Beach Pictures FINALLY!

We took our first vacation as a family of four to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on August 17th. The weather was perfect the entire time we were there so we spent almost all day long out on the beach. I love the ocean and Katelynn is following in my footsteps on that. She could stay out there day and night and be a happy girl!

I took over 750 pictures during our four day stay so this isn't even a chunk of them, but I have been trying to get these posted for the past two days and blogger has been freezing on me so I am posting these and calling it good!
Justin had to nap on the beach during the day since we spent such long hours (including naptime) out on the beach, and his lucky sister just got to skip naps while we were there. There was just too much fun to be had!These are Katelynn's footprints in the sand. I meant to get a family "feet" picture but it never happened.The kids loved playing in the sand. I think it was even more fun than the water to them. Justin loved squeezing the sand between his fingers and of course eating it. If we would have let him stay on the sand and play the entire day, I think he would have filled up on sand!Second on Katelynn's list of favorites at the beach is running wild. She loved just running around the sand and running into the water and letting the waves "chase" her out of it.When the tide went out, it made this perfect little kiddie pools for Justin to play in! Katelynn joined in on the fun sometimes too!This was Justin's first encounter with a big wave. He only cried the first time it got him and then he became a pro....... because as you can see, the waves got him more than once!Daddy took the kids out in the big waves far out a lot during the day. Justin never did get too excited about them, but Katelynn had a blast! Our second morning there, I looked out our balcony of the hotel to find there were literally 20-30 dolphins right against the shore line. I grabbed my camera and zoomed in as close as I could. One dolphin did me a favor and started hamming it up for the camera showing us how high he could jump.They were super close to the people in the water and the shore. If you look, the bottom of this picture is right up at the shore.The hotel we stayed in also had 15 different pools including a really cool kiddie pool and a lazy river. We didn't spend much time in them, but even when we did, Katelynn preferred the big pool where she could wear her floaties and really swim.Hopefully this isn't too x-rated for anyone, but I thought it was too cute not to post. The kids would come in each evening and be covered from head to toe in sand. We went straight to the tub every night!I had lots of good pictures of this- the kids were tackling daddy on the hotel bed and having a blast. I got some really cute pictures of Justin laughing, but it looks like only this one of both of them uploaded. They were both sitting on daddy in this picture.Each night we got dressed and went out to dinner. I had tons of cute beachy clothes for the kids, but they barely got to wear them since they were in swimming suits most of the time.One night Katelynn even sported her PJ's to dinner. (Remember that purse she got for going potty all day? It never left her side the entire trip!)Justin drove us around Myrtle Beach. (Ha,ha. No- really, we were just in the parking garage and decided the steering wheel was the perfect seat for him to get a picture.)

Here are my tired babies cuddling up during storytime after a busy day on the water.

Now, just think- all those pictures were taken almost two weeks ago so I have quite a few more I want to share. I'm going to make a few posts tomorrow and share the rest of the ones that are too good not to post on here for you all so check back tomorrow night or Wednesday for those pictures! I am determined to get caught up and back in the swing of blogging on a more regular basis!

Update on ME

Well, I am about 36 hours post surgery now. It went well according to the surgeon. I, however, am a lot worse off than I was expecting. Last night Jonathan and I decided we needed help since I was 100 percent useless and he was trying to take care of the kids and me so we called my mom, and thankfully she dropped her weekend plans and headed over from Georgia. I am in more discomfort and more useless than I was after delivering my babies. It makes sense really though when I think about it- it's my stomach muscles and you use those for EVERYTHING. Until a few hours ago, it took me 10 minutes to even get up out of a chair or bed. I really can't do much of anything, including lift and hold my babies, which is killing me. They are right here, but I can't even play with them or hug on them. Even nursing Justin is currently a challenge as he is moving all over and hitting my belly. I am hoping and praying for a fast recovery. Monday everyone returns to work, and I am going to be here with the kids alone so I need to get better very quickly!!! I don't really do well being useless so here's to hoping I can be up and moving soon! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers for me during all of this! I'll be back to bragging about my babies and not complaining soon hopefully.

Wish Me Luck!

Well, we are home from our beach trip. We had so much fun, but we are also very exhausted. The fun isn't going to stop though- I get to go in at 5 am tomorrow morning for my umbilical hernia surgery (a nice souvenier I got from pregnancy). I am not looking forward to it. I hate getting general anesthesia and I hate the idea of not playing with my kids tomorrow, but I have to do it so here we go. I tried getting all our pictures up for viewing from the beach, but there's just too many to go through right now so once I'm feeling up to it after my surgery, I"ll get them all on here. Wish me luck- I need all I can get!

BIG Prize Winner!

Katelynn received her BIG prize tonight of her purse that she gets to decorate. She picked this toy out over a month ago as an incentive to keep her pull-up (or undies) dry all day long. Well, tonight right before bed I rewarded her with it! YAY! We were so impressed with her today. We left the house for over four hours- going to Walgreen's, the mall, and out to lunch. Jonathan suggested she get a pull-up on (she had been wearing underwear all morning) and she insisted that she would not pee-pee in her undies and wanted to keep them on. We grabbed an extra set of clothes and out we went! She had to go three times while we were gone, but with her little potty in the car and once in a public restroom, she successful kept it dry! I finally feel like we are headed somewhere. I told her she doesn't need to wear pull-ups during the day ever again, only for bed. She tried avoiding them at bedtime too, but we weren't willing to try that one out just yet. So, yeah for potty training! (Except of course we are heading to the beach tomorrow and lucky us- it's going to be a nice long ride with a little girl who is going to have to go potty A LOT in that 4 hour drive!)

My Girls' Weekend!

Most of the time this blog is about my kids of course, but I just had to mention what a great time I had this weekend, and what a huge thank you I owe my husband for filling in for me with the kids! This is the annual CKC Scrapbooking convention in Charlotte. I have started attending since the year after Katelynn was born (so this was my third year), and I LOVE it! It is so much fun attending classes, learning new scrapbooking techniques, actually having some TIME to scrapbook, and most of all- some girl time!! A friend from Virgina and another good friend from Georgia traveled to Charlotte for it, and we had a blast! My one friend stayed at my house so we also went out after my kids were in bed and did some triple coupon shopping together, which was so fun! This was just what I needed to recharge and get a nice little break. Thank you, honey!!

And I just have to add- Justin melted my heart. The first day I came home after being gone all day long, he got so excited to see me. It made my day! He was kicking and giggling and smiling and just so happy! When I grabbed him, he gave me tons of kisses and hugs! He is totally a mama's boy, and I love it!

Just a few...

Nothing too special, but here are just a few of the kids lounging around the house the past week as we prepared for the busy next few weeks!

A Great Visit with Great-Grandmas

I am pretty sure I mentioned a while back that my kids actually have not one, not two, but THREE Great-Grandmothers. Justin got to meet my grandma a few months back, and now he has officially met all three of them (Katelynn too but she met them all before Justin was born.) Jonathan's Grandma Miller has been visiting North Carolina all the way from Michigan, and his Grandma Blackwell is visiting from Florida.. all at the same time! We took them out on the boat today for an interesting and fun trip! This was Grandma Miller's first time on a boat.. and she's afraid of water!

Justin and Grandma Blackwell

Katelynn trying on Grandma Blackwell's sun hat

Justin and Grandma Miller Katelynn and Grandma Miller

Jonathan, Katelynn, Grandma Miller (Gil's mom), and Gil at lunch the day before

Enjoying the outdoors

It's one of our favorite places to be! These are my favorites of the kids the past few days outdoors!

Look Below!

I finally got caught up on my blog and added a bunch of pictures from our past few weeks. I edited the dates to reflect the actual dates so you'll want to scroll down and find all the new posts. They go back to the next page since there are so many! Enjoy and I promise to stay caught up for at least a little while now!

That's more like it!

Again, I have a video but can't get it to load. Blogger clearly doesn't like my videos!! In any case, I thought I would update you all on Justin's eating. He has finally caught on and is starting to show a lot more interest in eating! I almost gave up because he had no interest in it this past week, but I kept offering at breakfast and dinner and finally last night, it all clicked for him! He has now eaten three times in a row and loved it! If I don't get it to his mouth fast enough, he is crying and making loud noises until I get it to him. Tonight he screamed and screamed when he finished his sweet potatoes until I finally gave him some rice cereal, which he completely finished too! He still has to get the hang of opening his mouth. Right now, he just leans foward with his tongue out trying to get the food in. It's pretty cute I must say!

A Happy Jumping Boy!

Sadly, I am pretty sure Justin has outgrown his baby bouncer seat with the rest of the infant toys we have around here. Last time I put him in the seat this week, I turned around and he had pulled himself to standing and was leaning over the side trying to grab the rug on the bathroom floor. If it weren't for the safety belt, he would have been toppled over onto my tile floor. So, I came up with a new idea for keeping him busy while I get ready for the day, and it's a big hit.. much more fun than last time we had the doorway jumper out!

I have a video of him jumping like crazy, but I can't seem to get videos to fully upload on blogger.. if anyone knows how to make it work, I'd love some suggestions!!