Beach day

  I'm hoping today is the last day of the year that the temperature gets up to 80 degrees. I love hot weather, but not around the holidays. I want chilly weather followed by snow so that I can wear sweaters, and coats, and scarves, and boots. And I want my Christmas tree up a week after Halloween, but if it's not cold out the tree looks silly. As does everything else Christmas-y. Even on Christmas day it all feels silly if it's 60 degrees out. Oh well. Tis my life for the next 5+ years. I'll just blast my Christmas music, close the windows, crank the AC, and pretend it's snowing outside.
  Kinda got off topic. Back to the warm weather... which we did enjoy today, at the beach. We brought lunch with us and as soon as we opened up the food, seagulls flocked to us like it was raining manna all around us. Kate started running with her gold fish, spilling them all around her as she ran, and I swear those seagulls were going to snatch the bag right out of her hands. It was funny and scary to watch all at once. The girls did enjoy scaring them off after they were done with their lunch though. 

  Oh, and it was super windy. Red flag day today. Almost lost our tent while I was setting it up. Much more enjoyable for me when it's windy though. The sand doesn't stick to all of our sweaty bodies and therfore get sand all up in and over my car. Annd, it's much more comfortable nursing Ellie when I'm not so sweaty. 

Boo at the Zoo

  We had a good time at the zoo yesterday! Every year the zoo has vendors come and set up a small station to advertise their business and then give out candy to the little kiddos. I felt bad for Kate because she missed trunk or treat at church last Tuesday due to her throwing up the whole day, so we thought it'd be good to go to this Halloween activity at the zoo.
  Right when we arrived the fun started. The girls loved looking at everyone's fun costumes. However, I totally forgot to prep the girls beforehand about saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" so Kate was a mute almost the entire time. She even shook her head no to candy multiple times. Oh, this girl.
  When we were about ready to go home we saw a tent that was doing face painting. I thought the girls would love to do that so we got in line and waited. And waited. And waited. Only one lady was there doing the painting and was super friendly so, it took forever. We decided we didn't want to wait another 30 minutes at the bare minimum, so we convinced the girls to let me do their faces when we got home. It worked and we went home.
  Abby decided she didn't really want anything but Kate did and loved how her butterfly turned out.

Field trip day

  Please don't let these adorable faces fool you. These little cuties have been a major pain in my rear all morning. Well, the two older ones. Ellie can do no wrong, for now.
  I was invited to go on this homeschooling field trip day with some friends from church. It was an hour drive one way but I thought the girls would totally enjoy it so we made the trip. I even got up at 0640 to get everything ready so we could be out the door by 0810. We were 15 minutes late getting out the door, per usual, but we arrived right on time.
  There were so many fun activities to do. Cow train, horse carousel, rubber duck racing, big tunnel slides, bowling, massive bubble like trampoline. ...sounds like fun, right? Well the only things Kate and Abby participated in was bowling and the hay ride. Oh, and they let me push them on the swings. But that was it. I put them on the horse carousel, they cried to get off immediately. I begged them to get onto the cow train, they refused. Abby ventured up the stairs to go down the slide, more than Kate would do, but she'd just walk right back down the stairs. I tried convincing them to jump on the trampoline! No go. Oh. My. Gosh. Uuuuhhhh!
  So after walking around and sweating a fair amount, I gave up. We sat down and had lunch at 1045. The hay ride began at 11 and they went on it but only because I was able to as well.
  Definitely a fail for our outing this week. :(  Maybe next year my deathly shy child will venture out of her Kevlar shell a bit so she can have fun with other kids, like a normal kid, and my middle child will be happy to play with others. I can dream, right?
  I think I'm going to go eat a bag of chocolate chips now and look at pictures of my girls, who I totally adore, but drive me temporarily crazy more than I should allow.

Aunt Rachael's visit

  Just had a wonderful visit with Auntie Rachael.  The girls LOVED playing with her, especially on her super cool phone.  I guess Andrew and I need to get with the times and download some new apps.  Maybe.  

  The girls LOVED chasing Aunt Rachael around the back yard. 

  We love living so close to Uncle Jared and Aunt Kristen.  It's been great having them sharing in on the family visits.  I've loved seeing them so often while family is in town.  

  Wednesday morning Jared took Rachael out flying.  While they were out, the girls got into the flour.  All before I was up for the day, of course.  I freaked out a bit and told them to clean up their mess while I give Ellie a bath because she had blown out of the front of her diaper.  Like all up her belly.  Super convenient timing, right?  After I was done with Ellie I went back into the kitchen to find Kate and Abby now getting into the sugar!  Ummm, WHAT!??  Now I really freaked out.  They both went straight into time out until I finished cleaning up their huge mess, at least that was the plan.  I eventually caved to Abby's crying, begging for breakfast.  Kate, because she "should know better!", stayed in time out till I was done cleaning.  It was quite the morning and we now have a lock on the pantry door.

  We went to the beach Thursday morning.  We woke up late and so when Abby put up a fight about putting on her swimsuit I decided to let her go in her night gown and pants.  I don't know how she didn't melt, it was so hot.

  Friday night was Rachael's last day so we went onto base for dinner and bowling as well as a short walk around the outdoor plane park/memorial beforehand.  It was a great time.  We even got to see quite a few planes fly by. 

  Saturday morning we, minus Jared and Kristen, went to the Navarre Beach Pier which is the largest pier in the Gulf.  It was pretty dang big, too.  We saw a TON of huge jellyfish.  Like way too many for comfort.  We also saw a couple sea turtles and schools of fish.  One guy caught a fish and let the girls touch it.  It was pretty cool.

  After the pier we went home and Jared and Kristen joined us for lunch.  Then we all took a picture before Ellie and I headed out to take Rachael to the airport.

  It was a wonderful visit and the girls missed Rachael before she even left.  Now we're back to the same old grind.  Oh, and Eleanor is now TWO months old.  Gosh, how time flies.

Uncle Spencer's visit

  Uncle Spencer came with the family but stayed the whole week.  It was great hanging out since we hadn't seen him in two years.  We went to the pool, the beach, the zoo, and church.  

(Half of) Williams family visit

  A week after Linda and Russ left, lots of my family came out to visit and meet Eleanor.  There was quite the storm in a lot of the country which slowed my family's arrival.  Jon and Noreen arrived Friday afternoon with no troubles.  Grandpa Scott ended up spending Friday night at the airport and arriving Saturday morning shortly followed by Grandma Dhreen and later that night by Spencer. 

  This is, sadly, the only picture of everyone.  Glad I got this one though.  Shortly after dinner Jon and Noreen shared their exciting news that they are expecting a baby in April!!!!  We are so excited for them!

We went down to turtle pond to feed the turtles.  There were TONS of turtles.  Like, saying there were about a hundred would not be an exaggeration. 

  Their trip was over before we knew it and everyone, minus Spencer, went home.  I'm glad we could spend what little time we had together!

Grammy and Grandpa Russ' visit

  Grandma Dhreen left on a Saturday and Grammy and Grandpa Russ arrived Sunday.  A couple days later Andrew and Russ started the never ending project of putting together the play set for the girls.  It took them an entire week to put together.  They had to pre drill every hole and then put in every screw.  There were more than a few hundred.  It was quite the project and I am so glad Andrew didn't get around to putting it together till his dad arrived and could help out.

  The project was well worth the work.  The girls play on it every single day and love it.  I'm glad they have something they can play on together outside.  Their imaginations have really grown since the play set went up.  It's been wonderful.

  One morning I woke up to these beauties from my sweet Kate.  She had gone out front with Grandpa Russ that morning and picked them for me.  Melted my heart!

  We all made a trip to the Pensacola Air Museum.  The girls enjoyed looking at the planes but mostly liked the ones that they could play inside of.

  The second large project that Grandpa Russ helped out with/this one he pretty much did by himself, was paint the entire living area/kitchen.  I know that we would not have gotten it done ourselves had he not insisted on painting because it's been a month and we have yet to finish up painting the bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets.  

  Here the girls are running around on the roller stick thing.  We put a stop to their fun after they bumped up against one too many newly painted walls.

  Their second Sunday here was Ellie's baby blessing day.  Kate asked me to curl her hair and was so happy with how beautiful her hair looked.

  Family pictures after church.

  It was nice to have so much help with projects around the house and keeping the girls happy.  We hope to see Grammy and Grandpa in Beijing next year after Andrew is done with his training.