Family, Holden Beach and a Birthday Boy!

a few weeks ago we ventured to holden beach for our first family trip since adding caroline to our crew! as you know, once you have children, vacation suddenly loses its inherent meaning. that is, however....unless you have in-laws like mine!:) beginning with their taking the boys down a whole day early, ben's parents truly allow us to have a vacation by helping so much with the kids. we were able to leave caroline for a few hours on several occasions to jet out for trips to the water slide, miniature golf, ice cream...and even a much needed date night!! we were also treated to one delicious meal after another.

per his usual...my sweet husband got up each morning with the boys who have an unfortunate habit of waking up earlier and earlier every day on vacation. hence...the "beach at sunrise" shots!;) flying kites, digging great big holes, rolling in the sand and doing headstands (james that is-please note pic below) were just some of the fun things that took place.

while we were there...james celebrated his second birthday with a yummy cake and fun presents from marmie and poppy! what better place to celebrate than at the beach.

finally...i am SO behind in my blogging, that i wanted to also go back and include a few pics from a great visit we had in june with ben's brother (my brother in law) nate, his wife bek and their 4 sweet kiddos! the kids enjoyed a bubble bath in the hot tub (cooled down:) and we even got a great shot of marmie and poppy with the grand kids.

lastly, stayed tuned for more shots from our "family birthday party" here in charlotte!! ben david with his cousins: nathan, ceci and gia (minus jude and kai:)

with marmie and poppy wheeeeeee!!!

hitting the beach early

the best part of miniature golf!

ben david was pretty good!

this is pretty much where caroline spent her time on our trip and was happy as a clam!

nice james...

my little boy is two!

birthday supper

Just the FIVE of us!!

while my blogging has fallen by the wayside in the last month, i did want to take a moment to post some recent shots. i can't take credit for these pictures, as they were taken by our favorite photographer, lindsey turner (http://www.lindseyturnerphotography.com/).

the goal was to capture a few "three year old" pics of ben david and some newborn shots of caroline. james made it to the family shot, but that was about as much as he could mangage:) ENJOY!!!

Sweet Caroline

We are thrilled to annouce the birth of our daughter!

Caroline Ann Wright

Born June 18th, 2009

Weighing 6lbs. 5oz.

Measuring 18.5 inches

"For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations." Ps. 100:5

The Polls Have Closed!

many thanks to all of you who participated in our "guess the gender of baby wright #3" poll!!

as of today, the polls have officially closed with the following totals:

24 total votes

5 for a boy

19 for a girl

as you can see, the response was overwhelmingly swayed towards this little one being a girl (though ben remains unswayed in his opinion that this is a boy:).

we don't have to wait much longer, as tomorrow is our big day!

baby wright #3 will be making an appearance sometime around 12pm. we hope to have some news on our blog by tomorrow evening, so stay tuned to find out!!

we certainly appreciate your prayers as we prepare for this new birth!

A Shoulder to Lean on...

"All for one and one for all

My brother and my friend

What fun we have

The times we share

Brothers 'til the end."

~Author Unknown

Thank Goodness for Daddys!!!

being the mother of boys has proved to be both a wonderful and also eye-opening experience! growing up, it was just my sister and i and while we were the best of playmates and had our share of "adventures", not many involved mud, worms, or the need to change clothes three times a day. in view of that, i have come to appreciate more and more my most wonderful husband who, at the end of a long day, somehow musters up the energy for bike rides, painting model cars, fishing...you name it. he is an amazing daddy and without him, i'm afraid my boys might live relatively boring lives!;) here is a sampling of the fun activites ben david and james have been up to lately...

FIRST CATCH!! (it's there...i promise:)

(ben david actually caught about 7 all by himself!) he was insistent on casting his on rod. ben kept explaining he could do that when he was bigger, to which ben david would reply: "daddy, i'm all bigger now!!"

james hooked one, with a little help:)

and yes...ben even rigged up the johnny jump up for the boys the other night. quite the hilarious scene!!

painting model trains (and some skin in the process)

eating a WHOLE piece of watermelon

(or a "big daddy" piece, as ben david would say)

fun in the sprinkler ball (thanks case, stella and ru!)

sadly, james was terrified of this after ben intentionally had him lean over the ball and get squirted in the face!!

baseball time...must wear a hat just like dad!

model race cars...thanks nana!!

What Flavor Do You Fancy???

we are on the countdown...about a month until baby #3 makes his or her arrival! this time around, ben and i decided to venture into some uncharted territory by NOT finding out the gender of our little one. this took MUCH effort on my part, but has proved to be a very fun and exciting experience. nonetheless, we have had many a conversation speculating on whether we will be a family of three boys or perhaps add a little girl to the crew.
one of my most memorable conversations with ben on this subject actually evolved one evening several months ago when we were sitting around eating a few pints of ben and jerry's ice cream (a current favorite pregnancy past time:). it went something like this:
me: "so...what are you REALLY thinking...boy or girl??"
ben: "why do you even ask? you know i am sure it is a boy."
me: "there is no way you know that...what do you base it on?"
ben: "well...it is kind of like choosing a B&J ice cream flavor for you."
me: " what?"
ben: "well...if i was to pick out the flavor i thought you were most likely to want, history has shown that 9 times out of 10, that flavor proves to be new york super fudge chunk (my favorite). so...i think i'd be pretty safe choosing that one and it being the one you wanted. HOWEVER...there is always that VERY SLIM CHANCE that on that particular night you actually wanted brownie cheesecake (another fav). so...while there is the remote possibility i could have picked the wrong flavor by choosing NYSFC, odds are, i chose correctly.
me: long pause
me: you don't know

so there you have it folks in ice cream lingo: my husband is sure we will have another "new york super fudge chunk" though i assure him there is a 50% chance it could be a "little brownie cheesecake." that being said, here is your opportunity to cast your vote!! notice the poll on the right side of our blog and take a minute to give us your opinion! you have about a month to deliberate before the polls officially close and the results are disclosed. until that time, we'd love to know just what flavor do you fancy??