Oh the fun!

Jeff just bought this great little pool for us and we sure have enjoyed it. I was looking for anything to get wet in since we don't really want to be outside right now unless we are in the water. He was looking for something that he could enjoy lounging in while playing with Karina too. So this is what he found and I must say it was a great choice. It has plenty of play room in the middle and on both ends there are inflatable seats. So we will be enjoying the outdoors while staying cool at the same time. Hope you all are enjoying some fun times too and having a great summer!!

Sweet times!

Karina and I enjoyed a little mommy and me time at the beach last Friday. Man was it beautiful! I love spending one on one time with this little lady and I know all too soon she will be grown and I will look back on these sweet days together.

Ahoy Mate!

Last Saturday I took Karina to Lowe's to build their free kids craft and as you can see it was a pirates life for these three. My sweet sister was there with her two older kids and we had a blast. It was Natalie and Joseph's idea to wear the bandanna's and we thought we'd join the fun. They were so funny saying they were a pirate family with Karina being their baby. Of course Karina took on the look of a real pirate baby when the pirate daddy was a tad to close in pic #2. So we will caption that with an "ARGH"! :)

knittin' time

Just a little night time knitting I've been working on lately. Man do I love to end the day with the soft clicking of my needles and some lovely yarn!

The result:

SHE LOVES IT!!!!

And back for more fun after eating breakfast and getting dressed. Oh the fun!

Crafty or Crazy?

What do you do when you are on a slow evening stroll through your neighborhood, just enjoying the warm breeze and you come upon a BIG box someone is throwing out. Do you a) keep walking and think nothing of it? b) think that it could make something fun for your kid but you really don't want the work of doing it? c) decide what's a little work to make your kid so happy and why pass it up when it's free?

Well I chose c) tonight when I saw this great BIG box and immediately thought of how cute it would be to make this. I know I'm a little crazy in the head for wanting to spend an hour doing this at the end of a long day. But when all I can think about is how my little girl will love it and the fun we will have playing in it I can't help myself. What's a couple of rolls of wrapping paper and a little creativity gonna cost me anyway. I will tell you. Nothing compared to the joy on that little girl's face when she wakes up tomorrow and sees this!! Can you believe the little tray in the window was in the box too?!! How cute!

Now I just have to be ready to play the customer all day looooooooong. :) Still it's a joy!

Happy play shopping everyone!

cool daddy!

Here is our Father's Day weekend in pictures.....

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. As you can see ours was full of fun, refreshing and relaxing moments. The sprinkler fun was on Saturday and man was it a hot one. I had gotten up and decided to mow the yard so that Jeff could enjoy some sweet time with Karina in the morning. So once I was done they were ready to head outside and enjoy the day.

Then today we had some surprises for Daddy when he woke up and before we were off to church. Karina had painted this mug for him a few weeks ago at a little pottery place we went to with some friends. (More pics from that later since I was waiting till after today to show the mug.) And I had fun making him a photo album on http://www.winkflash.com/ with all our honeymoon pictures that I had never done anything with these last four years.

He really loved both of our gifts. Then it was time to head to church and man did our pastor give a great sermon. The first part was completely directed towards father's. The next half was on Jesus words in John 13 about loving others as he has loved us.

"My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

To me this all fit together so very well with the love that father's have for their children and what they hope for their children to do as they are training them. Jeff has not only been such an example to me of how to love the Lord and others and in doing so showing that he belongs to the Lord. He has also been such a loving and caring father to our little girl. He takes the time to explain and train her in the ways of the Lord and this blesses me to no end. I know that as Karina grows she will never question whether her daddy loves the Lord and her as well.

So thank you Father for allowing me to be a part of this amazing man's life, to watch him be a sweet daddy to our little girl. Thank you for my own dad and Jeff's and the fathers that they are and have been. Thank you for making my two brother's such precious father's as well and I pray that you would bless them greatly as they look to you in this awesome responsibility. But most of all thank you for being my Father God and making me and my dear husband your own. Words just can't express my gratitude!

Can't get enough!

We were blessed to spend another day at the beach today. And yes I can't get enough. I know I will change my tune come August when the water is no longer refreshing because it is the same temp as the air. But for now it is absolutely beautiful. This morning my mom and I headed out there with Karina and my brother's sweet kids and we really did enjoy just lounging in the gentle waters, eating a picnic lunch in the shade and some sand castle fun. My mom and I shared the sentiment that we are both so happy that we live here and can enjoy the beach as much as we do. Pretty soon we will head to the mountains for vacation and exchange our white sand and crystal clear water for lovely water falls and lake views. And as much as I will enjoy that I will still be quite eager to return home and get a few more beach days in. I think Karina and I just might do our own little mother daughter beach day next week and soak in together some more of this beauty that surrounds us. Oh and I didn't mention that Karina is part fish and that helps! We also have skin that doesn't burn easily (God knew I would love the beach!):) So I hope this post finds you enjoying beach days of your own and taking in all the loveliness around you!!

fun and fellowship

I just had the great pleasure of celebrating the birthday of a very dear friend of mine last month with all our girlfriends. I couldn't have enjoyed this time more with all the sweet young ladies in my life and am so very grateful to the Lord for each and every one of them. Two of them just happen to be my precious sister and sister in law which makes it even better!! Heather had a great time as you can see in the picture above and all us girls had fun helping her eat that HUGE piece of cake!! :) I love this pic!

Tonight I am headed to Heather's house for even more fun and fellowship and I can hardly wait. We are going to be making little hair bows for all our little girls and I know it will be so much fun. It is a blessing to me every time Heather opens up her home to us for some craft time and we always leave having shared our hearts and handmade goodies.

So thank you sweet Heather and know that it is such a blessing to me to know you and share these times together!!!

How great is our God!

The splendor of a King,

Clothed in majesty

Let all the earth rejoice,

All the earth rejoice

He wraps himself in light,

And darkness tries to hide

And trembles at his voice,

And trembles at his voice

How great is our God,

sing with me

How great is our God,

and all will see How great, How great

Is our God

Age to age he stands

And time is in His Hands

Beginning and the End,

Beginning and the End

The Godhead,Three in one

Father, Spirit, Son

The Lion and the Lamb,

The Lion and the Lamb

How great is our God,

sing with me

How great is our God,

and all will see

How great, How great

Is our God

Name above all names

You are Worthy of all praise

and My heart will sing how great

Is our God

Sing with me

How great is our God,

and all will see How great, How great

Is our God

By: Chris Tomlin

Coffee cup

This is for all you knitters out there. I couldn't believe I found this wonderful coffee cup in Starbucks this last winter. I was popping in one of their shops on a date with my hubby when I saw it for the first time. Would you believe I actually resisted buying it then? Well I think it was a month later when we were out again and stopping for a coffee when I saw it for a second time and just couldn't leave the store without it. It helps that it was in the clearance section. And then to top this story off I found another one for a sweet friend of mine who also loves to knit when I was out of town at another Starbucks! Yay! She absolutely loved it and I do too. I don't know why but every time I see it and use it I think of my Nana, of how she taught me to knit and how much she would love this mug too. What a gift she was to me. I hope you all have someone you think of as a gift in your life and don't hesitate to tell them! Happy coffee breaks!

Lovely day!

Thank you so much Nancy!!

Party hoppin' !

This month has started off with a splash. We had the pleasure of celebrating the birthdays of two of my sweet nieces last week. And we have another this week and even another the week after that! Wow!

The parties started with Natalie's 7th birthday. She had a pool party and it was a really great time. I was blessed to help out by making the cake for the birthday girl and embroidering the names on the cute little bags that my sister got for party favors. I think they came out so sweet and the kids really loved them. So here are some pics from all the fun.

The birthday girls flip flops

My two sweeties having a great time.

The flip flop cake

One happy little girl

All the kids except for Karina.

Then it was onto Sensi's 3rd birthday. We had a great time and the kids loved the fun water slides. Karina and Sensi had a blast together and went up and down this cute slide I don't know how many times.

I love this picture of Sensi's cousins helping her out with that one candle.

We look forward more fun times with the birthdays in the family this month. We are so blessed to be near to them and spend these special times together.

The last little (long) bit of our trip...

Well we have come to my last post of St.Augustine and our time there. It really was such a wonderful trip and I look forward to the next time we are able to go. Our last day we went into town again for a little more sight seeing, shopping and touring. Getting on the trolley went much better this time. ;) And the weather was beautiful as you can see in this next picture of the old city gates.

Here is that lovely church again that I gave you a peek of a few posts back. It really took me back to the beautiful cathedrals we toured in Germany when I was a kid. The inside was just as pretty and I'm sure music sounds just glorious when they are having a service.

I loved these light fixtures!

Look at that lovely detailed ceiling!

Look at that detail!

Flagler College

The Lightner Museum

We didn't tour the museum, but I would love to on a trip there with Jeff. The courtyard is beautiful though and the kids got a great kick out of seeing the huge coy in the pond. Not really thinking, I forgot to pack a snack in our bag this day. We had a ton of snacks and a yummy lunch packed in the car where we parked back at the fountain of youth where we decided to ride the trolley back to at lunch time. But our plan didn't exactly account for the amount of time it would take for us to do all we wanted to before lunch time. So we adjusted our schedule and took a break for a snack (that we didn't pack) which turned out quite nice.

There was a nice little cafe in the courtyard that made wonderful smoothies. Karina and I had already popped into another small cafe to get some yummy baked treats before meeting the others in the courtyard. So the kids munched on some delicious glazed croissants while watching the fish swim. And then we enjoyed one of those smoothies as well. I think ours was pineapple, strawberry and mango! YUM

What a sweet little bunch. I mean that literally too for man were they a sticky little bunch when they finished their croissants!

These are some of my favorites of the kids watching the fish. Observing kids observing things is something I love to do.

He is so grown up already and his Auntie K sure loves him.

My little lady.

Sweet Caroline has her own little special place in my heart.

Love this shot!

Enjoying that smoothy!

Then it was on to do some shopping on St. George St. I found a great shirt to take home to Jeff and one for me as well. I also looked and looked for a little change purse for Karina with a certain snap on it because she loves to play with my wallet and will open and close the snap a million times. Well I didn't find one that said St.Augustine on it like I wanted, but the one I did find was oh so cute and in the most unlikely store too. The lady that ran the store tried so hard to convince me to buy more then just the little change purse but I told her no and thank you anyway and got myself on outta there! I did go back in with Em really quick so that she could get Caroline a matching little purse and Ethan a little something too, but even though I got distracted that time on the way out I didn't buy anything else in there. :)

Well Karina had shopped till she dropped right into the stroller for a much needed nap. So I walked a few more shops while Brian and Em took the kids into the Oldest Wood Schoolhouse in the U.S.A. I could've woken Karina up to go in too but didn't have the heart and actually enjoyed just strolling along.

Beautiful flowers!

They were so excited about their little purses.

What fun they had riding that trolley together. I know they are going to have so many more great times together as they grow up.

It was so much fun just sitting there listening to them chat with each other.

This might be the most precious picture I took the whole time. If you've seen Em's blog you have already gotten a peek. This is on the grounds of where the Fountian of Youth is. We ended our touring by heading back there and finally eating our lunch around 3:30-4 at a picnic table in the shade. We couldn't have asked for a prettier day.

There were so many lovely peacocks on this property and the kids loved walking around with them. I was kinda shocked that they would walk right up to the kids the way they did until I found out that you could feed them. We didn't buy the food but the kids enjoyed it just the same. I love this pic of the girls cause it looks like Karina is telling Caroline, " I'll go up to him if you do."

Then Karina actually works up the nerve and Caroline follows.

Then they found this lovely white one to follow around.

I think it finally had enough and was actually running from her in this last picture.

Precious!

Sweet profile.

She must've heard mommy talking about her aching back and how good the hot tub back at the condo would feel right about now.

One last look at the birds and we were headed out.

My sweetie.

We actually got back and hit the pool one last time before our trip was through. Brian went on up stairs with the baby while Em and I enjoyed relaxing and letting the kids get out their last bit of energy. We even took turns watching the kids and going to take a dip in the hot tub. What a treat!

After we were good and pooped we went to the condo and I threw the kids in the bath while Em fixed a late dinner. It was a wonderful way to end our fun filled week and after tucking the kids in we enjoyed a little more time together with some coffee.

The next day I got my things packed up and took the kids down to the park for a little play time while Brian and Em finished up getting their things together. I think it was just what everyone needed before getting in the cars to go home. The kids ran out some energy and Brian and Em could enjoy quietly packing up. I was so happy to be a help to them on this trip but even happier that they would want me and Karina to join them for this special time together. So thanks again sweet sis and bro. We are so blessed to have you in our lives and share times like this with you!!

Accessorize!

Had to throw this one in here for ya'll to see. Karina loves her new sunglasses her Auntie Em got for her. And well she just loves to accessorize period!