Let's preface this by saying the whole reason I started this blog was because my memory is HORRIBLE... so that's that. I think my last post was a lame one for November of 2016? Thats pathetic. So since then we have had a winter, a spring, a summer, a fall, and working through winter as we speak. Gag - how did I let it all go? Ohhh, I have two kids, a husband, a job, and a life? Christmas of 2016 was great - nothing huge to report (that I can remember). Spring 2017 the same. Summer 2017 we went to the beach! We went with the entire Heinz clan. We stayed in a house together, cooked meals, and walked down the street to the beach every day. It was a great time -- we had adorable shirts made that said "Red, White, and Heinz" because we went over the 4th of July weekend. Super cute -- I do have a pic or two of that!
Heinz and Murphy loved the beach! Heinz sported the USA hat that Mimi got him (she got all of the grandsons hats and the granddaughters these big bow headbands). Murph sported his bonnet bc the hats were too big! Gotta get the sun protection in!
The beach photo shoot in our shirts was great! Thanks to Ginna for all of her work with the shirts and koozies! I had fun helping her and it paid off because since then I have bought my own vinyl machine and can make t shirts and koozies and labels galore!
My beautiful sisters and mama! :-)
The Barksdale Clan had a super fun time at the beach! :-) The boys love it!
My parents and my 5 siblings. Man, I am blessed.
Can we get a table for 15974950696? This is why we never went out to eat as a whole group? This is my family: my parents, my brothers and sisters, their spouses, and all go the Heinz grandkids. This is happiness, love, fights, drama, but most of all FAMILY! :-)
Jumping JoeJoe and Mimi with their grands! What fun!
RED, WHITE, AND HEINZ 2017!
Summer of 2017 also brought The Barksdale Clan to Smith Lake! We met 3 of my sorority sisters and their sweet families there for a weekend at the lake. Wow - how beautiful and what fun! We played fun games, saw beautiful sights, had some time at the pool, lots of drinks, yummy food, lots of laughs, and beautiful days on the lake!
We loved the boat -- lake house in the future when we make it big and win the lottery? YES!
We only saw like 5 gators. Kidding.. I think? We had so much fun!
My water babies. Oh my did they love being on the boat and having the wind blow in their face. They are their parents boys. Brad and I LOVED every second of our boat day on the lake.
Summer 2017 also brought on Heinz's longest away from Mama and Daddy trip. He stayed with Nana and BB (Brad's parents) for I think 5 days? They went to the Mississippi Coast for a work conference for Nana. I think there were a few rough patches (missing us) but overall he had a great trip and we had some one on one time and relaxation at home with Murph. I cried so much when we dropped him off. I know completely understand how it feels to have your babies go away -- no matter how old they are.
Oh getting all of the snuggles before he left!
Brad had his birthday while Heinz was out of town. We missed Heinz but we still celebrated big. Murphy brought Daddy some Muddy's treats to work and we ate at Babalu with the family to celebrate!
Summer 2017 -- Heinz went to his first week of Soccer Camp at CBHS. He loved it (most days). I am not sure how much soccer he actually played but he wore his cleats and carried his ball! He loved the popsicle and loved spending time with his sweet buddy Sadie. Sadie's mom works with me at SAA, her sister is in the nanny group with Murphy, and her dad is the soccer coach at CBHS. Pays to know people ha. We will see how soccer camp goes this coming summer! It is so fun seeing my babes grow and learn and play and have fun!
I do remember this day vividly (also I take tons of pictures to help me with that ha). We left the last fay of soccer camps and went up to school to the petting zoo. Heinz loved it! He also got to ride a horse. The lady in charge of the petting zoo was so sweet and accommodating to Heinz! What a sweet memory. Murph enjoyed the views from his stroller! :-)
We finished out Summer 2017 with a Jerry's Snowcone treat! What a yummy and fun treat! Heinz loves this little tradition with one of his big boy cousins, Johnny!
School Year 2017/2018:
Heinz: Heinz is in PK at SAA-SDS. He is in Mrs. Kathi, Mrs. Jennifer, and Mrs. Sarah's class. Heinz LOVES school. He is learning so much. It truly amazes me. His vocabulary has improved immensely and he has SHOCKED us at his 2 school programs this semester. He is typically somewhat shy around new people/people he doesn't know that well but he rocked it out at his programs. I will share more of that later. Heinz brings lunch from home every day. He usually eats most of his lunch but if he doesn't he loves to finish it after school. It makes me laugh ha. He is still obsessed with football and I am pretty sure he plays fairly rough on the playground. He naps every day at school and he sleeps hard his teachers say. He has lots of friends at school and talks about them often. It has been fun going to birthday parties, etc and seeing them interact. We are looking forward to the spring semester and watching our boy continue to grow and learn!
Murphy: Murphy spends his days with Ms. Theresa and 4 other sweet girlies in the nanny group. He is truly the man of the house while we are gone! HA! He has grown up so much. He is walking everywhere, trying to climb things, playing with toys (usually the exact one that Heinz is playing with - he definitely loves his big brother), and eating like a big boy! He quit breastfeeding mid October (14 months y'all -- we did it!). He quit not necessarily because he wanted to but because we ALL needed to sleep HA. Murphy transitioned really well to whole milk and he is now drinking 2 percent milk. He is a good eater and a fairly good sleeper. Unlike his big brother, Murphy sleeps in his crib most of the time... but we get snuggles quite often too. :-) They won't want to sleep with us when they get older so we just roll with it!
August 8, 2017: Samuel "Murphy" Barksdale turned ONE!
Theme: Sunny with a 100% chance of SPRINKLES! It was an ice cream party swimming party. The weather wasn't too sunny (ironic?) so I don't think too many people were swimming!
We had a fun celebration at Mimi and JoeJoe's house with lots of friends and family. Our sweet baby Murph was one! :-) Here are a few of the many pictures that were taken that day!
Happy 1st Birthday to our Murphy! What a sweet first year!
At the end of August we had a random date night with friends! We had so much fun and in 2018 I promise to do more of these! I love you sweet Brad!
Football Season 2017: The Barksdale Crew went to A LOT of football events this fall! We went to Mississippi State games, Memphis Tiger games, CBHS games, and we even made it to a McGill Toolen game!! We had fun tailgating with friends and family! We are thankful for a short break from football (it wears Mama out more than anyone) but we are excited for the 2018 football season!
The dawgs had a fairly good season although we lost the Egg Bowl! Finished it off without a coach (Dan Mullen left for Fla), without our starting QB (Slick Nick hurt his ankle at the Egg Bowl), BUT with a win at the bowl game! Go dawgs! Hail State!
In typically Liz fashion -- I took an annoying amount of pictures during football season -- here are some! :-)
We had fun having Bruncho Football Bunko at our house during an off weekend! Mimi and JoeJoe were the subs! I made cute cups with my vinyl machine for everyone to figure out who their partner was! :-)
The season continues...
As the pretty days and cool breezes came in the Barksdale crew headed to the park... park days with these babes are one of my favorite things ever! Avon Park is in walking distance to our house so when it is pretty outside we head up there pretty awesome -- fun times for all of us, exercise for me, and using that amazing double stroller my class gave me a few years ago! Here are a few park pics!
Family Night at SAA-SDS! While I was in my classroom doing the teacher thing, Brad was trucking Heinz and Murphy around (with help from Auntie Chelle) doing the Daddy thing at SAA-SDS Family Night! The boys had a blast! I had Michelle snag these pics for me!
Insert a pic of MAMA HERE! ha ha!We headed to Columbus, MS to visit and to celebrate Ronni-Beth's 2nd birthday! Her party was at our favorite pumpkin patch! RB loves Curious George so he even showed up at the party! Brad took another barrel train ride --- by the looks of the pictures he enjoyed this ride more HA HA! We got our pumpkins and had some fun visiting with family!
A sweet picture of my guys leaving Nana and BB's church...
Fall Break time! We headed to Orange Beach with Nana, BB, Brian, Amy, and Ronni-Beth! October at the beach is my FAVORITE! The weather is PERFECT! I love it! We had such a blast! We ate yummy food, relaxed, laughed, had fun, got pictures taken on the beach, and of course had fun family time! Like always, my guys loved the beach! Here are some highlights of the trip!
A pretty fun day playing in our backyard after school! This blue car was my brother's (who is now 25) when he was a little boy! My boys LOVE IT!
More football...
Heinz had Fall Festival at school. It was so fun watching him sing songs on stage with the rest of the PK kiddos. I was very curious to see how Heinz would perform. Well, I know that I am biased but he stole the show! Ha, KIDDING. Kind of. He was just very outgoing on stage. He sang loudly and did all of the motions very well! After the kids sang, we all headed outside to do some fun fall activities! I am so grateful to have him on the same campus as me so that I can actively participate in things like this!
We had fun trick-or-treating in our neighborhood again this year! We had our annual jack-o-lantern pizzas from Papa Murphys! Mimi and JoeJoe came over for dinner and trick-or-treating! Maggie and Johnny came over after swim practice. Heinz dressed up as a Mississippi State football player and Murphy was Elmo for maybe 5 seconds and then he rocked a stinky dirty diaper and a jack-o-lantern outfit during the rest of our trick-or-treating. It was a Happy Halloween!
During one football weekend in Starkville, Heinz and Murphy spent the night with Nana and BB on Friday. We went to Ricks Cafe to see Mustache the band with friends. It was such a fun night!
Hard to believe it.... BUT I have more football game pictures... we are TRULY TRUE MAROON! These are from the Mississippi State vs. Alabama game. State played so well but didn't pull out the big W. It was fun to have family and friends at our tailgate (even if some of them were Bama fans). My guys (all three of them) love Mississippi State football (but really all football) games so much!
The beginning of the holiday season brought Santa to town.... IN A HELICOPTER! The Barksdale crew had a wonderful time at their first visit to The Pink Palace to see Santa land on the front lawn in a helicopter. The Barwick family joined us and we also saw a lot of other friends and families from school!
Thanksgiving was a little different this year because the Egg Bowl was back on Thanksgiving Day! We had brunch at Maggie's which was super yummy. Then we headed to Nana and BB's house for a Thanksgiving meal. After we ate we headed to Starkville for the big game! Egg Bowl 2017: Slick Nick got hurt and the Dawgs lost... BUT the Barksdale Crew got to go on the field before the game! Heinz had a blast!
Daddy had to work for this football game, but we were so excited to go with some Heinz family members to a Memphis tiger game! I can't remember -- that memory remember -- if these doughnut pictures are from the same day.. (I'm thinking not) but our boys sure did love eating their Memphis tiger doughnuts from Gibsons! We had so much fun watching the Tigers WIN!
Christmas 2017 has been one for the books! We were so lucky that we were able to spend quality time with both the Heinz family and the Barksdale family. What sweet memories made! We saw Santa multiple times -- let's just say that Murphy is NOT interested and that Heinz does just fine when little brother isn't around! We had amazing times with family and friends: parties, gingerbread house making, cookie decorating, meals, seeing Christmas lights, the list goes on! Heinz did a fabulous job in his SAA-SDS Christmas Program. He has one mean march --- he has "big knees" because he said that's what Ms. Marques told him to do! So proud of our little bubba!
Christmas continued.... lazy days, cousin time, more doughnuts at Gibson's, cousin sleepover, presents galore, celebrating birthdays..
We spent New Years Eve and New Years Day at Mimi and JoeJoe's house! We celebrated Mimi's birthday! I made two cakes!
2017,
Thanks for the memories! We will cherish them always! The Barksdale Crew is ready for YOU, 2018!
Dear Heinz and Murphy,
I love you so much and I promise to do a better job documenting our life in 2018. One day we will go back and read/look through all of these. Memories are so so sweet!
xoxo,
Mama
