Happiness

I feel like we've been gone a month - and its only been a week!  We have had a full week of quality family time starting with my sister-in-law Rachel's wedding!  Beautiful ceremony overlooking a lake.  We have enjoyed getting to know, "Mr. A-Ron"  (now Uncle Aaron) and he seems to be quite a funny character that keeps us all laughing!  Welcome to the family, Aaron.  We gained a new brother-in-law/uncle this weekend!  We wish them all the happiness in the world that they both deserve!  

"I feel pretty!  Oh so pretty!  I feel pretty and witty and bright!  And I pity any girl who isn't me tonight!"

Mr. and Mrs. Findley with the Miley's!  (mattox was just a little mad, can you tell?)

stud muffin

thing 1, thing 2 and thing 3

Party of 5!

Sweet cousins!

stretching his jaw and getting frustrated at all the cameras

"but his tie is so much fun to play with!"

me and my man

Daddy and his Golden Girls!  

Matt must have been still in his "night" phase of working...because he felt the urge to leave for our beach vacation IMMEDIATELY after the wedding = 11:00 pm.  As much as I hated the drive in the car and not being able to sleep, it was worth not stopping for gas, bathrooms, or food.  Kids slept for the most part and we made it to Rosemary Beach, FL in exactly 6 hours at 5:00 am!!! 

Merritt did WONDERFUL at the beach, which was unexpected.  She slept 10 hours straight the first night, followed by 2 more nights of at least 8 hours straight!  I'm not sure what the beach has over her, but I am seriously considering moving to the beach if it can induce a sleep coma for her!  I couldn't tell you how happy I was!  Of course the first night back home...and she was awake every 4 hours again as usual.  What is up with that?  What did the beach do that I'm not doing here at home?   Will post her 11 month update later (11 months old today).

We met up with our friends from St. Louis, the Hennon's, who have twins the same age as MC.  It was nice to catch up and the kids had a blast!  Mattox never got in the water so there aren't many pics of him.  He pretty much stayed terrified the entire time and was not in a good mood (because he was constantly looking over his shoulder afraid someone might try to throw him in).   We couldn't get MC out of the water!  

Matt and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary while we were there!  We've been together for 11 years.   Time flies! Nana let us go out to dinner after we got back last night so we managed to squeeze in our favorite restaurant without kids!  Thank you, Nana!    

I LOVED Rosemary Beach and would highly recommend!  Can't wait to go back!  The beach makes everyone happy!

Our beach house rental!  Andalusia.  love.love.love!

First day on the beach! She loved the sand.

But we kept her in the shade for most of it.  

little diva.  about to be 6 going on 16.

her chocolate cake that was almost bigger than she was.

Thanks to Kim Stone for snapping family pics again!  Can't wait to see the rest!

one of my favorite pics of the entire week.  I took this one on our last night.  

super happy baby.  #beachbabe

.....AND now back to reality at home!  Back to not sleeping or eating as well for Mitt.  Back to a house FULL of dirty laundry - which will take me all week to get done I think.  Back to VBS at church and swim lessons for the rest of the summer.  I'm happy to be home and sleeping in my own bed again.