Family photos

Last month I dragged my family to get pictures taken.  All year long I have heard from extended family that they needed updated family pictures, so I bit the bullet and got them done.  Let me tell you, they were well worth every penny.  My son was a little bit shy about getting them done and avoided the camera as much as he could, but overall we still got some excellent pictures.

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day a bunch of my family got together at my Dad's house.  I stayed at my sister Michelle's house for the week.  She has two girls that are 2 and 1.  Owen and Charlotte really enjoyed having other kids to play with.  On Saturday my Dad had a cook out and it was the first time all his girls were together in a couple years.

May 2014

July 2012

November 2011

It was a wonderful week away and I am so glad I was able to visit with my family.  I wish we lived closer so all the children could grow up together.  

Christmas 2013

Every year the Christmases become more and more magical.  I absolutely love how excited Owen is Christmas morning seeing all of the presents under the tree.  I also love how excited he is about family time and that he focuses more on family than on material items.

 I didn't have icing decorating tools, so we used medicine syringes.  It worked very well.

This year my mom came down to visit.  She came the day after Christmas and stayed for the weekend.  It was really nice having her here, despite the children being sick.  My brothers spent most of the time playing xbox with Martin.  It kept them busy and added some bonding time for Martin.  It was really nice to spend time with my mom.  It has been two years since she has been here.  I can count on my hands the times my family has stayed over.  It doesn't happen often.


Martin has returned to work again and I am on my own with the kids for the week.  I return to school next week and am looking forward to finishing this degree up and moving on to the next chapter of my life.

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving weekend!  Thanksgiving means I have the opportunity to spend time with my family.  With Martin traveling for work, it is so nice when he is home and does not have to worry about work.  Thursday morning we worked together to prep the turkey and get it into the oven.  While we waited we were able to spend the time together enjoying each other's company.  We were able to enjoy dinner together, which I was able to eat while Charlotte slept.  

 Friday Martin spent the day fishing.  Silly man, who goes kayaking in 40 degree weather?  We got a Christmas tree on Sunday, after looking at four lots.  We spent the rest of the night decorating the tree and hanging lights outside.  Both Charlotte and Owen absolutely love all the Christmas decorations.  Now if it could be Christmas already!  ;) 

Family vacation

Sorry for my absence, I have not abandoned the blog just yet.  Last week the family and my friend's family went to the beach.  It was a wonderful trip minus the rain.  My favorite part was kayaking!  It was nice to get away from the house.  My husband had a fishing tournament last weekend which is why we went.

Monday we arrived at the beach house in time for dinner.  We spent the rest of the day getting settled in and let the kids play.

Tuesday was really windy so we decided we would head to the aquarium and get out of the house.  Owen had such a blast.  He loved looking at all of the fish.  This was the second time he has gone to this aquarium and the fourth aquarium he has been to.  It took a little convincing to get Owen to leave the aquarium.  Thankfully though he was hungry so when I told him we were headed for lunch he didn't put up a fight.

Friday the rain finally stopped and the temperature was warm enough to hang out outside.  We went to the park in the morning and then grabbed some really tasty barbecue for lunch.  On our walk back to the beach house we decided the weather was nice enough to go kayaking.  We only had one vehicle and 3 adults and 4 children, so we made a couple trips.  Once the boats were in the water we were good to go.  At first the youngest two were not so happy and we spent time just floating around.  After Charlotte fell asleep I was off.  This was the first real kayak experience for me on this kayak.  I love this kayak!  It is a Hobie Revolution.  It has foot peddles so it can be peddled or paddled.  While holding a newborn, peddling is so much easier.  It was such a nice trip.  By far the thing I enjoyed most last week.  

Saturday was the final day of Martin's fishing tournament.  I dropped him off early in the morning and a few hours later we headed to Wilmington to check out the USS North Carolina Battleship.  It was commissioned during World War II. Her wartime compliment consisted of 144 commissioned officers, and 2,195 enlisted men, including about 100 Marines. It was pretty interesting to see everything on the ship and to learn a little more about what live may have been like on board the ship.  This ship is basically a city on water.  The ship has a post office, barber shop, wash room, "hospital," store, prison, and so on.  Owen was pretty excited about it and liked checking everything out.  He did really awesome despite being a little young for it.  He also did really awesome on all of the stairs.  If you have ever been on a Navy ship you know what I mean.

Father son time

Every time Martin packs up his kayak and fishing gear, Owen gets all excited and helps him get everything ready.  One Saturday Martin headed toward the coast to do some fishing/  The night before Owen helped him get everything ready as usual.  When Owen woke up he was so upset that Martin left without him.  We decided it was time, Owen was big enough to ride in the back of the kayak.  We waited for a beautiful day and loaded everything into the truck and hit the lake.

He kept telling Martin to go faster, then once Martin started  catching fish he wanted more fish.  We brought the grill and had a little picnic.  Although, I forgot the plates and utensils, so it was a bit of a caveman dinner.  Owen had such a blast.  He asks when he can go back.  On our trip to Maryland we crossed over several bodies of water and Owen asked to go kayaking on them.  I think Daddy is proud to have a son so excited about kayaking and fishing.  <3