Friends and Water Fun

We got to spend some time with Nae's college friends , Sean and Liesl on Saturday while they were in Nashville. This was our first time meeting their little boy Ian who's a real cutie. As you can see from the pictures, Alena was NOT in a good mood and was very hungry when we were trying to take their pictures so we didn't get any good ones of her.

Mya's trying to hold onto Alena and Gabriel is happy to pose with Ian. Alena is actually six weeks older than Ian but you wouldn't know it by their size!

Gabriel and Ian

Sunday afternoon we finally made it to the splash park in Smyrna that I'd been wanting to take the kids to. Gabe loved it but as you can guess Mya did not. Nae ended up playing with Gabe the whole time since Mya wouldn't get in at all. Here's Gabe getting doused with a bucket of water that would randomly empty on you head.
And here's Mya after she was forced to get under a little sprinkler, "Mya, not like it!" she kept screaming. I had hopes she would enjoy it since a few weeks ago she had a great time in the sprinkler at Nae's parents. I tried to remind her of that, but it didn't work.

Another comparison

Sorry for having two posts in one day but after looking at the picture of Alena in the last post I told Nae that I didn't think she looks as much like Mya anymore. He thought she did so here are pictures of the two of them and Gabe at three months. What do you think? Alena for sure has the thickest and longest hair at this stage. I think it's fun to compare the three of them but for those of you who find this boring - sorry I'll try not to do it again for a while.

Trying to stay cool

We haven't been up to much the last two weeks mostly due to the fact that it's sooooo hot. We've had so many days in the triple digits I've lost count and the kids have only been playing outside after supper when it cools off to 99 or so and then for a few minutes. Here's a few pictures of what we've been doing - inside :)

I think Mya was watching Sesame Street in this picture. I tell you, you don't need to buy your kids toys mine play with their clothes baskets at least two or three times a week, and they even make great seats. Gabe likes to hold Alena in the morning after I feed her, and it's helpful to me so I can get some stuff done first thing. My friend Kristin gave me the idea of laying her on the Boppy so it's easier for him to hold her and she's not as heavy. Gabe likes it this way because he can "see her eyes" as he says. He'll hold her like this for 20 minutes or so.
The other day we got home late from a play date so I just sent Mya to play in her room instead of taking a nap so late in the afternoon. She played for about twenty minutes and then climbed up on her bed and went to sleep. I love that she'll do this probably because Gabriel would never never think of doing such a thing.
We took a break from coloring this morning to snap a few pictures while Alena was happy in the floor. In this first one, Alena looks like shes thinking, "Mom, please get me out of here!"

ABC's and 123's

Here's another video of Mya and this time you can hear her actually singing and counting better. I caught her in a good mood last night before bed and she decided that she would "perform" for the camera.

Beach Trip Post 1

Sorry for the lapse in posting - we've been out of town on vacation. After traveling over 1,700 miles and spending more than 36 hours in the van we are happy to be back but had a great time at Oak Island Beach in NC with my family (minus Carrie's husband Robbie who had to work) As you can imagine we have tons of pictures so I've tried to narrow it down to a few favorites.

This picture just says it all - Gabriel in all his beach attire. Once again, he was afraid to get in the water and it took a considerable amount of coaxing to even get him into the wet sand but after he got to playing he had a great time. The temps were in the triple digits so several days we just went out in the evening when the sun was going down and it was much cooler. RuthAnne and Mya had fun in the sand as well and Nae kept them very happy digging little swimming pools in the sand.
This is how Alena enjoyed the beach - in the safety of our cabana out of the sun. When she was awake she didn't like it near as much especially the wind blowing in her face.


This is one of my favorite pictures of the week - if only Alena had been big enough to sit up there too.
Alena got lots of holding and cuddling time and as you can see she is becoming quite smiley.
Chrisa and Emma pose with our kiddos.
Grandmama, Chrisa, Emma, Daddy and Mya enjoying a walk on the beach.

Beach Trip Post 2

Here's some more pictures if you're not tired of looking at them yet.

This was a favorite activity when we were indoors - riding on grown-ups shoulders and singing "The ants go marching one by one" Here Chrisa is holding RuthAnne.RuthAnne and Carrie
Emma and Alena
Grandaddy has Mya cracking up
One afternoon we went to the aquarium at Fort Fisher. It was a nice little aquarium to see especially with little ones in tow. We got to try out our Mei Tai carrier several times on this vacation. Nae wore Mya on his back the whole time we were at the aquarium since we only had one stroller.
Alena didn't care too much about the underwater life
Gabe modeling an octopus hat.
Can you tell we were all exhausted?
Here's proof that we can get three car seats in the back of our van - it's a tight squeeze, though.