Snakes

Paul was SOOO happy and excited he caught a snake!!

It looks like this snakes tail got cut off- but it actually "dropped" it's tail. When it feels threatened it will drop it's tail and the tail has nerves in it that will make it wiggle- which will distract the predator.  While the predator is distracted by the tail the snake makes its getaway. Pretty cool! 

I guess Ellie isn't afraid of snakes!

Julia the Princess

Well, it has been over 2 years since I had seen my dad and sisters. So I was so excited to have my sister Julia come visit.  She left 4 kids at home and brought 1 with her.  She was here 3 days.  I went over to Ft. Lauderdale to pick her up.  Driving back across Florida lead us through the Everglades.  We stopped along the way and enjoyed the wildlife.  I told her she couldn't come to Florida and not see an alligator!  No worries though- we saw plenty!

Ellie, Julia and Lawson

 We were able to go to 4 beaches in the 3 days she was here.  Talk about fun!  Here we are at Ft. Myers beach.

 One of the fun things we did was take a "cruise" of Naples.  The boat goes by the backs of all the huge houses.  As the tour guide said, "It is the richest neighborhood in the world.  The people who own these houses are not millionaires.  They are billionaires."

Only 10% of these homes are lived in- the other 90% of these houses are vacation homes.  And most of the time the people who own them only spend a week a year in them.

Most of the homes had sweet yachts.

This house is a 50 million dollar house.  The windows out front are hurricane 5 proof and bullet proof.  The windows alone were 2 million dollars.  The owner of the house comes one week a year.  Each day he drives a different car.  He has 4 Rolls Royce, 2 Bentleys, and a Lamborghini.  The garage only has one door-  all the cars on parked on a revolving floor.  Seems like a big waste of money if you ask me. 

Here is another interesting house.  The man owns the whole island.  This is a house for one of his 13 children. He is building one house on the island for each of his kids.  This house has a helicopter pad, 2 bowling alleys, a movie theater, the list goes on and on.

Julia and Lawson on the cruise

The Sunset.  They played a little Jimmy Buffet when it set.  It was super fun.

Julia and a turtle

This is our set up when we go to the beach.  Gotta have some shade.

LOL.  A face full of sand and he doesn't even care.

The last night Julia was here we went to the movies and went to eat at this really fun Italian place.  It was a great trip.  I will miss you Julia!!

Happy Happy everything

Happy Easter, happy spring, happy, happy everything!!  We really didn't do anything big this year.  Kyle was sick and I was exhausted from too much Spring Break.  The Easter bunny came and left eggs and some baskets.  It was fun.  I think I made raman noodles instead of a ham and big dinner.  oh well, I just loved being with my sweet husband and kids.

A little something

Paul is so sweet- the other day I found this on my pillow. 

Dear mom, Happy almost Easter, I love you!  Thank you for all you do.  Enjoy the flowers!

What is better in life than that???  It makes being pregnant worth it.

ammonia- or was that pneumonia

So, the last day of Spring break we went to the beach with Darren and some friends.  Kyle was not feeling good- so he laid down in the shade of our umbrella and slept for about 2 hours! You know a kid is sick when they fall asleep at the beach.  We took him home.  He had a fever and cough so I stayed home with him the next day.  He was really pretty sick- and took 3 hour naps on the couch everyday.  Finally Thursday I took him to the doctor.  He had pneumonia.  We got him on an antibiotic and an inhaler and he was doing much better the next day. 

This was how he liked to take his naps.

So, he missed a whole week of school.  When he finally went back on Monday, he told his teacher he had "ammonia"  She said, "oh, it's going around"

Spring Break

Wow.  Holie Cow this last 2 weeks have just been insane.  I am exhausted.  Lets start with 2 weeks ago- Spring break so the kids are out of school.  I planned something fun everyday of the week.  It was fun, but by the end I was worn out!  There is no need to really go anywhere for spring break when you live in Naples.
It actually get very busy here all of March and April.  The beaches are packed with people speaking different languages and everyone at Wal-Mart looks like so sun burnt their skin is purple.   It is hard not to get sun-burned.  We went to the beach for 4 hours- I sat under our umbrella- in the SHADE- WITH sunscreen on and I still got burnt! Anyways, the only thing I took pictures of was camping cause It's not fun to bring my camera swimming or to the beach.   So here was our schedule- and yes I did this all with out Darren and with my new baby.  Thanks goodness for friends with older kids who helped me a ton.  Especially camping.  I wouldn't have attempted it without them!

Monday: Sun-N-Fun Lagoon
Tuesday: Marco Island.  Playground, Lunch, beach.
Wed: Kids Museum
Thursday: Friday: Camping in the hot Florida jungle
Friday: Shopping with kids for new shoes.
Sat: Ward Easter egg hunt and beach with Darren.

We had a great week!

In the car on our way to go camping

Our tent-

Some people in our group went canoeing. I guess it's safe to canoe but not swim.

Kyle with Kash

Hanging out in the morning

Paul was up at 6 am ready to go fishing.  He saw a Manatee swim by. 

Needless to say, it was a fantastic week!

Gabe- a month ago

Here are some cute pictures of Gabe I took about a month ago. 

We love our new little baby brother!!!

The windows to the soul

They say the eyes are the windows to our soul.  I say their right. I have not had a baby like little Gabriel. This may sound strange, but when Gabe was born he did not seem like a baby.  He seemed like an old, wise soul.   Holding his little body and looking into his eyes was something I have never experienced.  It was like he knew more than we did-like he was a brilliant spirit and I knew nothing compared to him.  It seemed as if someone had taken a great spirit that is millennium's old and put it into a babies body.  If you think about it that is pretty much what happened.  He seemed so serious and suspicious of everything all the time. I would tell him it's ok- I'm his mom and he was born into a good family and we are going to love him and take care of him while he is on Earth.  It seemed also that he was trying so hard to figure out how to work his little body.  When I would look into his eyes they seemed to be bursting with intelligence and knowledge and things he wanted to tell us and share with us, but his little body just wouldn't let him.  He is just trapped inside this little body he doesn't know how to control.  The veil seemed so very thin.  When he slept he would smile so much!  It was if he  was remembering heaven.   O little one, what do you know?  I wish you could always remember the things you must have known as a newborn.