Don't forget your blessing

Anytime we sit down to eat a meal or snack, Faith always reminds us to say the blessing.

 First, she folds her little hands together.

Then, she presses her hands to her forehead and says, "I wun pay!"  (I want to pray!)  How that warms my heart.

We're having a...

BOY!!!!  

And he's due to arrive May 25.

And since we love balloons we decided to have a little family photoshoot.

We used our tripod and remote and snapped pictures away.

Both Faith and Grace had a blast playing with the balloons.

Then they wanted to play in the box, of course.

They took turns popping in and out of our box yelling, "Surprise!"

The best family pictures are the ones that are fun to make.

A surprise for our 5 year anniversary

David surprised me with a 7 night cruise out of New Orleans for our 5 year anniversary.  And it really was a surprise.  In fact, he talked to my mom on the sly and arranged for her to watch the kids and everything.  I found out about it just a couple of days before we left for our big trip.

Our trip began in New Orleans.  Coincidentally, we left on our very first cruise together almost 10 years ago out of New Orleans.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn in the French Quarter.  With one night of hotel accomadations, Holiday Inn allowed us to park our car in their covered garage for the duration of our cruise at no additional charge.  What an awesome feature!  It would have been $18 a day at the cruise port.

 First things first, we checked out our room.  And we were quite pleased with it.  Big comfy bed.

And a great view.

Then we headed out into the French Quarter for some dinner. 

 And what a delicious meal we had!  We were served these divine redskin potatoes instead of bread.  

 After dinner, we went exploring.

 And we were charmed by the street entertainers.

 We stopped in for a bit at Howl at the Moon. 

Which brought back nostalgic memories of our bachelor/bachelorette party.  We love to sing along with the dueling pianos. 

 After that, we mosied on down to Cafe du Monde for beignets and coffee.  Decaf, of course.

 Although I think they just serve everyone regular coffee.  Because we were hyped afterwards.

Although, I suppose it could have been a sugar rush.

Regardless, we really enjoyed our evening in New Orleans.  But as lovely as our time in the city was, I most enjoyed my time with my sweetheart David. 

Grace walks in her first fashion show

Our local Belks was having a children's fashion show this weekend and Grace participated.

She got to select whatever she wanted to wear from their fall line. 

 Of course, she picked a dress with pink in it!

 Grace liked posing in the dressing room.

And making silly faces, too.  She's such a character!  After she was dressed, we went to the practice room to practice walking.  Grace didn't want to practice.  She suddenly turned shy and buried her head in my leg and whispered, "I don't want to."  So I told her she didn't have to and we could go home.  But first she had to take her dress off.  She didn't want to do that either.  Then it was time to line up!  So I put her in line and walked away.  Of course, I sneaked back through the clothes trying to hide from her to see how she was doing.  I was fully prepared to pull her out of the fashion show at the first sign of tears or fright.

 To my surprise, she was having a great time chatting up all the other girls around her.

 And then she called me silly!  So I finally left feeling a little less nervous for her.

Until I saw the crowd ready to watch the show.  There were so many people that I couldn't find room to sit or stand at the end of the makeshift runway.  So I stood by the models instead.  Can you find David?  He's peeking out from the crowd.  He managed to find a seat so he could record Grace.

 Before we knew it, Grace was up!

 She looked a little nervous nibbling on her fingernails.

 But then Grace marched right out there like she owned that runway!

 And she stopped on the flower just like she was supposed to.

She posed there for a bit until everyone clapped and then she walked off her runway like it was no big deal.  I would have never believed she was nervous and shy and didn't even practice.  She was so sweet and confident.  Just like her Daddy.  I would have been a nervous wreck in her shoes.  But then again, I'm an introvert.   

Here's the video of Grace's first fashion show!

She enjoyed it so much that she said she wanted to do it again. 

Faith's baptism

Today was another very special day.  Faith was baptized.

She wore the same baptism gown that Grace wore.  A good friend and exceptionally talented lady, Angela, made it when Grace was born.  And just like Grace, Faith refused to wear the bonnet so I held it throughout the ceremony.  When the girls are older and get married, the bonnet turns into a handkerchief that they can carry on their wedding day.  And to make it even more sentimental, the beading on the gown and bonnet is from my wedding dress.  This baptism gown is by far the most beautiful dress I have ever seen and it one of my most cherished possessions.  

Here Faith is with her Daddy waiting patiently as she enjoyed the music.

Soon we were called up to the front of the church.

Pappy performed the actual baptism since he is an ordained Presbyterian minister.

Then Granddaddy prayed over her.  He's a minister, too.

How fortunate that both grandfathers were able to take part in the ceremony.

 And here we are with our family.  Such a handsome and happy group.

Seth, Queenie, Hope, Granddaddy, me holding Faith, David holding Grace, Pappy, and MeeMee.

What a special day for all of us.  David and I are so blessed to have such loving families and we are so thankful that both my parents and siblings and David's parents were able to be here with us as we celebrated Faith's first birthday and baptism this weekend. 

Pier fun after Faith's birthday party

After having our fill of cake and presents, we headed to the pier.

Seth was just dying to go fishing.

Watching him throw the cast net is quite amusing.  He actually puts it in his mouth.  Gross!

Seth wasn't the only one who caught something.  Grace caught a Queenie!

And a Hope.

Then MeeMee, Seth, and I all caught a fish at the same time!  Seth and MeeMee with their poles and me with the cast net. 

Soon the sun started to set.

And another wonderful day came to its end.

Faith's 1st birthday party: Cake, presents, and confetti

We started off the party by singing Happy Birthday to Faith.

And let her blow out her candle.

We've been practicing the blowing.

Faith clapped her hands after we sang to her and finally let her dig into the dessert!

Grace helped feed Faith her bee.

Faith thought it was "bee-licious!"

And buzzed her bee around in the air for another bite.

Then it was time to open presents.  Doesn't her little outfit look darling on her?

Grace helped Faith with her presents.

We made quite the mess!

Faith got her very first baby doll.  And she loves it!

And Faith walked around looking for more presents to open.

We gave her this little Queen Bee pull toy.  It's one of her favorites.  She's always liked Grace's "puppy friend" but Grace won't ever let her play with it.

Then it was time for the pinata.

After many tries we finally found the right pull string and out popped the confetti, glowsticks, and such.

I really have a mild obsession with confetti.  I think I may have enjoyed it more than either of my girls.

But the glowsticks were a definite hit.

Both Faith and Grace wore them all over the house.

And played with them for days.

Don't they look so sweet together?  There's just something about cute little bums in ruffled tutus that melts my heart.

Then Grace was kind enough to clean up the mess.  She's a little obsessive about keeping things clean.  Faith is the exact opposite.  Oftentimes Faith will go behind Grace making a big mess out of whatever Grace has just cleaned up.  But this time Queenie held onto Faith to make it easier for Grace to vacuum.