West Virginia

Nathan's sister Jenna was just home for a visit! We always love hanging out with her--so sad that it is only a couple times a year! We always have a great time. Nathan's parents took us on a short vacation to West Virginia. It is beautiful there, especially this time of year! We had a great time, and once again, there are a ton of pictures in this post! I tend to get camera-happy at times:) Anyway, here we go...

Kaine and Halle are very cozy and ready to go in our jam-packed van

Halle was fighting sleep just minutes from our destination! I tried to so hard to keep her awake, so that she could take a good nap when we got to our cabin. But as you can see, this girl was TIRED!

Nathan and Kaine with their "mean" faces (while doing "manly" things like lighting sticks on fire!)

Jenna, Grandma, and Nathan

Jenna really wanted to be in this picture, too:)

I am so glad Nathan's grandma came along! Our kids spent a lot of time with her, which they usually don't get. We had lots of fun with Gma!

Kaine likes to take pictures, and they are usually always tilted!

hanging out

This little sweetie got tons of attention! I'm sure she loved being on vacation (minus the long car ride!)

Layla with Grandma Terri:)

She is so much fun! What a great age!

Kaine's favorite game--hide and seek football tag (or something like that). Grandpa Dave is "it"--do you see Kaine hiding?

I love this picture! Layla and her uncle Kyle. I am really glad Kyle came with us, too, even though our craziness did drive him nuts at times:)

I LOVE this picture of Layla and Jenna! So cute!!

I also love this one! Layla has no idea what it going on:)

ready to go on a walk

Layla wearing grandpa Dave's hat

Kaine lighting something else on fire:)

Kaine and Halle play so well together! (most of the time:) ) They had fun playing horseshoes.

Gma feeding Layla--I had so much help during our trip!

Kaine speeding down the ramp (see his tongue sticking out? that means he is concentrating:) He gets that from his grandpa Dave!)

Kaine trying to feed a caterpillar

Another of Kaine's tilted pictures:)

One morning, Kyle and Jenna went on a walk and Kyle found a walking stick that was super long! Probably 6 or 7 feet! So later in the day, Nathan decided to one-up Kyle and dragged this tree out of the woods! He told Kaine to go in the cabin and tell uncle Kyle to come out and see a real man's walking stick! It was funny:)

Kaine loves to act silly!

Nathan took Halle on a walk, pulling her in this cooler! He is very resourceful:)

Layla with her grandpa and grandma

Our little sweetie:)

Another great picture of Jenna and Layla!

The whole family played miniature golf!

Halle soon got bored with golf and was thrilled to find these leaves to play in!

Like I said, thrilled!!

What a great trip! Jenna, we had so much fun with you! And of course with everyone else, too:) Thanks so much, dad and mom!! We love you!

Flashback!!

So...some of you might remember this picture, which I posted on our blog about 1 1/2 years ago? This picture is of Halle, proudly announcing the upcoming birth of her new baby sister! (who turned out to be sweet little Layla). Well now, that new baby who was being announced (Layla) would like to make an announcement of her own!

drumroll, please...

Layla would like to announce the new addition to our family! God is blessing us with another baby, due in early May! We are praising Him over and over for our sweet children!

our family vacation!!

We just got back from our first ever family vacation! At least, it was our first "vacation" that consisted of just Nathan and I and our kids (minus Layla...so I guess it wasn't a true family vacation). But anyway...it was a lot of fun! Kaine and Halle were super excited to go on our trip, and although we really missed our sweet little Layla, it was much easier to leave her at home. So...here are a ton of pictures from our family's Cincinnati trip!

Halle is ready to go in her carseat...ready for a nap! We were hoping she would sleep most of the way there, but she only slept about half. Oh well:)

Here is Kaine, ready to go and making one of his funny faces. He has so many funny facial expressions lately! This kid was a real trooper on the van rides! He didn't sleep any of it, but he was great.

Our kids' highlight...swimming! They LOVED it! Here they are, ready for the pool:)

I cannot adequately express what an amazingly wonderful daddy Nathan is! Wow, I feel so blessed. Our kids are incredibly blessed, too. Anyway, this is what he did a lot of:

Halle's personal favorite:)

Kaine learned some new things! He can go underwater so much better now! He actually swam almost the whole width of the pool underwater!! I was really impressed by that.

We called Halle the "Goggle Monster." She would come swimming at us with this HUGE smile and just laughing like crazy. She was sooo cute!

Another skill learned by Kaine...jumping in the pool by himself!

For supper the first night, we took K and H to Chuck E. Cheese. Wow, they love that place! Actually, Nathan and I do, too. It is really fun!

Halle isn't quite big enough for most of the games:) We had to help her out on this one--she just isn't strong or quick enough!

Kaine loves the racing ones:)

Our kids acting silly (see another of Kaine's funny faces that he likes to make!)

Halle's latest fetish..."parm-on cheese"!

Kaine and Halle got along soooo well. I feel like this trip was kind of a bonding experience for them (and all of us!) They are becoming such good friends!

Me and our little love:)

The next day we went to the Cincinnati zoo. Our kids loved this, too! This was the only time we went to the zoo all summer, so it was somewhat new to them.

See the hippo in the background?
Gotta love those zoo statues! Is there any parent who doesn't take pictures of their kids on these things? :)

This is what Nathan came up with when both of our kids got tired. It worked:)

Here we are ready to go into the 4-D theater!

Ready for the Dora movie! This was really cool...at least most of us thought so:) It was a "4-D" experience, which meant you could "feel" the movie. The "wind" blew in our faces, water splashed us...it was really cool! Unfortunately, Halle was a little too young for it:) She did not like getting splashed in the face by water--it really scared her! She started crying so hard.

We all rode the carousel..(and why is this suddenly underlining my words?)

Kaine and Halle in a turtle shell

Family pic (see the giraffe?)

Our cuties on the train:)

Natie and me on the train...can you tell this was taken by a 4-year-old? :)

In the gift shop

This was how Halle looked within 3 minutes of leaving the zoo! She was out cold:)

As you can see, Halle was still a little tired at supper:) We went to Cheeseburger in Paradise...a pretty cool restaurant!

Halle snapped out of her mood:) She loves her daddy!

What a fun trip! Of course, we were so glad to see our little Layla after we got back!

I love my family:)

Layla is crawling!!!

Go, Layla! My baby is crawling already, I can hardly believe it. What a sweetie!!