New Faucet!! Woo-Hoo!!

My husband bought me a new kitchen faucet for my birthday....and it FINALLY arrived yesterday! He was very sweet to install it right away for me after a long day out... Here's the original OLD faucet---yuk, right?? The spray thing never even worked, NOT COMPLAINING, just telling like it is. :)Here are my boys doing a work for me. Reid was so funny...He picked up a screw driver and said, " Im gonna screw this up!" And..... TA-DA!!!, the new faucet. Its a Moen, stainless steel!! Thank you Mark!

This week..our stay at the cabin

This week, Marks mom and dad rented a cabin at seashore. It was SO relaxing and fun. This was a very beautiful and simple week....Im very thankful we were asked to stay. I think it''ll become an annual vacation for all of us. We stayed there Friday- Thursday.... We pretty much were outside since Friday afternoon. Our time was filled with hiking, beach visits, swimming, surfing, EATING!!, and lots of bike rides, and relaxing. There are tons of pictures to share....Oh--here's sister friday morning...she is really progressing with her walking skills. We are up to three steps now!!The cabin on a hill. Its a blast biking down that hill---you go so fast!--but, going up stinks..We began our time there with a squirt gun fight...Reid showed no mercy.Here's Reid and his Papa. Dad bought him this Redrum Fish shirt. Reid ADORES him...every morning, about 6:30, Reid woke up and immediately said, "where's Papa?"We went for a walk on the beach saturday...we hunted rocks and crabs. The weather was PERFECT! Most of the week it staying around the 80's with low humidity. Thank you Lord for your favor!

Reid loves a chance at my banjo when ever he can..

Here's Reid first "surfing" experience. Of course, we are at the bay doing this..he's still scared to go in the ocean.
Mason had a good time, too. He ran off saturday morning and got in the swamp (no fun to clean!) But after that, he did a great job listening and staying close.One morning, the boys went crabbing and us girls hung on the beach. Here are their trophy crabs..Reid caught THREE! It was his first time ever on Papa's boat and he had a blast.Of course, we poked those crabs a bit before we ate them..poor little guys!
Another visit to the bay....Vara and Nana had a good time bonding...

We went on tons of bike rides...this one we took the bike trail and viewed all the Indian Huts that are replicated all along the path...forgot my camera though.
Oh yeah!!--Uncle Mike was here all week! He brought his friend, Kate, who is really sweet and fun... We went surfing together. It was a blast, but I don't think Mike caught any waves. I told him he looked like a caterpillar on that board! Kate ended up catching some on her knees... :) I, on the other hand, stayed up longer than before...a whole 5 seconds! We also saw tons of dolphin...literally 15 feet away.
Nana and Papa got Reid some books for the trip. We learned all about shells and redrum fish.Today, we ended our time with another hike on the Bald Cypress Trail. We saw snakes and turtles again, frog and green herons, too.

Juice and Hiking ... (last week)

Last week I went on a juicing diet and here is some of the DELICIOUS juice I drank fresh daily...carrot, apple, cucumber, and celery. Reid had a lot of fun helping me make it, and drinking it too. I had so much energy from it!! When ever I was hungry, I just drank this juice (sometimes, I ate nuts too) and Mark and I had loaded salads every night for dinner. I am really excited because I didnt catch the cold Mark had.. (for the first time!!--(hope that doesnt sound insensetive!!)--and I think the raw diet was the trick for prevention.

We went hiking last week and it was really nice--very humid though. Reid and I had fun looking for frogs and racing each other--he always thinks he "winned" ...

After the hike, we snacked on rice cakes and apples, and stopped for a smoothie (our favorite treat)

You can see here just how tired Vara was...that's a rice cake hanging out of her mouth.

Time with Sarah

We spent some time at a friend's this week. We had fun with Sarah. Ive known her since she was two, back when I watched her. We always love "Woodard time"...


We did some bead work for fun. This is the first jewelry Reid has made me. Its a sweet little bracelet--very special!!
Vara's eating her first fruit pop here. She would take a bite and make this sour face EVERY time!..then go for more. It was so funny!
We had dinner that night on the patio.
After lunch, we headed for the beach.
We made some "soup" out of weeds, leaves, dead flowers, and prematurely picked tomatoes (thanks to Reid) ....I think we ended up calling it "Sunshine Natural Veggie Soup". Sarah wanted to have the perfect name for our creation .

Melting Pot

Here are some pictures from the past week or so of Reid and Vara together. I feel like we've been doing so much, but they are all simple pleasures I guess.

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far. The 4th was a blast for us. Mark made so many efforts to make my birthday special(as he always does) so, Independence day was over looked a bit!
We started the morning at home with the kiddies. We relaxed together for a bit. After Lori picked them up, Mark and I headed out to play tennis. We had so much fun!!! I stink at it for now, but I know it'll stick. After a couple hours of that, friends joined us for some boating fun! Marks aunt and uncle live on the Nandsmen River and they took us out on the boat and tube. We laughed so much watching everyone get thrown around...some of the boys even flew off! Us girls held it out though!!(of course, we didnt get pulled as fast)
After washing up at home, we all met at Baker's Crust for dinner. It was relaxing and a lot of fun. (I have NO pictures because I couldn't find my camera!) Then we stayed at the ocean front and hung out at Sean and Katie's. We walked to their park for fireworks after a bit. We started throwing those poppers at each other, which may sound silly, but it was hilarious!
I am so thankful for my family and friends who are very thoughtful and generous to me. I had the best time turning 26! Thank you everyone!! Love to you all!


Here, we are breaking in the bike trailer Mike and Lori got for Vara's birthdayI had a great find of train additions at a yardsale one morning. Reid was glued all day long..Mason, too.
I was letting Vara scoot around while eating a cucumber. Next thing I know, Reid had grabbed the rest of it off the counter and was scooting around too! Look at how big that cuke is!! I just laughed. Tub fun together!

Vara showing off her new trick...talking on the phone. She usually just holds it to her neck :)
Enjoy fresh breakfast muffins
Reid wasnt feeling good last saturday, turns out he started running a fever. Mid-morning we found him in a vacant laundry basket. He layed there for a while and everntually fell asleep around 11a
Mark moved him to his bed..he slept for a couple hours like this! Ouch!