A Day at Cocoa Beach

 So Thankful for these Blessings in My Life.

First Day of School

So beautiful.

Always a man-cub.

Growing up.

Owen wanted to be in every picture.

 They all had a great day, except for a small hiccup, someone pulled the fire alarm right at the end of the day so car pool took forever and we finally got them about 20 minutes late.

There was a little girl who had a little curl...

All loaded down.

Summer Rain

This morning started rough. One of those mornings I kind of was wishing for a do over. Owen was having more accidents than successes Luke and Anna were fighting Beau was distracted from his task of bedroom cleaning. I was overly frustrated. After we all took a deep breath Anna and Luke have been doing a fantastic job of sweeping and mopping the kitchen, Owen is napping and Beau has accomplished a lot in his room. Then the rain started falling and I sent my kids to go take a shower. I love the laughter I hear and I think I might go join them.

A Quote from Luke

Getting ready to clean up a mess, I hear this from a Luke in an announcers voice..."paper towels ready to clean up anything with the help of rag and spray." He is so funny. I need to start keeping more records of the funny things my kids say because I never remember them.

Always Helping

Owen loves to help. He will try any job you give him and willingly help his siblings do their jobs although they usually prefer he wasn't helping. Many times the cause of his tantrums is that he can't help the way he wants to. Whether it is a safety issue or the fact I don't want a bigger mess to clean up while scrubbing the floors. He tries so hard and it is hard to punish him for his tantrum when he just wanted to help in the first place but after so many today time out was a very necessary thing for both of us. He wants to be bigger than he is but I want him to just be little we have plenty of time for him to be big.

4th of July Messterpieces

Angel food cake with strawberries was one of my mom's standby desserts when I was little. I bought one yesterday and let the kids dress theirs up in red, white and blue. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, whip cream, cherries and sprinkles on top. YUM!

Snorkeling Biscayne Bay

We had the opportunity to take the kids snorkeling this past week. We went to Biscayne Bay national Park. It was a fantastic trip. We saw a manatee, dolphins - 3 pods of them, two sea turtles, a string ray, lots of beautiful fish including a puffer fish and a coral reef. It couldn't have been a more fantastic trip. I was so proud of Beau Anna and Luke. They didn't get scared and they looked very comfortable in the middle of the ocean. Owen did pretty good for a two year old. He never cried just repeated the phrase "I want to get out" over and over. He rode on my hip in his life jacket but refused to wear the goggles. We would bring a little raft for him if we went again but it was still an amazing trip.