Monday, July 30, 2012

Catchin up....again!

Is Summer really almost over?!  This summer has flown by faster than any other summer, I think.  We still have a month left, but I know that will go by even faster!  By this point, I'm usually ready for school to start, but this summer I've really enjoyed our downtime doing nothing.  I think we all needed this break to reset.
  I've been feeling guilty lately about the lack of individual time I spend with each kid, so I've decided to make it a point to have special "date days" with each of them.  It's been great.  I didn't realize how much I'm missing out on...more so with the older ones, and how much more open they are telling me things when it's just us.  This is definitely something I'm going to try and keep up when school starts.  I don't want to lose touch with what's going on in their lives, especially as they get older and less willing to talk! Ben picked his favorite restaurant...subway.(lol)  and then we went to the movies to see Ice age. Reed chose build a bear and the mall(imagine that) and eating at california pizza kitchen.  Gage and I are going to get yogurt and whatever else he picks this week and Molly and I...well we spend lots of alone time together already! :)
Nice shaved heads, right...yep....leave it to daddy to shave all of their heads when I was gone to the grocery store.  Sent me a pic by text!!  My little Gagey has had his mohawk since day 1 and in a second it's GONE!!  Oh well, guess I need to put it perspecitve..it WILL grow,,sigh.. At least Molly was with me!
Molly was invited to her BFF, Anna's 3rd bday party at build a bear and she loved it!   Gage went too and they had so much fun!  So glad these girls have each other.  I have a feeling they'll be great friends forever.

Bestest friends!  Love that bear hug...haha :)
As we were leaving, they noticed this faceless woman and were enthralled!  Gage was checking to see if she was real and said "mommy, where's her face?!" I think he was a little freaked out..lol

MAMA!....Did you see THIS???

Just a day in the life...

Diva with a capital D!
Gage told us his food stinks, so Jon told him to hold his nose...and he did...the WHOLE meal! Little Stinker!!
Ben went to church camp for a week this summer with his BFF Jake.  It was his first time going to camp for that long.  He said he got a little homesick the first night, which surprised me because he's the kid that has always been able to go anywhere and never seems to mind being away.  Glad to know that he does miss us every now and then:)  


Molly's friend, Juliet, feeding her ice cream.  Sweet girls :)
 Can't believe Molly will be TWO soon!!   We're going to have a "Molly's Ice Cream Parlor" party!  I can't wait!!  And she doesn't know it yet, but she can't either! LOL!  Guess I better get my camera fixed before then :)

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Vaca pics!

I have way TOO many pics, but I have 2 weeks worth to show! :)  I'll try to narrow down as best I can.  The 1st week we spent a week in Baton Rouge with my parents, and then went to Gulf Shores for the 2nd week.  For the past 5 or 6 years, Jon and I have been slipping away to New Orleans for our annual date day/night, and try to relive our youth as much as possible.  We always come back feeling so much closer, but it also makes us realize that we're not 20 anymore! :)


Pat O's!

We always go to tropical isle....one of our first dates was here 18 years ago!

Brad and Angelina's house in N.O.  Jon thought I was being a stalker! Too bad they weren't in town....I may have turned into one!

self portraits in front of Jackson Square


And then onto the beach! We had such a good time, and I loved watching Molly experience all of her beach firsts.  She wasn't a fan of any of it for the first few days, but slowly warmed up once she saw how much fun the boys were having! Hurricane Debbie was threatening us the first few days! We had HUGE waves and double red flags because of the strong rip tide, so they had to just play in the sand and right along the edge of the water.  They had fun running from the waves, but were finally happy to get in the water when it calmed down a bit!
Oh and excuse all of the blurry iphone pics...Debbie's wrath got a hold of my nice camera and ruined it!...UGGH!!
excited to get out to the beach!!


finally sat down with me after crying about the sand being on her

still cautious but happy now:)

Debbie washed up awful seaweed and caused these waves to be huge! I had never seen them so big! 

Princess with a baseball

M and Pa.....her fav on the trip!!

breakfast with Luke

my little beach beauty

G man watching the boys surf while he surfs, but from the safety of the sand! :)

Lulu's!!  One of our fav  restaurants!

the boys did this rope thingy and Lulu's...

while G did the smart thing and kept his 2 feet on land with a snow cone!

kids with Aunt Julie

Tropical storm debbie made this little lagoon and a huge sand bar. The lagoon turned out to be a good area for the littles

playing games with the game queen, Nana

M and dada

looking for sand dollars.  We found tons of live ones this time!
Molly lathering G with sunscreen.  She loved doing this:))



G teaching her how to build a sand castle

We stopped off in Marksville for our family reunion on the way home.  The kids loved getting to see their cousins and Molly got to meet all of them for the 1st time.  So much fun!

splashing with the cousins

Cousin Sophie teaching G to hula hoop
And last but not least, I FINALLY got to meet Jennifer, the person whose blog I started following years ago, when she was in the process of adopting Wesleigh, and inspired us to begin our journey!  I'll always be grateful to her for her story and for journaling it on her blog.  I can't imagine our life without our little Molly!  And yes, these girls are as sweet as they are cute! :)