Makenna's Birthday Morning

Makenna's 7th birthday fell on a Sunday this year. She was pretty specific that she wanted breakfast in bed with fruit salad and waffles :) Mommy and Daddy surprised her with a big girl gift this year... an iPod! She absolutely loves it and deserves to have it! Happy 7th Birthday Nenny Jo!


Spoiled rotten with breakfast in bed on her birthday!


Sisters gathering around to see what she got!


Let the gift opening commence! She got a stack of Magic Tree House books, some book marks and her pink iPod from our family.


Opening her gift... not so sure what to think about the little package.


Starting to figure out what it might be!!


Pure elation!! I think mommy and daddy did a good job picking out this gift!

Maryn Blastball 2011

Maryn participated in her second summer of Blastball this year! She enjoyed it and did a good job (other than the whole bat throwing issue... :)


Maryn with her team... I think they were suppose to be stretching :)


Maryn looking awfully bored waiting to catch a ball in the field


Her turn to bat!


It's a hit!


Of course she watches mommy with the camera instead of where she is going!

Makenna Softball 2011

Makenna enjoyed yet another season playing softball this summer. Her fielding skills improved tremendously and her hitting was solid... she probably got a hit 75% of the time she was up to bat. She was adamant that she would not use the tee! It's definitely not her favorite sport, but a fun summer activity! Who doesn't love a night at the ballpark on a warm summer evening!?


Let me start with my favorite!!!






Serious about her warm-up swings!






Daddy and his girls at the game!






Thanks to soccer, this girl really knows how to run bases now!

Treasure Hunt

I'm going to start this post by saying that my husband is the best Dad ever. What he did for the girls and the lengths he went to so that they could have a fun childhood memory was impressive. Josh and I were sitting around one day talking about things we would've loved as a kid. Josh was talking about finding treasure and going on a treasure hunt... he decided then and there that he was going to make a "real" treasure hunt for our girls this summer. It started a few weeks before with him tea staining paper so it looked old (No, I am not kidding). Then drawing the maps onto the tea-stained paper. He buried/hid maps in various locations around our house and yard which ultimately took them to the buried treasure. It was a blast and Makenna still likes to show people her special treasure and tell them all about it!


Makenna and Maryn finding the first map hidden in an old can in a cabinet in the basement




In the front yard looking for the second map. Hmmmm... the map told us there would be an "X"??


Found the "x" on a landscaping stone and dug underneath....


Yet another map!!




Makenna and Maryn showing off one of their treasure maps.


The final "x" marks the spot! This one required quite a bit of digging!


"Real" Treasure!!! They were so excited!


Daddy and his girls with their buried treasure

Maya - 2 1/2 Years Old

All about Maya Grace at 2 1/2 years old...






Nicknames: Gracie, Grace, My My, Maya Baya
Weight & Height: 28 lbs and I need to see how tall...
Hair: Slowly but surely she is getting hair! It's still really short hair for a 2 1/2 year old, but she looks more like a girl now! She has wispy, messy curls in the back and lots of thick light brown hair on top.
Favorite foods: Her special dairy-free pizza, french fries, scrambled eggs, most fruit (except melon), carrots (dipped in ketchup... gross), broccoli, peas, plain rotini pasta, ice cream (either soy or sorbet... and she likes to have gummy bears mixed in if we go to Coldstone :)
Favorite Drink: Unfortunately I don't think it's rice milk anymore. She has experienced her first juice box in the last few months and thoroughly loves Capri Sun for a treat :)







Favorite toys: trying to ride her trike, puzzles, painting with water, anything make believe with her big sisters, the computer
Favorite books: Little Critter and Curious George books. She loves to point out the mouse on each page of the Little Critter books.
Favorite stuffed animal: Teddy!
Favorite Person: She prefers mommy right now :)
Bedtime: As always bedtime gets pushed back in the summer and we're trying to adjust forward with the start of the school year. Right now I'm trying to have her in bed by 8:00.
Wake-up time: Between 7:00 and 7:30
Naps: Late spring she scared me and didn't take a nap for almost a month straight. Then something happened because she started taking 2-3 hour naps daily almost all summer long. Now with the start of the school year she seems to be an every other day napper. I'll take it.
What she's saying: She's a full blown talker. Not just sentences, I'm talking paragraphs! She also has a crazy memory... she knows the lyrics to so many songs on the radio it amazes me.
Latest Accomplishment: She potty trained the week after her 2nd birthday. Third times a charm! She knows her colors, shapes, letters, numbers, you name it. She's smart just like her sisters :) She also converted to a big girl bed this summer very easily. No hiccup there either. And she learned how to use the computer, independently, shortly after her 2nd birthday. She can now turn the computer on, log in, get to Internet Explorer and either go to favorites and find her favorite kid's websites or she can go to a search engine and type in "barbie" or "pbskids" and get to those websites! I stood here watching in disbelief the first time she did it a few months ago. She's two and needs absolutely no help operating a computer correctly. Amazing.
Likes: I can finally delete cotton balls from this category!!! We passed that phase finally! Likes include dancing and singing, going to the park, chapstick, gymnastics class, playing on the computer, going outside, water balloons, throwing rocks in water, praying first at dinner time, and her routine of giving everyone a kiss and hug before bedtime

Maya on the computer




Maya with her two big sisters and best friends :)


Dislikes: getting in her car seat, being disciplined, keeping her shoes on in the car
Best known for: how happy and cheerful she is.
Health: Maya had a cough that lasted a 4-6 weeks last spring after she had pneumonia. Other than that she has been very healthy.
Interesting Tidbits: She still doesn't have her 2 year molars in yet. She is starting to outgrow her dairy allergy just as they had predicted she would. She can now eat a product if the dairy is listed in the "contains less than 2% of" section on the nutrition label.

What'd Maya Say?

As I just posted in the blog all about Maya at 2 1/2, she is quite the talker. I have been meaning to post about all the funny, cute little things she says or has said in the past few months. Some of them probably don't seem funny to anyone other than me and Josh, but this is a good way for us to trigger memories of her and all her cuteness :)

We went through the typical 2 year old "why" stage only hers was a little more pressing.... every question was "Why Mom? Why?" "Why Dad? Why?" One why was never good enough.

I apparently have some road rage issues. I noticed whenever I brake suddenly or make a sudden movement with the car I have a little voice from the back seat that says "C'mon dude!" She took the words right out of my mouth... at least it wasn't worse than that, right?!

She started responding to us with "I'm serious!" and "You're Amazing!" and "I'm proud of you mommy!" on a regular basis. Again, all things she hears me say to her everyday. But you just have to grin when a 2 year old tells you that she's proud of you for going to the bathroom :)

We also hear "Whatcha doin?" quite frequently.

But probably my favorite... every time Josh comes home at night and says "hi" to her she immediately responds with "good!". She had heard conversation after conversation of "hi. hi. how are you? good." and she just decided to cut to the chase and get rid of a few steps. Now any time anyone says "hi" to her she just responds with "good" :)

Topsail Island 2011

Vacation 2011. Can I go back yet? We spent July 23-30 at Topsail Beach, North Carolina this year. It was wonderful. It was exactly what our family needed to get away from the stress of everyday life and just enjoy each other. I think I finally have my husband convinced that he needs time away every year for his health :) The trip out there was something out of a movie. A horror movie that is. A cross between "Terminal" with Tom Hanks and "Planes, Trains and Automobiles". Everything that could go wrong did. Since that is a story in itself, I will wait to blog about that later. I am very overwhelmed by the over 200 pictures I took on vacation, but here is my short synopsis of our trip through pictures :) This took HOURS to put together and may not display my finest writing skills, but you get the idea through pictures!


The girls patiently waiting in O'Hare Airport. This was only 4 hours into the day so they were still smiling. More on that later.


Finally after over 24 hours of traveling (what would've taken us only 16 hours to drive if we would've driven the whole thing)... our first day on the beach. All of our travel stress melted away. This is why we come here.


The view from our deck looking south.


Looking straight out into the ocean from our deck


Looking north up the beach from our house


Mommy and the girls exploring the beach. I believe this was right about when Makenna found a dead crab :)


Probably looking for seashells. This beach is loaded with seashells.


Maryn relaxing in her shades


Daddy and his girls - 1st day on the beach


Our three girls - 1st day on the beach. Somehow we were extremely lucky and the weather was gorgeous. When I say we go on vacation to go to the beach, I mean it. We went to the beach twice every single day we were there, even the one day it stormed a little over lunch time.


Our house. It was a decent house. The location couldn't be beat... unbelievable views of the ocean. We had the best house positioning for view of any of the houses around us. On the other side we had sound views, which is almost unheard of... water on both sides. The down side is that while this house may look decent in pictures, it was not all that clean or user friendly. The owners have dogs and I was totally repulsed by the amount of dog hair in the house. But we go on vacation for the beach, not the house, and the beach was perfect as always :)



Our house on Topsail this year was called "Open Sea-Sun". Here is the main living area.


Another look at the main living area.


The dining room and kitchen


Master bedroom.


Me and Josh on the beach :)


The girls building a "wet" sand castle... Daddy taught them how




Daddy working on the "wet" sand castle with them


Of course Daddy had to dig something deep enough for everyone to lay in :) My favorite part was about 5 minutes later when Maya was walking backwards and tripped right into the hole. It was soft and sandy so she came up laughing.


Nenny on the beach


My biggest kid. No one can say they are surprised by this, right?!


Maryn chilling on the beach


Hat and shades... ready for the beach! (notice the nice fog on the pictures... it was so humid out that sometimes when I would walk from air conditioning to outside my lens would immediately fog over and thus I'd get foggy pictures).


Daddy and Maya watching the surfers at Surf City Pier


Mommy and her girls at Surf City Pier


Makenna, Maryn and Maya at Surf City Pier


My surf monkeys :)


Maya's fun new North Carolina shoes. I couldn't resist them!


Hanging out on the deck waiting for the sunset


Makenna and duckie on the deck


Maryn and puppy on the deck


Daddy, Kenna and Maryn by their very cool beach creation :) It had a moat that carried water from the tide all the way around the castle!


The tide is starting to come in and you can see how the water works its' way up into their sand castle


Still working on the moat


Kenna and Maryn


Beautiful Kenna


Sleepy baby. We were so worried she wouldn't nap on vacation due to all the excitement. Boy were we wrong. This little girl was so tuckered out she napped all but one day of vacation!


Daddy and Maya checking out the waves


My family in the ocean


More swimming


Tuckered out from a long day at the beach... watching some TV in our jammies!


The other two vegging...


Not only did we have an awesome ocean view, but the other side of the house was a spectacular view of the sound. Almost unheard of on the island to have views on both sides. Here is a sunset on the sound.


My four favorite people on the sound.


We went into town to go to the park one night. This cool park on the sound has docks that go out over the water.


My view from our deck one afternoon... I was reading a book on the deck while Maya was napping and Daddy and the girls were going up and down the beach trying to catch waves with their boogie boards :)


Once again, we lucked out with beautiful weather for our trip to Topsail. It only rained one day over the lunch hour, but we still made it to the beach twice that day. Here are the girls inside waiting out the storm. They were very focused on their sticker creations :)


Maya :)


Our family on Topsail Beach 2011


Mom and her girls enjoying the beach


Mommy enjoying the sun (courtesy of photographer Makenna!)


Makenna and Maya making some sand cookies


More beach fun


Nenny


Maya snuggled up under the umbrella


Maryn


Oh boogie boarding! My 7 year old is now proficient in boogie boarding and claims it was her favorite part of the trip!


The look of sheer determination on her face!!!


Maryn on the boogie board!


More boogie boarding!


Yes even our 2 year old can boogie board (with a little help from Dad!)


She LOVES it! I think my kids are thrill seekers (hmmmm, wonder where they get that from??? Not me!)


Dad and the girls...


Loving the beach... Makenna (complete in surf girl outfit!)


Maya


Maryn


Thursday morning we headed up to Surf City Beach. For our anniversary I had purchased Josh surfing lessons. He was meeting his instructor at Surf City Beach while the girls and I enjoyed the beach. I was super excited to see tide pools on the beach that morning! All down the beach were 10 foot wide pools that were 6-12 inches deep. They were warm and wonderful for the girls to play in!


My view of the Surf City Pier from the beach


Maya checking out Surf City Beach


Makenna and Maryn making sand cupcakes in the tide pools


Maryn totally at peace in the tide pools


More of the girls playing in the tide pools


Daddy getting his surf lesson on land... the instructor was impressed at his balance and they were in the water in no time


Daddy and Nick (surf instructor) heading out to "catch some waves"!


Josh paddling super hard to get on top of the wave!


I caught him mid-action as he was standing up!


More paddling around out there. It was really hard to get good pictures, as they were out far and I was still trying to watch the girls. Josh did a phenomenal job surfing (which isn't surprising to me at all). He got up on his very first wave! He even rode a few of them all the way into the beach! Not bad for a first-timer! Now Maryn and I are trying to convince him that he has to take us all to Hawaii so he can really try out his new surf skills ;)


Bringing the surf board back


Maya in the tide pools


There were these little tiny fish swimming around in the tide pools. My girls, especially Makenna, were fascinated by them. She kept trying to catch them and bystanders would laugh and tell her "good luck" in a joking tone. Well she showed them! She caught a fish with her bare hands!!!! I, of course, didn't have my camera on me at that moment so I don't have a picture of it, but here she is in motion trying to catch a fish!


Josh and I before heading out to Crabby Mike's for dinner! Our food was delicious! I had the steamed crab legs and my wonderful husband spent most of the meal cracking and cleaning my crab legs for me :) The wonderful seafood in this part of the country makes this trip worthwhile as well.


The girls before heading out to dinner


Friday was far and away my favorite day on the beach. The tide was extremely low this day and for some reason the night before a large sand bar (we're talking more than a mile long) formed in the beach in front of our house. The combination of this caused a 12-18 inch crystal clear pool of water to form all along the beach. It was probably 20 feet wide at parts and was wonderfully warm. I seriously felt like I was in the Caribbean with water this clear, calm and warm. Pure bliss.

Josh and I standing on the sand bar that created the "pool" effect


Our family the last day on the beach


Maya in the "pool"


The girls in the "pool"


Daddy and his girls in the "pool"


Maryn showing off her new "island" dress!


Doesn't Nenny look like she's on vacation?!


Our trip home went much smoother than the trip there. We did get lost in Chicago for a bit, lost a hubcap on our car, I sliced my finger open at the airport and Josh almost lost all our luggage, but that is all minor :)

Maya in the Raleigh airport on the way home


Makenna and Maryn in the airport


Now we're counting down the days until we can go back. I think the girls still ask daily about going on another vacation :) Maryn wants to live in North Carolina and asked if we could buy a house there so she could go to school there and have the beach as her backyard. Nenny got a little emotional and was ready to be back home. Our girls did a phenomenal job on this trip. They were wonderfully behaved and so much fun! I love making memories with my family! This is what it's all about!