Kids and dogs

So today was an interesting day. We got home from a playdate to find a house covered in flour. A whole bag of flour. Murphy had pulled it off the counter and the dogs had a blast with it. Of course, when they licked it, it turned into paste. So far, impossible to get out of the carpet. Wow. As I'm dealing with that, Brady calls me into the bathroom to say "what's THAT?" It was two green turds on the floor. He apparently couldn't hold in the poo-poo while he was going pee-pee and it just popped out. So I spent my day with poop and flour! Gotta love kids and dogs! Here is a picture of only a portion of the flour mess, Brady deciding to sit naked in his closet (why not?) and a picture of Lauren deciding to lie down on the deck.

Carmichael family vacation 2009

The kids got their first taste of the beach this year as we headed to New Smyrna Beach, Florida. The waves and sand were a little scary to the kiddos at first, but by day 2, they were complete surfer babies. Our dear friends Paul & Marci Patterson and their beautiful kids Sherilyn & John live close by, and we got to spend a lot of fun time with them too. It was all too perfect, from the amazing views from the deck of our "pink conch house" to the weather to just the simple family time. We watched dolphins swim two different mornings and had a huge sea turtle swim up to shore about a foot away from us. We took some great pictures and made some great family memories. Enjoy!

Just like brother

I love this picture because Lauren kept putting on Brady's hat and grabbing all of his prized possessions (all of his Thomas trains). She already wants to do everything that he does, which means we already have some sibling rivalry at the ages of 1 and 3. They are so stinking cute together!

Our kids are just CUTE.

Fun stuff

We've spent some time this spring at Grant's Farm and the zoo, so here are some fun pictures. We need some visitors--St. Louis has so much fun stuff to do!

Brady turns 3!

We celebrated Brady's 3rd birthday a few times...he had already had a cake with his family, so on his actual birthday, we took some of his friends to a fun place called Creation Station at the Transportation Museum. They played like crazy for a while, had some train-shaped cookies, and then the whole crew took a little train ride. The conductors (and everyone on the train) even sang happy birthday to him. He had such a great day! He also had a cake and presents at home that night. He got some really fun gifts, like a trampoline from Nana, Cranky the Crane (from Thomas the Train) and a huge fire truck, which he decided to sleep with at naptime. We can't believe our baby is 3...it just seems so much older than 2.

Finally!

A couple of videos...Brady is finally figuring out how to pedal, now that he's almost outgrown his little trike/bike. He has a bit of a temper, so it's kind of funny to watch him get frustrated and throw his bike around and stomp off when he can't get it to work the way he wants. We're working on our good sportsmanship skills. And here is Lauren saying her current favorite word, "hi."