Cousin Josh!

Last month I got to meet one of my cousins for the first time!  Owen had fun seeing Josh again.  He was in town for work and took a night to come visit us.

Beach Trip!

Over Memorial Day we took a family trip to the beach with some of our friends!  This was my second time to the beach and Clara's first.  This time we went to Destin, FL.  The weather was great for the most part and the beach was beautiful!  Can't wait to go back with my friends!

We took lots of pictures of course!

Here's the entire group (almost)!  4 families - 8 adults and 8 kids.  Mom was glad that the kid coverage was one on one...

Here's what I did a lot of at the beach - relaxing and playing with my trucks.  I did go out into the ocean with Dad one time though and we had fun jumping waves!  Mom and I jumped over some when they came up and hit our feet!

And here's what Clara did most of the time at the beach - stay in the shade!  She did get her feet wet in the ocean a couple of times though.

Fun in the sand and sun (or tent to block the sun in Clara's case)!

The house we stayed at had a pool so we hung out there in the afternoons after nap time.  I made a new friend on the trip! 

We had a noodle war in the pool!

Clara had fun at the pool too!

Here's the house we stayed in - it was pretty nice!  I enjoyed all the balconies and ate as many meals as I could outside - even if it meant I had to eat by myself!

The living room had a big couch that was perfect for running on!

And it was big enough to fit all 8 kids for a picture!

Here's Clara with most of the girls on the trip!

Relaxing on the balcony!

More relaxing on the balcony!

All 4 of us shared a room but Clara and I each had out own beds.  But somehow we all ended up in the same bed in the morning!  We took an evening walk to check out the rest of the houses in the neighborhood - Clara's first time riding like a big girl in the stroller - no carseat!

 On our last day we went to a fun park for a little bit.  I rode the airplane ride all by myself!  It even went up high and I didn't get scared at all!

New Toys for Me!

Since I just keep growing up, I've been experiencing all sorts of new toys!

The ultimate hand me down is still around and interesting as ever!

I've got my swing that hangs from the doorway and my jungle bouncer.  The jungle bouncer is one of my favorites!

This toy isn't mine...yet, but Owen took me for a ride in his car one day.  His driving skills made me a little nervous.  Can't blame me since he was more interested in giving me a hug than watching where we were going!

And these technically aren't mine either but I got to try on some shades!  They fit Owen a little better, but I still liked them!

Owen likes to get in on the jungle bouncer fun, too!  You can hear that I don't mind a bit!  He's the funniest person I know!

School Picture Time!

I know Mom loves me but she hasn't made it a secret that she wasn't too impressed with my school picture taking skills last year.  Looking back I'm starting to see why...

These were my pictures from Spring 2014.  Not too terrible...

This was my picture from Fall 2014.  Not so great at all...

But I turned it around this year!  Mom calls me her little model now!  She thinks Clara had something to do with it and that her smile is contagious.  But it's just me smiling on my own terms - just like I like to do everything else!  The photographer probably got a nice bonus from the money Mom and Dad spent on the pictures!

I went above and beyond - I didn't just smile but I posed, too!

Here's Clara starting out strong at her first picture day!  No surprise though since she's always smiling!

We even cooperated for a combined picture!

Fun at School!

Here's what I've been up to at school these days...

 

My friends and I did a super heroes day so I wore my batgirl outfit - complete with a cape of course!  This is my friend Ayden checking out my outfit...

Here's all of the super hero gang!  Ayden still can't keep his hands off me!

I discovered how fun mirror can be!  And a ride in the bye-bye buggy is always fun!

Here I am posing in my new dress from Aunt Noreen in the red chair!

It's the same red chair that my brother took pictures in at school!  This was taken almost 2 years ago to the day from my picture.  So he was a couple of weeks older than me in his picture....  I'm more advanced than he was with posing for the camera!

Mother's Day!

We all got to celebrate Mom this year on Mother's Day! Dad made reservations for us at a nice restaurant (the nicest one I've ever been to!) for brunch.  Luckily I got a quick snooze in the car before we got there so I was in a good mood.  And we got to sit outside away from the other tables - I was perfectly fine with that because I got to walk around without being told to sit down!

Here we are with Mom!  I call her Mommy most of the time, but sometimes it's fun to call her Mom and even Casey!  Clara just cries when she needs her...

Clara wore one of her fancy dresses for brunch - didn't she look pretty?  Then she changed into something more comfortable but still appropriate for the day!

And here we are with Mom's mom (Grandma B)!  And a family picture - Clara and I had other things going on more important than the picture!