Cousins in SC 13'

We just finished an awesome 10 days of cousins! We were missing two Stansell boy cousins this time, and it just wasn't the same without them.

Here are the 8 after church on Sunday. 

It was fun to celebrate the 4th together. We cooked out, baked in the sun, and stayed up late for fireworks. An all american kind of day!

 Got to love that rare opportunity for a family pic!

 My two waiting for fireworks to start.

 Nana brought enough sparklers to keep the kids entertained for a while! Only a few minor injuries involved... 

 Oh how I wish her sweet girl cousins lived closer!

 Three sweet Morgan gals!

We spent A LOT of time in the pool. We were thankful for plenty of sunshine!

 Uncle Matt knows just what to do with little girls, that's for sure!

The whole crew ventured to the beach on Saturday morning. For some reason this is the only picture I took of the event. Snack time!

It was a quick visit, filled with lots of sweet memories. Time to start planning our next hurrah! 

Goodbye June!

As it usually does, the summer is just flying right by. I'm not sure what happened to the month of June, but it was over in a hurry! Between VBS and family in town, it's been a fun kind of busy!

 Eli, Chase and Jacob spent about 3 hours in this tent in Nana's living room one rainy afternoon. I know these are the sweet things they will remember about growing up together!

 We've made a lot of progress around the new house, one of which being a better organized garage space. I often pull my car out of the garage on rainy days, that way the kids have more room to play. They love it!

 I came out last week to find Layla perched on the tricycle. She's one determined little lady!

 And a tired one too! She's still trying to cope with only one nap a day, poor thing!

Last week we had a fun visit with Mimi and Aunt Liz. They came and stayed with us for 4 nights. The kids were happy & well entertained, and mommy got lots of shopping/girl time! Liz and I spent A LOT of time and energy on sprucing up our new place. It was great having my interior decorator here in person! 

Our biggest project was refinishing our wooden adirondack chairs. They were pretty weathered looking. It's amazing what a coat of paint can do! We fell in love with the very first color we picked. It was exactly what we were looking for!

Eli wanted to be right in on the painting action. He did a great job!

 Who's the better fake sleeper? :)

 This is what a hot and tired one year old looks like! We left right before she resulted to a nap on the slide :)

 We went out to our favorite burger restaurant, and it never disappoints! 

 Hands down, the BEST milkshakes ever.

We were sad to say goodbye, but looking forward to seeing them in VA before too long!

New Friends

I am unbelievably thankful for our new neighbors, and for the friends they've become of ours in such a short time.

Somehow I don't have any pictures of Eli and Declan together. He's the 2.5 year old that lives directly beside us. Our two families spend a lot of time together in the evening and on weekends. The boys have so much fun together! Eli talks about Declan ALL day everyday. His day starts and ends with, "can I go play with Declan?" and "is Declan home?" 

Jacob (7) and Kady (6) live about 5 houses down, and spend hours each day playing with our two. They go back and forth between our house and theirs, and play SO well together. 

 Last night was spent running through sprinklers and jumping in puddles. It was hard to say no, considering it was 100 degrees out!

 Kady is my little helper. She loves playing with Layla, and is always wanting to help me with her. 

Layla is so smitten with Jacob. Every time we pull in the driveway, she says "Jacob house!" 

There's nothing better than sweet neighborhood friends to grow up with. 

Kid's Say the Darndest Things!

It's no secret that Eli knows no stranger. He'll talk the ear right off of anyone willing to listen.

His imagination is wild, and he seems to retain everything that he hears. 

So, that leads us to our latest Eli story...

He's quite taken with our neighbors next door. Even if his best buddy Declan (almost 3) isn't outside, he's more than willing to go hang out with Declan's mom and dad and shoot the breeze in their garage. This past weekend, he was over playing, and persisted to tell Miss Beth (declan's mother) quite a mouthful. She assured me that there was no conversation that led up to this story. It simply came out of left field.

Eli: "My mommy and daddy were married, and then mommy had a baby in her belly. But now my mommy doesn't have a baby in her belly, and mommy and daddy aren't married anymore."

We have NO idea where this came from, but it sure gave us all a good laugh!!! I assured Beth that I was neither pregnant, or getting a divorce! :)

Layla Grace - 17 Months

I figured it was time for an update on the littlest Morgan. She's not such a baby anymore, although I think we'll always refer to her as our sister baby.

She's an absolute talking machine. She says far too many words these days to list them all, but I would like to mention that MAMA has finally made the list!

She knows most all of her animal sounds, and parts of the body.

She's a water baby, and has no fear. A dunk in the pool or tub doesn't faze her a bit.

She's a climber! Loves to stand on chairs, stairs, and anything she can find her way onto/into...

She's becoming more of a daddy's girl every day! Just this week, she started yelling 'daddy home!' when he walks in the door after work. She then follows him around repeating 'hi, daddy!' 

She absolutely adores Eli. She tells him 'Hi, Eli!' all day long. 

We're on the verge of dropping the morning nap. She's ready, I'm not!

She continues to love her bed. We all love watching her on the video monitor. She talks, sings, and loves on her babies.

She has 8 teeth that we can see, but she's been working on cutting molars this past month.

We're a bit independent these days, and go from calm to on the floor tantrums in no time flat. The girl knows how to send a message, that's for sure!

She loves to read. She will drag you by the hand up into her room, and tell you 'read!'

 Elmo has won her heart. She loves anything and everything Elmo.

She LOVES shoes. She spends a good part of her day trying to put her shoes on. She's mastered the crocs (her favorites), and sure tries her hardest on the others.

She is so happy at the beach.

She's starting to enjoy some meals at the 'big kid table' and does great! 

She's growing up so fast!

I'm so grateful that I get to watch her grow, and experience all of her "firsts." This is my absolute favorite age! 

The Sandbox

We are happy to have survived a week of non-stop rain. Not exactly a stay at home mother's ideal start to the summer! It did allow us to check some things off of our summer fun list though! We met some friends at the Sandbox children's museum to help burn off some indoor energy. 

Eli was far too busy for pictures, as usual.

This was Layla's first real visit, and she loved it!

My two share the Morgan love of all things construction!

And trains! 

Can't get enough of her cheese face! She makes this face and give you a big long cheeeese every time the camera comes out.

Up, down, up, down. She would've done this for hours!

Day at the museum. Check!

Eli at the Dentist

Eli had his first trip to the dentist this past week. After three months of rescheduled appointments, they were finally able to get us in. We had a GREAT experience, and my lover of all things doctor/dentist enjoyed every second of his visit! You never know how they'll react, but he was so calm, cooperative, and very interested in everything they did. 

He passed his check up with flying colors. No cavities! However, the poor guy has my mouth, and we were assured that he'll definitely need braces down the road. No surprise there.

He's already looking forward to his next visit. Maybe that has something to do with the mini movie theater  and game room in the waiting room, though. :)

Beach Fun

Time to play a little catch up...again! 

One of my favorite things about where we live, is that we get to enjoy our first beach days of the season in March/April! I'm so excited about our beach days this year, as Layla is at a much better age. She LOVES the sand/water, and is perfectly content to spend hours on end there.

The beginning of last month we met some friends at the beach for our first official beach day of the summer.

 It's safe to say Layla had a good time :)

 I had no intention of any of us getting in the water, being that it was so early in the season. Eli had other plans, though!

These two bathing beauties had lots of fun together.

And this one was exhausted from playing so hard!

Last Day

Eli finished up his first year of preschool last week. It was bittersweet, as we'll definitely miss our friends and routine there, but we are also very ready for the laid back days of summer! We're so thankful the Lord lead us to this school in particular, and we're looking forward to another wonderful year there next year. One more year, and this boy is off to kindergarten. So hard to believe!

They had a little end of school program last Thursday, and the kids were able to show off some things that they learned throughout the year. Daddy, Nana and GG came to watch, and Eli was so tickled to see them!

 Eli's class sang a colors song in Spanish, and said the pledge of allegiance. 

Bless his sweet teachers. There were 14 boys in his class, and only 3 girls. 

Mother's Day 2013

My sweet family made this such a special Mother's Day. We spent the day in Savannah together on Saturday. Shopping for mommy, lunch together, and lots of play time for the kiddos. 

They sure did love their carousel ride! A trip to Savannah wouldn't be complete without this.

We actually had time for pictures before church on Sunday, a true Mother's Day miracle!

Mama's don't make it into many pictures, so we had to change that today.

So thankful for the four wonderful years of motherhood this little guy has given to me!

 And for the sweetness that this little girl has added to our lives!

We had GG and Goomba over for dinner Sunday evening. We missed Nana and Pop Pop so much. They brought a nasty bug home the Dominican Republic, so they stayed home to rest. 

 After dinner, the guys watched golf for hours. GG and I sat outside with the kids and enjoyed the gorgeous weather.

Layla loves this little chair. She can't get out of it so easily, so she just sits forever. :)

We are loving our new neighborhood and friendly neighbors. Eli spends most of his time outside playing with friends, and has made the sweetest friendships already. Something he was never able to do at our old house. That in itself makes this move so worth it!