Assateague Island, MD ~ June 16, 2008

Most possibly the highlight of our Delaware trip....although this is actually in Maryland ;)

Tommy's first beach trip....not a fan yet!

He was cool with the beach sand though!

Kimberlyn...

Kaitlyn....

Robby pullin' a move on a wave!

Robby and Kaitlyn.

One of the many sand crabs they found.

Larry likes this picture of me saving Kimberlyn. She liked the waves, but not going under with them so much.

Kimberlyn and Mom having a blast!


Then what Assateague Island is known for....the wild horses!! And the whole reason we came. We saw more horses at once that day than any other day we'd gone when we lived in Dover.
They definitely aren't shy!
Kaitlyn dreamed about touching the horse..just once. Turned out she got a couple touches in, and nobody saw :) They supposedly will fine you if you are caught touching them?!?!?
Just a fun picture Larry caught!


At Busch Gardens, VA the day before....for Father's Day.
Dad and the kids...Tommy was SPENT!
Mom and Kaitlyn's favorite thing....TEACUPS!
One of the kids snapped this cute one of us...
Kaitlyn was all about seeing the Clydesdales.
What a goof...on our way to the car....

Over all it was an okay day. But being from Florida....this Busch Gardens has nothing on Tampa! It's focused too much on the theme and not as much on the kid fun. It was terribly hard to find kid friendly food too, it was all this themed food which our kids didn't find good!

Last Month...in picture review Part 1....

Tommy's First Ice Cream Truck Experience...June 9, 2008
I was attempting to not get him involved with such a habit at such an early age, and we had plenty of treats in the house that didn't cost $2 or $3! The Ice Cream Man actually GAVE Tommy this red popsicle! Pretty Cool!

Sharing a bite with Dad...


Up close of the mess and reason Mom was content with NOT getting him ice cream!


Ah, man! Oopsie!!!


After sharing Kaitlyn's ice cream sandwich...


Clean UP!!!
This started with the idea of everybody cleaning their hands and feet from the stickies before going in the house. Tommy naturally needed the head to toe wash. Really him getting wet was started by his curiosity in the WATER and how he couldn't GRAB IT!!!


Grabbing it turned out to be quite disappointing as he got splashed every time!!



Just to prove this was an all smiles event :)


Kings Island - June 12, 2008

My cousin Trevor and his wife Sawyer we're in town for a show and actually had a day to spare for PLAY! Crazier yet, Larry had this Thursday OFF from school...I may not mention it here, but even though school is going well for him, it takes a bit of family time away from us and finding timeto do fun family stuff is limited. In a nut shell school stinks ;) He graduates in about 8 1/2 months. Nah, nobody is really counting!?!

Robby and Kaitlyn are in the front row to the right ;)



We had a fun and exhausting day, notice the younger two were too tired to join in the picture with Trevor and Sawyer!!


KAITLYN'S FIRST HORSE SHOW!! June 28, 2008

So literally THREE lessons before her first show her normal riding lesson horse, Lacy went lame :( Kaitlyn and Jordan worked together trying to learn each other. In just three lessons. They did great, especially for Kaitlyn going into her very first horse show.
There was some pretty yucky storm weather coming in, it was very cloudy and gray out. The horses were all on guard as they sense the weather long before it's in.
Kaitlyn's first class was Showmanship (where she leads Jordan through a pattern), the next class later in the day was Equitation where she rode Jordan.

Practicing for her Showmanship class.
Attempting to back Jordan up 4 steps, he really wasn't interested :)
Warming up before her Equitation class...in the warm up ring. This was RIGHT after her warming up out of the ring and using spurs, she's not very used to spurs and Jordan obeyed a good kick by cantering off. It really startled Kaitlyn and she felt as he was "running" away. She kept great composure during the 30 second escapade. needless to say the spurs were removed and they proceeded to warm up in the ring.
Doing her pattern in the show ring! This was right after Jordan attempted to scare Kaitlyn again. He didn't want to "line- up" to wait their turn for the pattern and did a small rear-up on her! She sat that well too, and proceeded on just fine!
Showing off her "cups" - just what exactly happened to show ribbons??? We were a tad bit disappointed... she'll have a couple more shows in the next few months...please let them have ribbons! Kaitlyn placed 6th in her Showmanship class- Miss DeeDee was disappointed in the judge...I watched Kaitlyn and Kaitlyn only, verdict was others placed higher that didn't deserve it??!?! Kaitlyn placed 2nd in the Equitation class...she was tickled pink even though each placing was last place!

I told her that I started showing English at an older age and never endured the excitement of being run off with or reared up on! She should be broke in to the show ring excitement for sure!! All in all a good day and she stills wants to show more!

Delaware details to come soon...

Happy 4th of JULY!!

What a fun holiday, one of my favorites. Tonight will be the 3rd fireworks display near our house and due to the chilly/rainy weather I think we're staying in. We plan to hit the parade though. These pictures are from the Wright-Patt Air Force Base Tattoo Celebration on June 27th. Tommy was not feeling well due to cutting molars so Larry and the older kids went alone. Then last night the older kids and I went to see fireworks while Tommy and Dad tried to get some rest. Tommy is STILL working on his molars! He's got ONE broken through, the others are still just swollen and painful!Not much fun, for sure!

The kids watching TV on Dad's cell phone...waiting for fireworks. They watched from The Jeep so they could get a head start home after the show!

A neighborhood visitor-
Earlier in the day, before the base celebration THIS turtle was found by some neighbors in our street. Story I heard was two other men were basically terrified to touch the poor guy and were trying to nudge him with their foot into this recycling container. My nut of a husband is all about "saving" turtles???? He picked it up!! Aunt Boo told me it was good I didn't see this event- and set him in the container. This alligator snapping turtle was not so excited about being picked up. He got VIP treatment riding in the Jeep (in his container) to a nearby pond. Larry will take almost any opportunity to go "off-roading" in his Jeep, so he was more than happy to "save" this guy! Before leaving Larry stuck an empty soda bottle into the container just above the turtle's head... hmmm...we all definitely got an up close example as to why they call it an alligator turtle! OH MY, he 'bout got Larry's hand!! I was pleased to have the kids and Larry back after the release with no blood!

In the recycling container....


CHECK OUT THAT TAIL!


He's FREE!!! He was not a typical slow turtle and went straight into the water.

The Birthday Girl!!

Kimberlyn is FIVE today. Her party was last night so that my Aunt Boo could be there. Aunt Boo spent just over a week with us and left to go home today. We had a wonderful visit with her and even went to Chicago to see more family and to "do" Navy Pier...


Kimberlyn was in love wih her cake and she told me it looked wonderful while I was decorating it! She appears to be still admiring it!

Make a wish!!

Kimberlyn insisted she wanted the bow on the back of her dress....and not just half of it, so Mom and Kimberlyn shared a piece of cake. Worked well as that Butter Recipe cake is perfect without frosting :)



Kimberlyn wanted this cake after wanting about three other cakes??? So, less than 24hrs before the party and after a whirlwind Chicago adventure, the Birthday Princess requested this cake. Thankfully it's the easiest cake to make out of my cake pan stash.

Kimberlyn's a BIG GIRL!!

So, we're back home from a week long road trip, more details to come in spurts ;)

On Thursday, June 19th we were swimming (the kids and I) in the pool after breakfast. We had a dinner date with our friend in NJ and no other big plans. I noticed Kaitlyn's shiney earrings and asked Kimberlyn when she'd get earrings. She has been SCARED to and knew the family rule is to wait until turning 5 (which she will do in 1 1/2 weeks)-- anyhow her response was a huge smile, so I asked if she wanted to get them that same day? Even bigger smile and a no questions asked YES for an answer! We ended up having lunch with Larry's old commander and THEN went to the mall to get her new shiney ears!! It is so fun with kids...watching them grow, change and make decisions...I may feel differently in a few years when I don't agree with their decisions I suppose :)

Pray for Larry and I....actually pray for Kimberlyn's future husband! SHe is pointing at the earring she sincerely wanted...the BIGGEST stone in the starter earrings! Turned out this was at Icing by Claire's and they didn't allow photos, can you believe us, crazy picture snapping mom and dad left!!! We went right outside that store to the kiosk where they allowed photos! At Piercing Pagoda they actually had more sweet little girl appropriate first earrings anyhow! She asked ME which ones were prettiest out of tow pairs. I told her both were pretty and she needed to choose! She ended up with a ruby pair, her birthstone! They look more dark pink than red...

Here is right before or during...hard to tell...

NO TEARS!! So BIG!! This shot was right when she said "but Mommy, they still hurt!" She KNEW they would hurt for a minute, but I think she didn't realize the pain stuck around for a few more minutes!


Here's a shot of Tommy and Katie during dinner. They hit it off great...sharing food through the whole dinner too! Below is a picture of us crazy moms trying to get a group picture with FIVE 1 year olds!! Annie is a dear friend that I met during fertility treatment. She ended up with quads! Check out her family blog. She was a huge comfort to me after Tommy was born as she JUST did the NICU life with her four babies. They are about 6 weeks older than Tommy. It was nice to be able to call a friend who understood and really knew we'd survive. We have NO CLUE to this day HOW WE SURVIVED IT-- only God knows as He can (and DID) provide the strength!