A new phase for Rafael and adventures for the others

Rafael just turned ten month a few days ago.. First I was going to get a cute, happy picture but then I decided against it. After all, this pictures kind of shows you what ten months is all about. There are a lot of things to be sad about when you are ten months... teeth coming, mamma can actually disappear around the corner, mamma is trying to make me eat food and not only nurse and she even thinks that I don't need to eat every other hour during the night!! Bah!

Check out all those teeth!!

We went to a park with a friend and her kids the other day and we had created a treasure hunt for the older kids. They were supposed to find certain things, like something yellow, a roly-poly (gråsugga), three different leaves etc. It was a lot of fun even if it was raining for most of the time we were there and the mosquitoes were bad!

Gabriel sleeping in hid fort :-)

We FINALLY got a new car!!! A Toyota Sequoya with 8 seats!!! :-)

 I wish I could say that our little garden is flourishing but... there are too many bugs and flees for it to do that... We still harvest tomatoes, and cucumbers keeps coming but never survive very long, but we will see how long the plants will survive. They look very peeked.

Quick visit to the beach on night..

A while ago we got a console containing lots of old Nintendo games. The boys enjoy the first Super Mario :-)

Me and Rafael at a baby shower for a friend.

A few more pictures from the Light house visit

There was a grandpa joining us on the Light house field trip the other day and he took a lot of pictures with a lot better camera than my phone. Since he was so sweet to share them I wanted to share some of them here.

Learning about living without running water and electricity

Just being Gabriel!

Cozy in the carrier

An old light house light

Adventures and action

First a back flash from our vacation time in the Keys!! We call it the "Haitian boat" ;-)

 Back in Miami after the Keys Marlee and Noah spent a lot of time building Legos.

Before leaving Miami to go back to Ormond Beach we had time to visit the new Frost museum. It was huge and we only had time to do a small part of it but it was all very good!

Petting Stingrays

Going through an art project :-)

:-*

We made sure to find a new car before leaving Miami, finally!! :-) A Toyota Sequoia with 8 lovely seats so we can fit lots of people in it :-D Unfortunately, I don't have a picture yet but I am sure I will add one soon. We also fixed the Volvo that we are about to sell now.

After swimming...

Morning snuggle

Brother snuggles :-)

Boys!!!

Gift from Farfar that came with the mail. They went outside and ate our plants, Lol!

So before Alex left for Washington DC, where he is now, he introduced Monopoly to Marlee and Noah. And now they have been playing it for three days, as soon as they get a chance :-)

Yesterday we had an unwanted visitor, a snake. I must say that it was rather beautiful, but still, I reeeeeally don't like snakes. Our sweet sweet neighbor came over to help after it had climbed up in one of our trees by our house. It ended up escaping into the garage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The good news are that it is a corn snake, so not venomous, and it might eat one or two rats.

Today we all went on a field trip with one of the coops, to the Light house in Ponce Inlet. It is the tallest light house in Florida and the third tallest one in the US. 

Posing in front of the Swedish Light House keeper :-)

Walking up the 200-something steps.

Ponce Inlet

Tried to get them all in the picture... did not work so good...

Going back down again...

So, I tend to focus on the pictures more the what I right, so I, sometimes, forget to mention things about the boys. Such as, Noah lost his second tooth when we were in the Keys and Rafael started crawling (properly) as soon as we got back to Miami. Marlee and Noah both got a haircut from Farmor in Miami and they have really cute hair now :-) Gabriel got a lot braver in the water while we were in the Keys and dares to swim without holding hands :-)

Schoolwork, beach, Wedding and Vacation!!!!

Living in vacation land sometimes makes it hard to actually go on vacation but we did, and we are still on vacation. More about that later...Before going on vacation we did do some school work at home but we also went to the beach with lots of friends (about 25 kids :-), and, attended a Wedding when one of my best friends got married! It was so cute!!

Noah practicing reading on our new white board

Beach day with lots of our friends!

Rafael already wants to join the group and play (here with a friend)!

Since Gabriel still uses the crib sometimes, Rafael ends up sleeping on the floor :-)

KATHIE + ZACH = TRUE

At the marina in Daytona Beach

Bride and Groom!!

Kathie's daughter with her friend

Sometimes Gabriel can be very sweet to his brother...

Marlee dancing with one of his friends (so nice and dressed up!)

Noah dancing, too, also very nicely dressed up!!

So I was talking about us going on vacation. And yes, we are down south now. Rented a car and went down to the Keys. Farmor and farfar came, too, and Uncle Cory and and his family. We had a wonderful time at the perfect house, which we got to borrow from a friend of farmor and farfar. It was absolutely perfect!!! We went out snorkeling  two times and the boys did great!! Noah snorkeled for the first time of his life and he did it without any fear or other problems! Gabriel was, suddenly, not afraid of the water at all and jumped in without hesitation.

"Our" house

Uncle Cory and cousin Eli

Marlee got to drive the boat!

Mamma and Gabriel selfie

Alex snorkeling with Marlee and Noah

Noah driving!!

Eli fell asleep on the boat

Our family...

By our house

Farmor and Rafael in the pool

Rafael in the pool

Pappa fishing with the boys on the dock by the house

Marlee found a friend on the boat, a tiny crab

- Look mamma, a moon!

Cool looking jelly fish

Now we are all back in Miami and we will stay here for a few days before going back to Ormond and our normal life.