Easter with Shamu!!!

The week before Easter the kids had an Easter Program at school that the parent's were invited to. Being the amazingly organized mother I am, I purchased their plastic Easter eggs for the easter egg hunt the week before since I worked on Monday and I knew the easter egg hunt was on Tuesday and the program for parent's was on Thursday....or so I thought. At work on Monday at about 5pm I got an e-mail from Jackson's teacher reminding the parents to dress the kids in their Easter clothes for the program THE NEXT DAY!!! I hadn't even gotten them clothes yet, I thougt it was good I got the eggs ahead of time!! I got off owrk at about 7:15 and made an emergency run to one of my favorite places, TARGET!! I ended up finding them some pretty cute clothes, so I was happy....Thank you Mrs. Freeman for the reminder :)


The kids Program was ADORABLE! I am turning into such a mushy mommy, when the kids started walking out and the music was playing, I got all choked up when I saw Jackson. He looked like such a big boy, you could see him scanning the parent's looking for me and when he saw me, this HUGE smile came out! He is growing up way too fast. He loved being in the program, I thought he would be more of the shy one and Leah would be our little ham, but she was kind of overwhelmed and Jackson just loved it. Jackson and one of his best buds Shane walking behund him. Anytime he tells a story about Shane, he has to preface it with, "Shane, the one who has plenty of curly hair." We went to dinner at Scott's parents house the other night and Grandma must have said "plenty" ten times, so I think that is where Jackson picked up his favorite vocabulary word. He uses it for everything example: "Well, Mommy, I have had plenty of my vegetables," or "Mommy, you have given me plenty of kisses." He is so darn cute! He is getting really good at sounding out words, he does it all day long and if you give him a letter he gives you all these examples of words that start with those letters.

Here is when he saw me and my mom. It was so nice to spend some quality time with my mom, I am going to miss her so much.

Leah, a little apprehensive walking in.

She looks so darn cute in her Easter dress

Jackson, singing his little heart out

Leah just doesn't know how she feels about all these people staring at her

Notice the girl in pink behind jackson that is crying, she cried the ENTIRE program and I swear she was the oldest one up there!! Jackson said, she was hurting my ears

After the program, Mamaw went with us to IHOP for a brunch. This is Leah blowing kisses as we leave school...there is the little ham we all love!

Pretty girl

Jackson took a pic of me and Leah at IHOP

Then he had to get one of Mamaw and Leah. The kids were so good, they just sat there and colored while my mom and I talked for over an hour and caught up on what was going on in our lives. Sometimes I really miss my mommy time :(

On Saturday morning, Scott and I packed up the kids and headed to San Antonio for the weekend. When Scott was training to be a medic for the National Guard, he was stationed in San Antonio and it has always remained one of our favorite places. I was in college at Oklahoma State University, but would find a way to visit him there every weekend I could. We made so many amazing memories there, we love going back!! This time we stayed closer to Sea World and not right on the Riverwalk like we usually do. The hotel we stayed at was perfect. He had a great pool for the kids, and that's ALL they wanted to do. Jackson has turned into quite the little fish! He would jump in the pool and then have Scott and I judge, he told us "Thumb down if it's a bad jump, 1 thumb up if it's just ok, and 2 thumbs up if it is just perfect." We played this game for several hours :)

The Easter Bunny found Jackson and Leah at the hotel. The kids were very excited when they got up to explore their baskets

Jackson, already with a sucker in his mouth at 8am and playing a video game, Leah eyeing his gifts from his basket

Leah put her flower hair bows in her serious bed head

Leah posing for the camera

Daddy showing his gifts from his Easter basket....the week before we left, Scott hurt his back playing in his Spring basketball league and the Easter bunny got him heating pads for his back...I think the Easter bunny was calling him OLD!!!! He also got Jenga!!! Love that game

Leah has several of her hair bows on, her necklaces and is painting her nails...yay for MOMMY!

The kids also got backpacks from the easter bunny and the kids LOVED them. They had to wear them the rest of the weekend. Leah, without my knowledge, filled her's with her easter candy to bring to Sea World. It was an 85 degree day and Leah had CHOCOLATE in her backpack! She is such a mess! Even when the kids got out of the bath that night, they put their backpacks on when they were naked and told us they were on a hike and ran around the hotel room :)

Going to the Sea Lion show with their backpacks....so stinkin cute!! This was their favorite show!!

The kids got to feed the Sea Lions before the show, here is the Sea Lion smiling at us trying to get a fish

Here is one waiting open-mouthed for the kids to drop the fish

Jackson feeding the Sea Lions

Leah is like mommy, she didn't know if she wanted to touch the dead fish

With their Daddy

jackson rode his first rollercoaster with Daddy while we were there!!! He was so excited!! He called Papaw right when we got off to tell him. Leah and I waited on the side so I could take pictures...this is when I discovered Leah's candy stash in her backpack! She was sitting in the stroller, breaking out piece of candy after piece of candy!

Jackson and Daddy waiting to get on the ride

Jackson and Scott are in the last row

Jackson when he got off the ride....he said, "That was AWE-SOME!!!!"

Leah and her Daddy walking into the Shamu show...they loved it!! I love her little chubby hand in this pic :)

Ludlow Family...Leah with a sucker from her backpack candy stash

Shamu!!

When we got home from Sea World we let the kids swim for a couple of hours and then we took a late nap before we went to dinner that night. Here they are out front of the hotel fountain...with their backpacks :)

Jackson had to take a pic of the three of us, it didn't feel right not having him in the picture!!

Daddy with his babies

Mommy and the kiddos

Leah being silly at Chili's...she still has her backpack on at dinner

Jackson chowing down on Salsa

Leah putting on her new lipgloss from the Easter Bunny

The exhaustion from the day is finally setting in. Time to cuddle with daddy

Jackson had to share daddy's coat with Mommy, we were freezing

The trip was amazing and exactly what we needed as a family. The reality that we are moving in a little over a month is starting to set in and making us excited and scared. I think it will be a wonderful growing experience for our family, but scary to be away from our loved ones for the first time. I'm just ready to get there and get settled!! Hopefully we will make many more memories like we did when we were in San Antonio in Memphis!!

Spring Break

We went to Memphis for Scott's Spring Break to find a house and become more familiar with the area before we make the move in 2 months. We got up on Tuesday morning at about 5:30 and left the house by 6:45. The kids were so good on the drive there!! We stopped when we got there at the Children's Museum of Memphis, the kids hadn't stopped talking about it since the first visit to Memphis. We ate lunch and went straight to the museum before we even checked into the hotel, so please excuse the children's appearance, we had been in the car for close to 7 hours :) On wednesday the house hunting began. We looked at 16 houses with both kids, and they were absolute ANGELS!!! We found a house that was built in the 1950's that we absolutely loved, it had been completely renovated and was move in ready. Scott's parents were coming in the next day to see the houses we liked, since they decided to invest in a property and rent it to us. The realtor called Wednesday night and said someone had made an offer on the house. We were pretty sad. So thursday we had to start the whole process over again. We looked at about 16 houses again on Thursday with Scott's parents and the kids, again the kids did so well. This trip was definitely not a fun trip for the kids. In the end, we found a house we absolutely adore, and with some touch ups there is definitely some potential for Scott's parents to make some money on the house!! The house was built in 1951 and has all the original hardwood floors, they need to be refinished but they are beautiful! The rooms are all really spacious, we even decided to room the kids together so we can have a spare room for when we have visitors or maybe even another baby :) We are going to renovate the bathrooms while we are there, they are really clean but dated and we thought ifwe did that it would sell faster when we go to move. The backyard is huge!! That was the kids favorite part! Unfortunately, even with the backyard we are not going to be able to bring our lab Max :( With the hardwood floors all thorughout the house and just having them refinished, Scott's parents aren't too crazy about 100lb dog being on them, which we completely understand. Anywhere we would rent it would hard if not impossible to find someone who would let us bring Max. We are still sad to have to find him a new home. It actually worked out, the family who originally gave us to him are going to take him back and they are really excited! At least he is not going to a 3rd home. We sure will miss him, he has been a GREAT dog, especially to Jackson. Thurday beofre we left to go to Memphis, the kids had "Donuts with Daddy Day" at school. The kids were so happy to have their Daddy go to school with them!!

Daddy's Little Girl

Sunday when I got home from work I found Leah on the couch like this :) SCott said she didn't take a nap that day and he had given her crackers to hold her over until dinner when I got home. She was passed out with cracker crumbs all over her!! It was too funny!!

Leah at the Children's museum

Jackson playing Twister with Mommy at the Children's museum

Jackson driving the Firetruck!! He is so cute

This room looked different in person, it was dark with mirrors all around and a disco ball and disco music to dance too. With the flash on the camera it looked pretty boring

Jackson playing the snowboarding game!

Leah and Jackson filming a music video!! Leah was really into the singing and seeing herself on TV, remind you of anyone???

Leah singing and making funny faces for the TV

Jackson pretending to drive

The kids in the constructions part of the museum. This was new from the last time we were there, it was pretty neat, it had a child's size house for the kids to play in

Scott showing Jackson how the pipes work in the house....not sure if he really knows :)

Love this pic!! Leah with a magnifyng glass! We were studying money and identifying all the symbols on the dollar

Jackson and Daddy flying a plane

Memphis has a trolley system that runs through downtown and all along the Mississippi, we of course couldn't pass this up with our little train lover! He had a blast! This is 3 generations of Ludlow Men!

Jackson took this pic of Leah, Grandma and me

Grandpa and Leah

I love this picture of Jackson, look really closely and you can see his reflection in the window. You can see it a lot more clearly in the actual picture.

This is the house!!! We love it!!

This is a grill that was built with the house. We thought it was so cute and had so much character! We can already see roasting marshmallows with the kids on it:)

A beautiful big tree in the backyard. They are leaving the sandbox in the background, too!!

Leah playing in the house

Jackson loving the sandbox

We have a laundry room!! Most people probably think big deal, but this is one of the only houses we saw with a laundry room, most people had to go outside to a storage room or the washer and dryer were in the kitchen!!

The renovated kitchen...so cute

Leah drinking mommy's giant bottle of water...we wonder why she had a problem with potty training on the trip :)

We stopped at Burger King on the ride home!! Jackson being silly with the hat :) I took him to the restroom while we were there and he likes to go in the stall by himself now. I was waiting outside his stall and there was another woman standing in there with me, all of a sudden Jackson starting giggling and said "Mom, do you hear my poo-poos splashing in the water?" I'm sure I was beet red!!

Two little monsters!! They make us so happy!!

The next day after we got home from Memphis it was Carly's Baptism and we celebrated Scott's mom's birthday. This is at Jeff and Abby's house, the kids had a blast in the hot tub Uncle Jeff heated for them

Singing Happy Birthday to Grandma

Leah and Aunt Lisa

So in the end, it was a very productive trip. We found a house we loved, found a school for the kids and beacme familiar with the area and some of the hospitals I have been applying too. Feels like everythig is coming together, now i just want to get there so we can get the family settled :)