Carter is Two!

Carter started his day with some coloring (crayon eating)
A cozy afternoon nap

Cupcakes made & decorated by Abigail (with some help of course)

Pestering our dogs while squealing with delight

Opening presents

Playing with trains

Blowing his candles

WAY too excited about sugar

Not sure what he was cheering about, but it was cute

Finishing of the day with a warm sippy of milk and watching a new favorite show, Blues Clues.

Our Carter John

Happy 2nd Birthday Carter!

This picture was taken of Carter just after he made his grand, unpredictable, dramatic entrance into this world. If only I had known that this was a sign of things to come...

I have more to post about Carter turning 2, but am finding myself incredibly short on time right now. More to come later!

The Day My Camera Met its Maker...

Abbie, of course, by Baby Loki's side. Now that our dear Baby Jake (Abbie's first love) has turned 1 and is no longer a captive snuggler she has moved on to Loki. She decided all on her own that she was responsible for him and was quick to tell me what he needed and what toys he wanted to play with. Any time he reentered a room she would run to me and say "There's Baby Loki!" She and Jacob had a great time playing chase down the hall and peek a boo inside a princess tent. She asked me for a baby girl for our house and I responded that she just better make do with her cousins and hope that an auntie has a girl someday!
Two girls on a hippity hop ball is way more fun that just one.

By this time in our trip, I began to pull out the secret weapons since the novelty of staying in a beach house with each other was wearing off a bit. My solution while us moms prepared for yet another trip to the beach- bubbles! You would have thought I appeared with Mickey Mouse himself with all the excitement those brought!

Our precious baby boy at the beach. I have to keep my distance from this kid. He's sweet enough to make a woman want another (never fear grandparents- its not going to happen!). I would steal this one in a heartbeat if I thought I could get away with it!

Good ol' Auntie Alyson added watering cans to all our beach paraphenilia. Seemed like a great idea but I never realized that the fun of these would never wear off and I would spend most of our beach time in the freezing cold water filling up cans over and over and over....

A picnic on the patio with our resident chef Alyson and resident Grandma (Mahala's mom). "Grandma" had a great time watching us moms work our booties off on our "vacation." We all know there is nothing better to have with a group of kids than a grandma. Want to paint at 9:30 pm, sure- where's the paint? Want to make a monster out of modeling clay, cover it with toothpicks and chase your friends around the house with it- sure, here's more toothpicks. Want to walk down to the beach- I'll take you all by myself and do it better than any of you moms could dream of doing. The kids LOVE her and she was a lifesaver to us!

I stopped and remembered to get a shot of us together, finally.

A game of burying each other in the sand gone very, very wrong. Poor Jillian!

The last picture my dear camera will ever take. At least it was a good one! I am stalking my friends until they fork over their pictures of the last days of our trip. I'm a stay at home mom girls- I will hunt you down!

Day 3 am

Loki & Abbie share some morning snuggles
We only thought we were going to have a nice morning strolling down the beach looking for sea shells. All of the kids came back soaking wet, covered in sand, and mad about it!

We ran after this poor lady and convinced her to let the kids pet her horses

So cold!

Day 2

Dolphin, seal, & otter watching on the upstairs patio. I have never seen so many sea creatures so close to shore! Almost everytime we looked out we could see at least one school of something.
Our unruly bunch splashes around

Aunt Mahala helps Abbie run through the waves while Loki takes a nap.

Brenna & Abbie join forces

The kids sit still long enough to play the game "I Can Do It" with Mahala

Arts & Crafts time downstairs

Abbie & Loki have their own playtime

Kili & Abbie loved playing in the waves even though the water was SO cold

Pillow fight!!!!

Dinnertime

Gavin just can't take it anymore. He fell asleep even with all the other kids running around screaming.

Day 1

Yummy!
Auntie Alyson decides that making smores on the campfire is entirely too dirty a job for after bathtime and makes smores over the stove.

Dinnertime- the only few minutes of quiet we saw on this day.

Kili and Abbie can't get enough of baby Loki