We're not "LION"....

....Carter loved his B-Day party!!! Thanks Aunt Susan for making his awesome cake!!! More pics to come soon....Tonight's the last night of summer...Sniff Sniff... :****( We will all miss seeing so much of Daddy each day! We are so grateful for the summers! :)

The Camp "In"

We were supposed to go camping tonight with one of our playgroups...but with the weather being so iffy we opted for a camp "in" instead!

The older kids enjoyed making S'mores...(thanks again Ginny!)

And Carter begged for scraps... :)

Then the kids got all snuggly for a movie (which only 1 kid ended up watching)! They had such a blast playing, the mommies got to talk, and the daddies got to play pool downstairs!

Our kids have been out of the "playgroup loop" this summer with me teaching and all of our vacations...so it was so nice for them to be back with their buddies!

Yay for a fun evening with friends!!!! :)

In the Wake...

Carter is constantly enjoying playing in his sister's "wake" around the house each day...his B-Day was no different (as you can see in the pic)! :)
We enjoyed a lowkey day of reflection today around the house...Carter got lots of napping, chewing, and playing in today as we thought back to what was happening at "such and such a time" today this time last yr...Putting him down for his AM nap was especially nostalgic because he was born at 9:40 am... :)
Daddy was feeling a bit under the weather today so we scrapped what we had planned to fix for dinner and had "Birthday Soup" (just like Little Bear) instead...Mallory was excited! Carter received lots of cards, emails, and fun calls today complete with singing! :) We will be having his official family party on Sunday....Gotta love stretching those B-Days out!!!!

He's 1!

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It feels like an eon ago that we went to bed unaware that Carter would be here in the morning! But it also feels like it has gone way too fast!!! (How can our baby be 1!??!?!?) What an amazing year we have had with our little guy! We love him so much and the joy he brings to our lives each day. We are so grateful that God gave him to our family! :)

"His" Restaurant...

Here is our little guy sporting his hat from his special restaurant...the restaurant we would go to after each good OB appointment with him. We like to take the kids to "their" restaurant to celebrate their B-Days and remind them (and us) of all the people who prayed for them before they were born. We are so grateful for God's goodness in giving us little Carter! It was so fun to go out to lunch with just him and reflect on the yr and all that we love about him! MiMi and Mallory had a special day just the 2 of them so it was nice to just have Cater and really focus on him for the day!

And here is our "little wild man" after nap...

First of Several

We started off the B-Day celebrations with my side of the family this weekend (Pics to come...I'm a little overwhelmed at the moment with pics after our trip and this weekend! Over 300 to sift through! ) We cashed in our FREE cake coupon given to us at the hospital when Carter was born...gotta love some cake from the U! He was so hyper he knocked his piece of cake overboard and had to have one of the cupcakes instead...

He turned into "The Hulk" when Daddy tried to put his bib on...The song "It's My Party and I'll Cry if I Want to..." would've been perfect playing in the background...but as soon as he dug in all was well with the world!

Is he really turning 1 on Thurs?!?!?!?!

Dad-a-Rella?

Found our "Little Cinderella" a pair of glass slippers this weekend at the Thrift....She loooooves them!

She even checked to see if they would fit on Daddy...ummmm...no Dad-a-Rella for sure! Wow-zers! :)

Mini Reunion

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We had a great time visiting with MiMi's sister's family (my Aunt) and my cousin's family this weekend...a mini reunion of sorts! We played lots of fun games at MiMi and PaPa's, met their new kittens, went to the park, had fun in the dark with candles (we lost power for part of it during a storm!), and ate yummy food! :) It was great to have Laura over for the weekend since MiMi's and PaPa's house was so full! Laura even babysat for us this morning and the kids had a blast! What a fun and busy weekend! :)

Maine

RI 09

We had a wonderful time in RI this summer! All the cousins had a blast being together! Here are some of the highlights from our time...

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Grandma took Mallory to her very first play! We read all about Cinderella beforehand to get ready...we hadn't read any Disney books yet, so it opened up a whole new world for M! She was so excited to go and still talks about it to this day! (3 wks later!) Thanks for taking us Grandma!

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Grandma and I had a "Girl's Day" and went to Newport to visit the mansions just the 2 of us! We had a fantastic time together with a lovely lunch by the water...Thanks for such a special day Sally! :)

There's No Place....

....like home! :) After over 12 hrs today in the car...we are home! (The above pic was taken at a Rest Stop along the way....One of Mallory's cousins showed her a cool place to hang out on top of all the luggage in the van while we were up in Maine last week...Carter thought it was pretty funny to see his sis perched up there like that....the 3 times we stopped today she got to scurry up there to hang out for a bit and play while we regrouped for the next leg of the journey...
We had a WONDERFUL time up North with Mike's family...pics and stories to come soon!
We got home tonight at 10:45 and both the kids woke up and their reaction to being home was PRICELESS! We let them play while we set up their rooms up for bedtime...

Keeping it Local...

Studying The Word before we left... :) I love to find her with the Bible and hear her "read" from it! We were going to go to Busch Gardens again today...(just trying to enjoy as much FREEness as possible this summer!) But with the scorcher of a day forecasted and with our crazy busy schedule we decided last min to keep it local so everyone could get good naps today...and so we could be more lowkey... :)

On a side note...Mike is my hero...He went through all the toys and reshuffled them for the kids before putting them back in the playroom! Now Carter has lots more to do and all of Mal's stuff is reorganized! Yay!

The only bear we saw today at the park...guess it was too hot!

I love this park bc it is so pretty and I never feel sorry for the animals...their habitats are so nice!

Love my boys!

There were just a lot of photo ops there...guess that's why a lot of people around here get married there!

It was such a nice family outing...just the 4 of us!

We will be seeing lots and lots of walls like this in New England in a few days! :)

The kids loved the Nature Center inside...and We loved the AC after all that walking!

Can you believe my camera died when we got to the cutest exhibit ever!?!?!? How cute are otters!? God creates some pretty adorable stuff! Wish I could've gotten a better pic!

Now it's off to nap and then tonight it's National Night Out at the pool! :)!!!!

Auntie Chi Visits...

Auntie Chi has been here since Sunday for a visit...Mallory and I baked a cake together before she arrived...our first time baking together! What a mess! But sooo yummy! :)
Chi embraced the chaos of life with little ones and we wore her out each day! :) We hope to see you again soon!

Little Miss Muffet....

Mallory is at such a fun age! She is learning so much! It's a challenging age too- but fun! :) Driving in the car is such a good time bc she is looking for letters now and will read them to me when she sees them on signs...I love that! And she is obsessed with American Flags at the moment..."Look Momma America!!!! Flag!!!!! God bless America!!!" We never realized just how many flags are out there on our way to and fro until now! :) She even informs us of the color of stop lights and what they mean...we have ourselves a back seat driva! And I finally got a clip of her singing today after naptime,...Here she is catching a snuggle with Daddy after naptime today...We love bringing them down for a snuggle when they wake up...Summertime is glorious!!!


A.I. watch out!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Making the Rounds...

We are trying to make the rounds to see all the new babies born to friends this summer! We have seen several-- with a couple more to go! When we met our new "Bosnian Baby Friend" Carter made himself comfortable under their coffee table...

While Daddy played B-Ball with the guys outside and Mallory went back and forth visiting with people outside and inside...

Carter even pulled up on the couch while we were over there...and has pulled up since on our bench in the kitchen...He is moving on up!

And PaPa and Daddy have been hard at work in the playroom! It's almost done! Just a little more painting to go and we can remove the beloved blue tape! Yay!

And here is a clip of Carter with the little fella that spent the night with us last night...I love the little smooch! :)