SUMMER!!!!

Kids laughing at the pool, sticky popsicle hands, and catching fire flies at night.......so excited that summer is here!! It has been a busy Spring to say the least. Baseball, Softball, Soccer are all winding down and now there is more time to just relax and enjoy some family time. Rachel and Jacob are

happily finishing up their last few weeks of school and then it will be time for the beach!! 

Here is what we have been up to!!!

Ready for softball practice----go get em' girl!!

Soccer at 9:00, Softball at 11:00, Baseball at 1:30.......seriously the perfect day!

Rachel and "Coach" . It has been such a great experience getting to coach this awesome player!

Best Buddies (for that moment)

 Of course a trip to Pelican's Sno Cones after playing so hard!

Apparently eating pizza on the couch is very very tiring............notice he still has the fork in his hand!!

Jacob hit his first triple and another mom captured this picture for us. Pure joy not only from him but look how excited his team is for him!!!!

Last Day of Preschool Ice Cream Social. Drew had a great year that flew by! We can't believe in one more year he'll be headed off to Kindergarten. 

Iceberg Right Ahead!!

What comes to your mind when you see a box like this??????

First a little background, you all know Andrew is pretty much an expert on Titanic. He builds it out of anything. Straws, legos, hockey sticks….you name it. So you can imagine what he said when he saw this box…...

" It's a Titanic!!!! "

I told him he would have to wait until Matty was napping and he was very patient. When Matty went down out came the paints. As we were painting Drew made sure to tell me I had written Titanic on the stern, not the bough……ok, sorry Drew. It needed to be historically accurate after all. We even had a tube with it so we could make smokestacks. Again, more tips from the expert "four smokestacks mom, not three, even though only three actually worked")

Anyway, here is what we came up with. It has been a huge hit! 

At any time in our house there are 3 or 4 Titanic replicas. Here we have Box Titanic, Lego Titanic, Duplo Lego Titanic, and Puzzle Titanic. Should we be concerned?………...

Happy Titanic Building Everyone!!!

Surprise! You have school today!!

We went to bed on Sunday night thinking we still had two more blissful days of track out ahead of us. What should we do? Make Valentines for school parties? Go visit Aunt Jen and Gracie? The possibilities were endless.  That was until I got up at 6:00 am Monday morning and decided to "double check" that the kids didn't go back until Wednesday…..

OOPS

So what's a mom to do you ask? Well, you pace the hallway and fear for you life knowing that you have to wake your sweet 9 year old girl up and say "Surprise, you don't get to go down and visit your awesome cousin and have fun all day because you have to go to school because I wrote the date down wrong on the calendar and it's Monday and you have to go to school BYE!! (and then run out of the room because your fearing for your life. )

OOPS

"Oh, and one more thing Rachel…..Jacob is sick and DOESN'T" have to go to school" 

mom of the year…..just saying……

Well we made it through because like I told Rachel, sometimes you are thrown things you don't know are coming at you and you just have to roll with it. She must have listened because she came off the bus  beaming and chatty chatty about school. (And she didn't even tell her friends or her teacher that her mom is a clown sometimes…bonus points for her : )

Matthew the Marvelous turns 2

What can we say about this little guy…….

This little blondie has captured our hearts, and the hearts of his brothers and sisters. 

He is a typical two year old, full of joy and mischief. He throws tantrums when I don't let him drink cups of water out of the toilet (that only happened once……or twice). He is a little instigator and likes to take things away from his brothers or sister just to get a rise out of them. If he could eat mashed potatoes and spaghetti at every meal he would! He adores his "diggers" and his sister "Ray Ray". 

Dinnertime is Matty's time to shine and he loves to make his siblings laugh. 

Matty has been the missing puzzle piece to our family. He rounded us out perfectly.  Two years has gone so fast. I can't believe we'll be potty training and sleeping in a big bed soon! 

Happy Birthday to this little man that stole our hearts two years ago and continues to bless us everyday with his charm!!!

Andrew Turned 4!!

Remember this guy……..???

4 years ago we were overjoyed to have another little guy, and scared to death that something was seriously wrong. Thank God it turned out to be nothing too serious and today we have this guy……..

Think he looks impish? Well, if it looks like a duck and quacks like a  duck………..

Quite the little history buff

 He is our Titanic loving, story telling, slightly impish little guy. He loves his beloved Pats.  He can impress you with his knowledge of the Titanic and how it sank to the bottom of the ocean. He loves to laugh and dance and is the most expressive and excitable child you will ever meet.  Andrew has come so far! Two years ago, we were at our wits end because he was so temperamental, so unpredictable.  Now he comes downstairs giggling every morning asking to watch his History Channel documentary on the Titanic (thanks Papa and Grams….5 hours of Titanic Doom is like a dream come true….well, at least for him)
 : ) dAndrew makes us laugh everyday with his facial expressions and off the wall comments. He loves his "Matty Gooey" and Spiderman.
He is growing and learning so fast and we are so blessed to have him in our life.

Happy 4th Birthday Andrew!!!

Snow Day!! (or four but who's counting)

Hey, we take our snow here in NC seriously folks. That's why when we got 2 inches last week they decided the kids needed 4 days off. The bad news is the school has to make those up on Saturdays. The  good news is we are tracked out so we don't! Woo hoo! So the kids had many days to bundle up and play with their friends. I tell you it was a busy day for me zipping up snow pants, drying gloves, heating hot chocolate, making sure Matty didn't eat the yellow snow. And just for the record, Matty lasted longer than anyone…..who knew diggers aren't just good for mulch….they work in snow too!

I know I know, you'll shoot your eye out

After I set him on his feet

BRRRR!!

Drew driving…..this can't be safe

Cold? What cold?

Weeeeeeee!!!!!

King of the World play set

I like the yellow over there better mom

Don't let him fool you

Yes folks, we are in football pants and no jacket. Jacob insisted that he "experience what it is like to play football in snow"

Our Amazing Daughter

Where on earth did the time go? 

From this

To this

To our beautiful girl today

Since the day she arrived our lives have never been the same. Each day is filled with laughter, some challenges, questions, and love. She is so strong, and so confident. She challenges us everyday to be better parents, better people. She is a fantastic big sister to her brothers, and a great friend to her peers. She excels in school and is a strong, capable athlete. She is an amazing gift to us and we thank God everyday that he gave us this little girl. Happy 9th Birthday Rachel!!!