Family Time at the Beach

We escaped for the weekend and went to Myrtle Beach. Our lives have been so hectic lately that we decided that we just needed to get away. I am so glad that we did, we had a great time and the weather was perfect.

The kids were just relaxing in the water watching Daddy playing in the waves

Jacob was having a lot of fun running into the water

David started to copy Jacob and had so much fun running at the water. He would run all the way up and then all the way back and then turn around and do it all over again.

He ran and ran and ran some more until he couldn't run anymore. So, then he decided to crawl. Soon after that I took him into the condo and put him down for a nap and he gave me a look like "thank you" and went right to sleep.

These pictures are not in any sort of order. At the beginning of the day David wasn't so sure about the waves. He liked digging in the sand with the shovel and pail, and he liked the water, but the waves were a little strange. This is a picture of David saying, "Uh-Oh-eeeee" (that's his uh-oh) at a wave coming their way.

The girls had so much fun playing in the waves. I just love this picture because their heads turn in the same direction.

Daddy and David playing in the water

Erica made this special spot of hers, it was very relaxing. One of the things that I love about the beach is that you can spend hours playing in the sand and never get bored.

Sara enjoying the water. She is my little water baby.

Emily spent the majority of her time at the beach collecting beautiful sea shells. She would get so excited about each and every one of them with their unique shapes and colors. She brought a bag of them to her teacher at school on Monday after very carefully hand selecting the right ones for her.

I caught them having a special moment together in the water. The two of them sat like this just hanging out for the longest time.

Jacob can not wait to go back to the beach again. I forgot to put a picture of him on here in the waves. He was so cute, he was karate chopping them and doing his "ninja moves" on them. I really just needed the video camera for that, it was hilarious. He would jump over one, then karate chop the next one, then spin around and kick the next one.

The four of them were finding little clams and putting them in the bucket and watching them dig into the sand. They collected about 25-30 of them

It's a...

I had my ultrasound today and it's a GIRL!!!!!!!!! I am due right around Valentine's Day.

Introducing...

There is a Native American wives tale that when a small child is looking through their legs they are looking for their new little brother or sister.

For those of you who don't know yet, we are expecting baby #6. I am due Feb. 15th. This explains my disapearance from the blogging world, and the real world this summer. We have had a wonderful summer, and I have a lot to catch up on. I have been dealing with a lot of morning sickness. Or in my case, all day sickness. I am starting to feel like I can function again and can get back into life. Everything looks really good and I have had two ultrasounds already. One because of my history of twins and we weren't sure of the due date, and the other because they couldn't find the heartbeat at my last appointment. My heart stopped beating for a moment, but everything is fine. The baby was flipping all over the place in the ultrasound and I guess it wasn't sitting still long enough for them to find the heartbeat. The kids are very excited. It's pretty cute to listen to Jacob tell everybody about the baby. He's determined the baby is a boy and the girls are voting for a girl. Manny and I both feel like it's a boy, so we'll see.

Graduations

Sara graduated from the 5th grade this spring. We are now onto middle school! We are so proud of Sara and the wonderful year that she had. I have to brag about all of the awards that she received at her graduation. She got the President's Education Award for Outstanding Academic Achievement for the year, The Assistant Principal's Honor Roll for the last 4 weeks (all A's & B's), a Certificate of Participation in the County Arts Festival (Her art piece was chosen to display at the art festival for the county. One boy and one girl from each grade were chosen), Awesome Kid Award (super duper kid and a joy to have in class! One boy and one girl got this award from each class), Ravenous Reader Award for the 4th 9 weeks and The Ravenous Reader Award for the whole year (They have to read so many books and take a test on what they read, what score they get on the test is how many AR points they get. She achieved the goal! I was surprised at how few kids actually got this award. She loves to read and we usually have to tell her to put her book away and turn her light off at night so she can get some sleep. She just finished the whole Harry Potter series. Any suggestions on another series that she can start?) Sara with her friends in her class. This is a VERY rare moment that you will ever see Sara wearing pink.

We also had Jacob's Pre-K graduation. I did not get very good pictures of the graduation, but here's some after pictures. He had a wonderful year and learned so much! Now, we are onto Kindergarten. He's excited to go to the big school with his sisters.

Jacob with his teacher, Miss Corey

Jacob with his assistant teacher, Miss Keni. Look at that smile on his face, you can tell that he really liked Miss Keni. It's so fun to watch the kids grow up and reach these special milestones in their lives.

I did it!

David learned how to go down the slide at Sonic all by himself. He even figured out how to climb up the stairs to get to the slide. Yay!

A Very Belated Happy Birthday to Emily and Erica

Emily and Erica had their 9th Birthday in April. I can't believe that it's been 9 years since they were born. I have been having fun going through pictures lately and thought it would be fun to post some pictures from past years. Unfortunetely the pictures that I have scanned in before this point wouldn't upload. It's been an incredible 9 years and I'm excited for many more! 4 years old

5 years old

6 years old

7 years old

8 years old

Happy 9th Birthday!!!

When we do our little family birthday celebration the kids get to decorate their own birthday cake. They have so much fun doing this that the activity has stuck and is now tradition. Erica is in the front and Emily is in the back.

The pinata was a dud. It broke on the first good hit by Erica, but the kids had fun getting the candy inside.

When the kids were diving in to get the candy David grabbed the bat and took off with it. He thought that he was being pretty sneaky.

Emily

Erica

Youth Triathalon

The 4 older kids did their very first Triathalon today!!!

We were able to do the Triathalon with some very good friends. I am so very proud of all of them! (This picture is right after Sara's race)

Jacob raced in the 4-6 year olds. His race was a 25 yard swim, 0.78 mile bike, and a 210 yard run.

As they crossed the finish line they got a medal.

Emily (right) and Erica (left) in line for their race. They raced in the 7-9 year olds. Their race was a 50 yard swim, 2.05 mile bike, and a 404 yard run. (Emily was actually sick with the flu yesterday. She was determined to do the race today, and did great. She felt fine and you would never have known that she was sick yesterday!)

Erica (left) and Emily (right) after their race. Manny was just as excited as the kids. He was able to be with Jacob his whole race, and Emily and Erica in their transition area.

Sara raced in the oldest group, the 10-12 year olds. Her race was a 125 yard swim, 3.71 mile bike, and a 0.47 mile run. They all finished their races and did so good. We are so proud of all 6 of them!

We had a moment to catch our breaths before Sara's race began. We had such a wonderful day and even the rain waited until almost everyone was gone. It started to rain really hard as we were driving out of the parking lot. We can't wait for next year!

While Sara was doing her race Jacob noticed the rainbow.