What's Happening?!

Once again, I abandoned my blog and haven't posted anything new in months but I'm BACK! So what have we been up to since April (the last time I posted)?
      We moved into our New/Old place!  We lived with Emily & Joel for a year and we are so greatful for the time we all got to be together, the bond between the kids and their grandparents is priceless! We love having our own space again. We still have a few little projects to finish but we are very happy with the way things came together. We have great neighbors - especially because we get to pick them! My good friend Barbara from high school lives next door and she has a 2 (soon to be 3) year old son, Diego. Elijah LOVES Diego! They play so well together and Karina leads the little pack. I love that she doesn't mind playing with "little kids". The kids are outside most of the day riding bikes, having water fights or are just running around and I absolutely love it! Barbara & I get to hang out while the kids play so it's fun for all of us!

       Karina finished 1st Grade! Eeeek my baby girl will be a 2nd grader in September! She is enjoying her summer - staying up late, sleeping in and playing all day with no homework. She recently got her own library card and has been checking out books to keep up with her reading. She's reading SO WELL! I love catching her laying on her bed reading by her own choice :) My hope is that she will love reading (unlike myself).

      Elijah will be 2 next month and is as fiesty as ever. He's talking more and more. He doesn't walk, he runs everywhere and man is he fast! We FINALLY cut his hair. We loved the long, adorable surfer locks but it was time and now you can see his handsome little face. He has no fear, he wants to be thrown in the air by daddy, climb anything he can and jump off whatever is near before I can say Get Down!

     We went to HAWAII!! We were there for 12 glorious days! Emily & Joel have a timeshare at the Westin Villas in Maui so we stayed there the first week and then the Sheraton Black Rock for the next 5. We had so much fun! It was truly a vacation, we relaxed and got refreshed. The kids swam all day and we went on a few adventures to explore different parts of the island. When we are on vacation, the kids only want daddy so I really get to relax while he entertains them all day. Corey & I got to go on a few date nights while grandma & grandpa watched the kids and they got to venture out without all of us tagging along too. I will do another post of all the fun stuff we did in paradise.

     Now that we have less than a month of summer left we have been taking advantage of the beach. We went twice last week and are going again today. I realized that although it's been a fun summer so far, Karina hasn't really played with kids her own age so that's what we've been doing ... meeting up with her friends so she can play with someone other than just her baby brother ;)  Time to get ready to go play ...............