when i was walking to the beach i was stopped by numerous people asking if there was really a baby inside. thanks tifiny for your sling :) 
Colin and Brent
Jumping waves
Colin thought he should be included in the family picture
Joel's first time in the Atlantic Ocean :)
No to sure about it
Really letting mommy know what he thought of being put in the water
Maybe it wasn't too bad
Building Sandcastles
Digging for crabs
More sandcastles
And a great nap with Mommy listening to the waves.
We have been very busy the past few days. We met my sister at Busch Gardens one day while brent was working. While there we met up with our friends Pete and Ashleigh and their kids. We love the fact that Pete and Ashleigh have a timeshare near us. Colin loved Busch Gardens and is a little dare devil as you can see from the pictures
Joel only got to ride the train
This ride went straight up in the air - a little too high for me and as Colin told Ant Ant "it was too high for mommy" But Colin loved it.
This whirly ride is Colin's favorite. His squeal is my favorite - half laugh/half scream.
Colin rode this ride 3 times in a row. He loved it
Colin's first roller coaster. He's in the front with Ant Ant
colin wanted to ride the log flume. i held onto him for dear life
Afterwards we went to my parents house where Colin led everyone in a wheres waldo competition.
This little cutie will be well protected from all the bad things in life. His big brother tells him repeatedly that he will "tect" (protect) him from bad guys, lions and hippos. But nice lions can say hi to him.
And this video was taken at the zoo. We've been working with Colin at the pool to put his face in the water. He still doesn't like it so he thought he was brave when he held his nose and got his face wet in the fountain. 
Yesterday the weather was breezy, cloudy and in the 80s so we took a trip to the zoo. Brent hadn't been there since March so Colin had a great time showing Daddy all his favorite animals. 
Joel was entertained as well and has this expression most of the morning
Colin in front of the lions den
And Brent wants me to put this picture up to see if anyone knows the name of this animal
Such a big boy already. But to put it in perspective here is a picture that I didn't zoom in with the camera. He has grown 2 inches in a month. Another basketball scholarship perhaps? 
Today my baby is one month old. It seems like just yesterday we were in the hospital having him but at the same time he feels like he's always been apart of our lives. Its funny how when Colin turned 1 month old I cried because he was growing up so fast. And it seem like Joel has hit his one month even faster. When Colin was born all I did all day was stare at him. And now I have two kids to take care of so the days go by even faster. And while I am sad that Joel is now one month, leaving the newborn stage and is now in the baby stage, I also feel like we've finally figured out how to care for two. Its still a balancing act and overwhelming at times but we've all (including Colin) adjusted well and I feel like I can breathe a little again. Joel is such a joy and a huge blessing to us. I just love him so much and wish he wouldn't grow up so fast. He is starting to smile at us which just melts our hearts and even cooing a little more each day. We all just love to hug and kiss him and he gets that from all of us - especially Colin. Its fun to see his personality come out more and more each day. And there is nothing greater than having your baby fall asleep content in your arms. I just wish we could stop time a little. We are truly blessed with two wonderful boys. 
Hugs and kisses from his big brother
1 Gigantic Sunflower - too hot and way too many seeds to count (we did have another sunflower but the squirrels ate that one) Colin and Brent are enjoying eating the seeds a few at a time
Countless tomatoes - we didn't count these since they went straight into dinners, lunches, or Brent's yummy homemade salsa. This is the best salsa I have ever eaten. He has worked for the past few years to perfect it and I think he finally did it. Everything in it is from our garden, our neighbors garden, or my parents garden. All but the onions and garlic - those we bought. I only wish we could figure out how to can it without losing any of the flavor. That we need to work on.
We just got more tomatoes from my parents garden so tonight we will be feasting on this: 
The best part is the fun Colin has had watching everything grow. Our cucumbers didn't do well, our peppers and tomatoes are the best. The corn didnt make it either. But our basil patch is overflowing. The pumpkin died and so did the watermelon. But we do have I think 2 cantalope growing so hopefully they will be good to eat soon. 
Fresh veggies are so good. Nothing compares to 'real' tomatoes picked from the vine.
Today Joel had his first playdate with Lucy, RJ's sister (and RJ and Colin played together too) Remember this blog? Well poor Kelly didnt have the baby that night and instead was put in the hospital for 3 weeks until she finally had Lucy. So we really won with the baby race. It was great to get out of the house and Colin and RJ play so well together. They had a great time and Lucy is so sweet. I always have a great time with Kelly so its great that our boys love each other too.
Joel is growing up way too fast. Its hard to believe he'll be a month old in a few days. He loves to look around and unfortunately still thinks that nighttime is a great time to be awake. But we're hopefully working on that one. Colin has also had a few rough nights as he's been waking up with nightmares. Colin loves TRex and will tell you TRex eats meat...unfortunately I think he finally figured out what meat was since the past few nights Colin will wake up crying "TRex is trying to eat me!" haha poor guy. Joel is a very sweet boy and has smiled at us a few times - mostly at Colin. Colin loves him so much and loves to tell me what Joel's cries mean. "mommy I think that cry means he's hungry" or "that cry means he wants to be picked up" He is such a good big brother.
Colin and Benjamin had a blast playing in the pirate ship and then went into the pool where Colin swam around for almost 2 hours I think. 
Afterwards these two curly haired boys shared cake.
And where was Joel while we were being invaded by pirates? This is what Joel was doing all night and was very content in everyone's arms.
We wish James and Angela could've been there but it was fun hanging out with Angela's family. But I must say, James and Angela have the three cutest nephews I have ever seen.
This morning I loaded up the boys and we ventured out to Pungo to go blueberry picking. Colin loves blueberries and keeps asking when we're going to the farm to pick them. He remembers picking them last year at my grandparents farm. And since we weren't getting to the farm anytime soon I was excited to read in the paper about this blueberry farm not far from our house. I had only been out of the house one other time this week (5 minutes away to go grocery shopping) and that was a success so I figured we'd try it. Both boys were perfect. Colin loved it. Joel slept in the carrier the whole time. None of the blueberries that Colin picked ended up home with us. On our way to go pay for them I looked in Colin's basket and he had eaten them all. So we went to another part of the farm and loaded up his basket with blackberries. (Colin's favorite part was finding a HUGE spider. He made me take a picture of it. He wanted to bring it home with us but I convinced him the spider liked blackberries and wanted to stay there) Its been easy taking both boys places since Joel can't move yet and I know once he becomes mobile it'll all change but its been a breeze so far and Colin has been a big help. It'll be fun to start venturing out more and more these next few weeks. 
Eating blueberries
Looking for the biggest ones. We came home and made a blueberry pie. YUM!
And we had to include more pictures of this cutie. This is a typical Joel face as he studies someone.
Sleeping babies are so precious. He actually grabbed this blanket until it was up close to him. Not sure if it was on purpose but still so cute 
The baby whisperer? Perhaps. Joel was crying and Brent tried everything to calm him down when Colin said "let me hold him." Brent said ok but he's going to cry and Colin sang to him and Joel instantly fell asleep. What a proud big brother.
Sunday we headed over to NN to take Colin to a birthday party and spend time with my parents. My friend Linda's daughter was turning 4 and had her birthday party at the Bounce House. Its pretty much a warehouse filled with inflatable slides, moonbounces, obstacle courses. And it just opened up near my parents house. Linda and I have been friends since 2nd grade so its really fun to get together and see our kids grow up together. We left Joel with my parents and I took Colin while Brent went to Trader Joe's. Colin had a blast and I had fun playing with Colin. He wanted me to go down the slides with him and it was fun to be able to just play with Colin (and also go down slides - things I haven't been able to do in months. The first time I went down one Colin's face was priceless and so excited to have me there going down with him. We had a lot of fun and look forward to going back to the Bounce House again. Brent even got in the action and stopped by (he dropped us off and picked us up since I haven't driven since having the baby) The only bad part of the day was when Colin's eye and another boy's elbow met and now Colin has a big black eye. Battle wounds :)
Colin thought that he should help in blowing the candle out.
Surprises me all the time with how smart he is and how curious he is about things. He always wants to know how things work (he took apart my vacuum cleaner one day just to see how it worked - good thing he could put it back together!) He can tell you all about dinosaurs and what they like to eat. (he loves to tell you that triceratops eats "poop plants" They actually eat fibrous plants but he wanted to know what fibrous plants were and poop plants came out. It does help him eat more veggies) My favorite dinosaur that he says is "broccoli-saurus." It makes me laugh each time. He also knows all about space and can tell you the planets and our solar system. One day soon we want to take him to the air and space museum. He also remembers random facts like "mommy you know snakes smell with their tongues" He never forgets anything and his favorite books right now are a set of encyclopedias for kids that we bought when Colin was born. I never thought we'd be reading them this soon but he loves them and doesn't forget any of the fun facts he learns. Colin has also discovered mazes and loves to do any and all mazes. I got him a book of mazes for kindergarteners and he he did it all in an hour. He calls the dead ends in a maze "door knock" haha its so fun to watch him with his marker and go "oops - door knock" He is such a joy and its so much fun seeing him learn new things and also teach us things as we are learning them together.
Loves to eat and sleep. He smiles in his sleep all the time. He also loves to be held and talked to. He loves being on his stomach and is already trying to lift his head up - have to keep up with his big brother. He loves to be cuddled like his big brother which we hope will continue. He sleeps best when there's noise or when other people are in the room which is good because Colin only has one volume - loud. And has the perfect cheeks for all our kisses. We are all very much in love with him.
Sometimes vent their frustrations out at the same time
