Florida: Day 2 continued...

 Clara is our little pale girl and she looked like a ghost with all of the sunblock. Her hat's crazy because it was really windy that day. Although we put sunblock on, we burned so bad.

I just love these next few photos. Kenzie is constantly in motion. I think she'll be a good little runner someday 

We saw several jellyfish. This was a smaller one but the colors were really pretty 

We found this body board in our condo and had a blast with it. I'm a little intimidated by the ocean but once I started getting used to the waves, I had a blast. Keith of course wasn't afraid and spent plenty of time in the water. This post makes me want to go back so bad!!! 

Florida: The drive and first two days

Keith had spring break in late March so we decided to take advantage of an off season break and traveled to Destin, Florida with our good friends Brittany and Tanner Barratt. I can't take any credit for planning the trip. Brit did it all and found us a fabulous condo for a killer price. All we had to do was survive the trip with two little girls...

The girls did much better on the drive than anticipated. We left a little before 5 AM and only had a minor issue with our coolant and fought Kenzie to go potty all morning. We took turns driving and arrived in Florida around 4 PM.

Our first view of the ocean 

We went to the beach Monday as soon as we arrived. It was windy but beautiful. Mackenzie thought the sand was snow, it's so white there. We had a great time and came home for some rest back at the condo that night. The next morning, we got up bright and early. I tried to run with Brit on the beach but my knee just wouldn't let me. When we got back form our run, we packed up the kids, some lunch and gear and walked the 5 minutes to our little area of the beach.

The girls in the morning

 Cute Emma 

 Kenzie loves her daddy so much and had a blast building sand castles with him 

Clara did great relaxing in the pack n' play

I know this picture is stunning of me, it's one of about 3 I have of me from the trip. I'm digging a little pool here in hopes that Kenzie would get comfortable in her little pool and brave the ocean a little bit. I can't take credit for this plan, it was Keith's and it worked  

 Emma and Clara taking an afternoon snooze 

Kenzie loved chasing the seagulls 

Scout Auction

I'm kind of embarrassed to post about this, but I had a lot of fun with this cake. Every year, our ward hosts a Scout auction where they serve a free dinner in exchange for a dessert to auction off. This year I wanted to do something a little fancier than my previous cookies, so I dreamed up this cake. It had 4 layers of cake, 2 layers of devils food and 2 layers of my favorite semi-homemade chocolate cake. I filled each layer with real homemade strawberry filling and iced it in white buttercream. I topped it with a rich chocolate ganche and chocolate covered strawberries. The whole thing took me several hours and a couple of days. I'm only sad I didn't get to cut into it and see how pretty I imagined the inside to look. It ended up going for over $100 and made it worth my effort. Next time, I'll add another layer of buttercream on the outside and dip my strawberries the day before. These pictures aren't that pretty, but here's the final result:

Just some random pictures from March

Kenz loves her puzzles and Keith is always good to help her out when she wants it 

We had Mackenzie's friend Morgan over and we were trying to feed Clara some oatmeal. Clara HATED all food until she was almost 7 months old. We caught some of her funny faces on camera and then the girls made some of their own

 Can you tell they loved the fish eye setting for the camera? 

One day I went in to check on Kenzie during her nap and found her in Clara's crib. In case you're wondering, Kenz rarely naps anymore and when she does, she can't be in the same room as Clara. She will keep her up and try to play with her until Clara screams. In the morning if they wake up at the same time, I'll hear them giggling. Kenzie is definitely Clara's favorite and she thinks all the beating up is totally worth the goofy sister that makes her laugh the hardest.

The many ways of pronouncing Louisville. It made me smile because my roommates gave me a crash course in correct pronunciation of Louisville before I came to Lexington. FYI the locally correct pronunciation is the first or second and you're going to sound like a tourist for sure if  you use the third.

 

Recently, I dragged Keith to Schimpff's for a cherry coke and chocolate fix 

And Finally the Sun...

The day after our snowstorm, the temperature was in the 70's and we were enjoying a walk in shorts and t-shirts. I think I say this every year, but I love spring here. One of my favorite trees is the Magnolia but I never manage to get a picture of its flowers because they bloom so early and are gone in a matter of a few days. I am glad however that I managed to capture some photos of our favorite blooms we see on our (mostly) daily walks.

Almost 7 months

Time flies! I can't believe the first 6 months are almost over. My little baby isn't so little anymore but she is just as sweet and loving as she was the first week home. I'm so glad she came to us! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then came the snow...

She cried the whole way down. That's ok though, I figured she was 3 and needed to experience sledding just once. We'll try again next year

After our warm temperatures and severe thunderstorms, we were shocked to wake up to 5 inches of snow on the 5th. Funny enough, they cancel school when a couple snowflakes fall but not several inches. So we kissed Keith goodbye, and the girls and I headed out with some friends to sled down our hill out back and then joined them for Hot Chocolate afterward. It was such a fun day and I'm glad we had one good snowstorm this year!