Call us crazy

Yes, call us crazy but in a total lapse of good judgement we decided to take a long weekend trip to the beach...with 7 kids.  Actually, it was a blast and went surprisingly well!  We rented a house with Chad and Bec on Edisto Island.  The kids were in cousin-heaven.  

David surprised me with a trip to Charleston on the way up there.  It was part of my mother's day gift:  shopping alone!  He took the kiddos to play in the fountains and I headed to King street.  It was a great gift!  Since we were in Charleston we had to stop for some fresh seafood.  Hunter has his Dad's love for raw oysters.

Once at the island we pretty much just spent time on the beach.  Building lots of sand castles...

Getting buried in the sand...

Some boogie boarding...

A little fishing....

And some fatherly love.

Which lead to this.  I'm pretty sure there is still some sand in there.

Some more fatherly bonding.

Funny how the girl bonding looks a little different.

The kids played hard.  

But not to be fooled - there were definitely some attitudes.

Mama Reese.  The girl will be running the household by the time she is five.  She especially likes to take a mama role with Juddson.  Fine with me - I can always use the help!

The last night we decided to venture out to dinner.  The first place we went to was a little less than happy to see a party of 11 (did I mention that 7 of them are 6 & under!) walk through their door.  But we did get a few group shots before finding a different restaurant.  

Here's the debut of Jack.  Sadly he had an ear infection all weekend and barely even saw the beach.

And here's proof that I was there too!  No illness here, just always behind the camera.

Celebrating the last night.  Aren't they adorable?

All in all it was a wonderful trip.  I think we may be crazy enough to do it again.

PS - Kent & Allison are at the beach this week.  Maybe we can get Savannah to do a recap post of their trip after they return.  No promises, but I'll try!

Lost in the move

I think most everyone knows we sold our house.  It was bittersweet.  We have lived there since Anna Kate was 3 months old.  So it goes without saying we had a million sweet memories in that home.  It all happened so fast that the month of March was pure craziness.  I would pack a box and the kids would unpack two.  I kid, but it sure felt that way.  Thankfully we survived and managed to get it all done.  Now we are living with David's parents while we renovate the new house we bought.  (That is a whole separate post.)

I just stumbled on these pics that showcase some of the fun the kids had.  I guess it goes back to that old wisdom about kids love the box more than the shiny toys.  They sure had fun with all the boxes.  (Note to moving mothers - Packing Peanuts = NIGHTMARE!  It's like Easter grass times twenty.)

Poor Judd.  Sometimes we just can't quit squeezing him.  He's been our chunkiest baby by far and we love to squish him!

You can't tell but this was in our POD.  Before it got too full they were using it as a play ground.  The kids LOVED it in there.

And one of our little princess - Anna Kate making a cake for uncle Chad's birthday.  

Blog love for Jacks

I'm insprired by Emilee's courage to do a post. I realized that Jacks hasn't had much time on the blog so I thought that I would do an update on what he is doing.

Month 7 was a big month for Jack
He learned to

*Crawl
*Go from crawling to sitting
*Pull up
*Say Dada
*Sleep through the night (my favorite)
*and jump out of his crib (not my favorite)

He is a busy little guy.
here are somethings he is doing now that he is 8 months old




Eating all kinds of food - you can tell he is # 4
He is also pushing this wagon around the house



And pushing Reese in the wagon