Welcome Baby Brodie!

Morgan had her little boy on Saturday, May 21. Brodie Layne Alford was born about 7:00 weighing 7 lbs. 4 oz. & was 20 inches long. He is such a sweetie! We got to meet him over Memorial Day weekend & he is adorable. Natalee loves "cousin Bodie". Congratulations Morgan!

Class of 2011

Well he did it. Dustin finally graduated high school. It was just 11 years ago I was in his shoes. Mother's day was baccalaureate services. They did a short ceremony since it was so stinking hot. Monday, May 16 was graduation. I am so proud of my little brother! Now he is getting ready to go to college next month. He is going to a local university on a baseball scholarship, where he will be the manager for the baseball team. Congratulations Class of 2011!


Uncle Dustin & Natalee


walking across the stage to get his diploma


Me, Dustin, Natalee & Terry


Dustin & Rachael

Mother's Day

Hope everyone enjoyed their Mother's Day! I know I certainly did! Terry got off work that morning & we loaded up & went to Stewart. We went to church with The Mitchell's. On the way to church, Terry gave me my gift. I got this:



I LOVE it!! The first book I bought was The Help. Ok, ok...it wasn't The Help...it was Dora! But The Help was the first one I bought me!

After church, we stopped in Eupora for lunch. We ate at some mom & pop restaurant that we had a very bad experience at! We vowed to never eat there again! Three of us ordered hamburger steak. All three were burnt black! One asked for no gravy...we all got gravy! I got Natalee a grilled cheese & fries. You would have thought they would have brought that out first....nope! It was the last thing to come out! Anywho, we headed back to Stewart to visit for a few minutes.

We finally headed back to Carrollton. Dustin had baccalaureate that afternoon. It lasted about an hour, then we all headed back to mom's for supper. She cooked the best pork chops ever!

We gave mom a hibiscus tree, Irene a rose bush & Delma a monogrammed make up bag. They all seemed to have loved their gifts! Happy Mother's Day to each of you! We love you!

Sorry...don't have any pics to share! I didn't get a pic of me & Natalee this year.

Happy Easter!!

Hope everyone had a great Easter! I know we sure did! On April 17, we did Easter with the Mitchell's. They kept Natalee all wekend that weekend. We met them at their house after church that day. They gave Natalee a chocolate bunny. We hid a few plastic eggs for Natalee to find and she had a blast!







Later that week, daddy & Irene came over. We celebrated daddy's birthday and hid a few eggs inside. They brought Natalee a few super cute outfits for Easter.
On the 23rd, we went to mom's to dye our eggs. Natalee had so much fun! I got her a dye kit that was a roller with some "paint". She loved it. Her hands were all different colors by the time she got finished. That kit didn't really last long, so she also go to enjoy the real dying stuff. She would put it in one color, then decide she didn't want that color, she wanted a different color and try to take the egg out. We had to tell her several times, that she had to leave it in the dye in order for it to be a pretty color. She finally got the hang of it.





The Easter bunny stopped by the house & left a few presents for Natalee to find the next morning. The silly rabbit forgot to hide a few eggs in the house, but thank goodness he didn't forget the rest of the goodies! Since Terry had to go to work Easter Sunday, we got up early so he could see Natalee's face when she saw her basket. She got three adorable outfits, bubbles & all the accessories, a swim suit, a new cup, two movies (Tangled & Yogi Bear), a slinky, a Pop-on-Pals ferris wheel, a food set for her kitchen, sunglasses, sidewalk chalk & a basket full of candy! Whew, that sounds like a lot of stuff! It really wasn't though.





After we Terry left for work, Natalee & I got ready for the day. We stopped by Debbie's to see what Katie Lauren & Ryan got. They gave Natalee a basket with a purse, bracelets, stickers & some candy in it. A little while later, we went to mom's. They had her a basket with a guitar, microphone & tamborine in it. She LOVES that guitar! She goes around playing it, singing in her microphone. Her favorite song to sing is "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. Not sure why she likes that song, but if I have to listen to it too many more times, I think I'm gonna scream! That afternoon, Natalee & I went with Debbie, Shane, Ryan, Katie Lauren & Granny to Randy & Dianna's. They had a huge egg hunt with many kids. They let the youngest kids go first. After they found 3 eggs, the next set went & so on & so forth. Natalee found 23 eggs! Every child got a prize! The two who found the most eggs, got money & everyone else got some type of toy. Natalee got a big jug of bubbles & a bug shaped wand. We then went to moms & had an egg hunt with Carter. Natalee had so much fun that day! The whole family ate supper at moms. Natalee was so worn out, she passed out early that night & slept all night!






Hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!

You get a line...

And I'll get a pole! Bass Pro Shops had a fishing tournament in Grenada a couple of weeks ago. That Saturday morning they held a kids fishing rodeo. This was Natalee's first time to fish. She had a blast! She only caught one fish, but she still had fun. She had a Barbie fishing pole & all she wanted to do was throw it out & reel it in.

Cowgirl Up!

March 12 was Roger's birthday. After Morgan's baby shower, we met up with the Mitchell's at McAnerney's in McCarley. Afterwards, we went to the rodeo that was in town. They had a children's rodeo before the real rodeo. One of the activites was a stick horse race. At first, Natalee didn't want anything to do with the stick horse. After a few minutes, she decided she wanted to ride it. She was the youngest one out there, but she had a blast. To this day, she still talks about riding the stick horse. I got a few pics of her riding but they are all dark & kind of blurry.


Getting ready to go!

The rodeo was great. They usually always are. The clown of course was the most entertaining part though! Roger bought Natalee a trick rope. She was hilarious trying to get it to do right! By the end of the night, Natalee's white shirt was brown! She spilt coke on it & got dirt all over it. All in all, we had a great night!






On a side note...sorry I've been a bad bloggy friend. My computer at home is finally fixed so hopefully I can get caught up!

A Baby Shower

Saturday we had a baby shower for Morgan. She is expecting a little boy, Brodie Layne, in May. She is doing the room in jungle/safari so we went with that as the theme for the shower. Brandi made the cake.





Morgan got lots of goodies! She got some of the cutest clothes I've ever seen for a boy & all the things she needs to get started on his nursery. It's going to be so cute! Good luck during the next 2 months Morgan! We love you & can't wait for little Brodie Layne to get here!

Chuck E Cheese

Terry, Brandi & I took Natalee, Katie Lauren & Ryan to Chuck E Cheese last weekend (March 6). We went to Southaven this time. It was a lot nicer than the one in Tupelo. We got there about 12/12:30 & left between 3/3:30. We all had lots of fun! Natalee didn't like Chuck E. though. She keeps calling him a "stupid mouse". Not real sure where she got that from. Here are a few pics from our day!


Natalee & BB


Racing


Bowling


Feeding the frog


Riding the horse


Two worn out girls!

Just Some Pics from February!

Not much really happened in February, but I wanted to share some pics of Natalee. Hope you enjoy!


Sittin' in her baby doll's playpen, drinking koolaid & watching tv...


Playing in her kitchen!


Natalee took her shirt off then a few minutes later put it back on. Notice anything wrong with it??? Inside out & backwards!


Rockin' her baby doll on her horse


Blowing bubbles at Carter's birthday party

Taste of Soup

The first Saturday of February, the Carrollton-North Carrollton Library hosted the Taste of Soup. Last year, individuals made different types of soup for everyone to try. This year, they had different area restaurants make their soups. The two winning soups from last year came back this year too. They had 2 different types of veggie soups, one tasted like ketchup & the other had way too much seasonings & was not very good. They had a wonderful chili! It was the best chili I had ever tasted. They had a Crawfish & Corn Chowder & a Broccoli & Cheese soup. I'm not much on crawfish or broccoli so I didn't try these two, but several people said they were good. They also had Spicy Black Bean soup which was really good & not really that spicy. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but I'll have to add them later, when I get to the cookbook. The two winners from last year were Chicken & Cheese soup which is great, and a Peaches n' Cream soup. The chicken soup tastes like chicken pot pie & the peach one...well I didn't eat it, but mom really liked it. I think you can substitute the peaches for whatever your favorite fruit may be (strawberries, blueberries, oranges?) and make it to your liking. Everyone voted on their favorites from the new soups this year. To vote, you had to put money into the jars in front of your favorite soup & whoever had the most money won. The top two winners will be back next year. The crawfish soup came in first and I believe the chili came in second.

The next week I made a pot of the chili & Terry loved it. He said it was the best he had ever eaten & he's not a big chili person. It made a big pot though, so be prepared for leftovers or have company over when you make it! If you want any of the recipes I mentioned above, leave a comment & I will email the recipes to you. I do not have them on hand at the moment, so it would either be tonight or tomorrow before I can get them to you!