Friday, October 9, 2009

Pumpkins, Ballgames, & Engagement

First off, let me start by apologizing for my lack of blogging for past few months. No excuses for going 3+ months without some updates for you folks! I will strive to be a better blogger over the wintertime!

Everything is great at the Akins Household and there is never a dull or quite moment these days with 2 children running wild. First for the big news, Jennifer and I are now engaged. "She said Yes" on August 22nd, and we are both very excited and blessed to have each others in our daily lifes. No plans have been made for when/where we will get married, but I will keep you posted.

Madison and Reagan have both had a great summer, but now have settled down and got into their school rituals. They both really enjoy school, and look forward to it each morning. Madison has started taking Dance from Ginny Mount Dance Studio in Collierville. She loves her ballet and tap shoes, and asks me every morning on way to school, how many more days until Thursday?

Halloween is approaching quickly, and they are as curious as ever this year. We have already had to get pumpkins, and they are very excited about more decorations to come. Madison is leaning towards being Minnie Mouse this year, with Reagan, looking like he will either be Buzz Lightyear or Woody!

Here are some pics over the past few months. I hope you enjoy them!

JA


"She Said Yes!!"

Madison starting the great debate on which pumpkin to get

Poppy and Vic carried her to the pumpkin patch this week!

Decisions, Decisions...

I'll take this big one Poppy!

Vic helping her carve out the "guts". She was not a big fan of getting hands dirty

Enjoying a playdate with Carter and Alissa Hudson

Check out this lil' Tiny Dancer in her TuTu

Couldn't help myself, had to put this pic of her and her "gaggles" on here

JA & JB taking in a lil' Pat Green in Nashville!

Madison sporting her Uncle Davis Jersery for Senior Night

Go Dragons! She really loves Maroon & White :)

Me not having much luck with this less than sturdy Tent of kiddo's

Madison on Day 1 of School, so excited...

Poppa A giving Gracie some tailgating advice.

Can see many Bulldog games with my lil' buddy in the future!

Reagan loved the cowbell and his cowbell Cookie!

We got some dawgs up in here!!

Me & Peppy at MSU 2009 Home Opener vs. Jackson St.

Truely soaking it all in!

We even showed up in Tiger Blue on Labor Day.

JA with his #1 Fantasy Pick - Deangelo Williams

Cute Drawing of Gracie

Kids love them some Dora. We took them to Orpheum to see Dora, Boots, & Swiper

Look how into this Madison is...

Madison with the $15 Glow Toy...Thanks Orpheum!!

Got to love some County Fairs back in Ripley!

Madison & Grandy driving Bubba's Race Car!

Reagan really into driving the Firetruck

They both loved Sparklers on 4th of July

They loved the boat and water with Grandy & Pop

Jen & Jody at Peabody Downtown, Memphis

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Sand Castles, Ocean Waves, and Fun Family Time!!

Well we just returned from four days in the Sun & Sand! We joined up with Pop and Grandy for a weekend getaway to Destin, FL. This was the first time to the beach for Reagan, and Madison was returning for Trip 2. Her first trip to Destin was in 2007, so it had been awhile for her.

The trip down was pretty eventful. We left Memphis after work on Friday, thinking the kids would sleep for most of the trip. That was half truthful. Reagan had no problem sleeping in the car, but Madison was super curious as to when we were going to get to Reese's, and why she could not sleep in her own bed when we got there. We were also bothered by the storm in Birmingham. We stayed ahead of the weather for the most part, but we stopped to eat in Birmingham and when we got back in car, the big storm clouds were right on top of us. This of course put Jennifer in panic mode, and she was just expecting Dorothy and Toto to blow over our car at any moment :) We obviously survived the storm with no problems, just some heavy wind, and blowing the Envoy all over the road. We arrived at Reese's around 1am, and everyone crashed very easily.

The rest of the trip was filled with fun beach time! The kids were fascinated by the world's largest sandbox, and would just take turns going from Ocean to the Tent, back to the Ocean, etc. They attempted to make sand castles and definately took no shame in destroying any that I made. They were very tired come naptime each day, and definately easy to get to sleep at night. The sun and sand combo is a nice combo to produce good sleep :)

We took an off-day on Sunday and went to the Gulfarium in Fort Walton. The kids loved seeing all the sea creatures, and we enjoyed it as well! I treated both of the kids to a stuffed Sea Creature of their choice. Madison choose the Pink Dolphin, who was eventually named Ariel. Ariel was the name of the baby dolphin that was in the Dolphin Show we saw. Reagan opted for the Green Gator, who was named Gerald. Funny thing here is, that once we got in the car, Gerald was no longer a Gator. He insisted that he was a Dinosaur...Go Figure!

The food was excellent. We hit up several Destin Favorites of ours. We carried the kids to FudPuckers the first night. They loved all the stuff to do, and especially the baby Gators. Food wasn't the best, but it was SeaFood, and hit the spot on us Sun-drained Tourists! The next day, we took in lunch at Pompano Joe's, one of Jen and I's favorite Destin Nook's. Everyone loved this, and the Blackened Amberjack is still hard to beat from there! The next night we took in Camile's with Reese. Jen finally got her Sushi, and I got some Spicy Shrimp that was really good. For all who know me, they know a trip to Destin is not complete without Whataburger and Dipping Dots! They both were had, and both were just as good as expected!!

Here's a few pics from our trip. Hope you enjoy them, and hope everyone is having a great Summer!

Jody & Madison

This pretty much summed up Madison's Feelings on the Way Down!

Grandy and Kiddo's on Day 1

Not exactly Tom LeMansky's ideal form, but Jo will work that out for him soon!

I would love to know what was running thru their minds at this exact moment?

She knows who butters her bread :)

Miss Sassy Pants showing off the Polka-Dots!

Getting a picture of all 4 of us is very hard, especially by the Water!

Reagan was in heaven with the huge sandbox, ie, the beach :)

Just Precious!! Enjoying some soft-serve at the campground

Pretending to be asleep in this pic! They loved having slumber parties

Reagan in awe of the Dolphins when we arrived at Gulfarium

Madison so excited to show Reagan the Touch Pool!

Jen & Reagan overlooking the Beach outside of Pompano Joe's

Awaiting our Photoshoot Patiently...

Being SOOO Good while we take pictures! I was so proud of them

Great Shot of all of us :)

Just hanging out with my favorite people!

Peppy & I - Destin 2009

I think she likes me a lil' bit :)

Madison and I walking down the beach...Love this girl

** Flashback...We've Came a long way in 2 years! **

Not exactly looking at the right camera, but it turned out good!

We were sad to leave, but had to head home :(