Summer

With summer comes so many fun and exciting things...cookouts, vacations, family visits, staying up late and sleeping in. Well, not really the sleeping in part, our guys are up by 7:30 each morning and ready to go! The first of June we took our annual vacation to St. Simons Island with Len's family, this time adding in a few days in Savannah with my parents. As always we had a blast. Ethan loved the ocean and the sand. Audrey loved being with her cousins and having lots of girl time. Savannah was full of charm and history, sadly though it was close to 100 degrees everyday! YIKES! Our town fourth of July festivities were amazing once again, filled with a family visit, endless carnival rides, fireworks, good times with friends and my first road race!

June 2009

June 2010 - They grow so fast!

Summertime Audrey

Ethan running around outside the carnival, this kid really is a crack-up!

Audrey's first day of sport's camp, showing off her new "kicks"

Ethan loves to "drive" his car around town(the driveway)!

sunshine

It always happens this time of year, my blogging falls by the wayside. But for a good cause, we are all outside soaking up the sunshine, splashing in the pool, grilling out and most of all just relaxing. The kids are just growing up too fast. Audrey graduates preschool this week, another chapter closed only to open up to the wonderful world of kindergarten! She is so excited and just cannot wait to ride the school bus, meet her teachers and see who all is on her class. Each day she just amazes us at how independent she is becoming and how grown up she is. And our little Ethan, is just into EVERYTHING!! He is very head strong but so darn sweet I cannot stand it. Out of the blue he likes to gives hugs and kisses. And when he wants to cuddle he comes over to me, lays his head in my lap, sucks his thumb and motions his hands for me to sing twinkle-twinkle-little-star. Ahh, such a sweetie, I know that these days will soon pass. He loves anything with wheels and that goes "vroom" and is expressing his ever-growing independence daily! Such a little explorer!

Photography

We have been blessed with an amazing local photographer who captures Audrey and Ethan beautifully! Here are a few pics by Alana Hawker. These are the only three pics I have seen from last weekends session, I cannot wait to see the rest!!!

Audrey turns 5!!!

WOW! Where does the time go? Audrey turned five years old today, so hard to believe. She has gone from a shy quiet little princess to an outgoing super chatty big girl! We could not be more proud of our little girl. Audrey still loves to read books, play with her dolls and play dress up but now she has added some "extreme sports" to her favorite activities: ice skating, roller skating and riding her bike. And yes, these are extreme sports for our little girl!!! Her laughter and smiles are contagious to us all. I just love to see what she'll think of next.

Practicing her skating!

The birthday party group.

Not just sliding but jumping up into the air to slide!

Our little figure skater!

Happy Birthday sweet girl!!

Finally Spring!

We are absolutely loving the spring weather and being outside. So much that I am really behind with pictures and updates! Well that I keep forgetting to take the camera with me. I guess I should just keep it in the diaper bag. We celebrated Easter today with friends, having a delicious meal, good company and of course, an egg hunt! The older one s ran all over collecting eggs while Ethan kept coming after the camera and picked up two eggs. He is definitely more interested in gadgets!

Audrey on the go for Easter eggs!

Ethan in his Easter best!

"When mom gives you oranges, make orange juice!"

A little lunch time conversation

I cannot believe this is my little guy! He looks so old here and on a misson too!

A bag and missing coffee

One of the favorite places for the kids to play is in the kitchen. They love to be at my feet while I cook and they both love to be around snacks. The other day I had left a laundry bag in the kitchen area, not knowing that it would bring over 30 minutes of pure delight to the kids. I have taken note of this and will plan on leaving it around the house more often! Audrey and Ethan hid in the bag, giggled at each other, knocked each other down and just had the best time. It was fun to watch!

I have also learned that just because our kitchen cabinets now have "child-proof" locks on them does not mean that they are truly child-proof. Ethan can easily slip his little hand into the one inch opening and empty out the cabinets of small items. As seen here he is pulling out my extra k-cups of coffee. After pulling out a handful (one by one) he then brought one over to me, very proud! And then walked back over to pull out more and build with them!

Pulling out k-cups while the cabinet is "locked"!

The evidence scattered over the floor!

Look what I have mom!

Big Boy Haircut!

Ethan had his first haircut today. He looks like such a big boy right now!! He still has his curls and waves on the top but no more over his ears or on his neck. I cannot say he was fond of the process but the end result is so darn cute!!

When I held up my phone to take his picture here, this is Ethan's "cheese" smile! Love it!!