Girls night out

Monday night these wonderful girls and I were able to get out of the house without the kids and enjoy adult conversations and taking out time over a meal without having to keep track of kids. Although I think I got just as messy trying to eat crab legs and send some pieces flying across the room.  I dont know why we waited all year to do this!  Sadly all but Heidi are moving tomorrow. (Heidi - I am excited you'll still be here!)  I'm the only non-navy wife in this group.  It has been such a fun group of women to get to know.  I met them all through Kelly when she moved here last summer. Kelly was such a huge encourager all year.  It was such a blessing to have someone who was going through the same thing I was - adjusting to 2 kids, very active boys, both kids getting up every hour in the middle of the night, you name it I think Kelly went through it all with me.  I can't even begin to say how wonderful it was to have someone going through all that at the exact time I was.  Kelly - do you really have to move?  Colin is very sad that RJ moved to South America (not really - North carolina but to him it might as well be South America. He keeps asking if RJ's train table made it to South America.  He's really worried it got left. Or wanting it to get left so he can grab it up.haha not sure which)  I only just started to get to know the other women and then they move. I wish they all had another year here!  Such is life in a military area.  Thanks to facebook it will be fun to see the babies all grow up and maybe one day we'll be able to get them all together to celebrate their July birthdays again.  thanks for a great night ladies.  It was greatly needed.  And I think i'm still in denial that the rest of you have packed up and left already!

Brotherly love

These boys really love each other.  Even after Joel get wrestled to the ground over and over and Colin's legos get knocked down for the 10th time, they still love to hug and kiss each other.  Colin even prayed the other night that Joel would have Jesus in his heart too.  It was a really sweet prayer and at one point he said "God baby Joel is the best baby and very very good. Please let him go to heaven too." (lately every night Colin asks brent and I questions about heaven. They are good questions and he's really thinking about this which is neat to see. And humbling too to see childlike faith.) But we talked after how you do get to heaven and that as a big brother he can teach Joel all about Jesus so that one day baby Joel can ask Jesus to live in his heart too.  And I do pray that these boys would teach each other about God and help each other grow deeper in their relationship with the Lord (as a side note the other day colin asked me why I prayed to the Lord and not to God or Jesus! ha!)  In fact as I'm writing this Colin walked into the room and saw his lego construction site all knocked down and as he started to cry Joel ran over (or really toddled very very fast!) and gave him a great big hug.  Colin is now laughing.  And all is well again.

weekend fun

This past weekend Brent left on Thursday to go on a "work vacation" as Colin called it.  Jet skis, kayak, boating, fishing, 8 hours of sleep... must've been hard for Brent to leave us.  haha! But he had to go for work - tough job huh?  He had a great time and even though we wish we couldve gone too I'm glad he could get away and relax.  Brent told Colin he was the man of the house and to help mommy when he was gone.  Well Colin loved that fact and changed it to "king of the house man" and he was very excited about getting some new priviledges that the "king of the house man" would get.  Colin even told a woman at the grocery store that he was the man of the house since daddy was gone now and she almost stared to cry thinking Daddy was gone until i told her he was just gone for work. 

But after one night without Brent we packed up our stuff and headed to Ant Ant's house.  Here the boys are checking out her work. Colin loved it. He even got his own set of blueprints that he just loves and is very proud of. 

When we got home sunday night colin was in his room moving furniture around.  When I asked him what he was doing he told me he needed to make it like Ant Ant's work.  So we spent an hour rearranging furniture. 

Reading over his blueprints

Then we grabbed dinner and headed over to Maymont.  A really fun park.  The kids had a blast.

It was so hot.  The kids were glad to get back into the air conditioned car to drive to Ant Ants house.  On the 15 minute drive over Joel puked in the back seat which caused Colin to start too.  I gave Colin a towel to hold but as he proudly told Ant Ant when he got out of the car, "joel puked more than me!"  Got Joel cleaned up and then Colin spent the next 30 minutes puking in Ant Ants bathroom.  haha I'm sure Sarah loved having us there at the point.  I think it was the heat since after they did they were both fine.  Colin also had chocolate milk for dinner and being so hot that might have made him sick.  Who knows about joel. 

Before Colin's birthday he would always tell me he wanted a pirate birthday, a dinosaur birthdya and an underwater birthday party.  We had the pirate birthday before his birthday, an on his actual birthday he had his dinosaur birthday so this weekend we celebrated his underwater birthday.  Sarah had decorated her dinning room and Colin turned the corner and was amazed.  "Ant Ant did all this for me?" I hope he's always so grateful for even the little things as he grows up. he still talks abut how Ant Ant decorated her apt just for him.

We spent time in Ant Ant's pool where colin took his water wings off and went underwater to swim to me a few times. 

And fed the geese

Saw a snake swimming toward us

Colin and his Ant Ant

We had a great time! Joel loved to go over to Ant Ant and smother her in slobbery kisses.  It was his favorite thing to do.  Thanks Ant Ant for letting us come destroy your apartment :)  Colin is excited to go visit Ant Ant by himself soon but on the way home said he didnt want Daddy going on a work vacation anytime soon. 

Dirt

I read this article this morning.  Joel is going to be one happy, healthy kid :) Since he's walking he doesnt do it as much - unless he notices a new dirt pile and then he has to try it.  Whole handfuls - same thing with sand at the beach.  I think he's stopped eating the sand out of the sandbox for now.  But I think there is nothing better than seeing kids sit in dirt and play in it.  Colin and Joel are always so happy and just love being outside looking for bugs, digging in the dirt, making mud.  A few extra baths and laundry is worth it. 

Cute troublemaker

Making 'Snow'

Digging in the dirt

Emptying his sock drawer

Picking 'green balls'

Even though I'm vacuming several times a day now or cleaning just to discover it was all in vain - these things make me smile.  Its fun to watch Joel discover the fun in making styrofom snow or emptying drawers.  He is so proud of himself.  I just can't leave him alone in a room too long :) Although look at his face in the last picture.  I think he picked that green tomato on purpose just to get to Brent.  haha.

Brents new second home :)

I think we've found the perfect museum for Brent.  Monday we went to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame museum with Kelly, Sarah and the kids.  They had a whole room dedicated to the Redskins. Too bad Brent had to work. 

The kids are watching Redskins highlights on 3 different screens.  I can see Brent enjoying hours here :)  He needs to come one a weekday since we had it practically to ourselves.  The kids weren't into knowing about all the players but they did have fun seeing how fast they could throw a baseball, kicking soccer balls into the goal, and throwing footballs.  Colin's favorite part was where he could be a broadcaster and he announced what was happening and it played it back to him. Colin challenged Sarah (or Sampson's mommy as Colin called her) to a basketball game.

I wish i could figure out how to upload videos here.  (Kelly how do you do it on yours?)  but Colin went around singing Hail to the Redskins and I have some cute ones of him broadcasting.  Every time he would say someone fell down - haha no matter what sport he was announcing. Joel was getting really tired so we left for him to take a nap but I can definitely see us going back again and this time with Brent.

Babies (Almost) First Birthday

This afternoon we had the babies 1st birthday celebration.  These women have been so fun to get to know and its been fun to watch these babies first year.  All of them were born within weeks of each other.

It was fun to plan their party.  And still hard to believe its almost been a year. 

Once again, holding Lucy's hand :) 

Colin and RJ had fun in the clubhouse.

And eating cupcakes.  I think Coln ate at least 4. 

I think Joel enjoyed it don't you?  He really liked the part where he could eat dirt and his cupcake at the same time!

Beach trips

It seems each time you have another child you measure success in terms of outings for example "1st time grocery shopping with two kids, etc"  And now that Joel is walking it seems like I'm doing things all over again for the first time.  It adds a whole other dynamic when I have one child on the monkey bars wanting help and another child running in the opposite direction. Thursday I accomplished another outing - the beach.  And to top it off a playground on the beach.  A few friends and I were going to go to this new playground they just opened up at 2nd street and it ended up being Laura and I with 5 kids 4 and under.  She had 3 kids to keep track of - at least one of them was mobile yet.  This playground was amazing. Definitely one we will go again. And they have that soft plastic under the playground which is great for playing on.  It was really interactive and Colin and Joel loved being able to play on so many things.  And its also a short walk to the ocean from the beach.  And with two young kids is great.  I'm glad Laura was with me because we were able to tag team watching the big kids and watching the babies.  We made the kids wear life jackets the whole time and Joel even ventured towards the water more and more and towards the end wanted to get waist deep. Colin rode some waves in and had a blast.   It was fun and I'm sure we'll be going back for more soon. 

And then my dear friend Rachel Ball is in town and we went to meet her at the beach this morning.  Rachel was in my bible study in West Virginia and I just love her. She is the sweetest person I know.  Rachel is always so encouraging, always so sweet and I don't think has ever said a mean thing about anyone.  Brent and I were so excited to get to spend some time with her - and Rachel next time it needs to be longer!!! Everyone needs to have a friend like Rachel.  I tried to convince her to come down here and teach Colin next year so we'll see :) 

Is was great catching up and the boys had fun playing in the water.  Colin made friends with some kids there.  Its so easy for kids to make friends.

Joel was happy watching the water

Then i think the water came up a little too fast for him. haha

Brothers

Boys night Out!

So one of the things that I wanted to do with Colin this year was go to a Tides game.  He loves baseball and so do I.  Nothing like a brisk evening relaxing with the crowd and eating hot dogs.  Hot dogs are also Colin's favorite "past time!"

Some good friends of ours, Jimmy and his kid Noah met us there.  Nothing like having a friend the same age so they can play together and allow the parents to get in a little relaxation!  It was a perfect night weather wise, and we had fun watching a game we really cared little about.  Colin maybe watched 5 minutes of baseball, but was more interested in the blue mascot creature and goofing off with Noah.

Their favorite part was heading to the upper reserved and looking at everything down low as well as sliding down the railings!  Somehow boys will always find the most dangerous things to do.  It's just something inate in us.  I was surprised we made it until the end of the 7th inning.  But I guess when there are plenty of entertaining things OTHER than the game, boys will have fun.  It was a great night for all.

another weekend... some more fence

Another weekend has come and gone.  We worked some more on our fence and by the end of it we're getting really good. And fast.  Its amazing all the things you learn and tricks you learn as you go. This is the first half of the fence - it goes all the way back into those trees.  We finished the other side and just have to do the posts for the gates and then slap some boards on and call it done :)  I forgot to take a picture of what the other side looks like right now.  This weekend Anthony came back for more and Kelly and Rob and their kids joined us in the morning.  Then Shawn came in the afternoon to watch the soccer game and dig some holes.  Colin has a blast playing in the pool with RJ and thinks RJ should come over ever fence day.  They were too fast to get a good picture of but I love this picture of Lucy and Kelly. 

A quick break to get Brent's stitches out.  Good thing Rob was there since Brent wanted ME to take them out for him.  Colin was very interested in it.

In the afternoon the guys started digging the holes on the other side of the house (the shorter side) but realized it was mainly clay so they went and rented an auger. Strange how it was different dirt on the other side.  I think they had more fun using that than any other power tool.  We did get that side done pretty fast.

We decided since Joel was eating dirt anyways we might as well put him in the hole this morning.

I'm not sure what they are doing but this picture makes me laugh

Brent and I worked on it today and this little guy wanted to be like his big brother and help too.

Then he decided to find the mud puddles in the yard and eat the dirt when no one was looking.  We can now picture what our fence will be like although it did make us a little sad when our neighbor came up and said she will miss seeing the boys play outside and really liked watching Brent interact with the boys.  I guess her husband never played like that with their boys - they are all grown now but she is going to miss seeing them every day.  I'll have to take the boys over from time to time to play in her yard for her.  But a big huge thank you to everyone who gave up their saturday to come help us again.  We appreciate it so much and couldnt have done it without you all.