Easter Weekend

We celebrated Easter Weekend with a trip to my home town of Pensacola, FL.

On Saturday, we spent the entire day at the beach with a few of my cousins. The weather was so perfect and beautiful, plus we were right next to restaurants and shops right on the beach where we could rest and have lunch. Ben and the girls played for hours while my cousin Janie and I soaked up some sun. In the afternoon, we rented a jet ski and most of us took turns riding. Ever cautious though, Anabelle made sure we all knew that "A-belle no yike jet ski!" :) but of coarse our wild girl Evie couldn't get enough. I love that they are so different.On Sunday we started the day by celebrating our Risen Savior at my Uncle Clif's first Sunday morning service at his church plant Circle PCA, it was a special service and we were blessed to be there. In the afternoon, we had Easter lunch at my Nana's house and the girl's hunted eggs down by the water. It was such a lovely and relaxed day - perfect for reflecting on what Christ has done for us.Before we drove home on Monday, we explored in downtown Pensacola and ended up having lunch outside on the deck at The Fish House. Right below our table in the water was a mother duck with her brand new ducklings - precious! Watching them kept us entertained the entire time. It was a perfect way to wrap up a wonderful laid back trip. We can't wait to go back soon!

P.S. Are any of the rest of you having trouble with uploading your pictures on blogger? Lately it is making mine so fuzzy - grrrrrrr!

No Ordinary Beach Day

We went to the beach yesterday morning...but it was no ordinary beach day... because we were with Uncle Neal and Aunt Molly!What a treat!

My brother Neal and his wife Molly (who we have not seen in a year and a half!) are visiting from Montana, AND my baby brother Reed flew in from Germany last night!!! We are soooo excited and we wish it would last FOREVER! I love being with both of my siblings at the same time, I'm a happy girl! (Evie and Annie are pretty stinkin' happy too!)

P.S. Our new nephew was born this morning and we met him this afternoon :) Yummy! Post coming soon!

Cousins at the Beach

My photographer, Bridgett, took some photos of my kid's playing at the beach with my cousin's kids this past May. I'm so happy with how they turned out, and this YouTube slide show really does not do them justice because they uploaded all pixelated, but you'll get the idea. It is so hard to take pictures of kids (especially four of them!) but Bridgett is so patient. She'll run, lay down, climb things, sing silly songs - whatever it takes to get great shots (plus kids really like her). Anabelle and Liam (our reserved children) cried because they didn't like the sand, and Evie and Maisie (our wild girls) were all over the place! We had to bribe all of them with gum (seen in some of these photos) to get them to be still, and I see that Evie had a giant booger that I failed to wipe - ha! These photos are very real, and I love that. What you see here, is what that day was like, and I love that the chaos was captured in such a sweet way. These are truly childhood. Enjoy!

Summer Time

It's Summer time and boy is it HOTTTT! We've been pretty busy the past week or so, and we have a few more busy weeks coming up. From Vacation Bible School to all sorts of play dates, we have been out of our house almost everyday! The extra activity combined with the (extra intense this year) Florida heat is wearing me out, so I won't lie, I've been taking naps with the kids lately instead of blogging :) We're having a great Summer though! I'm trying to squeeze in plenty of fun, while at the same time trying to turn us into "more organized people" in anticipation of Evie starting school in 2 months (sniff, sniff - I'll save all that for another post!) Anyway, I just wanted to drop in to say "Hi". I do have a few "preplanned" posts to entertain you all over the next 2 weeks while I am still very busy, plus I will try to pop in here and there. I hope you are all enjoying Summer!

Beach Night

Ben's mom rented a beach condo last week (for herself that lucky lady). She invited us out for a night to play and we were thrilled - we LOVE evenings at the beach! Here are a few pictures (little disclaimer: the cowboy boot & bikini combo is a statement dreamed up entirely by Evie - such a fashionista!)...