kristie sent me these adorable shots of karina, and i just had to be a proud aunt and share them! that sweet grin and those big, beautiful eyes just grab a hold of my heart!! not to mention she's wearing the little shirt i bought for her on the day kristie found out she was a girl... we love cousin "k-k"! 
ok, what's wrong with this picture? 
technically, it's a family picture, but the three subjects are not "a family"...
jonathan (who grew up with brian) is married to kristie's sister, and kristie is married to brian's brother. got that? we were all just hanging out at danny's (kristie's brother) on sunday, and i had my camera out when they were sitting on the couch with caroline. maybe this is just one of those things that is funnier in person...
we don't really have to encourage ethan to be excited about his sister...he loves "ca-ine"! on a daily basis, i hear, "ca-ine seeping!" "ca-ine wake!" "hi ca-ine!" here's a peek into the sibling world at our house...
here's a glimpse into our time at the pool in st. augustine... 
so when does the daddy vacation begin?
caroline's ready for the pool!
can we stay here all day?
who says the middle child never gets any attention? :)
catch!
steven's "cold face"
um lydia, i think you're safe!
carrie & freddie and their 3 kids came to visit one afternoon... it was great to see them and let all our kids play together again. and of course we subjected our children to the group picture on the couch... in 20 years, they'll be glad we did it! 
twins look good on carrie, don't ya think? 
left to right... sort of!
the boys: all turning 2 in the next few months
the little mommies: 3 yrs old
the babies: 4, 6 and 7 months
after frolicking in the pool, we all needed a little down time...
fun friends!
caroline & meredith...boy, my baby has a big head!
awwwww...i love my boys!
one night, we took a walk around the lake at the world golf village. we watched the fountain change colors, and we rode the glass elevator at the renaissance hotel (several times). fun fun. :) 
it was sad to see our vacation with our friends come to an end, but there's always the next trip to look forward to... i've already been thinking about where we can meet next year! (i'm dangerous when i get in travel-agent mode, but not as dangerous as kristi pushing that umbrella stroller!!!)
this is vacation central, signing off...
hope you weren't holding your breath for these pictures! whew! it's been a busy week with a nasty cold traveling from ethan to caroline and then most recently to brian... it's no fun to see my family sick, but i'm thankful to have been spared thus far. anyway, here are my favorite pictures from our visit to downtown st. augustine... 
the trolley tour was the best way for us to see downtown with 5 little ones by our side! we were able to get on and off wherever we pleased...and when naptime came, our children fell fast asleep while we rested our feet and rode around town to the feel of the spring breeze on our faces! i think we heard the whole tour 3 times! at least it was an interesting one. :) i highly recommend the trolley- it seems expensive ($18 for adults, our kids were free), but it was worth it. an added bonus is that you can ride it multiple days for that one price. ok, commercial over. :) i forgot to tell this funny point... the trolleys were 3 cars connected together, and we generally took the back two rows of the very back car. toward the end of the day, the kids started getting fussy, and we still had to several stops to go to get back to the place where we'd parked. after a few stops, we noticed that the first 2 cars were completely full of people, and we had the whole back car to ourselves! at each additional stop, we chuckled as fellow tourists scooted over and made room for more riders on the already crowded front cars. :) we enjoyed our spacious ride back to our car! 
CAUTION: kids may bite! haha.
our feet were glad we took the trolley!
bjorn to sightsee!
we visited the oldest schoolhouse and my favorite part of the town, old st. augustine village. you can see pictures of the actual village in my post from last year's trip.
on the last night of our trip, we ate at harry's... we enjoyed a relaxing dinner and great music outside under a canopy of beautiful trees! ice cream and a carousel ride finished off the night and the excitement of our vacation. 
there are still some parts of st. augustine i'd like to visit... tour flagler college (the dining room is filled with tiffany windows!) and see the lighthouse among other things.... but by far, my favorite sight in st. augustine was the five smiling faces in that trolley caboose with us! stay tuned for more fun pictures from our trip....
i must share my quote for the week... for the year, really! it's just that good. girltalk recently posted these words from charles spurgeon, and i can't help but share it with you...
“I will help you, says the Lord.” Isaiah 41:14
“This morning listen to the voice of the Lord Jesus speak, ‘I will help you. It is a small thing for me, your God, to help you. Consider what I have already done. What! Not help you! I bought you with My blood. What! Not help you! I died for you. Since I have done the greater, will I not do less? Your requests are nothing compared with what I am willing to give. You need much, but it is nothing for me to grant your needs. Help you? Fear not! I will help you.'"
to God be the glory as we seek His help...
ok... still doing laundry... and tending to 2 sick kiddos... so until i get a chance to post my favorite pictures from our vacation, head on over to kristi's bubbleshare site to see a bunch that kristi & i took.
arriving home from vacation is always such a dilemma for me... i have so much to unpack and sort through and put away and wash, yet all i really want to do is post pictures and blog about our oh so fun vacation!!!!!!! but since i am a grown woman (i am??) and have a family who depends on their mommy & wife for ironed clothes for church in the morning, i should forego my longing to share a zillion pictures with you. yes, i took a ton (and kristi took 26...counting several of her kids from before our vacation). SO no pictures tonite, but hang on, they'll be there soon. and believe me, you want to see these. especially the one of me and kristi sitting on the couch watching little house on the prairie... these are award winning shots, folks. :) i told you we had NO PLANS!!
ok i have to tell you one sweet thing about our trip, and then i'll go... i've been thinking about it all day. lydia and steven were so sad to say goodbye this morning........ it broke my heart...... seriously, they were both crying as we said goodbye. steven loves my daughter, what more can i say? as we were packing our bags, he was standing in our room, saying, "i want to take caroline with me!" awwwwwwwwwwwww..... in 20 years, bud!
why do i feel like we only had one day with them???
well, i just discovered target's $2.99 flipflops... and BOY are they comfy!!! i was previously a subscriber to old navy's cheapo flipflops, but the last few times i've been in there (since there's not one here in town...yet), my size (the good ole' average 7 1/2) has been gone. except in high heeled pink. and i'm not so sure i could do high heeled flipflops. so i was quite excited to find these at target tonite. and they're just in time for............... OUR VACATION!!!! woohoo!! if this blog was truly an indication of how thrilled i am to be vacationing with eric & kristi and the kids, there'd have been posts on the hour, every hour for the past week exclaiming my excitement!! but instead, there have been diaper changes on the hour. :) haha. we are headed to st augustine, where we plan to........ do whatever. we haven't really made any plans yet, just to be together! it should be an interesting week with 5 kiddos... 2 spitting up, 2 learning to really really talk, and 1 who asks the best questions. :) i'm sure i'll have plenty to blog about when we return. the condo only has dial-up internet (gasping for breath.... must... have... internet), so you'll just have to wait till we get back to hear about our trip. i hope the weather is beautiful so we can spend lots of time by the amazing pool. remember my gushing about the pool last year?? i've since learned that it's called an infinity pool. last year, ethan loved sitting and splashing in the water... and this year, he'll be able to really enjoy it!
well, i hope you all have a great week at work. :) just kidding!! now that i've said that, it will probably rain all week on us... but if it does, we'll still enjoy the sweet fellowship of good friends. gotta go pack!
so ethan is learning to answer questions. the first question he learned to answer was a while ago: "who do we pray to?" "God." it makes my heart melt to hear my son acknowledge His Creator and Lord. then more questions came...
"who do we sing to?" "God."
"who tells us to obey daddy & mommy?" "God."
"who made you?" "God."
so far, so good.
"who do you want to pray for?" "God."
"who is coming home soon?" "God."
"who came to visit?" "God."
"who drives our van?" "God."
"who brought you chickfila?" "God."
well, i have to hand it to the kid. if you're gonna pick one answer and stick to it, "God" is the answer to go for! so, at this point, i'm thinking that ethan is starting to get the hang of colossians 1...
for by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through Him and for Him. and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. and He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might He preeminent.
- colossians 1:16-18
well, i was strapping ethan into his carseat the other day, and i saw him noticing the clouds in the beautiful blue sky. "oh, ethan! look at the pretty clouds! who made the clouds?" i asked, expecting the same answer i've heard a million times.... his eyes lit up, a big smile spread across his face, and he exclaimed..... "MEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
i just found the magazine that i would love to jump into and live in...cottage living...(if only i could "blue skiddoo" like on ethan's favorite show!) i love pouring over magazines with great, affordable ideas to improve my home in little ways! "little ways??" brian asks... umm, a new--bigger--kitchen table has morphed into a slippery slope of kitchen changes... but we're leaving the countertops! ha! but that was all before i found this magazine. oooh fun. maybe i'll ask for a subscription for my birthday. it's not expensive at all... i just can't ever think of anything i want for my bday! so go check out the magazine online. if you're tammy, catherine, or kristi, i know you're gonna love it!!!!!!!! and if one of you has already heard of this magazine and didn't tell me, you're in trouble!
brian captured this shot of me and ethan on the slide last weekend... and it did my heart good to see both of us having so much fun together. so often i am teaching and correcting and disciplining ethan in an effort to "train up this child" for God's glory that i forget or run out of time in the day to just have fun! i find myself telling him not to drop the crayons on the floor more often than i sit down and color a picture WITH him. i think i can be a pretty fun mommy when i take the time to put the laundry down and let caroline just be for a minute so that i can attend to ethan's wishes for "more football" (basketball). he recently discovered that i can dribble the basketball on the living room carpet (quite a talent with a foam ball, actually!!), and he gets pretty cracked up about it.
in the world of child development and speech therapy, we use the term "language explosion" to refer to the point when a child's expressive language increases tremendously in a short amount of time... usually, it's when children progress from the point of saying mostly single words to all of a sudden speaking in phrases. i'd seen this occur in the children i'd worked with, but boy do i understand why it's called an explosion now!!! in the last 2 weeks, ethan's language has absolutely exploded. he is saying new things everyday that crack us up. (of course it's too late for me to think of any right at this moment...) he knows most of his basic colors (thanks to his matchbox cars!), and his favorite by far is "GEEN!!!!" his walls are painted denim on top, and below is white beadboard. he can be found sitting on his bed, pointing back and forth, saying, "white wall, buuu wall. white wall, buuu wall." :)
i have to remind myself on a daily basis to slow down and enjoy this little explosion we call ethan. well, maybe slow down isn't the word. :) but you know what i mean. we went to visit brian's grandparents last weekend, and i was reminded of how much he'd changed since christmas-- and that was only 2 months ago! there are so many things he's done lately that i've already failed to write down. i'm sure i won't remember them all. and it really doesn't matter that i remember them all. what matters is that he learns the love of our Father through the love of his mommy and daddy. sometimes that means discipline. sometimes that means one more reading of "time for bed". and sometimes that means an all out tickle war on the couch... and for those of you who know ethan's laugh, you know that i could live off one good laugh of his for a week.
this week's gonna be a busy one. we're getting ready to go out of town next week (yay!!!!!!! more about that later...), my grandma is having surgery, friends and family are coming in town, and frankly and i just have a lot to do. but between packing and visiting and cleaning, i hope to brush up on my basketball skills... i'm gettin' pretty good!
my mom found this picture of me at about 6 months old... (didn't i just say i didn't do the lace thing?? ha!) she said that she remembers this picture in her head when caroline smiles really big. caroline is a good mix of me and brian. most people say she looks more like me than ethan, but they definitely can't hide the fact that they're brother and sister. :)
i promised to post a picture of caroline in her sweet crib... she's so little in such a big bed! i don't know if you can see the detail, but the crib bedding is simple white eyelet (no lace... i'm not really the lace type). i often find her looking up at her abc wall hanging when she has woken up. i never did find a mobile that coordinated with the vintage theme of her nursery, but apparently, she's not missing it! she's learning her alphabet instead! :) ("a c's" as ethan says.) so, here's my sweet little girl in her new crib. next thing i know, i'll be posting about her being in her big girl bed (sigh).
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