First Successful 4th of July

 Proof that we made it through a year of fireworks!!!  These two little chickens are terrified of fireworks, but they were ready this year.  We had a cook out at our house and then we went to downtown Waxhaw to see the fireworks with the Devines and the Sanchezes.  The kids all made it with no LOUD tears (Carly had watery eyes)!  Baby Steps!

The crew...it was baby Mara, baby Cohen, and Channing's first time seeing fireworks and they all did great!  Poor Channing just sat all alone in her stroller because Matt had to hold the big girls and I had to hold Harper and Finley.  She better not get scared of them, because we are running out of lap room!

We Just Wear Her Out

I love pictures like these!  Our sweet girl just gets worn out sometimes trying to keep up with everyone.  

 On this day, I put Channing up on the 3rd floor to play.  Carly went up to play with her and she came running down to tell me to get the cameras because she was super cute.  She had put a set of beads on, and then snuggled up onto the octopus and took her nap.  She was super cute!

Poor Channing can't even be safe in her bed from these wild animals!  The big kids know how to get in the crib, so whenever they hear her up, they catapult into the bed and smother her with kisses.  

Our Boy Turns 5

I can't believe he is already 5!!  Well, he does seem older to me - I guess he has been grouped with the girls so he can pretty much do what they do.  But still......my baby is 5!  He is such a sweet boy and very helpful!  He takes very good care of all us ladies at home.  God sure did know that I needed a mini Matt in my life!  Seeing that Matt is at work all the time, my boy can hold down the fort!  Just the other day he was trying to teach me how to dimantle the vaccuum so that it would run better!  He is all ready to officially start Kindergarten this year, even though he decided this past year it was time for him to learn how to read.  He flew through his kindergarten stuff, so we will have to figure out how to challenge him!  We celebrated his birthday 3 times this year.  Once with my parents, once with Matt's parent's and once with a couple little friends.  We did an outdoor party and it was 100 degrees that day, so I didn't want to roast the grandparents :) 

 He wanted to help me make his cake ~ he did a great job helping me out!

 His cake design - he had to have his cars on the cake with a road....this is the best I could do :)

 His party was an Olympic themed party.  We did alot of water games/relays and the kids had a blast!  They were nice and wet and did alot of running!

 The party kids - Nick, Avery, and Caroline are our neighbors that came.

 Channing was trying really hard to win the watermelon eating contest!

 Fifi was working on the Icee eating contest.

 Action shot from one of the games.   

 Harper approved of his gifts!

And the award ceremony (we forgot to do it before Nick left).....they each were the best at something and they were so proud!

Dance Recital 2012

Another year of dancing has come and gone!  We started at another studio this year....yes, this is the 3rd dance studio for these two girls!  I can't believe that they have been dancing for 5 years.  They took two classes this time around.  They took a tap, ballet, and jazz class and then they took an extra hip hop class.  They loved them all!  They had some really cute moves when they would come home from dance class - they love to dance!

 This was their hip hop costume - they danced to the song called Flava ~ SO CUTE!!

 This was jazz ~ Hip to Be Square (they are getting so big)

 And tap ~ One Singular Censation (they didn't do a ballet dance in the recital)

 And of course little sister was mesmorized by all the gliter, makeup and sparkly costumes!  Finley brought 2 outfit changes for the day of the recital.  She is dying to start her dance class in the fall!  I think we are all so excited for her to be taking dance classes and to see her up on that stage!

The day of the recital was during nap time, so TJ, Deanna, and baby Cohen (and Cooper) watched her so she could take a nap.  After the recital we were all aching to see our girl (we don't like being one man down)!  We then decided to take her out for her first ice cream cone since she didn't get to at the beach!  Baskin Robins was her first bites.....and she loved it!  

2 Wheels

Way back in May.....we took Harper to the school near our house and took off his training wheels!  He did awesome!  I was working on teaching the girls how to monkey bar and Matt took up the bike situation.  He thought he was prety hot stuff riding all by himself.  Way to go Harper!

Zuccini Bread

I made some chocolate zuccini bread a couple weeks ago.  Of course one loaf was devoured as a "snack" and another loaf was eated the next day within minutes.  I froze one loaf.  For dinner tonight I pulled out that loaf and the kids were so excited.  (Isn't great when you make a meal and your children are just ranting and raving the entire time - even if it was a box of soup and a frozen loaf a bread)  Carly declares, "I wish Jesus was here!"  Me:  "Why?"  Carly:  "Because he could make this bread last and last!!"  I guess she really likes the loaves and fishes story!!

Beach Trip May 2012

 We loaded up our 5 man crew jammed packed in the Honda and headed toward North Myrtle.  The kids were more than excited to get away on a vacation since we haven't gone anywhere in 2 years!!  Finley had no clue where she was going (we forgot that she doesn't remember ever going to the beach) so that just made it even more exciting! 

 We drove almost all the way there and then stopped for a picnic lunch at the Myrtle Welcome Center.  The clouds started rolling in so we quickly got to the condo and unloaded and then ran to the beach to let the kids stick their toes in the sand (we were so quick we didn't grab the camera).  We don't have any pics of Finley's hilarious reaction to the water.  She wouldn't stick them in and scaled Matt.  She finally relented and figured out that it was fun.  Channing, of course, loved it!!

 We then found that TGI Fridays had kids eat free, so that is where we went for dinner.  Matt got his plate and Channing quickly swiped this enormous fry off his plate!  (We saw this later on :)

 We got them all to bed.....poor Carly picked to sleep with Finley - the queen took over the bed!!

 Chloe and Harper slept in perfect sync!

 And then around 11:00 pm, it started!!!  Little Miss Channing started puking.  And she proceeded to puke for 4 hours - about 15 times!  She was such a good sport about it.  Here she is waiting for new pjs, a bath, and new sheets (she covered all of them).  I stayed up with her on the couch after that.....but it was quite nice snuggling with my baby!! 

 She woke up ready to go, so we hit the beach!  The only way we could get a family picture :)

 Some funny mural at the condo. 

 Channing is a beach bum!!  She LOVED the sand and the water - which of course is dangerous because she would just run out to the ocean. 

 Chloe was ready to start constructing sand castles!

 Finley was so proud of herself that she was being brave in the water!  She loved the beach too!

 Surfing!

 I told Carly to smile and she quickly started posing!

 The triplets!  I didn't realize that they had bathing suits that matched this closely so of course everyone thought they were triplets.....and don't worry every single person asked us!

 The annual burrying of the bodies!

 Out to eat - night 2!!  No sickness this night!

 Beach day 2!

 Lifeguarding at it's finest.  We will not own beach chairs for a long time, but so well worth it!  We love watching our babies play on the beach! 

 Harper decided that Channing needed sand in her hair!  As usual, she didn't care! 

 Little Miss Lifeguard

 Cutie! (Chloe)

 Another fun picture at the tacky mural!

 Family picture again - Channing playing peak a boo :)

 And then round 2 of the puking began!  We were on our way to Broadway at the beach.  We stopped at Walmart to get some after sun lotion and then Finley exploded!!  So I ran in and got lysol wipes and her a new dress (yes, I bought her a purple one to make her feel better).  We had to dismantle the car seat and clean everything up.  We got her back in the seat and she did it again!!  So we took everything out and cleaned it all up again. 

 So our adventure to take her to the purple store was canceled and we headed back to the condo.....and she puked in the car in the parking lot there (luckily she got it all in the bowl).  So our fun night out taking Channing to get her first ice cream cone was canceled!!  She hurled for 4 hours and about 15 times too.  She would be puking and would not admit she was sick.  She just kept crying because she wasn't sick!!  After those 4 hours, she fell asleep and was fine the rest of the trip. 

 Her soaking after we got back to the condo!

 I grabbed some cones from Walmart so they got to eat ice cream from the balcony. 

 And then around 4 am, round 3 began!  He was the best sick one though.  He would just puke and then fall back asleep.  He was pitiful!

 This was Finley the next morning after her puking!  She was large and in charge as usual. 

 She was finally able to go to the Purple Store!  The walls, floors, and everything in it was purple (her absolute favorite color).  Carly and Chloe have been wanting to take her there since they knew we were going to the beach.  She got a purple crown.  She was so happy!

She fianally passed out with her pocket book, hippo, and her purple crown in hand.  They were all so tired on the way home!  Harper got sick before we left and then was fine all the way home.  He then got sick when we got home :)  Despite all the sickness we still had a great time and alot of fun family memories!