Two Hours

While some were playing in the snow (or stuck on snowy roads), we were basking at the beach! Here are some of our favorite pictures from today's beach fun:

Jumping for joy because low tide is so much fun!

Even baby waves like to be run away from sometimes.

"Here's lookin' at you, Kid!"

There are many shovel-ready projects at the beach.

Big hugs!

Big smiles! (and there's Rebecca off in the distance)

There's a lot of blue in this picture! Blue eyes, blue shirt, blue sky, blue ocean...

Rebecca was our water courier today--and she loved helping everyone be happy!

Digging deep (he loved that he found water down there).

-OR-

Every child is a civil engineer at the beach.

Buddies.

Bonkers for Bananas

For many months now we have kept a close eye on this plant. In fact, I think I have been watching it from the first time I set foot here! I anxiously waited for the bananas to look plump enough, and finally I could not wait any longer.

We went out and chopped off this bunch then chopped down the whole plant. I am so surprised to learn that each plant only produces bananas once. (although it may have a sprout growing nearby) Come to think of it, it seems I learned pineapples only produce one fruit as well, although I am not sure. (this is all so new to me)

We let the bananas sit in our kitchen for a couple weeks and now they are ready to be eaten and many to be frozen. They are the perfect size for little hands!

What is exciting is that we found that another of our plants is starting to grow a banana bunch as well. We will have fun watching this next one grow too!

Oh I Can't Wait

Today is David's eighth birthday! Here is how our dapper young man looked today:



And here's our soon-to-be-baptizee showing that he doesn't want any squinty pictures taken of him--thus providing a great squinty picture!

And here is a video that we made and may use at David's baptism.

New Years Morning

Happy New Year! Here are some pictures of our morning. The weather was so perfect. We took an early evening walk around our neighborhood and were dazzled by the beautiful night, the light was a just the right angle to make everything look beautifully green and then we had glimpses of the lake with the sun sparkling off the water.

Bird of Paradise

Sun through the palm.

Ten Years of Forever

I love you!

Christmas

I realized it has been a while since I posted. Even now I am thinking I need to be doing other things, but just had to post something. I am so amazed at the life I see around me. Still, it is a shock to see gardens growing, flowers blooming, and grass needing to be cut. Isn't it winter? These are some roses I cut from my own rose bush! I never knew how much I loved roses until I could go out and see my very own roses blooming. They are so beautiful, plump, and soft!

The children love this time of year. My favorite memory is seeing my children gathered by the Christmas tree to read books in the evening. Andrew can't get enough of the tree. Thankfully nothing has broken, but he will crawl over to the same ornament (a wooden bell) and pull it off. It is always the same ornament, and it has become something we laugh at.

Mingled with all the Christmas fun, we have fun at the beach too! One of the times we went, we found these beautiful shells! They were so perfect and we can't wait to go look for more. The beach always makes me feel like a treasure hunter, you never know what you will find.

The children helped decorate this year and I think they did a wonderful job. As you can tell, this picture is old (the advent calendar is still at the beginning)... We actually put our decorations up just before Thanksgiving. It helps at to the happy feelings of thankfulness that Thanksgiving is all about.

Here they all are, decorating away.

Morning in Paradise

I often look out my windows and gaze at the life around me and think, "Am I really here?" I ride bikes with the children to school and see storks, egrets, and ibis and think, "I can't believe I live here!" It is so beautiful here.

Getting ready for school, I stepped out to breath in the beautiful morning.

We have many Hibiscus plants in our yard and many are starting to bust into bloom.

A butterfly tree in our yard is full of blossoms as well, and butterflies.

Another hibiscus.

Another reason I have been out in the mornings is to take care of our new little garden. This is our first time having a very own garden and I can see we need to protect it from other critters already.

We used sea shells to mark what the plants are... another use for all those shells the children bring home.

Sunrise in our backyard.

This is such an amazing place to live. If it weren't so beautiful, I might miss the snow a little, maybe.