper than the gifts, but I'm sure that he'll warm to them soon.  He wasn't too sure about the cake, but he had some help "getting into it".  Enjoy the photos.



Ethan's shirt from Oba

Papa and Ethan bonding before
the party - hit it like this!



Miss Lily ready to party down!



Tissue paper is so much more fun
than presents

And let's not forget the balloons!





The xylophone cake for
everyone else - Danielle's
creation



Ethan's personal cake - so cute!



Am I allowed to touch this?



I'm starting to get into it







Want some?



Who needs hands, face first is so
much better!

Yea! All done!  It's great to be 1!!



We had fun helping Ethan celebrate his birthday.  We get one more shot at making a Southwell birthday a memorable occasion in a few weeks for Jay!!  We're having a tailgating birthday party before the Orange & Blue game (Florida's Spring Scrimage).  Sneak peak:  here's the cake that Jay is going to have

"Old Swampy"

Miss Lily turns 1!!

Our precious little girl has turned one!!!  Can't believe that a year has gone by so fast.  She is adorable (and according to Grammy, very much like her Oba - hates to be told "no" and will start crying when she is).  She had fun at her birthday and did so well with all the people, cake, and presents.  Well, you don't want to read about it, you want to see the pictures. . . So here you go!

The decorations - well some of them:

The birthday girl and her cake:

Ready for my cake Mom

The cake Tiffany made

Jay had to show her how
it's done

Finally got into it

The girl and her chair both had cake!

Not too thrilled about the clean up
process

 And the presents:

The loot

The book that Grammy made

Ethan thought that he'd learn how it's
done so he'll be ready next week

Loving the dolphin from Aunt Jeannie
and Uncle Randy

The shirt Oba made "Papa's Princess"

 So this was our weekend.  Now to get ready for Ethan's birthday weekend coming up!