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.

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.