Wordless Wednesday (Our Nurse & Cowboy)

Wordless Wednesday (Best Friends and Pin the Tiara on the Princess)

Sport the Bear

Meet MB's new buddy!  For her birthday this summer, we took her to Build-A-Bear and it was such a great experience.  She has this thing about stuffed animals.  She loves everyone she sees and we have to be intentional about not buying them so they don't take over our house and increase our "stuff" level.  However, we knew this would be her ideal birthday treat so off we went.  It was low key, easy, and she absolutely loved it.  We even managed to get out of there only spending around $20. 

We told her she could choose any bear that she wanted.  That was until she first stopped in front of the the neon-colored bear with peace signs all over it.  I don't think so!  We then gently encouraged her to look at ALL of the bears before making a final decision.  Thanks goodness she moved on and forgot about that first one!

 

She settled on this cool looking dude, much better!  He also happened to be the cheapest one, bonus!  She's thrifty like her mama!

Helping the bear get fluffy.

Test Squeeze

Picking out the perfect heart

Making a wish on the heart.  She had no idea what she was supposed to do but the lady said close your eyes and make a wish so she did her best.

Giving him his first bath.

Bears like to be cleaned with air, good to know.

Picking out something for him to wear, she settled on the Olympic T-shirt since we were in the spirit.

All boxed up in his little house.

We stopped at the DQ for ice cream to further celebrate.  This picture describes envy perfectly.

The girl can suck down some ice cream, again, just like her mama.

One with mommy to mark the occasion.

Silly in the parking lot, she carried him all the way home.  When we got in the car, we started asking her what his name should be.  I said "we should think of something that goes with the Olympics, like a sport or something" since he had his Olympic T-shirt on.  MB then yelled from the back, "his name is Sport!!!"  It has stuck and she just loves the little guy.  She introduced him to Teddy, her first love, and she said that Teddy was a little jealous at first.  She has since tried not to show favoritism, sweet girl.

Wordless Wednesday (The first time but certainly not the last.)

Beach Trip II - Crescent

Labor Day was spent with the Saunders clan at Crescent beach.  We all piled into a three bedroom condo with these wild children and it was wonderful.  The kids played together great, the weather was perfect, and we basically had the beach and pool to ourselves.  I highly recommend the beach in May and September.  I can't stand feeling crowded on the beach and we didn't have to worry about the kids running back and forth between our tent and the water. 

I love that these little guys are just two months apart.  They are going to be great buddies.

We invested in some pink headphones for the long drive, totally worth it!

Bathing beauties!

Yaga, will  you jump the waves with us?

Ben longingly watched the girls build sandcastles from afar but he doesn't like to venture too far from mama.

I was amazed they wore their shades most of the day.

Shanna did their braids, oh how I wish I could do more than a pony tail.

His mouth could not have gotten any bigger.  He LOVED the water!

Looking so grown up.

 Everyone looking in the same direction + Yaga smiling = Beach Photo Miracle

 

I could eat them up.

Heading towards the ocean in his only crawling speed...WIDE OPEN.  See how much privacy we had?

No fear

We had the pool to ourselves any time of day. 

He was just as happy at the pool.

A little naked time before lunch.  I want to pinch him!

Our little family.

My two front teeth!

Beach Trips - HHI version

We spent Memorial Day with Dan's family at Hilton Head and Labor Day with my family at Crescent Beach in FL.  Such fun beach trips!!!  This post is going to have all of our Hilton Head pics.  We didn't have the best weather but it was a great trip.  We had a very relaxing time and even had a chance to go on a date, dinner and a movie.  We are getting so old because we made it to the restaurant in time for the early bird special and I think we were home by 9pm.  We put in an offer on our new house the day we left for the beach so we spent a good deal of time negotiating and waiting to hear news. We especially had a great time with our adorable nephews/cousins.  Thanks for a great vacation mimi and papa!

Sweet cousins

You can see here how windy/stormy it was!  My brother-in-law was taking a beating by the wind.  Several people thought he was dead and reported him to the local lifeguard.  One guy walked up to check on him and Matt told him that he was fine, just making "art".  He caused quite a stir.  Hilarious!

Another sand blasting photo.  He was able to get that much sand on him in about 20 minutes, so windy!

All the cousins together.

Love these smiles.

Ben discovering sand.

Such a happy boy

Why use your hands when you can shovel it in.

Trying out another color to see if it works better.

Proof that I was at the beach too.

Mimi and Dan with the kids

Papa trying not to get blown away.

More higher daddy.

We spent a lot of time at the pool which suited these kids just fine.  We even swam in the rain because vacations are too short to just stay in the room.