Marco Island

We went to see Dave and Katie for a belated spring break in Marco over Easter. The Nelson family coordinated their visit with ours this year, which was so much fun! We did the usual, beach, pool, boat, more beach, more pool, more boat, and it was perfect! I am making up for the lack of pictures posted this year with an excess of pictures in this post. When the beach is involved, and matching brother swim sets, I just can't help myself.

 The boys checking out the view from Papa's new big boat.

Searching for shells.

 James was a swimming maniac. We couldn't keep he and Riley out of the pool, they just wanted to swim, swim, swim!

 Papa offered to throw him off the deck, and he shocked us all by agreeing and then kept wanting to do it!

According to Mac, this was his best friend, Cormac the lizard.

 Heading to Key Waden for the day with the Nelsons.

 We went to sunrise service on the beach Easter morning and then the Nelsons joined us for an egg hunt, eating and swimming all afternoon. A very relaxed and perfect Easter.

Ready to hunt some eggs!

 Fishing off the dock.

 James had to choose an animal to do a non fiction report on for school while he was gone. He chose alligators, and Mimi took him to find some real alligators. He was very excited that they found a bunch on their nature walk around Everglades City.

 I mean.....seriously. The cuteness here is just too much for me to handle.

 James and Riley trying out the wave runners off Key Waden with Tim and Kris. They saw dolphins while they were out and were so excited.

As usual, we had an amazing time that went way too quickly. Having friends there for the boys to play with made it even more fun. I am ready to plan our next trip!

Baby Boy #3

We found out at the beginning of the year that we were expecting baby #3! Even though we had not found out what the boys were ahead of time, I definitely did want to find out this time around. Because I am so old (35!), I had a blood test done at 10 weeks that among other things, told us the gender. I had the Dr tell Tim over the phone when she called and he told me a couple of days later than it was indeed a boy by wrapping up these little shoes. We were crossing our fingers it would be a boy, so we were very excited.

 We told the boys a couple of weeks later with these shirts. They totally didn't get it and when they did figure it out, James was less than impressed. He told us it was terrible news and that we shouldn't have told him (or anybody for that matter) until the baby was born. So much for an exciting baby/gender reveal. It took a couple of weeks, but he slowly came around and has gotten used to the idea and I think is even a little excited about it now. He has felt the baby kick, wants to name him after a Lego character and gives my belly hugs and kisses. Mac is just excited he won't be the baby anymore and tells me about 5 times a day, "I just love that baby soooo much." We will see if he feels the same once he is born ;)

We had Steve and Amb and the girls over for dinner and told them with a cake.

James got to do the honors and cut open the cake to reveal to his cousins the blue frosting showing we are matching their 3 girls with our 3 boys!

 The official Facebook baby announcement...

I pretty much wanted to die all of January, February and March and am finally feeling like a normal human being again. I spent 3 months sleeping, feeling like throwing up, actually throwing up or eating burritos. It was bad. I am trying to enjoy it now that I feel good and can actually function like a normal person. The only positive from the first trimester is that Mac somehow made it through alive. I am not sure how since he was pretty much taking care of himself all day, but he managed all right. We are now getting excited to meet our new little boy, who we assume will make his debut in late August. My official due date is September 7th (9th? 3rd?), but with my track record, we find it doubtful this little guy will stay in for 40 weeks. We are excited for our growing family and excited to see the relationship that James and Mac have with a new baby. And NO we are NOT going to keep trying for a girl. 3 boys and 4 nieces is just perfect for us :)