See ya later, alligators! (But not for long!!)

We had the BEST weather this weekend!  It was warm, but not hot, a little breeze, but not windy. Seriously my favorite weather!  We went to a party on Saturday at my cousin Candy and her family's house.  We were celebrating the adventure another of our cousins family are soon to begin. My cousin, Wendy, along with her husband and two children are packing up there Massachusetts lives, driving cross country and setting up camp in the always beautiful Colorado.  I am soo happy for them and so proud of them for having the courage to go through with such an under taking!  I think about it all the time: what it would be like to pack up life in one spot and continue in another. Such an adventure!  But one I doubt I would ever have the guts to do!  It's a shame to say, that with this whole world surrounding us, I have only lived in two towns, within 5 miles of each other!  It's even more of a shame to say that I have only visited a handful of states in this huge country and only been to one other country in this whole world!  If I never get the bravery to move away, I at least have to provide my children the chance to take in the wealth of history, diversity and beauty that the world offers.  With another cousin already living in Colorado, I now have 5 reasons to start there!  So see you soon, VanKays!  You will be dearly missed while your away, but lovingly envied at the same time :)

Here are some photos of the day.  Not as many as I thought I took!

Will, Ryan, Sadie and Cameron, the "Big Kids"

 Ryan, attacking Sadie and Cam

 Avery, Sadie and Aubrey: The girls

 Can't keep them apart!

 The Colorado-bound family! Sadie, Connor, Wendy and Brian (There was no room for a head-on photo!  Everyone else was taking their pics!)

 Auntie getting a kiss from my Ave

 Cousins!!

 Some of the guys

 Candy and Avery

 Not a good picture (that's why its in BW) but they were having so much fun!

 Avery, chillin' out

Cape House!

So we have been down to the Cape House twice this season so far.  In those two visits, I haven't once made a trip down to the water!  How awful is that??  We've just hung out at the house!  Man, I have to remember to walk down to the beach next time!  That's pathetic!

The first time down was for my dad's birthday.  All the kids and grand kids were down, soooo it was a bit of a nut house, like always!  But it was beautiful weather, so we stayed out and let the kids run around most of the time.  Oh and there was cake.  Always need the cake.

With Ryan, showin' some love

 My little Tom Boy, well Mommy made Tom Boy.

 Auntie Tina

 Ave and Aubrey, having some drinks

 The bike.  Ugh, that bike....

Look how excited she is??  Camera happy!!

Birthday man, my dad!

The next time we went down, was last weekend, the day before Mother's Day.  My sister Michelle was having a cookout for Aubrey's dedication, which was held the next day.  Again, crazy nut house, but great weather so the kids just ran around, while we tried to visit as much as we could!  Cam was playing with Ryan and my cousin Alison's kids,  Summer and Starla (2nd cousins?) and having a BLAST!!  He's so funny, that boy.  Avery wouldn't stop running around, and had to be chased the whole time. She wants soooo badly to play with the big kids, but sooo can't hold her own yet!  Instead, she just ran around finding something funny in every thing and every person she saw. I think (knock on wood) she's over her anxiety phase.  She's sooo friendly with everyone now.  We need a big, enclosed fence down there!  Then I could relax!  More pics?  Glad you asked!

"Can I pleeease play with the big kids???"

Goofball.  You should have seen the others I had to choose from!  Scary!

Love

Trying, really, really hard!

Aubrey doing the caterpillar.

The girl cousins

Gellies!  They are back!

Soooo cool, don't you think?? :)

Mother's Day 2012

Oh the over rated Mommy's Day! I feel like every day is Mommy's day.  I have the privilege to have my kids with me everyday, drawing me special pictures, giving me hugs and kisses and going on our little "adventures" to try and keep all days special.  If this was all I had, everyday, I'd be perfectly happy.  So when Mother's Day comes around, it's just a little added bonus to my already fun mommy days. This year, I woke up to Cam screaming, "Mommy, I neeeeed you!!" (Like most days) Well, get out of bed and come find me!  Of course he was fine, just wanted some approval or something that it was time to get up :)  They made me breakfast, then Mark took them out for a few to go to a store to let them pick out some little gifts on there own to give me.  Cam just haaad to get this t-shirt for me with two dino's, he says a mommy and daddy, that said, "I love you this much" with her puny little t-rex arms extended and the dad saying, "well, that's not very much". Its cute and I'll sleep in it every night from now on!!  That and the pretty little card that he colored for me was all I needed, aside from spending the day together.  But to add to my day, Mark had gotten a ring made for me!  It hasn't been finished by the jeweler yet, but I'm so proud of him for going the measures to get me something that represents us and the kids.  So excited to see it!!  

In the afternoon, we went on a little hike to try and see some turtles that Cameron had been talking about all day.  I forgot my camera, so iPhone it was.  Mommy fail.  Avery was hysterical.  No stroller or carrier for her!  She just ran and ran, on and on the entire time!  The girl needs a walking stick and back pack and she'd be ready to go!  We got Qudoba for dinner, Ben and Jerry's for desert, and relaxed with early to bed Littles.  Good day if you ask me!  Can't wait for Mother's Day next year, just as much as I can't wait for tomorrow.  

He thinks he's cool :)

 Look at the pony!!

We were walking around a cranberry bog and Cam kept saying, "Look at all the cranberry sauce!!  We are so close to it!"

 On the move in her little Crocs

 Dinner, also with the iPhone.  Every worse inside!

I tried a new app, called Magic Hour.  It seems kind of cool, but this is my first filter I used.  Could be cool on the phone.  She's so tiny!

One year pics, far overdo!!!!

Yeah, I'll admit it, I'm never on track with stuff lately!!  I told you all about Avery turning one and all about her party, but I noticed I never posted some of the photo's from her Cake Smash session!  I was just recovering from my brain surgery when she had her first birthday, so the photo session was postponed until maybe a month later?  (Mommy fail!) and I'm such a procrastinator that I didn't finalize my order with my photographer until a few weeks ago.  Well, if you call my "order" buying the HD rights to my pictures.  I don't know why, but having them on digital file has always been the way I do it for any professional photo shots we have done.  I have a thing about having them only on paper.  It scares me to have them lost or harmed in anyway and then never have them again.  This way, they are mine and I can print, re-print, post and never have to worry (to much) about not having them again.  

Anyway, for this shoot, we went to a photographer that was recommended to me who has a studio, which we were looking for being that it was in the winter months.  Her name is Juliette Holt from JHolt Photography (Here).  I think she did a great job!!  Since she was born the day before Valentines Day, went went with that theme.  She got some of her in her flowy pink dress, a few with Cameron, and then smashing her big cupcake that I made (nice, huh?)!  I'm putting up a bunch, because, well, I couldn't choose.  She's just to cute for words, in her mommy's opinion!!  I mean, look at her??  Is she really mine??  

Double Date Night

And what did we do?  We got tattoo's!  Well, the ladies of the date got them :)  We had planned to just have a date night and go to the movies (for the first time since Cameron was born, no joke!!) but we found out that the movie we wanted to see was booked for the time we wanted.  So we decided on dinner at the Porta Bello a few towns over and Steph threw out the idea to finally get the tattoo's that we had been talking about for a few months now.  Of course I agreed!!  So after dinner, we went into Federal Hill in Providence, RI and got them done!  

We were ridiculously excited!  We each had our own man do them, and we sat back to back while we had them done.  Steph got four birds on the top of her foot, one for each of the members on of her family (herself, husband and each Little).  I got an infinity symbol with the word "love" woven in, representing my infinite love for Mark and the kids.  I love how both of them came out!!  And yeah, we are so bad ass!  Just kidding, it didn't even hurt and in my opinion, they are both very classy and even elegant looking.  My parents loved mine, too.  Maybe I'll get them in someday to get one...a new mission (hi mom!). 

Here are some pics of out night: