Family Pictures

We had our family pictures made a week ago by one of my really good friends, Sharon, at Smitten Photography. She does amazing work and the kids had a great time. These were for Emma's first birthday and we decided to do some of everyone while we were there. Sharon took these pictures of Emma at the hospital the day after she was born. You can see all of the pictures from our recent photo shoot here on her blog.

Kids Books

I was just reading this to Maryn before her nap and decided to share it with you. My mom gave it to Parker and it is so cute! She is a preschool teacher so she knows kids books! It is a great story about a duck who decides to ride a bike and all of the other farm animals he passes and what they think. The illustrations are really good too. What kid books do you enjoy?

Bermuda!!

Let me say that Bermuda was FABULOUS!

This is where we stayed, the Fairmont Southhampton.

We dropped the kids in Auburn on a Wednesday, put them to bed and then left. It felt really weird driving away- but I didn't mind too much! We got to Bermuda and it was raining really hard but since it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon and we weren't going to get any sun anyway. The weather the rest of the trip was great although it did rain again Saturday afternoon but we were shopping in Hamilton so it didn't matter too much. The food was absolutely fabulous. Our favorite was Waterlot Inn. It was probably our favorite restaurant ever. I had scallops all four nights either for an entree or appetizer. YUM!! We did lots of reading, sitting by the pool, whatever we wanted! I could take as long as I wanted in the shower, shave my legs every time, fix my hair and put on my make-up without any interruption. Maryn wasn't trying to play in my make-up and Emma wasn't crying to be picked up. I love my kids A TON but it sure is good to get away every once in a while. Especially with Mark!!

It was a great trip and the kids had so much fun while we were away. When we got home they were so excited to see us. Maryn just screamed and then said "I saw the door open. I didn't know who it was and it was you!" in her shrill little excited voice. So cute.

You can't rent cars there, only scooters. We weren't there long enough and didn't care about doing anything but sitting by the pool to rent one.


This was at the Fairmont Princess in Hamilton. There was a free ferry that would take you between the two resorts which was nice because taking a taxi was pretty expensive.


These dancers were at the dock when the ferry arrived in Hamilton.


View from the ferry




My handsome husband


View from Waterlot Inn


Our room


Can't wait to start planning our 15th anniversary trip!

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??