Abbie Grace, Flower Girl Extraordinare!

Eden and Abbie at the Reception
Abbie, Daddy, NiNi and Jean (right before the fire)
Eden and Hunter dancing

Phillip and Tracie, proud parents of the flower girl

NiNi and PawPaw

Daddy and Daughter

At the Reception

Abbie Grace and Hunter

The Flower Girl
Peeking in the church before the ceremony
Abbie and Eden
Mommy, She's a bride!



This past weekend Abbie Grace was in the wedding of Kendall Bollen and Keith Jones. She did so well, we were so proud of her! Kendall was just beautiful as were all of her bridesmaids but for me, Abbie stole the show. She had such fun getting ready for the big day. We pulled her hair up and put her little bow under the bow and it looked great. She walked up with a little boy named Hunter and they were absolutely precious. The wedding and reception were great. So sweet and special for Kendall and Keith. We just honored to be a small part of their special day. We so enjoyed seeing so many good friends at the reception... the Bextermueller's, all the Bollens (of course) and Jean Grimes. Such a special night! One interesting event of the night was when Abbie spotted a fire on the table. Toward the end of the evening, Abbie was getting really tired and she was actually in the middle of a "disciplinary moment," sitting in Daddy's lap having a conversation about sharing her time with Eden when she pipped up about seeing a fire. We thought that she was maybe just talking about seeing the fire trucks or something but she was insistent that her Daddy needed to take care of the fire. Phillip said, where do you see fire Abbie and she said, right there on the table. Sure enough, we turn around and a napkin had caught on fire and it was spreading on the table. Phillip jumped up and snuffed it out. He later said, he would have poured water on it but all the stuff on the table was wine or alcohol of some sort and that wouldn't have helped anything. So, Abbie managed to save the day. But please don't call her a hero...it embarasses her! Enjoy the pictures of my sweet girl and firefighter in training!!

Destin Commons Fountain~ Long Version

This is video of Abbie running around at the Fountain area at Destin Commons. I realize that it's sideways...I forgot to turn it around... If you are heading down to the area and you have small ones with you, I highly recommend doing this. It's FREE and it is a blast, especially in the evening when things have cooled off...There's a Johnny Rocket's for great burgers, Hard Rock Cafe and an ice cream store...lots of good treats and good fun!!!

Destin Common's Fountain

Florida~ Early Week

The Durham Family

The Fam...
Mommy and Babies
Daddy and the Durham Darlings...
Heading home...gotta stop by the Donut Hole...a tradition...Note the powdered bavarian cream donut in my hand, I've ended every trip the same way since I was about 10 years old....;)

Dolphin's at the Gulfarium

Elaina and Abbie at the Seal Show
Aubrie at the Seal Show -- yes, she was crying...time to exit the stroller
Swimming in the ocean...Aubrie's favorite!
Mom and the Girls

Abbie Grace

Aubrie Faith
Daddy and his girls, Walking into the Sunset
Exhausted before dinner
Daddy and Aubrie at the Gulfarium

Family Portrait

Abbie's Sand Castle
Beach Baby

Walking in the Water

Aubrie and Mommy

Abbie Grace, Destin June 2008

Underwater Mermaid

Under the Table and Dreaming...

At the Destin Commons Fountain

Ella & Abbie
Ella and a very wet Abbie Grace
Super Powers Activate...

Fishgirl in a Barrel




At the top of Joe's Crab Shack Playground
The Mom's
Goofy Girls
Is it nap time yet?

So I am aware that I am shamefully behind in my blogging. June was a hectic month at our house but we are back in the normal groove now and I hope to update the blog accordingly. As you can tell by the post title, we have been to Florida. Oh, how I miss the beach already. I am trying to swing a trip back in August but we'll just have to wait and see about that... The trip down to Destin was great. The kids were wonderful in the car which was a blessing (thanks in large part to having Little Einstein DVD's for Brie and Alvin and the Chimpmunks for Abbie). We stopped a couple of times for them to get out and run around and still managed to make it there in time for dinner at Joe's Crab Shack the first night. Our friends the Pengelly's came down with us and we really enjoyed our time with them. The girls played well together and we had the chance to have a lot of fun with Lee and Melody. In case anyone was wondering, Lee is a fabulous griller...in fact, he might qualify as a grill master but that's another story. We spent our days hanging out at the pool and spent some time at the beach as well. The weather was absolutely perfect all week and we all took full advantage. Abbie came a long way with her swimming...from being timid with the water to jumping in all by herself (still with floaties) and getting her head all the way under the water. Huge step for her... We went to Destin Commons and ate at Hard Rock and then played in the fountain and on the playground there. Abbie loves running around there! We also did a day at the Gulfarium with Ken and Becky Simon and crew. We had so much fun with them!! Aubrie has perfected the art of crawling now and started standing up while holding onto furniture while we were at the condo. She explored every inch of the floor including the area beside and behind the couch...she's so quick, she'd get into a tight spot before I could get to her... The girls also loved being in the ocean which really surprised me, especially with Aubrie. She LOVED the ocean. Abbie was not so into the ocean at the start of the week but by the end of the week she was diggin being in the waves and floating... Early in the week we were out in the ocean and saw the huge fish in the video. I promise it was bigger than my head~ it was HUGE In all the years I've done a Flordia trip, I've never seen a fish like this that was this big up by the beach. He was just content to swim around and hang out with the people in the water. Wild!!

There's just nothing like a Florida vacation...Hope you all enjoy the pictures and Video!!

Don't make me CRAWL!!

So... it's finally happened...Aubrie is mobile! This video was actually taken about 10 days ago so she's going a little slow but I assure you that now she's really moving! It's a whole new world for her and it's a constant "pick-up" battle for us. She's like a little vacuum cleaner and everything that she finds she puts in her mouth. Thank goodness I took the infant CPR course and I know how to "sweep" a mouth. I've done it no less than 10 times with her already. She truely tests my ability to keep the house clean...those of you who really know me know that this is a constant challenge for me, the slob at heart. ~~ Abbie is loving having her sister move around the house. She thinks it's great fun when Brie crawls over to where she is...it's always announced with a "Mom! She's doing it!!" Makes me laugh everytime. Penny the cat is once again tortured by yet another human whose main purpose and motivation for movement is to grab her tail and pull it. Luckily the cat is still quicker than the kids but she's getting old and one of these days they are going to catch her...she still has claws in the back paws...I guess they might learn that the hard way...

~Sisters~

Abbie, Eden and Aubrie
Aubrie, Tracie, Abbie, Eden, Brooke & Wendy
Abbie (4), Eden (11) and Aubrie (10 1/2 months)
Last weekend my sisters were in town and we had a great time hanging out together. It's unusual for us to all be in one place at the same time anymore. Brooke and her daugher, Eden, live in Champaign, IL and Wendy is in Arizona. They are both so far away...I really miss them but it's great when they are here. We took the opportunity to celebrate Father's Day for our Dad while all of his girls were together. We gave him a picture of all of us together for his office at work. We had a hard time coming up with a gift for the man that has everything but this was nice because we realized that there wasn't a family shot of "just the girls" that included Aubrie. So the picture above is of all of us for our Dad. The other pictures are practice shots that I took with Eden and the girls. Abbie just adores Eden. She's like an Eden shadow when she's in town. Isn't it nice to be so loved!