Family Beach trip 2014

We took our first trip to the beach as a family of 4 in September.  We stayed at the Robert's condo in Perdido Key and had a blast!  We used their boat to drive to a semi-private beach, where we swam in the waves and played in the sand.  We had the entire beach to ourselves the majority of the time.  The kids loved it - it was a great trip and I hope to have many more family beach trips!

The first day we had an awesome tent and 4 chairs, but they were stolen overnight on the deserted beach, so this is all we had the rest of the time.  We were still able to spend a few hours at the beach every day, and also spent some time swimming at the pool. 

Eating ice cream on the balcony...

Playing with the Chartons and Bennetts at the cabin on the Charton's farm. 

Brody turns 4!

How is it that 4 years have past since my baby boy was born?!? Brody is such a good boy.  He is polite at church, great with his sister, follows directions and obeys most of the time, and is just so much fun!  He loves to play pretend with friends and me - but Emery most of all. They play the mower game, Mommy and Daddy, teenagers, pirates, and superheroes.  Brody started preschool for the first time this fall and just loves it!  He learns so much and enjoys the organization and playing with other kids.  The only problem is he is growing up too fast!! He is just the sweetest boy- we love you so much!

We had a swimming party for Brody at the Country Club.  It was last minute and we did it quickly in the middle of the week before school started, but it was still fun.  It just limited the people that could make it.  He picked "superheroes" as the theme, and had a great time!

Gram and Pop came to visit the Friday closer to his birthday and we had dinner and left over cake...

Dress up presents...they love to dress up!

Happy actual birthday day!! August 19th!  Sweet boy!  He picked Umami, a Japanese steak house, for dinner, and had the best time.

1st day of preschool!  He cried when I left, and was a little upset, but was fine right after and ever since.  I hated leaving him!  It was so hard. Before I found out he loved it, I had already decided to just home school!!

Summer overview 2014

I am behind, but wanted to put some pictures from this summer and then Brody's birthday and the beach.  We had a great summer - busy as always.  The kids are so much fun, and the smallest things make them smile and laugh.  I love watching them grow up and change, although it does happen way too fast!  A few pics from summer...

We went to the lake a few times and the kids both loved it.  It is fun family times and brings back memories from when I always went as a kid.  They would wear their life jackets and play pretend boat.

Brody also did soccer for the first time this past spring/summer.  They just did drills with a parent, so no real game...until this fall.

Watching Austin play baseball...











Backyard playtime!!












Playing with Logan and Cadie...








4th of July...








Brody learned to swim this summer!  He did swimming lessons in the spring, and about halfway through the summer, I let him try it out on his own, and he could do it.  He loved having more independence and playing with friends.  We swam at Gram and Pop's and the country club a lot.  Emery ended up loving to swim too, once she figured out the life jacket worked and allowed her to be more independent too.










Jay's family vacation...there were about 30 people there! Lots of fun! Brody and Emery with their cousins William and Andrew...