books, friends, & fountains..

on tuesday, amy,  had the idea to head to books-a-million for some book exploration (both of our kids loveeeeee books)...

amy reading to the kidlets

next...we headed to the fountains, which are located right outside b.a.m. (talk about convenient location). ;-)

laura joined us at the fountains...she has two of her four kids in this picture (she's preggie with her 4th). ;-)

the gang in all in their colorful fountain-playing attire

little miss, 'c'...the youngest of amy's three precious kids.

lily trying to stop the flow..

lily realizing the water is pretty chilly..

my other friend, amy, (wow, amy is a lovely, yet popular name here) just recently did a post on her blog of her adorable daughter, MM, at these very same fountains (just on a different day)...see it here.
seriously...MM is precious!

i really am loving my new friends in gulf shores and will miss them dearly when we leave later this summer. i know the kids will miss their friends, too.

but, for now....we will continue to enjoy every moment...as each is a blessing from God.
even when we do leave, i am certain we will keep in touch. plus, when rocky gets his pilot's license (and an airplane)...we will be making weekend trips back here, i am sure. ;-)

what do you know...i caught one!

i caught a wildflower...and a wiggly one, at that!! ;-)

catching wildflowers, especially cute little wiggly ones, like my sweet offspring, can be challenging at times...but i caught one!

i was hoping the "catch" would be leafy, as i owe him a post. (coming up soon, i promise). ;-) little man is super fast and rarely slows down for a "kodak moment", especially when he is chasing and being chased on the playground with friends..love that boy and all that energy. i guess you could also say i didn't quite have the energy to try to catch such a wiggly wildflower at that moment...

anywho..yesterday we decided we would go to the kid's park before the library and this worked out great...we normally go to library story time first, then park second..i like the new order of events..

 i, unfortunately did not have the lovely nikon with me on this day (i feel as if we are joined at the hip most times..okay, cameras do not have hips but you know what i mean). you can usually find me hiding behind the nikon...it's safe there. it's where i like to be.

oh...a random thought is coming. if you know me..you know i love to name things. not just people, but things,too.  in this case i think since i talk about miss nikon so fondly she deserves a name...i will call her, nelly. nelly nikon. ;-)

so...being that the miss nelly nikon was doing what she rarely does (sleeping at home) i snapped a few shots of little lady on the swing with the camera phone..i am determined to take a decent swing shot...it will happen one day with all the practice i get at it, i am certain!

well...one turned out fairly decent...so, it is the picture of the day. ;-)

gotta love all the bruises on little lady's legs (poor sweet girl)...she is as rough and tough as her big brother. nothing holds her back from climbing (and sadly, sometimes falling) like her big brother. ;-)

she is an interesting mix of girlie princess and "indestructible" tomboy. ;-)

so here's the little picture..of the little lady...

i love her happiness captured in this photo!

Living Simply...

 Hello! Well, we are at another end of the week here in Gulf Shores. Life is keeping us pretting busy....

With lots of cleaning, yes...it is my goal to stay on top of the cleaning while we are here. I have heard it said many times that the longer you do something, eventually it becomes a habit...so, I'm trying to start wonderful habits. So far so good.

I'm also thankful for wonderful helpers... 

This colander was quite clean to say the least. She spent at least ten minutes cleaning it.

I am also thankful for this man. I love it when he comes home from work, and love the weekends even more because he is home.

We've also stayed busy going to the library/story time twice a week. We are being spoiled, for sure. We LOVE books and it shows...

Animal crackers make it even more special, wouldn't you say?

Craft times are fun...

So, it's Friday and it's our cleaning day. (I am working on eventually getting all the cleaning done throughout the week and just spot check on Friday, but those are details I am working on..we do lots of cleaning throughout the week already, but I guess I'm talking deep cleaning.) 

So,we are going to get the cleaning done early today and maybe hit up the beach later, and possibly a park, and Books-A-Million to top things off (like I said...we love books).

 I am thankful that we don't have a lot of "things" here in Gulf Shores..I prefer to live simply. In fact, when we return to Chattanooga I will be gutting the house as much as possible. I will be doing some serious Spring cleaning! 

 So, cleaning here in Gulf Shores has been much more manageable, which makes me happy. Having ADD makes it very challenging to stay on top of the cleaning scene if I feel so overwhelmed, so keeping the stuff to a minimum, in addition to spreading out the cleaning throughout the week, like Rocky suggested many moons ago, will help me stay focused.

  Speaking of living simply..check out our simple living room "furniture" set up. 

Love the simplicity of it...really!

Have a wonderful Friday and a blessed Sabbath!

Love, Kelly