Hello friends!

Let's just pretend I didn't drop off the face of the earth for about 4 months, and try and pick up like nothing ever happened, ok? Since it's getting late here and I'm tired, I'm just going to post a few cute pictures of the boys without captions. These are just some small snapshots into our lives this past summer. Enjoy!

 

                                                  

Beach day and Abe dancin'

I still need to write about Ben's 4th birthday, plus a little post about Abe and all of his exploits, but posting these pictures from our recent trip to the beach is a lot easier.

 

 I heard Ben say, "Mommy, I have something for you!" I looked up expecting to see a sea shell, but instead had a dead crab in my face. I guess that's better than a live crab? My reaction scared him so much that he immediately dropped his surprise.

 

 

And just for fun, here's a little video of Abe showing us his dance moves.

Easter 2012

We didn't do anything big for Easter this year. We went to church in the morning, and and actually made it to the 8:30 service. I quickly realized that getting everyone out the door to the early service was a BIG MISTAKE once I looked at the program and saw that there is no children's church at that time. Ben is pretty good at sitting still, but not for an entire hour when TV isn't involved. He participated a little, and colored a little, and played with some stickers, and started to get really restless until I had an "aha" moment and hissed "There are donuts upstairs and you can have one after church, but ONLY if you are quiet." Yes, I know. I am an awesome parent. But it worked! Well, until the very end when we were standing a listening the choir sing The Hallelujah Chorus and Ben LOUDLY asked, "Can I have my donut now?" And then proceeded to ask several more times until church was over. But we won't count that.

Afterwards we had quiche and strawberries, and hunted for Easter eggs. This was Ben's fourth egg hunt this year, and he was totally OVER IT. Totally. Since he is such a pro at this point, he found all of the eggs in about 5 minutes flat, immediately dumped them on the patio and started tearing them apart looking for treats. The real eggs that he had had so much fun dyeing were NOT as much fun when he realized they didn't magically turn into chocolate eggs overnight. Abe found 2 eggs, and then spent the rest of the time playing.

 

  

After the egg hunt I tried to get some pictures of the boys in their Easter outfits. Even now, as I enter my fourth year of parenthood, I forget that if you want pictures of your kids in their dress clothes you'd better do it immediately. If you look closely you can see dirt stains on their pants and sweaters. In fact, right after these pictures were taken Ben decided to make a mud puddle and have he and Abe stomp in it while my back was turned. Hello Oxyclean!

 

 

 

Tomorrow there is a little boy in my house who is turning 4!! I would like to just sit and cry meditate on that fact for a while, but I still have a cake to bake and a present to wrap.  While I'm busy with that, you might be entertained by seeing what happens when I ask Joel to take a nice picture of me and the boys.

 

 

Park City 2012

It seems strange to be writing about snow and skiing while I'm wearing shorts and thinking about what plants I'm going to buy at the nursery tomorrow, but here it goes! 

We visited Mimi and Poppy in Park City at the beginning of March. We stayed a week, and had a great time relaxing and finally getting to see some snow. You can tell that Mr. B was ready for takeoff in his camo pants, and with TWO Lightening McQueen water bottles in his backpack :)

 I tried my best to corral both boys at the airport, but it was tough. And that was just the first hour of our trip! The details have gotten pretty fuzzy at this point, but I can assure you that the actual traveling portion of our trip was miserable. Not only did Abe scream, throw multiple tantrums, and refuse to sleep through both flights, but he also projectile vomited during our car ride up to Park City. This picture was taken before the madness.

But once we arrived everyone had fun! We went for a little hike on the trail behind Mimi and Poppy's house. Ben looks super serious with his walking sticks.

And Ben went to ski school for a day and LOVED it. I think he mostly loved being able to pelt the instructors with snowballs whenever he wanted. During ski school he learned how to make a pizza wedge with his skis, rode on the "magic carpet" and, um....ate chicken strips for lunch. Then the next couple of days Uncle Aaron took over the lessons.

And here's Ben chillin' on the mountain.

 

Joe, Ben, Aaron and Joel

And if you're interested, (GRANDPARENTS) here is video of Ben skiing. That little speck in the middle is Ben. Joel is on the left and Aaron is on the right. This was his last run of our vacation and I think he was starting to feel pretty comfortable on his skis. 

 

 Daddy and Abe got to do some sledding. Fun fact: Mimi bought Able some super adorable Elmo snow boots in his (correct) size. When we got to Park City we had him try them on. We must have pushed and pulled those boots in every direction but it was no use. Abe has the fattest widest feet known to toddlers.

This picture was taken a day after we arrived. You can tell that Abe was definitely feeling the effects of a cold plus traveling plus the time change.

And Joel and I got to eat dinner in a YURT! One night we took a 30 minute sleigh ride to the top of the mountain, and waiting for us was this cozy little restaurant. We had a wonderful five course meal. Since there was group seating, we were placed at a large table with 4 other couples. We met people from Texas, NYC and what a coincidence...Chapel Hill, NC! I thought that having conversations with everyone was the best part. My more reserved husband might disagree :)

Here we are during our sleigh ride. I just realized that we are looking in two different directions. What is Joel looking at?

And since I don't ski, what did I do? Well, I did some shopping at the outlet mall down the road from Joe and Cathy's house. I ran a couple of times to keep in shape for the 5K I had the weekend after we got back (more on that later.) I finally read the Hunger Games series...it was pretty good! I got to see a good friend of mine from college that I hadn't seen in about 5 years, and I spent some kid-free time with my husband. I call that a successful vacation!

Guess who just learned to ride without training wheels?

Ben has really been all about this no training wheels business ever since he got his bike from Santa. Almost immediately after Christmas he got to the point where we had raised his training wheels up as high as they could go, so he was pretty much balancing on two wheels. And then he plateaued a little bit and rode around like that for a few months. He didn't show much interest in going beyond that level so we didn't pressure him. But the other day we went for a ride down the street, and I just casually asked him if he might be ready to take off his training wheels. "No! Not until I'm a big kid." Ok. No problem. I waited a few minutes, and then said "Well, it's up to you. But I think that you are doing a really great job, and I think that you can take the wheels off any time you want. But if you want to wait that's ok." It's like something just clicked, and he immediately said "Ok, I want them off now." I think he honestly hadn't realized that he didn't have to be a big kid in order to ride on two wheels. So, we went and knocked on the door to Joel's shop/office, and he came out and took off the wheels. Then Joel got on his bike and they went for a ride together.

I'm really proud of Ben for taking this leap and not being afraid. He even wiped out a couple of times on his first ride sans training wheels, and it didn't phase him at all. I can't believe that he got a trike for his 3rd birthday last year, and now we're a week away from his 4th birthday and he's riding a bike!

5 on Monday

1.) I think I've mentioned before that the house we live in was previously owned by a woman who LOVED to garden. She must have planted at least 50 azaleas and hundreds of daffodils, not to mention dogwoods, crepe myrtles, camellias, roses, clematis, gardenias, and a variety of other bulbs, vines, etc..Anyway, tucked away in a far corner of our backyard are three flowering quince bushes. We don't do anything to them, but every year in late winter they produce the prettiest flowering branches. I love them so much, and when they have buds I cut as many branches as I can and force their blooms inside. They last forever as long as you change the water. We're getting towards the end of their season and that makes me sad, but at least our spirea is about to bloom next.

2.) Last week it rained and I let the boys go crazy in the puddles. One of the great things about living in such a warm climate is that a rain in late February isn't always that cold. I think on this day the temps were in the 60s? Anyway, Ben taught Abe how to stomp, and then the fun was on!

In a couple of these photos, you can see that Abe had just face planted in the water. I thought that would be the end of it, but the love of stomping in puddles won out over personal comfort! By the way, do you see that the house that they've been building across the street from us for THREE YEARS is finally nearing completion?

3.) Look who just woke up from his nap all smiley? What a cutie.

4.) I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but our boys share a room. Sometimes this isn't very fun, like two nights ago when Ben woke up in the middle of the night for no reason, and after exhausting mommy and daddy's patience and attention decided to wake up his little brother for some social time. That was a bad night. BUT, other times it's very precious. At night we sit on Ben's bed for prayers and songs, and Abe always climbs all over Ben and snuggles with him. After I put Abe in his crib he always likes to check and make sure his brother is in bed too, and if Ben leaves the room he gets VERY upset. Ideally, the boys wouldn't have shared a room until Abe was slightly older, but after a rough start it's getting much better. I actually think that Abe will be ready for a big boy bed much earlier than Ben was, and it wouldn't surprise me if they ended up sleeping together some nights. I truly think that sharing a room is making the boys closer.

5.) I guess I haven't mentioned this before on the blog, but I started running about 6 months ago. Now, you have to understand that I have NEVER EVER played a single sport in my entire life. Not even summer softball, or a few years of dance, or going out for track in seventh grade. I mean NEVER. So taking up a sport and actually sticking with it for a long period of time is a big deal for me. I won't say that I love it, but there are days when I really enjoy getting my blood pumping and the rush of endorphins. I can tell that I have more energy since I started a running regimen, and I also think it helps with my anxiety and focus. Anyway, I'm running my first 5K on St. Patrick's Day, and I'm really excited!  I'm not very fast and I don't like to run more than 3.2 miles at a time, but that's ok cause I'm pretty sure that's all they make you run for the 5K :) It's fun to have a goal.

Abe has his 15 months checkup tomorrow, so I'll post a little update on him once we have all his stats. Happy Monday!