Wedding

One final post from Florida! The reason we skipped our regular spring trip this year and went over Thanksgiving was because Tim's cousin, Julie, got married on the beach the Saturday after Thanksgiving. My hope was for some great family pictures on the beach at sunset. This is the best we got. The wind had really picked up and the boys were super cold by the end of the ceremony when we took these. On top of that, when we got in the car to drive to the reception, I looked in the mirror and realized in my rush to get myself and the boys ready for the wedding, I had forgot to put on any make-up! 

 James and Taylor are two peas in a pod. They get alone SO well and they had an absolute blast the whole trip running around with each other. The wedding was no exception. These two were unstoppable on the dance floor.

 James got ahold of Dave's camera and spent the last half of the reception following Julie around and taking photos. We ended up with a lot of out of focus pictures of her from the waist down.

This is how to keep Mac happy when he is up 3 hours past his bedtime-give him a lap to sit on and a bag of skittles. Happy as a clam.

We owe Julie a big thank you for getting married in Marco, it made for a great family vacation!

Fun around the house

We stayed at Dave and Katie's new house, which they just bought in July. It is beautiful and we had so much fun hanging out around the house and by the pool with everyone.

 Mac slept in a big boy bed the whole time we were there and did great!

 Cousin fun in the bath and watching movies in Mimi and Papa's bed.

 The boys loved riding in the Jeep without the top on, and driving it it made Tim and I miss my old Jeep!

 At one of our favorite bars-Stan's in Goodland-with Mimi and Papa

 And with Gabby.

 The new house has a great pool for the kids. It has a nice shallow ledge area they can play on and waterfalls!

 On Thanksgiving day-Katie cooked for everyone at the house.

Watching the sunset from the top balcony-beautiful!

 Tim, Mac, Tom, Kenzie, Molly, Steve, Taylor, Amb, Chloe and Carly.

Boat time

We went out on the boat a few different times while we were in Florida. Both boys love going on the boats and the best part is, it puts them right to sleep!

 James sleeping and Mac just seconds away from sleep.

 James wanted to see dolphins, so Papa was happy to oblige. We had 3 jumping behind our boat for about 20 minutes-we had to wake the boys up to see!

It's a rough life when we are in Marco for sure ;)

We Love the Beach!

We had an absolutely wonderful trip to Florida over Thanksgiving last week. We are so beyond lucky (and extremely grateful) to have such an amazing place to go on vacation every year. This was the first time ever that everyone in the entire family has been there at the same time, and it was so much fun! My favorite thing to do in Marco is head to the beach first thing in the morning, which I think we did everyday while we were there. Mac and James are content to dig in the sand and run back and forth to the water for hours, so I really just got to enjoy being on the beach and watching my boys have fun. Having their cousins at the beach to play with most days just added to the fun. I can't control myself when it comes to taking photos of my boys on the beach, so there are a lot to look through!

 Trying to recreate this photo circa 2008.

A picture of all 5 cousins looking at the camera! You can thank Tim throwing himself face down in the sand for this adorableness.

 One day we took the boat to Key Waden and it was so windy, it was the perfect day for kite flying.

Stay tuned for boating, pool, and wedding fun from Florida!

Out of room

Well, I was about to post about 10 gazillion photos from our Florida trip, but I am apparently out of room on blogger. Boo! I will figure out what to do and hopefully post soon :)

Toddler Talk

I had forgotten just how adorable it is as toddlers start acquiring language and start to talk more and more. Mac is adding words to his vocabulary daily and repeats almost anything he hears. He is starting to string some words together and hets his point across, but he is not speaking in full sentences yet. A few things Macky says right now that I don't want to forget:

• He still wants to be carried all.the.time. and I always say, "Oh Mac, you are too heavy!" as I pick him up. He now comes up to us and raises his arms and says, "Too heavy! Too heavy!" anytime he wants to be picked up.
• He runs a few phrases together so that they sound like one long word.
• Disaway! (this way)
• Dataway! (that way)
• Datovder! (that over there)
• Dataone! (that one)
• Whadatsay! (what's that say?)
• He has shortened Bubba to Bub for James. He will run into his room in the morning and say, "What's up Bub?!"
• His most frequently used word is "SELF!" which is always shrieked at full volume. He is far more independent at self help skills than James ever was (and perhaps still is). He wants to climb in the car himself, put on his shoes himself, take his coat off by himself, blow on his food himself, and the list goes on.

2 has actually been awesome for Mac so far. While still....mmm, let's say passionate and opinionated, it is a pleasure to watch him grow, learn, and enjoy his world.