Oak and Isla

A friend offered to photograph the kids for Isla's birth and Oak's 2-year pictures...these are some of the most precious pictures, in our opinion, of our two kiddos.

Holiday Away

Well, it was our first "vacation" of the summer and it was to celebrate the official end to summer, Labor Day. We rented a house on Lake MI with my family and it was a great time of sun, beach, very cold water, cards, food, and trying to rest with 4 kids around under the age of 4:) We had a lot of fun and the change of scenery was refreshing for us-although vacations are not what they used to be before kids...Alan and I still really needed the time away and felt refreshed coming home. We didn't get time for the planned moonlit walks, but we had some really precious times as a family early in the mornings by the beach, snuggling in our family bed, and watching Oak play with his "cousins" and Isla snuggle and coo at her Grammy and Grampy! Now, we are back and beginning the fall "routine", as routine as it can be around here:)

A couple of notes for future remembrance:

Oak has been talking up a storm and amazes us with what he knows and remembers-also cracks us up a lot of the time...one funny thing this weekend was his recognition that Grammy and Grampy have different last names than he does...this was a whole new thing for him. So, now my dad is "PePe Aners", not just PePe:)

Isla is holding her head up very well and loves to look into our faces and give big, open-mouthed grins. She seems to be growing like a weed, we will see in 2 weeks at her 2 month appt. how much:) She was so exhausted after the weekend that she has been taking long naps the past two days...but, then waking up looking thankful for letting her rest:)

Oak at Duck Lake-where my brothers and I used to play for hours when we were little

Thomas, the towel, was a great companion on the beach

Where are you Shaunee? Timmy had to build drip castles without you...:)

Grammy and Oak playing in the sand-Mom was incredible, as always, this weekend to play with one kid or another to give us some alone time

The men wanted to prove something by swimming in the freezing water out to the "far" sand bar

One of Oak's many sandcastles

Isla resting peacefully as the wind kept her cool and the waves lulled her to sleep-do you see that smirk on her face?:)

The view from the deck of our house-yes, I did have to climb those stairs a lot to continuously feed Isla:)