May

An update on May through pictures....

May started with a wonderful trip to the mountains for Karen (our family friend) and Ali's wedding.  We stayed in a nice cabin with a hot tub and were able to visit with Aunt Marie, Bruce, Tracy, Keith, Chris, Brit and Charlotte.  It was a pretty rainy weekend but we still had a blast!

Brunch on Saturday...

Noah and Karen's niece

 

At the time we couldn't tell anyone but now we can - Leah and Bill are having a little girl at the end of the year!!!! YAHOOOO!!!

Silliness with Papa - love this face!

Back at the cabin celebrating Mother's Day a tad early with Grammy...

Cutie girl

Visiting Aunt Marie and Bruce's house and getting a tour of their land.  What a cool place!  They live literally ON the mountain.  The drive up was pretty windy and Kylie got a little queasy!

Aunt Marie showing the kids her outhouse!  :-)

Kylie and Noah with Tracy, Chris and Charlotte - Noah hiked up this waterfall with Chris

When Marie used to live on the Chesapeake Bay, they collected a huge amount of sharks teeth.  Tracy, Ron, Eric and Jennie were amazing at spotting them and I remember looking for them when I was little!  The kids had fun looking through Marie's collection with Tracy.

Dinner with Keith, Charlotte, Tracy and Bruce

Noah dancing with Charlotte

Bridal Falls

We would have stopped to see the falls but this is what the kids were doing....  :-)

Noah literally had drool going UP his face.  :-)

The next morning, we decided to take a swim in the hot tub - despite a little rain!

It was Cinco de Mayo so we got Mexican food for lunch

Before the wedding, we all took a little rest - Kylie took this picture of Waylon with my phone while we were all asleep!!  :-)

That night was the wedding!  Such a fun time - we all had a blast!

Right before we left, the sun came out!!  Of course....

Noah found this snail

We stopped on our way out of town to see a waterfall

What a fun trip!!

That following week, I got quite the shock at work - I got laid off - again.   :-)  I was a contractor and have been since Noah was born so we've had quite a bit of this back and forth with work but this time it was part of a true layoff - 16 of the ~150 employees were let go so it was a pretty good percentage.  And their policy was to tell people and escort them to the door immediately.  That was new for me and did not feel so good.  I was however able to enjoy some time off with the kids and get some things done around the house that we never had time for - of course all during the stress of trying to find a job.  I'm happy to say however that (as always), things worked out for the best and I have since started a new job - full time, permanent - that I LOVE. I started at the beginning of July and it's great!

Here are some other random pictures from that week...

We put up a new light in Kylie's room that next week

We wanted to paint the room and were trying to figure out when we'd have time to do that and then when I got laid off, I suddenly had time!  :-)

Walking home from the pool parking lot one night with the Rodriguez

The following weekend, Noah had baseball again...

After the game, we went to lunch and we decided that we'd finally let Noah buzz cut his hair!  Daddy took him and had it cut a tad shorter than I was thinking!  :-)  I wasn't quite sure at first especially since I remembered afterwards that we had family pictures the following week but we are all glad we did it and he's pretty much kept it that way most of the summer - although we haven't got quite as short as we did that first time since.

Before

During

Love this shot of Kylie in my shoes at my makeup table  :-)

That afternoon, we went to the Sharpes' house to celebrate Mother's Day.

Snuggles in the hammock with Savannah

The three amigos

Silliness with Mommy

Beautiful girls

Nana and her grandkids

Sunday morning, we celebrated and went to brunch at Tribeca Tavern

 

And that afternoon, some fun on the front lawn in the sprinkler with neighbors...

It was Cari-Anne's birthday too so the kids sang to her

Then we went to Mexican for dinner - Eric and Conrad were traveling so Waylon had a big family that night!  :-)

That next week, I got to work with some of the things we'd been meaning to do at the house - cleaning out toys and closets and painting Kylie's room.  Here she is so happy with the finished product!

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I was also able to go volunteer in Noah's classroom some and had lunch with him while I was there...

While I was at his school, I was helping them get ready for Cultural Arts night at school.  That night, we all went back for it and it was such a nice event.  Noah loved it and was so proud.  Kylie had fun, too.

Silliness with Preston

The whole Kindergarten class sang two songs - one in Chinese and one in Japanese!!  So impressive!

Noah and his Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Shaffer  :-)

Holding their 'passports' - they had them stamped at every 'country' we visited

Friday night was the first day the pool was open.  The kids were so excited and so were we!!  I wasn't quite sure how they'd do with the swimming but they really picked up right where they left off from last summer so that was a nice surprise!

 

That Saturday was the last baseball game - Noah was very proud to get a trophy!

Afterwards, we went straight to Peyton's 1st birthday party at a park - so fun!

Tucker!

Sam!

Kylie and Ryan kicking the ball back and forth

Noah did some more work with his science kit that he got at Christmas...

Kylie watched with her 'crazy hair'  :-)

Sunday afternoon - fun in the Rodriguez' back yard - Ben got his hair cut like Noah - they look so much alike anyway and now it's hard to tell them apart at all!

Kylie reading to Jonah

The following week was our anniversary.  We celebrated with a night at the pool and then had a nice dinner alone after the kids went to bed.

We got each other the same card!!  What are the chances...

Waylon played our wedding song (you can see him DJ'ing in the background).  The kids danced and then we had a family dance together.  Such a special moment.

Our dinner after the kids went to bed - crabcakes and cheesy potatoes!  YUMMO!

One day the next week, I went to the parent observation class for Kylie's dance class at school.  I enjoyed being able to do some of these things while I was out of work!  She was a little hot and cold about dance and has since told us that she wants to try soccer instead so we are starting that soon.

Noah lost another tooth at school that day!  Both front teeth gone!

Popcicles with neighbors one night - don't they ALL look alike?!

Sibling love

That following weekend was Memorial Day weekend.  Grammy and Papa met us halfway on Friday night to do a trade off with the kids. They went to the lake with them while we stayed home for some parties on Saturday and then we met them up there on Sunday.  A very nice weekend!

The trade-off at a Mexican restaurant on the way!  :-)

Saturday was 'Meatfest'.  Basically an excuse for the guys to grill and drink all day.  The participants (of which Waylon was one), rolled their grills down to the pool parking lot and grilled all day.  Then all the neighbors show up at dinner time, sample the meat and vote which one is the best.  Waylon came in second place (for the second year in a row!).  Very fun.  :-)

Oooooh, Ahhhhh.  :-)

While Waylon was cooking, I went to Brooks' 1st birthday party (Josh and Anise's little boy).  I can't believe a year has gone by already for him and Peyton.  Crazy.

Cutie

Brooks and Peyton

Anise and Brooks

He DEMOLISHED the cake!

Meanwhile back at the ranch.....  :-)

A very fun night - so fun, I didn't take any more pictures after this one!!  :-)

The kids were having a ball too -- got these pictures from my parents while we were still at home...

The annual fishing contest was on Sunday after we arrived.  Noah came oh-so-close to catching a HUGE fish but at the last minute the line broke.  Kylie caught one small one after that but not much luck otherwise.  Somehow, Kylie still managed to score a trophy and it was a good learning experience for Noah that you can't win them all.  :-)  He still got a medal!

Not sure about her one fish  :-)

Here is 'Kylie' fishing  :-)

Kylie eating breakfast with her trophy the next morning  :-)

Noah and his medal

And fun at the beach - lots of kids there on the holiday weekend!  They had fun making friends.

They made a bridge

No lake trip wouldn't be complete without a boat ride to the marina....

... to feed the fish!

We found some friends there - Waylon's childhood friend, Rob and his family just happened to be there and the kids had fun and made fast friends.

That day was Nana's birthday, so we went straight to their house on the way home from the lake to have dinner and of course fun on the 'Mean Green Machine'

Love the looks on their faces here!!!  :-)

And just two last pictures of our Kylie girl....

A style all to her own...  :-)