In Pennsylvania

Hey everyone! I just wanted to check in and say we headed out of town to avoid the hurricane this weekend. We will be up in PA for a week. Ronnie and Lois, if you see this we changed our minds. Hope you guys stay safe. I'll update this week on what we do with the kids. Nate flies to New Mexico on Monday so we will hang out with friends and family up here.

My sous chef

 Making dinner can be a bit of a challenge. I try to get things done in the kitchen while Asher and Piper are running around like a bunch of yahoos. Dex gets caught in the middle and somehow he always gets upset. Yesterday he politely asked if he could assist me with cooking instead of being left on his mat.

 He was a very helpful sous chef.

Unfortunately he also took all the credit for the meal.

Boardwalk

 There is a little boardwalk near our house that we like to go to. In the summer it gets so hot, but the temps have been getting better in the evening so we go after dinner.

 Ashman loves to walk Juno.

 Miss Pipes enjoys looking at the "wawa".

 Asher tried to balance on the edge and fell in. Neither Nate or I are coordinated, so the kids don't have a chance.

A big pile of......

Niphakis kids

Beach Boys

 My mom was here last week and we all went to the beach on Friday. Asher has no fear at all now and had a blast going out pretty far with his daddy.

I've been a slacking blogger lately. We've had a lot of visitors and things have been a bit crazy with our schedule. For the last week there has been a huge wild fire on the swamp so the smoke outside has been almost unbearable. We haven't been going outside much the last few days. I could take a picture of Asher learning the latest Mario game, but well that would involve me trying to find the camera so I'll leave it up to your imagination.

Beach Babes

If we ever had to live in say Nebraska, I would be seriously sad. I love knowing we can wake up and just decide to have a beach day. Yesterday we went with my friend Leah and her twins, Jada and Bennett. Asher and Piper love these guys so much and want to spent every day playing with them. The beach was amazing yesterday. The ocean felt like a warm bath and the waves were the roughest I have ever seen at the Outer Banks. I only had about 3 minutes to snap a few shots. 

 Dex spent some time lounging in the sun before spending the rest of the morning in the carrier.

 These kids had such a blast running around in the surf.

 Piper did pretty well, but needed to hold my hand in the water since it was so rough.

Ice

For the last 4 months Piper's had a horrible rash. We went to her pediatrician four times and he could never figure out what it was from. Last week we took her to a pediatric dermatologist who diagnosed her with severe eczema. We were given a few different treatments for her. One of which was to combine a specific lotion with vasoline and put it all over her body. She ended up having an awful allergic reaction to this and was a mess all weekend. We spoke to several doctors and she is on a steroid cream and antibiotics right now. She isn't allowed to go outside or in the pool/ocean right now until her skin really gets a chance to heal. That is certainly bad news for my kids who would live outside if I would let them. I've had to be very creative with indoor activities this week.

One thing we did was fill up glass dishes with toys and water and stick them in the freezer. A few hours later I pulled them out and the kids had to figure out how to get their toys out of the ice.

 Of course Asher only wanted to put cars in his ice.

 Our main ways of excavating were hot water with the medicine dropper and wooden spoons.

 Asher had a blast banging his ice to free his cars.

Tiny Turtle

 So we have five turtles now. FIVE. I am responsible for keeping three children, one dog, and five turtles alive right now. I keep calling this turtle tiny turtle, mainly because all my creative naming juices have run dry. We actually have two unnamed turtles right now. This is tiny turtle with Lorraine.

 Lorraine does not like getting her picture taken.

Asher is convinced turtles like to be upside down.

If any of you have any names for our tiny turtle, and the other turtle please let me know.