We have 4 kids...

We were able to add 2 kids to our family for a few days and yes, it was busy, but the fun outweighed the busy. What helped matters was the kids were Douglas and Grace, the sweetest kids on the planet. Molly and Dan went on a mini 2nd honeymoon so we got to hang with their awesome kids. I can't wait to do it again. I love to be busy so this was right up my alley.

lots of bonding over dinners discussing if they wanted to use the noodle or the water rings next...

a few mishaps where we gathered together to discuss the misunderstanding, talk about feelings, apologies and hugs exhanged, and carried on despite the wedgies.

and this boy just took it all in....I can't wait to see what's going on inside that big , cute head of his.


David with 2 of his 4 kids....


it was the most comfortable parade ever. It started at 10:00 so my dad said he'd go down early to get a shady spot for everyone with our chairs. A new job for him was set for sure. It started at 10 so I thought 9:30 would be appropriate for him to get there. He got there AT 8:15 lugging all of our chairs setting them up for us!! 8:15 people!?! I can't imagine how early he's going to get there for St. Patty's since it's one of the biggest in the state.
I'm smelling a tent in his future.

here's the herd minus a few...

the cousins...before we left it was amazing to tell 2 of the 4 kids to go get dressed and they walked off, dug something out of their suitcase and came out 5 minutes later all dressed and ready to go. No diapers to change, no wiggling to wrangle. They came back with teeth and hair brushed. Talk about easy peasy?

our little firecracker


and she made the front page of the local paper. Go Lillers.




Grady was all smiles before the parade started...once the first gunshot went off, there were tears heard for miles. He'd calm down and compose himself, sighing to himself like "hey that was scary, but I'm cool now. I got this" and then the fire siren would go off and it would start all over again. Rinse. Repeat.

the original 2 kids...

after naps, we headed to the beach for the fireworks....I was nervous Grady would cry through them all after the parade debacle, but he was all smiles.


flying high...

our little narcolepsy girl didn't fall asleep, but said she needed to "west her body" for a couple of minutes before the big show. She insisted on bringing her "cozy pants" to wear after swimming.

and Grady fell asleep mid-pop...

post fireworks sparklers....

Lily is a tough nut to crack. She makes you put your time in. She needs to know your ss#, DOB, full life story, spend unlimited hours with you, scoping you out to make sure she can trust you and once you cross that threshold of trust, you're as good as gold with her. She'll talk your ear off and talk about you behind your back nonstop. Bob is one of the many who has crossed over to the other side. She got to choose any lap to sit in for the fireworks and he was the chosen one.

Grady has been in the pre-crawling/rolling all over the room stage for weeks and I keep saying he's days away from crawling, but he keeps tricking me. Still doing the up-on-knees-rocking-back-and-forth precrawl. Here he's getting a lesson from Uncle Dan....

The Briggs were in Georgia so our herd shrunk a little. Jen, close your eyes and don't look at this next picture.


It may be already the 15th, but the 4th was still lots of fun. life is good.