New Family Pics

 It's been two summers since we had our pictures taken on the beach.  A lot changes in two summers.  Last summer Kasey wasn't with us and so it was kind of hard to coordinate a family shot on a beach.  This year, she got to come again so we chose one night to snap away.  And by "snap away" I mean, hurry up and get boys dressed in something they DON'T want to wear, wrangle and yell at them to smile and not get in the ocean, force them to stand somewhere they DON'T want to stand and have a smile they DON'T want to have.  Ahh...family pictures are so peaceful and calm.  Actually, Owen is a great picture taker.  He smiles and laughs and doesn't mind them at all.  Will hates pictures.  Always has, and I am assuming always will.  That makes it not so easy anymore.  Between Will's hatred of pictures and Owen's "lets run everywhere on the beach and get sandy and wet before pictures"...they just went "perfect".  Oh well, memories:)

It makes me look back just not too long ago to the summer when the boys were ages 3 and 5.  Now, this summer they were 5 and 7.  Look at how much changes in just a short few years.  I can REALLY see it in Owen.  Gone is the baby.  Tears!

I am loving looking back at all the changes my family does in just a few years.  I am thankful that we will have these pictures for many more years to come to look through.  Imagine how much change there will be in just 10 short years?  Time goes way too quickly once you become a parent.  

Two more weeks until school starts.  This is one mom that is NOT super excited about that.  I miss my boys.  This will be the first year that they will BOTH be gone all day all five days.  I don't believe I am ready for that.  It just makes me even more thankful for the family time we got to spend on a beautiful beach in a beautiful state.  Thank you Jesus for our blessings.

I Need to Move Here....

 How I was born and raised in a land locked state is beyond me.  I should have been born in Florida.  I wish I would've been.  One day, God willing, we will live there.  Probably when the boys graduate high school we would seriously consider it.  

We love the beach, the humidity, the palm trees, the waves, the smell of the ocean, the seagulls, the shopping, the food...the list could go on and on.

Will and Owen enjoyed having Aubree, Paxton, and Ella to play with.  It was great to see them after so long and to see them interact together again.  Will and Aubree had been friends for as long as I can remember and to see them together again playing was a good sight to see!

Another sight to see in Florida?  PEARL.  She lives.  She is alive even though you can hardly tell.  She is an albino alligator and she lives at Fuddpuckers off of HW 98 in Destin if you ever want to go see her. 

So back to living in Florida.  Who wouldn't want to live here.  I mean, look at that water.  It's almost ALWAYS like that too.  I mean, yes, you might get a random hurricane but you know DAYS in advance when one of those things is coming and you can leave.  Tornadoes in OK?  You don't know till usually right before they hit you.  Another reason to love Florida:)

Some of my Favorites

When you go on vacation you take a million pictures right?  Maybe that's just me.  I only took about 55 this go around. That was way less than I have taken the previous years:)  This blog post is gonna cover about 7 of my favorites.  Of course, I love our normal posed family pictures on the beach too but that is going to be another blog all to itself.  I love these pictures because of who they are taken with, where they were taken, or the story behind them being taken. I love the top one of Steven and I because we were tan and full (we had just eaten more seafood).  It was one of our last days there and again we were with good friends!

The one of Steven and I on the beach was our very first night in Florida and our very first time to step on the sandy beach.  We were uber tired from driving all night but were at a beautiful beach with some great friends so that makes that picture special to me.

This one of Will and I was our last picture we snapped of us on the beach.  We left the next day and didn't take any beach pictures.  I love the clouds, his smile, and the 5 million dollar house behind us.

This one of Kasey and I I really like!  I love my hair that Kasey braided for me.  I don't get to see her very often anymore which means I don't get braids (that look good) anymore.  I think we both look very pretty and happy in this shot!

 No family vacation anywhere can be without family pictures.  These 3 are some of the best ones we took all week.  Please excuse my messy/curly/beach hair in the last 2 pictures.  There's only so much you can do with natural wave when mixed with salt water, sand, and sun.  I tried my best:)

Owen Turns 5!!!!!!

 Somebody turned 5 while we were in Florida!  What an awesome place to have a birthday:)  This is actually the 3rd birthday in a ROW that he has been able to celebrate in Florida.  It's the first one that he's been able to have friends there though while it's also his birthday.  Thankfully, we had some friends that moved to Florida back this Spring.  They were there and ready to help celebrate Owen turning the big 5!

What two things does he love?  Bowling and the beach!  We were able to squeeze both in during his special day on Monday.  I think he had a pretty great day and thanks to friends and family who helped make Monday so great for Owen!

When you spend your days on the beach, or in the pool, or jumping in a hot tub it tends to wear you out.  Almost every night Owen fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner.  Sometimes, he was so tired that he couldn't even make it through dinner.  It's a hard rough life being 5 but I think he's gonna pull it off nicely:)

Happy birthday to my fun loving, animal lover of a boy.  He brings the laughter and joy into this family.  He's loud, crazy, and loves his family with his whole heart.  What more could a momma ask for?  This Saturday we will be having a splash pad family party so all his Oklahoma family can celebrate him.  This past Monday was all his immediate family loving up on this 5 year old.  He's growing too fast for me!  Happy birthday Owen.  Momma loves you to the moon and back!

My Robin Hood

 It's hard for me to believe that this is my "baby" who will be turning 5 years old in just 6 days.  I remember thinking how big of a birthday that was for Will.  The big 5.  He seemed like such a big boy to me by that age.  Now, that's Owen.  I know it's part of growing up and like I have said many times before...I will look back at 5 and yearn for this time because he will be way too old at 15 or 25.  

5.  He is my 5 year old lover.  5 year old cuddler.  5 year old laugher.  5 year old screaming/yeller/hollerer.  5 year old in motion child that never slows even in sleep.  5 year old animal LOVER.  5 year old outside LOVER. 5 year old superhero LOVER.  He is the epitome of this saying.  You've heard it before right?  This is Owen.  To a Tee!!

He's also my little modern day Robin Hood.  He protects me from the ants (by spraying a whole can of ant spray on the grass and thereby killing my grass) he protects me from the wasps (same story but with wasp spray added this time), he protects me from the spiders, the june bugs, the rolly polly's, the crickets, grasshoppers, and ladybugs.  He loves his momma and my little "Robin Hood" watches out for me while I am relaxing outside.  I love my "Noise with dirt on it" and I wouldn't change him for any other 5 year old in the world.

Schlitterbahn

 Friday morning we took off bright and early to make the 4 1/2 hour drive to Kansas City.  This family is a water family.  We love pools, oceans, water parks, slides, tubes, rafts, etc.  I think you get the watery picture.  None of us had ever been to a Schlitterbahn water park before.  I had always heard amazing things about it and have wanted to go.  There's two around where we live in Tulsa.  One is in New Braunfels (near San Antonio) and the other is in KC.  Since SA is not really a weekend drive we picked the park in KC to try.  I liked that it wasn't too huge.  It was totally walkable and doable for a day or two.

We loaded up on Friday morning and followed the Kuykendall's up to KC.  Thankfully, they love the water too and have two boys too so it all worked out nicely.  Look how cute they are all in the wave pool!

We spent about 13 hours at the park in 2 days.  Friday we didn't even really start the fun until about 2:00.  It's amazing what that much sun and physical activity does to our bodies.  By 9:30 that night Steven and I were forcing our eyelids to stay open:)

The boys had a blast, the adults had fun and we made some good memories with great friends and family for the weekend.  That's a win-win in my book!

2 Haircuts

 This is the story of 2 haircuts.  1 on a human, 1 on a dog.  1 needed a haircut more than the other one and often smelled like "stink" from outside (but he shall remain nameless who I am thinking of).  

Owen and Will normally get buzz cuts for the summer so I can have 8-10 good solid weeks of not fixing, cutting, or dealing with hair.  This year, they both (Owen was pretty adament) requested long hair.  Owen's hair grows way faster than Will's does so this is only the growth of 1/2 of the summer.  Who knows what it's gonna look like come the middle of August when school starts again.  Yikes!

The other "child" that got a haircut recently was Norman.  Whew, this "kid" really needed it.  Being a mix of 2 breeds he tends to have some crazy wild hair, with grass and dirt stuck in it, and carries with him a certain smell that I will not allow in my house.  He is 4 months old next week and just had his first grooming experience.  Everyone at PetSmart fell in love with him and said  how loving and great of a dog he was.  I would have to agree.  I've never been a "dog person" and still really am not but this puppy fits perfectly in our family and the love Owen has for Norman is pretty special.  I now present to you our groomed 4 month old baby.  I didn't even know Norman had eyebrows before this!!!!!!!

The Fireworks Go BOOM!

 This 4th of July we headed out to the "country" in Coweta to hang with family, eat till we were sick, blow up things, and play a little corn hole.  Isn't that what every family does for the 4th?  Mom says she lives in "Hicklohoma" and I am beginning to agree with her.  It's nice to live in the country though to have the freedom to blow up a huge Lowes bucket with a homemade sparkler bomb and watch it sail 50 feet into the country sky.  Not that THIS family did not.  No never!

The biggest highlight of the day/night was probably the watermelon and cantaloupe explosion.  Talk about loud!  Wow...if you have never heard a watermelon explode with a pack of sparklers in it, then you are missing out:)  I took video of both of these fruits blowing up to a million pieces so I don't actually have pictures to post on here of that.  My dad gets the biggest kick of the objects exploding.  On all my videos you hear and see the big boom and then you hear my dad rolling into laughter.  On all of them.  So funny!

I love being able to hang out with all my family for holidays.  It's one of the biggest perks of living close to families on holidays!  My big cousin (and his little girl), uncle, grandpa and grandma, all my little nieces and nephews, sister and bro in law, aunt and uncle, mom and dad, and of course my family were all present.  As you have heard before...I like to capture moments that aren't posed.  To snap something that is just true everyday life that I will look back on in future years and enjoy.   I took this picture of my boys.  It wasn't posed at all and I just love watching them mold into their daddy.  This proves it....

And then you have my sister who's main goal in life (and she's pretty good at it) is to find opportunities to photo bomb people.  Seriously, I have so many of her doing this and I get a kick out of it everytime!

Hope everyone had as much fun together with whomever you picked to spend the day with.  Happy 4th of July everyone!