The beach

Here's to some beach fun!

First up, Abby digging a hole...What great fun! ;)Daddy and Caleb chasing sea rats...I mean sea gulls.
Everyone enjoying some fun in the sun.

Aren't they too cute?!?!

BFF's

Digging their "pool"

Caleb helping out with the sand removal

Pretty morning.

The Westerfield family

An actual good picture of us!

I love father/son pictures! :)

Too precious!

Love it!

Abby is having great fun!

Well, alrighty then...

The good thing about a blog is that you can go two or three months without posting anything and then just as quickly come back and start again...The bad thing is that no one may be reading the blog anymore...So, if you still read/check this, I hope you enjoy.
I've decided not to go back and try to recap the whole summer that I've missed, I'm just going to start where we are now...So the latest thing is FLORIDA!!!

We went to Florida with the Westerfields for a wonderful vacation! We stayed at Ron Jon's Surf Shop in Cape Canaveral, FL. First stop the hotel room and indoor play area. We used the indoor play area A LOT! It was a good time filler when we needed something to do for 15-30 minutes-and they never seemed to get tired of it. Daddy and Caleb chillin' on the couch.
Abby and Alyce playing animals.

Don't let the crocodiles get you!

I should be updating again soon. I will try to get all the FL. pics up, so stay tuned! :)

Abby's funnies

Tonight Abby was in the car on the way home from her "birthday dinner" (Cici's pizza). Alyce called to wish her a happy birthday. The conversation was so precious! It went something like this:
Alyce: Happy Birthday Abby.
Abby: Happy Birthday Alyce...I mean, thank you.
Alyce: Can you come over to my house?
Abby: Maybe someday, not today though...it's almost my bedtime.

Boy they start early! Alyce's mommy and daddy were going to watch Abby and Caleb for us so we could go to a movie, and without thinking about it being "June 2", I planned it for Tuesday. When I realized it was Abby's b-day, we obviously took a rain check, but Alyce had already heard that Abby was coming over, so she wanted to make sure she could come over another day. Those two are so sweet!
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Since my brother got married, Abby has been on this getting married kick. She has asked if she could marry Caleb, because she loved him "the best" and then she wanted to marry daddy. She hadn't asked anything in several days, but tonight she asked, "Mommy, can I marry Dominic?" I told her no, that Dominic was her cousin, and she couldn't marry anyone in her family. She threw herself on the floor heartbroken and yelled, "But, I'll never get to marry anyone!" I calmly told her that she could marry someone only if they were not related to us. She could marry Noah or Clay, or anyone who wasn't family. She seemed okay with this and went on about her business. About 5 minutes later she looked at me and said, "Mommy, daddy is part of our family." I said, "Yep" then she said, "But mommy you married him!"
How am I supposed to respond to that besides laughter? I finally told her that when we got married we became a family-that's how families are made.
Not sure she understood, but it was an awfully funny conversation!

WEDDING!!!!!

On April 18, 2009, my baby brother took a step that every big sister dreads and cherishes at the same time. Luckily, my brother picked well and therefore that day was all joy and celebration. Nikki is such a sweet, sweet girl with a good heart. Her two little boys are wonderful and I couldn't wish for better cousins for my children. I know that Josh and Nikki will have a wonderful life and I am so excited to have a new sister!
Also, like any good mommy, this post is going to be mostly about the flower girl, who I think stole the show! ;)

Abby and mommy waiting on pictures.

Aren't they so pretty?

Abby and Pappaw Lee (my mom's dad)-Doesn't he look handsome?

Abby "primping" before the wedding-yeah, that's what we'll call it-"primping"

Abby and Pops-she was upset here because she wanted to go run and play with Dominic and Isaiah and I had the audacity to make her stop and take a picture...

So pretty!

Nikki and me-isn't she just beautiful?

There they are looking all pretty again! Nikki really wants a girl and loves to help Abby priss and primp (real primp, not the "primp" I was talking about earlier...) :)

Abby kept saying, "I look like a princess!"

The wedding was wonderful, but the funny stories are all about Abby. The night of the rehearsal, we gave her 5-6 petals to practice with. She had to have them perfectly spaced out. She dropped one took two steps, dropped another, then looked back to see how evenly spaced they were. Then she took two more steps, dropped another and then looked to make sure they were evenly spaced. When she got to the front, Josh said, "You missed a spot." And she turned around and said, "Where?"

Then on the way back out, she started trying to pick them up. We told her she didn't have to pick them up and she gave us the weirdest look. :)

The day of the wedding, I told Abby she had to be extra good and couldn't cry all day because Aunt Nikki was nervous and crying would make her more nervous. Nikki wasn't really nervous, but hey, it worked.

When Abby was coming down the aisle, she had lots more petals, but she still made sure they were perfectly placed. One was apparently not good enough, so she turned around, went back and fixed it. Everyone in attendance was laughing at her (in a good way, obviously). Then she managed to fall asleep on one of the steps during the service. The wedding was right during her nap time and she hadn't had a nap. It was so precious. On the way back out, she had more petals in her basket and started dropping them. Finally someone at the back of the church managed to convince her to go on down the aisle and stop dropping petals.

Oh yeah, somewhere in there, Josh and Nikki got married. :) It was a beautiful ceremony, and our family is so blessed to have three new wonderful additions.

Easter

One thing I don't like about blogger is I can never remember how to load pics in the right order. So here are Easter pics in the wrong order...

I don't remember why I didn't load Easter pics, I just sort of forgot...

So here are Easter pics a little, no, a lot late.

All the grandkids (and a cousin). Notice Caleb and Isaiah are wearing the same outfit. And even though Isaiah is a year older, they are wearing the exact same size... :)
Abby-cute dress, goofy look.

Caleb looking all snazzy. I think the paci's add that extra "pop" we were looking for with this outfit...

Abby and her weird looks...

Dalton and Dominic hunting easter eggs. They were running so fast, I could never get a picture of the front of them. :)

Caleb is on a mission

Abby knows how to get it done!

Abby, Belle (a friend from church), and Isaiah-

they haven't quite figured out the thrill of the hunt yet...

The grandkids again-aren't they the cutest?

My parents are very lucky to have such cute grandkids... :)

Abby and Belle (not quite sure what Belle is doing.

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Funny story:

We are practicing for a new summer musical at church. It's called "Ark-eology", and it's about Noah's Ark. We were singing the first song the other night and we noticed that Abby sings, "It's not a mystery, it's ARKI-ALLERGIES". It's way too cute to correct. :)

Women of Joy

What an amazing conference! I would sincerely suggest that every woman go to one of these conferences. There was so much....joy. :) Seriously, it was amazing! I was too busy listening to take many pictures, but here are the few I got. Casting Crowns performed Saturday night. I was very surprised that it was a huge worship service and not a "concert". At one point, they even had us get down on our knees for prayer. It was amazing to see 1000's of women on their knees in Freedom Hall praying to the God of the Universe. Amazing!

Candace Cameron Burre who used to be D.J. on Full House. She had an AMAZING testimony and was very funny.

I GOT A PICTURE WITH KAREN KINGSBURY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I actually met her, got her to autograph a book and she was so nice. It was awesome!

Mom and my SIL-to-be (she is now, but wasn't then) Nikki.

(Tune back in later this week as I continue to get caught up now that my computer is back up and running)

Casting Crowns-Such a powerful song that reminds us all that little eyes are watching our every move.

Karen Kingsbury reading the end of her book, "Let me Hold you Longer". I highly recommend that every mom read this book and really take it to heart. I also suggest you read it with a tissue!

Zoo

So, we actually went to the zoo a long time ago (like over Spring Break) but I am just now posting the pics. Christina and I decided to take a trip to the zoo. We were bound and determined to fit all the kids in one seat, and by golly-we did it! Look how tight Abby, Jacob, and Benjamin are! But they loved it.

Abby thoroughly enjoying herself on the merry-go-round.

Caleb thoroughly HATING every single second of the merry-go-round.

Waiting for the train

Yeah, it's here!

Silliness at the Barnes'

It's good to be silly!

This is his "chee" face

"Spin me, Spin me"

Dancin' in the bed (is there a better place to dance?)

Chillin' before the day starts. (No, they don't sleep together. Abby just likes Caleb's bed for relaxin')