Visit from Flurrys

We had a big treat last week...the Flurrys came to visit!! The Flurrys are our good friends we met in seminary and had not seen them since they moved to Texas 2 1/2 years ago. We also got to meet Karis for the first time, who is such a SWEET little girl! She was born just 12 days before Michael. We miss them all dearly!!! The first evening they were in town, we were able to meet up at Emily's house for pizza and catching up. The Clarks and Zetterbergs were also able to come.

Karis and Bryson enjoying pizza and Cheetos
Kevin (the Zetterbergs' newest addition) and Mr. Brady (Kaitlyn's umbrella friend...see post below)
The kids seemed to really enjoy playing with Lerran's water table...thanks for sharing Lerran!
Jaimie enjoying one of my homemade cookies...actually they were from Sam's, but were still really good!
The girls and all of the little ones. When we all first met there were no babies...now there are 11!
On Monday, we went to eat breakfast at Lynn's Paradise Cafe and then headed to the zoo. This is a picture of Michael and Karis reading together before leaving that morning.
Our little fork and spoon
Karis was looking good in her sunglasses!
Karis loved the Splash park...Michael was quite timid that day (good thing the Splash park is free with our zoo membership :).

We had such a great time with the Flurrys and hope it's not 2 1/2 years before we see them again!!

Day at Suzanne's

A couple of weeks ago the Lyons family had a fun playdate at our friend, Suzanne's, house. Michael and Bryson played in the frog pool (much cooler than our plain plastic one)!

Brady held the umbrella to shade Kaitlyn from the bright sun...he's a little gentleman! Kaitlyn was not very good at sharing the pack-n-play area with him though. She is in the stage where she tries to eat everything in sight...including Brady! I guess I need to work on her not being so aggressive :)

Family photo shoot

Here are some shots from our photo shoot this morning. The original plan was to just get pictures of Miss Kaitlyn for her 6 months pictures, but we figured Michael was close enough to two and we could go ahead and knock out the family shots as well. Taking pictures with two kids is a lot of work; I don't know what we will do when there are more! Just for the record, Michael is holding his Tonka Tracker...there was NO way we were going to make him try to part with it!

6 Months old!

Our sweet baby girl turned 6 months old on the 11th...it is amazing how fast time flies by! She brings so much joy to our lives. She has a smile that melts our hearts, rolls and scoots to wherever she wants to, and LOVES playing with Michael. I think she is very close to crawling and has already cut two teeth.

Destin, FL 2009

We had so much fun in Destin this year...it was a little more work than the old days before kids, but we know we will miss these days when our little ones are older!

Our favorite seafood restaurant this year was not fancy, but very good. It was Dewey Destin Seafood. If you are ever in the Destin area, it is a great place to eat.
Michael loved the fried pickles at Cheeseburger in Paradise!
Ryan and I had a few date nights while we were away...thanks MeMa and Papa! This is the hole in putt-putt that really did Ryan in (he scored an 8...we were not playing with a stroke limit because HE chose not to :). Just for the record, I still would have won even if we only counted 6.

The boys

Michael working very hard to help his daddy push the chairs and umbrellas down to the beach. He would work up a sweat everyday, but he loved it!

Kaitlyn enjoyed the pool more than sitting on the HOT beach! MeMa stayed inside with her for a lot of the trip

If you enlarge this picture, you will be able to see a shark in the water. We were glad we were able to view it from the balcony instead of from the water!

MeMa and Papa at dinner one evening It was tough getting a good family shot. This one was the best...oh well!

I know his trunks are big, but I got a great deal on them at the end of the season last summer and was determined for him to wear them :O)

Kaitlyn and MeMa...they were best friends on the trip because Michael pretty much just wanted to be with dada and papa. He was not interested in the girls too much!

It rained one day and Michael may have had more fun playing in the rain than on the beach! Now I'm going to have to figure out a new excuse for why we can't go outside when it is raining!
We always enjoy playing Spades on our beach trips. My dad and I came ready to play on the last night. I hate to admit it, but the Slades won the tournament.

We are looking forward to next year already!

Visit from MeMa Jen and Aunt Hannah

Before heading to the beach, MeMa Jen and Aunt Hannah came for a long weekend visit. We had a great time with them and enjoyed playing Rack-O, Phase 10 and eating cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory!

We had a fun trip to the Zoo. We made Hannah see how she measured up to a gorilla

Aunt Hannah with her niece and nephew

One day during naps, the girls watched Steel Magnolias (my fav) and MeMa painted my toes for the beach...look closely for the flowers :)

After we said goodbye, Michael helped with packing...as you can tell he was a BIG help! Beach pictures will be posted soon :)

Welcome home/Happy birthday Bryson!

A couple of weeks ago, we were able to go to a party for our little friend, Bryson Clark (We had family in town, then went on vacation so I'm a little late with the post). Bryson was adopted from Ethiopia this year and we are so blessed to know him!

Bryson with his momma, Suzanne (my baby food friend mentioned in my last post)
Bryson was fun to watch...he loved the water!

His first birthday cupcake...we all felt sorry for him because it didn't have any icing! Suz claims it is because he doesn't like icing.

Michael enjoyed the hotdogs, doritos and cupcakes (with icing)!

Michael liked the big slide too and did NOT want to leave the party.