Family time

Here are some pictures from our weekend with Todd's family.
Uncle Jas & Allie:

Riding bikes!

Me & my sweet loves:

Mimi & Allie-girl:

Aunt Meredith & Uncle Jas:

Kiawah Island, SC

In honor of Todd's parents' 40th wedding anniversary (yes, WOW!!), we are spending the long weekend with everyone Eaker at Kiawah Island, South Carolina. We enjoyed a beautiful beach day today while Todd, his dad & brother played one of the most challenging golf courses in the country. It was a good day for all!

Here's Allie relaxing. I laughed out loud when I saw her doing this. I love my girl!
Here are the kids with one of the 4 dead horseshoe crabs they found:

A lot of fun with the waves!

Because it was low tide, there were a lot of little pools on the edge where the kids found lots of little fish. They were contained because the waves weren't getting them anymore, so a lot of fun to chase.

They found a few of these really pretty shells (for Grammy!):

And we enjoyed a fun beach picnic lunch. There was a single feisty sea gull hovering over us trying to get the kids' sandwiches. Being the experienced beachers, both kids knew exactly what to do. I love my little beach bums.

Words with Allie

Allie has been a language superstar since she was little bitty. This girl can talk and talk and talk. And she thinks she's grown when she starts tellin' a story. I love listening to her voice and watching her facial expressions & gestures.

She does have a few words that aren't quite right and if she just used them all in one sentence, I'd be beside myself in delight!

For example, when she says the word "yours" it always starts with a "w" sound. Like, "wors." And the word "banana" has an "l" in it, so "blana." She also refers to tomatoes as "taytuhs" (almost like she's actually saying "tatoes" with a southern accent.)

So I guess the sentence I'm hoping she'll say is something like this:

"Mommy, I'm going to eat a blana with some taytuhs, and I'd like to have wors instead of mine."

Baseball 2011

Well, we've finished our second baseball season already. Zachary played in our church baseball league with Todd as the coach of his team. He really showed some significant improvement through out the season. It was fun to watch him figure things out and be able to think fast while fielding and running the bases. In this first picture, he's playing the pitcher position. The coaches pitch in this league, but a player will guard the mound and retrieve short hits, which Zachary did well. He made several outs throwing the ball to the first baseman.

Allie helped me in the dugout. It was tough for her because I was really busy trying to get all the kids ready each inning. She was so patient & such a good girl (most games!) and made a few new little friends. Including this sweet lady bug!

"Good game...good game...good game...."

Todd gave each kid a game ball throughout the season. This is Zachary's little face after he won the game ball. Love this kid!

Goofy Kids

There's something about the first mow of the season. Even if very little change has occurred in the lawn, the kids go crazy in the grass after it's mowed. The other night was no exception and I took some pictures of my crazy, goofy, fun kids!
(Allie has recently decided she wants the freedom to run around shirtless [don't we all?!] outside like Zach does. We usually don't allow this...but it had been challenging day and when we noticed she had taken it off, Todd & I chose to ignore it.)

When they noticed I had started taking pictures, they decided to do some hilarious posing. I was laughing out loud at their little ideas. So funny!

This is my girl. Chocolate milk stains down her chest/belly, boogies out her nose, a cut & bruise on her face and some wild hair. Love her to pieces!