Camera Phone ... (or is it a phone camera) ...

Whichever it is...

here's a look see into our past week or so

 oh my Shep! he's all boy. LOVES to get dirty! 

 what a fun day at the botanic gardens with friends! 

 our new dining room table Josh and I stained. LOVE it! 

 Shep loves Matilda. he likes to pretend he's a puppy too.

 baking cookies! 

 this made my day! flipped a pancake to find this. :)

 Sunday morning breakfast with cousin Hattie!

 2 of the sweetest girls ready for church ~ love them~

 loved our table being this full for Sunday lunch - and how GG is always making some goofy face -

silly girls

 sweet Hattie Michele

 having fun at the park

 sweet Hayden Lee

what a helper he was this week! 

 sand box fun! 

 love from Sophie

 bouncy house fun! 

 Landmark Park fun! 

 attempting the zip line

 Shep and Hayden 

 WAR!

 Hattie lost her 2nd tooth! 

 Donuts for breakfast = WILD kids

 and then they crashed 

awww... poor Shep didn't want to see his cousins go

Neither did I :( 

I miss my niece and nephew

Can't wait to do it again! 

after a nice long nap :) 

Cousins

The cousins are here for the week. And oh, how we ALL love it! 

Wish we could do this more often, but I'm enjoying this time we do have with them. 

GG and Hattie are playing all the time. Barbies, babies, princesses and all other girlie things. 

Hayden is being a sweet big cousin to Shep and helping him with train tracks and such.

Sophie is at school all week, but they love it when she comes home and gives them her attention.

We've gone to church, the park, the bouncy house and have lots of other fun things on the agenda.

This week is flying :(!

A Walk About

Not too long ago we visited the Grandparents.

Grampie took the kids on a walk about.

 Shep didn't quite make it the entire way. He ended up on Daddy's shoulders. 

Below are the Whiting boys (men). :)

Turtles and Treats

Yesterday was a trip to Landmark Park to feed the turtles.

Shep named the turtle above "big guy". Pretty appropriate, I say. 

I've never seen a spider this big. She was just about as big as my hand!

GG was very happy about this swing. She can't hold on to a regular swing because of her cast so this was perfect. She had to borrow my sunglasses because, "THE SUN! IS SHINING! IN MY EYES! IN THIS SWING!". 

We left because Shep apparently doesn't do well in the heat. He wanted to be carried everywhere which made GG want to be carried because God forbid that one gets more attention from mommy than the other and then GG decided that her shoes hurt and then Shep sat down in the grass and cried and wouldn't move anywhere. I was never more happy than to finally get to my van and crank the a/c and the radio up and drown out all the whine. 

When we arrived home GG had treats from Grammy in the mailbox. 

They had discussed candy necklaces when we were visiting last. I don't think GG knew what they were.

So Grammy sent a little "happy". 

Perfect timing, because we all needed a little happy at that moment.

And she shared with her brother. Amazing. 

It was a fun, hot and happy day.

Emphasis on the hot.

And the happy. 

Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr Golden Sun,

thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you for peeking out this weekend and making it beautiful. 

Boy, did I need it. 

I'm afraid I was about to suffer from SAD. 

But you decided to shine through Friday morning and I was oh so happy. 

We began our day with a walk to the park. It is exactly 1.4 miles from our house to the park. So I loaded up the littles in the double stroller and we went on our way. 

And Saturday, after our morning of errands, Daddy and Sophie joined us for another walk on another sunshiney beautiful day.

Great fun was had by all and I got some much needed exercise.

GG has decided she loves the rock wall. She calls this park the "rock" park. She's been working on this the past few times we've visited and today...

after much intense focus

and determination

and just plain strength

she made it. Yeah baby!

I love my family.

And I just had to throw this in the mix. This is Sophie several years ago climbing a BIG rock wall. She has loved these since she was GG's age. She actually climbed one of these big ones when she was about 4 years old. Fear? Not much.

We made the most out of our sunshine filled weekend.

And thank goodness we did,

Because you know what this Monday morning brought?

A big, fat thunderstorm.

The SAD may be just around the corner after all.