1.2.12 {picture a cutie}

Well here we are, at the end of our 12-day vacation, the first as a family of five. What a fantastic time in Florida we had--playing with cousins, visiting with extended family, enjoying God's fabulous creation (hello beach!), and soaking up time together.

now we are blessedly loaded down with Christmas gifts and crammed full of sweet almost-sleeping children. I can hear cutie face, once the only and now the biggest sister, softly complaining about goIng to sleep. If it was still just her in the car, I'd crawl in the back and tell her stories, sing her a song, and do prayers until she fell asleep. My heart hurts for her a bit because neither of us have known those times of such undivided and individualized attention in nearly two years. And how sometimes I wish we could go back to those times so she knows how much she is loved and valued--more than just being the excellent role model for her sisters and the incredible helper for me, her mom.

But then I know how rich her life (& mine!) is because of her siblings--the love expounded, the lessons learned, the forever-bonds formed. How amazing to think that our God can give us, his children, individual attention and a plan just for us but then plop us in the middle of our Christian family to learn the same lessons and experience the same love.

I anticipated just attempting to see if a picture could upload from my iPhone to snapfiah to blogger while we drove home. I wanted to keep the daily picture streak alive! Sorry so long winded!

Water Babes!

If there was one prevailing theme to our looong road trip I'd say it was FRIENDS (as in, getting back together with family and friends and just spending quality time with each other).

 If there were two themes I'd say it was friends and WATER. 

It seriously felt like everywhere we turned we were wading in a pool, splashing in some fountains, or swimming in a lake.

The last three days we were in Michigan and Ohio, we went swimming in Grandma's lake, splashing in Cuyahoga Falls fountains, and swimming in the hotel's BIG POOOOOOOLLLLLL!

and here is all of that in pictures:

the last half of Friday we spent with J in the lake.

the girls loved bonding with their daddy

they are just so sweet together!

Cutie Cakes really enjoyed her time in the pool...

she floated around by herself for a long time and got a huge kick out of it

Then we traveled to Cuyahoga Falls where there are...you guessed it...Falls

they also had fountains that Cutie Face loved playing in

*note that she is wearing her new outfit from The Millers*

Cutie Cakes watched from the shade

and the twin and Sweet Pea enjoyed the water, too!

The hotel we stayed in had an awesome indoor pool that overlooked the Falls. Cutie Face was a bit unsure about it at first...

but before we knew it she was having a spectacularly fun time!

and she was becoming a pro swimmer (well...in relative terms)

but at least she was loving it!

practice makes perfect!

jumping in one last time before we hit the road for our final trip...

HOME!

Wedding Bells!

A good friend of mine from college (who was also in my wedding!) got married last weekend. One of the main reasons we ventured on our very long roadtrip was to attend this wedding and we were so glad that Saturday had finally arrived.

Unfortunately, it arrived a bit too early for us as this is what we saw when we got to the church--oh yes, the flower girls were already lined up and ready to walk down the aisle. Oops. LATE. Not good.

BUT we did get a sneak peek of the beautiful bride and that was really fun!

Rolling out the white aisle runner

here comes the bride!

married and blissful!

watching the receiving line from afar...

we couldn't wait to talk to her in person--it'd been too long!

one of my "sisters" (sorority style) held Sweet Pea for a bit at the reception

*can you believe the twin made this adorable romper? talk about talented!*

Listening to the Maid of Honor's speech

it was priceless

and it was funny!

Side note: Cutie Face had the privilege of meeting her

and is STILL talking about "Miss Megan"

the cake before the cut

and the cut

turns out this reception event was a huge draw:

Unfortunately, we failed to get a great picture of the four of us sorority sisters

but these are our best (and only) attempts

it was so wonderful to witness this wedding and share it with friends!

Making New Friends through Old Friends

I've been dragging my feet writing this post because this post is about THE Millers. You know, the cool ones. The ones who are hilarious. The ones who are just such great friends. The ones who I want to feel honored by reading this post. You know. So i wanted to make it funny...maybe a little sentimental, too, but mostly witty. Something that said, "We love and appreciate and value the friendship we have with THE Millers."

But.

I'm afraid i can't live up to the pressure. 

So here's a non-witty non-sappy recap of our quality time together!

To start: the twins are adorable. 

So cute that Cutie Face had to hide her face--she couldn't compete!

even Cutie Cakes was amazed by their cuteness

and couldn't take her eyes off them

The twins are 7-months younger than Cutie Face and almost 1-year older than Cutie Cakes. They are very expressive and funny and love to play. For 8 straight hours, we lunched, snacked, napped, walked, and played (at another playground!) together--it was wonderful to have that much time with them!

We are so thrilled that they moved to Michigan for numerous reasons (a great church to lead, they're closer to their families, etc.) but the best (in our humble opinion) is that now we'll get to see them at least twice a year when we go to MI! yay!

the reverend pastor himself

no...he's not proud of having his name on a sign or anything...

Me and sweet Allie 

(thanks Kim for this photo--i can't believe one actually turned out!)

a disaster of a timed-photo as we had meltdowns all around

but whatevs, we're parents now & we can take it. It's the new norm

Following our visit with our buds, we went home to pack and clean (though Moms, if you're reading this, we didn't get all that we hoped to accomplish done so please don't expect much if anything at all!). 

We were hit with a crazy huge thunderstorm with near-tornado-strong winds. It really was crazy. Michigan really wanted us to go out with a bang! 

Vacation with Grandma!

ie LOTS of time spent on the water!

Our little family is very happy that Grandma recently bought a lake house. Who needs intown living when you can enjoy a beautiful lake every day? Not us!

what? you've never seen a bumbo on a raft in the middle of a lake before?

Learned:

swimming with 2 babies is harder than running with 2 babies

Despite the lake in the backyard, we still found the need to supplement with strategic floats and a (BIG) kiddie pool.

If I didn’t know we’d be back, I’d take this awesome pool home with us—it is the perfect size for Cutie Face, will grow with both of them AND it can float Cutie Cakes’ boat!

the water bottle pool toy proved to be the best invention yet

she is a total ham

and she knows it

I hope these pictures give you a little taste of all the fun we enjoyed…

(well, you can't always be having fun, right Cutie Face?)

Cutie Cakes really got into her bouncer and started squealing/laughing when we played peek-a-boo. So sweet, those sounds!

Cutie Face liked to always know where the pups were 

and they tolerated her nicely

while you'd think the sun + water would make for 2 sleepy girls

sadly, Cutie Face has been going through a no-nap stage...

but i do have proof that she took two naps while in Michigan!

Cutie Face stacked the blocks on this Melissa & Doug toy according to color! yay for that! and what a huge difference 2 months can make in cognitive strides. I was impressed!

The cloth diapers even had fun tanning sunning themselves on vacay, too.

Thanks for a great visit, Grandma! We’ll miss you!!!