Beach Trip 2012 - Beach Evening

We walked down to the beach one evening after we ate dinner in hopes of getting some cute pictures.  I think we succeeded!



Both kiddos

"Momma"...Avery Lynn wanted me to pick her back up.



Family Pic

This is by far my favorite picture of Avery Lynn

Crazy Caden

Beach Trip 2012 - Around the House

We rented a house that was three bedrooms and three baths.  It was great because everyone had their own bedroom.  We had plenty of space to spread out and had all the luxuries of a house that we are used to at home.  The whole second floor was the master suite with it's own balcony.  Caden's favorite place was in his room where he had a flat screen tv.  As you see in the first picture he was regularly found sitting on the latter of his bunk bed watching the tv.  I'm not sure why he always choose to sit on the latter (I would think that the floor or a bed would have been more comfortable) but that is where he always watched from.  I guess it was cool to him.  Avery Lynn enjoyed getting into everything, but actually did exceptionally well with the stairs and didn't really attempt to mess with them too much until the last evening we were there, which was my fault because I put her on them to take some pictures.  After that she was all about them.  Here are some pictures I took of us around the house.

Caden on the latter watching tv

Avery Lynn thinking about climbing the latter

Avery Lynn on the stairs 

Caden on the stairs for a picture

I love this picture - taken in the living room

Nothing but innocent, right??? LOL



A family shot before dinner one night

Beach Trip 2012 - Pool Day

The house that we rented had a neighborhood pool, which was just about 4 houses down the road.  Caden really wanted to check it out so we decided to take a break from the sand and go one morning instead of going to the beach.  It was a really nice neighborhood pool and there wasn't anyone else there most of the time we were there.  Caden had a good time swimming around with all his swimming attire and Avery Lynn enjoyed the freedom of swimming around on her float.  We had a good morning at the pool, and thankfully it satisfied Caden's need for the pool and we went to the beach all other days.

Beach Trip 2012 - Beach Days

 I'm finally getting around to uploading some pictures from our wonderful beach trip.  We had tons of fun and took tons of pictures.  The weather was perfect...sunny and mid 80's every day.  The kids had a great time playing on the beach, which we did all of the days except for one, when we went to the pool.  Caden loved digging (large) holes in the sand, which you will see from the pictures.  He enjoyed digging down to the water level so his holes would begin to fill up with water.  He had a personal little swimming hole a few days.  Avery Lynn was content playing on the blanket or in a beach chair with the toys, sea shells, or a bucket of water.  She loved jumping in the waves as they came in (with one of us holding onto her).  Caden enjoyed the waves as well and he liked using the seaweed that had washed ashore to decorate sand castles or throwing it back into the ocean.  I will post other pictures we took during the trip but I started with these beach ones first.



Avery Lynn sorting seashells in the chair cup holders



 Ricky and Caden digging a hole

A snack on the beach, with her cool shades still on

Ricky and Avery Lynn

Avery Lynn hanging out in a beach chair

 A sand castle town, decorated with seaweed

 Playing in the shade, at least for a moment

Deserving a Post

I know I have some cute Easter pictures that need to go up, but I took these of Caden and Lilly in the backyard today, and I knew it would be a quick post to do. It was after lunch and we went out so Caden could kick his new soccer ball for a few minutes before nap. After a few minutes of soccer I look up and find him and Lilly like this. I quickly ran in and got the camera to capture a great moment.

Cool kid and his Dog

Caden cracks us up these days, well he really always has but some funny things to share with you from yesterday and today.

Yesterday: In the car on the way home from his mother's morning out he said "Mom I think I know something else I might want to be when I grow up"

Me: Oh yeah, what's that.

C: An Astronaut

Me: Oh really, what would you do.

C: You go to school for a really really long time and then you get a space ship.

Easy enough, I suppose : )

Today: As I am getting Avery Lynn dressed this morning he it talking to me in her room. (Imagine that) Then with excitement he says "Mom, did you know that tyrannosaurus rex has been 'estinked' for millions of years? That must have been really bad, that must have really not been good for his nose." I just laughed. Funny kid.

Loving this Weather

We have been having a great time getting outside and enjoying this wonderful spring weather. We have done tons of things around Columbia, most of which have been outside. Here are some pictures from the past few weeks.

Running around and playing at the MU Campus with some friends
Happy St. Patrick's Day

Coolest Girl in Town. Avery Lynn is ready for the baseball game

Watching a MU Baseball gameGoing for walksSwinging at the Neighborhood parkAvery Lynn swinging at the parkPictures at Stephens Lake Park

Avery Lynn's Baptism

We got Avery Lynn baptised last weekend at La Croix United Methodist Church, the church that Ricky and I were married in and where we had Caden baptised. It is also were both sets of our parents attend. Don't let the smiles in the pictures fool you. She screamed when the pastor took her out of my arms to baptise her. But I did expect this response, since she doesn't take too kindly to anyone taking her out of my arms. But thankfully she recovered quickly when he handed her back, especially when she saw him putting his hands in a bowl full of water. Either way it was a nice experience and we are glad that we finally made the time to get her baptised.

All smiles before the service

During the service (after he handed her back so I could hold her)

New Shutterfly Books - Yearbooks

Shutterfly is now doing Yearbooks for schools, or anyone who is interested. This is interesting to me, so I went to check out the product on their webpage. They have yearbook themes and ideas to build your page templates and then you upload the photos you would like. It makes sense to me and seems a lot like the photo books that they are so famous for. It seems to make sense for them to branch out to the yearbook field. They advertise that you can get yearbooks for as low as $5 per book, which seems like a very reasonable price. One thing that stood out to me is they say that you can reorder your book at any time. This would have been a nice option for my school yearbooks since our dog ate mine one day when she was a puppy. I did not work on our school yearbooks when I was in school but I can't image that you would find an easier way to put one together than by using a service such as Shutterfly. I haven't made a yearbook with them, but making photobooks with them is a snap, so I would anticipate yearbooks to be similar. So check them out and see what you think. Or follow them on facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/shutterfly· Twitter:https://twitter.com/#!/Shutterfly·
Pinterest:http://pinterest.com/shutterfly/

This is a post sponsored by Shutterfly, however, all opinions are my own. Check out their yearbooks and see what you think.

Sesame Street Live - Elmo Makes Music

We bought tickets for one of us to take Caden to see Sesame Street Live that was coming to Columbia. We decided it would be best if one of us stayed at home with Avery Lynn since her attention span wasn't going to last the hour and a half show. Ricky was nice enough to let me take Caden. Caden was very excited when we told him about the show and even more excited when we got there. We bought tickets with some friends of ours so Caden and their two boys all got to sit together. It was a good performance and was perfect for a three year old. Caden stood the whole time and loved it every minute.

Here he is in his seat before the show started....Very Excited.

All smiles, watching the show