Ralls Cousins!

My camera broke (I blame Kate or Evie during the Valentine's Day picture session), so hence my lack of blogging. But, I did realize this week that I never posted the Ralls cousins pictures we got taken over the summer. I couldn't post them before Christmas because they were a surprise for the grandparents, and then I just forgot. So, here are some fun pictures courtesy of Alyssa Mintus Photography!

Madelyn wasn't quite ready to jump right in at the start, but it is still a cute picture!

L-R Kate, Brady, Ella, Madelyn, Annie, Mallory and Adam. And of course Evie in front.

Annie, Kate and Eve

Mallory and Adam

Brady, Ella and Maddee

All eight of them! It was really sunny by the water.

They sort of arranged themselves like this. Alyssa just told them to hold hands. So cute!

More Instagram

I have an Instagram problem. I am addicted to it.

These aren't even all the pictures I took since I last posted them.

This one is blurry because it was one of Evie's first jaunts!

I swear I did not pose her like this. She just did it in the Debrah's driveway on a random warm-ish day.

Mama and Kate having fun while Annie is at school and Eve is asleep.

She's like a real kid now.

This is Annie. She announced, "I'm going to put my surgery clothes on because that's what real doctors do!"

Evie is a pacifier junkie.

She is also trouble. She is like a tornado around the house.

Smiling so big her face hurts.

New nightgowns from Uncle Matt!

Eve loves the school where the girls take ballet. She is always trying to run away to explore.



Happy Valentine's Day!

Annie, Evie, and Kate. Perfect little Valentines :)

They are so adorable together. 95% of the time.

They find themselves so hilarious. I wonder where they get that from?

Annie.

Kate.

Evie.

 This is not a great picture, but some mean person helped her realize that once a photo is taken, she can look on the camera (or my phone) to see herself. Hence, she is no longer interested in the taking of the photo, only in the viewing of the photo.

Finally, if anyone was wondering what it's like to take pictures of three squirmy, crazy girls. Here is the truth in outtakes. And I counted this particular session as a good one.

Eve said "No, Thank You!" to photo taking.

She also decided that Annie shouldn't take pictures either and attacked her.

Kate struck a variety of poses. They were all as lovely as this.



Happy Birthday Eve!!

Evie is ONE!

Every parent of every child says they can't believe how fast time went by, so yes, we cannot believe our baby is one!

We got back from our trip just in time for her birthday. She was exhausted, however, becuase she stayed awake the entire time from Cleveland back to Ann Arbor. Though, it did not deter her from enjoying her very first birthday.

I'm sure people are sick of hearing about it, but she is seriously the happiest baby. It's almost concerning. If we could bottle what Evie has, I'm pretty sure we'd be billionaires.

She is just joyful every single day. It's hard to not be happy around her. She waves now and says something that resembles "Bye-bye." She is a walking demon. She's practically running. She loves to get into trouble. She's always after things that she knows are off limits. :) She loves her sisters, is slightly wary of Kate, and is not really a fan of the poor dog.

She is spoiled. Really spoiled. We all do whatever she wants. I hold her all the time. Her sisters give her whatever wants. We are in trouble with Evie.

She was so tired when we were singing Happy Birthday. She was asleep 20 minutes later.

Of course, that didn't stop her from destroying the cupcake!

And then today, an official one year old:

This cracks me up. I feel that way around this family all the time, Evie. :)

And what's a first birthday as a Ralls if you don't play with the fish toy!?

Happy Birthday to our sweet Eve! We love you and your smiling little face!



Paradise

With these two years of research, Matt has a lot more time. Time to hang out, time to moonlight, time to be a normal person. :) So, we decided to take a vacation without the kids, knowing it's going to be quite awhile before this can happen again. After much debate, we decided to go to a Dreams resort in La Romana, Dominican Republic.

It was heavenly. We said we wanted to go on a trip to do nothing, and that is exactly what we did. We did go snorkeling one day, but other than that we just enjoyed the sunshine and 80 degree temperatures.

We left really early in the morning, so Matt saw the sunrise from the air. (I was sleeping!)

Our first morning we got coffee and just sat in the warmth :)

We were, by far, the whitest two people on the beach. By far.

Also, this is Matt reading his first book ever for pleasure. Ever! (It was the Hunger Games, by the way). (Also, he just stole my Nook to read Catching Fire! Haha!)

And we returned home just as white. We used about an entire bottle of sunblock.

This is pretty much all we did the entire time, unless you count walking to get food or drinks. It was lovely.

Swim up bar. Matt's one request.

Getting ready to snorkel. Turns out, the water sort of freaks me out. I panicked a little when I first put my face in. I don't think I could ever go SCUBA diving.

Ridiculous. This thing was way too big for my face. I had a huge bruise on my forehead to prove that it didn't go on right.

After our initial failure, it turned out to be really fun! So many colorful fish and coral and crazy salt water life.

This guy was parked under my beach chair.

Our last night. It was Super Bowl Sunday.

The resort had a beach party/Super Bowl viewing party set up. For some reason, all the men were dressed up like this. They looked like jockeys. Some things get lost in translation, I suppose. :)

And this little guy was in our room. Matt discovered him as we were packing to go. Thank God.

It was a wonderful trip. Thanks to our parents who watched the girls while we were gone. You're the best!!