Toes in the Sand!

The Murphy-Payne-Saunder's clan had our annual family beach trip in Perdido Key this year. It felt so good to get our toes in the sand for the first time this summer! This year we had two new members of the family to introduce to the beach and they LOVED it. It was great to all be together, but someone always seemed to have "baby" duty. It was nice to have so many hands around so that we could all enjoy the beach.



Lucy looks like she is going to be another beach baby! We took her down a few days at dusk to feel the sand in her toes.


Luke loved playing in the sand this year and was a little more comfortable in the Gulf, but his favorite place to be was in the pool.




It was wild and crazy having two kids under 8 months (one 4.5 months and the other 7.5 months)! There was a lot of "sharing" of toys and slobber, which might explain why all three kids ended up with stuffy, runny noses by the time we got home!



Here's to another beach vay-cay in the books! We can't wait until next year!!!

Alive and Well

Hello, Blog-o-sphere! The Payne's are, in fact, alive and well. It has been a whirlwind of a summer so far and has no signs of slowing down anytime in the near future. I have gone back to work in the mornings from 7:30am-12:30pm, Lucy has started part time day care while I am at work, and Lucy had her first ear infection last week-complete with a round of antibiotics which she HATED. Jeremy has had A LOT of overtime lately and has been working on weekends. So needless to say, the blog, along with so many other things, have gone by the way side. This is just a glimpse into what we have been up to and hopefully will be a trend into making more blog posts. I have so much to say and updates to give about little Luce, but it will have to wait for another day.


What is this nasty pink stuff???


I am finally big enough to sit in the bumbo, but I HATE this yogurt. I know Dr. Hall wanted me to eat it to get the probiotics since I am taking antibiotics, but YUCK!


After a rough few days, I think I am finally feeling better!.....


And P.S. My big brother is as CRAZY as ever!!!!

Swim Lessons 2011

Luke wasn't so sure about swim lessons the first few days and he had seemed to have forgotten all he had learned last summer. But as you can see, after 5 short lessons something just seemed to click and he is already starting to swim like a fish!

Memorial Day weekend in GA!

Luke was so excited to go to GA to see our family! He asked every day for a week whenever he woke up if today was the day we were going to GA! Luke was doubly excited because this was Lucy's first road trip to meet everyone up there. Lucy was a perfect angel on the way up. She slept the entire time and only had to eat once when we stopped in Prattville for dinner.

Mamaw and Papaw were so excited to meet me! Mommy told me that their front porch swing is her favorite part of the house!


I could tell Papaw was in love with me the minute he got down and laid beside me on the floor. He made all kinds of goo goo sounds to me and I goo gooed right back!


I also got to meet my two aunts and all of my cousins. Madi and Jared loved holding me, but Emily was a little scared of me and decided not to get too close. She said she may hold me when she gets big like Jared and Madison. I also got to meet my Great Aunt Carolyn and Great Uncle Luke.




We got to do a little pre-birthday celebrating with Aunt Christy at the Mexican restaurant. HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY, Aunt Christy!


Mommy asked Aunt Christy to take some family shots at the railroad tracks! Thanks to her and cousin Madison for getting some great shots!




We had a great visit with the fam and Luke was in hog heaven getting to play with his cousins all weekend long. We spent a lot of time at all of the wonderful parks around town so the big kids could run off some of their abounding energy. Mommy was able to take the day on Saturday and steal away to Birmingham to attend a memorial service for one of her best friends baby who passed away. Mommy was so glad she was able to be there to support her dear friend. Daddy held down the fort with Lukie and me. Mommy and Daddy couldn't believe how grown up Madison had become since our last visit. Jared, Emily, and Luke had so much fun playing, eating popsicles, chasing cicadas, shooting nerf guns--just plain old fashioned cousin fun! I can't wait until I get big enough to run around with my big brother and GA cousins!

Baby Dedication!

This past Sunday, Lucy was dedicated at our church along with 17 other babies. What made the day even more special was the fact that Lucy and her cousin Collin were dedicated on the same day! Lucy is 2 and a half months old and Collin is almost 6 months old





Having a girl to dress up is so much fun, so I had to take a million pictures. Here are a few of my favorites. I love that her dress and bonnet were adorned with pearls and that she had a pearl bracelet to match!





Lucy with her beautiful Mimi!


Luke is still the sweetest big brother and had to get in on the mini photo shoot!


Jeremy and I thank God every day for these two little blessings in our lives!

Fantastic Fourth!!!

On Monday, my "baby" turned FOUR!!! Where has the time gone? Sometimes when I go to check on him after he's gone to sleep, I just sit and stare at this growing boy and want to freeze time! But, I digress....back to Monday...


He chose a Diego theme and we went with it.... Since the park is one of his favorite places to be, we decided to do another low key birthday party. However, this was the first year that we actually invited friends, like friends from school. All others have been family birthdays (aside from his two year party a few weeks before we left NY, where we invited a lot of our friends who had become our family away from home, so like I said family birthdays! And, yes, Annie, this clarification is for you since you are probably the only "family" from NY who read my blog) but, again, I digress... We ended up having 18 out of the 24 kids we invited!


Can't have a party with kids ranging in age from 2 to 4 with out goldfish!....


And Cup cakes to match!... Luke had to have an orange, make that TWO orange ones!


We could not have asked for a prettier day for a party in the park...it was beautiful! A nice breezy day and more importantly, NO rain!


Another wonderful happenstance was the fact that we virtually had the park ALL to ourselves. With the weather so gorgeous and because this park is normally packed, I was sure today would be no different. But to my surprise it was pretty much empty! There were only about 3 maybe 4 other kids there that weren't part of the party. It was awesome!





My Mimi and my "bear bear" who is never far from Luke's side these days!



Even Uncle Kyle and cousin Collin made an appearance!



I was so happy all of my GREATS made it too!





Luke's choice for dinner that night was, big surprise, "Chick A Way!" And would you believe this growing boy can now eat a 12 pack of nuggets in one sitting?! Well, he can!!!



After a long and glorious day, we headed home to open the gifts from his friends! It was such a fun and successful and pretty , low stress for mom,birthday if I do say so myself! Here's to a wonderful 4 years with one of the greatest things in our lives, our precious "baby" boy.