this is the life

So we were on the way to the beach this afternoon and we got out of the car to find this...Samuel fell asleep in the way and had his cheerio cup in his hands. Apparently he was attempting to retrieve some cheerios and fell asleep while doing so. The funniest part of the whole situation is that when we woke him up and took his hand out of his cup he quickly stuffed the few cheerios he had straight into his mouth! What a sweet boy!

Happy Birthday to Ryan

Our good friends the Laniers had invited us over for dinner, and Stephanie turned it into a surprise party for Ryan. We had a great time.

The birthday boy with his strawberry shortcut

LK smiling and eating here "birthday cake" and happily participating in the hat wearing!

LK telling me what the sidewalk said.

Arboretum

We met some of our friends and their kiddos at the Arboretum Saturday for a fun filled morning of garden learning. The arboretum is beautiful and had so much fun learning what our yard/garden could be!

Charlotte, Samuel and Oliver! This was the only one we got with all of the kids looking up and where Charlotte wasn't holding her sippy cup

Our handsome little guy

Samuel and me

Samuel and daddy playing in the tree, one of Ryan's favorite places to be.

strawberry picking

Our buddies got together today for a play date at Lewis Farms. They grow some of the most delicious strawberries! Ryan was sad he couldn't join, so you will probably see some more pics soon of the three of us picking strawberries!

Samuel had so much fun holding the bucket and taking the strawberries out of the bucket as I put them in!

The Carpenter ladies

Oliver helping Lily Kate put a few strawberries in her bucket

Sweet Charlotte in her cute strawberry picking outfit!

My sweet little man enjoying strawberries

Emily and Charlotte excited about the picking

How could you not just smile at this cuteness!

Trip to Atlanta

The three of us headed to Atlanta last week to spend some quality time with family and friends. Here are a few pictures of our time away!

Samuel and Rebecca at the 25th WinShape reunion. Samuel had her necklace in his mouth the whole time!

Our buddy eating cheerios on the bed at the hotel.

Samuel and BeBe

At Jill's beautiful new home. my Aunt Alice, BeBe and Samuel.

Cavin's birthday was last Sunday and Ryan's is this Sunday, so we celebrated them together! I can't believe he is so big!!!

Samuel wanted Daddy's cupcake!

Samuel and Jim, Alan's college roomie!

Ruthie and Anna on the swing! It was a beautiful afternoon

4 generations! They were all so happy to be together

Angie with her hands full!

The kids playing together!

Jackie and Ben with Samuel and Elijah

Ruthie and Alan rocking Samuel to sleep, he had a great time!

Happy Easter

We had a great Easter today. Samuel and Ryan woke up to a visit from the Easter Bunny and seemed pretty excited. Samuel got some fun beach toys and Ryan some Reece's Eggs (his all time favorite). I look forward to the years that our kid(s) will know and believe in the true meaning for celebrating Easter and what a gracious day it truly is.

Our church does a potluck lunch and egg hunt after the Easter service, which we are going to enjoy making a family tradition. Below are a few pictures of the egg hunting!

Sweet Charlotte just ran over and started picking up eggs before it all began, she was so cute!

Samuel really wasn't too sure about it all, but loved that he had something to grab for and shake! That's about all he was interested in!

We love the beach

The weather has been so great this week. On Friday night we decided to take our dinner down to the beach and enjoy a little fresh air! We brought a big blanket thinking it would contain Samuel and it did for the most part. This is the beginning of many evenings spent by the water!

Picnic at the Park

The weather has been so awesome this week, so a bunch of us gathered our kiddos and headed to the park. We played at the playground (for the bigger kids) for a bit and then headed over to the lake to have a picnic. Here are a few pics from our day!

Samuel's first time in a swing. He seemed to really like it and was pretty relaxed the whole time!

Lunch time is over, now I want to play, and see how long my tongue is!

Trying to stand on my own...quickly realizing that I can't quite do that yet!

Sweet Charlotte and all her ruffles!