first night at the beach...6.13

as. soon. as. we got to our condo, the big kids got into their swimsuits and headed down to the pool with uncle andy and daddy...

the whole scene was a little overwhelming for the kiddos at first. the pool area was HUGE and beautiful!

we stayed at the villas at seacrest beach for the 2nd time...its perfect for a family with young kids! seacrest beach is nestled on 30A between seaside and rosemary beach...not too crowded and not too touristy!!! its about a 30 minute drive to panama city and about 30 minutes to destin! what more could you want?!?

baby jake tagged along for the inaugural swim as well...

he didn't love his ring according to daddy (although he was perfectly content in it the rest of the week with mommy...hmmm!)...

my big kids were fresh off two weeks of swim lessons and eager to show off their skills to uncle andy...

andrew and andrew...my kids adore their uncle andy!

the kids had so much fun...and mommy had a little time to get all the clothes put away and get all our other gear organized. i know, i'm a party pooper...i just wanted to make it as easy as possible for the rest of the week!!!

our travels to the beach...6.12 and 6.13

what a wild wild week we had! the second week we had swim lessons was also vacation bible school week! AND as soon as vbs ended on friday, we jumped in the van to head to the beach!

we were totally cracking up at drew with his leg crossed reading the "paper"...where does he get this stuff? we don't even get the paper...

this is pretty much what sweet jake did the whole way to florida...just played and looked out the window...he isn't much for the long naps in the carseat, but at least he didn't fuss!!!

we split the trip down into 2 days. uncle andy was in montgomery, alabama for 4 weeks for some military training thingy, so we met up with him on friday night for dinner. the next morning, we hit the road again to get to seacrest beach, florida to start our real vacation!!!
the above pic is once we could see the beach...the kids were a L.I.T.T.L.E. bit excited about it!!!

jake was excited to be there too! notice all the messiness on his chin, pacie, and shirt...what a boy!

the FOR REAL parents' day at swim lessons...6.11

well, the weather held out and we had another parents' day at swim lessons! so fun to see them perform twice!!! the kiddos really did learn a lot this year! i was really excited that the timing worked out that we headed to the beach right after swim lessons were over...lots of time to practice their new moves in florida!

surprise parents' day at swim lessons...6.10

for the first time in our 3 year history of swim lessons, there was some inclement weather during the two weeks of our session...

since the forecast was questionable for thursday, the ever important parents' day at swim lessons, miss aggie invited the parents to watch on wednesday just in case the weather didn't cooperate on thursday! how sweet!

thankfully, i had my ever present "diaper bag camera" and my flip available to document the event...

if i had known i was going to be taking so many pictures, i would have put a little more thought into the kids' swimsuits and hairdos :)

isn't it completely horrible that their swimsuits don't match :)

the kids had so much fun showing off their new found swimming skills. this was drew's first year to take. both the kids are fearless in the water...

even with the last minute notice, mimi and poppy were able to run over to be a part....we are so blessed to have them close by and always on call for grandchild centered events!

jake's first french fry...6.3

this post is absolutely hysterical to me in light of a recent post on my friend danielle's blog...

so jake is a little fussy one night when the fam makes a quick run to mc donald's for a super healthy dinner...

so, what do these awesome parents do to calm him? well, of course, we give him a french fry...at 7 months old.

i seriously don't think sarah or drew had mcdonalds til they were WAY over 2 years old.

boy, if i had a 4th, 5th, or 6th child, would we go straight through the mcdonald's drive thru on the way home from the hospital to grab a happy meal?!?

anyway...as you can see, jake LOVED it. he is little mr. independent to begin with...he would much rather self feed than be spoon fed...

so, thus continues our attempts to ruin our 3rd precious little one...(and give my family in louisiana something to talk about!!!)

hangin' in the minivan after swim lessons...6.3

love the above picture of the kids...look at ava's "i'm too cool for this pic" face :)

the kiddos being silly!

jake just chilling, chewing on his toy, oblivious to the craziness going on behind him :)
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after swim lessons on wednesday, mary and i were trying to decide if we were going to caravan to sonic for ice cream cones or not...so all the kids piled in the back of the van to watch movies.

these pictures are so funny to me...first of all, the back seat of my van is NOT big. the space that sarah and ava are occupying is T.I.N.Y.

also, drew looks completely naked. he has on his swimsuit, but you seriously can't see it!!!

i'm so happy my big kids have such fun friends which with to do such mundane things like sitting in the back of a van...

first day of swim lessons...6.1

can you see how close to hysterically giddy my kids were about going to swim lessons? sarah's eyes are wild :)

the kids were so happy, yet these pics kinda gross me out...i've never realized how greasy you look when you are covered head to toe in sunscreen...

after a few normal, smiling at the camera pics, the kids decided to start practicing some of their swim moves...

then, they had to take the practice rounds to the floor...they were a hoot!!! (and still so greasy looking!)

playdate with the palmers...6.1

i can't repeat it enough...i love the sweet friendship that sarah and grace have...so cute that they always act like they just saw each other last week, when its usually been a few months!!! somehow i usually end up with a pic of the girls in this exact spot! i guess we always try to grab one last pic before they walk out the door!!!

sarah was SURE she could take an excellent picture of dianna and grace...well, it IS in focus. i'll give her that...but not much more :)

we had a great last morning with the palmer gang. we are so blessed to get to spend so much time with them when they come to visit family in memphis!

oh where oh where did kelly go?

sorry for the long absence my five faithful readers :)

at first, i was waiting to get all my pictures edited in picasa...(i have since been informed i am the only one who cares about red-eye...eh hem...aunt angela!)

then, i was just lazy/ doing other stuff...(like hanging out at our awesome new gym)

now, i'm just dreading it because i am so. far. behind.

but, alas, i am too OCD not to pick up right where i left off...

so, coming soon...

june 2009!!!

dinner at nana's...5.31

aunt becky brought crafts. sarah was in heaven!

nana got this doll at an estate sale...it talks and moves and such...becky, tim, and i agreed that it was the scariest thing we had ever seen in our lives...the kiddos LOVED it. go figure :)

hmmm...best picture of the 3 big grandkids together. so sad!

3 generations...jake LOVES to touch faces...

another random talking toy that drew loves at nana's house...what's with kids and scary talking creatures?!?

it had been way too long since we had seen tim's parents, so we loaded up and headed out to their house one sunday night! aunt becky provided the food and it was so good! it was a great night to just visit!!!

eating lunch with our friends...5.31

one sunday after church, when mimi and poppy were out of town, tim and i took the kiddos to lunch with several friends at our new fave...russo's.

we ended up with 4 families and NINE children. 8 of those kids were 4 or under! 3 were triplets! poor russo's!

everyone was actually VERY well behaved...

and the kids had fun playing together while the adults were able to get a few words in...

thankfully, everyone was very tired after all the fun and took great sunday afternoon naps...mommy and daddy included!!!

fun times at mickey d's...5.30

just switch out the milk jugs for cups of coffee and sarah and grace are ready to be stay-at-home moms :)

we all made it over to mcdonald's to enjoy the air conditioning and relative quietness...

do you think mcdonald's playland has EVER been referred to as quiet?!?

tim and i LOVED lovin' on david...he is a cutie little chunky monkey like sarah and drew were...

jake was SO happy to be out of the heat! he just smiled and smiled!!!

sweet little david was so comfy in tim's arms...he just drifted off to sleep! so cute!!!
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it was so nice to get together and visit with friends from long ago! and how sweet to watch the next generation of friendships forming!!!

touch a truck...5.30

all ready to go...we all still have our hearing and aren't dripping in sweat...

sarah and grace were so happy to see each other again...

sarah trying out the firetruck...

drew is actually trying to figure out how to crank the firetruck...good thing the keys weren't in there!!!

drew wasn't happy just sitting in the police hummer, he wanted to crawl onto the dash...

all of the sweet kiddos lined up, minus drew...(L to R) jake, sarah, brady and grace palmer, and anna claire and david tipton...

sarah and her insta-buddy, anna claire...

ring around the rosie...

notice sarah with her hand over her left ear and drew with his hands over his ears. the touch a truck event is SO awesome for the kiddos, but it gets SO SO loud with all the kids honking ALL the horns on the vehicles at once!!!

several of my friends from high school were able to get together one saturday morning with our kiddos for the annual touch a truck event by the germantown library. dianna and elaine were both in town for the weekend so amber and i met them for a playdate...we also ran into another high school friend christy while we were there! it was a fun, but super hot outing...we saw all the trucks and scurried over to an air conditioned location to continue the fun...

silly kids...5.28

we were at mimi's house one night and she offered the kids a bubble bath in her big ole tub which OF COURSE they immediately jumped at the chance to do!!! their clothes were filthy because they had been playing in mimi's sand and water table. (i wonder why they love going to mimi and poppy's house so much!?!) somehow, i had bottoms for both of them in the car but no shirts. really not sure how that happened! so, mimi offered up some of her old preschool t-shirts for them to wear. they thought it was SO cool! of course i had to snap a picture!

another fun visit from dianna and fam...5.28

it was a VERY overcast and almost chilly day when we went to the sprinkler park with dianna, josh, grace, brady, and baby "X" in dianna's belly!!!

drew was chugging along like he always does and he busted HARD...poor little guy. he immediately had a really fat lip. thankfully, mr. josh was there to assess the damage for us. (the blood was a little overwhelming!)

jacob sat in the stroller and just took it all in. it was cool enough that i used a beach towel to cover his legs!

sweet pregnant dianna with the girls...

the kids made a fort out of the picnic table and the towels...

the boys were SO cold. their lips were blue and they couldn't quit shivering. but they kept going back for more!

a pitiful attempt at a group picture...

a last minute playdate at the sprinkler park...5.27

(how in the world did i get a picture of them where BOTH of them had their eyes closed?!?)

(i have the weirdest pictures of drew...SO much blackmail!)

so, after nap time one day, i called up my friends amy and mary and asked them if they wanted to spend the witching hours together at the sprinkler park!?!

45 minutes later, we were all there, with pizza, diet cokes, juice boxes, chips and dips, and dessert...wow!!! i was impressed with us :) and poppy made a quick stop by to see us too! it was a really fun impromptu playdate!

notice the dark clouds in the background in some of the pics...when we left, i mean IMMEDIATELY upon us all getting into our cars, the floodgates opened...whew...