Vann Family Vacation 2012

Every summer, we go on family vacation with Dustin's dad's side of the family, The Vanns.  It has been hosted in various locations across the Southeast, with the majority of the trips being at the beach.  For the past 2 years now, we have gone to Pensacola Beach, Florida.  Dustin's great aunt and uncle have a beach house there as well, so that makes it more convenient too!  On average, it's around 30 people including Dustin's grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, significant others, dogs, etc...which makes for a very fun, week long vacation!

Our family of 3 headed South last Friday...Tucker is still a great traveler and naps well in the car.

We had dinner out the first night since we were the first family to arrive with Dustin's grandparents and great Aunt & Uncle...dinner was yummy and the view from our table was awesome.

And this is where we resided on the Bay for the past week...

Each individual family took turns cooking dinner every night.  I made Chicken Casserole & Rice served with Salad and Avocado...I felt like I was cooking for the Duggar family making all that food!

We enjoyed lots of sunsets and lots of time playing in the sun and sand :)

We also rode bikes...

Went on wagon rides...

And even caught some fish! :)

We had a wonderful trip and Tucker had so much fun!  He was very busy all week long and had lots of people to keep him entertained :)  We got back on Saturday and celebrated Father's day on Sunday.  The start of this Summer has been so much fun so far and we are looking forward to spending a lot more time at the beach as a family of 3!

Weekend Fun!

We have had a great start to our weekend and it's only Saurday!

We started off with a Friday night dinner at a local Italian place here close to our house...

Dustin and I had Calzones and Stramboli while this little guy had Ziti with Alfredo sauce.  It was delicious!

Then, in honor of "National Doughnut Day", we headed to Krispy Kreme to get Hot doughnuts.

This was Dustin's idea and I was thrilled when he mentioned it!  

This was Tucker's first trip to Krsipy Kreme, as well as his first time to eat a Doughnut!

Our local Krispy Kreme has an open area for everyone to see all of those yummy doughnuts being freshly made...

So..our plan was to just go and get a dozen, hot, glazed doughnuts...you know the traditional one everyone orders when they go to Krispy Kreme.  How can anyone resist ordering the "hot now" ones?!

When we got to the counter though, in honor of National Doughnut day every customer was treated to a Free doughnut of their choice!  Ya'll I am a sucker for Doughnuts, if you can't tell ;)

Tucker did enjoy his first doughnut...well the first few bites and then he was finished.  He likes a few bites of sweets, but then he is done.  Unlike his mother...I cannot stop once I start!

Glad we could capture another "first" for him...and on National Doughnut Day too :)

We finished Friday night with letting Tucker visit the ducks and geese at Star Lake.

Today...we attended Parker's 3rd birthday party, it was at the Railroad Museum.  It was lots of fun!  

We enjoyed an hour long train ride complete with real conductors, loud train whistles, etc...followed by bar-b-q and birthday cake!

Tucker had a great day...running around and taking in all sorts of new sites and things!

We have had a wonderful start to our weekend!  Now...I must go and finish off the doughnuts! :)

Tucker turns One!

Well...it's official our baby is now a year old!  How did this happen?!  How is it that one whole year has already passed by so quickly?  It seems like it was just yesterday that we were bringing Tucker home from the hospital and now we just finished celebrating his first Birthday!

The party was Great!  We love Eric Carle books, so we decided on "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme for the party.  We decided on the park for the location.  I felt like it was a perfect place with how much Tucker loves being outside and how much he loves to swing, run, and play!  

I had his outfit made with "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" on it :)

The book provided great inspiration for the party food!

 

Dustin made the signs in photoshop and I used large popsicle sticks to hold them up.

Jennifer, a girl I went to high school with made the cakes and they were Adorable!  She did such a great job and they tasted so good to... I cannot say enough good things about her cakes!

Juiceboxes for the kiddos.

Bubbles for the party favors.  Again, Dustin made all the labels in Photoshop and I think they turned out great!  (A big thanks to him, because I am clueless when it comes to things like this!)

And cake pops made by dear friend, Alex!

Tucker had so much fun and played non-stop the entire party!  We had such a great day with friends and family.  His first Birthday was wonderful and it was a beautiful, sunny day!  We couldn't have imagined a more perfect first birthday party for our Tucker boy!

Mother's Day

I got to celebrate my very first Mother's day this year and if I had to sum it up in one word it would be, thankful.  Not just thankful for the day, but thankful for the reason I now get to celebrate this day as a mother myself.  I am SO thankful for my Tucker boy, who calls me mama.

Dustin started off the day by waking me up with Starbucks coffee and breakfast from Homewood Diner.  What a great way to start the day!  It was so sweet...I am also very thankful for a husband that celebrates me being a mom!

We all three, as a family, ate our breakfast in bed together and it was so much fun!  What a great memory for my first Mother's Day and we may have just started a new tradition too!

Tucker definitely enjoyed eating his breakfast in our bed.  This was his first "breakfast in bed" experience.  He happily enjoyed his fruit bowl and pancakes :)

I hope all the Mom's out there had a wonderful Mother's day.  My first Mother's day is definitely one I won't forget!  What a joy this journey of motherhood has been so far and I feel so blessed to be called mama!