Last Days of Summer

Now that our days of summer are slowly coming to a close, we have been reflecting on how great of a summer we have had!  Landon is almost 2 and a half and Elle is 7 months old!  They love each other so much and really enjoy playing together.  Elle cracks up at Landon and sometimes when they are playing together, we just sit back and watch with the biggest smiles on our faces.  But, most of the time we jump right in and start playing & laughing with them!  We have had a lot of great adventures this past summer and it will be a great one to look back on.  Landon and I have taken a few walks on the beach together in the early mornings before Daddy and Elle wake up.  It's a very special time for me.  We walk hand in hand down to the pier and back looking for crabs and neat seashells.  Other times, the four of us go out to the beach and play in the tide pools.  And our new favorite thing to do is go downtown to the new frozen yogurt shop and eat outside.  This may be our last summer in Fernandina Beach and I think it is safe to say, it was the best way to finish the last summer season of 4 years!

Elle is stylin' in her cute little sunglasses.  Such a beauty queen.  :)

Daddy and Landon enjoy their long walks on the beach looking for fishies, seashells and crabs.  A big prize is when we find starfish!

A view of our beautiful beach and our tide pools that Landon loves from under the umbrella.

Just like Landon did, Elle is growing up too fast. 

We like to doodle in the sand.  :)

These guys are best buds. 

Landon David, 29 months old.

We all love the tide pools!

I love my baby girl.

Beautiful.

Landon is a very athletic little guy...when he runs he goes so fast and can stop on the dot.  He has also learned how to dodge haha.

My heart melts...

A few days ago, we were having a discussion with Landon.  We were telling him that before we were "Daddy" and "Mommy", we were Paul and Brooke.  And Landon just looked at us like we were crazy and said, "No Pawl and Book" haha.  It's hard to remember life without our little ones, so he's not far off the mark!  But, we are happy that 2 of his trains are named Pawl and Book.  :)

I absolutely LOVE this picture!

Having Fun At The Pool

We have pretty much spent the entire summer in the water!  Between the beach and the pool, we have had a lot of fun and had some great adventures!  Landon is a pro in the water and loves the waterfall now.  He can go under it all by himself now, whereas before he was very afraid of it and only would go in with Daddy.  Elle is sitting up now and really enjoys sitting on the edge of the pool.  She and Landon splash together and this always ends up in a laughing fit between the two of them.  Enjoy the photos!

He loves the water!

Our beautiful babe.

Landon loves the slide at the pool.  And he and his friend Lauren were having a blast playing on it!

Lauren is one of Landon's classmates from pre-school!  They are good buds!

In the waterfall!

He's a fish I tell you!

This is our friend Holli with her daughter Petal.

Elle is such a happy baby!  Loves to laugh...and make Mommy laugh too!

Silly girl!

Now that Elle can sit up, these 2 love hanging out in the pool together.

And it's great because of the giant umbrella for shade!

Such a big girl!

Our friends Courtney, who is due in December and Natalie from Church!  We love our pool dates!

Elle loved sitting with Mrs. Natalie.  :)

Again, the happiest baby ever! 

Loving The Beach

The kids and I have been enjoying these last days of summer together at the beach.  We love to go to the beach and I decided to pull out the video camera...I know, shocker.  But, I got some great clips of Landon and Elle.  Enjoy! 

Fishing With Poppy

This is something my Dad has been wanting to do with Landon for a long time now.  And we are so excited that is has finally been able to happen!  We can't wait for more fish adventures!

Landon's first worm.  He doesn't usually like bugs, but he was very intrigued by these worms! 

Landon's FIRST fish!  He didn't really want to get close to it at first, but he quickly changed his mind after Poppy threw him back!  :)  Fun Fact: Landon's first word was "Fish".

Landon and Poppy caught 4 fish that afternoon and by then Landon was all about being close to the 'fishie'.  Another Fun Fact: When I was little, my Dad would take us fishing all the time and I would always catch sunfish and my brother would catch bass.  This day Landon caught all sunfish, just like his Mommy!  :)

He even asked to touch it!

This will be a great memory for Poppy and Landon!

Landon and Poppy were after the "Monster Fish".  Landon kept asking for it.  He is STILL asking for it! 

He loved holding the rod!

Now that's one future fisherman right there sitting next to a pro! 

He followed Poppy whenever he moved to a new hole.

Helping Poppy put the bobber on the line.

Looking for the Monster Fish!

This is his "Froggy Smile" from his favorite book City Dog, Country Frog.

I loved watching him smile at the fishies.

This is a video of Landon catching his first fish! It is so funny and will hopefully make you laugh as hard as it made me laugh. What's even more funny is that Landon just watched this video with me before we published this post and was laughing at himself really hard. 

Happy Bath Time

Elle is sitting up on her own now, so bath time has become much easier for Mommy and Daddy!  :)  We love our babies so much!  Enjoy the video!

Treasure Hunting

This weekend we had a Moving Sale and it was a huge success! We are moving in a few months and this was our planned one attempt to downsize. I had been organizing for weeks for this and thank goodness all of the work paid off! We got up bright and early that morning and I drove out to put the signs up on the roads. Then I organized everything on the tables and we brought out all of the furniture and by 6:45am people started rolling up! It was still dark! So much for asking in my newspaper ad for 'No Early Birds Please'. I can't complain though because we sold almost everything...only about 15 items left (and we probably started with about 100!). It was great! The best part I think was watching Landon walk around and yell at people for buying his old toys, all in his t-shirt and diaper with his morning milk. One woman even said, "Sorry pal, it's mine now" haha! Most people laughed at his reactions, but this lady was determined to get as many of the toys as possible. Another woman said she was 'Treasure Hunting'.  I thought that was really cute.  I am so glad that I priced every item in the weeks before because I can't tell you how many people came up to me in all of the chaos and started bargaining. Had there not been an initial price, I think I would have almost given everything away for free because it was so stressful! But, like I said, it was all worth it and the 6:45am rush (we're talking like almost 15-20 people all rushing up and grabbing things like it was Black Friday and asking me tons of questions) is where we sold almost all of our stuff! When the sun was finally up and I was able to take a breath, I looked around and realized that it was all almost gone! So, our first Magnuson family yard sale was a success! Phew!

Once the am rush was over, we had about half left to sell.

Elle was doing a great job attracting the older ladies to stop by.  They all just 'had' to come say hi to her.  :) 

Look how much of a big boy Landon is now...one hand drinking from a cup! 

Landon is quite the smiler these days.  When you ask him to say cheese, he squints his eyes and smiles this silly smile.  But, he's still adorable.  :)

Phew, having a yard sale is hard work!

Almost sold everything!  I wore my nifty apron to collect the money. 

The next day, Elle and I were surveying what was left over.

She is such a happy baby!

Little chunky monkey.