Did you think I had forgotten all about this blog?? Sorry for the weeks of silence, it has been crazy town around here! Right after we got home from the beach, we went straight into work mode, laundry mode and well, life I guess! Kip is at a dinner for work tonight so I thought this would be a great time to sit down and write. Get ready for another picture overload. I thought I would do a little recap from the beach and life lately. So here we go!

The beach was fabulous. I need my emojis with the smiley face and heart eyes. To me, that is how you describe fabulous in emoji language. Sorry. ADD. Okay, so the beach. Thank goodness tropical storm Erica didn't mess up our week. We were afraid she was going to at first. We were at the beach for 11 days and only lost a day and a half due to rain. Not too shabby. The weekend started off....with a bang. Of poop that is. The 2 little ones had upset tummies for the majority of the trip. Poor little guys. It's hard to be on vacation with the runs and everybody eating delicious food around you and you can only eat the BRAT diet. They were great sports about it though. A little sand, sun and ocean water as a distraction doesn't hurt

We don't get to see our niece and nephew from DC very much. We FaceTime, but we don't much ACTUAL face time. They are 4 yrs old and 2.5 yrs old. It was so much fun to see their little personalities and truly get to interact with them

This little girl. She is precious. She gives the most genuine hugs. You can be across the room and she will look you straight in the eye, you know she is coming for you, and she will deliver the biggest, most genuine hug I've ever received from a child. She has a sweet soul. A sweet voice. Is ALL girl. Everyday when we would go inside for lunch, she would shower, put on a pretty dress, brush her hair and then make her debut to everyone upstairs. You could see her imagination going; she was a princess or a ballerina in a beautiful gown. And she has cute clothes. Like, I'm kind of jealous of some of them ;) 

Seriously, my heart melts

See that smile? It is going to get him very far in life. This little love muffin can be the sweetest boy in the whole wide world. And he can be a 2 yr old boy who just wants to haul off and hit his sissy, and then love her. He can literally do something wrong, but then opens his mouth with that sweet voice or will shoot ya a big fat grin and you forget that he did something wrong and your heart melts. His voice, literally, completely adorable. Every once in a while, I would hear him randomly call my name, I would go see what he wanted, and sometimes it would be to show me something, but sometimes, he was just keeping tabs on where every body was. I'm in trouble if we have one like this. A mama's boy for sure. 

A picture is worth a thousand words. That foot went into the plate. Sour cream EVERYWHERE. 

That ocean may as well be the puddle from my heart melting again. My husband is going to be the best daddy in the world

For Labor Day, all the neighbors on the street at the beach rent a huge water slide that is fun for all ages. This is my main buddy Cole. When I met this kid, he was 4 years old. Now, he is turning 9 on Friday!!!! Where does time go! My brother's name is also Cole and so we used to refer to my brother as "big Cole" and this Cole as "little Cole." Well. He informed us (a few years ago) he is "medium Cole" and now, he is working his way to being "big Cole." I used to hold him like a baby, now, he is almost my size! We have dance parties together (he taught me how to whip and nae nae) and I taught him how to play MASH in the car on the way home. Do y'all remember that game?? We had a blast playing it. At first he thought it was lame, but once we finished the first game, he was hooked and we continued to play. We went down the water slide together for my first time. That thing is no joke! I had no idea how fast I was going to go! 

That's my sister in law to the left of me. We went down together and with my mother in law as well. We may or may not have had way more fun than we should as adults

The biggest kid of us all. My Kipper

My family was also at the beach. A different one though. But we were only 40 minutes away from each other. Kip and I took a little road trip one day down there and played with my cousin's baby (I will probably refer to him as my nephew because he feels more like a nephew than a second cousin, oh that is so weird to type! Let's just not be politically correct and call him nephew) Anyways, he just turned 2 in June and has been the light of our family as he was the first baby our family has had in a looong time. And remember, my family is baby crazy. (We now have another precious little boy in the family, my other older cousin has a son, although sadly he wasn't there so I don't have a beach picture of him)

This is Hill. He is another one that that smile is going to get him far in life. (I'm seeing a trend here) This baby will test the limits. He will look at you with those big blue eyes and a sideways grin and test the waters for something he knows he shouldn't be doing. He will stop right before he knows he is about to go too far and you can't help but to laugh! Growing up, my cousin and I would fight over who's Tata (our grandmother) she was. Well, I started that with Hill and now he does it with me for everything. Hearing him say "Tata" is literally music to all of our ears. The sweetest sound ever. He also tries to compete with me with "my cup" which is actually "my Kip." This child. So funny. 

I can't wait to see all of these little nuggets continue to grow and to see their personalities continue to flourish. They are all similar in ways. All are stubborn, all are persistent, all are sweet and all love to make us laugh. I feel so lucky to have such wonderful families on both sides. Kip and I are so blessed to have the best families in the world. We laugh together, we have fun with each other and we are all functionally dysfunctional. And I would't have it any other way

When we returned back to reality, we went to work and then got to have more fun! Kip's friend from college who now lives in Tennessee came to town Friday night with his adorable family. We got to go to dinner with them and another set of friends that live here in town and then got to have breakfast with them Saturday morning. As if we hadn't already gotten in some great time with chunky thighed babes, Saturday afternoon we went to Charlotte for a birthday party for my bestie from college's baby boy Wills

I mean, y'all. Don't you just want to gobble him up!!!???? This normally smiley babe wasn't too sure about what was going on. He had sooo many people in his house, a personal cake was given to him to eat freely and a set of golf clubs, who wouldn't be overwhelmed!? Even through all of that, he was still absolutely precious. I don't get to see any of these babes nearly enough! Can we all live closer together, please!!!!!!!

A little something to bring this to a close and make you smile. PS- ignore me, just watch the kids