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! :)

11 Months

A certain someone is going to be 11 months old tomorrow! How did that happen!??! We are so blessed by this little guy! He is a little "wild man" as of late and is getting into more and more! He now sits up after doing his army crawl when he gets to his desired location. We fear that his "On the side GQ Pose" is being phased out. SADness! But with each thing he outgrows, something new is added in it's place-- which is fun! He can do this silly "Ernie Laugh" sound back to you if you do it first...it's hilarious! (I'll have to try to capture it soon on film!) He loves to smile and is typically a happy little guy! The only times you see him turn into "The Hulk" are when something he wants is taken away and when he is being dressed...he is not a fan of these 2 things at all and he will let you know! I got on the scale with and without him the other day and the difference was 25 lbs! It wouldn't surprise us! He is a solid little boy! Not chubby...just solid! Mommy is warming up to the idea that he might play football one day! We love him so much and can't believe this time next month we will be celebrating his First Birthday!

The Big 3-Oh!

We headed down to NC for the weekend to celebrate Aunt Laura's 30th B-Day (which is actually in a couple of weeks, but we will be up north)...

We spent a lot of time hanging out in the back yard...chatting and playing a little Bocce (Daddy taught Mallory the game this weekend and she was a big fan...)

Going for walks and stopping to smell the flowers :) ...

Feeding the birds... (and rechecking it multiple times a day to be sure it was full...)

Playing in the pool with and w/o water...Carter is at an awkward age outside bc all he wants to do is grab everything and try to eat it! The pool was a nice place for him...

And watering the plants...

Thanks for hosting us Auntie Lu! We know we kept you busy! The kids had a blast and so did we! We can't wait for our next visit!