Belated Beach Pics!

Early this summer we joined my family at the beach in South Carolina. While vacation certainly takes on a new form when multiple kids are included, we had a wonderful time and I'm already counting down the days until next year's trip!

Connor had a blast. He loved the sand and the water and took many a bottle while shading his eyes from the sun. Poor little guy...we used that tactic to buy ourselves some more beach time!Our little sea monkeys! Robert and Jack were precious together. Such sweet friends and amazingly close considering that they don't live in the same city.
Note: danger of giving your kids food to keep them happy and smiling for the camera.
Note: I was not able to include a picture of the four cousins that actually turned out well...maybe next year.

I LOVE these boys!!
And this one, too!!
A second attempt at a group shot of the four grandkids...Note that one is missing (my child) and one is very unhappy (also my child). Thank you Jack for being so sweet and kissing your sister to rub our faces in it. :)

We took the boys to see some giant bear statues in Dallas.

After three attempts at cutting Connor's hair myself, I had to take him to a professional. Two cow licks are not exactly easy to work with.

Next post will be from the road (possibly) or our new home in Philadelphia. We leave next week - there are lots of emotions involved and there will be many miles to cover with two little ones. Please pray for us!!

Pre-beach Photo Shoot

To prepare my children for the obnoxious number of pictures I'd be taking of them at the beach (I'll post those soon...), I took some at my parent's house before our trip.

And this is how it ended...

Cupcakes!

I've known for a while that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Well, that's certainly true for little boys, too! This is the first time Robert has smiled for the camera in months!

John Randall, Charlie and Robert -- I'm smitten with these three!
No shortage of personality at this table...

Summer is here!

Last Sunday was a picture perfect summer day (it may not officially be summer yet, but the temperature in Texas tells me that it is). Too bad most of my pictures from the day turned out blurry...oh well. We went to the lake near our house with our dear friends the Averitts and Breeds and flew kites.

This was the only picture that came out well -- can you tell how gorgeous the day was?! Why is it that the sky truly seems bigger in Texas?
Ellie was the initiator of this rendezvous. It was her idea to invite Robert and Charlie to fly kites with her. Fortunately the boys didn't mind sharing their date.
The other day we had our friends Press and James over to play. Connor and Press were hilarious together. They sat across from each other for a significant amount of time and just stared.
Robert got to push Connor in their police car this afternoon. Connor thought it was so funny and was completely oblivious to the fact that Robert almost ran him off the deck twice.

We have loved having two. They have started to "play" more together and while Robert pushes C down multiple times a day (we're working on that), C thinks Robert hung the moon. It's so precious to watch!

Back to School

I am so sorry that I was not more clear about the title of my previous post! I forget who does and doesn't know...Yes, we are indeed Philly-bound. Carlton will be starting a PhD program at Westminster Theological Seminary in the fall and we'll be moving up there sometime late-July or early-August. It will be extremely difficult to leave this place we so dearly love, but we are excited about the future and will continue to blog from 15 miles north of the Mason-Dixon line (I'm not kidding, I just looked that up)!

Philly-bound...

The following pictures are in no particular order. That is because I am wiped out! Within the last week and a half, I've traveled to Atlanta, then to Philadelphia, looked for a new home, found a new home, flew back to Atlanta, flew back to Dallas, had a college girls' reunion in Dallas and cleaned our home so that it would be ready to put on the market (which happened yesterday!). All wonderful things, but a lot of things! If you'd like to take me out for ice cream any time in the near future, I'll go! :)

The Lord has been extremely gracious through it all and despite some remaining anxiety about transitioning our family of four away from a place that we have grown to love immensely, we are excited to see what He has in store for us during this new season of our lives.

So, what have the boys been up to during the mass chaos?? Well....Connor is crawling!! He is so proud of his new trick and aside from the fact that he constantly keeps me on my toes, it's so fun to have two movers!

I flew back from Atlanta with both boys ALONE. The flight attendant said it was a "full flight." Somehow, however, the seat next to us just happened to be empty...so Mommy got some time with an empty lap!
Off and away!
Comical attempt at a picture with my grandparent's six great-grandchildren. Mine were the least cooperative -- perhaps that had something to do with the lack of napage and incredible amount of sugar that Robert was fed while he stayed with his Leeley and BooPa! :)
CARS -- we are obsessed. Robert is obsessed with the Cars and Mommy is obsessed with the amount of time that Robert will play quietly with them -- everybody wins!
Connor looked on while Robert and Jack played with Lightning McQueen. He can't wait to join them!
In the meantime, he'll just admire his beautiful cousin, Katie.
Uncle Zack helps the boys blow bubbles...
This is how I kept the boys contained while I did laundry the other day.
Serious sweetness. We have fallen more and more in love with our Connor lately. He accompanied us to Philadelphia while his brother stayed with his grandparents in Atlanta. The time alone with him was by far the most precious part of the trip. We love you little C!

Lately...

The boys at our favorite place - the Arboretum!

This was one of the family Easter pics that we got. In an effort to get both (or all three!) boys to look at the camera, I apparently did not made the head turn in time for the shot.
Our dear friend Claudia set up an Easter egg hunt for Robert and some of his friends. He was introduced to more kinds of candy than he's ever seen in his life and has been talking about candy ever since. Thank you, Claudia. :)

SOLIDS! Connor is slowly learning that the solids are intended to stay in the mouth. Let's just say I'm doing A LOT of laundry these days!