the "Mullenator"

Tom & Grace and The Mullen's own a boat and we were able to go out on it with them Labor Day Weekend. It has never worked out during a visit in the past so we were VERY excited to get this chance! We rode down to Waterside and had dinner at Outback, walked around a bit, and then came back home. Doesn't that sound like fun??? :)

The boys had a blast and Grace even gave all the girls baths and had them in their jammies before we got home! Hilarious! We had a BLAST!

out with the ladies

Beth, Janet, Grace, Christi, & Amy




Janet, Grace, & Beth

while we were in VA, i got to go out one night with my sisters and a couple of Grace's friends. the restaurant we went to was in Norfolk and it was DELICIOUS!!! OH MY WORD! Luna Maya is a MUST for all you VA peeps! a little higher end, local Mexican place and it seriously was one of the best burritos i've ever had in my life! seriously. i don't joke about food. :) and their guacamole IS the best i've ever had. seriously. i think Anthony was a little bummed not to be going but i'll make sure to take him next time we're in town. i brought him back some guacamole and chips and he was very grateful! :)

it was fun to get out "just the girls". we don't get to do that very often and we just had the best time chatting, laughing, eating, and just enjoying each other! we didn't even leave the house until 7:30pm. such a change of pace for me! it was a lot of fun! i love my sisters and i'm so thankful for them!

Ocean Breeze - Baylee and Savannah's party

this past weekend (July 25th) we celebrated our nieces birthday's at Ocean Breeze Waterpark in VA Beach, VA. it's the third year that they've done this and we love it! it truly is a fun party! Baylee turned 4 on the 26th and Savannah will be 2 on August 15th.

the party was a Pinkalicious theme so my mom made hair bows and bought the girls matching cutie patootie PINK swimsuits. now, EVERYONE who's been at the pool with us this summer KNOWS Addison does NOT need anymore swimsuits. this girl has SO many adorable suits thanks to Grace and her hand-me-downs. however, it sure was fun to get another one to dress her up in that matched her cousins! :)




mommy and her girl!

Savannah - the Birthday girl!

Baylee - the other Birthday girl!

Emma and Savannah

Grant, Savannah, & Emma

Baylee and her friend Ali

I didn't take very many pictures this year, as you can see. I think because we were SO busy keeping up with the kids at the water park and also because I dropped my camera in the water at Ocean Breeze a couple of years ago so I tend to be a little more timid in my picture taking at places like that! :) We sure had a blast! They boys were ALL over that park! It was SO special to be there and celebrate our sweet little nieces!

Thanksgiving in VA

Nanny & Addison


"Baby's First Thanksgiving"

Emma & Jackson

Baylee

Savannah


The Mullen's

Mandi & Ashlyn

Austin & Sheffield


Mom

Emma

Grant

The DeCastillia's

I can't believe I didn't get one picture of Harrison on Thanksgiving day! Oh my word! He was running around, having fun with his cousins so it was hard to keep up with everyone. Didn't get my dad, Anthony, or myself either! :) Oh well.

It was a GREAT time spent with family and yummy, yummy food! We are SO Thankful for our wonderful families. Both Anthony and I are blessed with wonderful parents and siblings and brother/sister-in-laws. Everyone loves each other and enjoys spending time together and not all families have what we have! We are BLESSED and SO THANKFUL!!! One sad note to the day is that my Granddaddy didn't make it over for Thanksgiving dinner. His medicine he takes for the Parkinson's makes him terribly sick and he just couldn't start feeling well enough to get together. We all hated that but completely understood. Anthony and I and the kids went over on Friday night for dinner and quality time with him and that helped to make up for it! ;)

On Thanksgiving night, my sisters always head off to their husband's side of the family so we decided we would go over and spend some time with our dear friends the Schrodts. David and Katy and their kids are so special to us and it was a wonderful time to just relax and catch up. The kids played so well together and we were able to get some real quality time in! Katy made her yummy taco meat and we did something VERY non-traditional for dinner. We ate tacos! They were delicious. You can catch up on her blog to see why they deviated from the traditional Thanksgiving meal on Thanksgiving...don't worry they still had one, just not that night! The only sad thing is I have NO pictures to prove our perfectly, wonderful good time! What is up with me? I guess I was just having too much fun!

What a wonderful Thanksgiving it was and how thankful we are for the love and blessings of friends and family!

sweet cousins

aren't these girls precious??? Addison loved visiting her cousins in VA and she and Savannah had a ball getting to know each other! ;)

lollipop fun

aren't they sweet!!! :)

Baylee Rebecca 3, Harrison Tyler 6 1/2, Jackson Reed 3 1/2

Savannah Grace- 14 months old

Uncle Tom gave out HUGE lollipops one afternoon. The kids loved them and it was so cute to watch them try to manage these incredibly big lollipops! I can't believe how big everyone is getting! Spending time with cousins is the BEST! :)

a day at the farm for birthday party fun!

One of the very fun things we got to do on our vacation to VA was celebrate birthday's with Josiah, Jacob, and Anderson! They combined their birthday parties and had a BIG celebration at Hunt Club Farm! It was SO much fun! The food was FABULOUS, Katy and Heather made some yummy chili and hot dogs. The kids fed the animals in the petting zoo area, jumped and jumped to their hearts content on all the fun inflatables, played on a HUGE swing set, and the MOST fun of all was had on the big pile of hay! You'll see most of my pictures are in the hay! It was lots of fun. Sure got me in the fall mood! :)

It was fun to see Sue again! Madeline and Addison are very close in age and Sue and I both ave two older boys as well. We're having fun in all this pink! Addison and Madeline are holding hands in this picture, how cute is that??? :) Katy and I also had a GREAT weekend together! It was jammed packed full of fun! New things too, like running together! A first for us and me getting to go to her race and cheer her on! A first for me, going to a race! So inspiring! :) Callie loves Addison and I'm sure they're gonna be close girlfriends some day! They're mom's are, so why wouldn't they be?? :)

All the kids enjoyed the petting zoo! Isn't Erin looking like such a big girl too! I wish I had gotten pictures of all the kids but everyone was running in a million different directions! The kids were having so much fun and you just had to get the pictures you could, fast, before they were off again!

This one inflatable was hilarious! You entered through the stomach, I guess, right under the head and then exited out the bottom. You can see that woman prying it open to find her child probably! Hilarious! All the boys loved that! I think they thought it was sort like coming out as poop! It did look a little strange seeing the kids pop out like that! :)

These two pictures are hilarious! Jacob and Jackson are two peas in a pod! So much a like it isn't even funny! They both were all about wrestling this weekend but after a bit couldn't take back what they would dish out! They got into it on the hay pile a few times and I actually caught it on camera! They would throw hay at each other, in fun at first, and then one of them would get mad. Here is Jackson hitting Jacob in the face with hay. The next picture was the two of them getting up from a "fight". At one point Jackson tackled Jacob, and then Jacob got on top of him and was pounding on Jackson! Some of you mom's are probably appalled but they LOVE each other and I just found all of this so funny! It's clear they both have two older brothers and are used to holding their own! Hilarious!

There was sign in the farm for Addison Fire Department. Anthony held Addison up, we had to get a picture!

It was such a fun day and we are so glad we were able to be in town for all the fun! :) Happy Birthday Josiah, Jacob, and Anderson! :)