Summer Days!

We have been busy enjoying summer around here!  The last week has been wonderful since being unpacked and feeling more settled :)

 We finally got sand for our sandbox!!  (The sandbox I found at a garage sale last summer RIGHT before finding out we'd be moving to DC)  The kids are loving it! 

 Gary put in a patio for our table in the backyard!  I'll have to post a "finished product" picture soon, but it looks great and makes an awesome temporary solution for us since we obvioulsy can't put in any fixed structures in the rental house.  The yard is pretty much dirt/sticks/rocks other than the patio... which the boys LOVE but we will hopefully be able to grow some grass (despite the shade) and cut down on the mud :)

 We can also have our own kiddie pool now that we are out of the apartment and have our own little yard!  It has been a HUGE hit! 

 Nathan's FAVORITE outside toy is the squirt bottles!  After lots of practice, he's found his own little way of working them and goes around squirting everyone and everything!  He's hilarious too becuase he'll hand me the squirt bottle and say "peeaaase", wanting me to squirt him all over!  He thinks it's so silly!  I love that boy :)

 In the middle of our "pool time" we always take a break for pospscicles or fudgescicles!  Nathan plops right down on his towel like one of the big boys and knows what's coming!  He finishes off every last bite, it's pretty cute :)

It sure has been HOT!  But we've still been spending a lot of time outside!!  The kids LOVE it!  The rest of our time the kids are enjoying the space here!  It is so nice to be able to have toys in their room, a few in the living room, and the majority downstairs in the basement (aka playroom!) 

July

July has been a crazy busy month around here! Hence the lack of posting ;) We are now all moved into our new place though and things are relatively unpacked and settled!! I LOVE that feeling! The whole packing/moving process is a handful with four little ones around during the week!

But look at those four sweet faces :)

Alex was quite the helper "labeling" boxes for me! He LOVED this when we moved last year and I think he loved it even more this year! Amazing what changes he's gone through... this year he wasn't just scribbling on boxes, but writing his name and other "words"!! What a smartie!

This box is labeled "mom"!

The boys helping mommy clean!

And of course this one wanted in on the labeling fun too!

We left Friday evening on July 1st to head to my parents house in DuBois, PA (about a 5 hour drive) to pick up all the stuff that has been in storage there for the last year. Even though they are stationed in GA right now, they made the trip up to help us and visit with us for the night!

We had a campfire, the boys loved roasting marshmellows and playing in the yard!

Grandpa bought some fireworks that Alex and Gary LOVED!!!! Anyone that knows Gary knows that fireworks are a huge love of his ;) Particularily setting them off himself...

Saturday we got up early to start loading the truck up! We got a 22ft truck this year (last year we moved our stuff with a 26ft truck and it was a VERY tight fit... but we had two trips this year and figured this would be plenty big enough!)

Alex was a HUGE helper!!

He absolutely loved the truck! ( In fact, every time he prays the first thing he STILL says is "thank you for the yellow moving truck!" LOL)

We just kept loading and loading though (not super tightly like last year...), and we pretty much packed the entire truck! Can't believe how much stuff we had there... mostly furniture and boxes of school stuff from teaching.

After loading everything up we went on a quick boat ride on the lake before we hit the road!

The kids both thought it went a bit fast, but all in all enjoyed grandpa's boat!

We left Saturday after lunch to head back to DC. Gary's family met up with us at the new townhouse (twice the size of our apartment - 3 bedrooms, with a large basement for a playroom!) We unloaded the truck Saturday night, then went back to our apartment to relax before another big day! Sunday we got up early and loaded up the apartment!

Here are our helpers in the truck! We loaded everything up by lunchtime, then headed to lunch, then the townhouse to unload! We are so appreciative of all the help we had! We couldn't have done it without our families and are so grateful for all of their help!!! Monday my parents came through on their way back to GA to help move things around, clean, etc. And I've been unpacking little by little ever since. Two weeks after the move, it's all pretty much unpacked and things are looking pretty good! We are absolutely loving the space, and although Nathan has been a little clingy, the kids are transitioning well! :)

We had a weekend of celebration our first weekend in the new house! Our anniversary and Gary's birthday happen to fall just 2 days apart (July 8th and 10th). Friday the 8th Gary made an AMAZING 5 year anniversary dinner for us to celebrate as a family. Can't believe all that has happened in the last five years, it's been crazy but absolutely wonderful! Saturday some friends of ours watched the boys and we spent the evening going on dinner and movie date! (Transformers 3 in IMAX 3-D... yes, we went for the romantic evening - ha!) We really did have a great time though - I really treasure those kid-free dates with my hubby! :) Then Sunday was Gary's birthday... although it was a busy day being in the new home, we managed to spend time going to dinner and shopping for house stuff together as a family! Then we came back for cheesecake before bed! It was a great weekend!

And I can't end the post without mentioning that this little man started walking just before all of that excitement! After standing for a few moments on his own for about a month and just being afraid to take that first step, he finally started taking 3-4 steps at a time at 13 months and 1 week... then after about a week of a few steps at a time, he began fully walking at 13 1/2 months :) I love the wobbly little toddler walk!!

My little bike rider!

We got Alex a two-wheeler (with training wheels) about two weeks ago now! He LOVES it and is doing awesome with the pedaling! :)

Pool Days!

The pool opened Memorial Day weekend! We've been spending a lot of time there ever since :) The kids LOVE it!!


Alex's favorite part is runing through the fountains in the kiddie area!

Nathan likes to walk around the edge of the kiddie area! He will only walk left for some reason though! haha

The kids are always worn out after a trip to the pool!

Popsicles after swimming, yumm!

Nathan enjoys them more than Alex! He can eat 2/3 of it every time! The only time he hasn't been a fan was when we weren't outside right before and he wasn't particularily hot... I guess it was too cold for him that time!

Waiting for daddy to finish grilling so we can eat!

Memorial Day picnic and pool trip!!

Nathan enjoying every bite of his hot dog!

Splashing!

Out swimming in the deep end with daddy! He loves this!

I admit it took some bribing to get Alex to venture out with daddy, but after the first time he warmed up and loves it now! The next step is to see if I can get him to wear swimmies (would make it easier when I take all four of the kids on babysitting days! Right now the big boys have to stay in the kiddie area)

Big week!

I'm currently waiting on Gary to get home after a week on my own! I can't wait!!! I handled it much better than last time in the sense that I wasn't nearly as paranoid about being "home alone" (I was a big baby last time haha). But, I've missed him sooo much and can't wait to have him back with us today!!!! In addition to being without daddy this week, it was also my first full, 4 day week with the boys I'm watching now! We had a really fun week together!!


My kiddos playing together all the time now! Love it!


These two are becoming such buddies!

Nathan LOVES the dump truck!!

We made cookies and the kids decorated them :)

A little love for baby Asher!

Picnic at the park!

Planting flowers! That are already starting to sprout!! (something I always worry about since every year while teaching we'd plant seeds for mother's day and there were 2 years where none of my kids' plants really grew haha)

And today we finished out the week with a morning date!! I took Alex and Nathan to the library (yeah, I'm the "cool mom" that takes my kids to the library for a date haha!), followed by chick-fil-a (including the playplace!) and coldstone! We had so much fun!! Can't wait for daddy to be back with us soon though! :)

Nathan

Just a few bullet points about my big one year old for memories' sake today :)

*Nathan now says "chooo chooo" while "pulling the train horn cord" with both hands... it's incredibly cute!
*He is super comfortable on his feet, but terrified to let go and walk! He stands on his own when he doesn't realize he's doing it, scales the wall to get where he wants to go, and is all over the place... as long as one hand is barely touching something ;)
*He's already had some knee scrapes outside! Don't think Alex got one until maybe 18 months haha... guess that's the second child for you!
*Nathan makes animal noises for dogs (ruff ruff!) and any animal that "growls"
*He points to what he wants alll the time, and most of the time he's so cute that it's hard to say no
*He hates having to stop what he's doing for a diaper change... the second you get that diaper off he tries to escape across the room... then he'll stop and look at you and giggle! He thinks he's pretty funny!
*He blows kisses (and gives really wet, open mouthed kisses still too!)
*When you tell him to "say nigh-nigh! love you!" to daddy and alex, he waves and then blows a kiss!
*He imitates the way the big boys play, it is so cute! He loves to drive cars and makes sound effects to go with it, does a pretty good job keeping the wooden trains on the tracks, and likes to fly planes and superheroes around. He also loves the little people and putting them in the bus, plane, or truck!
*He loves the mirror and will get really excited to see himself! He even gives the mirror kisses! ha!
*He is constantly getting complimented by strangers about how cute and sweet he is :) I'll miss it when my kids are too old for that haha. They also always say what a great brother Alex is and how cute they are together! (and that they look identical!)

Four Sweet Boys!

So after almost exactly one year completely off from work, I've started a new job!! A few months ago we discovered some friends of ours in our small group were looking for childcare for their two boys when their new baby was born. After much thought and prayer, we decided it was a perfect opportunity for me to start up my own little in-home childcare! It's something that's been in the back of my mind for a while (actually, something I was thinking about doing had Gary not gotten a new job here in DC). I love being home with my boys, but I have missed teaching and it's been tight this year on one income. This is a great alternative to me going back to work and I'm so excited to be starting with two more sweet boys! Asher is two months old, and Elijah is three! My boys are enjoying new playmates, and we're all busy getting into a new routine! I've been doing preschool activities with the two big boys and have kept them all busy with trips to the park, "center time", and independent room time each day! We're all adjusting pretty well so far! Their mom only works M-Th, so I'll still have every Friday off with just my boys to do things :) I am looking forword to having more space for all of us in a couple of months (we're starting to look for a townhouse to move to in July!) and hopefully a mini-van at some point, so we're not confined to only walking places.

Here are a couple of pictures of the four of them playing together!




And a couple of fun photos of my boys, too! Here's Alex on the way home from a special Starbucks date with mommy!!

And one of Nathan with his race car! (I missed the pic of him standing with both feet on the seat... and the one of him using it to climb up on the couch by himself! Silly boy!)

Alex enjoying his "Treasure Hunt" Book - a special gift from his aunt and uncle! Cannot believe how old he looks!