Yep I am still here oh & lots has happened since my last visit

WOW I can't believe how long it's been since I posted here.  It's just I am pretty busy these days, with what you might ask? well this little cutie pie is just one of them :)

Nope I didn't hide anything from everyone.  He is not mine, but the next best thing.  He is the cure to my baby itch, I get to snuggle and cuddle him and smell his sweet baby shampoo head all day and then at 5:00 hand him back over to his mommy so I can sleep all night!! :) His big sister is pretty dang sweet & cute herself and is sure to keep me on my toes also.

We had a great Christmas, Jingles made sure they were on their best behavior and even made sure they were added to the "nice" list:

and thanks to this they got obscene amount of stuff! Shane and I did pretty good also, my favorite gift by far had to be the Tim/Kenny concert tickets for their concert here this June, I am pretty sure his favorite gift was a framed pic his dad got him of some great hunting pictures from the year.

The top is his huge deer he got in Illinois, the 2nd was just one of Wyatt's deer from this year, the 3rd was Wyatt & Jet with their ducks from one of their trips to Missouri, but it was the bottom one that got him.  Wyatt is maybe 2 1/2 and Shane is showing him how to hold and shoot a little gun, such a sweet moment I caught on camera.

We rang in the New Year with some good friends while the kids hung with Gram and then a few weeks later Abby had a fantastic birthday (I can't believe she is 6!!)

Since then we have had a boring no snow winter the kids are bummed because they seriously wanted some snow to play in.  Luckily this past weekend we were able to humor them with some for at least one day.  We along with my MIL met Shane's sis and her boys in Gatlinburg for a mini vacation.  It was SO much fun the kids had a blast hanging in the hot tub at the house, yes that is snow falling.  It started snowing Sunday night and they couldn't resist sitting out in it, we adults thought they were CRAZY but how do you convince 4 kids that it is TOO cold to go outside in your swimsuit?

We went up to Ober on Saturday & our main reason for going up was snow tubing but all the morning sessions were sold out so we used all the other stuff to keep us occupied while we waited for our turn.  We did all kinds of fun stuff like ice skating

Wyatt had obviously forgotten all that he learned from his ice skating lessons and hockey school and was out of control most of the time :) Abby was in heaven she had been wanting to go ice skating for a long time and did pretty good once she was brave enough to let go of the railing.  Shane of course was a natural (I guess he hasn't forgotten anything from his many years of playing hockey) we all hoped though he would wipe out since he was so smug and kept telling us how easy it was, unfortunately it never happened ;)

We also rode up the chair lift to the very top of the mountain the view was awesome, although it was weird not to see any snow at the tops of the mountains.

It was a gorgeous sunny day in the mid 50's but luckily there was plenty of man made snow.  All the kids (and adults) loved the snow tubing! I was nervous the kids would drive us nuts waiting for it but luckily we didn't have to threaten anyone with a beating and they all behaved waiting the LONG 5hr wait!

Monday morning we woke up to just enough snow to be pretty but not make it impossible to get down off the mountain where our cabin was.  Shane being the biggest kids of them all of course had to start a snow
ball fight

but we still managed to get the kids to sit still long enough to snap a good pic of them all together

 We had a great time with everyone and can't wait to see them again soon.

Photo session

So it only took about half my camera card but I did manage to get a few good shots this year. I will admit it was not nearly as painful as it has been in the past.

Last summer we didn't do it alone, we were crazy & added two more kids into the mix while on vacation with SIL's family and that about cause more than one adult to loose their cool. So this year it HAD to go smoothly or else.

A while back a blogger friend had hosted a pillowcase dress giveaway and amazingly I won. After her move and me finally getting her Abby's measurements I got the dress just in time for the beach. It was SO cute and I loved it, I added an A to the front and it just finished it off. If you are in the market for a super cute dress hop over to see Tabi and she can help you out.

Now onto what we have been waiting for




A little then and now of the birthday boy, whom has really been milking the whole birthday celebrating. After all is said and done he will have gotten to "celebrate" 4 separate times!

Then:

and now

can't believe he turned 8 and very soon will be a 3rd grader

They may lead you to believe they like each other


My two favorite guys


Me and my baby girl


Me and the Hubs


and finally a actual good shot of the entire family

Back from vacation and no one is happy about it

Well we made it back to reality Saturday afternoon. We had a great time there again this year and can't wait for next year. I really need to get mega rich & like now so I can buy a place down there.

We had great weather and did lots of fun stuff. Just the boys went out fishing one day

but the next day they were stuck with all the girls on the boat with them, and when I say "all the girls" I really mean lots of girls. The Dr hubby works for has 3 daughters plus his wife plus me plus our little diva & that makes 6 girls! But they survived us and we all had loads of fun snorkeling and just floating around in the bay. Abby was a master at the sand dollar hunting, we brought only a fraction of what she found back. Wyatt and the big girls had a blast doing cannonballs off the side of the boat.

The other days we soaked up the sun on the beach, hunted for shells, boogie boarded, watched the Army guys who IMO had the greatest job that a man in the Army can have; which is ride up and down a gorgeous beach in your John Deere Gator looking for oil (I am pretty sure that is not all they were looking for) but anyways maybe those guys had been deployed at some point so hey they deserve a cushy job like that.

And there was also that little thing of rescuing a turtle's nest from certain doom from the waves. We had noticed one getting super close when the high tide was in, we worried it would be washed away soon and sure enough just as I was walking passed it one morning a huge wave crashed into the side of the beach and half the nest was exposed. Me and a couple others covered the eggs back up with sand while another lady called the number for the Turtle patrol. Soon a guys was out digging up the nest. They had planned on moving all the nests anyways due to the oil this one just got dug up a bit earlier, they will be released on the opposite coast away from the oily Gulf of Mexico.


Abby was sporting a new bathing suit every day of course

that would be 8 different suits :)

We ate our favorite food at our favorite restaurants.


you know the saying don't judge a book by it's cover, this place is the is one of those places. Not much to look at but dang the food is good.

We did fun things like eat ice cream on the porch while watching the sun set


Shane also fished a little from the beach with alot of "help" from the kiddos.


On our last morning we went down to the beach as usual and soaked up our last few hours of ocean sounds and sand on our feet.


The kids posed with other people's sand art






Then Abby and I made silly faces at the camera


Then it was time to go


I also managed a photo session with the family and no one got hurt and I didn't need to medicate anyone (mainly me) to get thru the pain. The pics turned out good and I got some favorite shots I will have to share those another time as this post is carrying on and on.

Hello from the Cape

Still loving it here. the weather has been great with no signs of oil other than the Army guys driving by a few times a day looking-that is a tough job:)



The boys went fishing yesterday and had a great time

If I don't show back up or you don't hear from me next week don't send a search party.


No seriously do NOT worry, I just convinced Shane to leave me behind in paradise.

We have Arrived

We made it to the beach yesterday. No children were let out on the side of the road somewhere in Alabama or Florida, which means they must have behaved.

Our house is awesome, I am sitting here watching the waves roll in and there is no place I would rather be.

Vacation recap

So we did the whole OBX thing and the kids had a fun time but dang that was a long time in the car!

It started something like this


thanks in part to us getting to leave in the afternoon after a long day of playing, she slept for a little over an hour and it was nice and peaceful. We stopped after a while of driving and stayed the night in a hotel and woke and drove the rest of the way in the next day.

It has been years since I have been on a beach other than those full of fluffy white sand and nice pretty blue/green waters that you can float in for hours (which is exactly what we do). The ocean in NC is cold, I mean like wow cold and the waves OMG the waves.

Friday we went to the horse beach, which has wild horses and you can drive on it! The kids thought that was super cool and when a car gets stuck and you can sit and watch them dig themselves out it is lots of fun. But it is weird to have to worry & watch for cars and pray that one of the crazy a$$ drivers that are going incredibly to fast on a beach won't run my kid over while frolicking in the sand.

Abby loved riding the waves at the horse beach on Friday


It took a bit more convincing on Wyatt's part-he wasn't a huge fan of the not warm like FL waters, but he did make it in and then had tons of fun riding with daddy and playing with his cousin.




Saturday we went to the beach at the house and the waves once again were just crazy, Abby didn't make it far into the water that day because it was all I could do to get myself out with out drowning. There were lots of wardrobe malfunctions with the bikini, and a few times of getting knocked off my feet and scurrying back up to get a breath of air and try to not get knocked down again by the next humungo wave! I boogie boarded like I had never before, on one wave I got airborne not once but twice! It was lots of fun though.

In the evenings we played in the pool and hot tub or as Abby would say "hot pool"


They had races on the beach-which abby held her own against the boys, the girl is fast!


they dug holes


and they destroyed sand castles that were built with such tlc


oh and they got to drive a golf cart which let me tell ya was a hold on for your life ride:)

Abby had the looking cute on the beach thing locked in yet again


We also forced everyone to pose for nice pictures the last night but more on that painful experience later.

We were so glad we made the trip to Duck it was a short but sweet trip where tons of memories were made between cousins that don't get to see each other nearly enough. We hope to do the whole beach thing with them again, maybe we can convince them to come check our favorite spot in the sand out next year.