Time with family...

I can not tell you how nice it is to live close to family again...  We drove a little over 2.5 hours and got to spend weekend with cousins in Louisiana! The Purdy's were so nice to invite us over for the weekend. The girls got to play with Dominic and Sofia (well, mostly with Sofia) and we got to catch up with family. They live just outside of Baton Rouge. So, we got to eat some good cajun food @ Acme Oyster House and the girls got to go and "meet" Mike the Tiger at LSU. Cousin Jimmy tried really hard to convert Ava & Mia from Alabama fans to LSU fans, but thankfully it didn't work! Here are some of our favorite pictures from the weekend.  Enjoy~

Sofia & Ava @ Acme.

Sofia, Ava, Mia & Dominic after lunch.

Climbing the hills on the LSU campus.

Fun run down the hill.

Mia on top of the world!

Ava taking a break.

Mia getting help down from Daddy

Ava & Sofia ready for their slumber party.

Dora & Diego!!

Peter and I took the girls to see Dora  & Diego's Dino Island  live performance at the Lynn Meadows Center. It was so much fun watching the girls' eyes light up when the characters came on stage. Mia's reaction was especially cute. Her eyes were as big as saucers!

The event was a free show for Lynn Meadows members.  So, there were some special perks that weren't offered at the public shows. The girls got to have their picture made with Diego, they made their very own backpack and got to make a "Dino Island" dessert to take home.

Here are our pictures from the show.  Enjoy~

Ready for the show to start!

Looking for Dora & Diego.

Yay, it's Dora & Boots!

Diego too!

Ava, Diego & Mia (who's a little unsure about holding Diego's hand)

Gump shrimp trip...fail

Since we now live on the coast, Peter and I are trying to take full advantage of all of the fun and educational things that our new city has to offer.  On this particular Saturday, we decided that we wanted to take the girls on the Biloxi Shrimp Tour.

(I didn't take this picture...see the rest of the story below)

We figured that the 75 min. trip would be just the right amount of time for the girls to enjoy the boat ride and they would get to see live shrimp and other sea creatures that were caught in the net.  We called the office and the recording told us that there was an outing at 1 p.m.  So, we packed up the car and headed over to the marina.  When we got there the sign said that the tour didn't start until 2 p.m.  However, we didn't give up. We took the girls to get some ice cream and walked around looking at the REAL shrimp boats.  We went back at 1:45 p.m. and found that the boat had left with out us!!!! Horrible business practice and we're not likely to go back again, but I did snap a couple of cute pictures. Enjoy~

Notice that we're in our summer attire and it's pushing mid-October!

The girls looking for our tour boat : (

Other boats in the Small Craft Harbor

Mia's enjoing the fall weather!

We finally got a cool snap that got all of us in the mood for fall! Mia was having an especially good time running around in the wonderful fall weather. Here are some pictures I snapped of Mia being herself ;). Enjoy~

Relaxing...

But not for long!

What a silly goose!

and she's off....

now she's heading back!

Having so much fun running laps in our backyard!

"Company Picnic"

The surgery division on the 81st Medical Group had a company picnic at the Marina Park on base.  We took the girls and fun was had by all. Enjoy the photos!

Ava smiling pretty on the bounce houses stairs

Mia giggling all the way down the bounce house slide

Staying hydrated in the MS heat

All smiles at the Marina Park

Fun with new friends...

Since being stationed at Keesler, we have been blessed to have met the Gifford family. Tom is Peter's partner at work, Stephanie is a stay-at-home mom, this is their first Air Force assignment, they are also Catholic and they have kids that are the same age as ours! So, needless to say we have instant friends and we are so thankful for them. It has made our transition to a new life so much easier.

Here are some photos of a very very short beach trip with the Gifford family (a huge storm blew in after about 5 mins. on the beach). Enjoy!

Luke & Mia

Brooklyn & Ava

Building sandcastles

Wading in the water

Tom & Noah

Ava, Luke, Brooklyn & Ryan

LMDC with the Morrisons...

While the Morrison Family was visiting from Texas over Labor Day weekend, we went to The Lynn Meadows Discovery Center. We discovered this wonderful children's museum while we were in Biloxi house hunting. It is such a fun place to take the kids and it allows them to use their imaginations. Here are some photos of our trip with the Morrisons. Enjoy!

Emma climbing the spiral

Ava & Emma in "Mexico"

Mia piloting the airplane

Jennifer and the girls creating a tube maze

Keith had fun too

Emma pulling in the catch

Mia examining the catch of the day

Birthdays with new friends and old...

Wow! I have a daughter who is four and a daughter who is two! Where oh, where does the time go?

This fall we decided to let the girls share a birthday party because we knew that we would be new to the area and because of that we would be keeping it small. Thankfully, we have made some wonderful new friends in Biloxi that were able to come and had some "old" friends drive all the way from TX to make the girls party lots of fun.

At Ava's request, we had a "kitty" themed party. Luckily, Mia was on board with the idea. So, it was a purrr~fect party for all! Here are some photos from the party. Hope that you guys enjoy them!

Many months later....

I had the best of intentions of keeping up the blog while we were transitioning from TX to MS, but as you can all tell I was unsuccessful in a very big way!

Here's the low down on the summer months:

- The girls, Jake and I spent the summer living on the Sabatini's farm in AL. We loved getting to spend so much time with our families in AL, but missed having Peter around a WHOLE lot! We also missed having a regular routine, our own stuff (sent to storage in MS on move day) and our own place to call home.

Our little "farm" girls

- Peter spent the first 6 weeks following our move staying with a fellow resident and finishing up his residency in Dallas. Peter obviously missed us while we were away, because two weeks into our stay in AL he surprised us with a visit!

Daddy & his girls

Daddy & Mia

- After finishing up residency, Peter, the girls and I headed to MS on a mission to find a new place to call home. We found our new home on our second day of looking, made an offer the following morning and our offer was accepted!! So, we spent our last "house hunting" day in MS registering Ava for preschool and having a little fun with the girls.

Graduation from residency

- After one glorious week together, the girls and I drove Peter down to Maxwell AFB in Montgomery, AL for Commissioned Officer Training for 5 weeks! Yes, that is right 5 MORE weeks away from his girls. While Peter was in COT the girls and I were busy getting everything lined up for our move to the MS coast. FINALLY on July 30th, I drove down to Maxwell AFB for Peter's COT Graduation. We drove back to the Sabatini's farm the next day. The girls were over joyed to see their daddy again! We packed up the car and the mini-van and headed to Keesler AFB on August 2nd to start a new chapter in our lives.

The salute

The Airman & his wife

- We spent our first week at Keesler living in temporary housing (basically a one bedroom condo) while we closed on our house and waited for our belongings to be delivered. We spent the week following the delivery of our household goods unpacking, organizing and getting school supplies ready for Ava's first day of school.

More updates to come soon....I PROMISE!