Lawnmowers

Ever since Joel got his lawnmower for his birthday we couldn't wait to get all the boys together to mow the lawn.  Well it was more me excited to get pictures of Daddy cutting the grass with his little look-a-likes following behind him.  Colin has always loved it and will follow Brent all over the yard (which our neighbors love to watch) Joel loves his lawnmower and we thought it would be a fun.  But it wasn't  - not at first.

Colin was upset his lawnmower didn't have a string on it to pull like Joels. Joel went over to trade but then Colin realized his was much taller so he kept his lawnmower and was smiles again.

It took a while for Joel to warm up to the real lawnmower. He wasn't sure about it at first. I think he's been napping the past few months when Brent and Colin go out to cut the grass.  Then he slowly got the idea. 

Joel thought he should go get the spots they missed.  Colin can't figure out why Joel wouldnt follow after him :)

Halfway though Joel sat down and complained about how big our yard was.

He watched Brent and Colin with this look on his face for a while.  "You mean its actually fun to keep going in this heat?"  (mommy doesn't blame him)

But he got a second wind and realized all the cool things his lawnmower can do.

Colin takes his job very seriously.

He loves it - but he has finally realized his doesn't really cut grass and needs a lawnmower with REAL blades - just like Daddy's. But he still has fun pretending.

All in all not a bad evening.  I think I had the most fun watching it. And I think Joel will begin to love it like Colin.

This was his face towards the end.  Love it!

Weekend away

This past weekend we got away and met our friends Pete and Ashleigh and their kids in Williamsburg. They have a timeshare and we were their invited guests to come for a free weekend if we listened to their whole timeshare talk.  We love Pete and Ashleigh and a free weekend away is always nice so we were excited to go.  And we didn't get the whole talk at all. Showed up for our meeting and somehow they thought it was an account update for Pete and Ash so we got off the hook :) A free weekend for nothing!

 It was so relaxing to get away and hang out with great friends. Colin and Susanna were joined at the hip for most of it and spent one day entirely in the pool.  Colin got braver with putting his face in the water and Susanna learned how to swim in a matter of two days. 

It was almost too hot to do anything but swim in the pool.  But we did get a round of putt putt in one day.

Giving 4 small children a putter and a ball and telling them to hit it in the hole is very comical.  Susanna was the oldest and did the best.  Colin just shoved the ball in however he could as fast as he could.  Sammy just kept using his putter as an axe and then dropping the ball in the hole and then Joel loved finding everyone's balls and picking them up and dropping it in the hole.  I wish I had video taped it. It still makes me laugh just thinking about it.

We ate dinner at Captain Georges and then discovered the Yankee Candle Factory store.  Amazing.  And huge.  We did go to Colonial Williamsburg but with the heat everyone was ready to leave.  The kids played some colonial game and then we ate lunch and went back to the hotel.

 Why does Colin look so old here?   I'm ready for his curls to grow back :) 

Joel really wanted to play too and kept pointing.

And finally got his turn with the hoop.

 Joel has started sleeping better since we put him in the stocks... shouldve taken him here months ago :)

Colin's favorite part was going "hiking" on the earthworks at the hotel.  We didnt know for a few days they were earth works but he would pick up sticks and pretend to cannon the bad guys.  He and susanna even took their leis they got at the luau we went to and made sure they 'crossed' (a very important part) so they could be soldiers and would go hiking.  haha so cute but the funniest part was one morning Colin was on the bed and brent looked over and Colin's hand were folded together like he was praying. When Brent asked what he was doing Colin replied that he prayed "Lord please let me grow up to be a cannon guy so I can shoot bad guys." 

There were lots of hugs and kisses given. Isn't Sammy just too cute? 

Our favorite part was hanging out in the hallway talking for hours late in the night after the kids went to bed.  Thanks Pete and Ashleigh for a great weekend. Can't wait to see you in August! 

Colin

I love this picture of Colin.  He doesn't ever look at the camera now so this is a rare thing.  My handsome boy. We love you Colin boy

Julianna

 

http://vogt4julianna.blogspot.com/

I wanted to title this baby girl but I thought some people might just read the title and think we were having a baby girl.  Colin did tell me the other day that it was time for me to have another baby and this time make sure its a girl so mommy can have someone to play with.  ha! but this is not our baby girl but some dear friends who are adopting. Uncle Re-Re is going to be a big brother again. His parents are adopting another baby girl and will be leaving in a week to go pick her up.  If you'd like to contribute to bringing this sweet girl home or just want to watch their journey to China click on the link above.  We're very excited.  Julianna is 2 months older than Joel.  Children are such a blessing and a joy.  And for all the family members at our wedding - hasn't Johanna grown so much?    she was one of the flower girls. Makes me feel old :)

Its finally done

I think I can say its finally done.  We may have a few more screws to put in and want to put door handles on the gates to make it easier to open but as far as I'm concerned we are finished!  It took a lot longer than we thougth and the next big house project we do Brent is going to take a few days off work in the beginning.  Thanks to everyone who helped.  Our friends moved during the middle of it who helped so much in the beginning.  Anthony - you taught us well and wish you could see the finished result.

The past few weeks we've worked on it a little at a time after putting Joel to bed.  Colin has gotten into being a construction guy and his favorite thing to watch on tv right now is hgtv or diy network.  He has his own orange cones and he places them around his construction site.  He even has the left over wood scraps and used them to build road, sky scrapers, houses in the back yard.  Colin even keeps all his tools in the back of daddy's truck since worker tools go in trucks.  And he will yell to anyone walking by our house "us constructions guys in this family!"  Colin loves when its "fence day" and we work on the fence.  Brent and I have been ready to be done for weeks now but I think Colin could go all summer building the fence. Colin has been a huge help this whole time.

Joel even got into the action and helped build the gates.

We just have to take a truck load of wood back to the store and will be able to sit back and relax in our newly fenced in yard.

Little one is a little upset that he can't go through the gate he worked so hard to build.  Which is why I wanted the latch at the top of the gate.  But then I came out tonight to see the new super cool trick Colin wanted to show me and he climbed up the fence and opened the latch.  His response was "Daddy taught me!" Mommy wasn't too happy with Daddy at that point (and still isn't too happy about this trick). But Brent worked hard on the fence and he did a great job.  I'm enjoying having our yard fenced in and can't wait to start landscaping next to the fence.

Happy 1st Birthday Joel

 On Friday my baby Joel turned 1.  Really?  Has it been that long?  I feel like he was just born but in some ways he seems so much older than 1.  He tries to do everything Colin does so he is in a sense 1 going on 4.    

We spent his birthday at the doctors apt for his 1 year check up.  He barely gained any weight and now weighs 19lbs 11oz but is now almost 31 inches.  Which is now 8% for weight and 75% for height.  Our tall skinny boy.  He has started to sign more, all done and eat which are the basic and most important things to communicate :)  he really does eat all day long :)  Wish i had that metabolism!  But after getting his shot we went and swam in a friends pool where Joel put his face in the water and blew bubbles! 

We had cupcakes for him friday night and let him, Colin open up some presents.  And then on Saturday we had some more birthday fun with my parents, Rod, Ant Ant, Jamie and Benjamin.  Brent made his homemade salsa.

Joel's favorite food right now is cucumbers with a bowl of ranch to dip in. He loves dipping his cukes in the ranch.  Its really cute to see. So he was very excited to see us dipping chips into salsa. He also loves eating with a spoon and fork.  So now we put his food in a bowl and he is pretty good at using his utencils to eat.  Smart boy!

I think that bite was a little too spicy for him :)

 The big boys were excited to help open presents.  They were very excited about Joel's gifts. At one point Benjamin squealed as he was opening the lawnmower "oh thank you!" haha it was so cute.  But don't worry Joel has had lots of playing time with his new toys.  And when Colin has been busy with Joel's toys, Joel has snuck into Colin's room to get at the toys he normally can't play with. 

"my lawnmower"  on sunday Ant Ant, Brent, Colin and Witty went down to the beach while Joel napped and when he woke up he went to all his new toys and would point to the toy and then to him.  He is willing to share but definitely knows what toys are his. 

 Its hard to believe a year ago this was Joel. 

And now he is walking, talking, running around.  He is so sweet and loves to run over to us and give hugs and big slobbery kisses.  He also starting to love books and will come snuggle into my lap and read book after book and will keep signing more when we're done.  Joel has the greatest laugh and we love to hear his big belly laughs when we tickle him.  He also loves to be chased around the house/yard and will giggle the whole time. Joel LOVES Colin and just thinks his big brother is the greatest. The other day Colin was sitting down reading a book and Joel went over and head butted him and began to wrestle Colin.  SO funny and Colin loved it.  They love each other and its so fun to watch.  We love you baby Joel. You have blessed our family so much this past year. We're excited to watch you grow and see more of your personality come out more every day.  Just slow down all this growing up stuff - stay our baby joel just a little longer for mommy ok?

Happy 4th of July

Last year when we were all waiting around hoping for a firecracker baby (who still took another 5 days to come)  we said we'd be at the farm this year for the 4th. But Brent and I decided we needed to get this fence done and made a big push to finish it this weekend.  It really takes maybe 50 times longer when you have Joel running around and wanting to help or get into trouble.  But he did take a 4 hour nap on saturday so we got most of it done.  All that is left is putting up a few more slats and then the gates.  Amazing how we thought it would take 2 weekends but we're getting there :)  On Sunday we decided to take a break from the fence and took the boys to a bike parade in Portsmouth. 

Colin was very excited and kept asking all day Sunday when it was time to go.  Joel wasn't too impressed but loved holding the balloon. I had seen this bike parade advertised last year and it was in the paper this year too so I was surprised when we got there and maybe 30 kids were in the parade.  Some of these kids had amazing decorations on their bikes. I should've taken a picture of some of them.  We got lots of ideas for next year

A fire truck led the parade and the kids took off.  At one point I saw Colin trying to make his way up past the fire truck. He seemed to think it was a race and he wanted to win.  He did crash into a tricycle and a parked car and I had to run to help them up but thankfully no one was hurt.  Colin told me the kid on the tricycle saved his life!  I guess he fell on top of the boy. 

Joel was towards the end.  He was the only stroller in the parade.  Which won him a prize.  We weren't expecting anything but he won this big basket full of goodies.  Helps when you're the only one in your catagory :)  I thought they shouldve given it to some of the other kids who took a lot of time on their bikes.  Colin was excited when we told him they both won the prize and took over most of the things.  There was this huge art box filled with art supplies that Colin loves.  And Joel would just eat the crayons so we happily gave those to Colin. 

There was a little ceremony that we stayed for.  Listened to some songs, ate some cake, drank punch and then came home to a cookout at our neighbors.  Yummy food and Colin got to set off some firecrackers.  Then they all walked over to the playground across the street and watched fireworks go off - illegal ones that someone in our neighborhood was setting off. We could hear the ones going off at Mt. Trashmore but couldnt see them.  I stayed home and put Joel to bed.  A fun 4th and maybe next year we will get back to the farm.