Flower Child

 

 She loves her hawaiian leis and beaded necklaces. If one looks good then at least 10 must be better. 

This girl cracks me up. She saw the camera and kept making this face.  Oh Norah we love you!

dont let the bed bugs bite!

 We went down to the outer banks this past week for a few days with some friends. On the way down I pulled into the Grave Digger compounds and let the boys take a ride on a monster truck.  Brent was driving seperately since he left the beach to go to work on the way back so it was just me and the kids for a while before Brent met us there.  The boys had to ride alone since Norah was too short to go but Joel went up and sat right down next to Colin and they both loved every minute. 

 They had a whole petting zoo and playground for the kids.  I was really impressed.

 Then we headed down to the beach.

 We had fun playing on the beach - I brought my camera one morning during an early walk with the kids and thats all the pictures I took.  We also spent a lot of time in the indoor pool - the outside one was a little too cold - and the hot tub. 

 And then the last night there we googled some strange insect bites we were getting and might have had bed bugs. So i've spent the past two days since being back making sure these things didnt come home with us. The exterminator for the resort said they were something else but according to google pictures of the bites I'm not convinced.  At least my car is now really cleaned out and so is all my laundry.  Its kinda nice going to a laundry mat and getting 6 loads done at once.  It wasn't the vacation I pictured for a lot of reasons but we had fun with the kids and it was a nice end of the summer for Colin.

Can't belive this guy starts second grade in a few days! 

Forts

They kids have gotten creative with the plastic toys in our backyard.  Different configurations of forts have been built and rebuilt this past week. 

First tea party

 After living in the world of boys for the past 7 years its facinating to me to watch my little girl be a little girl.  The other day she wanted to sit at our little table and eat her pretzles.  She then plopped her dog in the seat next to her and wanted a bowl of pretzles for her dog.  I got out the camera when she started to pretend feed the pretzles to her dog complete with pretend eating sounds from the dog.

 Her first tea party.  We've never played this before - she came up with it all herself.  And she's not imitating the boys. Their tea parties would included light sabers, nerf guns and some type of villan.

 The differences between girls and boys are ingrained in them.  People ask me all the time if its different having a girl and besides the fun part of dressing a little girl it hasn't been too different from the boys. Until now. When the pretend play starts to become different and we get to experience a whole new way of playing that we haven't had yet. 

I can't wait. 

Redskins Training Camp

 I dont think anyone is surprised that Brent took the boys this past week to Richmond to see a Redskins Training Practice.  When they announced they were moving to Richmond Brent has been counting down.  Add the fact that my sister was personally taken by Redskins officials to tour the training camp when it was being built and you've got one excited husband.  Plus one excited 7 year old. Colin loves watching football and his favorite player is RG3.

 Brent took the boys and left Norah and I at home. 

 Norah cried when she realized that her car seat wasn't being put into Brents car.  And cried for a while after they left but she and I had a great girls day at home.  As I'm typing this Brent has taught Norah to say football.  Still doesnt say dada but he doesnt care since his little girl is saying football :) 
They had a kids section where Colin ran some drills over and over. Sarah and our friend Sam stayed with Colin in the kids section while Brent and Joel sat and watched the practice.  I know Brent is very glad they were there so he could sit and watch.

 This is one of my favorite ones Brent took.  He came home with a ton of photos which I'm not allowed to ever delete. 

 The players praying at the end

 After practice the players signed autographs.  This was just the crowd around DeAngelo Hall.  Colin was able to get his autograph and then went around and got Santana Moss and RG3 (who he really wanted) Colin crawled his way in to get all their autographs.  He crawled under people's legs.  The crowd around RG3 was a lot more but somehow he got close and just shoved out his football.

 We told him that football is worth money now.  He's debating selling it for video game money or to keep it. ha!  I dont think his dad will let him sell it anytime soon.

Wonder which brother was going to be the recipient of that bucket of water? 

Playing together

 

 Can you spot Joel?

Teething

She walks around with her hand stuffed in her mouth most days. All four canines are coming in - but this is the last of the teeth until her two year molars. Yesterday she woke up from her nap with a corner of her blanket soaked with drool and blood as apparently one of the teeth popped through. Poor girl. 

The Emperor

He loves her.

 

I didnt even tell him to kiss her.  I love catching moments like this. He loves to kiss her all the time.

She also kisses him all the time.  But thats after we tell her to. She in return loves to hit Joel. So we're trying "no hit - kiss him"  We will see how that goes.  She has gotten extremely jealous of Joel - which is surprising since we just got Joel to get over being jealous of Norah.  Norah will get so upset when Joel sits in my lap or snuggles with me.  So she goes up and hits him.  Or if she's across the room will clap her hands together yelling while looking at him with death stares.  Today she went to hit him and she stopped herself, shook her head no and leaned in for a kiss.  So progress maybe?   My princess - a bigger bully than the boys ever were.  But at least its not stopping Joel from loving his sister. Although now that I am typing all this out maybe Joel is kissing her so much because he really wants to hit her?  ha!  who knows but he is really sweet to her and kisses are always better than hits. 

Basketball Camp

  Colin just finished up basketball camp.  Five days of basketball camp from 8:30-4.  He loved it. Which made his father very happy.

We went and watched one of his tournament games on Friday. This morning Colin was doing pushups, sit ups and jumping jacks and told me he was going to work hard to become a point guard.

Joel rubs our ears not only when he's tired or at night. But also in new situations, around people he doesnt know and also when he's nervous about something.  He wasn't sure about this whole tournament thing until it started and he saw Colin playing. I told Brent he will miss it one day and love to look back at this picture.

Pool Nights

 I finally brought the camera at night when Brent was there so we could tag team with Norah. But I thought it would be good to get some videos of Norah and Joel swimming since we have a lot of Colin swimming already :)

 

 One of the best things about our house is the fact that the pool is less than a 5 minute walk down the street.