Birthday Part One

I guess I don't have to tell you why there haven't been any Christmas blog posts this year - we've been so busy loosing sleep and falling in love. Wishing you a very merry late Christmas!

Love,

Megan

Merry Belated Christmas!

MaryClaire's 1st Christmas

Christmas Eve 2011

Happy Halloween 2011!

Halloween was an exciting and fun day at our house. Evie had a costume parade at school and an early dismissal day. She and her daddy used the afternoon to carve a Jack 'O Lantern together.

My parents and grandparents ate dinner at our house (my mom made chili :) Once it got dark we all got ready to trick or treat as a family. I didn't notice until after I uploaded our pictures, but it looks like we were joined by the little girl who fell down our well. Spooky.

Ben in a mullet and a Jack Daniel's man tank - maybe scarier than our little guest?

The girls had a blast. At each house their greeting was the same. Evie would say "Trick or treat" immediately followed by Annie asking "You got a dog?" Ha! She's a mess - that deep voice of hers is a riot! We should have taught her to follow that question with "How about a monitored alarm system?" Not creepy at all - right?

We have a family full of candy lovers! Digging through the loot back home was the best part!

And here is my good lookin' Dixie man...

... and his bootylicious Jersey Sugar. Boo!

(So sorry MaryClaire that you had to participate in this get up!)

Happy Halloween!!!

Trunk or Treat

Last weekend we went to Trunk or Treat at Evie's school.

It's basically a really fun kiddie tailgate party

Here is our little mermaid (with butterfly face paint?)

Ben and the girls gave out candy from the family swagger wagon

I decorated with a painted pumpkin ("K" is for our last name and for "Kindergarten")

And here is our sweet butterfly/fairy (she changes her mind every 5 minutes) and I so love that she insisted that I paint her nose! Do you see Annie's giant bandage on her fingers? She sliced 2 of them when she stuck her hand in the grate at the bottom of our refrigerator :( We had to take her to have them glued and she wore a splint for about a week.

We are going to approx 4 Halloween events, so we are going to get lots of use out of these costumes!

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!

Holiday Recovery

Hello Friends. A very merry belated Christmas and a happy 2011 to all of you! I don't know about you, but I feel like I've been totally wiped out and I'm now suspended in a vast post holiday recovery - quite possibly because our little family is recovering from being sick also. We had a very nice Christmas day in town, and then left for Asheville North Carolina to see my cousin and her family a few days later. The night before we left town though, Anabelle started throwing up! Her pediatrician advised us that it was most likely a 12 hour bug and told us to go ahead and go on our trip, so we did. It turned out to be, just as the Doctor thought, a 12 hour bug, but then sweet Evie came down with it as well that first night in our hotel room. About that same time I was coming down with a massive cold too - oh well. It was however, beautiful in North Carolina! We stayed at the historic Grove Park Inn which was completely blanketed by a gorgeous layer of Christmas snow. It was a very lovely place to be sick ;)I didn't take many pictures because we were all feeling so yucky, but we left with some great memories of time spent with all the little cousins. We had all planned to take a day excursion to Biltmore Estate one day, but since Evie was still so sick, Anabelle and I went with the rest of the group while Ben stayed with Evie at the hotel. It was such a treat to see the Biltmore covered in snow and decorated for Christmas, but the whole experience was muddled when Anabelle decided to throw the fit of the century inside the mansion (note: Anabelle is not generally a fit throwing kid, so this was a shocker). It was a bit of a nightmare to say the least. Oh well, it will be a funny story one day when I take her back when she is older - right? On New Year's Eve, everyone was feeling better and we spent a great night with the cuz and family - just dancing the night away with all the kiddos to a live band in the grand hall of the hotel. It was a blast! By the time we made it back home on the first though, I was exhausted and still trying to recover. I have still not recovered, and now Ben has come down with something, plus I was also called to pick Evie up from school today - looks like another stomach bug. Yuck. So far the start of our 2011 is looking a lot like the start of our 2010 :(I have not really made any new year's resolutions, I never stick to them anyway, but I do hope to get back on the blog wagon and continue to learn to better manage my time. We will see! I want to leave you with a few pictures from our lovely Christmas since I neglected to post earlier... We had a lovey morning at home with our girls, and my parents came over for brunch. We enjoyed a very relaxing start to the day, and Evie and Annie had fun playing with all their new loot!We went to my parent's house in the afternoon and my grandparents came into town around 1:30. I had not seen my grandparents in over a year and it was such a treat to spend the holiday with them. My mom made her delicious lasagna as usual (so so yummy, but Anabelle can be seen here dinning on her beloved chicken nuggets - her constant insistence). I did not take many pictures on Christmas day either, but that was because I was just enjoying myself so much!

So once again, happy 2011 from me to you! Here's to hoping I get back on my feet soon! I am looking forward to another great year with all of you in blog land!