Happy 5th Birthday, Clare Baby!

How did we go from this:

To this:

So quickly??? Happy 5th Birthday to our sweet, smart, beautiful Clare Baby Girl! we love you, sweetheart.

Florida

Loooooong overdue pictures from our lovely family trip down to Louisiana and Florida.

Swimming at the Ft. Polk pool. Can you tell which baby is from WA?

Ah, nothing says, "vacation," more than a couple puke bowls and lying on the couch all day. Clare got a nasty bug at Ft. Polk and unfortunately I think we dragged it all the way to Florida with us and poisoned the ENTIRE Herring family (there were 109 of us there!). Puking and diarrhea picked off a couple new people every day for the whole week we were there. Fortunately it was a 24-hour thing for most people. Ick.

Tom's Grandma Herring, upon seeing all the family and friends who had gathered as a surprise for her 90th birthday and celebration of her departed husband's memory. We prayed a family rosary and had a special Mass celebrated at their parish in Panama City for this occasion, then gathered for the rest of the week at the beach.

Grandma and Jamesey Boy

Clare found a hermit crab

Andrew got nicknamed the "Baby Beluga" during our week at the beach. He took many naps under the umbrella on the beach while everyone else played in the water or built sand castles.

Sunset view on the beach right outside our condo

Aunt Monique and baby Trey -- she got to be with us the WHOLE week!

Our wild woman climbing the pier

Grandma in 7th Heaven playing in the sand with her grands. The kids had SO much fun with their cousins!

Grandma and Grandpa Herring with all their grands in one place -- albeit not all happy to be there at the same time.

Taking a walk on the pier

A gator in Thomas and Mary's back yard. Just kidding. It was at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans, where we stopped and played for a couple of days on our road trip back from Florida to Louisiana. What an awesome place! We decided that it is somewhere we definitely want to go back and explore more without kids someday.

Best buds Dom and Clare. We miss the Beuschels!

Brothers

I've been waiting for an opportunity to post a set of pictures like this...

Tea Time

We had a wonderful girl date last Friday at a quaint little tea room in Port Gamble with Grandma, Grammy, Steph, Mommy, and Clare. What a treat! As we walked in to the tea room, we each got to choose a hat to wear, and Steph and Clare got to put on some fancy dress up dresses and necklaces. Then we were served a "high tea," complete with sandwiches, scones, and chocolate fondue for dessert. The lady who owns the tea room also gave us a little etiquette lesson, which Clare thought was great -- she still talks about it during our tea parties and meals at home. We hope to do this again with some of our girl friends!

Glimpses of Spring!

Some flowers from around our house and neighborhood...







Helping Mommy work outside...good thing my kids like getting dirt under their fingernails as much as I do.





No idea why they decided to bust out the life jackets here.



Their current favorite critters: worms, ladybugs, and potato bugs.



Clare prefers to garden barefoot. But gotta love those little pink toenails!



There's something wonderfully nostalgic about having a milk cooler on our doorstep and having fresh milk delivered to our house. It just makes me smile when I see it.

How Andrew got his nickname(s)

Lovingly known around here as "Mr. Puker," "Pukey Puke-face," "Pukey Pukester"

Herring Happenings

I have to apologize for the total lack of timely updating on this blog. We have a very frustrating computer situation that makes it entirely too much effort for me to upload photos and get them posted on here. I'll try to do better, especially as I realized that I hadn't posted any new pictures or anything since Andrew was born. Can I blame it on the holidays and having a new baby? ;) In any case, here are a few pictures from the past couple of months.



We started out December with a visit from Aunt Monique! What a blessing she is to our family.



Clare and James helping me make Christmas treats. I think more ended up on their faces, hands, and clothes than in the mixing bowl.



Clare and Avila. They are so cute together, and I love that she's at the age where I can choose her friends for her (and spend some time with MY friends at the same time!)



Clare practicing her spelling while I make dinner. This is a little reading activity that I read about in Mommy, Teach Me to Read! by Barbara Curtis. She loves it!



Packin' on the pounds -- check out those rolls! I think they're getting bigger every day.



She loves her baby brother!



Andrew's favorite place in the whole world.



Future babywearing Mama? She spent literally all afternoon with her baby attached to her, just doing her thing while holding her baby. :)