Hula Girls

The girls love the new dress-up outfits that Daddy sent them.

Banana Boat

We spent the afternoon in the pool playing with our new toy.

Here is a video of Grandma aka "Banana Pooh" trying to get on the Banana Boat:

Here is a video of Granddaddy trying to get on the Banana Boat:

We all had a blast on the Banana Boat!

Big Cat Habitat

Today we went to the Big Cat Habitat and Gulf Coast Sanctuary.

 We got to see several different types of bears.

This bear was cooling off in the pool.

 The baby goats were so cute.

 The girls got to feed them.

Granddaddy fed the Emu.

 We also got to see several different monkeys.

Mommy Tortoise and Baby Tortoise 

We got to see an animal we had never seen before called a Coatimundi.

We saw tons of BIG cats!

 They were beautiful!

Time for a CAT nap!  ;)

 The girls were thrilled to see the Shetland Ponies perform.

 We also got to see a Liger (Lion/Tiger) for the first time!  

 The trainer stuck his head in the lion's mouth!

We all enjoyed our time at the Big Cat Habitat!

Start of Summer

The girls and I made it safely to Florida.   

They are swimming in Grandma and Granddaddy's pool everyday. 

We are having fun finding deals with Grandma.  

(We bought this tent/tunnel brand new for $1.60!)

We love being close to family.  We got to visit Mamaw this week.

Another Deployment

Today Clay left for his second deployment.

Thank you to everyone that is praying for our family during this deployment.

Although we are always sad to see Daddy go, we are so proud of him and know that his job is very important.  

We will look forward to being reunited soon.

I miss him already!

Daddy and his girls!

The girls are sad that Daddy will miss their birthdays this year.  

They are going to miss him so much, but are looking forward to spending the summer in Florida at Grandma and Granddaddy's house.

Daddy had to get lots of kisses and snuggles in before he left.

The girls are wearing their Daddy deployment bracelets and holding on tight to their Daddy Dolls.

The girls loved getting balloons...

and celebrating Daddy before he left.

Proud USAF kid!

We salute you, Daddy!

We are MAJOR-ly Proud of Daddy!

We can't wait to welcome him home from this deployment just like last time.

Promotion & Pre-Deployment Party!

Clay is pinning on Major and deploying this weekend, so we decided to give him a Promotion and Pre-Deployment Party!

We are MAJOR-ly Proud of Daddy!

We got him a pillowcase with our picture on it so that he can snuggle with us while he is deployed.

Time to enjoy some special desserts.  The girls ate one of the patriotic cakes in a jar.  Clay and I enjoyed the Japan flag cake.  I made a vanilla cake filled with our homemade strawberry jam and iced with homemade cream cheese frosting.  It was a yummy way to send Daddy off to Japan for this deployment.

Patriotic Cake in a Jar!

Today the girls and I made Red, White and Blue Cake in a Jar!

First, we made a white boxed cake mix and divided it into two ziploc bags.  We added red and blue food coloring to the cake batter to make our two colors of cake.  

We greased the inside of the jars and piped in our colored cake batter.  Then we baked our cakes in a jar at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

Once our cakes cooled, we piped in the white frosting and added some red, white and blue sprinkles.

We topped each cake with an American Flag.

We put a patriotic cupcake wrapper around the lid.  

We ended up attaching a plastic spoon to each jar using red, white and blue ribbons and giving them to Clay's co-workers as a pre-deployment gift!