cousin time!

Matt has been out of town part of this week, so my sis and her boys came to hang out with us for a couple of days! my terrible streak of not taking pictures tried to continue, and in some ways it prevailed, since i only have these two pics from their time here! this was cute though, claire wanted to hold her cute baby cousin emmett (4 months) and as things tend to go in our family, when one does, the other must also do! :)

church search

we are still church searching in our new town. because of this we've had a couple of sundays where we just have our own church at home. we've done a sunday school lesson with the kids on these occasions. the one today taught about how God is our Shepherd and we are his sheep.

Wy's 1st Day of Preschool!

Being the slack photo taker that i am, i have no pictures of this picture worthy day: Wyatt's first day of preschool!! He was hesitant at first, but he seemed to have fun! yay!

It will also be interesting as claire and i figure out what to do during these 3 hours he's in school!

Lucy turns 6!

Happy Birthday to the best doggers in the whole wide world! :)

eagerly awaiting her birthday cupcake!

oh glorious cupcake!!

...3 seconds later!!!

Beach Trip: Clean up and head out….

As always, the last day seem to get creep up on us way too fast! we had a awesome trip and hope that we can do it again in the future! here are some pictures of our super fun beach house!

thanks jason and hollie for doing great reasearch and finding this place!
(you can barely see me, but i'm standing on the porch! :))

the back yard! ;) matt was sceptical about why you would want to have a pool when you were already AT the beach, but it was awesome (and he agrees!)! we could be swimming all day if we wanted to and it was also nice because for the little kiddos on days when the ocean was too rough for them.

Beach Trip: Day 6 – beach day!

This was our last day on the beach! I again forgot my camera (or forgot to use it…either is likely!)!

Beach Trip: Day 5 – Putt-Putt!

This was the Gwinn’s last day. When they were ready to head out, we all followed them into Nags Head to check out the shops. We were kind of hoping to play putt-putt at some point, so once we departed from the Gwinns, we went to get some supper then searched out a neat putt-putt place. The one we found was particularly neat because it had a train that you rode to the first hole, which the kids (esp. wyatt) loved!

wyatt and abby teaing off at the same time!

claire's turn?

action shot

here's a cute video of the kiddos playing...at least, i think they are...matt seems confused too! :)

Beach Trip: Day 4 – picture day

We headed out early to the beach again this day, but I have no pictures of it! But after dinner that evening we headed back out to the beach for a photo shoot (thanks to Andrea and Jason!) to get some family pictures! They did a great job!

the ncRenfrows!

my cousin Jason and his family, Hollie, Abby and Alivia!

my sis, Andrea, and her family, Jason, Eli and Emmett!

me, my sis and our fams!

the whole beach gang!

cutie eli sayin' cheese!

daddy and his two lil monkeys! :)
(i love this picture!)

After the photo shoot, we went to get ice cream then headed back to put the kiddos to bed.

sweet claire eating her strawberry ice cream...i often wonder if she really likes the taste of it? i am sure she does, but i know that the real reason she always wants it is because it is pink!!

just like a baby birdie!

cute lil' emsters!

Beach Trip: Day 3 – Fish Sticks!

Jason G (bro-in-law) found out about some of the neat things offered at the state park and signed Matt, Wyatt, Jason M (cousin) and Abby up to take a fishing class! I know that Jason G was bummed he and Eli couldn’t do it, but I think the kiddos had to be 4…we’ll just have to go back in a couple of years! :) here are pictures from our day:

Jason and Eli with the bear inside the state park building.

wyatt and abby (middle) making fishing poles and learning fishing basics.

wyatt and matt fishing!

jason and abby fishing!

wy caught one!!!

matt, wyatt, me and claire walking over the bridge toward the state park,
behind us is the Whalehead Club is a historic house museum.

Beach Trip: Day 2 – the beach!!

On day 2 we made it to the beach…it started out cloudy this particular morning too, but we didn’t let it fool us this time!

Andrea and her sweet little babe Emmett

testing the waters!

my cousin Jason and his girls :)

Jason (bro-in-law) and Eli

this is Wyatt testing the waters!! ha!

eli's feelings for the ocean water matched wyatt's, so these guys could always be seen wherever the sand toys were...in the sand!

claire and i taking water to the sand toys...boys!

cute lil' livy playing in the shade of the canopy

where are wyatt and eli?? oh yeah, in the sand! happy as clams!

here's another sand lover! claire did loved the water as well! she's a beach girl!

eli, claire and wyatt playing in the hole uncle J dug for them...this picture is just missing abby–the other "big" kid.

Beach Trip: Day 1 – Exploring

It started out cloudy, so we thought it would be a great day to do some exploring on the Outer Banks beach of Corolla, especially since this is the first time any of us have been here! We’ve been to other parts of the outer banks before, but never this part. There was a light house, historic house, state park and at the end was a undeveloped part of the beach that had wild horses! you could drive out on this part of beach to see the horses…if you had 4 wheel drive, so we didn’t get to do that part, but it would have been really neat!

So, here is what we did see:

we talked with a family that had come up with a creative way to catch crabs in a sound inlet (i guess that is what it could be called...small creek off of the sound?): raw chicken legs, rope and a kitchen strainer! it worked!!

me, claire and matt relaxing in the ocean breeze on a gazebo at the end of a pier by the state park.

the Currituck Beach Lighthouse

Beach Trip: Eli’s 2nd Birthday

We just returned from a super fun week at the beach! We went with the Gwinns (my sis and her fam) and the Mowreys (my cousin Jason and his fam)!

We arrived at the beach on Eli’s 2nd birthday, so once the vehicles were unloaded, we got ready to celebrate the little guy! ☺ here are some pictures from his curious george birthday party!

Andrea and Jason, being the super parents they are, had pre-ordered a cake and picked it up at the grocery store right outside the neighborhood we were staying in!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Eli!!

Emmett, Andrea, Eli and me getting ready to eat some pizza!
(since i probably won't have a belly expansion series again with this pregnancy, i'll have to point it out whenever there is a decent shot of the growing bell!! i'm 16 weeks here.)

wyatt and abby sayin' "cheese"!

livy, claire and matt :)

Jason and the cute party favor bags!

eli enjoying his birthday cake!!

time to open presents!!

claire having fun with the stickers that were in her favor bag!