graduation

I found my graduation cap the other day and Colin and Joel have been playing with it. This picture almost scares me because its not to hard for me to picture what Colin will look like wearing his cap and gown in a short 14 years.

Every day Colin makes me laugh with the imagination he has and the crazy things he says. Its also fun to see the world through his eyes. I can't wait to experience life through Joel once he starts talking too.  One day after trying to get a splinter out of colin's hand we were playing a game and he rubbed my legs and then exclaimed "mommy you have lots of splinters on your legs!!!"  No Colin - mommy just needs to shave.

And then last night after talking to him about possibly cutting his hair.  He refused and said "I want to have daddy long leg hair!"

11 months

my very curious, into everything, energetic, mischievous, walking, cuddly boy is 11 months old. 

We all just love him to pieces.  My favorite thing right now is when he smothers me with slobbery kisses.  He loves to do that and I hope it never stops.  He also calls me what sounds like mom-mom.  He is so cute.  He is such a joy.

d.i.y.

what do you do on the hottest weekend so far this year?

Put in a fence in your backyard :) 

Bad timing but we started and had some wonderful helpers.  My parents came over and helped all day and so did this wonderful couple - Anthony and Morgan and their sweet baby Samantha.  Other people filtered in and out all day but those four were the troopers and braved the heat and helped.  I'm pretty sure none of us will be able to move tomorrow.  We can't thank them enough for helping.

But of course nothing ever goes as planned. Friday after work Brent was going to go pick up all the supplies and wood that we needed to have everything ready for Saturday morning.  I was getting the kids ready to go to a friends pool and swim around (our pool is only open weekends until school gets out) when brent called me and said he needed to go get stitches.  I guess another guy he worked with almost passed out with the sight of all the blood so he came home and instead of swimming in a nice pool we went and took him to get stitches.  He sliced his hand open at work and needed 4 stitches.  Colin was Super excited it wasn't him this time getting stitches. 

So instead of getting the wood we came home and let his hand rest.  That also left me to take out this huge bush and it ended up more massive than I thought. And our clippers broke.  Both of them.  So we called it a night and waited until morning.

In the morning we bandaged Brents hand and he said its just stiff and not sore.  We'll see what he says tonight but after 3 truck loads of wood unloaded and then more trees taken out we now have 3 panels made - 2 of them in the ground.  We are building the panels ourselves and that 16 feet of fence that we have right now looks amazing.  I'm so excited.  I've wanted this ever since we moved in.  We have another 270ish feet of fence left but its a start and now that we have everything and know how to do it hope to knock it out the next few weekends.  Of course any of you reading this who live near us are more than welcome to help out.  Or watch our kids so we can do it :) 

What do you do with the babies when you're unloading trucks of wood?  Put them in the stroller.  They did pretty well but then had enough:

Until food was brought out then they were happy again!

I can't wait to show you the final fence.  Its going to be so nice.  It was a lot of work today but it went by fast and was fun watching the kids play and also hanging out. I hope everyone else felt the same way! Although now I know why people pay big bucks to have someone else do all the hard work. 

We have a walker

The past two days Joel has decided he wants to walk more than crawl.  He seems so grown up now but he sure is cute toddling around. And we haven't had to worry about him eating dirt or mulch this week! 10 months old.  Pretty crazy. Colin loves to try to get Joel to walk to him and also likes to walk around holding Joel's hand.  Although he has learned that Joel can't run the same speed as him yet. Poor Joel has been jerked around a lot lately.  That'll probably happen next week at the rate this baby is going!  I have some cute videos but can't seem to figure out how to post them on blogger.  But here are some pictures from the other day.  Colin figured out that not only is it fun to see Joel walk but this whole baby walking is good for other things:

Joel enjoyed it but I think he's starting to realize its much more fun to be the passenger. 

Tis The Season!!!!

Yes, a rare post by the "daddy!"  Maybe my favorite month has come and gone as May is the start of many things.  Warm weather, but not TOO warm, and yes, Garden season!
Here are some pictures from our garden this year.

Last year we started our sunflower tradition with three.  This year we are going crazy and have nine!  Will be curious to see what our "wall" of sunflowers looks like!  New additions are a crookneck squash, some green beans, and possibly some green onions (not sure if they will make it)

One of our favorites is Snow Peas.  They are the first veggie to be ready and our count of "eaten" pods so far is up to 90!!!  We've got some yellow and red peppers (i love the sweet ones), of course tomatoes, cucumbers, and our usual basil and cilantro.  Last year the weeds went wild, so this year we put hay down all over the place to keep em down.  Not to mention keeping the soil moist under the plants.

I love gardening, probably instilled from my grandpa who had a HUGE garden. But I love that Colin has taken such a liking to it.  We now have "three "Gnomes" who are hidden to protect our garden from animals!  Rabbits are everywhere, so we also put up some mesh as they eat the tips off the new cucumbers.  Colin loves digging and helping weed "his" garden!!!  His favorite phrase when we work is, "daddy, this is my squash plant right?"  I love it! Joel has also taken to the garden and loves to eat snow peas.  Although lately he wants to pick his own or he wont eat them.  Then when he does pick his he grins and waves it around to show everyone what he picked.  How is everyone else's garden going?

Guess who

Its pretty easy for us to tell the difference but it did make Brent think for a moment when I asked him. The top is Joel - I think at that point he was ready to go home from the pool. The bottom is Colin - who has always loved the pool and is a little sad about being taken out of the water. 

Our Long Long Journey

This weekend we did a whirlwind trip up to New Jersey. Or as Colin called it - our long long journey. We had planned months ago to go to Jamie and Tonys wedding in Conn but it got too complicated and Brents work was picking up so he couldn't take that much time off so we didnt end up going last week. So sad but since then I've been stalking facebook for pictures and can't wait to see all of them :) (and as a side note last week was brents busiest week and also best week he's had with the company so it was a good thing we didn't go since he does work on commission - lets hope this a sign of things to come!)  But we really wanted to go to NJ and see some friends we hadn't seen in years and I don't think we've been back since we got married almost 7 years ago. so we went up Saturday morning.  We stayed with some good friends Rob and Tammy and Colin had a blast playing with their kids.  Their youngest is Colin's age.  Its always such a fun time with Rob and Tammy.  We really need do this more often. Joel didn't enjoy the car trip but didn't do too bad and Colin entertained him by passing toys back and forth. We got to see some more friends for dinner that night and then the boys passed out from all that playing. Colin even got to sleep on the top bunk bed and loved it.

 Can you find Brent in this picture?

Sunday after church we went and saw more friends, Leah and Ryan and their kids - and their sweet 3 week old baby. Ryan and Leah built an amazing house and we've been following the process for the past few years and had a lot of fun seeing it in person.  And I think Leah encouraged Brent more in his desire for a worm farm he talked about it on the way home some more :) Joel unfortunately has FOUR eye teeth coming in at once and was miserable at night.  He was up every hour saturday night so we made the decision to drive home late sunday night instead of waiting for Monday morning.  When Brent and I were dating we'd do that late drive all the time on the weekends.  It was a super fast trip but the boys both slept most of the way home and then went right to sleep when we got them home. I think we'll travel like this a lot more now.  Joel would wake up each time we had to pay a toll and then moan and complain about being in the car seat until he gave up and realized sleeping was much better.  Next time we'll have to stay longer and show the boys all the places Brent lived in NJ.  New Jersey is a pretty state once you get off the interstate although I am glad we live in VA where we can pump our own gas.  It took forever to wait in line and Colin kept asking the man out the window why he was pumping our gas.  Haha!

 Just some of the kids.  I didnt take many pictures this weekend since the camera was in the car for most of it.  It was a fun 'journey' and then we hung out at the pool monday afternoon.  So glad its now open.  Joel enjoyed it more than I thought so i'm pretty sure I'll be taking both boys once its open every day. 

That toy colin has won't be coming with us anymore to the pool. It was the most popular one at the pool and after stopping some fights from other kids over it we put it away.  Colin hardly got to play with it but I guess it means it was a fun toy. 

bear crawl

This is how Joel crawls outside now. 

Its so much easier than actually getting his legs itchy when they touch the grass.  I have tried putting those baby leg warmers on him but he prefers this method.  Or when he's not crawling  he likes to walk around holding my hands. And lately its just been holding onto one of my hands.  He's almost ready to walk.

And aren't these kids super cute?  Joel I think fed Davan handfuls of mulch and Davan, a trusting little guy ate them.  He shares so well doesn't he? 

Backward shirt

 Today the boys and I were running errands.  Well just one errand and then I realized how late it was getting and joel needed lunch and a nap so we quickly came home.  He's finally back on a pretty predictible schedule now - about time since its been months with his whole teething ordeal :)  and of course its right before we go away for the weekend and he wont get back on this nice schedule.  Such is life.  But at the store we were waiting in the check out line and the woman in front of us said to Colin " you know your shirt is on backwards."  (which it was but he dressed himself very proudly this morning. Blue polo and green cords. At least his clothes matched.  He was so proud of himself this morning and the fact that he got dressed before I could change baby Joel)  Colin just gave her a look and I was hoping it would stop there but then the woman told him at least 3 more times right in a row "you know your shirt is on backwards." Colin turned to me with tears in his eyes "mommy i did good this morning right?"  And before I could answer the woman turned to me and said "you know your son's shirt is on backwards." Like I hadn't been with him all morning to notice that. And while I wanted to say a lot of things to this woman, I said "yes I do. but he dressed himself this morning and did an excellent job and I'm very proud of him."  Colin beamed. The woman scowled but at least turned away and stopped talking to us. All too soon Colin will care about what he wears and try to fit in and lose some of the confidence he has in his clothing choices and in himself.  Since right now he's proud of himself.  I esp love his redskins pants and plaid shirt combination.  I want to protect my childrens innocence and child-likeness (is that a word?) as long as possible.  Their eyes will be opened soon enough to the ugliness of this world but for now I'm going to let my child wear his shirts backwards and continue to dress himself. 

oh and at the same store the woman behind us made a comment about colin's curls and how joel's hair is curling up.  Then she said "you dont see too many long haired boys around here.  Thats usually up in the mountains." haha this made me laugh because  i have seen a lot of long haired boys. I should've told her he was our little west virginia baby :) Wonder what she'd say if Colin had a mohawk.

This little guy...

Is starting to get curls too - same place where Colin's hair started curling up.  Makes me wonder if these will last too. 

Either way he's pretty cute. Especially the way he loves to point at everything right now.

end of soccer

 Saturday we had Colins last soccer game.  He is giving the coach a high five.  He started that after one of the first practices. After Colin scored he would always give his coach a high five. At first he would go up and just hold his hand up without saying anything and then I think the coach's wife had to clue the coach in on what Colin wanted.  haha but shortly afterwards ALL the kids were going up and giving the coach and assistant coach high fives.  Colins favorite part of the game.  His team won (as usual - they had a winning season! ha!) but the exciting part was that his game was filmed and shown on the 6:00 and 11:00 news! 

Colin hates getting his picture taken but LOVES videos.  So he was in awe of the big camera.  We all sat down and watched the news and were surprised how much they showed.  We have watched it maybe 15 times already. Colin loves it.  Here is the clip that his coach put on you tube. Colin was surprised to see his coach on TV - "how does he do that?" is what he said. (we were all joking at the soccer pizza party tonight how our kids all love to watch this video and that it'll get the most hits of any wavy news 10 videos.  And the way the kids all glowed and loved to talk about them being on TV tonight i wouldn't doubt it)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1vpDbnd77k

Colin didn't score his 6 goals he's been averaging at this game. He was very serious each time it was his turn to take a break (the kids play 4 minutes on 4 minutes off) but then was very excited each time and did his little dance onto the field when he was called back on.

Joel had fun as usual.  He also made a good friend with another little brother on the team.  His name was Colin too and Joel and little Colin would usually sit in their strollers and share toys and sippy cups back and forth. 

I think we might be done with soccer though.  Colin doesnt want to play in the fall right now. He's on to new sports - tball is the favorite right now.  His friend aiden on the team also wants to play tball so we'll see if we can get them both on the same team. Although a lot could change between now and then.

Botanical Gardens

Brent had a Tuesday off this week.  We were supposed to be at the beach since he works Monday and Wednesday in NC near nags head/kitty hawk area.  But it didn't work out this time. Maybe sometime this summer. But since he did have a day off we took a family trip to the botanical gardens.  I was surprised how big it was.  A hidden gem in ghetto Norfolk. We only went to half of it and will have to go back and explore some more.  We even saw these huge tadpoles that were about to lose their tails and had little nubs for arms and legs.  They have this amazing kids area that we spent most of our time in.  There are some fun fountains that the boys loved but the day we went it was very cold. I got some great videos of Joel and Colin in the fountains. Joel laughed everytime he got wet.  It was so cute.  And I think we were the only ones there letting our kids get wet since it was so cold.  Good thing we brought a change of clothes for them.  We will have to go back when its warmer.  Colin loved it and keeps asking me when we're going back to that fun park.  There was this one overlook that he and I played in and he told me he was the knight and I was the princess he was coming to save.  I think I'm going to like his interest in castles and knights - especially if I get to be the princess and not the bad pirate this time :)  We had a great time and both boys fell asleep on the way home and then we got them both down for another hour nap at home. Which meant naps for mommy and daddy too since Joel is the only one liking his 4am wake up every day (which hopefully will stop soon)

Mothers day

On Mothers Day we had Joel's baby dedication.  You can view it here. (we're one of the last families) Joel is a ham and really wanted the mic :)

We were asked to pick a verse and our prayer for our boys is Ephesians 3:17-19.
Our prayer is that these boys grasp His love early in life and to be filled to the measure of the fullness of God.  The greatest gift they will ever receive.  When I explained what we were going to do to Colin he really wanted to go up and couldn't wait since he wanted everyone to know that Joel's big brother would tell him about God and protect him too. 

And for fun this picture is from Colin's baby dedication almost 4 years ago.


Then after church we headed across the water to my parents house and I think for the first time in a year and last time for maybe the next few years we had all my sisters and brother there.  James and Angela leave soon for Japan and it was the last time we'll see them for a long time (unless this family christmas in hawaii actually works out - which we're hoping!)   Sarah has some family pictures that i'd love to get from her but the boys had a blast. My grandparents and uncle jeff were also there for lunch.  Colin was in rare form as he 'transformed' himself into a snake in the shed and then slithered out all the way to the patio.  He made Angela his baby and told baby and AJ to stay in the woods the whole time.  Then he had something about Arizona land that he kept talking about.  haha it was great.  He's so funny.  A busy but very fun day.  Colin was asleep before we got down the street and Joel kept babbling the whole way home and looking at Colin wondering why he was sleeping. 

Joel and my grandpa.  I know its a little blury but I love this picture of them

Colin and his Great Uncle Jeff (and yes even before Colin & Joel he has always been a great uncle)

strawberry pickin

We just got back from a fun morning strawberry picking.  We went right after Colin's soccer game and met some friends Shawn and Molly at the strawberry patch.  Joel absolutely loved it and kept eating and squishing all the strawberries.  Colin filled his basket fast with big strawberries and then played in a pile of dirt the whole time. Joel wanted to play in the dirt too but due to our previous post we didn't let him near the dirt pile :) We took a ton of pictures but here are some of our favorites. Now the fun part of eating them and making strawberry shortcakes begins.