Tucker's Baptism

about two weeks ago, we all piled in the car (including my mom) and headed to Raleigh for our sweet nephew's baptism.

the trees were gorgeous, and i'm pretty sure addie's head nearly exploded seeing so many beautiful colors!

i have two words to describe the trip there and back: long drive!

but it was totally worth it!

it was such an honor to be a part of this special weekend to celebrate baby Tucker and be there to witness his baptism and the commitment of Judson and Anna's church to support them and teach him about God's love.

there were grandparents, a great grandparent, a great aunt, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends to celebrate this handsome boy!

anna's mother was so sweet to host a delicious lunch following the service that included this beautiful (and yummy I might add) cake.

tucker got lots of loving on from everyone, but i loved this picture. a beautiful lady and handsome baby!

the weather was perfect; and our girls, along with at least six other cousins, had a blast playing outside!

but what's a party without tarheels cornhole?

my aunt flew in from atlanta

and while our littles weren't too keen on stopping to take a picture, they loved seeing their nana!

tucker's apparently a great little helper

and an even better sport. this kid was surrounded by girls (with at least one fussing at all times) and took it with stride! (love this picture of my mom and her 4 grandchildren!)

he even let Addie hold him!

that is until he'd had enough! so i scooped him back up and loved on him while we headed back inside to his sweet mama.

and while addie loved baby tucker, she absolutely adored aunt anna and uncle judson. i'm pretty sure she would have stayed with them 24/7 had she been given the opportunity!

my brother only planted a few unnecessary things in her head (like showing her food and insisting on me building her a volcano that could erupt...more on that later!),

but it was all worth seeing these two together!

getting to love on this baby boy!

and be with this gorgeous family!

aunt anna, uncle judson, and baby tucker, thank you for including us in this celebration. thank you for spending the weekend with us, helping to entertain our girls, and just loving on them! it was an honor to be a part of this special event; and we loved every minute of our time with you.

"But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

Luke 18:16

Gulf Shores: family time aka picture time!

Our time in Gulf Shores was laid back, relaxing, and enjoyable. We spent time with family on the beach, at Lulu's, and sitting on the balcony listening to the waves. The one request from Papa Ray and Mama Pat was a picture of everyone wearing their favorite team colors. Our family? Bulldogs, Elephants, and Tigers. Everyone else? Elephants, Tigers, and Tarheels. Unfortunately {grin}, the Elephants outnumbered everyone 9 to 6. Notice I said outnumbered...not won! ;)

I know for a fact that it takes a downright miracle to capture an even semi-decent family shot of the five of us.

Try throwing in 6 more adults, another kid and a baby...

AND two dogs!!!   

And it's down right impossible!

I quit trying to transplant heads and move eyes and just kept the moments as they were.

Because that's what it's all about, capturing the moments: the silliness. the complete absurdity (of holding a 25lb baby on each hip for a good 10 minutes!). the tears and the laughter. the smiles and the closeness. the moment.

We started with Pat's daughter and her family and added my dad and Pat (and Bama Girl of course!)

My poor dad was seriously outnumbered here!

I then handed my camera over to Charlene (thank you Charlene and Sara for being such patient, wonderful photographers!), and we added the Root kids and their families.

Squirming toddlers, cranky preschoolers, teary babies, and distracted canines...

And out went the Moseley's and dad so we could grab some shots of my brother and me and our families. By then, my arms were aching; but Anne Perry and Audrey Kate weren't budging. My favorite {outtake} is the first one where I'm desperately trying to rearrange babies and failing miserably!

But I thought this one turned out pretty cute :)

...except Guinness (the dog) got distracted by something on the beach. oh well. :)

I jumped back behind my camera to get a few shots of my absolutely adorably handsome nephew, Tucker, and his beautiful mama and daddy!

But before that, we attempted to grab some of the Root kids, their families, and Papa Ray and Mama Pat.

I will admit though that is has to be the funniest of them all. My dad and Pat calmly smiling (you know: don't look at the kids, look at the camera so when the kids do look, we'll get everyone looking!) but with complete chaos going on behind them! I will admit they were a photographers dream. Us on the other hand...

...we captured the moments.

So Successful it was deemed.

Papa Ray and Mama Pat, thank you for hosting us for the weekend, providing some seriously delicious meals, and creating an enjoyable environment for everyone! We loved spending time with all of you!

Gulf Shores: play time

As you might remember, our family headed down to Gulf Shores about a month ago to visit Papa Ray (my dad) and Mama Pat.

My brother and his wife and their son along with Pat's daughter and her husband and their son also joined us. The weather was gorgeous! The timing was perfect. The food was fabulous. And the time spent with family was priceless.

I'll go ahead and warn you that these next few posts will contain a plethora of pictures. Like an absurd amount of pictures. And an even more absurd amount of the pictures are our girls. Because, well, I was with them 24/7, so naturally, I'd be a little top heavy on pictures of our little ones! But enough of that!

Addie and I started the morning with a walk on the beach to look for shells.

But it didn't take long for us all to hit the beach (pictures to come) and then the pool.

Addie loves "swimming" with her puddle jumper. We will be investing in another couple of those for the baby girls by next summer! I kept the picture on the right bc she was SO far away from us and just as comfortable in the pool as could be! I finally strapped the little girls together, and they had a blast sharing their ducks and floating in the water (supervised of course!).

We we so excited to get to meet baby Tucker! He is almost 4 months old here, and I'm pretty sure he's as big (or bigger) than Addie was at that age! He is absolutely adorable and has the sweetest, squishiest kissable cheeks!!! He was such a good baby, and we loved spending time with Uncle Judson, Aunt Anna, and him.

My brother, Judson, found a crab trap on the bay side of the property. Tyler, Pat's oldest grandson (above left. i pointed my camera at him and without saying anything, that's what i got! love it!), came with us to help bate it with the yuckiest meat patty I've ever seen! We decided it probably wouldn't even disintegrate in the water because it was so overly processed!

But it worked! That night Judson and Tyler went back to find quite the crab! Of course, given that it was from the bay, which was apparently one of the last hurricane's dumping grounds and was sealed up right after the oil spill (so sat stagnant for a while), we didn't opt to eat this crab! Oh, and there was one of him and 15 of us...

Addie thought she was hot stuff riding on the back of Tucker's stroller with Uncle Judson pushing. (notice our blue heron friend who landed on top of the pier pavilion).

But I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. I found Addie sitting on the floor next to baby Tucker being super sweet to him! Love them both!

More from the beach to come!