Father's Day

For Father's Day this year we went to visit the Arlington National Cemetery.  Ed and I were not quite prepared for the amount of walking that was involved; however it was a great experience to be there, pay respects to those who have been laid to rest there, and see the Father's Day ceremony for the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Before you look at the pictures, I have to give my husband a shout out for Father's Day.  He is a father who:

• The first thing he does when he comes home from work is wrestle with and spend time with the kids
• Makes special individual time for each child
• Works very hard to support our family and to ensure the kids are able to do the fun things that they love participating in
• Loves to snuggle up with the kids in his big chair
• Shares his ice cream with Nat-Nat!
• Respects and understands the need for us to stick to the kids' schedule, even on the weekends.
• Does his share of bedtime story reading
• Is protective
• Shows them unconditional love
• Loves to make them smile and laugh
• Puts Nico and Natalee's needs before himself
• Teaches them that honesty is always the best policy and integrity is vital

Thank you Ed, for all you do for our kids and for our family!  We love you!

There were thousands and thousands of gravesites....just so many.  It was very surreal to look out and see so many.

Pictures of the Tomb of the Unknown and the Father's Day Ceremony

 

 Memorial for the Challenger Space Shuttle

 

 Memorial for those who died attempting to rescue the hostages held in Iran in 1980

Memorial for Columbia Space Shuttle

 

President Kennedy and Jackie O's gravesite with the eternal flame

  Beautiful view where you can see the Capital and the Washington Monument...a look out right off of the Kennedy gravesite. The stone walls are engraved with JFK's memorable speeches. 

President Taft and his wife's gravesite

 Happy Father's Day to the best father around!

Final T-Ball Post of the Season

Well, the last t-ball game was rained out and sadly the opposing team was not up to rescheduling with our team.  So Nico's first t-ball season is over!  He did amazing! If there had been an award for most improved, Nico would have won it, hands down. He learned so much and really matured through the process. I am super proud of him.

This is Nico's official t-ball picture

 

Here is Nico when he got his trophy with Coach Dan, who was by the way, an amazing coach and role model for these little ones. He had so much patience with Nico and we feelt so blessed that Nico was placed on his team. 

More sand and water

Since we have a family pass to North Beach for the season, I try to make sure to take the kids to the beach at least once a week.  After going with Daddy on Sunday, the kids and went again on Wednesday after a kids activity at the Chesapeake Beach Community Center.  Our neighbors, including Nico's friend Logan joined us (or I guess we joined them) and later in the day another more of our friends/neighbors completed our party on the beach!  The kids had a blast, especially since there were so many of them!  The older kids had just gotten out of school for the summer and this was their first beach trip since summer vacation had started.  So there were 7 kids having fun splashing, running climbing, digging, exploring and making memories.  It was certainly a hot day on that one and you can see it in the kids' faces, but thankfully with two tons of sunscreen on the kids and Mommy not taking her shirt off, nobody got burned! Score!

Natalee

I have done a lot of bragging about my sweet boy and his t-ball playing lately, so I am going to now show off my pretty little princess!  Natalee is certainly growing into a little lady.  She loves pretty things, including clothes (yes, because I do show her pretty things when they come in the mail and she now takes them from me and hugs them), loves playing with and pretend feeding her babies, and has developed such little cute girly mannerisms.  Natalee gets so excited when she see animals, particularly dogs, and can tell you what both cats and dogs say now. When we are on the beach or even outside playing and Natalee spots a dog, she points, starts "barking" and yelling with excitement.

As you have seen in the previous blogs, Natalee is quite the beach baby; she loves both the sand and water.  She is very brave and just heads on down to the water by herself, but enjoys just sitting right at the edge of the tide with the water coming over her feet.. She loves to climb, cuddle, talk on the phone, cook pretend food in the play kitchen, enjoys playing with her play Minnie Mouse vanity set, loves to wrestle with big brother and Daddy, always wants to join in with the other kids, and always makes a beeline for the big playhouse we have out in the front of the house.  Natalee is a joy and almost always has a huge smile on her face that can turn anyone's day into a good one. I blessed beyond words to have this sweet, loving, joyful and even stubborn little girl in my life. Thank you God.

Cuteness to Infinity and Beyond!

The cuteness radar, if there was one, would sky rocket here in my house.  Nico and Natalee ooze with sweet, precious cuteness.  I just can't get enough of them (most of the time) and when I look at those angelic faces and baby blue eyes, I am always reminded how much God loves me. It is truly amazing.

"Every good and perfect gift comes from above." James 1:17

Beach time with Daddy

Last weekend Daddy joined us in a beach excursion for the first time!  The kids and I had been going during the week to avoid crowds and sadly Daddy is always at work. This time we headed early on a Sunday, still attempting to avoid the crowds, which we did, and we had a fabulous time!  With Daddy there Nico got the chance to walk all the way into the Bay up to the buoys, Natalee got buried in the sand from the waist down and Daddy played kickball with Nico!