Brian's Birthday

What a busy, crazy day for all of us! We are thankful that it began with the six of us all under one roof before heading off in four different directions, and it ended with a nice dinner out, then cake, ice cream, and presents together at home that went something like this:

 Emma decorated Daddy's cake all by herself!

She picked the colors of icing and sprinkles she wanted to use. 

 She made a purple car with yellow wheels, a yellow sun, blue sky and green grass!  What a great cake! She picked the candles and we decided to give him three since he's forty-THREE.

Trophy

It seems fitting to post a picture of this trophy today on Brian's birthday.  He received it for winning his Fantasy Football league last year.  It just came in and so the guys at work surprised him with it yesterday.  Now that they are gearing up for another season, we'll see how long Brian gets to keep it!

Watch out world!

Lucas is on the move!

He's actually been on the move for a few weeks, but is beginning to finally figure out how to go forward!

He's still fine-tuning his skills, but we know that he will only get better and faster from this point on!  

I can't hear you

Brian has been teaching Samuel a little silly something
with his favorite fruit:

 Originally from:

Biggest & Littlest

Love this picture

and Nathan loves his baby brother...

Winner!

While at Emma's school open house last night we found out that Emma won for her grade in the coloring contest.  Her prize was in the form of credit at the book fair, so she was pretty excited to pick out whatever she wanted!  Yay Emma!

Vacation Part IV- hanging out

We swam most days in the morning and evening and tried to stay out of the sun during the hottest part of the day.  We went souvenir shopping, out to eat, to TCBY for a special snake, and did a little sight seeing here and there.  Sometimes we just had down time in the condo and hung out together. 
It was all good!

 Nathan playing with Legos... yes, even on vacation!

The Four

A bedtime story with big brother

We really wore Samuel out most days!

 Bubble time on the balcony!

 Twins!

One day we got to witness a wedding on the beach straight out from our balcony.  

 The kids were so excited to watch and wanted to see close ups through my camera.  They were especially interested in the KISS, which they missed, but I caught this one:

So as not to embarrass Nathan too much I have to say that this was at Emma's request and he was kissing her on the CHEEK.

Too many pictures of Lucas

I can't help it... I'm addicted to his cuteness....

A conversation with Samuel

Me:  “You’re my good boy Samuel.  “

Samuel:  “Yeah.”

Me:  “What is Mama-- a girl or a boy?

Samuel:  “ You Mommy!”

Me:  “Yes, I’m Mommy, but am I a boy or a girl?”

Samuel:  “You Mommy!”

Me:  “I’m a girl.  Daddy is a boy.  What are you?”

Samuel:  “ I a tree.”

Me:  “ You’re a tree?”

Samuel:  “Yeah”

Me:  “Are you a boy or a girl Samuel?”

Samuel:  “ I a boy.”

Me:  “ Yes, you are a big boy!”

Samue:  “Yeah”

Me:  “ You, Nathan, Daddy, & Lucas are all boys.  Emma & I are girls.”

Samuel:  “I a girl too.”

Me:  “You  aren’t a girl, you’re a boy.”

Samuel:  “ No, I a girl!  I a BIG girl… no, I a wittle girl.”

Me:  “You are silly Samuel.”

Samuel:  “You silly too Mama.”

Vacation Part III- The Ferris Wheel and more

One highlight of our trip was riding a Ferris wheel at The Wharf in Orange Beach together as a family!  It was over 112 feet!  
What a thrill!

 We all fit nicely in one gondola...

 A view of the ferris wheel and surrounding shopping center:

 

 While we were there, the kids each picked a special friend from 

Build-A-Bear (Emma got a grey kitty, Lucas a white seal with an Alabama bandana, Samuel wanted a ZuZu pet, and Nathan was thrilled to find a weenie dog).

 There was a Life Is Good store so Nathan also got a new hat!

Other noteworthy happenings include swimming in the rain 

(Emma wasn't crying, she was calling for Daddy because it was raining so hard that she couldn't see him):

 Samuel decided he didn't like to swim but he loved jumping off the side of the pool!

 Lucas is a natural in the water

 We discovered that the view from the balcony is sometimes better when one leaves their clothing inside...

 Brian and I enjoyed a nice fireworks show right outside our condo...

The way you see

To me, photography is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... it has little to do with things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.
-Elliot Erwitt

Vacation Part II- The Beach

We began our first morning in the Gulf Shores by exploring the beach.  This was a first for Samuel (& for Lucas of course).  Nathan has been to beaches a few times, and Emma has once a couple of years ago.  They were so full of excitement!  It was a beautiful day! 

Samuel figuring out how to walk in the sand

This is our condo.  Brian & Lucas were on our balcony (Brian on the phone talking to me and Lucas trying to grab the phone from him):

Lucas was very curious about the sand and the water.  Here's a short slideshow of his first moments on the beach:

Lucas meets BEACH - free slideshow maker with music

Nathan, read to ride the waves!

 

Samuel was in about 2 inches of water for just a minute when the tide caused him to lose his balance.  After that he preferred to just play in the sand (or in special "puddles" we made for him). 

We swam in one of the pools that day as well and went back to the beach again in the evening.  The fun came to an abrupt halt when Nathan got stung by a jelly fish!  He had stings on his face/neck, arm, side/stomach and his ankle.  It looked much better the next day but was still tender:

The evening did end on a nice note though... gotta love the sunset that we could see to on one side, and the moonrise on the other side at the very same time.