brave new fan?

Possibly. I found Cooper this new hat and we had fun playing with it and taking pics. But all the times since he takes it off immediately. Hopefully he'll get over this at some point and just wear it because we need our new little one to represent ;)

You can see Coop's one and only tooth so far in this upper right shot. (This teething business is not cool, btw)

dear dad

God must really love me a lot to give me the wonderful dad I've got, you are the best dad I could have hoped for. You play with me, make me giggle, show me cool things, and make me feel loved. I can't wait to grow up with you in my life.

I know you had to work today but I hope you loved your delicious blueberry waffles for your first Father's Day breakfast. I had a fun day hanging out with Grandpa though, he must've been just as good of dad as you. love, cooper

june is too late

...for camping in Georgia! The weekend we decide to go the humidity hits and temps reach the high 90s...not cool.


We headed to Lake Lanier for the weekend and after camp was setup we had to hit the lake to cool off.


This boy was loving the water

In the few minutes it took to setup camp this kids cheeks turned bright red from the heat, he was glad to cool off in the lake, poor kid.

Splashing with dad was pretty much awesome.

Watching Dad make the fire.

Steve's idea was to keep it easy on the food front which meant everything over the fire. The bad thing was it was so hot already we could barely stand cooking our hotdogs, but they were de-lish. Plus we had to have smores for dessert so the fire was pretty much necessary. I mean that's really why we go camping right?

Relaxing with dad the next morning, one sticky humid night not much lower than 75 degrees. Cooper thought the tent was cool though

Cooper's wakeup call came a tad too early. What were you doing at 6am?

We got up and cooked breakfast over the fire which meant sausage, powdered donuts, and chocolate milk. Steve's menu.

Our crew in the tent looking pretty tired. The heat was too much to handle for another day and night (we had planned to stay 2) so we packed up and headed out for some relaxing at the pool and some AC watching movies. Lightweights? Maybe. But what does it say when there are no other tent campers around and everyone remotely close to us were sleeping in their deluxe trailers.

We'll be back in the fall, don't you worry. Humid camping = not for us.

aqua boy

Could you die over this pic? I love it! We took grandpa great to the aquarium for the day with Cooper's cousins. He thought the fish were pretty amazing.


my favorite - the jellyfish

The Kelley cousins, ready to go with their maps, they were out tour guides ;)

I could barely snap this because he kept looking back at the fish behind him.

Weird worm/eel things that pop out of the sand

Me and my new fish boy.

Lone Cooper and the world of fish

The shark coming to get him

These awesome new rays were HUGE!

Clark had the cutest grin in this first pic, and the other Cooper is totally enthralled with Clark letting him know what all the fish were.

There's nothing like showing this kid something new.

grandpa...great?

Grandpa Great came for a visit for a few days from Mississippi to see all his grandkids. Cooper thought his glasses were cool. We had fun hanging out and I even made a special breakfast of crepes for them. mmm.

c & c

A quick shoot with the babes right after naps - you can tell Cooper just woke up.

My C

Em's C

Cooper made me laugh in this one.

These two were seriously so funny together.

Coop sporting his best look.

brunch @ canoe

Everyone needs to enjoy brunch at CANOE. We treated Ems and Caroline to some yummy food and engaging conversation, lol.

These two thought they were so cool in this chair.

And the classic poses begin.

I've missed you Ems, thanks for coming to see me.

besties with babies

From this back in 2000...

...to this, all married and new babies within a month of each other - Kristen in August, me in September, and Emily in October. My best friend Ems came to see me for an overdue meetup. I hadn't seen her since she got married 2.5 years ago and we just had to see each other, it was time. We missed Kristen on this trip (#3 for her with baby Abby) but Emily and me were so glad to get together.

Especially because we had to introduce our new little babes to each other, Cooper meet Caroline.

These two had so much fun playing and grabbing each other over the few days. You could say they had a thing for one another ;)

I mean you can't deny the fact they are best friends like their moms already.

Caroline was even clapping already, she was just a little doll.

We strolled the botanical gardens and this was the new edible garden area.

A whole wall of herbs in a geometric pattern, so cool. Am I the only one that likes this stuff?