Florida Bound!!!

Today Billy left for Florida. He will be down there for a couple of weeks. June 6th he comes back up here to VA to pick us up and then we all head down on June 12th to begin a new chapter in our lives. We are really excited about this and have plenty of room for visitors. So please stop by.

Take a look at this pic and tell me if you see something truly ironic about it.

Strawberry Picking!!

We all visited the local strawberry patch and to our surprise Lola did not eat everything in sight like we thought she would. 7 1/2 pounds of strawberries and only one melt down later we were on our way home for yummy strawberry shortcake. See the pics at Shutterfly.

Mother's Day Fun!!!

So, we have been in Virginia Beach since Dec. and never have been to the beach. So for Mother's Day all I wanted was to go to the beach with my family. We spent a beautiful mother's day down in Okracoke North Carolina with our good friends the Hyatts. After a 2 hour drive and a 40 min ferry ride with 5 children we were finally there and it was an awesome day. I couldn't have asked for a better mother's day then to see my beautiful children running in and out of the most beautiful ocean. Fun Times, enjoy our pics at Shutterfly!

Billy's Coast Guard Commissioning!!

Wednesday May 6th, Billy was commissioned into the Coast Guard by one of our really good friends Scott Hyatt! It was a small little ceremony down in Elizabeth City in front of the Coast Guard station. He is officially a coastie now!!!! Florida here we come!!

Virginia Zoo in the rain!!!

We love going to the zoo, but this was our first time in the rain. I think the kids had more fun jumping and splashing in the puddles then they did looking at the animals. My mom and dad and sister joined us and the kids thought it was so funny that Nana had to run in the rain!

Finnley has surgery.

So for those of you who have noticed the little bumps of Finnley's forehead, we have seen a pediatric dermatologist at Naval Portsmouth, VA. They told us that it was a Nevius Sebeccas, which in regular people terms is a birth mark made of oil glands that grow the wrong direction. So they actually referred us to a plastic surgeon at the same hospital to discuss removal. After we saw both doctors we decided to have it removed. We weighed the pros and cons and the pros outweighed the cons. The doctors told us that it could get bigger and worse, it could start growing things underneath it that could lead to types of cancers. So we set the date for removal.
The day finally came Tuesday April 21st, we took her in and she had it removed. The scar or cut is much bigger then we thought it would be. They sent the whole thing off to the lab to have it tested to make sure they got it all and that it was all okay. She is doing really good. And chip and lola are being really amazing about it too. Take a look at the before and after.

Spring Break in Florida House Hunting!!!

So it has been a while since I last blogged. For numerous reasons. I am really involved in Facebook right now, we just had a whole week of spring break and Finnley just had surgery, or and the fact that I am training again, this time for the MS 150 which is a two day 150 mile bike ride for MS. Crazy I know but for a good cause!!!

So lets start with Spring Break and our House hunting in Florida. So for any of you who may not have heard, we have ETS the Army and Billy commissions into the Coast Guard on May 6th. We have received orders to Clearwater Florida. So we drove down there last week during spring break to house hunt and survey the area. We, billy and I and three children drove 12 hours on a sunday to get there that night. We stayed at Macdill Air force Base, which is actually a beautiful base. Our intentions were to buy a house. Well after three days of looking at houses all day each day we decided to rent. Crazy i know, but we were just not satisfied with anything in our price range. Plus we do not know how long we will be there. So we have rented a 4 bedroom 2000 square foot home in Tarpon Springs. I will get you the address when we have officially signed paperwork. So for all of our family and friends, please visit. We have tons of room and a pool. YEAH!!!!! One less stress off of Billy's plate!!!! hahahahaha Enjoy some of the pics of the kids at Honeymoon Island!!!