Laguna Beach

Bobby and I had the chance to go to Laguna Beach to spend a little time away. Work reward trips are always the best! 

Our room was oceanside with a little fire pit on the porch. We sat outside many a night fireside eating ice cream from a little place in the hotel we came across listening to the ocean. Relaxation at it's best! 

We also spent a lot of time at the beach watching the surfers. They would be out in the water from sun up to sun down.

The views here never, ever got old! 

We took a late afternoon walk and noticed our shadows in the sand....what a perfect opportunity to do heart hands:) 

Sunsets are beautiful pretty much anywhere but in Laguna I was thoroughly impressed by God's handiwork. They were breathtaking each and every night! 

Downtime is always a nice thing when you are raising a family with four rowdy kids. We appreciated the time away but we're always ready to get back to our crew!

Mother's Day

There is no greater blessing to me than these four. Happiest Mother's Day to me:)

And a Canine Makes Seven

Bobby went to get his bi-yearly dental cleaning and the next thing I know we're talking about getting a puppy. What just happened?? Our hygienist, Erica, come to find out, is a regular breeder of registered Labs and she just happened to have a litter of puppies. Bobby and I both have a soft spot for labs so we got suckered in:) The kids and I went out to her house to pick the one we wanted when they were about 5 weeks old. Good gracious that was tough. They were all so cute! We ended up picking this gal because she crawled up in Cade's lap and fell asleep. 

About three weeks later we were able to pick her up. She came home to much fanfare. Can you say "overstimulated"???

We all agreed on the name Annie. 

She really is just as cute as can be. Right now she's pretty good and doesn't do much whining. 

 And she's pretty good at napping when the kids are swimming:)

The next time Bobby and I have 18 minutes of free time in a weekend and we decide to do something crazy, tell us to get a fish. There's no potty training involved with that! 

Some Four Year Old Pics

I took a few pictures of Elaina before her birthday party. Here are a few of my favorites:

FOUR

Today was Elaina's FOURTH birthday. Four years of sugar and spice and everything nice:) She woke up to her most favorite breakfast of donuts.

Birthday song, 

candle blow out, and then we were off for our day! 

 We spent the day at the ballpark which thankfully is the place she loves most! 

That tank top was brown at the end of the day and she was dirty from head to toe. I think she would say that that qualifies this as a great birthday:)

FOUR!

Elaina's fourth birthday day was full of things she loves. The first: Doughnuts! 

And second, baseball! We spent her actual birthday day watching brothers play and honestly, she couldn't have been happier to do so:) 

Sugar and spice (more spice than sugar:) ) and everything nice (unless you make her mad), that's what this little girl is made of! 

It's a Paw Patrol Party!

Every year Elaina wishes for a pool party but the weather just doesn't cooperate! It was still a bit too chilly to be swimming. We had the balloon guy come instead and he was a total hit! 

She wanted Paw Patrol to be her party theme since it's her most favorite cartoon show. I'm no crafty mama but I did put the food in dog bowls (yessss, they were clean!) and put "puppy food" in them. 

Elaina spent most of her time racing her friends. She's always up for a good competition! 

There was also a lot of bootie shakin' going on around the pool:) It's always fun to have the music on when the kids are there. Rhett pulled out moves no one even could've topped if they tried!

Elaina and a handful of her party buds:

Elaina and Garrison...two peas in a pod:)

Henry:

Cake time! Make a wish and blow out the candles! 

Presents! 

Her "big" present from us was a bike this year. Hopefully we can find some time to start learning without those training wheels! 

Happy Fourth birthday, Elaina!