Sick....

Early Sunday morning, after a wonderful evening out with some friends to a delicious dinner and a girlie movie, I woke up to the sound of a seal barking. Right then I knew that someone in our house had the croup. If any of your children have had this, you know how scary it can make you feel. Poor Jack was the victim this time. I was so nervous about his breathing, that I almost scooped him up and headed to the ER. We tried to go in to the steam shower, but that made him upset and his breathing even more stressed. We tried the freezer in the house, but that darn Sub Zero doesn't push the cold air out like a regular refrigerator. So, Jack and I stood in the freezer in the garage while Nate was on the phone with the pediatrician. He finally calmed down after some Motrin and Gatorade, but I didn't sleep a wink the rest of the night. We hopped in the car when the doctor opened Sunday morning to get a dose of steroids. He seemed great after the doctor visit, so we headed out to Orlando to see Nate's mom & her husband who were in town from North Carolina. We spent the afternoon floating in the lazy river and letting the kids play with their grandparents. I am paying for it today, as now I'm sick and exhausted and the laundry isn't doing itself...

We didn't get any pictures on Sunday at the pool, but I had to share this picture of Mallory and her friend from her first swim meet... I will share more pictures tomorrow, but I thought this one would make you smile a bit :-)

Before and After Backyard Trees

I have to admit, getting rid of two gigantic trees the day before Earth Day wasn't ideal (we promise to plant two more after the construction is over).

Here's what our backyard looked like before last Wednesday. Please excuse all the weeds and overgrown grass!!





Here's what it looked like Wednesday afternoon. Talk about a transformation!





Our house feels about 10 degrees warmer now during the day now that all the shade is gone :-( I'm a little bit sad, but we all can't wait for the pool to start!!

New Springtime Friends

The schedule for phase 2 of the renovation has been pushed back a few days due to some things that had to be taken care of this weekend before they could start.

This is what we are hoping our backyard will look like in 6-8 weeks (except we won't have the views of the Gulf of Mexico)... This is the pool of one of the houses that Nate just finished over on the beach.



In order to get it to look this way, we have a few HUGE trees that have to come out. The tree company is coming on Tuesday to take care of this, but we had to move some plants first.

This stag horn fern weighs about 400 pounds and it was hanging from one of the trees that is coming out. Nate had to bring his truck around to the backyard to move it to it's new home.



We had another stag horn fern that was growing on the tree as well.



When Nate went to pull it off, these little guys and their momma came crashing down with it!! The momma took off running towards the fence and the poor little ones didn't know what to do.




This little guy kept trying to climb back up the tree to get to his home.



This one was following momma's scent.



And this one didn't know what to do...



Eventually they all wondered back towards the fence and I'm hoping they found their momma!!

Spring Break - Turtle Park

Yes, Spring Break was a few weeks ago...

A friend of mine that has twin 6 year old boys that were in preschool with Mallory had a baby right before Spring Break, so a few of us took turns keeping the twins busy so Mom could get some rest and bond with her new precious little boy. I had never been to this park, so I decided today was the day!! It was chilly, but beautiful out! The turtles were everywhere trying to enjoy the sun.



This little guy was very tame. He let the kids touch him (which I wasn't fond of, but I did cover them in antibacterial hand soap!!)



They had a little machine that you could purchase some food tablets at, so the kids got to feed the turtles in the pond.








We've got some BIG things going down (literally) tomorrow!! Be sure to check back for all the action!!

Super Fun Weekend!!

My friends and I had a BLAST this weekend! The race was so much fun. There were over 2,000 participants total, about 1400 in the 5K that we were in. My time wasn't as good as the last race we were in, because there was so much bottle-necking for the first mile because of all the racers, we didn't really get to "run" until about 10 minutes in. I finished 279/1392 overall and was 58/255 in my age group.

Here is a fabulous picture that Iron Girl just sent out. Isn't our beach just beautiful. It's so peaceful first thing in the morning.



After the race, we went back to a friend's house and had a nice breakfast, then hit the hotel pool for some sun and relaxation!! Our rooms weren't going to be ready until 3:00, so we rented a cabana by the pool. We had our own bathroom, couch, flat screen TV and wet bar for the whole day! It was definitely the way to go!

We had so much fun that we are planning our next race weekend getaway!! :-)

We've got an extremely busy week ahead. I can't share the details yet, but we've got the start of phase 2 of our renovation beginning!!

Girls Weekend, Here I Come!!!

8 of my closest friends and I are running in the IronGirl 5K tomorrow morning at the beach. We decided to make a weekend out of it and stay at the new Hyatt that overlooks the beach. The weather is supposed to be perfect. I can't wait to relax by the pool all day without having to hear "MOMMY!"

Easter Egg-stravaganza!!!

Warning!! Picture overload coming!!

I've taken some time off from the computer/blogging for the past few weeks to catch up on LIFE!! We have been so busy at the Matthews house!!

First, was Jack's Easter party at his preschool. They had a little egg hunt on the playground, then had a fun snack made to look like an Easter bunny!

Just so you know, the Matthews kids take their egg hunts VERY seriously (just like their mom)!! Lots of planning and strategy goes in to each hunt...



Jack's first strategy was to cheat. He knew that I was the one hiding the eggs on the playground, so the first thing out of his mouth was, "Mom, tell me where you hid the eggs." When I wouldn't tell him, he just took off running as fast as he could. This is the only picture I caught of him!



Back in the classroom for his bunny snack consisting of a little vanilla ice cream cup, 2 sugar wafers and some jelly beans!



Then, that Saturday afternoon was the big Spring Festival at our church. My friend, Amy and I were in charge of the children's activities. We had a bounce house, a huge inflatable slide, a petting zoo, pony rides, the Easter Bunny, another egg hunt, and Fritz the one-man circus!

Jack getting his face painted as a bunny.



Mallory planting a seed.



Mallory and the Easter Bunny, aka Daddy :-)





The kids were on Spring Break the whole week before Easter (which I will share soon), so they were off for Good Friday. We've had an annual egg dying/egg hunt party at my favorite park for 3 years now on Good Friday. This year was great, weather was perfect, about 70 kids and adults having a good time!! Everyone brings their hard boiled eggs and something to contribute to the party. I've accumulated about 500 plastic eggs, so the hunt is huge!!

















Jack on a mission (again!)



Saturday was (gasp) ANOTHER egg hunt and a yummy breakfast at the yacht/beach club that we have joined for the summer. I grew up coming here with my grandmother almost everyday of the summer and on every holiday, so I'm so blessed that we have the opportunity to have our kids experience the same things.











Mallory taking it VERY serious!! Look at that angle!



My attempt to get the family to coordinate our outfits...





Easter morning was a blur, as we had to be at church at 9:00 and the kids were still in bed at 8:15. We made it on time, with the kids bellies full of candy :-) My niece Morgan spent the night with us and joined us at church.

I love this picture of Mallory.



After church, we let the kids play with their Easter goodies, then took the golf cart out to the bay to look for some fish and explore the nature trails. It was a perfect day!!

Snow Days

Since it is FINALLY warming up down here, with hopes of hitting the beach tomorrow, I thought that I'd post our pictures from our trip to Illinois...

The kids were incredibly well-behaved on the whole trip, with the exception of a melt down by Mallory the last night we were there.

Here they are playing their gaming systems waiting to get on the airplane.



Casey had warned us that the snow was melting quickly, so as soon as we pulled in to the driveway, the kids were out in the snow and enjoying every minute of it.







Mallory had so much fun making a snowman too!





The next day, we went out sledding on the hill in their neighbor's backyard. I was at the bottom of the hill with the camera and Casey was helping the kids get on the sleds at the top. She warned me that I needed to help stop them at the bottom or they could possibly keep going all the way in to the creek below...
Mallory was the first one down and she loved it!!



Jack was next and he got going a little too fast... My eyes were glued inside my camera, so I had no idea that he was quickly approaching the bottom of the hill that leads to the creek... I don't have any pictures of this, as I was frantically trying to save my child from the freezing water!! Jack learned a good lesson that day, slide down the hill on your bottom and you won't land in the creek!!



He did better sliding down with me!! Mallory learned to just bail out of the sled towards the bottom too, as she was sure she didn't want to end up in the creek!!







Jack spent the rest of the day making snow angels and "pretend' sledding with his best little buddy!