clapping!

emelia learned to clap this week

you just have to say "yay!!" 

to start her compulsively clapping

and she's very pleased with herself

can't get enough of this girl

emelia gets cousin time

since I forgot my camera

jonalee took all of the pictures

of our beach camping trip

score for me ;)

here are a few of emelia with josiah and mary

feeling...

a wee bit sentimental this morning...

missing the early days :)

krispy kreme on the 4th

a little more catch up...

here are a few pics for our annual gathering at k.k. on the 4th of july

we are quite the crew, and i'm wondering when the staff is going to start dreading 

our arrival

fun, fun times

(somehow i didn't get any pics of the girls--aside from emelia)

beach trip #1

this poor neglected blog.

i'll try to catch up a bit, as summertime is nearly over

and the busyness of the school year will be here before i'm ready for it

the day after school ended, we headed to the beach for a week

it was an unusual trip, and didn't feel as vacation-like as it normally would

just days (or really the day) before we left, we found out for sure

that we were going to be moving

we had come across a charming farmhouse that was for rent

and decided to go for it--we put in our application

and paced the floor for about 2 weeks, waiting to hear if it had been accepted

i didn't want to start packing until we knew for sure,

and for sure ended up being the day before we left for vacation--the last day of school

we packed our house like mad that friday,

mark came home a few days early from the beach

and moved us (with movers to help with the furniture, and some friends to help with the boxes)

i came back from the beach to our new place

we LOVE it here

we found a cute little newly married couple to rent our townhouse

really every little detail worked out so perfectly--

we are so grateful, and feel like the Lord just dropped this huge gift in our laps

i will post pictures of our place when i get around to taking them,

but for now, here are a few from that trip

the cousins and nona joined us for an overnight,

which made for more fun

She's my fourth...

what can i say?? (pc. jonalee)

daddy's girl