Friday, October 29, 2010

A Fall Weekend!

Last weekend was the weekend of fall festivities! It was fun except for the fact that Noah was fighting some kind of virus that came to a head Friday night. Sleep was not great Friday and Saturday night but we still powered through the days (he seemed to feel pretty well during the days, especially when drugged!). :-)

The festivites began (as did the first signs of sickness) on Thursday night. We decided to take the kids to the fair after work/school. We were a little concerned as to how well it would work but the kids had a blast -we rode the ferris wheel (Noah had been talking about that), ate bad food, won some cheap stuffed animals and that was that! :-) I didn't get too many pictures because the crowds were crazy and just keeping up with everyone was enough to handle!

We starte in Kids Zone - Noah liked all the little games there.


Then we went straight to the ferris wheel. The line was long but Noah was adament that he wanted to do it. It was pretty high so I wasn't sure how well he'd do but he did like it. When we got up to the top, he said, 'I'm a little scared but not too much'. It was cute. However, he told me twice in line that his tummy hurt and when we were up on the ride, he started saying it a lot. He said he didn't have to go to the bathroom and didn't think he was going to throw up but I was just envisioning him getting sick all over the ride!! He ended up being fine and said he was hungry and seemed better after we ate so I didn't think much of it. Here he is on the ferris wheel. :-)


Then the eating began - I told Noah - if his tummy already hurt to wait until after he had fair food!! :-) He had a corn dog and Kylie had a hot dog (and they shared some fruit I brought). But mine was the best - I had french fries, funnel cake and cotton candy! :-) Obviously wasn't worried about my diet that night. :-) Kylie, by the way, has a major sweet tooth and loved the funnel cake and cotton candy!! :-)

We left around 8:00 or so after a few games and both kids were sound asleep on the way home.
On Friday, Noah seemed a little run down but nothing too bad. We had plans for that evening and decided to go ahead with them. Daycare was doing a Parents Night Out where they keep the kids from 6-9 after hours. We decided to take advantage and take Waylon's parents out to dinner since they are our 'go-to' babysitters and have helped us out so much recently in particular. Noah was SOOO excited about going to school and must have asked "Can we go now??" every minute for about 30 minutes before it was time to leave! It was cute. He had fun. Kylie, on the other hand, wasn't too happy about being left there but they said she did great and fell asleep just before we came to pick her up. We had a fabulous dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then went shopping afterwards at the mall for a bit. Very fun!
We got the kids home and straight to bed and it worked well.... until about midnight when Noah woke up blazing hot. He was not feeling well at all and couldn't sleep and ended up in our bed with us. Needless to say it was a rough night for all of us.
Saturday morning, our plan was to spend some time out at our new neighborhood making some choices for the house and one of the teachers at daycare was going to come stay with the kids with her son but since Noah had been sick, we cancelled that. It was strange though because by the morning, he seemed to feel fine and was ready to play. So we decided to load everyone up and head out there anyway. We got some things done... Noah just laid on the couch and watched TV and Kylie played well for a while but then had had enough. So we grabbed lunch and headed home for naps.
That afternoon was pretty relaxed which was a very nice change. Except that Kylie was CRANKY! She's getting her own little attitude and if she doesn't get her way, she lets you know! :-) We think she might be going through a growth spurt because she's been eating like crazy and sleeping a lot too. Last night, I put her down at 8:00 and she didn't wake up until 9:30 this morning!!! Wow.
Anyway, Saturday night was a repeat of Friday night so we were all very tired by this point. We, yet again, had a decision to make because we already had plans to go to Hillridge Farms with Nana, Grandad, and Savannah and fam. In the end, we decided to go and are glad we did. It was so fun and both kids had a blast! Again, they were both pretty tired by the end but it was lots of fun. And lots of pictures of this!! There was so much to do out there.
First stop, jump house!

Bus cutout. :-)

A bunny house

Train ride!! We got in the caboose which was fun cause the kids could get up and walk around and it was all enclosed.

Self portrait of myself and Kylie
There was a huge slide tunnel. Noah and Savannah loved it and both went down twice.





Kylie visited the horses while they were sliding.... next year she'll be right there!


This was a huge 'corn-box'. Not sure what you call this but it was a little house filled with corn about a foot deep. They loved this!
Talking to the ponies again
Savannah and Noah running through the hay maze

Kylie did, too but here she is just observing.
She hardly crawls at all these days... walks everywhere!

Hard to get a decent picture of everyone at the same time - this will become a theme in the pictures to come! :-)



Nana and Grandad treated Noah and Savannah to pony rides!!! So fun!


'Duck races' - you buy a rubber duckie for $1 and pump water to make it go. Pointless but he loved it and you get to keep the duckie which he loves. :-)

Walkin' with Granddaddy

The girls with Nana and Grandad on the hayride - we tried to get Noah to sit with them but he wouldn't... the continuation of the photo woes. :-)

The whold crew on the hayride. It was a nice ride that ended at the pumpkin patch. We got off and picked pumpkins and then got back on to ride back.

All the outtakes.... never got a good one of all three! :-)






Love the look Kylie is giving Noah here
Finally at the pumpkin patch!
Kylie found her pumpkin! She was trying to pick it up.

Noah searching for the perfect one.

A family shot - not too bad!

Crankypants with the girls. :-) Noah and Savavannah were being silly.

And Noah found his!
After the hayride, we had a picnic lunch with the family and some yellowjackets - they were all over the place! :-) It was a great trip and everyone had a blast. This is aparent by our ride home....



On our way home, we actually met my mom (who came to town for a few days and rode in with her friend Roz) at our new neighborhood. Roz dropped her off there and she took our car and the kids home (we had dropped off a car that morning). So we had some time without the kids to go through options and make some decisions. That was good and we are almost there with the house stuff. They should be breaking ground very soon! So exciting!
While we were out, my mom said Noah was pretty warm again that afternoon but Sunday night he finally slept better and got over whatever mess he had.
I have other pictures of our visit with my mom and our week but I'm going to continue that in the next post... stay tuned!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Moving and Kylie's Birthday

We are now all moved in to our rental!! Things have calmed down for a bit since this past weekend but are getting ready to pick back up because now we have choices to make for the new house. Hopefully after these decisions are made, then we'll just sit back and watch them build for a while while we enjoy the holidays.







So going back to the weekend of the 9th and 10th... we had playdates set up for the kids for Saturday so we could start moving stuff, but Noah got sick so on to plan B. Andrea was so nice to offer to come watch the kids at our house so we could get some things done. Waylon's dad also came and helped us move a few loads (on both Saturday and Sunday) - including taking down and putting up our playset! On Sunday, Waylon's mom came also and we spent most of the day over at the new place trying to get some things set up. We got a huge amount of moving done and by Sunday night, we felt like we were in really good shape for the big move the following weekend...







Some pictures from that weekend....












On Monday, I took the kids to the mall. Between Sunday and Monday, Kylie really started officially walking. She's been taking several steps, but she starting walking all over those days. At the mall, she was all over the place and they had so much fun at the play area there...




That week was hard at the house since half of our stuff was at the new place! Kylie also ended up with some kind of virus in her eye on Wednesday. They thought it was pink eye and we even went to the doctor and got drops for it but they didn't really help. After about 5 days and quitting the drops, it cleared up on it's own.




Late Thursday night, my parents came into town to help us during our 'big move' weekend. This was huge because they had just gotten back from Italy that Monday night!! They had a big week and still offered to come help.




Friday was Kylie's first birthday!! And poor thing, I sent her to school! :-) It actually turned out to be a really nice day and she was very happy. We took a little extra time in the morning and my parents and I took the kids to school around 8:45 or so (Waylon went to work). After a quick trip for coffee, we went back to the house and started moving some things. Again, we got a LOT done and got enough moved to celebrate Kylie's birthday that evening at the rental house.




Waylon picked up the kids on his way home from work and we ordered in Chinese and did cake and presents. It was a late night and we just let the kids go until they dropped which turned out to be close to 9:00! I think Kylie got a second wind after the cupcake. She LOVED it! A lot of kids are a little tentative with it (Noah was) but Kylie just picked up the cupdake and shoved it in her mouth! It was so funny. By the end she had rubbed it all over her head and face and was so happy. It was so cute....


In a 'My First Birthday' shirt and holding her birthday balloon




Me and my girl




Daddy's little girl - SOOO BIG!!!




Her Birthday Cake!




Not really interested in the hat. :)



Special cupcake for Noah



Kylie's birthday cupcake




Singing to her


The first bite!! :-)
And Noah had to imitate her. :-)
This is good! :-)

Wouldn't even put it down to drink her milk...

See what I have?! :-)
Ah bliss
After that craziness, we just threw her in the bath and put on her pajama top with her special birthday tutu! :-) How adorable is she?! I can't believe the year flew by so fast.
The it was present time. Noah wanted her to open his first - it was spiderman on a motorcycle... guess who picked it out? :-) She does like it though!
Waylon and I got her a baby doll and stroller. She loves pushing the stroller around. She's not too terribly interested in the baby doll yet although I did catch her putting a blanket over it a few days ago.
The closest we got to a family picture. :-)
We got Noah a big brother gift - a shark from teh $1 bin at Target - when he opened it, he said, 'Oh. My. Gooness.... Oh. My. Gosh.' :) And he's been sleeping with it almost every night since! :-) Guess that was a hit!
Grammy and Papa brought him a Polizia car from Italy!
Kylie decided she wanted to be the baby doll. :-)
Grammy and Papa with the kids.
Playing with the birthday balloon Grammy brought for her.
Reading with Grammy
Around 8:15 or so, we headed back to the 'old' house and all of us went almost straight to bed. Bright and early on Saturday, Waylon and I went to pick up a moving truck that we thought we might not need (we were wrong, we used up all of it!). We had a bunch of friends and Waylon's dad come help us load and my parents took the kids out. They had so much fun at the park and lunch and then napped in the car while my parents drove around a bit. They went to see our new neighborhood and just messed around until around 3:00 or so.
Here's a few pictures from my parnets from their day....
I was too busy to actually take any pictures while we were moving but the guys had everything loaded up by about noon and were over to the house in time to start the NC State game and take a beer and pizza break. After a while, they started unloading and while they were doing the heavy lifting, the girls and I were making beds and getting things organized. It went really well and we owe everyone big time!! We were pretty settled by dinner time so that was nice. The kids were excited to come back and have things pretty much set up.
Here is the one shot I did manage that day - Ryan (Megan and Jason's son) and Jennie doing their jobs. :-) How sweet!?

Megan and Ryan out by the playset
Later that day/evening, my mom hemmed NOah's Halloween costume for us and he of course had to try it on so we tried on Kylie's also... so here's the Halloween preview. :-) Noah is Buzz Lightyear and Kylie is..... well..... a butterfly or fairy or something! :-) She's just cute is what she is. :-) We have butterflies in her nursery and I love her in purple so I thought this costume was appropriate for her! :-)

Saturday after the kids went to bed in their new rooms (bedtime went incredibly well - they are both so laid back!), my parents decided to head back to the lake to get a head start on getting back to MD. We so appreciate them coming to help us with the kids!! It was so great to have them here.
Sunday morning was madness. We had to return the moving van and then headed to the old house to clean and say goodbye. The kids and I headed over to JAnet and Franks to play while Waylon cleaned. What we thought would be a little visit turned out to be much more and we owe Janet and Frank big time for invading their house!! Janet even ended up going to get us lunch!! (Are we seeing a theme in that we owe a lot of people big time right now!! We are so lucky to have so much family and friends to help us during this crazy time). Anyway, it was a fun visit despite a few breakdowns and craziness....
Kylie and Mason
Can you belive how big they are?!
When we went back to the old house, we walked around all the rooms together and said goodbye. It was a little emotional but I was trying to keep it upbeat and fun for Noah. I didn't want him to be sad. He was totally fine with it and as we were driving away, he said, 'Wait! We didn't say 'Bye House!'' So he counted to three and we said it all together. It was a happy thing and he was smiling as he said it. I should have gotten a picture of us all on the porch or something but like I said, it was a hectic time so we didn't think about it.
In some ways (and maybe this is just me justifying it), I feel like the fact that we moved on Kylie's first birthday is kind of closure... we moved to that house 2 months after we got married and brought our babies home there. Now, Kylie is officially a toddler and our baby days are over so it's time to move on. It's bittersweet but it's life and I love it.
The kids were exhausted and both took really good naps (Kylie's was 4 hours!!!). While they were sleeping, Nana and Grandad arrived to have another birthday celebration for Kylie. Noah had to try on his costume again and wanted to play a game with Nana... she was good at it!!!
Andrea, Sean and Savannah showed up a little later and the birthday girl emerged from her sleep... adorable as ever!! :-)
Have I mentioned that she's a daddy's girl?? She has given me some hugs but mostly these are reserved for daddy. She does it all the time with him - especially when he gets home from work. :-)
Playing with Savannah - they are all so big - time flies.
More presents!!!
And of course we had more cupcakes - this time Andrea made them! - but my camera died just as we were starting to eat those. It was funny though, the next night, Noah had one for dessert and Kylie looked at him and the cupcake and us like, um, where's mine?? So she had to have one, too. :-)
It was a great party and a great way to end a big weekend (and a big few weeks!).
Monday, the kids and I discovered the neighborhood a little and played on the playground that is in walking distance. We really love it here and are probably going to be a little sad to go in April! ;-)
We took our normal after dinner walk and really missed going with Janet, Frank, Maddie and Mason but we did have fun and even met a few neighbors.
In addition to walking, Kylie is now starting to say words that are discernable and it's so cute to hear! She says mama, dada, Noah, hi (which sounds like hi-eeee), ball... the other night she actually said Da-Deee! It was so cute and melted Waylon's heart.
So now we are in and like I said, trying to enjoy the little bit of down time we have for now! Life just keeps chugging along, doesn't it! And I'm enjoying every moment of it. :-)
Happy Birthday Kylie-girl... WE LOVE YOU!