We're home!! First, praise the Lord that we had safe travels over the last several days as we drove almost 600 miles. Secondly, thank you to my brother and sister-in-law for allowing our rowdy family of five to stay with them. They made our little vacation a lot less financial stressful by opening up their home. Thanks Matt & Ann, we love you!
Between picking up starfish, getting spashed by stingrays, watching the amazing Shamu Show and eating tons of popcorn and sweets, Sea World was a hit!
walk along some horse trails to a nearby park in the afternoon. That evening we picked up Lucille's BBQ for dinner which is a must-have for Nate when we go down to Orange County. Then it was off to an early bedtime in preparation for Knotts Berry Farm on wednesday. 
the little kids. Luke and Matthew loved riding on the race cars (as evidenced by the pics)!!! The boys were able to ride quite a few rides in Camp Snoopy and Luke frequently asked to go on them "alone" (meaning, he didn't want daddy to sit with him, just with Matty). Another highlight was the train that we went on around the back of the park. It was an old west train complete with robbers that boarded demanding all of our money. We stayed at Knotts for about 5 hours, until it was evident that our boys were utterly exhausted. We had planned on staying one more night and heading home on Thursday, but our better judgment kicked in and we headed home last night. Everyone was very happy to be sleeping in their own beds. :)
Well, off to unpacking. Have a wonderful day! 
For quite some time Nate has wanted to plant a little garden. I was not very interested in the idea, especially since the first step would include weeding out our flowerbeds. But, having seen our nephew Josh's beautiful garden, I started to get the urge to grow some of our own produce. While weeding was the first step, Nate and I did it together, along with the boys "helping", and it actually turned out to be pretty fun. But not as fun as watching all of our veggies grow! We have planted red and orange bell peppers, cucumbers, butternut squash, italian squash, zucchini squash, crookneck squash, pumpkins, carrots, scallions, 4 different kinds of tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley, chives, rosemary, cilantro, chocolate mint, a Fuji apple tree and a Golden Delicious apple tree!! Wow!! ... we will be sending care packages for a modest donation (plus shipping/handling). :)
Hello everyone! First, apologies to our Virginia family. I know that many of you look for pics of the boys on a regular basis and I have not delivered. Please forgive me; I will really try and be better at this.
As for events from our household, there have not been a ton of notable ones. Caleb battled a double ear infection for about 5 weeks which was terrible. We went through so many antibiotics and it just wouldn't go away. We finally got a clean bill of health on him about 2 1/2 weeks ago so that was great. And he has started to finally walk. His first steps were on May 27th and he is continuing to improve, now taking around 5 steps at a time. He is by far the loudest of our children, letting out these periodic yells that exhaust all the air out of his lungs. He has frequently begun to exercise this new behavior at complete strangers who walk by him at the grocery store or at the innocent clerk who mistakenly makes eye contact with him. On a sweeter note, he has begun to show this very shy/flirty side of him (mostly to other women). He will bury his head into my shoulder and then give off this angelic smile. He has every ounce of his daddy's charm.
Matthew's verbal/singing skills have taken off! His sweet little voice is heard throughout our house all day long. The currant favorites are "This is the day that the Lord has made" and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". He knows all of his colors, the alphabet, his letter sounds, can count to 23, and (thanks to his big brother) he knows most any truck that we pass along the road. He follows Luke everywhere and mimics his every action. They are the best of friends right now and play together great (most of the time ;) ). He is such a joy to be around right now.
Mr. Luke finished his first year of pre-school at the end of May. He has had the best year and his teachers were wonderful. Now he is filling his days by building train tracks and riding his bike and eating us out of house and home. He is in love with the pool right now and constantly wants to be in it. He is getting soooo big. We will not be starting him in Kindergarten this year so he will have one more year of preschool.
Nate is doing great at his job and really loves working at Abbott. It's a totally new selling environment and is very rewarding for him. Plus (this is my favorite) he gets to spend more time with us. He will be taking almost all of next week off so we can go on a little family vacation. My brother and sister-in-law have graciously opened their home in Orange County to us so we will be leaving this Sunday to go down there. We have plans to go to Sea World and Knotts Berry Farm while we are there. Everyone is so excited and Luke is counting down the days (literally!). I will be sure to post some pics from our trip.
Good night and goodbye for now.
Daddy and Caleb... definitely no resemblance there
Daddy and the boys playing "Pirate Ship"
This is my adorable little niece, Paige Elizabeth
or some other ridiculous excuse as to why it has been almost 2 months since I have posted. Sorry to all of you faithful "blog-checkers" for our delinquency. Tonight, after church, I will come straight home and post the most exciting, mind-blowing blog that has ever been posted... no that's too much pressure, but I will post something. Love to everyone
