Happy 2nd Birthday, Molly!!!

Good Golly Miss Molly!!!! Hard to believe that our sweet little baby is 2!! I know we all say this about our little ones, but "how in the world did she get so big?" It really does seem like yesterday that I was wondering through the halls of St. Joe's trying to get my contractions to pick up so we could meet this little bundle, and now here she is, running around the house, being crazy, and wild, and cute as could be!

We started off her birthday day with Blueberry muffins on our back porch. The mornings have been enjoyable enough to sit outside, so we did :)




Miss Caroline loves to take pictures whenever we let her little hands touch the camera. She took a couple of Molly and then turned the camera on the two of them... I absolutely love it when these two get along and play together.... (i can't get over their blue eyes!!!)


Somehow Nicholas talked Papa into some "snuggle time" and they watched a little SpongeBob and Penguins of Madagascar.. I never did ask my dad what he thought of those crazy cartoons... I have to say that I really don't like spongebob, but man, it holds my kids attention, and sometimes I just need the quiet!


For dinner Nana and Caroline made homemade meatballs and spaghetti. Molly loves spaghetti and Nana makes the best meatballs. We were lucky enough to even have daddy make it home to have dinner with us and celebrate!


"Happy Birthday to you!"




Molly was spoiled as usual and got some fun presents! These two dresses were from Grandpa Paul...

and so was this Chamelion...

Nicholas got a really cool Spiderman christmas ornament from Grandpa Paul. It's a comic book ornament and even has a comic book with real pages!

Caroline got the Cinderella carriage ornament... so cute!

Molly also received a cute beach towel and play tea set from Aunt Jamie and Uncle Mike... She LOVED the tea set!

Having tea with her new baby (thanks aunt katie and uncle ryan!) and Caroline...

Day 2 with Nana and Papa

Today we made it to the pool, one of Nana's favorite places to be. Caroline showed off her swimming skills and Nicholas floated around. We took our lunch and had a nice time just hanging out in the sun....





Caroline and Papa sharing some peanut butter crackers or "papa crackers" as the kids like to call them...


In the afternoon Caroline set up a nice tea party for all of us complete with snacks. She loves any excuse to have a tea party!

After dinner we decided to go out for ice cream. It's a great treat except for when it's 90+ degrees outside and the ice cream just doesn't stay cold long enough. Needless to say there were lots of sticky hands when we were done!

After ice cream we decided to go for a little drive. Nana wanted us to show Papa where Augusta National golf course. Sadly, though, it's really hard to actually see the other side of the trees and shrubs that outline the course, so we just did a nice little drive by. Next thing we knew we were almost to downtown Augusta and I decided to take them to the river for a small little walk. The kids had fun looking for trains and playing on the play structure. We walked along for a little while and saw some ducks and a turtle swimming in the water. It was a fun night.

On the way back to the car, Molly decided she wanted to take this one home. If we asked her where our car was she would point to my truck. But if you asked her where her car was, she pointed to the convertable Mustang... almost 2 and she's got fun taste!

Nana & Papa are here!!!!

It was so great to pick Nana and Papa up at the airport today!! I know they must be totally exhausted (their flight left at 1am Pacific time).. but the kids are SO excited... and Nana and Papa probably won't get a chance to get a rest in..

There is a little girl who lives next to my parents in GH, and she gave my mom this little ballet costume to give to Caroline. She put it on right away and danced around for us.


Nana and Caroline made shortcakes for dessert and we had lots of berries to go with them. And of course, we also needed a can of whip cream.. and yes, we went through the whole can! Caroline even had a whip cream sandwich at one point...


Papa showing Nicholas the best way to eat whip cream :)

Sunday Afternoon....

Hard to believe that Nana and Papa will be here by this time tomorrow!!! Yippee!!! We've had a busy day getting the house ready for them (granted, there is still LOTS to do)... but we took some time out to enjoy the sun and a few popsicles...

The kids were outside playing earlier today and took a little popsicle break on the back porch. Caroline even figured out how to get the umbrella open all by herself.


After dinner Joe took a little break with us and we went for a walk along some of the neighborhood trails. The kids were looking for frogs over the side of the bridge. We could hear them jump here and there, but just couldn't see them.


She is SO darn hard to get a good pic of! I almost thought i had another one, but it is a little blurry! She had fun trying to keep up with the big kids and did not want to go back in the stroller when it was time. It will be fun to take Nana and Papa on a few walks while they are here!


On your marks, get set....

GO.......

When we got home we all had to sit ourside and enjoy another round of popsicles. It was quite warm outside even at 7 at night... but it was all worth it to spend a little family time together. We don't get to see much of Joe during the week so it's fun to hang out with him on the weekends. Sadly, as soon as we were done with our popsicles he was back to studying and preparing for the week... Only about 80 more weeks or so to go... but who's counting :) It will all be worth it in the end!!!!!

2 More Days!!!!!!!

Two More Days till Nana and Papa come!!! We can't wait!!! The kids are getting so darn excited for them to come. Nana comes for lots of visits and we LOVE it, but this is Papa's first visit! yippee!!!!

Yesterday we had the neighbor boys over and decided to all go fishing. There are 3 ponds in our neighborhood and the older two boys had fishing poles so off we went.. didn't take too long before Nicholas got a hook in his lip, but we all survived ;) The fish weren't biting a lot, but the another neighbor boy happened to be down there and he caught a small little sunfish. Kids thought it was pretty cool!

I have such a hard time getting Molly to smile her cute little smile, and today I was lucky...

M thought it was pretty cool to watch Drew changing his bait...

Nicholas can't wait to get a pole for himself.. He was pretty grumpy after a while because he couldn't fish.

Looking for the fish....

And this is what happens after a warm walk back....




Our goofball little girl ready to go snorkeling....

Peek-a-boo... so hard to believe that she is going to be 2 in a couple days..... aaahhh!!!!

Here are some pics from the 2nd of July... We didn't do much on the 4th, but on the 2nd, there was a fair and fireworks on post. We were so close to the fireworks that we had to look almost straight up, and there was firework dust and debris falling on us.

There was some military equipment that the kids could look at and climb on...

Sitting in a firetruck...

And one last random pic of the kids playing on the boxes...

weee.......