No-Car aka North Carolina

I don't really feel like writing everything out from our trip. Seems like a big task that I'm not willing to take right now. However, I have posted some pictures for your enjoyment. There are, of course, more pictures but my computer is running extremely slow tonight and I don't have the patience. "Hello...my name is apathetic" tonight. 

Pre-Trip EXCITEMENT! Emilia can hardly handle it all.

 Stephanie took us to the cutest park. It was pretty much a castle and those boys had so much fun.
Of course we had to have yummy snacks pretty much all the time while we were there :)

 I love these boys so much. Picture above is from our hotel suite. I looked into the room and found all of the boys lovin' on Mia. Picture below is of all the sweet cousins. We had the BEST time with all of them. Charles didn't want to leave and constantly talks about Zach, James and Connor. 

 Family pic on the beach. Such a pretty sunset.

 Daniel, Steph, Zachary and James.

Below, Charles is enjoying his Creators Creation.

 I love Tatum! This girl holds a very special place in my heart. We spent a few days in Wilmington on Carolina Beach and Tatum just happens to live there AND work at the worlds best dougnut shop. I love how God cares about the small things in life.

 Returning from the beach we had Jon, Mallory and Connor meet us at D&S's house for dinner :) it was a special time of hanging out and just being with each other. Steph was taking the picture. I love this.

 Charles and Daddy on the Battleship :) This was rather exciting for Charles but it was also nap time aka melt-down time. In the pictures below you can see that fruit snacks, once again, save the day.

The one and only time this boy slept in the plane was on the very last flight back. He didn't nap for very long and then woke up stiff, sore and confused. It was a pretty rough flight but all in all the kids did WONDERFUL on the airplanes.

We had the best time visiting family in North Carolina. Made memories that will last the rest of our lives. Friendships were deepend greatly.

deployment video-chat fail.....

this picture pretty much sums up our whole video chat experience while Stephen was deployed back in 2010. The connection was horrible and our chats usually ended up in frustration and with both of us looking like this. I think this is terribly hilarious. Little did we know that most of the connection issues were because of our router in the states! laaaaame. Just needed to share this with the world.

Charles

tonight as I was putting Charlie down for bed I started singing a song to him. Well, being the music lover that he is, obviously he starts "singing" along with me. He has no idea what the words are to this song, so what does he do? He sings, "cracker" over and over and over. NO idea where he got that into his head, perhaps it's because he had cheez-its earlier today. Not sure, but it seriously cracked me up. I love that boy. He has one of the strongest wills of anybody I know. This may be hard now, but I know he will do GREAT things in the future. He is a leader for sure.

There's no way of explaining how amazing it is to be a parent. To look at your kids and be in complete and utter awe of how they are a little part of you. God is the ultimate creator. To think anyone can go through being pregnant and deliver a child and not believe in Him is beyond me. Charles loves to be with me, to have me close, especially during bed time. Stephen can go in there and tell him to go to sleep and by george he is asleep before daddy leaves the room. When mommy goes in to put him to sleep it is a full out battle. I guess he knows I'm a softy, that and the kid is too smart for his own good. He knows exactly the buttons to press on people to get under their skin. Just like his daddy. I'm afraid of how smart he will be someday :) He could seriously be president.
Well, here's my ornery little dude. He is a light in my life.