Eli Joseph

Outer Banks, June 11-18, 2011

My family (parents, all six kids, spouses, and grandkids - 14 adults, 13 kids under the age of 7) rented a beach house in Corolla, NC on the Outer Banks for a week. The weather was perfect. The house had a pool and the beach was a 3 minute walk. No one got the flu and Max was EXHAUSTED at the end of the week. He slept most of the five hour flight home!
He loved the beach and especially the waves! No matter how cold it was, Max was in the water.



(Above) Playing with cousins as a wave wrecks their sand castle.
Max was too busy off playing to take a picture with us.

Sydney was fascinated with the crab holes (above). She also like to dig a hole to sit in. One time a wave came up and splashed her as she was bending over. She didn't like that at all!

There were little crabs all over and the kids loved to hold them.

Below, Sydney has a crab in her right hand. She loved holding it (and squeezing it).

My brother caught this big crab. If you look closely, it is blowing bubbles. It was so mad that it hung on to this tube for awhile. It took some effort to make it let go.

My mom has always video-chatted with the kids. We had not seen her for about a year and Sydney ran right up and gave her a huge hug. It made me very thankful for modern technology.Max commandeered any baby he could convince someone to put on his lap. He was ALWAYS asking me if he could hold the babies. He would say, "Ahhhh, the baby is sooooo cute!"
Sydney couldn't be left out so she would always hold the baby too. By the end of the week, she was in love with all things baby.
Sydney would watch all of us around the table doing the puzzle and she climbed up one day and started "helping" with the puzzle too.
She looks like she knows exactly where that piece goes!
We went over the Wright Brothers museum and some sand dunes right near there in Kill Devil Hills. They were fun! and TIRING to walk around in all that sand.


Sometimes I take a picture and am so impressed that I got the framing, lighting, and the smiling all decent. This picture of my mom and nephew is always going to be one of my favorites.

Daddy and Daughter

Before I forget about this picture and it gets lost in the gazillion photo folders I have...
This little girl really loves her dad, sometimes. Sometimes, she really loves her mom. You never know who she's going to love more tomorrow. :)

My Little Artists

Chris was on the computer and I was in the back room long enough for this to happen:
I came around the corner (it had been too quiet) and Max says, "Mama! I'm painting Sydney with Desitin!" She looked like a little Indian ready to go off to war.

She was helping him out with some war paint too. It happened on Mother's Day too. So I made Chris get it off. :)

Freezer Meals

A friend and I sat next to each other at a church activity that was about freezer meals. I told her I'd heard about women getting together and exchanging freezer meals. She took the initiative and six of us have been exchanging meals since October. It's been AWESOME. I love seeing what I come home with and love cooking one day and getting six meals out of it. It's a lot of work depending on what you make, but fun too. One time I made bbq chicken pizzas - all from scratch - and I had to take a picture.

There are some great freezer meal recipe books at my library and I've borrowed books from a friend too. Some are good, some not so good, but it's been worth it. All of us have very small children who don't eat a lot so it's basically just cooking for the couple. I'm becoming a huge fan of freezer meals.

Max in a Suit, Syd in Pajamas

The jacket finally fits.
And isn't Sydney cute?

I Should Start a DIY Craft Blog

The title is a joke. But I am pretty excited (that's the word all the craft bloggers use) about my latest project. It's magnets that have all the foods we eat color-coded by type of food. Mexican is blue, breakfast foods green, Italian pink, etc. I even have magnets for "Out to Eat" and freezer meals that I exchange with friends (which deserves it's own blog post). And pizza and hamburgers have multiple magnets since we eat those more than once a month.
Then I just take my magnets and line them up for the month. I used to write out the menu on this board. But then something would come up and the meals would switch around and I'd have to either erase or remember the changes. Now I just switch around the magnets. And the colors help me see when we ate that type of food last. Also, I have blank magnets so that when I find a new meal, I can write it in and not forget about it.

Ok, I'll admit it, I really am excited about this! It's not super pretty or crafty, but it has been SO useful!