because

because it is never about you . . .
because it is always for your family . . .
or your friends . . .
or your brides (and grooms) . . .
because they love you . . .
because you make them laugh . . . and smile . . . and squeal . . .
because you deserve to have that captured. we love you! happy father's day!

wish we were there

we have been back from the beach for ten days. those crazy ten days have included 2 weddings, an engagement shoot, a cancelled shoot, 3 days of preschool-one including water day, a ballet class, a work dinner, an allergic reaction and trip to the emergency room, a follow-up appointment, 2 trips to church, a ten year anniversary date, a birthday party, a mother's day family engagement, and a ballet recital. add in your regular trips to target, the grocery, a quick trip to hernando to check out an antique store, a leaking washing machine, locking myself out of the house on a preschool morning and so on. but, i haven't forgotten about the beach. oh, the beach . . . 

mr. david made up a song with really cool lyrics that everyone could remember. it goes a little something like this:

"we're going to the beach, beach, beach"

these simple words were sung by everyone all the time

it takes some of us longer to adjust after sleeping than others. carter could wake up, put on a bathing suit and hit the door, but this sweet guy needs a few minutes to welcome the day or the afternoon . . .

i find that with each kid we add to the mix, the longer it takes to do anything. by the time i slather down three kids, put on swim diapers and bathing suits, it is already noon. it is a good thing our condo is on the beach; otherwise, i don't think we would ever get there.

it never failed that this precious girl had to eat shortly after my toes hit the sand. (it didn't matter when the last time she ate was.) but, the good thing about babies, especially third babies, they can sleep anywhere . . .

especially under a tent listening to the waves hit the shore.

and when she woke up, she could always play with her friend, charlie. and, if he was sleeping, just hit him in the face until he woke up, too.

spencer had a few firsts on this trip . . . 

first time at the beach

first pair of sunglasses (not her thumb, she is an old pro at sucking her thumb)

first time to put her toes in the pool

first time to have her toes colored orange when someone got bored riding in the car

by the last day, we have it all together, but before then, we spend more time going back to the condo and trying to talk someone into staying just a few more minutes before we go to the pool. 

"my teeth are cold!" 

a response to my asking "are you cold?" to carter on a bathroom break from the pool.

ms.jennifer tells miller "it is not good for your body" for him to drink water out of the pool, to which miller replies, "but it's yummy for my mouth!"

miller's "diamond ring," as he called it:

talk about a boy-he would sit in this and kick himself around the pool. he liked it because he could be independent, but he didn't want to wear the swimmies or work on learning to swim. looks like swim lessons should be fun with him, too?!? ha!

we, of course, had to make our required outlet shopping day. luckily, it rained one day to help us make the decision easier. here, they are entertaining ourselves while spencer had a little snack . . .

carter: how old are you?

josh: 32

carter: wow, daddy, that's a lot of oldness!

we had a blast! miller is already asking to go back. 

"we're gonna miss the beach, beach, beach . . ."

how many is too many??

that is the question. i have always felt it was a personal decision. 

we are currently vacationing with our vacay buddies, the tillmans. at the end of last year, we both gave birth to another baby, our third and their second. our biggest concern in traveling was entertaining the infants. would they cry, be too loud, need to nurse all the time? but no worries, people rarely even notice we have infants. they are too busy gawking at how many of us there are.

when eating at restaurants, we have heard the following:

"put them in the back." (whispered to the hostess seating us)

nice. 

photo hijacked from jennifer's blog

"do you mind eating inside? if not, i have a great place for you."

in case you were wondering, that is the bathroom door behind us. we were the only table upstairs that wasn't on the balcony. we spent the entire evening telling people they had to push harder to get the door open. seriously.

while hovering for the only large table at panera, we mommies and toddlers apparently sparked a new topic for the older ladies occupying only half of it. i overheard one say to the others while eying our children, "i mean, i want my grandchildren to come visit, but i don't want to raise them."

we aren't asking you to raise these cuties, we're asking you to get up so they will have a place to eat

another photo i hijacked from jennifer's blog

while entering banana republic, one of the people waiting for us to come through the door, "wow, did you see that party of 12?" no, lady, just 9.

while shopping at j.crew, i overheard two twentysomethings say, "this place is full of babies and strollers." nope, just two, us and them.

i always joke that my 3 kids can feel like 15 or 492, but apparently i am not the only one who feels that way . apparently, the world feels that i have reached my reproductive limit.

am i permitted to have 8 or 18 children only as long as i allow the public to ogle us like side show circus freaks?

oh, so tacky, and yet so funny

i have always loved the idea of having a big family, not in the octomom or duggar kind of way, but in the normal kind of way. i have actually read several editorials recently where people said they thought having more children was irresponsible in our current economic crisis and ecological distress. are you freaking kidding me? 

ugh. back off. and be nice. i know it is shocking but not everyone puts the priorities of the earth above the people that reside on it. not everyone sneers at the contagious laughter of children because it is too loud. not everyone's heart is two sizes too small . . .

we are here.

the beach, that is. as you can see above, it is working quite nicely. don't they look like a little old couple? you can picture them in a similar way in about 60 years! she is intently evaluating him and he is completely enthralled in something else.

we headed down on friday afternoon so josh could do this. it is complete eye candy. seriously.

because he was engaged the first two days here, i was without any memory documenting paraphernalia. if you are curious about the traveling antics of this party of 9, check this post here about our experience at dinner. it is all true, i promise. never a dull moment when we travel with the tillmans and our 492 children!

beach pictures, take two

after the early morning picture taking debacle, we decided to try again after naps and before dinner. right off the bat, miller was noncooperative. carter was a little slow opening up, but once again, did wonderfully during the process. 

miller was having another major meltdown when i decided to pull a kevin leman, as my friends and i call it. this is when you basically pretend you are leaving your child wherever their tantrum is occurring and possibly appear to others as if you are not blood related to the child. i know, some of you are thinking harsh (one day you will understand) and others are thinking why haven't i ever tried this. well, the key is to make the child think you are leaving the area and that their tantrum is not the center of attention. the key is for them to understand you are serious and they do not make the calls. the key is to not have a nosy beach goer approach your child and appear to be their knight in shining amour and ruin your best laid plan! 

the only reason why we are posting a picture of this woman is because of how precious our little terror appears!

the girls

she finally leaves allowing josh to actually take pictures of our family minus said intruder.

our little mermaid

as miller and i stood looking at the ocean and the birds and i tried to console him, carter ventured off and totally engrossed herself in where she was. as you notice in many of these photos, her mouth is open because she is singing "ahahahh, ahahahhahh" from the little mermaid. it was too cute!

as we were headed back to the board walk, i suggested that miller show carter the birds. he did so and allowed himself to get lost in spending time with his sister and not focus on the sand and salt and exhaustion and the following photos were captured. these make this momma happy!