Nap time wake up

This is the face that greets me when I go get Norah after her nap.

Its no wonder why the boys typically race to get her before me.  I'm sure she smiles even bigger for them. 

azaleas

My front yard is pink and I love it.  Its amazing every spring.  I also have brought clippings inside and have used almost all my vases filled with beautiful pink flowers.  I trimmed the bushes last fall and they dont have as many flowers as the past few years. I bought azalea fertilizer today so once they stop blooming I'm goign to baby my azaleas so they continue to grow. 

But I did get some fun pictures of the kids in front.  I need Brent to help to get all three. He was gone both times but I think I got a couple of good ones.

 

This was unsuccessful but I love it anyways

 

because I caught these two hugging right after. I love how they love each other. 

 

 My friend Jess gave me this adorable outfit that her daughter wore. I tried to get norah's pictures in front of the azaleas. It was really sunny and I need to finally learn my camera better because while they are good pictures I think they could be even more amazing with the right settings (hint hint brent a photography class is a great present...)

Maybe I'll get all three in a picture together. Or not.  We will see how it goes but I am loving my house right now.

Yesterday

This was my morning/early afternoon with Joel and Norah. We are loving this nice weather. It's worth the extra laundry and the mud soaked bathroom :)


I think these two are starting to become great friends.

Brotherly love

Such a loving, helpful big brother

Cutting grass

Those pull cords on the lawnmower can be really tricky.  In desperate times a mouth works better.

Pretty Ears

 

10k

I never thought I would see the day brent would run a race with me...or even run really. When we were first married I would run and Brent would ride his bike next to me. So today was a really big deal. Brent ran his first race this morning. We ran the monument ave 10k along with 40000+ people. Somehow in joking with him he actually agreed a few months ago so I signed him up. Brent has gone running a few times but no where near what you should to train. But today he ran the whole thing without stopping at a pretty good pace. Im very proud of him and sarah is worried he beat her time. I'm not sure he's turned into a runner yet but it was fun and a beautiful morning to run.

Sarah and mike ran it too in a much faster heat and we ran into my cousin Meredith at the end.

And for those of you who read young house love blog I saw sherry while running. I yelled out to her and she waved and then I yelled really loud I read your blog!!! Then for the next half mile I tried to convince Brent to go back and get a picture :) it didn't happen since I knew if Brent stopped he was done running. But still fun to see her.

Eating

Meal time is very fun to watch.


After looking at these pictures I realized I need a new cover for our high chair. Anyone know if you can just order the cushion for those space saver chairs? 

Spring Break

We are all sad that spring break had to end.  It was a great week and so much fun having Colin around all week.  And really nice not to have to worry about getting out the door for school all week.  The kids and I went to the farm for a few days.  Colin woke up and was out the door and exploring in the woods with Grandpa by 8am.  He only came back to eat I think and was plotting how to bring his lunch and dinner with him on his hikes. When you own hundreds of acres of woods, plus a creek and some old old stone ruins it makes for the perfect playground for kids. 

One of my favorite moments was one night we were getting dinner ready and I gave Norah some green beans to munch on. She ate a few then walked over to Joel's boots and stuffed the rest of the green beans in his boots. She knew exactly what she was doing :)

 The Old Mill. (not sure how old it is but is on some civil war maps)

 Looking for the family treasure.  We found a horse shoe and part of a plow

 The dam that fed the mill.  Also on some civil war maps which I think is pretty cool.

Norah took some naps while exploring in the woods.

Ant Ant surprised us one afternoon while we were hiking down to the creek and stayed for dinner.

 We flew kites in the front fields.

 My moms second time flying a kite (the first was the day before with the kids)

This kite broke off and somehow mom found it - amazing since there are hundreds of acres on our land plus all the neighbors land.

We came home and I took the kids to the aquarium along with the rest of virginia beach.  Ive never seen it that crowded but it was fun and they all loved it.

And then I left Saturday and Sunday for a girls weekend away.  Some close friends invited me to go with them and I'm so so glad.  Such a great weekend. It was so much fun and went by way too fast. Brent was excited to get all three kids by himself I think just to see if he could do it. He did a great job. I knew he would.  All our husbands were great at encouraging us to go. I think all moms need to get away completely for a whole weekend.  I came back so refreshed and its good for the kids to miss their mommy sometimes too :) 

And I came home with some fun things.  I didnt get too much since the bathroom "simple fix" we has turned into a more expensive fix but I got some stuff for the boys room.  That was only half of what we all got.  We fit it all in the van.  Such a great weekend.

A great spring break.  And now the countdown to summer break begins.