miss 2 is now 2 and a half

oh.my.gosh

this girl is a hoot.

and has quite the imagination.

i'm totally loving this stage.

not so much loving the part where she malls her little brother half to death.

(i sure do pray he makes it through his first year of life)

or the part when i'm constantly telling her, "no layla", "stop layla", "be soft layla"

but totally loving the part where she says the funniest little things.

has such adult conversations with me, or at least tries.

or absolutely loves that she wants to help me with everything, including doing my hair.

i could have my hair played with all day!

 this is where her imagination comes in.

the little balled up wipe on the left is her pet chi chi. and the rock on the right is her turtle.

she'll ask me to pet them softly and to hold them carefully.

she'll even tell me to be quiet when they're napping.

(don't worry, i give her a new wipe everyday to call her pet chi chi)

 she loves her little friend brooklyn.

there is not one day that goes by when she doesn't ask to either go see her of have her come over.

i love this pic of them both in their undies.

 she's quite good at trying to be a momma herself.

poor brighton and marx.

whenever she holds them she'll try and through them up on her shoulder and burp them.

oh she'll rock them back in forth

(in not the most smooth motion)

and tell them to, "shhh shhh shhh.."

even when they're sound asleep.

and yes, i know you're all thinking, "does she ever dress her child?"

i do.

sometimes.

 but it's so hot here in the south.

you'd only understand if you lived here.

if i could, i'd walk around in my undies all day too. (:

yesterday..

was a good day.

wendi text me at about 7:45AM and told me she was taking the kids to kamper park before the heat index got up to 105 degrees. i rushed into the kitchen to tell layla to hurry and eat her breakfast so i could get her dressed and do her hair so we could go play with brooklyn.

she said as serious as could be in her cute little voice, "but mommy, i already did my hair!"

of course.. what was i thinking?

we thought it might stay overcast for us at the park since we've had pretty rainy weather around here.

wrongo!

the sun came out and about fried us like eggs.

and to add to that, fire ants were everywhere.

have i ever mentioned what those things will do to me?

if i get bit on the foot, my foot swells up and i look like i have that elephant disease.

it's wonderful.



after an hour of wendi and i complaining to each other about how hot we were we packed up the girls and headed to chick-fi-a instead. it was much nicer to visit in the AC!

but while at the park this is what the boys did...

they practically bathed in their own sweat, poor guys.

marx finally woke up and started to fuss, so that's when we headed out!

funny story:

while we were in chick-fi-la, wendi and i were feeding our little fellas.

brooklyn and layla were playing, when all of the sudden layla comes jumping out of the slide and says,

"momma, i have to go potty!"

before i could get marx off, and myself covered up, layla was butt naked, standing in the cented of chick-fil-a's play place. i was mortified and probably bright red.

wendi reassured me that she is only 2...

{sigh}

mobile pics

i'm always snapping pics with my phone, then completely forget about them.

today i was going through them and sent a few to my pic folder.

they're to cute to not blog about!

 {i love the morning time with my children. the mornings that i don't wake up at the break of down i put them both in bed with me and snuggle until Layla starts begging for oatmeal. this morning was good. love those smiles.}

 {mr. man loves his baths.}

 {not so much his carseat, but can't really tell here...}

 {we went to picayune last weekend. his papa is so proud. papa preston to be exact. he's one of the great men Marx is named after. lucky little fello}

 {hanging out with mama one afternoon while sister was napping. i love his little cheeks he's developing.}

{layla will say, "look mama, i'm feeding my baby booby juice!" priceless and adorable!}

we love this little man

 {first sunday to church}

{would much rather have this than his binkie}

totally has a way about doing this too you...

i laid him down to change his diaper one morning...

he rolled over like this and went back to sleep.



just perfect (:

my flower bed

i know..

you're probably thinking, "how boring! a post about her flower bed?"

but honestly, seeing these beautiful, colorful flowers each day as i pull into our garage puts a

smile on my face.

flowers just make me happy.

my wonderful husband got our flower bed ready for me over mother's day weekend.

then my mom and i picked out all the plants and planted them.

i don't know what i would've done without her.

actually i do know...

i probably wouldn't have any plants yet!

now i just need somekind of shrub to put against the house.

marx - newborn

i snapped these pics the first week of marxs' life.

i had to do it over a span of 2 or 3 days because i would make him so upset trying different poses.

 i'd finally give up and comfort him.

he did not want to be naked, and he did not want to be in any unusual positions.

he wanted to be nice and snug in his blankie.

there's just nothing like a sweet little newborn.

i've been working on this post since tuesday morning...

that's how crazy my life has been the past 4 days!

adding an infant to our routine has thrown us off a bit, but i'm trying to get it all together.

i have survived it though.

4 days of me being alone with my children + one of those nights being alone without hubby...

i did it!!

my house is still standing (although not as spotless as it usually is) and we're all still breathing.

out of those 4 days, i only managed to get mascara on one day, and dressed another.

kids are so demanding...

i actually looked like a mom this week!

anyway, a little catch up..

the past month has been a blast, and we've been super busy with family and friends.

my mom arrived on april 28th, just in time for marx to arrive.

she stayed until may 21st and was an absolute angel sent from above.

she helped me out with soooo much, including getting our Layla potty trained.

(she's such a big girl now!)

i am so blessed to have such a wonderful mother.

she's beautiful too..

don't you think?



the day my mom left was rough.

i tried to keep it together because layla had a birthday party to be too,

and we had our nieces' graduation dinner along with her graduation.

i finally broke down and just cried, then felt much better.

actually i cried most of the morning.

the next day my sister arrived with her husband and 3 kids!

we had an excellent week.

monday-

we took the kids to dippy bops, a fun place for them to run, jump, and slide till they can't run, jump and slide anymore. then for dinner we headed over to a great burger joint called plaid rhino.

tuesday-

we got up early to take the kids to the zoo before it hit 100 degrees. we all still about died of heat stroke at 10:00 in the morning, but we still had fun.

wednesday-

we took the kids to lynn meadows discovery center. if you live in hattiesburg or surrounding areas, take your kids. you'll both love it. after that we went to the beach, ate lunch and let the kids play in the great gulf of mexico. (the water was so warm, makes me really nervous for hurricane season this year.) that evening we took them to the shed bbq joint. delicious!

thursday-

it stormed most of the morning so we stayed inside. when it cleared up we took a trip to the mall and did a little shopping. for dinner, i made them gumbo.

friday-

i took them to a yummy little cafe called newks. after lunch we met up with lance at the house, got the kids in their swim gear and took them swimming in cane break. when it finally cooled down a bit, we took them all fishing, every single person, including me, caught a fish. we then ended the night with cuevas fish house.

saturday-

lance and derrick got up early and went bass fishing. in the mean time i was able to talk sami into staying one more night. (i actually think they had planned to stay one more night anyway, cause we are that cool to hang out with.) when lance and derrick finally got back home, around 1:30, sami, zadie and i took off to get a frappucino and get our toes done. it was wonderful. we then took them to dinner at a yummy mexican joint called del sol with greg, amanda, denton, and kelly. it was a great night, ending with ice cream from bop's frozen custard.

sunday morning they took off around 8:30. me, lance, layla, and marx were exhausted and could barley move off the couch to get ready for church. actually lance was the only one that could. me and the kids stayed home and tried to relax UNTIL lance sends me a text that says, "hobgood and jenny are on their way, don't panic." ah...i panicked, big time. luckily i had 4 hours to get my house together, along with myself and the kids. they stayed sunday night. lance and hobgood went fishing monday morning while jenny and myself relaxed and watched say yes to the dress episodes with the kids.

so as you can see, may was quite the month. it was filled with so much excitement, that i don't even remember it passing us by. here's just a few pics, in no particular order. cause lets face it... i just don't have the time to sort them right now.

last few pics are taken with my phone, not the best quality..

{the shed}

{del sol}