Spirit week (lots of activities and themes for dress up each day) followed by Fall Break created a lot of excitement in our house and required lots of planning. I say it frequently, but not often enough what a wonderful husband I have and Daddy the girls have! In between all the fun crazy I was in Atlanta for an overnight supporting our development program interview process. He handled two days of dress up (hair color and all) and loading up for the beach! AND in all that the girls had homework and of course Bella's eyes needed to be cared for!
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| What do you want to be when you grow up? Maggie wants to be a doctor. |
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| What do you want to be when you grow up? Gracie's first response was a Vet but was not sure her costume would look much different from Maggie's so she opted for her second dream which is a Chef! I absolutely love to watch them dream and know they can learn and apply themselves to anything! |
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| Circus day! |
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| This makes me smile every time! On Friday when Jimmy dropped the girls off at school they had a dance party in the parking lot before school started! How cool is that?? |
Gracie: She has done well in school and we are learning the balance of encouraging her to study and allowing her some independance and choices. This is hard as it lead to a lower grade than any of us wanted as she "did not need to study". Tough lessons but good lessons to learn right now as we enter middle school. She is a true delight to us! She is growing in her own walk with Jesus. One of her favorite things is to find screen themes for her iPad with designs and Bible verses and really is enjoying her middle school small group of girls.
Maggie: Some days she leaves me speechless! She is constant energy and drive. Her teacher on her report card said "she is not laking in personality!". So true! She is working hard in reading and math seems to come quickly to her, so she defers to math pages vs. reading. She loves to read the Jesus Story Bible every night and asks very insightful questions. Her faith is growing and I love to see her embrace it.
This was our first year at Destin with my parents and my brother's family. While we always go to Seabrook Island on the East coast, Destin is a different beach experience. We enjoyed every minute of the time together with lots of relaxing, laughing and just being together! It makes me long for the next visit and count down to Thanksgiving when we get to celebrate Christmas too!
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| They are so cute! |
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| we received morning countdowns to beach day! |
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| On the road...and I thought we packed light this time! |
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| This never gets old! |
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| Grandparent snuggles! |
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| Walk on the beach before Uncle Gabe and Aunt Katelyn arrived |
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| The girls found a crab shell. |
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| this man deserved a little time in the sand to relax and reflect! |
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| The beach is my happy place with family! |
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| We sure love this girl and her brother! (their parents are pretty awesome too!) She was excited to be out of the minivan! |
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| First on the agenda... a freezing cold swim! It did not seem to bother this little one! |
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| Silas enjoying a little conversation with KK |
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| My love! |
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| Blue Mountain Ice Cream is always a must! (yes, we started and ended the trip with this) |
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| Sand Odyssey Sand Castle Building! Hands down one of our favorite things at Destin. Mr. Mark is the best with all of us and so patient. |
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| The finished product does not look so bad! |
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| The family artist (my dad) gets credit for the awesome fish!! |
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| I have to make her stop for pictures but I know she will be grown sooner than I would like! |
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| I know I am partial but she is beautiful inside and out! |
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| Ellie! |
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| Silas's first trip to the beach and he rocked it! |
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| ah, she loves to relax in the sun like I do. Its not about getting color its about relaxing and the sun being so healing! |
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| one happy boy! |
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| Gracie always managed to snag Silas away from me! She loves him! |
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| Ready to night crab! |
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| Everyone was in on it! We were not sure at first we would find any... then we hit the jack pot by the water line. |
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| Watching the girls and Gjysh dance around as they found them was memorable! |
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| we are guessing we have about 2 dozen |
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| We did not hurt them, we released them on the sandcastle. It was fun to see them burrow themselves into it. |
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| these two loved the sand! Maggie preferred it over the water this trip. |
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| 3 years apart and they are about the same size and close friends! |
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| KK play time! |
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| Auntie Rach loves you baby boy! |
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| Dad was so sweet to bring his good camera to snag a few pics our last night! |
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| So Gracie must have decided she was going to make this a silly picture! |
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| Love this man! |
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| its not often any more my "little" brother and I get a picture together! I am so glad he lives close by and we get to do life together. The girls have some awesome aunts and uncles! |
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| Their family grew this year! |
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| My awesome parents! Love you both! |
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| They often piled in together to ride somewhere! |
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| taking it all in |
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| after our trip last year (any many hours and memories later) Airbrush at the Walmart is a must! The girls love their shirts! |
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| a little Daddy time |
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| I adore that Maggie right now when she runs out of room does not write her name all together! |
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| I am so blessed to her Mama! She does not slow down enough to take as many picture as I would like! |
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| last night and a quick walk on the beach |
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| So sassy! |
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| The sandcastle was not going to last long so the girls wanted to jump around on it! last night and the answer was...of course! |
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| On our way home and resting up for the rest of the week! |
