I Belong to the Church of Jesus Christ

Macy walked out of nursery with a tag clipped to her that said “I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” I thought it was so adorable! Jonathan picked her up and he said she was so proud of it and kept pointing to it and saying “uh, uh!” Even though the picture is bad I had to take one. I started to sing the Primary song to her and now every time she sees this tag she tries to clip it on and signs for more. She wants me to sing the song to her. How sweet! I want to keep the tag and hopefully it will come in handy for future FHE lessons.

Macy’s First Ice Cream Cone

We celebrated my sister-in-law’s birthday with Thai food, cake, and ice cream. Macy loved the ice cream cone and started eating it from the bottom. Why is it that kids bite the bottom out first? How do they all know to do that when they shouldn’t?

Playseum

Macy and her friend Grant went to a Playseum in Bethseda. Both of the kids had a great time wandering around to the different rooms that are set up with different themes (i.e building, dentist, grocery store, old children’s play room, etc). Here Macy and Grant are enjoying their morning tea before heading off to work. It looks like Macy answers the phone while Grant does the typing. 

 

New Stroller

Macy has been eyeing this stroller since the moment she first laid eyes on one. I finally broke down and bought her one so she would stop trying to steal our neighbor’s. Jonathan was gone in Fargo so before taking the picture I asked her to smile for daddy. She was so excited we walked around with that stroller almost every waking minute for the rest of the day.

Macy loves stickers

One day Macy and I were playing in her room. We came across stickers and I would give one to her and she would run off with it. She kept coming back for more and then running off again. Afterwards I found the stickers on the window sill on our room and in the hallway mirror.

Outer Banks Family Vacation

This year the DeVore vacation was spent all together in one house in the Outer Banks. It was so much fun! I thought it was the best family vacation we've had yet. The house of awesome, the pool was great, the beach was perfect, and the company was good too. We were able to relax and enjoy everyone's company instead of trying to see every tourist attraction out there.

The first night there Kiersten took pictures on the beach. They turned out great and here are a few of my favorites. They were a precursor to our Tuesday night photo shoot.

Monday was the 4th of July and it was so fun to be on the beach watching the fireworks. It was almost magical and one of my favorite memories.

Tuesday we had two photographers come to take on the mammoth challenge of photographing the whole Devore clan. The name of their company was Island Photography and they are a husband and wife team. They were so great! They worked at hyper speed so none of the kids tried to run away in the picture. After the whole group we took individual family photos and they turned out so great. Everyone looks beautiful with the beach in the background because the lighting was just perfect. Here is a link to just some of my favorite pictures. Macy cried for the first attempt at getting a family picture and screamed the whole time during the grandkids picture. Oh well, at least we got a few good ones.

Other than that we mostly stayed at the house. We hung out at the beach a lot because Macy loved playing in the sand and water. She wouldn't go into the pool for whatever reason but liked the hot tub. Macy also loved having all her cousins around to follow. It was so cute. Luc won her over one night by giving her M&M's. She would find, him tug on his shirt and point to the cupboard until he got her more. He is a very good big cousin.

Each night one family was in charge of making dinner for the whole group. This was a million times better than going out to eat every night. Plus, we got to try different foods from what we normally eat.

Jonathan boogie boarding

Macy longing to drive the go karts

The one outing we did was to the Wright brother's memorial. This is how Macy liked it.

Not at all. She cried and cried to get out of the stroller.

She eventually settled down when we let her out of the stroller. She had fun playing with the drain.

The last night the kids got to dig for buried treasure. Holly had a treasure chest filled with goodies and made red and white striped bandanas for all the kids to wear. Macy actually liked it and kept it on. And of course she liked all the candy inside. 

We had a great vacation and can't wait to do it again next year. The only thing that we will change is the time we leave to drive there. Apparently leaving later in the afternoon is how to beat the traffic. It took us 10 hours to drive there when it should only take 5 1/2! Even if we have to drive that long again it will be worth it. 

Watermelon Lime Smoothie

I know the picture isn't great but I started drinking it and couldn't stop.

This is my new favorite way to eat watermelon! We made some last night for dinner and I had to have a second glass before going to bed because I was craving more of the sweet tangy goodness. Here is the recipe I used but you can definitely change it up as needed. I'm thinking of adding strawberries next time.

2 cups frozen cubed watermelon
1 ripe banana
lime juice from 2 limes (it has a strong lime flavor so cut back if you don't like that)
lime zest from 1/2 a lime
1/2 cup Sprite (or more to make is smoother)

Blend all together. Easy Peasy.