Gulf Shores: play time

As you might remember, our family headed down to Gulf Shores about a month ago to visit Papa Ray (my dad) and Mama Pat.

My brother and his wife and their son along with Pat's daughter and her husband and their son also joined us. The weather was gorgeous! The timing was perfect. The food was fabulous. And the time spent with family was priceless.

I'll go ahead and warn you that these next few posts will contain a plethora of pictures. Like an absurd amount of pictures. And an even more absurd amount of the pictures are our girls. Because, well, I was with them 24/7, so naturally, I'd be a little top heavy on pictures of our little ones! But enough of that!

Addie and I started the morning with a walk on the beach to look for shells.

But it didn't take long for us all to hit the beach (pictures to come) and then the pool.

Addie loves "swimming" with her puddle jumper. We will be investing in another couple of those for the baby girls by next summer! I kept the picture on the right bc she was SO far away from us and just as comfortable in the pool as could be! I finally strapped the little girls together, and they had a blast sharing their ducks and floating in the water (supervised of course!).

We we so excited to get to meet baby Tucker! He is almost 4 months old here, and I'm pretty sure he's as big (or bigger) than Addie was at that age! He is absolutely adorable and has the sweetest, squishiest kissable cheeks!!! He was such a good baby, and we loved spending time with Uncle Judson, Aunt Anna, and him.

My brother, Judson, found a crab trap on the bay side of the property. Tyler, Pat's oldest grandson (above left. i pointed my camera at him and without saying anything, that's what i got! love it!), came with us to help bate it with the yuckiest meat patty I've ever seen! We decided it probably wouldn't even disintegrate in the water because it was so overly processed!

But it worked! That night Judson and Tyler went back to find quite the crab! Of course, given that it was from the bay, which was apparently one of the last hurricane's dumping grounds and was sealed up right after the oil spill (so sat stagnant for a while), we didn't opt to eat this crab! Oh, and there was one of him and 15 of us...

Addie thought she was hot stuff riding on the back of Tucker's stroller with Uncle Judson pushing. (notice our blue heron friend who landed on top of the pier pavilion).

But I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the weekend. I found Addie sitting on the floor next to baby Tucker being super sweet to him! Love them both!

More from the beach to come!

Mountain Time!

we unfortunately had to miss a visit to mountains (to see gramma, papa al, uncle jay, aunt millie, cousin kira and baby john) back in May because of ear infections and a fever virus. this time we didn't miss it, we just came home with it all! Audrey Kate found herself in the ER Sunday morning with the worst wheezing I've ever heard. Diagnosis: the croup and an upper respiratory infection.

(loving on the doll they gave her at the hospital)

We got back to Gramma and Papa Al's to Anne Perry waking up from a super long nap with a 102 fever. By the following day, Addie had a fever virus too. Gracious lands!

But that didn't stop us from having a blast in the mountains with Gramma and Papa Al and a fun visit from Nana! The weather was more than perfect. Cool but not cold. The rain stopped. The sun came out. And we enjoyed every minute outside that we had!

We headed to the Nature Center only to discover they had new fall hours. So we decided to hike back where Addie played in the creek this summer. No creek swimming in this weather, but it was still gorgeous! 

I had the grand idea of getting a picture of Paul and his mom and the girls. Apparently not such a grand idea to our little people. It quickly went from unhappy...

...to unruly! At least a few of us had a sense of humor about it!

So we headed back for lunch and n.a.p.s, and then back outside to play some more!

Gramma had a fun frisbee that was perfect for little hands to spin...

to throw...

...and especially to catch!

And how could i forget...to WEAR!

Doesn't matter what it is, if you give this little girl anything that could remotely go on her head, it does! buckets, baskets, sleep sacks, blankets, hats...

...and frisbees!

This sweet little munchkin was perfectly content to sit on Gramma's hip

...and make silly faces!

We even got to eat dinner on the deck with Nana!

and before the bear arrived (yes, i said bear and no, i unfortunately didn't get a picture of it or the damage it did), sweet ginger dog decided i needed a baby in my lap or one snuggled up close! i am not a lap dog person, but i love this dog!

I had a favorite picture of each of the girls from this trip. not sure what it is about this one, but i love it of Addie. maybe it's her serious expression or her sweet eyes.

 i love this one of anne perry. she just looked so big in this chair!

and audrey kate. i love how serious she is in the picture. i love her sweet eyes too. i think this one goes in my top 5 Audrey Kate pictures!

God has gently reminded me over and over this past week how blessed we are to have 3 little girls. Thankful for their health. Thankful for their spunky personalities. Thankful they are so very different and yet so similar. But most importantly thankful that they are so very loved.
 

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalms 100:5

Happiness is...

...an entire Family Day starting at the zoo.

(oh my. when did they get so big? i do love those chunky legs!)

(there might not have been a single child looking at me for this picture but at least no one was crying!)

(addie loving on her daddy)

...with lunch at Chappy's, good naps, and pizza ending with yummy frozen yogurt from California Yogurt Kraze.

(yup, we all got our own cups and spoons bc there were entirely too many snotty noses; but we did not in fact even cover the bottom of the girls cups...thus saving us a small fortune!)

sweet memories. fun times. precious moments.

...and all documented with an iphone.

Highlands: the 4th of July

ok. so only 2 more highlands posts to go!

we chose the 4th of july weekend for several reasons, one of which was the small town 4th of july celebrations!

we started the morning with a trip to the creek (again) with just Addie, Paul and me. she had so much fun (again) jumping around and playing with just us; and i got to grab a few of these flower shots! we {forgot} to bring her a change of clothes, so we just stripped her down and put her in her carseat wrapped in a towel!

after showers and little girl morning naps, we headed to see the birds of prey from the Balsam Mountain Trust Nature Center. Addie was mesmerized, but the little girls not so much. so paul strolled them around until we all piled in the car and drove {more than} a few blocks to the 4th of July picnic. there was a fire truck with the ladder fully extended that spewed water from the fire hose all over the field for the kids to run and play in at the end of the picnic after the medical helicopter took off and did a fly over!

but before all of that, addie jumped inside the firetruck and didn't want anyone else to get in!

so we pulled her out and grabbed some lunch with Nana, Rie Rie, Gramma, Daddy, and the baby sisters.

picture attempt of all 3 girls #1:

picture attempt of all 3 girls #2:

perfect picture: fail.

perfect memory: success!

there were so many things to watch!

 

i love how very different yet so similar these little girls are.

then it started to rain right before the helicopter took off, so paul loaded up the babies while Addie and I stood and watched it take off and do a fly over. wow! (sorry, no pictures. the camera was staying dry in the car too!).

then we headed home for naps.

after naps, gramma and papa al came over with the yummiest home smoked pulled pork bbq ever, and we had delicious cold salads and grilled corn on the cob and divine peach/blueberry cobbler and ice cream made by my aunt/nana. then a few of us and Addie went to hear the patriotic program (complete with a bagpipe) at the local church but headed home early to wait for the fireworks.

we put the (completely exhausted) little girls to bed and watched the fireworks with an excited Addie, who's emotions ranged from utter amazement to complete bury-your-head-cover-your-ears fear! it was sprinkling again, so i didn't take a single fireworks picture either {sad!}.

barring the limited number of pictures i took, it was a wonderful day of celebrating our country and the men and women fighting for our freedom, all while being surrounded by wonderful family!

Kira Jane

I had so much fun photographing Kira in Augusta that I decided she needed a post of her own! Kira is Paul's brother and his wife's daughter. She's our only niece (right now), and I'm pretty sure I ended up with more pictures of her than I did of our 3 girls! Isn't she just adorable!!! She has the most contagious smile, and I'm pretty sure she adores Addie as much as Addie (and we) adores her!

Kira's going to be a big sister next year right around the time Addie became a big sister this year...about 2 weeks earlier in fact!

Thanks for letting me play with your little one Jay and Millie!

We love all four of you!

{the Lake} Part 6: the Family

What's a family trip without family pictures?

Our plan was to take one picture with the entire family.

I simply cannot imagine how that would have turned out! ;)

But due to people having to leave early, others coming late and babies going to bed; it became impossible!

As the picture taker, I'm pretty sure I can count my blessings for that one this year (mainly because of our 2 year old!)

Here's the rundown on the attendees:
{5 children}: our 3 month old twins, a 9 month old, a 16 month old, and a 28 month old...otherwise known as a 2 year old!

{5 teenagers}: enough said. but seriously. these were some of the greatest kids to be around and they were all so sweet to our girls!

{7 young/younger adults}: ranging from around 23 to 34

{7 adults}: (i wouldn't dare call them older adults!) basically, the grandparent/great aunt/great uncle generation.

The 4 siblings are: Paul's Uncle Dennis, Aunt Jan, Uncle Ron, and his dad. They've been taking a family trip for years...at least 30+ years! Wow! We feel so blessed to be a part of this wonderful tradition! Everyone, and I mean everyone, was a HUGE help with the babies. From keeping an extra eye on Addie to holding babies to playing with Addie and Kira, they were wonderful!

So let's get to the pictures already...

We'll save the {best most humerous} pictures for last and start with the youngest sibling's family:

{Annemarie, Dennis, Laura, Timmy}

leave it to these boys to be the ones to get randomly sprayed by the pool cleaner!

{Graham, Jan, Duncan, Travis, not pictured: Tom}

{Ron and Pat, Lauren and Alan with baby Nolen, Katelyn}

I just loved this picture of them!

Paul's dad: aka Grandpa is the oldest. He loves to be called the {paterfamilias}, but that got him in a bit of trouble with his siblings. According to them, the {paterfamilias} picks up the tab! Can you imagine picking up the entire tab for 24 people for 7 days!?! Thankfully, their {bark} was bigger than their {bite}, and I'm pretty sure they split it all!

We never could get everyone looking at the camera, smiling or not crying!
Take 1:

Take 2:

Take 3:

{Millie, Gail, me, Jay, Grandpa, Paul, Kira, Audrey Kate, Anne Perry, Addie}

Just in case you missed the faces...

...and a super cute one of Kira

But things really fell apart when I tried to get a picture of Grandpa and the granddaughters...

Things went from bad...

...to worse!

...really fast!

So we resorted to Grandpa and just the babies!

And the {whole} family!

Many more pictures to come as soon as I figure out how to organize a select few from the {975} I took!