We arrived safely at the beach on Friday afternoon. The kids did GREAt on the flights. They were pretty crazy on the drive from Jacksonville to New Smyrna, but they were super excited. (Jamie was already not a fan of the drive since our rental car is a burnt orange jeep). We have had so much fun. No rain. Surfing, pastries from the French bakery, a trip to the candy store, seeing old friends and playing with cousins. The beach is a little more crowded this year. One reason being a new condo opening. Another being the oil spill messing with gulf vacation plans. All has been well until today. We started the day with Jamie losing his sunglasses in the ocean. We ended the afternoon with Max slicing his toe open…well, almost off. His pinky toe hit the door going out of our condo and it managed to slice almost the whole pad off. As the ER doc said, she sewed his toe ‘back on’. We are praying that the part severed will stay viable. No more ocean, sand or pool for Max on this trip. We are trying to think of fun things to fill our last two days. Movies, trips to the beach shop and probably whatever Max wants to do. Of course, he is in pain tonight and is not really supposed to be walking around a lot. He is supposed to walk on his heel or have someone carry him. Pray that the last two days go fast for him and that he will have fun. I am sure we will carry him down to the beach to say ‘good bye’ but the doctor was pretty serious about not getting sand anywhere near his stitches…3 on the inside of the toe, 10 on the outside. We are always so grateful to be hear and are blessed to be able to have this special time at the beach with our family. Pray for us as we get home and try to get all of us through the Orlando airport. I think maybe we will see if we can hitch a ride on one of those fancy golf carts!

All the kids have been to the doctor in the last month or so for various things. You know strep throat for Zeke, ear infection for Blake, strep infection in a not very comfortable place for Max. But, they were all weighed on their visits and I officially have a 30 lb girl, a 40 lb Zeke and a 52 lb Max! We are having a fun and busy week with the Avery bunch from Houston. And, we are preparing to leave for the beach. ALL of us are looking forward to our vacation and hope that it is a fun, safe and relaxing time. I received Zeke’s ’safety tats’ in the mail. He will literally be wearing a waterproof, temporary tattoo that reads ‘If Lost, Please Call…’. He is too fast and the beach is a big place. Pray for our family as we are traveling and getting through life these days!!

I am baffled where the summer is going! We are just weeks away from our trip to Florida. When we return, we will be just weeks away from school starting. Last week we had something every single night. We celebrated Jamie’s birthday…one night with family, one night with a friend. We took Max to a Redhawks game and he loved it! We went with his baseball team and that was so fun. We have enjoyed all the kids and parents so much. Jamie and Max went out to Pops on Route 66 to see the CNG car that is traveling across the country. Chris, Shelly and Selah came in, so we spent as much time with them as we could.

Saturday was the 4th of July parade. The boys and I went with my dad, Chris, Shelly and Selah. It started cool and overcast and ended with us soaking wet running for the car! But, the kids got lots of candy and had a great time while we were there. After lunch, swimming (in the clouds) and naps, we went to see the fireworks. We stayed in the car, but the kids enjoyed! On Sunday we had a nice day…church, lunch, naps and then Edmond. We had a yummy cookout, played with cousins and then more fireworks! We stayed at the house to watch. We actually lost Zeke and as soon as my heart really started pounding, we found him. He had heard us say it was time to go, so he left! We stayed in the entry chatting for a few minutes and no one saw him walk out. When we found him, he was in the car, curled up in his carseat, asleep. We are thankful he was safe and it wasn’t too hot outside! Of course, he had only been out there between 5 and 10 minutes…but long enough to give us a scare!

Jamie and Max got up Monday morning to go see Popps in Watonga. They enjoyed their day with him. I took Zeke and Blake to the zoo with my parents, Chris, Shelly and Selah. It was a nice outing. Zeke did escape in the children’s zoo, but was quickly found. Another heart stopper though…it was SO crowded! After an afternoon rest and dinner, all of us went back to my parent’s and swam, roasted marshmallows, made s’mores and caught fireflies. It was a fun evening!

Tuesday night was supposed to be the first night of Max’s post season baseball tournament. He was actually quite excited to see his team again and play! However, the rain came and the whole tournament was canceled. Sad, but now we have some free evenings to just hang out! Hope everyone is enjoying their summer as much as we are enjoying ours!

Max successfully completed his week at camp DaKaNi. It was from 9:00 - 3:30 M-F. He had SO much fun. He was not very happy when I picked him up the first day because he had to wait awhile for me. It was kind of a repeat of the first grade drama at the beginning of the year. But, I made some adjustments in my schedule for pick up time and he did GREAT. We are all enjoying the camp songs that are still being sung. We celebrated Jamie’s birthday on Thursday…kind of. It turned out to be a crazy sort of day, but we survived it. Max played his last regular season game on Friday night. They didn’t win. But, as always it was entertaining. We spent the weekend in Tulsa at a family reunion. We stayed at a great hotel with a little indoor water park. The kids had SO MUCH FUN. I see a winter get away in our future. We continue to stay busy and endure the heat. We are looking forward to seeing Chris, Shelly and Selah at the end of the week. I have tons of pictures to upload and hope to do it VERY soon. The kiddos are getting so big and they are so, so cute.

It is getting more and more difficult to sit down and blog. Not because I don’t want to…my time is just totally occupied. My house is a major mess and most days seem to start before the other even ends! We are in the last couple of weeks of baseball. Prime actually won last week and Max actually got his second hit! He was out on first base, but SO excited!! Zeke has picked up the same little bug that Max had last week. Must be viral. Temp, headache, chills, sleepy…but, GREAT on ibuprofen. Lula is hilarious. She makes us laugh. We try not to let her see us laugh because most of the time she is being pretty sassy. Kind of like when she got on to Jamie this week and counted at him. Sounded like this, ‘Ohhhhhhh Daddy…1,2,1!’. All our kiddos are joys! They just keep us BUSY. Max went to VBS with his cousin this week and had such a great time. Next week he heads to camp DaKaNi. It is a day camp and I am so excited for him to go. I hope he enjoys it as much as I did when I was his age. And, I hope it is put back together from all the flooding earlier this week. We are looking forward to this weekend…celebrating dads!!

The kiddos are keeping ME busy this summer break. Today we painted, did shaving cream glue art, made a tent and played with Shelby. The art projects were an attempt to salvage a morning that went bad quickly! Zeke woke up extremely grumpy and uncooperative. That made us a little late to ‘Kids Corner’ at Chesapeake. When we got there we tried to find parking for 20 minutes and could not. Max burst into tears because it was ‘art day’. Ugh. I don’t think my attempt at salvaging ‘art day’ worked so well. But, I have a mess to clean up to prove that I tried!

We have been to the Science Museum, done some swimming, watched some movies, watched our new driveway go in, celebrated birthdays and played a lot of baseball. It’s so hot I feel like we are well into July, but then I realize we are only in our second week of summer break! We still have camp, the beach, dentist appointments, VBS…

We officially have a second grader, a pre-kindergartener and a two year old. We are officially out of school and summer has officially begun! Saturday was full of birthday parties. Max’s friend Jaclyn’s party was in the morning and Carder’s was in the afternoon. That evening we went out to Edmond to celebrate Carder’s birthday with the family. We spent our first day at the pool on Sunday and had so much fun. We spent more time there yesterday for Memorial Day. We got plenty of sun, so today we slept in a bit, went to the library and will spend a lazy afternoon at home!

We woke up with a 2 year old in our house. The fit she threw this morning proves it! She had a GREAT well check up. She is 33 1/2 inches ‘long’ and weighs almost 28 pounds. She totally flirted with her doctor, was happy, kept her bow in and did not cry or complain when she got her shot. We will celebrate tonight after Max’s game. The family is coming over for sandwiches, chips, brownies and ice cream.

Later today I will join Max for his last day of school ’sing-a-long’. I am sure it will be emotional. First grade has been a big deal and he learned SO much. We could not have been blessed with a better teacher. I know the summer will fly and second grade will be starting before we know it!

Zeke has one more day of school tomorrow. The trick will be getting him there since Max will be home. Hopefully he will really want to go to his last day of school party. Looking forward to a fun weekend and our first swim of the season!

Well, here we are…down to the last week of school. I can’t even remember what we did last week. I know we played 3 baseball games and lost all 3. But, the boys still seem to be having fun. It is finally feeling like summer and looks like we will be storm free this week. I got to go to Super Kids Day with Max on Friday. It was so much fun. My car seems to have suffered a little more damage than we thought and of course it is 10 years old. We should know the beginning of this week our ‘total’ amount. Ugh. Oh, and Happy Anniversary to me and Jamie. 12 years…wow! Looking forward to welcoming a new ’second’ cousin on Wednesday and celebrating Blake’s birthday on Thursday.

We’ve seen rain almost everyday this week. Monday was Max’s first grade field trip to the zoo. I went with him and had a great time. One of his classmate’s dad works at the zoo, so we got to go ‘behind the scenes’ where they prepare all the animals diets. The kids were very impressed with the walk in fridge and freezer. It was very big and very, very cold. It was actually pretty cool and windy while we were at the zoo. By the afternoon it was steamy hot and by 5:00 the tornadoes started breaking out. We went to take shelter at my parent’s, but never really had to take shelter. We escaped with no tornado in our area, but lots of damage done in other areas.

Another ballgame was rained out on Friday night, but we were thankful because Max would have had to miss it anyway! He woke up on Friday with his ears hurting and sure enough had double ear infections. It was a crazy morning getting Max to the doc, Zeke to school and Blake to her playdate with Shelby! Blake and Shelby had so much fun playing while I subbed at Zeke’s school for an hour. Max went to school after his appointment, but they called from school while I was subbing because he was in pain again. So, thankfully YaYa picked him up.

We had a lazy, lazy Saturday. On Sunday we woke up, went to church and to lunch. Jamie took the boys to the Science Museum. Blake was napping and as soon as I laid down on the couch we started having severe weather! A major hail storm hit. It went a little north of our house. We know lots of people with a lot of pretty major damage. My car escaped with some dents and a broken side mirror. Jamie had my car with him. The boys did have to take cover in the bathrooms at the museum, but everyone was safe.

This week looks rainy too. Hopefully we will get to play ball on Thursday evening. Amazing that we have less than two weeks of school until summer!

I have had a wonderful day today! Max gave me a red rose, Blake gave me a pink rose, Zeke gave me a yellow rose and Jamie gave me a confetti rose (just like the ones in our wedding). I picked up a few more flowers at church and now have a beautiful bouquet on my table. The kids made me cards and Jamie gave me a pair of very cool shoes! I am so thankful to be a mom and for my sweet family. We attended church with MeMe and Coach in Norman this morning. We were running a little late, but I insisted on getting a picture before we left. I think it captured the kids personalities perfectly…

So much has happened since I last updated. We can hardly keep track of the days… Last Friday, Max taught his class how to make ‘Beach Pudding’. He loved ‘teaching’. He even used the saying ‘you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit’…wow. The Thunder lost their game on Friday night ending the playoff series and The Prime lost their baseball game on Saturday. Saturday’s game was special though because his classmate played for the other team. They thought that was so fun! And, their teacher came to watch them. They really loved that.

Max’s nose seems to have returned to normal. Good thing since he made his musical and acting debut as Lt. Doberman on Thursday evening. We are so proud of him! He said all his lines, remembered his choreography and really loved performing. We were so excited that Uncle Chris, Aunt Shelly and Selah were in town. They got to come to the show! Thursday day Blake and Selah had SO much fun together. They played and played and played. Blake was not happy to go home for a nap. We celebrated Mother’s Day at my parent’s that evening. All the cousins got to play and Uncle Chris did a small magic show. Everyone was quite impressed!

Jamie and I got to go on a date on Friday evening. It was a work party, but it was fun. It was outside and there was a band and yummy food. Felt so good to get out! YaYa stayed with Zeke and Blake and Papa took Max to his ballgame. This time The Prime won! It was a shut out 8 - 0. We were so sorry we missed it!

Today has been a relaxing day. Jamie took the boys to the Science Museum for a bit and I got to just sit while Blake napped. I am looking forward to dinner with my mom tonight. It is not often that the two of us get to have dinner with no children. And, tomorrow we will celebrate with Jamie’s mom. I am so thankful to be a mom and thankful to our moms who help us out and love us so much!

Wow! Really? The end of April? Already? I cannot believe how fast time is flying. We are loving the warmer weather and all the opportunities to be outside. Just wish it wasn’t so windy.

Friday, Blake went to Auntie’s for the morning. I was getting my haircut, she was supposed to be playing! Instead, she found Auntie’s wedding ring sitting on a ring box and lost it. Ugh. Let’s just say I was EXTREMELY relieved when it was found the next morning under the armoire! Max had a baseball game on Friday night…he got a hit…but, they still lost. And, then again on Saturday, another loss. Saturday night we enjoyed an amazing win by the Thunder! And, then on Tuesday night, a loss. Hoping for a win tomorrow night!

After school we went to visit some sweet, tiny Jack Russell puppies. Zeke loved them, but made me a nervous wreck. He went from being sweet to being wild. I did take pics, so look for those soon. Max had baseball practice tonight and got hit with a ball in the nose! Jamie said it bled A LOT. He is swollen tonight. We will see if he is black and blue in the morning. Tomorrow is Max’s day to ‘Tabletop Teach’. He will be showing his class how to make ‘Beach Pudding’. He is very excited. I am excited to watch him. I am amazed at how much he has learned and grown this year. Zeke announced today that he does infact like school. Glad he is realizing that with only a few weeks left. Blake is getting even more chatty. She got a little haircut today in an effort to keep the mullet away and grow out the bangs. Girl hair is much more difficult than boy hair!

Max has a game on Saturday if the rain stays away. We are hoping for a win this time!

Lots of things going on around here in Oklahoma! First, the Oklahoma rain caused Max’s baseball game last Friday night to be rained out. Therefore, we now get to play tonight and tomorrow. The sun is shining today, but we had some heavy rain overnight, so hopefully we will not be in too many mud puddles. The Oklahoma wind has caused Blake to have massive amounts of snot. Just like her brothers, she is taking allergy meds now. She had an ear check last week. She had some fluid in one ear, so we go back in one month to find out if it has drained on its own or if she will need another round of tubes. Last night we celebrated our Sooners having 3 of the first 4 draft picks! And, our Thunder winning their first playoff (3rd in the series) to the LA Lakers. It was quite exciting for our state! And, today I got to watch Max run his first Oklahoma Land Run. I don’t know that he ‘gets’ it. I had to hold his sack lunch, because it was just too much to run with and he commented that he was pretty sure the original land runners DID NOT have to carry a sack lunch.

Both boys got their Spring haircuts this week and look very handsome. Zeke is still enjoying his OT and still refers to it as ‘the fun place’. Can’t believe we only have about a month of school left. Max is preparing for his part in his school musical, ‘Arf’. He is Lt. Doberman and can’t wait to perform!

We had a busy day yesterday. Baseball practice, swimming lessons, playing and then ‘How to Train Your Dragon’. We took the boys to the 3D IMAX movie while Blake played with YaYa and Papa. Everyone liked it and we at lots of popcorn. Zeke had a little trouble with the glasses…a little big for his little face, but he survived! I stayed home from church with Max and Blake today. Max started throwing up AGAIN last night. He is great today, food is staying down and he has tons of energy. I will blame it on all the popcorn he ate until someone else gets sick. Hoping no one else gets sick…we don’t want to do that again!

Zeke got a special treat on Friday. A sweet friend from church picked him up after school and took him to the zoo. He had so much fun. Zeke loves one on one time, so I was so thankful he had a date.

Looking forward to a great week. Zeke will officially be enrolled in Pre-K tomorrow and Max has another game on Friday! Tomorrow will be Zeke’s second OT session. He calls it ‘the fun place’. Jamie and I originally had him evaluated for some of his social issues, but we are learning he is going to benefit greatly from OT in other areas too. We are very encouraged!