Had such a great Labor Day weekend with family!

Lots of people, LOTS of food and lots of catching up and relaxing...

Love you guys and hope we can all get together again soon!

   Stone Harbor, NJ

We had another great week in Stone Harbor the last week of July. We were blessed with great weather and warm water, yay!

Our entrance to the beach at 115th Street

I was walking along the beach and came across some sticks laying exactly like this...

We spend almost every evening out on the beach from after dinner until bedtime...

Xander leading the kids in some sort of made-up game...

Usually about an hour before lunch we'd head back to the beach house for some pool time and then sometimes hit up the pool again right before baths-n-bed...

Grandpa takin' it all in...

Unfortunately, since it is a concrete pool the kiddos feet (especially the toes) always get a little beat up...

My Mom wanted a pic of all six of her grandkids in these cute outfits she bought for them so we headed out one evening hoping for the best and promising ice cream for cooperation!  Everyone but Sienna smiled pretty and even 7 week old baby Luke sat like a champ on his big brother's lap!

Cute little Caleb and Sienna up in the lifeguard stand...

Maya in her own little world...

Xander was decided he was DONE taking pictures and got himself completely COVERED with sand...

Classic Sienna pout face...

The promised iced cream after the photo session of course...

Since Xander and Maya don't officially nap anymore, Joaq (and sometimes me) would head out on a loong bike ride every afternoon in hopes that they would take a snooze...

Surprisingly most days both of the kids fell asleep for at least a little bit, and we got some really good exercise to make up for all the eating we did!!!

Our last evening we decided to head out to the beach for some family photos, Maya and I headed out before the rest of our crew...

Stopping for a quick shot by some pretty flowers...

Unfortunately, as we all got out to the beach it turned out that our kids were just NOT in the mood to sit still and smile...

The Martin Family pics came out adorable though, baby Luke was such a trooper!

Ma and Pa Martin...

We then decided to go for a quick group shot...

in between shots I yelled out, "everyone make a silly face" but not everyone got the memo...

Then we let the kids run around and be crazy for awhile...

Then tried for one more group shot in the Stone Harbor lifeguard boat...

Hey, it was a feat just to get everyone but Sienna again to look at the camera so we were satisfied and called it a day!

Oh, except when we were walking back to the house I saw the pretty flowers again and had mom snap one more shot of our crew, Sienna FINALLY got on board and actually smiled but Maya pulled out her fake cheese and Xander was well....being Xander I guess.

Oh well, we had a great time and we'll hope for some better family shots next year!

We've definitely been a good kind of busy around here lately. Lots of fun summer activities; swimming in the pool, riding bikes, going to the "dutch", and celebrating birthdays! Miss Sienna turned 2 on June 5th and we had a low key party for her at Grandma's house one Sunday afternoon...

After she opened presents we headed outside for her ice cream cake and to play with some of her new outdoor toys...

Oh yes, and I had to include a picture of my newest nephew, baby Luke! He was born June 3rd (just two days before Sienna!) and he is only 5 days old here hangin' out with the fam...

My two grandmother's were even able to join the party! :) How cute are they munching on their popcorn??

After popcorn time we changed the kiddos out of their wet clothes and headed back to Grandma's for some hide-n-seek with cousins...

Aunt Rach, Sienna and cousin Caleb "counting"...

Grandpa giving Maya a tip on where to hide next...

Found ya behind the fence Aunt Rach-y...

Onto riding bikes...

Speaking of riding bikes, check out my boy!!! (please excuse the lovely singing of the Miss Mary Mack hand jive by yours truly)

Yes, that's right. Xander has finally taken the plunge and started riding his bike without training wheels! It all started on Father's Day when Joaq entered his first cycling race (have I mentioned that my husband has lately become obsessed with cycling??). The kids (and me too) really loved watching him race. Then a couple of days before our neighbor's 4 year old grandson came zipping around on his two wheel bike and couldn't believe that Xander was 5 years old and still riding with training wheels! Well, those two events inspired my very cautious boy to give "two-wheeling" a try. And he picked it right up the first day! It was definitely a good confidence booster for him!

Well, we're off to VA tomorrow for the long weekend to spend time with our friends Pearce and Heather and their two kiddos Micah and Jonah. Looking forward to celebrating the 4th!

**Warning, this is a ridiculously long post so pace yourself** 

SO, I just realized that in all our remodel chaos I completely forgot about Miss Maya's 4th birthday! I must admit that I slacked a bit in planning for her party. I was so focused on house stuff that I ended up planning her birthday party at the Little Gym for Easter weekend. After I realized it, it was really too late to change the date and I was hoping that since it was on Saturday and not Sunday most girls would still be able to come but NOT a single one said they could make it!  If you know my Maya she loves parties and she was so excited that all her preschool friends would be there. I just didn't have the heart to tell her it would just be family. At the last minute, little Keana said she could come and she seemed to save the day! Maya ended up having so much fun and asked if she could have her party at the Little Gym every year!

I definitely recommend the Little Gym for the 2-3-4-5 age group. The staff was lots of fun and kept the kids busy and moving and doing all kinds of things!

Playing "hide-n-seek" with the staff, which was hilarious (we had some cheaters in the group)...

Parachute time...

Listening with rapt attention as the staff gives them instructions for the bouncy thing...

After we had an hour of playtime in the gym area, we headed to the little party room for some lunch and a birthday treat!

We ran out of time to open her presents so we ended up doing that at Grandma's house later.

Maya saying goodbye to her friend Keana from preschool (whose mother would be mortified that I didn't bother to wipe off her pizza face before taking this shot)! Can you tell my Maya is a petite little thing considering these girlies are the same age?? She gets that from her Grandma Nona for sure!

********Myrtle Beach, SC, May 15th - 21st********

We spent a great week in Myrtle Beach at the Wyndham Ocean Blvd courtesy of a timeshare the Garcia's had. We had a great 3 bedroom oceanfront unit and although our trip got off to a really rough start we all ended up having a good time and the kids keep talking about going back!

The view from our 7th floor balcony...

We arrived late on Friday after a very long 10 hour drive. Poor Sienna was just getting over an ear infection and was very fussy, Xander was getting car sick only 3 or 4 hours into the trip, and Maya seemed wiped out and kept complaining that her neck hurt?!? About an hour and a half before we were scheduled to arrive we made a quick dinner stop and Maya ended up puking all over Joaquin. She threw up two more times in the next two hours and I thought we might be in for a long week! To make a looong story short, when Xander came down the next morning with a fever and was feeling sick too, Joaq pulled out his handy-dandy travel doctor kit and figured out that all 3 kids had "herpangina". Basically you get a fever, blisters in your mouth/throat (which is why Maya's neck was hurting) and frequently kids will throw up. Ugh! Thankfully it only lasted about 24 hours for each kid so they were quickly recovered!

Beach Fun!

Xander making some sort of pathway for his toy boats in the sand...

Baby sis all tuckered out after too much beach fun...

You can tell by this pic how windy it was all week long! It's always a bit windy at the beach but this was for sure our "windiest" experience...

The kids were more interested in finishing their snack than posing for a pic...

In the evenings we would head down to the heated indoor pool which the kids absolutely LOVED!

Maya was quite the little fish, she jumps in by herself, completely submerges herself under the water, and LOVES it...

Baby sis was determined to keep up and was pretty fearless in the water...

We had 3 cool and rainy days in a row soo one day we decided to head to Ripley's Believe It or Not Aquarium that was only 30 minutes away...

We have been to a couple of aquariums before but this one was really awesome!!!

In this area you completely felt like you were submerged under the water, it was really cool!

Trying to touch one of several dozen sting rays...

Another day we went to Barefoot Landing, which was a really cool shopping area that also had a Carousel for the kiddos...

Had to get a picture with a cow to remind us of home ...

We also spent some fun "rainy day" time in the condo doing different activities like coloring and doing paint by numbers...

Playing Uno...

Some .50 cent puzzles we picked up at the local Salvation Army...

Maya spent a lot of time playing with her ponies we brought along from home...

A sleepy baby sis...

Xander checking out the beach scene...

Cute little baby sis caught playing in the curtains...

We also had fun going out for dinner at night to kid-friendly places of course...

Sienna entertaining herself (and the rest of the restaurant) by singing very, very loudly...

 Grandma Nona decided on one of our rainy days that she wanted to go ahead and have a little birthday party for Sienna (a little early) since we were all together. She had the great idea to take the munchkins to Build-a Bear to celebrate! We had never actually been to a Build-a-Bear before but had passed by it at our local mall  and of course the kiddos always want to go in. Let me tell you this was one massive Build-a-Bear! In fact, it was a Build-a-Bear, Build-a-Dino and a Build-a-Doll all in one! Didn't even know such a thing existed! The kids LOVED it!

Birthday girl went first. She chose a floppy eared puppy to stuff. This is her with her puppy's little red "heart"...

This is the staffer telling Sienna to hold the heart to her ear so that her bunny listens to her...

Then they step on a pedal and stuff their animal...

Maya's turn...

Then Xander who chose a dinosaur and named him "Scaly"...

Then you head to another station to give your new animal a "bath"...

Then you shop for an outfit, while we were doing this they actually got on the loud speaker and had the entire store full of people sing Sienna "Happy Birthday"! Wow! This is her feeling unusually shy at hearing all these people sing to her...

Checking out her Happy Birthday sticker...

Maya thrilled with her new pink outfit for her bunny...

Getting a quick shot of the kiddos once the shopping was all done right outside the store...

After Build-a-Bear we ate some dinner and headed back to the condo to have some birthday cake... Sienna actually ended up singe-ing her hair trying to blow out her candle, OOPS!

YUM!

And when the spoon can't shovel it in fast enough, just use the fingers...

And on our last evening we did a little "photo shoot" to make sure we got some good pics of the kiddos with Abuleo and Grandma Nona (which we did thankfully) ...

Cute little baby sis...

Headed to another location at one of the many incredible golf courses in Myrtle Beach...

The best shot of the evening I think and a picture perfect way to end a great, relaxing week...

Things are starting to come back together round here... 

Bottom cabinetry is in...

Flooring is in...

and over the course of this past week most of the rest of the work has been completed. We are actually in Myrtle Beach right now enjoying some time away from the chaos with Joaquin's family. I figured once we get back on Friday I'll be swamped with putting the house back together so I'd do a quick update now! :) Lots to update on...preschool graduation, Maya's 4th birthday and of course our week here at the beach! Until then!