Tricks

For the past several weeks Hannah has these "tricks" that she does. She will normally do them after her bath routine at night. As Emma gets her pajamas on with bo's help, I bring Hannah in after drying her hair. Hannah will run into the room stark naked and then proceed to do these tricks. It makes all of us laugh every night. We also sing our "naked Neeena" song (Hannah's nickname) and she does this dance that makes us crack up. The other night E and H were both doing some tricks and because Hannah was fully clothed, I took the opportunity to snap some pictures!

her favorite trick that she does!

she does this one after the first each time!

Emma's trick with only one leg

they just started doing this - Hannah tries to be a horse

they have also just started this "wrestling" type of play, which they think is hilarious

Silly Bands from Heaven?

Emma has accumulated a ton of silly bands. I try to hide some in her jewelry box and sneak some away since she has so many. She also keeps some in her purses. I cannot for the life of me get them into one spot so they end up scattered in many places.

When unpacking from the beach I decided to wash Emma's sheets. As I lifted the sheet there was this pig silly band hidden on the mattress pad. I saw it and immediately thought of my sweet cousin who died almost eight years ago in August. She loved pigs and collected them wherever she went. I had not seen this silly band before so I saw it, smiled and put it on Emma's bookshelf. Amanda had been thought of so much recently with her absence at the beach. We had so many beach trips with her - in fact the last time I saw her we were at the beach, she was singing "Going to the Chapel" to me because I had just got engaged to Bo. So, the pig silly band just made me think of her and how much we missed her at the beach.

As I was cleaning some more downstairs I lifted the couch cushion and then I saw this angel silly band. I ran back upstairs and got the pig silly band. I am keeping them both. I just think it is awkward that I would find both of these "signs" in one day and in very unusual places.

I miss you Mandy. I miss you every single day and I cannot believe we are approaching eight years of your absence. I know you are looking after us. Thank you for the signs that you are okay.

Hannah's First Movie

While in OBX Hannah got to go to her first real movie at the movie theater. Bo had left so my mom and I took the girls and Whitney to see Winnie the Pooh. It was really cute. Hannah did great until her popcorn ran out and then she started getting a little antsy. She wanted to stand up and move around. But, she still watched the whole movie!

Vacation

What have we been up to for the past 11 days? Beach, beach and more beach! I signed my papers for my new job and we were off to the beach - again! We have seen so many family members and friends and have just had a great time. The first week we had a beach house with my parents, sister, brother in law and nephew. The first few days we had my dad's family with us - my dad's mom, my cousin Robbie (wife April and their daughter Adair) and then we had our family from Maryland - Alex, Susan and their daughter Autumn. We had not seen them since last summer. We had a fun night of Cranium and then we all were at the beach and pool the next day.

Emma and Hannah just love the beach. They love for the guys to make them a hole for the water to fill and then they can splash in it and slide down the side of the hole. They were covered everyday - head to toe in sand.

One night after dinner we met up with our friends (Garners and Stroups) and had ice cream! Brayden and Hannah are only a month apart and Brayden kept giving Hannah kisses!

been friends forever

our kids after ice cream - can we say hyper?

Here are some family shots

I was reading some books to Emma and Hannah one night and Andy just crawled over and wanted to take part - it was so cute!

One day a high school friend of mine came over to visit with her daughter Elisabeth. It was great to catch up with her!

The following Saturday we went to another beach house with my mom's entire family. My uncle was celebrating his 50th birthday so we had a party for him. The girls loved spending time with their cousins Courtney and Whitney.

Near the end of the week we had "family picture day." Mom makes us do this every year. I had to bribe the kids with candy so they would cooperate. We did end up getting a few good ones!

I know I am leaving out so much. We had so many good laughs. We also were not on a "schedule" aside from beach, lunch, pool, kids nap, adult pool time, shower, dinner. We went out shopping a little bit but not much at all compared to the normal. We just didn't feel like it! My dad did buy me and my sister new Coach purses at the Coach outlet. He bought Emma a Dora backpack that she wanted for school. Emma and Hannah were also on a rubber duck kick where everywhere we went they wanted these rubber ducks to play with at the pool. Bo was able to stay pretty much the entire time too. He left only two days before I did. The girls did great aside from Hannah having a few "terrible 2" meltdowns every now and then. They slept good and Emma asked the day before we were supposed to leave, "when are we going to mommy's house?" She was ready to see Lilly. We had dropped Lilly off at "camp" (boarding) a long time ago! Since we have got home the girls have played like crazy with all of their toys again. We had a great time. Now that August is approaching I need to plan a birthday, move my classroom, and have a surgery to look foward to. I will miss you month of July at the beach! It was fantastic.

New J.O.B.!!

The big news, now that all my paperwork is signed, is that I am switching school systems for a fabulous opportunity. I have been hired in Suffolk as the library media specialist for an amazing school. It is only 3 years old, BEAUTIFUL, has top of the line technology, amazing media center and it is only five minutes away from me! I am truly happy that this landed at the right time. Suffolk start time is also much later than Chesapeake, so our family morning schedules will now be consistent with the girls going to my mom and we will all get some more sleep in the morning. I will also be right down the road from my mom with the girls, minutes from Emma's preschool, and near the pediatrician if my mom ever needs to meet me there with a sick child. (I cannot tell you how many times that happened last year and I was 40 minutes away). I have a conneciton at the new school so I am excited that I at least have one friend! I have a lot of work and a big job ahead of me. I am running the media program for almost 800 kids k-5. The administration has entrusted my program ideas and support me with using the resources we have. It is weird to think I am no longer a classroom teacher, but I am on to bigger and even better things. I am truly blessed and I think all things really do happen for a reason.

Today

So, I don't want to give too much away, but a big move is about to be made professionally!!! I am super exited about it. While I was tending to some business today the girls spent a little time with my mom. When I got there Emma was playing dress up with these curlers and they just cracked me up so I snapped some pictures of her. I will update when my decisions have been finalized :)

I also asked Hannah this morning if she was ready for a big girl bed. She said, "no!! Hannah's crib!!" I am pretty happy about that for the time being!

Photo Session

Here are some proofs from our spring photo session in Wendell. These are not the portraits I ordered, I will post those later. But, here are some other proofs I just loved.

Hamrick Beach Trip

We left last Saturday, July 2nd for Nags Head with the Hamrick family. It was never a dull moment with the four children, but we all had so much fun. We had a wonderful 4th of July sitting on the beach, watching the fireworks over the ocean. That was something I had never done before and it was beautiful. Emma was scared at first but then warmed up to it and said she wanted to see more. I told her she could see more at Disney World and to sweet talk her daddy! Hannah, the fearless child, loved them and kept calling out the colors after each "pop."

4th of July outside of Kitty Hawk Kites

a little corn hole before fireworks on the beach

The children were precious on the beach. They loved the sand and playing in huge holes that Britt and Bo made. We typically went to the beach in the morning and stayed at the pool after lunch and while the kids napped. We ate in every night but one night, which was nice because we did not worry about crowds and waiting with our large party. The weather was also very cooperative the entire week with rain and storms at night.

We also enjoyed a shopping trip to Wings (emma's favorite store), some other local stores, putt putt, and multiple ice cream trips. I loved seeing all of the kids play and have so much fun. The adults had fun at night after the kids went to bed playing Dominoes and Pictionary. Bo and I liked the hot tub outside of our room at night too!

Mary has most of the pictures so I don't have our group shots or the kids on the beach but I will post some when I get them!

one of my favorite pictures!