buckeyes in the sunshine state (part uno)

aunt amy and uncle tyler came to florida!!!

our kids had never met these cousins before, which is just sad.

so they made the 17 hour drive from ohio to visit for a week and we all had the best time ever.

seriously, the kids had such a blast and it was wonderful to get to know their beautiful girls.

we crammed each day full of fun activities and then at night the kids all packed in together and laughed and giggled and had a grand time falling asleep while the adults stayed up talking, eating key lime pie and chips and salsa, and watching youtube videos. it was awesome!

are you ready for a picture overload?

here we go!

after dinner the first night, we went for a walk on the beach to see the sunset.

chris didnt want the kids to get wet, so we decided not to wear swimsuits. 

HA. HA. HA.

no trip to sw florida is complete without a visit to our favorite crazy, cheap, red-neck petting zoo: skunk ape.

hadley and ellie

kate holding the gator

amy

lauren

dont let their sweet looks fool you-

kate and lauren were brave little chicas!

 go amy go!

i still havent worked up the courage to hold that big boy

tyler and madeline riding the tortoise

 charlie was.not.happy.

 this cockatoo curled right up and started purring

picnic time

it rained a couple times, so we had to get creative. good thing amy is awesome and has a billion fantastic ideas! like soap snakes...

lauren was the champion of our egg game!

her egg cracked all the competition

bo and larissa invited us all over for cake and ice cream on sunday evening after conference. we took full advantage of their beautiful backyard and played red rover, tag, and the kids all took turns on the swings.

on monday afternoon we were lucky to use a nice (heated!) pool courtesy of our dear friends the tucketts. kate and lauren got the hang of swimming and may have even sprouted fins :)

buckeyes in the sunshine state (part dos)

chris and tyler spent a morning at the golf course, played basketball at the church and went out to dinner before the priesthood session of conference, so after all that manly time, amy and i went and got pedicures one evening! wahoo! the moms also took the little ones to the park and had a fun adventure "opening" the disney store.

it wasn't all fun and games...

sometimes it was fun and movies too!

we spent saturday at the beach.

it was a tad chilly for us florida folk, but that didnt stop us from having a grand time!

i've never been to the beach with so many kids and not have any grumpy or unhappy little people. it was awesome.

on tuesday morning we picked up a (couple) dozen donuts and took them to riverside park.

oh these two!

charlie and madeline teased each other relentlessly

and it was very entertaining for the rest of us... most of the time.

i guess thats understandable when two two-year-olds are squished together in close quarters.

the boys found this little gator right outside the park while geocaching. 

pretty sure it lives in the canal. 

thats a comforting thought.

 before making the long journey home, chris took part of the group out for a boat ride and luckily a dolphin was out and came right next to the boat. couldnt have planned it any better!

we love you seaver family!

thanks for one of the best vacations ever

hiatus

our computer took a trip to the apple store for a week, we had guests for a week, and i was not feeling like blogging for a week, so all those weeks added up to a month long hiatus from the blog.

but we're back!

we had a fantastic easter!!!

minus charlie's throwing up at the ward easter breakfast. 

throwing up in public = no bueno.

 sunday we decided that he better stay home from church, which meant he missed out on wearing his sweet new shirt to church, but jack and ellie loved their special new Easter duds.

jack picked out his tie... it has pink marlins on it :)

jack had a school concert last month which was... as entertaining as watching a bunch of kids fight for the front row can be i guess! jack made it to the front and the whole program he searched for us and looked like this:

in other news,

we are updating our kitchen!

finally!

i've been waiting 5 years for this and it feels so so so good to make it happen.

we've ordered new cabinets, which are on their way, picked out our new granite counter, and have a shiny new sink just waiting (in our bedroom) to be installed. its the size of a small tub. i love that sink.

i have a feeling it will be my pride and joy.

eeeek! 

we are excited

it's been a lot harder than i thought it would be to make decisions. i always thought i knew what i liked and what i wanted, but when it came down to it (not to mention trying to combine two different peoples tastes) it hasnt been easy! but we are almost done with all the little decisions and excited to get busy installing it all and see it come together.

here a little and there a little

chris and i took a week away from the internet last week.

all except email and a few things here and there for work or church.

it was refreshing!

i'd like to think that we will try to do that more often to help us use our time more wisely... we'll see.

some random events and photos from february and march:

jack and ellie received ukuleles from cousins quentin and leilani in hawaii!

they have had so much fun with these and ellie has been making up songs like crazy.

they were so anxious to see some real ukulele players. so we watched a ton of clips on youtube, which of course led to hula dancing and fire throwing. jack was quite taken by the hula dancers and asked, "how do they DO that with their hips?!". in fact, he was so taken by it, watching with his mouth agape and eyes wide, that i made chris turn it off. I'm a nice mom like that.

last month we took the kids to the royal scoop for ice cream on a friday night. those of you from the area know how busy the scoop is on a friday night in the middle of season. 

what were we thinking?!

while we were waiting for our ice cream, ellie said she didnt feel good so i sat her down on a chair. they handed me her cone and i turned around to give it to her and she threw up all down my legs and filling her lap. all i remember hearing is someone yelling from one of the tables, "OH MAN, THAT LITTLE GIRL JUST BARFED! HOLY CRAP THERE SHE GOES AGAIN!".

yes, 2 times.

so we left as quickly as possible and she rode home naked with the windows down because if i smelled it, is was going to puke too. i was not happy and certainly did not handle the situation well. just ask chris.

she took a bath and had a bowl to catch any more while i got cleaned up and the next thing we knew, she was asleep in her barf bowl.

last month, our wonderful friends the carpenters, came for a visit!!!

we sure have missed these two (and their sweet kids) over the past year and felt so lucky that they decided to come back to FL for a little getaway. 

so what do two crazy couples want to do when they have some time to play?

why, visit the wizarding world of harry potter of course!

we had to cut our trip a little short due to some pretty serious motion sickness for chris. remember that picture of ellie up there with the bowl? yeah, that was chris except he had a grocery bag in a parking lot. poor guy. BUT we had a blast hanging out with two pretty incredible people! and i got to ride front row on the hulk again. awesome.

i picked up some bertie botts for the kids to try while at harry potter world.

they decided that soap and cherry were their favorite flavors and vomit, worms, and black pepper were the worst.

my dad turned 60 last month!

he is not a die-hard party guy, so we tried to come up with something a little different to celebrate without going overboard.

after the meal of his choice (fillet mignon), we decided to surprise him with some chinese lanterns.

those things are HUGE and very difficult to manage!

we got some stuck in a tree, one landed on their roof and then after taking off again, it went down a few streets over and chris had to fetch it. they were very tricky! but nothing was damaged and it was certainly unforgettable.

this is not my picture.

we had no idea what we were in for, so no decent pictures were taken. i guess this was just practice for when mom turns 60 in a couple years :)

we have some silly kids and it seems like all of our wackiness explodes at the dinner table.

jack started soccer this past week.

how handsome is this kid???

first-goal-of-the-season cheer!

we asked ellie three separate times if she wanted to play again and each time she said she would rather dance around the field. so, dancing she will do! hopefully she will miss it and want to play in the fall.

 charlie-man, distracted by a tennis match.

not too much going on around these parts. 

chris is working working working. its hard to be upset about that with so many people wishing they had the opportunity to work, but it sure makes some days at home long, tiring, and boring. sometimes its nice to hear another adult talking, and 'sir topham hat' doesnt count! chris was late getting home last weekend so he and jack missed out on the stake father and sons campout. instead they set up the tent in the backyard and the whole family made smores on the grill. after charlie and ellie went to bed, chris took jack to see a movie and get ice cream. in the morning i made pancakes and eggs. i think they both probably thought that camping in the backyard had its perks and was just as fun.