June Celebrations

June was a busy month full of celebrations. Mark and I had our 10th wedding anniversary on June 12th. These beautiful flowers were waiting on my front porch when I got home from the pool that morning. What a crazy 10 years its been! Especially the last 5... we went to San Francisco for our 5th anniversary and weren't even pregnant with Parker yet and now we have 3! I sure do love you, babe, and have loved the past 10 years with you. You are my best friend, the love of my life. I am so thankful God brought us together at that keg party in Auburn!! :)



Mark also celebrated his 35th birthday June 18th. Happy Birthday, Mark!! He got a kindle for his birthday and loves it. I haven't seen him this excited in a long time, about a gift anyway.



Father's Day. Mark really did get a lot of celebrating this month! We made tie cards for all of the dads. Buying cards is just way too expensive!



This is the only picture from Bermuda that I am posting right now. It definitely deserves a post of its own. Lets just say we had a BLAST!! Missed the kids but knew they were in good hands.


Parker and Maryn stayed in Auburn with Joseph and Sarah. My mom also came down to help. Emma went to Dothan with Mary Sue. I don't have pictures from their stays but they had a great time and were kept very busy. The big kids didn't have any crying fits where they missed us too much which I was very excited to hear. The went swimming, fishing and to a birthday party. Parker even went off the diving board for the first time and caught 11 fish! Much thanks to Joseph, Sarah, Ford, Luke, mom and all of the others who helped keep my oldest two busy and having fun!!!! Grandma and Grandpops had a great time with Emma and got pretty attached to her. I think they were a little lonely when she had to come back. THANK YOU for having her!

After we got back from Bermuda we all met up in Auburn with a plan of driving home the next day. Mark ended up going back by himself so I could stay and help (ha! with my 3 kids??) get ready for my sweet nephew's first birthday. It was a fun week but there is such a thing as overstaying our welcome... but who better to overstay with than Joseph and Sarah!!

Parker helping Joseph in the yard.





Joseph took the big kids to an early 4th of July fireworks showing and we decided (don't try it) to give the kids a bath outside. It was pretty funny, especially when they all peed in the yard, Maryn too.


Happy 1st Birthday to Luke! He was born a month and a half early and had to spend two weeks in the NICU.


No one would know looking at him on his birthday!!


Big boys at the party. They are such sweet friends. Parker and Maryn have really been missing Ford and Ford refers to the playroom where they slept while in Auburn as Parker and Maryn's room!



Two posts in two days! What has come over me?? Well, no VBS to plan, no birthdays, or trips so I have time to blog! Don't count on one tomorrow though.

Parker's Bike

For Parker's 4th birthday we got him a bike. His poor little legs were just so big on his tricycle. Mark took him to the bike store to pick it out. I nearly cried when he came home...



Doesn't he look big on his bike?? He's getting so old :(


This is one thing we've been doing a lot of this summer... riding bikes. Well, Parker rides his bike, Maryn her tricycle and Emma gets to ride in the stroller. We try to take the kids to the park every week or so to ride there. North Meck Park has a track around their soccer fields that is great for riding bikes. Emily and I like to stroll the little ones while the big boys ride. Its great because we can see them even when they are a half a lap ahead of us and Parker and Cam have a big time.


My mom got this car for Emma for her birthday so she can ride in it now and feel big like the other two. She absolutely loves it!

I will try to post pictures from her birthday soon- oh and our trip to Bermuda and Auburn...

Isle of Palms

I promised Sarah that I would post the beach pictures since she did such a great job with our rainy day pictures from our trip. I realized after I had uploaded about half of the pictures that I should have done a slide show but was too lazy to start halfway through. Enjoy.

Papa and Dede, we had a fabulous time. Wish we were there again after looking through all the pictures. Thank you, thank you, thank you.



Celebrating Emma and Luke's first birthdays a little early. I have always said you can never have too much birthday. Luke was supposed to be born five (six?) weeks AFTER Emma. He was born the week before.





Although it rained a lot we did get to enjoy the beach some too. When the tide was out it created a nice little baby ocean that the kids loved playing in.



Emma and Luke made it out to the beach on the last day and they were happiest under the tent. They weren't crazy about the water or the sand.









Joseph, Maryn and Ford flying the kite which is actually three trick kites tied together. Joseph is really good at it.



How many people does it take to untangle a kite?



Ford having a snack of pretzels and sand.



My dad, a frequent pose on the beach. "This is the life!"



Joseph being a ham, as usual.



The three "big kids"







Have you seen these wagons at Target? A great purchase! The kids (mostly Ford) loved pulling it down to the beach. It was just their size. Maryn did enjoy pulling Emma around the house in it before we left- pretty cute.



Redneck family. If its too windy on the beach why not hang out on the driveway??











Luke is a huge fan of the johnny-jump-up. (That's what they called it when I was little anyway.) The ceilings were so high we had to put a stool under him. He could jump for 30 minutes without a fuss.



Papa burying the kids legs.











Dede and Maryn



Dede, the official water girl



A lot of people would complain about a week long beach vacation with their family. Not us. This is by far one of the highlights of our year. We love you Daddy/Papa and Debbie/Dede!!!

Beach Bag

So I know I promised beach pictures... and they will come but in the mean time I just saw this on a blog I look at from time to time.


Does anyone have this bag or another great beach bag? Ours is on its last leg and I was thinking about getting one because we have been making many trips to the pool this summer. This one looks great but I am not a fan of the $160 price tag. Listen to all of the great things it has!! Removable backpack straps to better wrangle kids with free hands, elastic straps on the outside to hold a towel, insulated pouch for snacks and juice, zippered bottom so you can shake out the sand without removing EVERYTHING from the bag (who thought of that?? what a great idea!), a special padded pocket for cell phone or camera...

So who has another fantastic beach bag that costs AT LEAST half, preferably much less??

A Quick Post

Parker's class at Bike Day. He is on the far right. If you click on the picture it should make it bigger.



Parker and Dylan on their tricycles. They have both since moved to "big boy bikes" and now look so much older.


How big is Emma? Almost 11 months old. Still not walking but crawls like a mad woman. She has her two bottom teeth and is working hard for the top two.


Yes, that is my 34- almost 35- year old husband on the slip-n-slide. Parker was a little timid so Daddy was showing him how to do it. (or just secretly wanted an excuse)


Easter babies

I promise (Sarah and Daddy) to get beach pictures up later this week.

Stealing from Sarah

Many of you know we just went to IOP with my dad and Debbie. Instead of attempting to write a creative post anywhere near as cute as Sarah's, I'm going to steal it!! Thanks, Say!! If you want to read about our wonderful trip click here!

April

So we're a little behind on posts. Don't think I've ever gone two months before. It could be worse. I still haven't finished my scrabook from being pregnant with Parker, let alone the other two! These pics are from our week in Dothan in April in no particular order because let's face it it's a pain to rearrange pictures in a post!! I guess I could be all organized and upload them in order but... at this point we're just lucky to even have pictures!

Mary Sue flew here to Charlotte just to turn around and drive back with me and the kids to Dothan. Oh, she did fly here on a Friday so that I could spend the weekend in the mountains on our church's women's retreat and then we drove on Sunday. And she drove home with me the next weekend and flew BACK to Dothan the next day. Did I mention she's a saint??



An early birthday party for Parker


Emma playing in the tupperware.


Our very own Easter egg hunt. Grandma even put money in some!!





It was warm enough one day to break out the sprinkler and bathing suits.


at the park at Westgate


Landmark Park. Emma spends a lot of time in the sling. One of my favorite baby items.


Checking out the pigs at Landmark.


The rope swing. Parker loved this!


Sweet Sarah drove down with the boys to see us. Isn't this the greatest picture of Ford??
Also check out this picture. (you have to scroll through until you get to their family- but its worth it!) Their builder took it for his website. Isn't it fantastic?!!


Grandma and the kids... don't remember where Emma was... taking a nap??

Come back soon. I promise it won't be two months before I post again!