mrs. lacey baron....

it was a crazy, fun weekend celebrating lacey and rob getting married.  it was also a reunion of sorts because all of the ladies that have already moved away were reunited and it feels so good!  yes, we began the party on wednesday night... for a sunday wedding.  it was awesome.  

i love you, ba.

dara and joy are my friends from college and boston... we're working on ten years of friendship.  i'm blessed.

beth and joy have been out of boston for a few months now... it was SO fun to get some good time with them this weekend.  we miss you already.  

my parents came for the wedding.  it was great to have them here in boston one last time!  my friends all love having them around too, so that's always fun.  here we are with dara, who is basically part of the family.  i hope our being overseas doesn't disturb my parents' social life in boston.  :)  

oh, here's my "life of the party" husband... 

me, singing lovingly into his eyes, and him standing there not even looking at me.  this was probably me trying to get him on the dance floor during a fast song (he always dances to slow songs with me)... fast songs aren't his favorite thing.  this time he was there with his buddy, mike, and they had their own agenda... ruining the girls' pictures.  danny will proudly show you his work very soon on this little blog... i was asked not to reveal it yet.  

aside from this, danny was a superstar all weekend... i mean, all week really.  the festivities started last wednesday and my last friend left town today.  he kept the kids for hours to let me get good time with these dear friends of mine.  these were my "final goodbyes" with many of these friends and danny has bent over backwards to make sure i get quality time without my kids.  all that to say, i'm so thankful for him... for how thoughtful he is to my needs during this time and for what an involved and sacrificial dad that he is to our kids.  you're just what i need, danny!  

swimming pool!

mary and papa

mary and luke

                  

kate and will loved being thrown.  michael got him pretty high this time... and will had to hold his pants up.  he lost a little too much weight in zambia.  :)  

there are a lot of fun things around my parent's house, but one of the things that the larkins do best is eat. my mom is a fabulous cook and has been serving us some of our favorites.  here are some pictures around the house that have two things in common... michael and meat.  those two things often go together.  danny and michael can usually be heard talking about bacon at least 6 times a day.

buddies

mary is having so much fun with her cousins.  unfortunately, kelley (my sister-in-law) is still in zambia bringing their newest child home.  isaiah, i'm so glad you're in our family and i can't wait to meet you!  but... because kelley isn't home the kids are at my parent's house most days while luke is working.  they really have been so sweet to her.  i still don't have pictures of kate and mary together, but i realized why tonight.  kate takes mary out by herself, pushes her on the swing, plays with her... and i don't have to go outside because kate is in charge.  she's such a great big cousin.  tomorrow i'll try to get them all together.

BUT, i did get a few "modeling" shots of kate, upon her request.  :)  she was so funny and cute.  i thought kelley would like to see her daughter modeling in her rays shirt!  

mary is getting pretty gutsy on the swing.  i looked out the window this afternoon to see kate and huddy pushing her really high and a little sideways.  she holds on well these days though.  here she is going "higher, higher!" with papa.

crazy boys

we have been occupied by these crazy boys for the past few days.  they are so fun and have been so sweet to mary and luke.  kate has been wonderful also... but she doesn't pose with her star wars sword so i have no pictures so show of it.  :)  

this has also been occupying them a lot.  mary LOVES to swing... a little too much when it's about 97 outside.  that will soon be our life... indonesia is HOT.  

long day.

 we had a long weekend... we moved the majority of our stuff out of our house on friday and saturday.  then, we flew to sarasota at 7am this morning.  this is a perfect picture to describe how mary felt about the weekend.  :)  mary was worn out and now has a fever.  my poor girl.

but, she was very happy to see the goats (and cows, dog and horse) at my aunt and uncles house this afternoon.  in fact, she had every family member that would listen to her out there at some point.  she LOVES being outside.

here's the bubba luke hanging out with his uncle luke.  sweet.  

we are so happy to be in FL for the week.  we are most excited that we are going to meet my newest nephew, isaiah.  luke and kelley are almost done with the adoption process through zambia... isaiah and kelley are due to arrive home on friday!  we can't wait to meet him!   

more from florida later... i'm off to bed.  

good mom

we're packing up and very busy around the house... i took these pictures to document what a good mom i am.  yes, that is my 6 month old eating his sister's playdoh.  oops!  i was watching and he was just playing with the lids, but somehow he got to the actually playdoh... and then i took pictures.  :) oh well, it's non-toxic.

also, mary has a mark of good parenting on her forehead... luckily that was under danny's care.  she actually just tripped down a very small step but hit pretty hard.

she's still looks cute... just a little more tough.

the pierces...

grandma came to visit the last few days and we had a great time (and were really thankful)!  the kids got some special attention from her while danny and i worked on paperwork and other random things that keep filling our days.  we were also able to go on a double date with our old pastor and his wife... we had been talking about it for 8 months so it was fun to finally get to go out with them.  

grandma got mary a lot of books for christmas that she wasn't that interested in then... but now she loves them!  she has a new obsession with "real books," like the kind with paper pages and not board pages.  she LOVES to read them (really flip through and talk about the pictures) and is currently obsessed with toy story.  she has never seen the movie or the characters before... but, i'm hoping that this book makes her interested in watching a toy story marathon in about 5 weeks on the plane.  :)  i will continue to feed her love of toy story until then.  

mary is also very particular about certain things... like when luke has any kind of fuzz in his hair at all!  she is always picking at his hair.  i mean, i don't know where she got it from (read: i was obsessed with picking his cradle cap and she learned from me... disgusting, i know).  but, often times he has nothing in his hair, his cradle cap is gone, she just likes to pick.  she'll be a great wife!  :)


we also got together with the greater pierce family... which mary loves because she gets to see ryry, dylan, tim and the rest of the gang.

danny and his brother, tim, dropping my children at the same time

luke reaching for dylan's face...

...and trying to eat it.  he does that all of the time!

dylan, ryan, mary and luke... laying peacefully like they always do.  ;)

'

happy birthday to all june birthdays!

lastly, here is "teddy," their wonderful auntie.  mary named her teddy one day (well, that was how she said karen) and it has stuck.  i'm not sure if mary can actually say karen or not yet, but i'm not going to try.  i call her teddy now.  i hope mary and luke and all of our kids always call her teddy.  

luke loves being kissed by everyone.  he's a really squirmy kid, but if you lay your lips on his cheek he just sits still with a really faint smile.   i snuggle him right up to my face and just hold the kiss.  it's cute.