Seriously....

...I laughed out loud when I saw this! :)

As one of my favorites, Paula {Deen}, would say.....

Happy Fall, Y'all!!!!!

Fall is my favorite time of the year!

The change in the air is magical, and if you don't recognize it you might miss our subtle, fleeting south Florida "fall".

Then again, the pumpkin patches, pumpkin pies, and college football tailgates are good reminders too!

Grandparent's Day

Today was Grandparent's Day at school!

Mimi, Nana, and Grandpa Phil made the trek down to White City to have fun with Daniel at school!


They ate lunch.....

They played......

And after all those grandparents left....the kiddos took good, long naps!

Thank you, Grandpa Phil, for sending pics of the visit! I am so glad you enjoyed yourselves!

Olympics, Here We Come!!!

Thank you to Mrs. Kristen at Tiny Bubbles Aquatic Academy our little man has learned how to swim!!!!!

She taught him the "swim float swim" method of survival swimming.

The swimming lessons were not easy, for Daniel or his chauffers (thank you Papa, Mimi and Nana), but when he finally "got it" he had so much fun swimming and playing with Mrs. Kirsten.

Thank you, Mrs. Kirsten, for your incredible patience! You have been so kind, and we are so grateful!

First Day of School in the Toddler Room!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, after two great weeks of all the love and kisses that his Grammy and Nana could shower over him, last Monday was DAP's first day of school!

The preparation that went into making the day go smoothly was considerable, but the extra morning playtime it affords makes it well worth the late night effort.

Our camera is on the fritz, so I had to use my phone to document the day...please excuse the fuzzy pics.

His food for the day which was packed into his brand new lunchbox:

The happy baby boy with his Da-da. They are crazy about each other...as if you couldn't tell!

I forgot to bring my phone in to take pics when I dropped him off. :(

Mrs. Nancy and Miss Jessica are the teachers in the Toddler Room. DAP already knows and loves them, so his transition, if you could even call it that, was a breeze!

I sat him at the miniature table in a miniature chair and put his breakfast in front of him....and he stayed seated and ate....I couldn't believe it! I was so impressed! He even smiled and waved goodbye when I left!

DAP's supply list included a nap mat. I had quietly giggled to myself whenever I would think about Mrs. Nancy and Miss Jessica wrangling all the toddlers that have never napped on a map. Guess what?! There was no wrangling! They all napped on their mats, and they napped well (which is not usually D's style, especially at school)! I was speechless!

There was so much prep involved in getting the family out of the door that I totally forgot that I wanted to bring a first-day gift to the teachers. Thanks, in part to my friend Michelle and in part to Pinterest, I was able to throw these cute little gifts together.

They are glass mason jars, filled with gumballs, and tied with a ribbon. The note thanked his teachers and mentioned how the school year was going to be a "ball"! Not bad given my 45 minute timeline! :)

I remembered my phone when I picked D up, so I had him pose with Miss Jessica (left) and Mrs. Nancy (right). I had picked him up and given him 'lots of love, and then handed him back over, so he was not happy, lol.

The first day of school was a success! DAP handled the Toddler Room like a champ! His comfort level in his new environment is no doubt due to the interest that his teachers have taken in him in he past.

Thank you Mrs. Nancy and Miss Jessica! This school year is going to be a ball! ;)

I think I blinked....

....because

{He went from this}

{to this}

in less than 0.5 seconds!

Wow is all I can say....

....my little man finished his first "school year"! He had a wonderful group of ladies to love him and see him through. I am so blessed to have been able to visit Daniel every day to feed him and while there create beautiful friendships with his teachers.

Here's Daniel on his last day of school:

{Mimi Sheila, Mrs. Barb and The Doodle}

And since I can't pass up a good before and after opportunity, here is the first day of school pic:

{Mrs. Barb, Mrs. Grace, Mrs. Maryann and The Doodle Bug}

You ladies are so special! Thank you all for loving our baby as if he were your own!

Daniel and I are looking forward to stopping in to say, "Hi" in the mornings before school starts!

Another Bimini weekend

It started off with a very, very long 6 plus hour delay at the airport for DAP and I. He was on the mend from a stomach virus, so his desire to be super cuddly and sleep on my chest made the wait so much easier to bear.

Our airline decided not to fly and arranged for us (all 6 passengers, lol) to fly with another airline...that flew out of another airport. Transportation was even arranged for us....two of their employees, the mechanic and the check-in guy, were going to drive us to the other airport.

Conviently enough they had a carseat to accomodate my (and Daniel's) special needs. At this point, Justin was having a near melt-down because we were supposed to be in Bimini hours ago and we were being transported by young guys in their personal vehicles.

I wasn't particularly-excited about it either, but after waiting for hours on end, I was determined to get to Bimini on Friday instead of driving two hours home and then two hours back in the morning to catch another flight.

After we were under way with the mechanic I caught a look at his long and dirty fingernails and started to understand the dread in Justin's voice when I was orignially telling him the plan about our ghetto transportation and situation in general. I began thinking to myself that "This is the stuff headlines are made of....."

I felt some sense of security that we had a man, besides the long-fingernailed mechanic, in our car. I asked if he had any kids, and he told me that he had 21 children. I was positively stunned! He looked very young for having 21 kids. I prodded him further and he told me he was 59. Then I had to ask about grandchildren; I was dying to know. He didn't act exactly proud when he told me that he had 69 grandchildren. That was not a typo...he has 69! So, a guy that is 59 with 21 kids and 69 grandkids has to have enough energy to fend off an axe-murderer with long, dirty fingernails, right? That's what I told myself anyway...

We arrived at the other airport and waited there for about 2 hours until we were able to board the plane. Thankfully we arrived in Bimini just before the sun went down.

Everyone was excited to finally have us there, and our arrival calmed a lot of nerves.

Daniel went straight to bed and slept soundly until the morning.

There were awesome thunderstorms with loud, rumbling thunder and bright, blinding lightening that night. The rain continued in the morning, but as soon as it skies cleared we headed out in the boat.

Here's a pic of the boys. Justin, Toby and Daniel (he's thrilled about the life jacket, can't you tell?):

Here's a pic of the little Dapper Doodle with his Daddy! That's Uncle Ben is in the background.

I couldn't resist a posting this pic of DAP's little feetsies! Thanks for the great pic, Toby!

I love the "cheese" in this picture:

That afternoon we headed to the Bimini Big Game Club to try their Goombay Smashes. Very yummy, just ask these 4!

Bright and early Sunday morning Justin, DAP and I headed to church. We love the early morning ferry ride, and the smells on North Bimini in the morning are the best. You can smell breakfast cooking and bread baking....much better than the standard hot-beer-from-the-night-before smell that starts wafting about midday.

Can you see the smile on D's face and the wind in the back of his hair? He enjoys the ferry, and on this particular ride he was dancing to the gospel music that the captain was playing.

When mentioning D's whimpy mood on our departure day, I failed to mention that he got his second tooth that day which contributed to his sad mood! If you look very carefully in the picture below, you can see the new to tooth! He was showing it off before our little adventure to play at the beach.

The fourth of July on South Bimini is a big deal, so are graduations! So on Sunday we put on our party shoes and headed over to a friends house to celebrate their son's graduation from high school. There were so many people and the food was SO GOOD!

Here's a picture of the whole crowd before the party. Justin, D and I are on the left, Uncle Ben in behind D, grandma is next to me, and Toby and Shelly are on the right.

We headed to the fireworks after we left the graduation party and put Daniel to bed. The show was AMAZING! It was a little scary, at times, because they were going off very close to the ground, and a few shot out at the boats anchored up for the show, but other than a few close calls the show went off without a hitch!

We were sad to have to leave the next day. We quietly packed our bags and prepared for the flight home the next morning.

Howard was kind enough to fly us home. He's such a good pilot. His landing was so smooth that D slept right through it!

So, Daniel got another stamp in his passport, and we're hoping that he gets a few more before the summer is over.

Happy.....

..... {Belated} 4th of July!!!!

Kate Remake!!!!

Justin, DAP and I were shopping at Target the other day when we found this little beauty.





She was so cute, just hanging there on the rack amidst all the other cute-but-not-as-cute outfits. We couldn't pass it up...obviously we don't have a use for it, but little Jane Elizabeth, our cousin, does!






Isn't the back adorable with those criss-cross straps?!


We had to do away with the decorative flower that didn't match too well.


And then we took it to our friend at 60 Minute Cleaners to get it monogrammed in light blue. She used a super scrolly font that I just love!

And here it is, right before we shipped it to sweet Little Jane with a sweet note from her Dapper Doodle cuz!

Won't that be a fantastic trip to the mailbox for a mommy on maternity leave!

Daniel's First Fishing Trip

Papa invited us to go out for a fishing trip on the Irish Jig a few weekends ago, and we were so happy to accept! We couldn't wait for a day on the water!

Daniel slept while we were running, but when the boat stopped, he woke up...and stayed up.

We had a double-header of dolphin as soon as our lines hit the water! I love seeing Dolphin in the water....their colors are striking!

At one point Daniel was so tired that he was incosolable. I had to sit down and convince him that it was time to sleep.

He finally gave in and I laid him on the bean bag and hung a towel over him for some shade.

He slept very, very sound for about 40 minutes....which wasn't quite long enough for his Mommy's liking.

It wasn't long after he awoke that we turned the boat around and headed home.

When we got home we feasted on fresh dolphin and daquiris that Papa made!!! Not a bad way to end the day!

Thanks for the trip Papa! It's not one that we will soon forget! ;)

Cake anyone?

Daniel's first birthday was May 2nd. Since his actual birthday day was Monday, and we had gotten home from the Bahamas the day before, we decided to have his birthday party on Mother's Day!

Here are pictures from the cake smash part of the party....

He wasn't quite sure what to do with the cake, so I tried to show him that it was edible.

His friends at the party were hanging very close to the cake. They were very interested about how Daniel was going to eat the cake.....and very happy to help show him how, lol

Getting the hang of it...

His friends helping....

I love this pic because Jenna was Daniel's main helper and it shows her in action. Also, you can see Turner's little finger in the blue dot on the top of the cake; he touched every blue dot....on this cake and the adult cake.

The proud parents with the birthday boy!

On the way to the bathtub....

The "Post-Cake-Smash" Photo Shoot

As promised, here are the pics from the photo shoot after the photo shoot, lol!

Don't you just want to snuggle and kiss that sweet, clean little guy?!

This is how you know that it's time to quit taking pictures. What a sad little boo-boo face!

Krista, you're the best! Thank you so much for the beautiful memories! :)