This post is a week late, and everyone already knows the news, but I am thrilled about baby Olivia being here!

Olivia Laraia Flores, born August 21, 6:57 a.m. 7lbs, 14 oz.

We have a niece!

We were at the beach when she was born, so we missed the excitement, but were given a few good updates about the progress of the induction through text messages and we celebrated her birth there. 

We met her on Sunday after church. 

She is precious in every way.

Here are the pictures I have:

Joey and Natasha are doing great!

Praise God for new life.

Kate's first day of preschool is today! I just dropped her off and Hank is taking a quick nap, so I want to go ahead and post these. 

I don't know where she gets her girly poses from!?

She didn't want to have her bookbag in the picture...

 She wanted Hank to be in the picture with her :)

A little sad for me that her sister isn't with her, but it didn't phase her and she made no mention of it...just my problem!

 One of her great preschool friends!

There was no drop-off today, so I was able to go in her class and take a few pictures.

Can you spot a baby?!

She's going 3 days a week again this year and I know she will grow up so much.
Have a great year, Kate!

 We woke Kate up for the first morning...she was still in her pjs and slippers! But I'm glad she was there to see her off. I was a little afraid that Kate would be upset that she couldn't go, too, but she wasn't at all...just happy for her big sister (and anxious to get back inside to finish the rest of the eggs ha!).

I know that this is the first day of a different season of life for our family!

Update:
I was able to get this priceless picture this afternoon when she was dropped off.
She came home at 2:30.
She said everything went well.
She told me:
what color shirt and pants her teacher was wearing
who she stood behind in the lunch line
all the details about her lunch
that no kindergartener in her class cried, hooray!
a description of some of the other kids' rest towels
where in the room she laid for rest time
there are no swings on the playground!
the bus driver was very nice and helpful
the kids at her table did great for their first day
she wants to go back!

So glad for a fun first day!

All in their birthday shirts, on Hank's birthday, at Target :)

 Hank is really starting to give us grief in his high chair...screaming if he doesn't get what he wants, or if it's not fast enough...it is so crazy because most of the time he's so content, but when he gets ready to eat he turns into a baby monster! 

 One or two afternoons, the girls ate lunch on the porch looking out at the beach.

Look at this handsome 5-year-old! He shares a birthday with Hank!

 We went out to eat early in the week...it was pretty chaotic but the kids had so much fun. We went to the Sanitary Fish Market and so I now have the all-NC-famous t-shirt :)

 Joel came over to help keep H entertained...the screaming fits were so awful, even the bigger kids were interested in how to make him calm down...

 We took a few pictures in front of the boats after dinner.

 Joy is so beautiful! She is 33 weeks along with a baby girl, Anna Beth!

 I took the camera out on the beach only a few times...but the basic gist is that they all had a ball with whatever they were doing...Seth and Vivian became more brave and more interested in swimming in the waves...the daddies did well to take them out in the water. Kate went a few times, too!

K got a few sand toys for her birthday...so they made lots of cupcakes and ice cream cones throughout the week.

 Bathed and ready for dinner and bed! We usually spent as much time as possible on the beach, so bedtime each day seemed to be almost immediately after dinner.

I love how the baby is in the background doing his own thing :)

 Silly faces!

One night at dinner, we continued a tradition of having cake and singing Happy Birthday for all the summer birthdays. All the kids have birthdays pretty close to each other.

 The view of our house from the beach.

It was a duplex...we had the left side of the house and we didn't have any problems with our neighbors. In fact, they had older kids and one of the boys became interested in fishing because of Jonathan and Aaron, so he borrowed one of Jonathan's rods and learned how during the week!

 My baby boy had plenty of sunscreen each day...

 Joel brought his very popular lawn mower from home. The girls and Hank really enjoyed playing with it.

 Love that baby belly!

 The men having a pep talk...trying to wake up from naps.

 H learned new things this week it seems...I watched him put the lid on and off the bucket, and put the cupcake holders in the holes...he is figuring out the concept of putting things inside other things and then taking them out. It's so amazing to watch them learn something that they hadn't noticed ever before.

 Sweet (hilarious) Joel. Both of the Morgan boys are really funny and like to try and make people laugh!

 Yesterday evening, our last chance on the beach, the boys discovered these mounds of sand and tunnels...the older ones jumped and did obstacle courses...H crawled up and down and around and up again...he crawled over these for about an hour straight! 

 While they were doing that, Aaron had taken the girls on a walk...on the way back he was carrying them.

 Whoa...orange-man Aaron! My auto-enhance on iPhoto did that...

 So then they all got in on the tunnel digging and destroying. Good times.

 Hank helped his daddy fish for a few minutes!

Aaron and Jonathan fished several times a day while we were all playing on the beach...they caught enough to make it fun!

Hoping that one day soon he will want to stand beside him with his own fishing pole :)

I have other pictures from Aaron's phone that I can post later. He and Jonathan took the kids on the boat two mornings, so I'll try to get those pictures he took and share them.

We are glad to be home and ready to start school, but I am so thankful that we saved our family vacation for the end of the summer...it was so wonderful to be together and share the time with such good friends. This is our 3rd year, so it seems like the tradition will stick, and tonight when we got home in our pajamas, Vivian said, "Oh man, we have to wait another whole year to go back to the beach with Seth and Joel!"