Alex's Special Day

My precious firstborn reached yet another milestone. He was baptized this past Sunday. There were quite few kids in the church who wanted to be baptized, but some were afraid of going up into the baptismal in the sanctuary, so our pastor decided to purchase a pool to do baptisms outside followed by a cookout, water games, inflatables, and the works. What a day! I absolutely love the look of joy on his face when he came up out of the water. He kept commenting on Monday how special the day had been. It just warmed my heart. Thank you to all of our family members for making the trek out to our church to be there with us.

Silence can be golden.

When dealing with a 2 year old and a four year old however, it can also be a sign of trouble. Tammy even made mention of the fact that Caleb and Eli were suspiciously quiet in the bedroom where they were watching cartoons. My naive (I could kick myself) response was, "Oh, they're fine." Well, a few minutes later this is what I found.




What you see is a combination of sunscreen with a little bit of lipstick added in for color. What you can't really see in the pictures is the entire bottle of hand sanitzer mixed in there as well. They had raided Tammy's purse. I don't have pictures of the lipstick covered walls and carpet, because let's face it - I had to put down the camera and get to scrubbing. It's one thing when kids destroy their own home, but this was Mimi and Papa's house. Thanks Mom and Dad for being so understanding! We love you and promise never to decorate your house again.

Early Morning Beach Combing

We were down in the Outer Banks this past weekend with my parents, my sister, and nephew. Tammy had this great idea - let's go down to the beach at 6 in the morning to look for shells before all the people get there. Those of you who know me well, know that I wasn't nearly as excited about this as she was. This little princess has no desire to do anything other than sleep peacefully at that hour. Oh well, I can bite the bullet just once and do it. After all, I do love seashells. As luck would have it, there wasn't a single shell on the beach, I have never seen a beach so bare of shells. I do have to admit though - it was really beautiful and peaceful at that hour.




Look mom - a dead crab! Eww gross! Put it down! Wait, as long as you're already holding it, I may as well get a picture.

It's about time.

Finally! I was finally able to see my dear friend Beth and her sweet new baby girl. We were able to meet up with her and some other friends when she came into town for a visit. Caleb got to play and I got my baby fix, so all in all, it was a great morning.

Our trip to the Living Museum

Today we went with our friends, the Browns and the Stahls, to the Living Museum. For any dinosaur fans out there, it's Dino-Mania at the museum. They had some really, really neat exhibits. I like how they change it up every few months. We had a great, fun day and the best part was the naps on the couch that followed at home! Well, I'm not completely sure what the boys did, but I took a nap.

Summer Fun with Friends (and fish)

At the park with our friends Emily and Connor. They had just finished feeding the ducks. Isn't that such a cute picture!


Cooling off with our friends Frank and Taylor in their backyard. There's nothing like letting the kids splash around after dinner so that they sleep in until 9:30 the next morning!




Alex and Caleb aren't the only boys in this family having some summer fun. While they were busy splashing around in the pool, Andy was busy catching this...

It's fun to play at the YMCA!

These boys sure have enjoyed splashing around this summer!

Alex's Green Thumb

Can you believe that this ginormous sunflower started off in a little dixie cup on Alex's desk at school?! He's quite the little gardener! He' also growing some pumpkins. Be watching for pics of those this fall!

Can I go to school now?

This is the question I've heard almost every day for weeks now from Caleb. He straps on his Spiderman backpack and asks me if I can take him to school. I explain that it isn't quite time yet, but he just can't bear to take his bookbag off, so he wears it around the house. I just pray that he's still this eager when the time actually comes.

Flying high!

We got the boys a kite from the kite store across from Jockey's Ridge down in the Outer Banks. They have the coolest kites there - everything from simple (which is what we got) to amazing pirate ships (maybe next year). The boys have so much fun seeing how high it can go.

Mmm Mmm Good!

To Caleb, there is absolutely nothing better in life than eating chocolate, unless of course it's wearing chocolate. He's the only person I know who, when licking the icing off of just one spoon, can end up with chocolate all over his face, arm, and tummy. Yummy!

Happy 4th of July!

We spent most of last week down at the Outer Banks. Where else would we be? Alex told us he would like to live down there and we can come and visit him on the weekends. Here are some pics of our family loving life on the SeaDoo!





On the 4th, we went up to the top of the Wright Brother's Memorial hill to see the fireworks. It was such an amazing view! From up there we could see the fireworks up and down the entire Outer Banks. They were everywhere! We're definitely going to make that a tradition. Unfortunately, I don't know how to take good pictures of fireworks. I need some photography tips from Beth! The first pic is the boys waiting for the fireworks to begin. The second is the morning after - Caleb was recuperating from a late night out!