MoRe BeAcH PiCs

i want to share a few (ha!) more beach pics... i love the ones with meme and g-daddy and the boys. i have to admit trace and lucas probably liked not having to share their wonderful grandparents with their cousins while we were at the beach! ;) after trace was so scared of the pool and ocean the first day, i was absolutely shocked the next morning when trace wanted to go in the ocean with meme. at first she went out by herself and he was yelling to her "come back meme. get outta the water!" next thing we knew he was saying "i wanna go out there!" so that's how we started off each day and it was great. both boys LOVED going in the ocean and jumping waves. of course they would wrap their arms around our necks and not let go, but the fact that we were all out there together was so cool! we would count "1, 2, 3, JUMP!" so fun! and after a few days a surfboard was bought. trace thought he was hot stuff when he got to surf the waves with meme and g-daddy!

more beautiful beach pics. it was absolutely gorgeous... again, so blessed by the beauty of it all!

the beach bums! if you look close you will see that lucas has his pasi in this pic. hey, whatever keeps him happy! :) in the pool he would make it a game of throwing his pasi and retrieving it. like i said- whatever keeps him happy! a little chlorine (or salt-water) never hurt anyone, right?

so of course we took some family pics on the beach! i ordered these adorable little polo shirts from old navy for the boys, and i knew nate would wear his white one. i was so excited that this dress (also from old navy, as was nate's shirt. if you know me well, this comes as no surprise!)i bought a few months ago matched the boys shirts perfectly! ya'll know i love matchy matchy pics! i was happy with the way most of them turned out... we probably took 250, and let's just say, maybe 50 were decent. i should do a whole post with blooper pics b/c there were some really funny ones! i love the b/w pics of lucas and trace below. they look SO alike to me. almost like twins!

awww.

omgosh, i love these of me and lucas. even though he isn't smiling, i just love them. he has me wrapped around that little finger of his. can you tell?

oh and these next ones might just be some of my favs! i uber love the one of us holding hands and walking. the photoshoot was technically over, and the boys were walking in front of me. then i ran up and grabbed lucas' hand and wa-lah. the perfect ending to that photoshoot!

we did try the last nite to have another mini photo session. i'll just say things didn't go as planned. and mama didn't get in any pics. but i got a few good ones of my 3 handsome boys!

and here's one of me and nate, without kids. wow, hard to remember life without them! ha. one night meme and g-daddy kept the kids and nate and i had a date nite. we went to pier park, which is sorta a cross b/w outlets and the summit to me. there were a ton of stores, yummy places to eat, and a movie theater. other than the fact that it was 145* outside (ok, so maybe it was only 99*, but it felt a lot hotter!) and we were outside sweatin most of the time, it was so fun! we ate at a nice restaurant and then went to the movies. we saw knight and day and it was SO good. action packed and funny, i loved it! then we went to target afterwards for more shopping! exciting, i know! :) it was just so nice to have a small break from the kiddos! thanks meme and g-daddy for our awesome date nite.

best.vacation.ever.

hands down, we just took one of the best vacations ever! we went to panama city, florida, for a week. a whole entire week... which is something our little family has never done. and let me tell you, i am spoiled rotten and will always want to go for a full week from now on! :) it was just me, nate, the boys, and his parents. (we tried to find a week when the whole entire family could go, but it just didn't work out. we really did miss everyone else and the boys missed their cousins like crazy. we will def go back again soon and take the whole crew!) we def made the best of it though! and we were so blessed... with a great condo, perfect weather, beautiful OIL FREE beaches, sweet family to enjoy it with, and a whole lotta doing nothing but laying in the pool and eating good! i was worried about the kids and how they would do on the way down, but they were great. as you can see, we kept them occupied with everything from snacks to thundercats to books... and they even made silly faces and sucked on their toes to keep them happy. HA! we stopped twice on the way down there, and only once on the way back. THAT my friend, is a miracle! :)
ohmygoodness. the first morning we went to the beach it was overcast, and i was sure we were gonna get rained on. boy was i wrong. we stepped on the sugar white sands and looked at the ocean and saw the biggest, prettiest, double rainbow i've ever seen. seriously... it covered the whole ocean almost! the pictures absolutely can not do it justice. to me, it was such a sweet gift from god. i couldn't help think about his awesomeness, his love, and his beauty and majesty in all of his creation. what a fantastic way to start off our vacation. i knew it was going to be a great week.

could they be any sweeter? love love love this pic of meme and g-daddy. so glad they got their much needed vacation. it had been years since they had a beach trip. i def think it's gonna be an annual tradition now!

at first, the boys weren't too sure about the beach. the first nite trace told me he wanted to go back to meme's house. uhhhh. nope, sorry buddy. we'll be here A L L week. :) they got used to "beach living" real fast though. we'd wake up way too early, eat some breakfast, then head to the beach. the boys loved to jump the waves, and throw sand everywhere. then it was POOL time! trace was hesitant to swim in the pool, b/c he couldn't touch. but there was a big area around the steps that he liked, and a ledge all the way around the pool. so he had fun shooting us with his water guns and staying safe by the edge! lucas on the other hand is a stinkin' fish! he loved to float in the water with us holding him up, and he loved to put his face in the water. he'd also jump off the side and let his head go under. he'd come up bright eyed smiling and he'd say "iauna (i wanna) jump! iauna jump!" i bet i heard that a hundred times a day! :) i will say that by the end of the week, trace was much braver. the first few days, if someone were to hold him and try and swim, he would yell and carry on like a little girl. by the last nite, he was so big. he would hold onto my hands and float in front of me, kicking his little legs, and blowing bubbles. made this mama proud! hopefully soon he will learn to swim and not be so scared of the water!

after we swam for a while, i'd go up to the room and get juice/snacks for the boys to have at the pool. this kept them happy and we'd swim a while longer til it was time to go in for lunch. man, swimming works up a big apptetite. another thing i heard lucas say a lot was "BITE!" that boy can eat!! he and trace both loved the chocolate chip cookies... see them stuffing them in? i think trace ate 4 of them in less than 5 minutes! :)

both boys were troopers! although there were a few meltdowns over sandburns, tears shed over not wanting to wear their hats, hot and humid temps, and water so warm in the pool that it felt like bathwater... we really did have a blast!

trace and lucas both were so big out on the beach. i had to keep a good eye on them or they'd be in the ocean before i knew it!

ahhhh. good times! i will definitely remember this vacation forever! i have such great memories of growing up with summer vacations at the beach. i hope it's something we can do every year with the kids. and i hope they have good memories as well!

we had so much fun. flying kites, building sandcastles, jumping waves, watching the USA play soccer, eating at captain andersons and seeing the big fish... those were just a few things that we did at the beach! i probably took well over 1000 pictures. i'll give you a minute to pick yourself up off the floor, b/c i know you are all shocked. HAHA! there are several more to show you, and a few more stories to tell... check back b/c they are coming soon in the next post. for now, i will leave you with this beautiful sunset. W-O-W. absolutely a-mazing!

~ yep... life is good today ~

Proposal- Third Day Style!

*alternately titled: the longest post ever in which i can't remember a few kind-of important details!*

so over at kelly's korner, they are sharing proposal stories. since ours is so neat, i want to share it with everyone... just in case you haven't heard it! :)

does it make me a bad person if i can't remember the exact date we got engaged? or find the pics? no? ok, good! :) i know it was mid june, 2003. maybe the 13th? (def was the 13th, just verified that!) anywho... here's what i remember. we found out that one of our most fav christian bands- THIRD DAY - was having some habitat for humanity concert in jacksonville, al, at the stadium, and tickets were only 10 bucks. can you saw WoW? so nate and i made plans to go... along with my parents ( i think, see it's awful how bad my memory is 7 years later!) ok not completely sure if they were there, but i know my sis shannon and nate's bro josh, and our good friends jeff and kristi went too. i never thought anything about everyone going, b/c i mean, third day for $10, who doesn't wanna get in on that deal. so we get there, i think it was a friday nite. or maybe sat. who knows! i do remember it was close to 90*, and we were sweating like pigs waiting for the gates to open. it was general admission, and we ran like crazy third day fans and got FRONT ROW SEATS! the nite started out great, just b/c of that! then while third day was singing, nate caught a pick that they threw to the audience. he was so excited! :) they sang a few songs and we were really having a great time. and the next thing i know, i remember them singing "i've always loved you." and for some reason, i looked over at nate, and he was down on one knee, about to propose!!!! he said some really sweet things, and when he asked me to marry him, he totally had dropped the ring (he was SO nervous!) and it was not in the box. so i was all excited, but at the same time, wondered if it was a joke. HA! turns out it was NOT a joke! he picked it up from the concrete :) and there it was, a beautiful sparkling princess cut engagement ring, with diamonds EVERYWHERE!! OMG i was so excited! of course i said YES! (it was at that moment i realized why our fam and friends had come to the concert! :) and why someone was video taping it and taking so many pics! and i am going to try and find those pics soon and post them on here.) * couldn't find pics, but these pictures of my scrapbook (those were the good ol' days, pre-kids, when i actually had TIME to scrapbook. but that's another story for another day!) will have to do... it's better than nothing. PROOF that i'm not making all this up! :) anywho. so hooray, we were engaged! for real, we were gonna get married! how awesome!!! i was completely shocked and it was a moment i will never forget. well, obviously a few details are a little sketchy (date, parents there or not, etc!) ha. ok. but the story doesn't end there. what i didn't know at the time, is nate had been trying to arrange with third day and our local christian music radio station WDJC to be able to get on stage and propose. obviously that didn't happen. but right after he proposed, third day did something that you don't see that often. they said they were gonna have third day karaoke and get 2 people from the audience to sing on stage with them. ok, so we WERE on the front row, remember? and we were all screaming- pick nate, pick nate! we were going crazy up front, and since the whole "propose while on stage with third day" didn't work out, we thought it'd be super cool for nate to SING on stage with third day. so we couldn't believe it when they ACTUALLY picked nate and this other dude (who happened to be named whit, which is pretty funny!) to sing. ok i know i am going everywhere with this story, but i'm trying not to leave out any details. nate had been waiting for them to sing "love song" so that he could propose during that song, but they didn't sing it. so when he was ON STAGE with third day, that's the song he chose to sing. i remember we were all yelling "give him a guitar!" b/c nate didn't sing very often, esp without a guitar. but he got up there and sang his heart out. (i think that actually gave him the confidence to start singing for real, b/c not too long after that he became the worship leader at church!) i was so proud of him, and so freakin excited. but just wait, it gets BETTER! somehow, we convinced the security guards to let ME go up on stage with third day while nate was singing. we told them we had just gotten engaged... AND the next thing i know, i was standing on stage talking with tai anderson, the bassist for third day! * please notice nate and mac shaking hands. awesome huh? and me standing right there by tai! and of course, the BLING! i remember showing him my ring and telling him- we just got engaged like FIVE MINUTES AGO! so he totally interuppted what mac (powell) was saying and told everyone- they just got engaged 5 min ago! so next, they hand ME the mic and asked what happened! i was so shocked that i was like "ummm, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him!" and then mac was like "what'd you say??" and of course i was like " YES!" so they declared nate the big winner for the nite! :) everyone was clapping and cheering and i swear we felt like we were famous! i remember people were talking about us when were going back to the car- like, there's the couple who just got engaged! it was awesome!! so we had our five minutes of fame with third day, AND we were officially engaged... it was such an amazing nite!! seriously, we still talk about it often and replay everything that happened. i'm sure we'd watch the tape too, if we knew where it was! :) nate was so awesome that nite, even though i know he was a nervous wreck. proposing, dropping the ring, THEN singing with third day! :) and even though he had wanted to propose on stage and that didn't work out, god worked out all the little details just right and made our nite perfect! it def goes down as one of the greatest nites ever in our book!!!! too bad i can't remember exactly what nite it was. haha!

first haircut

so yeah... lucas is 16 months old and finally had his first "real" haircut! :) meme has trimmed it a few times, but it's been kinda outta control lately. to prove my point, our awesome baby-sitter kayla took this pic of lucas and his crazy hair yesterday! reminds me of my papaw's hair, which is adorable on him, but i thought lucas needed a haircut for the beach! (to see a few pics of when trace got his first hair-cut, click here! these boys def look a LOT alike!!)

i made a quick purchase of some dum-dum suckers before we went to mrs. debbie's... and they def did the trick! for the most part, lucas was content, still, and quiet while he was getting his first haircut! thanks to the dum-dum! of course, a few times he wasn't happy!

and this next one cracks me up. look at him cutting his eyes at mrs. debbie!

i'm telling you, he loved his banana sucker!

when is this gonna be over?? ;)

oh wee... love this one. he looks so grown up!

this next one is cute too!

and the finished product... all done!

lucas didn't get the memo to look at daddy and smile... oh well. i'm (fake) smiling so that should count for something, right? ha. i don't mean to fake smile in so many pics, but my close family and friends are quick to point out when i am faking it! ima try and work on that! :)

this is how...

this is how trace eats
an...

ICECREAM SANDWICH!

:)

.:. oh, this boy .:.

if you look (really) close, you can see a (very) few adorable little freckles. yep. he gets those from his mama! and the sun. but ya know what i mean.

being shy...

and silly!

aha! you can try... but you can't hide from mama!

he melts my heart!

slumber party- part 3

so after the kids woke up from their naps, we decided we would get out of the house for a while. we loaded up the swaggar wagon and went to chick-fil-a, where nate tried out the new spicy chicken sandwich! (he thought it was great btw. but he still loves wendy's better.) the kids ate all their food, so as promised, they got to play for a while. then we headed back home... where it was bath time and pajama time! then the kids finished out the night with bedtime stories by uncle dogg!

they were all about the story he chose...
"where the wild things are"

sunday morning rolls around, and we woke up bright and early (6 AM!) no such luck sleepin' til 7:30 again! nate had to be at church at 8 for praise team practice... so that left me to get all the littles fed, dressed, and ready for church! no worries though, we got ready on time... with EXTRA minutes to spare even! and i managed to take a few cute pictures of the monkeys before church.

COUSINS! i love the looks on each one of their precious little faces! priceless!

awww, i snapped a sweet one of caden and lala too!

and friends, miracles never cease to happen at the whitt house! low and behold, i managed to take a great picture of my boys. remember, nate wasn't home to help make them smile or look at the camera. but somehow, they were doing both! seriously, this might just be my new favorite all-time pic of the boys! i love how they are dressed all cute.. and their hair is fixed just right- trace with his "spikey hair" and lucas rockin his' MOHAWK!

SEE? isn't this the best picture? ever??? yep. i thought so too! ♥

after church we went to eat and play at burger king (please don't say anything abour our healthy eating over the weekend!) HA. i figured we'd let the kids run off some energy! while at burger king, lucas threw such an awful whitt fit that the poor lady working there felt sorry for him. she was like quick, get this kid a toy. so we got a free puppy dog toy. then he continued to scream and act like a brat (all b/c he wanted to hold my diet coke himself, and spill it everywhere!) then he earned a free chocolate milk out of it. wow, i was so embarrassed! anyways, we timed it just right where josh and shannon met us at the king and surprised their kids. caden and lala were so happy to see their mom and dad! then we all loaded up and went to our own houses. and once we got home, we ALL passed out, from such a crazy long fun weekend! seriously... it was crazy, and long, but we also had a lot of fun! it went better than i thought it would, and the kids had a blast. i must admit, i am proud of myself for pretending like i had it all together. :) and honestly, i am relieved that the worse incident was the little boo-boo lucas had. just glad it was one of my own kids, and not caden and lala!

slumber party- part 2

when you have 4 littles in the house (4 and under), 3 boys and 1 girl... you might be surprised at the funny, sometimes gross, things you say. first i want to share a few things i found myself saying to the kids saturday morning!

" get your hands OUT of your pants!"

"please tell me if you have boogers. don't you feel the snot dripping down to your lips?"

"well there's only 1 of me and 4 of you. so you're just gonna have to wait a minute."

"please don't sword fight while jumping off of trace's bed!"

"how did you go potty and get tt on the whole front of your shirt?"

"we do NOT pull dirty diapers out of the trash can. are you CrAzY?"

and last... "seriously, 3 out of 4 of you kids are on this nasty pink medicine around the clock? and i'm supposed to use a clean dropper everytime? i don't think so!" :o)

and now... the moment you've all been waiting for... POOL PICS!

... so after the kiddos got tired of playing inside, i decided to brave it out and let them swim. (i was home by myself saturday morning b/c nate was helping my dad fix his roof. so, i really was feeling brave to take the 4 little kids outside to swim!) we got in our bathing suits and the kids were so excited! caden and trace especially LOVED the pool. they played and splashed for a while. lala wanted in, then she wanted out. then back in, and you get the point. and lucas, well, he wanted in, but only if i was holding him. so he mostly just ran around and did his own thing, outside of the pool... which unfortunately included him losing a battle with the concrete when the beach chair folded up on him. :( he's ok though, just got a little strawberry on his sweet head! (nothing peanut butter and jelly couldn't fix though!)
so back to the pool.... most of the time the big kids are so sweet to lucas (except for when they are trying to take his toys away!) i love how they were trying to coax him into swimming with them. and i just love the look on caden and trace's face here. they love lulu!

mr. cool!

sun bathing beauty!

crazy caden!

the big boys got popsicles... and they loved them!!

this next pic is one of my favs!

ahhhh. this is the life!

lucas- just walking around like a big boy!

i am quite convinced this pool maybe the best $20 purchase from walmart of the season! we hope to spend lots of time playing in the pool and getting some sun on the weekends.

oh, and this next one just melts my heart. i'm telling you, trace loves his bubba. and his bubba loves him back!

after their pool fun, the kiddos ate lunch and all took a good long nap... and i took advantage of the empty pool! :) i figured out it is just big enough to put a float (or 2) in and get some good sun! hey, this mama has to work on her tan before our beach trip... b/c we leave in just "11 more sleeps!" woo to the hoo!

and the last segment of the slumber party is

...to be continued...