Here’s the second installment of photos- the beach. We spent almost every morning on the beach playing in the beautiful water and sand. It was glorious and these photos don’t really do it any justice.
Charlie LOVED standing in the crashing waves and almost getting knocked over.
on a few of the days Charlie took it upon himself to nap while in the ocean
A week ago we returned from a wonderful week at the beach, Anna Maria Island specifically, and while laundry and a sick kiddo have kept me from being able to post these as soon as we returned here they are for you to enjoy. While we were there I was 34 weeks pregnant, and on my last week of allowed travel per Doctor’s orders, so while I was moving a little more slowly we made the best of it and cherished our time as a family of four.
I am pretty short on words these days, I blame the tiny person inside of me along with the other two that are running around outside of me, so instead of a whole lot of commentary I will just let the photos speak for themselves and say a great time was had by all. As usual, we have a ton of photos from the week so I will break them up into a few posts so I don’t overwhelm you.
If you would like to see some of the photos from our last trip, it’s a semi-annual trip made by Jamie’s family, check out this, this, this or this post.
I suppose it’s about time that we made official announcements around here…
In August/July we will be adding another brother to the mix!! I had my 20 week ultrasound last Friday and Jamie and I were thrilled to see a happy (yes this is an assumption but how could he not be?) and very healthy little boy growing away. I can’t imagine how crazy things are going to be around here in the coming months; however, I also can’t imagine my heart feeling more full!
Our “it’s a boy” announcement photos didn’t exactly go as planned (the blue balloon I got was popped 30 seconds after it was handed to Jay and I didn’t get a single photo of it) but I guess that’s what I get for planning anything in the first place. This is our reality these days- a house full of busy, busy boys who don’t want to sit still for photos. Thanks Daddy for helping to get one where everyone is at least looking.
and some outtakes because they make me smile-
and a peek (please excuse the iPhone photo of the ultrasound) at our sweet little guy, I think he just might have the same nose as his brothers ;)
p.s. Thanks Aunt Holly (the Great) for the post title ;) What really could be better than three of a kind?!
A few months ago Jamie and I took Jay and Charlie to an event called Orlando Touch a Truck. A local church, Orlando Lutheran Church, hosts an event where they get all kinds of trucks and work vehicles to come in and the kids can sit in them, ride on them and play around on them. Jay had a blast looking at all of the trucks and even Charlie got to have a few turns.
There has never been any doubt in my mind that our boys are lucky. They want for nothing, are constantly showered with love and attention and most importantly they have an awesome Daddy! The later most applies to this post specifically but the others were worth mentioning too ;)
Why is Daddy so particularly awesome these days you ask? Because after not much convincing from Mommy he agreed and almost immediately started working on their very own fort!! Let me back up a bit.. It’s no secret that our boys LOVE the outdoors. If they are sad/grumpy/bored, we walk outside and all is well with the world again. Because of their love of the outdoors we spend a whole lot of time out there. Frequently, we head out front to our courtyard (such a great area to have with little kids) to play in the water table. Jay and Charlie usually take time to “wash and rinse cars” and basically drench themselves in water while we play. However, most recently Jay has taken to digging and moving dirt with his dump truck and cars. He digs in the flower bed out front, which doesn’t bother me (I don’t have a green thumb or the time/desire to do much with it so it’s not like he’s digging up my flowers) so it wasn’t a problem until we potty trained. Prior to potty training we/I would just take off his dirt covered diaper, hose him off and then head inside. After potty training we now have this…
See the problem? And yes it is a cute tushie and yes he will probably kill me later for posting this photo but I am okay with that ;) There is a whole lot more scrubbing that needs to take place these days after playing in addition to it just being kind of gross.
So in an effort to refocus this post and brag on my ultra-talented and fantastic husband we decided that Jay needed a “clean” place to dig and hence the fort idea was born. Jamie had help from Josh and George last Sunday with the planning, initial purchasing of materials and building of the sandbox and frame and this Saturday with the help of Josh and Uncle Mark, the cover for the sandbox was built and installed. It (the fort) isn’t finished yet but I am too excited about it not to share. There is a mix of iphone photos and DSLR camera photos below to show the progress and I promise to post again when it’s finished. Get ready to be jealous because it’s cool and you know that you want one :)
purchasing of supplies
Bupper’s Big Guck helped haul home the supplies.
The fort project kickoff happened to take place on the coldest day of the year so far, hence the hats and jackets.
Using Pepere’s awesome nail gun
Charlie wanted to help with the digging. Also, he says “cheese” frequently when he sees a camera now, hence the face.
Trimming some low-hanging branches.
The day after, showing the boys the initial construction that finished after they were asleep.
One week later, adding more sand (1400lbs total)
building of the cover
finally getting to play!!
a few from the phone
When we decided it was time to go in for the night. To say that they like it would be quite the understatement.
I thought having someplace to sit near the sandbox would be especially nice and after looking around for a few ideas I stumbled upon these plans. Jamie and the guys took these plans and kind of ran with it and let’s be honest, ours is so much cooler than the original! Here’s a video of how the lid works so you can get a better idea of how it works…
We had some family portraits done and man was it hard to get everyone to cooperate! We did manage to get one nice one with everyone smiling though :)
I know, I am a dork… but I am just tickled with how well (at least in my opinion) these little peg people came out. I bought some plain peg people awhile back from this etsy seller and didn’t end up doing anything with the for quite some time. I finally started painting them shortly after the New Year and I have done a little here and a little there until finishing them up today. It was a such a fun project and I already can’t wait to meet sweet baby #3 and work on their peg person! Jay is thrilled that they are finally done, he has been dying to play with them.
If you ask my little Jay Bird these days he will joyfully announce that we have TWO babies!!! Which is true, in a sense; we are very excited and blessed to announce that baby number 3 is baking and that we are anxiously and excitedly waiting for his or her arrival in late July or early August. However, let me clarify for a few of you before any rumors start flying… yes we are expecting number 3 but not number 4 just yet, no twins for us ;) Jay counts both Charlie and baby #3 in his “two babies” count- sweet boy! Also, to cover a few questions that I know you have (we have already gotten them many times) so you don’t have to go to the trouble of asking…
-Yes, we know what we are doing.
-No, this baby was not a surprise but rather a very exciting planned (well as planned as babies go) event.
-Yes, this does mean we will have 3 kiddos ages 3 1/2 and under.
-Yes, our house will be crazy… crazy full of LOVE!
-No, we did not do anything to try for a girl. While we would be thrilled to add a little pink to our lives we are just thrilled to add a perfectly happy and healthy little person to our family, regardless of gender.
I think that about covers all of the big ones however if I missed anything feel free to leave a comment below and I will happily answer away :)
We had our 12 week ultrasound today and were thrilled to see that everything is growing and developing perfectly, so without further ado we introduce our little bean.
Just in case you aren’t versed in ultrasound photos the first photo is of baby #3’s profile and it extends past the shoulders and the second photo is of a tiny little hand, fingers and arm (it looks kind of like a little paw- but is incredibly adorable).
Honestly, I am not exactly sure how it started or why but each year Jamie and I pick up Christmas Trees for most of his family. I think it may have started one year when someone asked us to grab them one after hearing how reasonably priced ours was going to be and then the last few years we have taken more “orders”. Let me preface this story by saying that I love the holidays, I love getting a tree and I love picking out trees for others too. Honestly, I usually have trouble sleeping the day before we pick out trees… I think it’s the excitement over the holiday season starting, I know it’s silly but so true…
It’s been a fun tradition. We pick out the trees, trim them up with Pepere’s chainsaw and then deliver them to our “patrons”. This is the second year that Maggie and Josh have tree elved with us and it was just as fun as it usually is :)
Also, I dug through some old photos to find past elfing adventures- it’s crazy how much can change in a year!
a few more from the phone
a GREAT mail day- now to get started on some projects ;)
he’s giving kisses now
prepping to wash the alphabet mat
what, you don’t wash foam letters in your dishwasher?
he is not a huge fan of the gate
he couldn’t quite get his hat off when he was riding in the car and this is how he looked when I opened the door
how many pears can I fit in my mouth all at once
paper, scissors, glue
impressive coloring skills for a 2.5 year old if you ask me
My immediate response when people ask lately how we are/ how I am is “Crazy, good but crazy”. However, the more I think about this the more I realize we are less and less crazy and more and more normal. You see, before we had any kiddos we had plenty of time to do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted and honestly I am not all that sure what we did with our boat loads of free time. After we had Jay we thought we were seriously crazy and had no free time and then we had Charlie (bringing the parent child ratio up to one-to-one) and actually had less free time. If you would have asked me about our free time when we just had Jay I would have found it rather laughable; now I am not sure what we did with it all. Perspective is funny that way… All this to say that we are crazy or normal; however you want to think of it and here is a taste of our crazy brought to you by the ever present iPhone.
monkey toes
yes that is a towel and yes it is soaking wet :(
the perfect little boy entertainment
duplo towers- Jay is REALLY into building these days
squishy returns ;)
what- doesn’t everyone have a whale and a cow in their pantry?
photographer in the making
his photo
reading the Monster at the End of this Book on the ipad… he really didn’t like it at first but enjoyed it after he realized “the blue guy” (Grover) was the monster
watermelon- Jay eats EVERY last bite
I apparently haven’t dumped my phone photos in forever so instead of overloading you all in one day I will post the rest tomorrow- stay tuned for part two ;)
the perreault family 