More Beach Fun!

The weather could have been warmer for us, but we were able to enjoy being out on the beach . Easter Sunday was beautiful. The kids were even out in the water.



The rest of the week was cooler. I usually had a sweater or something to take down to the beach because I would be cool. But, we got out the Ladderball game that Grammy and Papa had given us. The kids really enjoyed this and were quite good at it.




Zack sticks out his tongue when he's concentrating - just like his Mommy.





Whenever you point a camera at Matthew, he puts on his "cheese" face. He looks like he's in pain because of that furrowed brow. I guess it's better than his crossed-eye look!

Alex fights the dragon at MagiQuest. He did a great job and almost beat him. Next time we'll get him!


We really had a nice week. I had plans to do many things that we just didn't have time to do. But, it was really a lot of fun to just relax and hang out with the family!

Easter Festivities

The Easter Basket Search

Aaahhh, the Easter Bunny - what a character! The Easter Bunny visited us last year at my parents' condo at Myrtle Beach as well as this year. It's not a large place, but she needed to find new places to hid the Easter baskets.

Matthew got a simple place - in the pantry. We had to keep the others from telling him.

Zack's was hidden behind some books in the TV cabinet. It took a few looks before someone thought to move stuff around, and they saw it.


Alex's basket was deconstructed and shoved in the back of the dishwasher. Rachel opened the dishwasher but did not check well. Alex (after starting to get frustrated) decided to just check everything and stumbled on it.




Apparently, she decided that Rachel was a super finder because she hid hers in the trash can under the bag. After a bunch of sulking and even some crying, we pointed out that we had actually seen the basket and might give her some clues.

Look at that lip!

All was fine once the basket was found!

Some Portraits

The best we could do!

We got to play on the beach and had a fun Easter egg hunt later in the day. It was just us, but it was a nice day. More pics of our vacation to come soon.

The triplets!

We got to stop by my brother and his wife's house on the way to the beach before Easter. I wanted to see the triplets for a little while. They are 9 months old and absolutely adorable! It's incredible to watch Max and Karla with them. Initially, I thought that they might be high-strung parents. Max has always been such a germophobe and was pretty disgusted about the messiness of my kids. But, triplets cured him of any of that. They now handle everything in stride. I feel very proud of my little brother and his wife when I think of all that they have done through the course of the pregnancy and the last 9 months. It is a challenge most people would not want, but they have persevered and really seem the better for it. I love you, guys!


Josie


Marcus

Mia

Our new addition - coming soon!

For Rachel's birthday, I decided to let her get a pet. She wants one badly, and I think she is old enough to handle the responsibility of taking care of one. I debated about a guinea pig, puppy or a kitten. I decided that I should get something that I want because I'm sure the appeal will wear off, and I'll be stuck somewhat with the burden. Therefore, I decided on a kitten. I knew someone that had had kittens, so we are waiting for them to get old enough to come home with us. Rachel is very unhappy that she has to wait, but she did pick out the one that she wants. She chose him/her (can't tell yet) based on the fact that she whined the most - great decision making! She hasn't decided on a name, although I'm trying to convince her of Wahoo, but we'll see.






In different news, Rachel got some reading glasses. She's kind of a mess right now. She failed her vision and hearing screening at school. She struggles to read the board. I took her to the Target optical place, but he did not recommend glasses. I was so surprised and unhappy with the results because she seemed to be struggling to read the lines. I actually printed an eye chart of the internet. She could not read accurately the 20/60 line even though the rest of us, including Alex, could read below the 20/20. So, I took her to another place. Same result - she told me that she's actually reading at 20/20, even though she misses some of them and seems to be having trouble. I still don't get it, but I felt like she knew what she was talking about and I trusted her explanations. But, she said that her vision up close is a little on the edge and maybe that was causing her to have trouble adjusting between far and near, especially when her eyes are tired. I don't know, but Rachel was excited to get these glasses, so we'll try.



Her hearing, on the other hand, was proven to be worse than we thought. The audiologist claims that her hearing is worse than if you had the best earplugs you can buy. Now, I feel bad for getting so upset at her for not listening. Apparently, she is completely plugged up behind her eardrum (nothing permanent), but that means a visit to the ENT and probably some tubes.
It's never ending with 4 kids - someone always needs something!

90 Days, 78 Workouts - a whole lot of sweat!

Dave and I just completed our 90 days of P90X. We committed to this and have stuck through it with no breaks from the schedule. We are incredibly proud of our willingness to stick it out and our progress from the beginning. It has been a long road accompanied by strictly following the Zone diet as well. Needless to say, Dave and I spent most of the past 90 days either working out, talking about working out, complaining about being sore or hungry, and endlessly checking out the mirror and scale to watch our progress.

Who knew Dave had this much change to make? It's amazing to me how in shape he got in such a short time.

I'm hesitant to post my pics because the before pictures are so embarrassing, but here goes. Maybe it will help give me the motivation to keep going or at least not bounce back. 90 more days and maybe I'll look like Dave (yeah, right!)

Clearly I was not happy about taking my before pics - BTW, this was right before we worked out