Our Adventures with Noah and Kylie

Low Key January

2012-01-23T20:23:00.002-05:00

After the crazy holiday season, we've been really enjoying some downtime and getting back to 'normal busy'. We've taken two trips to the Life and Science Museum in Durham (Grammy and Papa got us a membership for Christmas), a few playdates with friends and neighbors, fun times with Nana, Grandaddy and Savannah et al, and even a quick visit from Grammy and Papa this past weekend! I guess I've been taking a break some with picture taking cause I realized that I've completely missed taking pictures during some of our January events! Woops. :-)

Here are some pictures from our first museum trip on Jan 7th. It was actually a beautiful day so we did mostly the outdoor stuff that day --

That evening, we had our friends, the Atkinsons and the Hopkins over. We got some good snuggles with Sam and Noah and Kylie were so excited to see him, too!!!

That following Sunday morning, we were looking for something to do and called the Scholles last minute. It was so nice to see Janet, Frank, Maddie and Mason! And we even ran into a friend of Kylie's from school, Emma. That was fun. We had a picnic lunch before coming home for rest time (Noah doesn't nap much these days).

That afternoon, we cashed in another one of our Christmas presents - Waylon's parents got us tickets to the NC State/MD basketball game (and also babysat for us while we went!). We met our friends Keri and Chris, who we hadn't seen in a LONG time, for an early dinner and then we all went to the game together. So much fun!!! (no pictures though) :-(

A good work week that week. I've been pretty busy at work and have been working quite a bit an have been working a few Fridays. We also did some tag team Happy Hours that week - I went out with coworkers on Thursday and Waylon went out on Friday! Very fun. It's nice that the kids are easier to get to bed on our own these days so we have the flexibility to do that a little more.

That Saturday, the 14th, we went over to our neighbors' house (Tom, Margaret, Lauren and Cole) for playtime and dinner. The kids all had so much fun and we even let all of them play upstairs alone for a while. That was a nice treat for us. Noah and Cole are the same age and will be in Kindergarten together next year and they were so funny together. I have a feeling they are going to be good buddies for years to come! :-) (again, no pictures! - what was I thinking?)

Sunday, a quick morning playdate with some other neighbors (Eric, Carolyn and Abby) and Mexican dinner with Nana, Grandad, Andrea, Sean and Savannah.

Another busy work week and then the following Friday, I cut my hair!! It was the longest it's been in a long long time, so I decided it was time to chop it and I would donate it to Locks of Love. I was excited and nervous but I'm happy with the outcome!

Before

After!

Last weekend, another trip to the museum on Saturday morning. So much fun!! I think we are really going to love having that.

Part of the space exhibit

Kylie did great on the climbing wall.

Daddy and his girl

Saturday evening was a treat for us and a challenge for Nana and Grandaddy! We took the kids to spend the night at their house and Savannah came too! I think everyone had fun but they were up very late - which meant good naps for us on Sunday so fine by us! :-)

A self portrait that night. :-)

Yesterday, after both kids took a nap (again, a rarity for Noah these days), Grammy and Papa came by on their way back from a wedding in Myrtle Beach. The kids were excited to see them and we just hung out at the house and then went out for a quick dinner. They left early this morning so it was quick but always nice to see them! (NO PICTURES!).

We are still working on potty training with Kylie. She's been doing much better these days. It's been very slow going but we were encouraged to stick with it by her teachers. If it hadn't been for them encouraging us, I probably would have given up and tried again another time. The holidays brought a little bit of a setback with it but we have been doing pretty well this year so that's good!

We also got Noah all registered for Kindergarten!! I can't believe he'll be starting on July 31st (he'll be in year round so they start a little earlier). How did that happen?!?

Last Post of 2011! - Christmas in MD

2012-01-08T13:58:00.001-05:00

So after a fun family day off on the 26th, Waylon went back to work and the kids went back to school that Tuesday. My company was closed the whole week, so I took the day to do laundry, pack up and shop a bit in preparation for our trip to MD on Wednesday. I actually debated going to get the kids and head on up but decided against it since it was a rainy and nasty day. I had the car fully packed though so we were ready to go first thing on Wednesday morning. The trip was fairly uneventful which was nice considering I was driving by myself with both kids.

When we arrived, the presents started right away. My mom likes to spread out the present opening a bit so the kids aren't overwhelmed. It actually works out really well. They can open one thing and spend some time playing with it for a while before getting another. First gift was a wolf hat for Noah and a polar bear hat for Kylie. So cute!

Then they got some magnet tiles - so much fun to build with!

Building with Grammy

Kylie loves them!

I just had to post this picture because Kylie and I both look like we are giving someone the same look.

Buliding with Mommy - Noah is wearing one of my old bathrobes that Grammy was trying to get Kylie to put on! :-)

Happiness!

Kylie got a princess house and tunnel.

Noah loves his wolf hat - this will be perfect for football games next year! :-)

Lots of playtime while we were there of course. Kylie decided to put Papa to bed. She's big on this these days. Too funny.

Night night Papa!

Thursday morning, we went to a fire station where they had a train garden set up for the holidays. They loved checking this out and Noah really loved looking at the fire trucks and asking the fireman LOTS of questions. He's so inquisitive, I love it!

The fireman giving Noah all sorts of info

Opening more presents Thursday afternoon!

Kylie wearing Noah's cowboy hat and boots and her backpack! Adorable.

Thursday evening, we went over to Roz and Duanes for our traditional celebration with them. We used to always get together with them on Christmas day - now that we are all older, we have to schedule it. This year, it worked out that everyone was there - except Waylon. :-( There were 17 of us and we all managed to eat in one room all together! So fun. We missed having Daddy there with us but understood that he didn't have much time to take off of work.

Jill and Dan were there with their brand new baby, Winston. Noah was in heaven. He loves babies and loved Winston. He got to hold him and was so sweet and gentle.

Kylie loved him too - she said, 'Look at his teeny ears!' :-)

Leah (with Winston), Bill, Me, Jill

Diane and Jeff

After dinner, I found Noah, Jill and Winston like this :-)

Self portrait with Kylie

Papa and Kylie-girl

Ditters

Big brother Max

I got a gag gift where a mouse pops out of this box. Noah loves it and has had so much fun scaring people with it! :-)

Noah's gag gift :-)

Diane was a brave woman and decided to decorate gingerbread houses with the kids. They had a blast with it!

Noah's finished product (that's his proud face) :-)

Kylie's silly face :-)

Diane and Max

The finished product...

Noah's

Kylie's

Max's

Somehow the kids always decide to pile on Duane! :-)

Me, Jill and Katie

Friday morning, Waylon flew in and the kids were so excited to see him. Not too long after he arrived, we decided to do our big gift exchange with my parents and Leah and Bill.

Noah got a "real" sword and shield

More 'Dora Presents' for Kylie! She loves it.

We got Leah a 'yoga dogs' calendar. She and Bill had fun identifying the poses. :-)

Noah got Mario Kart - one of his (and our) favorites! :-) It's so fun.

Waylon (we) got a BluRay player and a Netflix subscription. We love it!

Kylie got an alphabet puzzle and we found her stuffing the letters in her socks! :-)

Helping Aunt Leah open her presents

We got my parents a sign that had all the street names of places where they have lived. So fun!

We have seen this face quite a bit these days. Kylie is very two. :-)

Doing the puzzle with Aunt Leah

Aunt Leah and Bill got Kylie a 'Baby Boots' (from Dora). She LOVES this and sleeps with it every night.

Daddy's girl

Kylie and I took a little rest together after all the action

Naps these days for Noah are touch and go. And I think Kylie is attempting to follow suit. She's just so active, she doesn't want to sit still for too long. So the holiday schedule was a little flexible. :-)

Leah and Bill were heading out for a run and Noah wanted to go, too. :-)

He got tired quick. :-)

So, Noah, Kylie, Grammy, Papa, Waylon and I went for a walk down to the playground.

Noah climbed a tree before we left

Not sure who had more fun at the park... the kids or Daddy. :-)

Noah's mean knight face!

Family shot

The 'kids' (notice Noah's mean knight face again) :-)

So we all decided to do a mean knight face - I think Kylie thought we were all crazy. :-)

Friday night, Leah, Bill, Waylon and I went out to dinner with Julie, Ali and Andrew. It was so great to have a night out and catch up with my girls from high school!!

Love my Julie

Ali, Me and Julie

Saturday was New Year's Eve and Tina came by with Ethan to visit. It was so fun to catch up with her also!! So fun to get all the kids together.

Us with our kiddos

Waylon and I made late reservations for dinner alone on New Year's Eve and my parents friends Knoop and Sandy came over to hang with my parents. The kids LOVED them. Kylie can be shy when she first meets people but she didn't do that at all with them. It was really cute. :-)

Noah had fun showing off his new mouse toys! :-) And notice Kylie in the background putting Grammy to bed. :-)

We had a nice meal out alone and then stayed for midnight. They gave out free hats and champagne so that was nice!

Another self portrait :-)

Sunday morning, we had a lazy morning, packed up and took off back home after lunch to start our new year! We made it back to town really quick and ended up stopping for dinner at Nana and Grandad's (Andrea, Sean and Savannah were there also). Everyone was pretty tired by the end of the night but we had the next day at home still to get back in the groove before school and work.

Relaxing before leaving Grammy and Papa's

What a fun year it was! Lots of new things - new house, new jobs for both of us, new school for the kids.... And TONS of great memories!! Happy New Year!

Our Christmas

2011-12-26T14:31:00.000-05:00

We had a great Christmas in the Parham house!!! The kids are both at great ages and were really into the whole thing. What a joy.

We kicked off the weekend with a visit from Steven, Kate and Samantha. We like to try to see them at Christmas time and we managed to squeeze it in on a Thursday night this year and they actually spent the night which was so fun! It was a pretty quick trip but it was so fun to spend some time together.

Adorable Samantha :-)

Steven and Kate always bring the best toys for the kids

Playing Rock Em Sock Em Robots with Steven

Watching a little Dora on Friday morning

Waylon and Steven - friends for 23 years!

Steven and Kylie

After the Weavers left on Friday morning, Waylon went to work and I sent the kids to school to get some last minute Christmas things done. I managed to get the rest of the shopping and wrapping and some cooking done! It was nice to have that all done before Christmas Eve so we could just enjoy. I got the kids a little early and met Megan, Jason and Ryan at the park. Then we met Waylon after work for dinner.

Christmas Eve was nice. We just relaxed in the morning and then went to run a few errands and have lunch out - more to just get out of the house than anything else. After a little afternoon rest, we got all dressed up and went to the Sharpes house for a yummy Christmas Eve turkey dinner! And we couldn't resist getting a few family shots in front of the tree....

Where is the time going!?

After dinner and lots of playtime, we came home to get ready for Santa. This year, Nana and Grandaddy came to spend the night to experience the madness of Christmas morning. When we got home, we had a package from Cousin Ron - books!! I told Noah that Ronnie works in a book store and always likes to get books. The next day, when we were opening presents from Santa, Noah was opening a package that was obviously a book and said, 'Maybe this is from Uncle Ronnie!' :-)

Waylon pulled up a message from Santa on the computer. The kids were enthralled. :-)

Putting out coolies for Santa

And milk, too!

So sweet

We were a little riled up before bedtime..... :-)

Crazy kids

And we had to read The Night Before Christmas - Noah even did a version of it for us on video... it was so cute!!!

After the kids were in bed, Santa came!!! So much fun.

The kids' piles

The whole scene - complete with 'A Christmas Story' on TV! :-)

When I was growing up, it was tradition for my parents to take pictures of my sister and I after we went to sleep on Christmas Eve. I snuck in and did the same.... so sweet.

Surprisingly, they weren't up too early on Christmas morning. Kylie was in our bed by around 6:00 or so but went back to sleep (this has been routine for the past few weeks - ugh - at least she goes back to sleep!). And Noah was up at 6:30 asking to open presents but we were able to hold him off until close to 7:00 which was nice.

Coming down the stairs! So excited!!

Kylie went straight to her stocking and grabbed a Dora doll - she asked Santa for 'Dora Presents'

Digging into stockings right away!

Cars 2 for Noah and Tangled for Kylie!!

Noah got Maximus (from Tangled). This is one of his favorites.

And Kylie got Rapunzel

Dora Presents! This one is a bath toy but she's been carrying them around all over and even slept with them last night! :-)

Noah was so excited about his pants (note sarcasm) :-)

Super Noah!

And the big finale! Noah had been asking for a Monorail toy ever since we went to Disney World. He was SOOO excited!

And Kylie got a tea set and cart.

Opening stockings from Nana and Grandaddy!

Hugs for Nana

We stopped halfway through opening presents for breakfast. I made two breakfast casseroles and orange rolls. Yum! Wish I had gotten a picture of our beautiful table.

Grandaddy and Daddy set up Noah's monorail

He was so excited!!

We forgot that we had a few presents from 'us' rather than Santa. Both kids got a game for the Wii. Can't wait to try that out!

Super Kylie! :-)

Nana and Grandad left around 10:30 to go see Savannah's loot and we Skyped with Grammy and Papa. Then after a little rest for everyone, we took off to Nana and Grandad's for Christmas #2 of the day!

What a spread!

Savannah opening out gift to her - Rapunzel's Dress Shop

Noah got some dress up things!

A big boy helicopter

Cowboy boots and a hat! Yee Haw!

Kylie loves her dress up shoes

Nana and her girls

Some games on the ipad before saying goodbye.

In the midst of all the present opening, we took a break and had another super yummy dinner. It was a whirlwind but so so fun as always. Waylon and I also got some awesome presents from Nana and Grandaddy, too. The highlight of which was a Kate Spade purse for me!!!! WOW!

I can't believe after all the preparation, it's over. But the good news is that we get to have Round #3 with Grammy, Papa, Leah and Bill later this week! The kids and I will head to MD on Wednesday morning and Waylon will join us on Friday. We can't wait to keep celebrating! I hope you all had a great holiday, too!!

Here come the holidays!

2011-12-18T22:45:00.003-05:00

As you will see in this post, we are in full swing holiday mode! What a fun and busy time of year. Both kids are so excited and we are having so much fun watching them take it all in. Noah has really had a lot of questions about the logistics of Santa this year - I can't believe we might have only a few years left of belief.

After we got home from MD, we were ready to get a tree so we went one weeknight and after some hiccups (mostly potty issues!), we found the perfect one, loaded it up and got it home. It took the whole week to get it up and decorated - picked it one night, put it up the next night, got lights on the next and finally got the kids to help decorate on Friday night! Phew. Amazing how you have to break up the tasks with kids! Some pictures of the whole ordeal..... :-)

Noah was still having fun - not sure what this face is about. They both look so big to me though!!!

Friday night - first ornaments on the tree - Disney ornaments from Grammy and Papa!

The finished product!

Saturday morning, we went to see Disney on Ice with Nana, Grandad, Andrea, Sean and Savannah! So much fun!! This year, it was a princess show - Princess and the Frog, Cinderella and Tangled (the Rapunzel story). The both loved it but Kylie in particular was really enthralled. Noah liked it too but actually got a little scared during some of the more intense parts. Afterwards, we went to lunch with Nana and Grandad. A great day! Thanks, Nana and Grandad for the tickets!!!

The finale - all of the different princess couples came out!

That night was a treat for all of us!! We had a party in the neighborhood so we had the director of the daycare come to our house to babysit!! The kids were so excited that Miss Twanda was coming to their house and ran around showing her the house. She did great with them and we had a BLAST at the party. No pictures from that night, though. :-(

The next day, we were all pretty tired so we stuck close to home for the most part. We ran to the mall around 11:30 to try to see Santa but the line was pretty long so we gave up and just had lunch instead. We promised them we'd go back later in the week and we made good on that promise on Wednesday night.

As close as we got the first try...

Grammy had to come down last minute for her cousin, Tommy's funeral. :-( A sad reason to come but we took advantage of having her here and tried to have some fun. She arrived Wednesday night and we went straight back to the mall to see Santa. This time the line wasn't too long and we made it. Kylie had a death grip on my finger so I wasn't really sure how it was going to go, but at the last minute, as we walked up, I told her she'd get ice cream if she went up to take a picture with him. She said okay and hopped right on his lap! :-)

In line

Telling Santa what he wants - a monorail toy is the #1 thing!

The 'official' picture. :-)

After seeing Santa, we had dinner with ice cream for dessert of course and then Kylie and Noah pretended to be reindeer all around the mall using Grammy's scarf. :-) Aunt Karen, Uncle Michael and Cousin Reeves showed up just as we were heading out so it was fun to visit with them for a bit, too!

Grammy stayed with us Friday, too. The kids had parties at school that afternoon so we sent them to school and got some holiday shopping done. We came back at 3:00 for their parties and they were excited to have us there.

Kylie's room

Noah's

Kylie joined Noah's party after hers :-)

Grammy and Kylie

Grammy stayed to babysit the kids Friday night so we could go to another neighborhood party. This one was supposed to be an 'Ugly Christmas Sweater' party but we kind of skirted around it by getting a silly tie for Waylon and some pins and earrings for me. :-) We had a great time and are so thankful that Grammy stayed so we could go!

Sunday morning, Grammy left pretty early but not before an early morning story time.

After she left, Noah helped me make some goodies for his teachers at school. We had such a good time doing it together and he was a great helper! It was lots of fun.

Saturday night - another treat! Aunt Karen and Uncle Michael got us all tickets to go see Cinderella at the Raleigh Little Theater! Karen used to take my cousin, Katie, every year when she was young so she offered to start the tradition for us. It was so fun and the kids LOVED it. There was even a part where the prince came out in the audience and tried Cinderella's shoe on little girls in the audience and he tried it on Kylie! She LOVED it. He asked if he could try it on her and she said, 'Uh Huh' and stuck her foot right out to him! :-) It was so adorable.

After the show, the characters were out front signing autographs. We met the Fairy Godmother!

They really were excited, I promise!! :-)

Our neighbors, Carolyn, Eric and Abby came also and we managed to get a picture of the three of them after the show before we went to a late dinner. So much fun!

And today.... another Christmas celebration - this time with Waylon's extended family. Always fun to see Uncle Royal and Aunt Danita, Meghan, Cameron and Lily Kate, Uncle Ronnie, Aunt Robin and Justin! And of course, Nana, Grandaddy, Andrea, Sean and Savannah. It was craziness with a 4 year old, a 3 year old and two 2 year olds! :-) So fun....

Hiding in the 'bear cave' that Grandaddy made them.

Our bag lady - good thing Santa is bringing her a backpack with her name on it! :-)

Uncle Royal and Lily Kate dancing :-)

All the kiddos!

Sweet picture of Noah and Savannah

Coloring

Siblings - Royal, Kay and Ronnie

Nana and her grandbabies!

One more week and then CHRISTMAS!! So fun. We'll be staying in town for Christmas day and then heading back to MD for a long weekend the following week. FUN TIMES!!!

Noah's week and the Seafood Feast!

2011-12-05T22:14:00.001-05:00

So Noah spent the week with Grammy and Papa last week and did all sorts of fun things with Grammy! Monday, they drove home from the lake and I think got a Christmas tree that night. On Tuesday, they went to the Science Center in Baltimore. Wednesday, they went into DC and went to the Natural Science Museum and then Thursday (before Kylie and I arrived), they went to a local train museum with Roz and Max. Wow!! Busy busy week! Pictures from Grammy.....

Uncovering dinosaur bones

Shaking hands with Cal Ripken :-)

Washington Monument

Capitol building

Apparently, Noah asked Grammy to take this picture. :-)

Grammy said Noah really enjoyed the butterfly room because of our recent butterfly experience!

Holding a butterfly on a paintbrush

Apparently, he told this lady all about his butterflies. She told him she thought he was going to be a scientist. :-)

At the train museum with Max

So, while Noah was off having a blast (and not missing us much at all!), we were all living it up at home. Kylie was enjoying being the center of attention and Waylon and I enjoyed some time also. I went to Happy Hour with a coworker and then a movie with Andrea on Tuesday night and then Waylon went to a basketball game with Cory on Wednesday night. Well, that is, they tried to go together.... before the game even started, Cory had to leave because Jennie went into labor!!! So exciting! I was upset thinking I might miss seeing Baby Sam before we left town but they had him at 6:17am and said it was okay for me and Kylie to come by on our way out of town!! We stopped by the hospital at 9 and got to see him! He was so sweet and everyone was happy and healthy!

Sweet Baby Sam

Proud Daddy

What a beautiful family!!

Kylie and I took off from the hospital around 10 and had a fairly uneventful trip to MD which was really nice.

Sweet Kylie girl at lunch

Noah was SOOO excited to see us. It was so cute. He was outside when we pulled in the driveway and he was jumping around so excited. He came running when I stopped the car and had big hugs for me and Kylie, too. Then he had to tell me all about his whole week and even gave me a poinsettia flower the he convinced my mom to get for me because 'red is my favorite color'. :-)

This is pretty much how the next few hours went.

Then, Roz, Duane, Jill, Dan and Max came over for dinner on Thursday night. Kylie's very short nap in the car and Noah's lack of a nap at all that day caught up with them and they were quite the handful that night but we had a good time!

Friday morning, we went to the mall to mess around for a bit. Noah met a cute little girl in the play area and they were just smitten with each other. It was so cute. They followed each other around all over the place.

Noah and his friend, Hannah :-)

Look at this big girl!!! (and she looks like Cindy Lou Hoo I think) :-)

Friday night, Waylon flew up and arrived at 7:30. Grammy and Papa put the kids to bed and I picked him up and we went straight to dinner with Julie and Peter. It was so nice to catch up with them!!

Saturday morning, the kids were so excited to see Waylon. :-) Then it was straight into prepping for our big seafood feast! Yummy food, great family and fun fun fun!!

Helping Papa make french fries

Playing on Grammy's iPad

We got Kylie down for an early nap before everyone arrived around 1:00. Noah was so happy to have bigger kids to play with - first up was Jennie and Tracy. :-) They made up a game where they tried to catch these little flying discs that Noah was shooting at them. It was so funny!!!

Noah loved it. :-)

The cooks - brother and sister

5 of the 6 cousins - Jennie, me, Ronnie, Leah and Tracy - we were missing Eric in the picture!

Kylie watching Katelyn, Matthew and Tracy play a game

Noah made fast friends with Jonathan - they rough housed all day! He loved it.

Noah helping Aunt Marie make crab cakes - he loved them, too!!

Kylie climbed up in Bill's lap and asked him to read her new Dora book. :-)

First presents of the season!

Noah and Matthew playing Knock Em Sock Em Robots while Kylie watched

Kylie really got into our adult White Elephant gift exchange. She handed out all the presents, helped people open them and also stole them from people when asked! So funny!

Helping Papa open his gift

And of course, our traditional family picture - 'normal' and silly :-) So much fun to celebrate with this group every year!!!

We left pretty early on Sunday to get back and settled in. A pretty good uneventful drive again. We just relaxed at home that night and regrouped for the week. What a fun few weeks we've had! And several more fun ones coming up with the holidays fast approaching!! I hope you all enjoy it as much as we are!!!

Thanksgiving Festivities and weekend at the Lake

2011-12-05T19:52:00.001-05:00

This year, we spent Thanksgiving at the lake with both of our families. The kids were in heaven having everyone together.

We took off after school and dinner on Wednesday night. We arrived at the lake around 8 and the kids were actually down by 9 so that was pretty good I thought. Leah and Bill arrived late that night and the kids were excited to see them when they got up Thursday morning.

They were up bright and early the next morning though - ready for the excitement! We played and prepped food and had all sorts of fun. We managed to get Kylie down for a nap just before Nana and Grandad arrived (around noon) so she'd be nice and fresh for Thanksgiving dinner. Andrea, Sean and Savannah arrived around 2:30 and we had so much fun just being together and eating a great dinner that evening!! Some pictures and stories from the day...

A rare picture of me and Waylon! :-)

Sisters!

Happy Kylie-girl and her happy Papa

Grammy had seen some of the pictures of Noah playing dress up with the girls and decided that Noah needed some 'masculine' dress up clothes. :-) She got him this knight/king outfit and he LOVED it. He wore it for most of the day. Grandaddy and Noah took off on an hour long trek fighting dragons and finding treasures!

King and Queen of Thanksgiving

Papa carving the turkey

The feast!

Happiness!

Early the next morning, Waylon left since he had to work on Friday (he doesn't have much time to take off since he just started the new job and already took a week for our Disney World trip) so the kids and I stayed through the weekend and played with Grammy, Papa, Leah and Bill.

Kylie loves her puzzles and loves letters - she can sing her ABCs! So fun to hear.

Silliness with Mommy and Papa

Morning snuggles

Later in the morning, Noah went with Papa to get worms and go fishing and Kylie, Grammy and I took a walk....

She kept asking if she could jump in!! :-)

Here she was being a monkey climbing a tree. :-)

When we got back from our walk, she had to help Papa fish, too.

My sweet Noah-man

Kylie and Aunt Leah

Noah entertained himself for about an hour tying knots in these ropes.

Noah and Aunt Leah

After lunch and naps for all of us, we decided to go out for a boat ride. I bundled up the kids and brought blankets but it was actually pretty nice and not too cold.

Heading to the water - Kylie had to bring her doggie along

LOVE

Ready to ride with Grammy

Kylie and Mommy - look at that glassy water!

Of course, everyone had to have a turn driving the boat!! :-)

After our boat ride, we did a little photo shoot for Christmas pictures. Here are some of the ones we didn't choose - you'll have to wait for the Christmas card to see the 'real' ones! :-)

Then - what else? - dance party time!! (Leah looks like she's really into it). :-)

Friday night, we had a great ravioli dinner - I got my dad a ravioli maker for his birthday - yum!

Saturday morning, more outside play time. Jumping in the leaves here....

Riding Noah's bike! She's actually pretty good at it!

Noah was really excited about doing yoga with Aunt Leah

Bill and Kylie joined in, too! :-)

Another boat ride late Saturday morning before saying goodbye to Leah and Bill. We thought it would be even nicer than the day before cause the temperature was warmer but the wind actually made it colder! Fun anyway, though!

By Saturday night, we were all itching to get out, so we found a park in Roanoke Rapids and went to play before having mexican for dinner. The park had a huge slide that was really high. Kylie loved it (much to Grammy's dismay!).

Look at me!

A new way to swing :-)

There were so many leaves!

Sunday morning, it was time for me and Kylie to pack up and say goodbye to Noah. He stayed at the lake with Grammy and Papa Sunday night and then rode back to MD with them. He stayed with them all week until we came back up for our annual Seafood Feast with the Stones the following weekend.

While I was packing up, Noah played some games on my computer. :-)

I got some pictures from Grammy and Papa of their day (and week) together. Here are the ones from the lake. So much fun!!!!

Noah and Papa caught a fish!!!

BEAUTIFUL

Playing on the beach with Grammy

Dinosaur village

Silly Noah pretending to eat 'wormy worms' :-)

They went back to MD on Monday and had a GREAT time doing all sorts of fun things! I think Kylie enjoyed the extra attention also and Waylon and I took advantage of it as well. Noah didn't seem to miss us too much but was super happy to see us when we got there also so that was so fun! More pics of the week and this past weekend to come.... stay tuned!

Life goes on! And Happy Birthday Grandaddy!

2011-11-19T21:27:00.001-05:00

There has been a lot going on in the Parham household in the past few weeks - Kylie is potty training! She's been showing a lot of interest and has been doing really well with #1 (for the most part) but we are having some major trouble with #2. I know we'll get there eventually, but it's tough right now.

On top of that, we've also been wanting to get rid of the paci and have been talking a lot about how 'big girls don't use pacis', etc etc etc. Two nights ago, I just kind of 'forgot' to give it to her at bedtime. I was fully expecting her to call out for it (and was planning to give it to her if she did) but she never did and hasn't had it back since. We haven't had any trouble except today when she couldn't get relaxed for nap so she just didn't nap! So, it looks like we officially have a big girl!

Speaking of big kids - Noah is enjoying sounding out words and starting to read. He gets so proud when he figures out a word, it's so cool! Kindergarten registration is in just one week so I'm kind of freaking out about that!! :-)

Now the 'real' update....

Going back to two Fridays ago.... we had a much needed playdate with the Fleegles. It had been a while since we had seen Elizabeth, Jacob and Jacque. The kids had fun playing in the playroom downstairs, the playroom upstairs, Noah's room, and the garage (riding bikes). We just kept moving locations when they got too antsy. :-) A quick lunch and a show and then time to say goodbye. It's hard to catch pictures unless they are sitting still!! :-)

So sweet

A show before saying goodbye

That afternoon, I took the kids out for a quick walk around the neighborhood to collect leaves for a craft project (thanks for the idea, Andrea!). It was quite chilly so we had to get bundled up. Kylie insisted on wearing Noah's hat (really Daddy's but Noah has been using it too) and she also insisted on wearing his 'globes'. :-)

Noah really liked picking out pretty leaves

Making Leaf placemats - I didn't get an 'after' picture of the project. I'll try to get one soon...

We've also been riding a lot of bikes in the garage. They really love doing this!

We've also been raising butterflies in the past few weeks. Grammy and Papa got Noah a 'butterfly kit' for his birthday and we've finally been home long enough to do it. We had caterpillars sent to us in the mail and when they made cocoons, we transferred them to their butterfly house and eventually, we had butterflies! Noah was SOO excited when we came home to find that they had hatched. We even got to see one 'unfolding' after it had just come out of it's cocoon.

The empty cocoons with three butterflies, including the one 'unfolding' at the top.

Sunday morning, Waylon took Kylie to the grocery store and Noah and I hung out at home for a while and then went to the mall together. While I was taking a shower, Noah did his yoga DVD that Aunt Leah got for him for Christmas last year. He loved it so much and afterwards, we were talking about how Aunt Leah teaches yoga and he said, "I wish Aunt Leah was my..." and then he said, 'Nevermind'! I pressed him to tell me what he was going to say and he didn't want to so I asked if he wished she was his teacher and he said no. Then I asked if he wished she was his mommy and he said, 'Yeah'. :-) It was pretty funny. We were laughing about it and later he said, 'Well, a yoga mom would be much cooler.... but I still love you!!' He's too funny.

On Sunday afternoon, Waylon decided to take Noah to the NCSU basketball game so Kylie and I took off to Savannah's house for a girls playdate. They had fun together and we went to North Hills for dinner where Uncle Royal met us! We were so excited to see him!

Uncle Royal!

Noah and Waylon had a BLAST at the game. Noah came home with a new basketball and was excited about playing in the garage with Waylon when he got home from work on Monday. So cute.

Wednesday morning before school, we decide to let our butterflies go. The kids were so excited to watch them fly away.

This little guy decided that he liked Noah too much and he didn't want to fly away so we decided to put him back and let Noah take him to show and share (not sure why I didn't think about that before!). Noah LOVED showing him off to all of his friends at school and told them all about the metamorphosis.

I was planning to keep the kids home with me on Friday but I found out on Thursday that Noah had a Native American party on Friday afternoon and he really wanted to go so I took the opportunity to get a jump on Christmas shopping.

So excited!!

Noah's class

Yesterday was the NC State/Clemson football game. We all went out to tailgate but then Kylie and I came home for a late nap and Noah stayed with Waylon, They (again) had a blast at the game.

Now this is tailgating - watching a movie in the back of the car! :-)

Kylie really has quite the personality these days. She loves her new-found freedom of wearing underwear and really enjoys taking her clothes off and saying 'I'm NEKKID!' It's so funny. It's all we can do to keep her underwear on (but with all these accidents recently, it's necessary - yes, we've been there....).

One of those moments - I know she's going to kill me for this one day. Sorry honey! :-)

Crazy girl!!!

This afternoon, we had the Parham/Sharpe clan over for dinner and to celebrate Grandaddy's birthday. Again, such a crazy time so I hardly took any pictures. But here is a good one of the grandkids singing to Grandaddy. I couldn't find our birthday candles so he got a decorative candle instead! :-)

Next up, Thanksgiving with the Parham/Sharpe AND Palmatier clan! We are ALL going to the lake house to celebrate and we are so excited! Then we'll be up in MD the following weekend so Noah is going to go back to MD with Grammy and Papa for the week. So fun!!

Halloween and Weekend Fun!

2011-11-08T20:16:00.000-05:00

Last Monday was Halloween! Such a fun time for kids! We had lots of events leading up to it so it was a big exciting day when it finally came. They had to have paper bag costumes for school so I got some ideas online and got to work! I was very proud of the result and the kids were excited on Monday morning also! :-)

Here is the back of Kylie's costume - I thought it was clever. :-)

Monday night was very exciting! It was a little disappointing cause it started to rain around 3pm which meant our neighborhood Pre Trick-or-Treating Pizza Party was cancelled. :-( Luckily, it stopped raining about 10 minutes after we went out. It was still a little soggy but the kids got some use out of their new rain boots that Grammy and Papa got for them.

Getting ready to go!

Showing off the tails

Before we left, Abby came to our door with her dad, Eric. I just had to have a picture of them!! :-)

Great picture with Daddy!

I took the kids out and Waylon stayed back to hand out candy. He said we had tons of kids (as expected) and we saw a bunch of people out on the streets. They did really well walking around and had so much fun!

When we arrived at Margaret's house, Kylie walked right up and said, 'I'm a kitty cat, MEOW!' It was so cute!!

Back at home, enjoying candy and relaxing!! HA

We had a good week after that. I enjoyed not having anything big to plan (or shop) for that week! :-) Friday, the kids stayed home with me for the first time in a few weeks so we had a great time together. We went to storytime at the library. They were reading the Nutcracker and had some of the kids from the Raleigh City Ballet perform some of the dances from their big show. It was really cool and the kids loved it!

Afterwards, we grabbed a quick lunch and then went to visit Grandaddy at work! Everyone was very excited about that and Grandaddy really enjoyed showing the kids off to his coworkers. :-) When we walked up to the front desk, one of his coworkers called for him, 'Dick!!' and Kylie corrected her, 'Grandaddy!' :-)

At Grandaddy's desk

Friday night, we met Daddy, Carolyn and Abby at Red Robin for dinner. Madness - as expected with three young kids - but fun!

All the kids piled on Waylon. :-)

Saturday, Waylon decided he didn't want to go to the football game (he hasn't been too happy with how the Wolfpack has been playing), so Noah and I went together! We had such a good time.

Jennie, Me and Megan

Noah must have missed Daddy cause he latched right on to Cory and Jason (and maybe Jason missed Ryan and Cory is getting ready for Baby Sam!). :-) He had so much fun "playing football" (mainly chasing and tackling) with them at the tailgate and Jason even carried him on his shoulders for a bit when we were heading into the stadium. :-)

The boys

Silliness with Megan during the game

Noah was getting sleepy (he'd skipped nap) so I told him to lay down. He didn't actually sleep but did rest a bit.

We lasted until about 10 minutes left in the game (we won 13-0 against UNC!). As we were leaving I tried to take a self portrait and some nice lady offered to take our picture together.

I love this one. :-)

Saturday evening, we got in the car to go out to eat but never made it out of the garage! :-) We decided it might not be worth it with everyone's attitudes. Instead, the kids had a good easy dinner and Waylon and I ordered take out after they went to bed! :-)

Sunday morning, Waylon made a big breakfast and we did some grocery shopping before naps. That morning was looong because of the time change the night before. But the kids didn't seem too affected by it so that was good.

Sunday afternoon, we went to Andrea, Sean and Savannah's for some playtime and dinner. So fun as always!! The kids had a great time playing dress up - I know Noah is going to kill me for these pictures one day but hey, it's his childhood! :-)

Notice the heels. :-)

Look at that happy face!! :-)

The Three Stooges :-)

Here they were pretending to be witches. So adorable!

Another big update for the week - Kylie is potty training! She had been showing lots of interest and staying dry for longer periods of time so we decided to give it a shot. She's been in underwear for over a week now with lots of success with #1. #2 is a little more slow going so it's getting a little old but her teachers are encouraging us to stick with it so we'll keep the patience and hope she gets it soon! It's been nice not to have to deal with diapers and will be even nicer when we don't have to deal with accidents, too!! :-)

Two more big weekends!

2011-10-30T22:59:00.000-04:00

Life has been crazy - as always! Three weekends in a row, we've had big things going on. First, Kylie's birthday, then Jennie's shower and this past weekend, we had all sorts of Halloween festivities to prepare for. Everything has been so fun but I do feel a little bit of relief knowing that this week I don't have anything to prepare for!! :-)

But first, a recap of all the fun stuff that has been going on! Two Saturdays ago, we hosted a shower for Jennie at Megan's house. It was a big success and so fun!

An adorable picture for the nursery from Anise

Jennie's family

Cory's mom and sister

The girls

I wonder how many pictures we have like this one. I really should dig them all up and put them together. :-)

While I was at the shower, the kids had a Fall Festival at school. Waylon got them all dressed up and met Nana and Grandad there. They had so much fun!! :-)

Dinosaur and a Kitty Cat!

Drawing with Nana

Big scary Dino Noah!

That Sunday, we had a few people over for chili and to watch the Redskins/Panthers football game. The kids were wound up and were showing off and had so much fun.

Kylie usually takes a while to warm up to people but she climbed right up next to Cory to sit and watch football with him. Maybe she knows he's going to be a dad soon. :-)

Playing with Ryan in the house

Some computer time

Megan, Jason and Ryan

Some family playtime during the week last week... Kylie got this baby doll for her birthday and it cries. It really concerns her when it does and she does everything she can to make it stop! :-) So funny.

Daddy and Noah had to help calm her down. :-)

Another night, we received a photo book of Disney World from Grammy! The kids love looking at it. Thanks, Grammy!

Waylon made Noah a superhero out of 'Toobers and Zots' (another one of Kylie's great birthday presents!)

This weekend was a fun one!

Noah wanted to go to school Friday because they had a Halloween Party so I took the opportunity to get some errands done. Friday night, Waylon went to happy hour with some coworkers so Andrea and Savannah came over for some playtime and pizza dinner. Very fun but didn't take any pictures!

The big fun was Saturday! We had an (adult!) Halloween party to go to in our neighborhood so Nana and Grandad graciously agreed to keep the kids overnight at their house. We had such a great time and we hear that the kids did also! Pics from our party....

Waylon was a 'nerd'. Noah kept asking what a 'nerd' was.... hmmm.... how do you describe that?

80s girl (who loves nerds) :-)

Together at the party

Han and Christy - dancing hamsters :-)

Dr. Pepper and a Facebook wall - so creative!

Silliness

All the ladies!

Conrad and Chris - Too funny!!! :-)

Kirsten - our gorgeous host and Chris' Trophy Wife

Nana and Grandad took the kids to a fall festival at their church on Saturday afternoon and then to Sunday School on Sunday morning. They stayed busy and enjoyed it all, I think!! Noah took a 2 hour nap today (unheard of for him these days!) and Kylie was still sleeping after 3 hours and we finally woke her up because it was 5pm! Too funny. :-)

An adorable shot from the Fall Festival

We met them at the mall to do the trade off - for lunch and also to get Noah some much needed new shoes - thanks Nana and Grandad! :-)

Tomorrow, one more big event... HALLOWEEN! The kids have a parade at school where they (I) had to make their costumes out of a paper bag. I didn't know what to do for a while but I figured it out and think they turned out really great! Stay tuned for pictures of those... :-) If I knew they would be as good as it turned out, I could have just done that for their 'real' costumes - which they will wear tomorrow night for a neighborhood pre-Trick-or-Treat party and then Trick-or-Treating!! YAY!

One more cute pic from tonight. Noah wasn't so happy about this arrangement but it was still pretty darn cute. :-)

Kylie is 2!!!!

2011-10-19T22:26:00.003-04:00

Out little girl is 2. I can't believe it. I must have said this a lot last weekend cause Noah kept saying, 'Kylie, I can't believe you are 2!!!' :-) Last weekend was a really great celebration with family and a few of Kylie's friends.

Grammy and Papa arrived very late on Thursday night and the kids were so excited to see them first thing on Friday morning.

I took advantage of the extra hands and went to run some errands to get ready for the party on Saturday and left the kids home with my parents. I got a lot done in a little time and made it home in time to help feed the kids lunch and get them to bed. While they were sleeping, I got a few more things done around the house and Grammy and Papa gave Kylie her first birthday present.... a HUGE stuffed bear! :-) She wasn't quite sure about him at first but once she warmed up to him, she snuggled in.

Noah obviously loves him

Papa had some fun with him, too! :-)

After some more playtime in the afternoon, we met Waylon out for dinner - Mexican, yum!

Saturday was Kylie's big day. So nice that it landed on a Saturday this year - and a bonus - it was a bye week for NC State football!! :-) When everyone got up, we came down and immediately opened presents. It was like Christmas morning! :-)

So exciting!

Kylie dug right in!

And Noah helped

Noah picked out this remote control dog for her. This was funny - he was "walking it" and Kylie was walking right beside the dog. :-)

We got her this doll house and Grammy and Papa got some of the accessories that went with it. She loves this!

Grammy got Kylie this Dora nightgown and matching slippers - she LOVES it. :-)

We had a nice relaxing morning just playing around the house. Waylon ran a quick errand for the party and then Grammy and Papa left around lunchtime to go pick up the cake for us. The kids took a short nap cause they were so excited but it was better than nothing. The party was at 4:30 and they were up by 3:00 so they had to wait for a bit. :-)

I got quite a few sibling love pictures that day...

Nana and Grandaddy arrived around 3:30 with the balloons and Kylie was in heaven! I almost thought I wouldn't be able to put them up cause she was having so much fun with them. :-)

Watching out the window - she saw Grandaddy and said, 'That's MY grandaddy' to herself :-)

Nana couldn't wait and wanted to give Kylie a present before the party. :-) A cute Minny Mouse doll!

Little Miss Birthday - so big.

She got these boots from Grammy and Papa, too and insisted on wearing them

The cake! YUMMY!

My girl

Noah is such a big boy, too.

And the party begins.... play time in the yard. It was a beautiful day for it. Mid 70s and sunny. We borrowed Eli and Cole's bounce house and the kids loved that.

Kylie in the house with Abby and Savannah

Here is a shot I got of all the kids. I had to tell them there was an airplane to get them all to look up! :-)

(starting at top left - going around the tables) Savannah, Noah, Maddie, Mason, Ryan, Cole, Kylie, Abby, Eli

Time for presents on the deck!

Sibling love

More sibling love

So many girl toys!

Apparently, I was really excited about this one! :-)

And then cake time!

She was so sweet - held her head down like this almost the whole time we were all singing. :-)

Until I called her name and she looked up - Aunt Andrea caught this wonderful shot. LOVE IT!

Kylie loved her cake

All of her friends left and she was left finishing her cake by herself! :-) She didn't want to let any go to waste - when she was done with hers, she reached for the plate next to her! :-)

Time for everyone to go - she and Ryan hugged several times but I never caught a good shot. I think this was the 3rd or 4th time we made them hug so I could try to get a picture so I think she was over it. :-)

Silly daddy

After all her friends left, Nana and Grandaddy gave her their big present - a new doll baby and stroller. She loves it!

How many grandfathers does it take to put together the stroller? :-)

What a great day! I think Kylie had a great birthday and enjoyed every minute!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR SWEET KYLIE GIRL!

Catching Up

2011-10-10T22:03:00.000-04:00

After our Disney trip, we had a hard time getting back on schedule. Since we didn't get back until late Tuesday night, it was a shock back into the real world on Wednesday. We really discovered how much Kylie really needs sleep that week! She had a tough time on Wednesday and Thursday at school, but Friday, she did so much better because that morning, I let them sleep in some - well, Kylie at least - Noah doesn't sleep in. I still took them to school for a short day though so I could catch up on laundry, groceries and all that fun stuff.

That afternoon, we went to Megan, Jason and Ryan's house to play and have dinner with our 'crew' of friends - Megan, Jason, Ryan, Jennie, Cory, Megan, Dave, and Josh and Anise - who were in town visiting from Charleston! So fun.

Our big boy!

Kylie wanted to push Ryan in the swing

Kylie has had a huge fear of dogs forever and for the first 2 hours at their house that Friday, she didn't want their dog, Bentley, to come near her. Then all of the sudden, she fell in love with him. The poor dog, she wouldn't leave him alone! Petting, hugging, kissing, more hugging. It was so funny! Good thing Bentley is so sweet.

Then Saturday, we realized how much Noah really needed to catch up on his sleep, too! If only he'd just sleep in! We ended up staying out late on Friday night and while Kylie slept until 8:30, Noah was up at 6:30. Ugh. We got ready and took off to the NCSU tailgate. The plan was for Kylie and I to just tailgate and then we would come home for nap and Noah would stay at the game with Waylon, Noah kept telling us that he didn't want to go but we finally talked him into going. I guess we should have listened to him because he was not happy at the game apparently. I think he was just way too tired.

When did our kids get so big!?

Kylie and Wyatt checking each other out. :-)

When Kylie and I got home, we both took a little nap and then took off to our neighbors' house for Abby's 2nd birthday party. Noah and Waylon got home soon after we left (they left the game at halftime) and took naps themselves before joining us a little later.

Singing to Abby!

Both our kids love to watch present opening up close. :-)

I started getting worried that Noah was actually getting sick. When they came over to the party, he was not interested in playing and just told me he wanted to go home. Since he took such a late nap, I wasn't sure if he'd go to sleep but he basically told us he wanted to go to bed. He was just super tired! Tough day for him. So we decided that the next day would be spent at home.

Sunday morning, ee had another lazy morning (Kylie slept in again and we let Noah relax watching TV for a while). When we were all up and about, the kids helped Waylon make breakfast.

Both kids had good naps that afternoon and then Nana, Grandad, Andrea, Sean and Savannah came over for some playtime and chili that afternoon. We were finally feeling caught up - just in time to go back to school and work the next day!

All that worry about Noah getting sick and Monday night, Kylie started in with the croup cough and wheezy breathing. We are quite familiar with croup but it doesn't make it any less scary - even though Kylie was a champ through it all. We decided to send her to school Tuesday because she seemed happy and feeling well despite the cough but got the call around 3 that she was wheezing pretty bad. Since I had my own check up that afternoon, Waylon left work early and took her to the doctor where they gave her some steroids. Even though you could tell she wasn't feeling so well that night, she ate well, drank a bunch of milk, danced the night away and slept great. Crazy kid. :-) Since she (again) seemed to be feeling well Wednesday morning, we went ahead and sent her to school and she did great that day. The steroids cleared the wheezing right up and she was back on track pretty quickly.

Friday, the kids and I had a fun day together. It had been a while since I had been home with them alone on a Friday and it was fun! We ran some errands, had lunch with Nana and just played around the house before meeting Daddy for dinner.

Noah reading to Kylie Friday morning right after she woke up - 2 hours after he did again!

Pigtails are back! Yay!

Saturday was an exciting day for us all! We left our house around 11 and took off to Nana and Grandad's house to drop off the kids! They spent the night at their house for the first time while we took off for 24 hours in Greensboro by ourselves! Nana and Grandad took the kids to Hillridge Farms for all sorts of fall fun. Then they came back to their house for a pizza dinner with Andrea and Savannah. We got a good report on bedtime and the night and then they had some fun playtime Sunday morning.

For our trip, we first we went to Jessica and Kevin's house to visit with them and their little girl Evelyn for a few hours. The last time I saw Evelyn, she was itty bitty so it was great to catch up...

Then we were off to meet up with Steven and Kate for dinner, drinks and concert! Steven's birthday is this week and we were invited to surprise him! He was so excited to see Waylon and it was such a nice surprise. The concert was also really great! We went to see the Avett Brothers who we weren't really familiar with but we are now big fans!

Sunday morning, we got to visit with Steven and Kate's little one, Samantha, before having a nice brunch and heading back to pick up the kids. She is so adorable!

We got back to Nana and Grandad's to get the kids around 12:30 and brought them home for naps and some laundry/grocery/catch up time for us. Then we were back off yet again for more fun! This time at Andrea, Sean and Savannah's house to celebrate Uncle Sean's birthday. They had so much fun on the trampoline in their back yard.

What a great weekend. This week we are back to work and school again and working on the next fun event -- Kylie's 2nd birthday! I can not believe she'll be 2 years old on Saturday. Where does the time go?!

DISNEY!!!

2011-09-30T11:54:00.000-04:00

I'm pretty sure this is my biggest post yet. Please keep in mind if you are looking at this that this is my way of scrapbooking and keeping a journal of our life. If you are just interested in the pictures, you should now be able to click on a picture and view a slideshow of them. Here we go!!....

Last Wednesday morning, we got up, finished packing up and took off to the airport to go to DISNEY WORLD!

The kids were so excited all dressed up in their Disney get-ups

The flight was pretty good - by the time we took off, it was naptime so Kylie slept most of the way. Noah was too excited to sleep and skipped nap (as he did most of the rest of the week).

All set on the plane - checking out the photobook from our last trip to Disney

Grammy and Papa were waiting for us at the airport and the kids were so excited to see them!

We arrived in Disney and checked into our hotel rooms - we had adjoining rooms which was nice. We got settled in and then jumped right in and took the bus to the Contemporary hotel to have dinner with Mickey and friends at Chef Mickey's! First, group shots while we were waiting for the bus...

Ready for some characters!

Kylie was SOO excited...

Until they got too close! :-)

We weren't really sure how Kylie was going to do with all the characters. It's so interesting because Noah was all about them last time we went to Disney and he was just about Kylie's age. Their personalities are so different. :-) She definitely needs a little more time to warm up to people - much less big characters! She seemed to do okay when she was sitting with me (for the most part) so I had to get in a few pictures. Noah on the other hand, was SOOO excited and had to give them all hugs and get them to sign his autograph book.

Coloring in the back of his autograph book - Kylie did the same quite a bit

Goofy made me get up so he could sit down in my seat! :-)

The kids were exhausted that night and went to sleep VERY easily. Good thing cause we had a busy day ahead of us at the Magic Kingdom on Thursday....

We weren't up quite as early as we thought we would be (a recurring theme) but still arrived to the park around 9:00 or so. After a few pictures in front of the castle, we went straight back to Fantasyland.

Carousel time!

Daddy got in on the action, too. :-)

Then on to Dumbo!

Riding Winnie the Pooh with Grammy and Papa

Kylie's face through a lot of the trip! She was amazed.

After a quick lunch, we went to Tomorrowland and Noah found the race cars! He was so excited about this one and you'll see later that he rode it two more times!

He actually got to drive - Waylon had to push the pedals but he steered

Kylie watching Noah drive

So excited afterwards!

Then it was off to the Buzz Lightyear ride - we had to shoot these laser guns at targets to defeat the 'Emperor Zurg' (the villian in Toy Story). :-)

Noah looks scared here but he's really just concentrating

Emperor Zurg locked up!

Noah loved all the rides! When we came out of this ride, Buzz Lightyear was there waiting so we got to meet him!

Love this shot of Noah - it fits his personality perfectly

Kylie waiting for Buzz :-)

So excited!!! :-)

We went back to the hotel around 1:30 for naps - the only day we went back in the middle of the day. We were all so tired.

Noah got a 'monorail car' as his souvenir for the day and was so excited. :-)

So tired on the bus ride back

Grammy and Papa were tired, too!

After we all rested up, we went back to Magic Kingdom for another character dinner. We ended up having to wait a bit for this dinner. It was raining and we think everyone was waiting for it to pass.

The kids were getting a little antsy but there were some silly moments

This time it was Winnie the Pooh characters. Kylie really liked Piglet. She/He (Is Piglet a girl or boy??) gave Kylie a kiss on the cheek and she is still talking about that! :-) I guess it was pretty memorable for her.

What happens when they get too close. :-)

Winnie the Pooh was a little strange. He didn't really have much personality and it was pretty funny.

After dinner, we walked through the rain back to It's a Small World (for the second time of the day). The kids loved this one - as did we all!

Then it was back home for bed around 9. Everyone went to sleep very easily again.

A few snuggles before bedtime

Friday was Hollywood Studios. Since we went to bed a little late, the kids ended up sleeping in and I didn't have the heart to wake them up so we were a little later getting to the park than we thought. It actually worked out well though cause we let Kylie sleep in her stroller and Noah just skipped nap. This is how it worked the rest of our trip and it seemed to work out okay. Everyone was tired by the end of the day but then they just went to bed very easily.

When we arrived at the park, we went straight to get the fastpass for the new Toy Story ride and then took off to the Disney Junior show. The kids loved this since they watch a lot of the shows that they featured - Mickey Mouse, Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and Jake and the Neverland Pirates...

Dancing to the music

We caught a street show and Noah got to go up and dance with them! :)

Waiting with Grammy and Papa for the Beauty and the Beast show to start

We had reservations for yet another character meal and we thought we were going to skip it but at the last minute we decided to go. We were glad we decided to go cause it was fun. The kids got to meet some of the Disney Jr stars...

Handy Manny

Leo from Little Einsteins

Special Agent Oso

June from Little Einsteins

We decided to let Noah try the Star Wars ride. The reviews said it could be a little scary for younger kids and he barely met the height requirement so I was nervous for him but he really loved it! We got into a 'ship' and really felt like we were flying. Pretty fun! (Grammy and Kylie waited while Waylon, my dad and I went with Noah)

Waiting for the ride with Daddy.

Then we met Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater!

Watching a parade

Kylie fell asleep after the parade and we just walked around and took a little break ourselves. Then the last ride of the day was this really cool Toy Story Ride!

Grammy and Papa went to see a show about Walt Disney and the kids found hula hoops while we waited!

Noah did pretty well! :-)

And so did Kylie!

Back at the hotel - storytime before bed.

Waylon and I went back out to the piano bar in the lobby after the kids went to sleep and waited for Leah to arrive. She left after work on Friday and flew in for the weekend!

The kids were soooo excited to see her on Saturday morning and were telling her all about our adventures and showing her things! Then we got ready and took off to Epcot!

A group shot waiting for the bus - Kylie wouldn't cooperate. :-)

Wish this came out in focus - think it's an adorable shot!


I know they look like they are fighting here but they aren't. They liked holding hands in the strollers.

Great shot by Papa

Epcot was HUGE! We went straight to the Finding Nemo ride which was in a big building where they had an aquarium and a bunch of really cool stuff to see. We could have spent a whole day just in that building!

The Finding Nemo ride

Kylie wasn't having this (Leah is holding her in there) :-)

Checking out all the fish

Then we went to 'Turtle Talk with Crush'. This was really neat. They had all the kids sitting up front and Crush (the turtle from Finding Nemo) talked to the kids. He was (animated) on a big screen but actually interacted with the audience. Pretty neat!!

Then we went to a different section of the park to get fastpasses for 'Soarin' - this ride was neat also (we did it later). We were in some seats hanging in front of a huge imax screen and it looked like we were flying. Pretty neat. This was another one that Noah did - he barely met the height and I was nervous for him again but he loved it!

After lunch, we walked around the countries while Kylie napped in the stroller.

At some point, Kylie sat up and ended up like this! :-)

After she woke up, we had popcicle snacks. It was very hot all week. Even when it rained, it didn't really cool things down!

Before we left Epcot, we went on one more ride and they had this play area afterwards with all sorts of fun interactive things. In this particular one, you jumped on these squares and they made noise and played music. I have a great video of Waylon dancing! :-) Later, he told me that he found himself there alone - we had all walked away while he was turned around and he was left there dancing alone!! :-) Wish I had video of THAT! Woops! :-)

After we got back, we did a quick trip to one of the pools at the hotel. It was such a nice one but we didn't get to spend too much time there cause we had too many other things going on!!

Kylie loves the water

Playing catch!

After the pool and a dinner in the room for the kids and my mom, Waylon, Leah, my dad and I took off to a fancy dinner at The California Grill. It's on the rooftop of the Contemporary hotel and we could see the fireworks at Magic Kingdom. So nice! And big thanks to mom for staying back to keep the kids.

Dad with his girls before dinner

We don't often get pictures of just the two of us! :-)

At dinner - SO yummy!

Sunday morning, we took off to Animal Kingdom and had a yummy breakfast buffet with Mickey and friends before starting the tour there.

Grammy and Leah checking out some funny pictures from the previous day

Donald was there to greet us at the restaurant. Kylie wanted to hug him so bad and tried quite a few times but could never bring herself to actually do it! :-)

After breakfast, we took a train ride to 'Rafiki's place' and saw some cool animals and exhibits

Looking at snakes with Daddy

Noah loves snakes!

After we took the train back, we went on a 'Jungle Safari'. It was so cool to see the animals close up from a big truck! The kids loved it. Kylie kept pointing out and naming all the animals.

Rhinos close up!

Then we took off to the show 'It's Tough to Be a Bug'. This was a 4D show and the kids didn't like it at all. It was the only thing they didn't like on the whole trip. It was a little intense - big spiders looking like they are coming out at you, 'spitting' venom, etc. Poor things! :-) They were cute and happy while we were waiting for it to start though! :-)

Afterwards, my parents went back to the hotel to meet Jan and Joe who came to visit us and Leah, Waylon and I stayed and went to DinoLand with the kids. Noah was obviously excited about this! :-)

Riding a dinosaur ride

Leah, Kylie and I rode, too. :-)

Driving a stegosaurus! :-)

After we left Animal Kingdom, we made our way over to Downtown Disney to have dinner at the T-Rex restaurant. Noah LOVED this! There were tons of dinosaurs all over the place and every 30 minutes there was a 'meteor shower' and all of the dinosaurs would move. It was pretty cool.

Noah and Jan had fun coloring together

Joe and Leah

Kylie was very hungry and gobbled up our appetizer of chips and queso. When the waitress came by, she was licking her plate! :-) So the waitress brought her out her own little plate. :-) She loved it.

They had a 'Build-a-Dino' store there (like Build-a-Bear), so we let each of them pick out something to build. Noah was so excited about his pteranadon. He named him 'Fella'. :-) The next day, he wanted to take Fella with him to the park but I told him no since he was so big - he had to have several 'talks' with Fella to make sure he'd be okay before we left. :-) And then when we got back home on Tuesday, he gave Fella a tour of our house. :-)

Kylie chose a saber tooth tiger - Waylon helped name her Sally

So excited about their purchases!

Noah asked for me to take this picture with Fella's arm around him. :-)

The 'kids'! :-

When we got home that night, we said goodbye to Aunt Leah (she left early the next morning). At bedtime, Kylie wanted to sleep in Noah's bed so we thought, why not? They went right to bed and slept great all night long! They slept together the next night, too. We were worried that they might want to do it when we got home but so far, it's been okay. :-)

Monday morning, we went back to the Magic Kingdom for our last day at the parks.

Kylie and Grammy were excited!

We rode quite a few of the rides that we hadn't done the other day - and a few that we did! :-)

Riding the magic carpets with Papa

We caught the street party and got to dance with Goofy!

Kylie and Grammy dancing

We went on a jungle cruise, and when we were done, Noah wanted to pretend he was driving a boat and made Grammy sit in his boat. :-)

Grammy and Papa took Noah and Kylie to Country Bear Jamboree and Waylon and I went to ride a roller coaster.

Watching the show

Then we went back to Tomorrowland and Noah wanted to ride the race cars again. This time he wanted Grammy to go with him. And when he got off, he went straight back to the line and went with Papa!! :-)

Papa's perspective. He got a cute video of him driving and he kept sticking his tongue out cause he was concentrating so much. :-)

We went to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor show and in line, there was a note saying we could text in a joke and they might use it. Noah wanted to send in his favorite - 'How do ducks fly? They just wing it!' so we did and they used it! They said it was from 'Noah in North Carolina' and he was so excited. :-)

When we got out of the show, it was pouring down rain! Quite a surprise cause when we went in, it didn't look like rain at all. We went to the 'poeple mover' where it was all under cover and we could stay on as long as we wanted so we went around it 3 times waiting for the rain to settle. We finally gave up and got all suited up to head back to Downtown Disney for dinner.

Ready for the rain! :-) Bye Disney!

This time, we went to the Rainforest Cafe - very similar to the T-Rex restaurant. All sorts of animals and they had a "rainstorm" every 30 minutes. They also had these cute barstools that Kylie wanted to try out. :-)

Back home for bed and the next morning, we packed up, spent a little time at the pool, had some lunch and then took off to the airport. We said our goodbyes and BIG THANKS to Grammy and Papa and flew back home to Raleigh. Noah was exhausted...

It was such a great trip and can't thank Grammy and Papa enough for such a good time! What fabulous memories we will have for a lifetime!

WE LOVE YOU GRAMMY AND PAPA!

Wolfpack game and other weekend fun

2011-09-19T21:02:00.001-04:00

So this is my catch up post before we leave for DISNEY WORLD on Wednesday! We are so super excited. I've been trying to play catch up on the planning (my mom has done most of it - thanks Mom!!) and pulling things together for packing. I think we are pretty in control now and can't wait to get there!!

Last week was a typical week for us except on Tuesday night, I had my first Bunco night in the neighborhood! It was so fun and so nice to really get to know all these ladies so much better! Unfortunately, that same night was the night that Kylie started having trouble with sleeping and going to bed. Waylon had trouble getting her to bed and we've had trouble on and off since (poor thing has swollen gums from her molars coming in). I guess she's feeling better now though because onight was the first night she hasn't fought us. We still don't have bedtime battles near what we had with Noah so that's good. We'll see what happens when we take her paci away - that's next....

Last weekend was a fun one as always. Friday night, we had a last minute get together with my old co-worker, Jimmie, and his family (his wife, Kristen and their boys, Nathan-6 and Ben-3). They live in the neighborhood next to ours and we hadn't gotten the families together yet. I'm so glad we did because the kids got along really well together - especially Noah and Nathan - so we'll definitely have to do it again soon! I made tortilla soup in the crock pot (it was the first day of the weather turning cool) and the kids had nuggets.... pretty low key.

Coloring after dinner

Saturday morning, Noah and I ran a few errands while Daddy and Kylie stayed at home and played - while we were out we ran into Kristen and Nathan! Too funny. We also ran into some old friends, Heidi and her son, Aiden! Too funny. We got the kids down for naps a little early that day because we all took off to the NC State game that afternoon!! Megan and Jason couldn't make the game this week so they let us use their tickets so we could all go. It was so fun and the kids really did great. This might just be our catalyst to get tickets for all of us next year. Kylie was a super fan. She couldn't stop dancing with the music and pumping her fists like she was cheering or conducting the band. It was so adorable! We left at halftime and on our way out, we saw Ms. Wuf. Kylie wasn't quite ready to get too close (Noah of course got a picture with her), but after we walked away, she kept saying "Minnie Mouse Wolf"!! We've been talking up Disney World obviously. :-) Noah also had a great time as always. He loved using his 'howl towel' that they gave out at the first game to swing around. It was misting on and off but not too bad so that was good. I think we are going to have many more years of these games - Waylon is so excited. :-)

How great is this shot!?


And this one, too! (Noah is howling here) :-)

Playing football with Daddy

Ready for the game to start (with his Howl Towel)

Daddy is in heaven

"Minnie Mouse Wolf" and Noah :-)

Sunday morning, we got up and went out to breakfast. Everyone was a little cranky just before we left and we weren't sure it was going to be a good idea but they both behaved and loved eating at Brigs. Then we ran a few errands and came home. We got some things done around the house that morning and got organized for the trip so that was good.

After naps, off again... this time to Nana and Grandad's house for playtime and dinner. When we arrived, Grandaddy was in the garage working on his Corvette. Noah was very interested in what he was doing and I think Grandaddy was glad to pass on his vast knowledge of the inner workings of cars!

Andrea, Sean and Savannah came also of course and we just had a crazy time as always! :-) Lots of dress up as is typical these days. Noah was upset at first that he didn't have a dress but then moved along to being a vet instead. :-) I forgot my real camera so these next few shots are from my phone.

Dr. Parham working on the stuffed dog

This is a good shot of what our time is like at Nana and Grandad's!

Kylie playing with Nana

Waving goodbye to Savannah as she was leaving

Such a fun weekend and a fun adventure ahead, too! We leave Wednesday - flight is at 11:45 and we'll meet Grammy and Papa at the Orlando airport. We can't wait!!

Last weekend - fun and cranky

2011-09-15T22:23:00.001-04:00

Last weekend was a tough one - but lots of fun, too. About halfway through the weekend, we discovered that Kylie has a molar coming in so that explained her attitude, but Noah was pretty whiny also and we still aren't sure what that was about.

Friday night, we thought it was going to be the last weekend of the pool (turns out they extended it so it's now open until Oct 2nd!!). Anyway, we were trying to get the most of our last weekend at the pool so we took some sandwiches down for dinner and had a nice evening down there.

On the way, Kylie screamed, 'We're coming pool!!'

Noah had fun pushing Kylie and Abby in a raft. So cute!!

Saturday morning, Waylon mowed the lawn and the kids and I went over to Savannah's for a playdate. Once we made it there and I relaxed a bit, it was nice (Kylie screamed the whole way there so I was a little high strung when we arrived!).

Beautiful Savannah

Kylie is starting to get into the dress up stuff

Lunch time! Noah was busy watching a movie and opted to eat in shifts :-)

We were hoping the kids would get good naps because we had our neighborhood block party that afternoon... but no such luck. Kylie woke up about 20 minutes after she hit the crib. We heard her wake up but she wasn't upset so we decided to let her stay and thought maybe she'd go back to sleep. She never cried and never called for us. She was just talking and playing from what we could hear through the monitor. All of the sudden, we hear a door slam and the sound of someone trying to open a door. Waylon and I looked at each other and ran up the stairs and Kylie was just standing on the other side of her door!! She had crawled out of her crib! We thought we might have to get her into a big girl bed but she hasn't done it since so we'll see....

Anyway, around 4:00, we took off to our neighborhood block party. It was so much fun!!! We seriously have the best neighborhood ever. Everyone is so nice and participates in everything. The last RSVP I saw had 85 adults and 79 kids attending! We had BBQ catered by Backyard Bistro, a DJ, two big inflatables, a 'dunk tank', and a firetruck came. It was awesome!

When we first got there, the kids were all over the place and it was hard to keep up with them. After a while, Noah got busy with the 'dunk tank' and ended up playing with other kids his age for most of the party. At first, it made me nervous for him not to be in our sight all the time but he did really well. Kylie had a blast, too!!

Noah checking out the fire truck

Kylie LOVED the fire truck and didn't want to get out!!

The 'dunk tank' - Noah is getting ready to pull the string :-)

Noah's friend, Fred, getting soaked (Noah is standing behind him laughing his head off!) :-)

Kylie had so much fun dancing to the music! It was so cute. The DJ was doing a freeze dance game and she really got the hang of it. She'd dance and when the music went off, she'd hold up her hands like jazz hands and say, 'FREEZE!' SO adorable!! :-)

Dancing

FREEZE!

All the kids dancing - you can see the fire truck in the background

Noah found someone's battery operated car and had so much fun driving Abby around! So cute!!

Looks like a date to me!! :-)

The kids started breaking down at about 8:15 so we took them home for bed and then I went back to the party for a while and Waylon stayed home with the kids. Some of us ended up on a neighbors' back patio around the fire pit listening to their son play guitar. So fun!!

The last picture of the night - pretty accurate.

Sunday morning, we had a lazy morning and then went to drop off my car to get some work done. Then we went to McDonalds for lunch (didn't want to deal with a real sit down meal) and then the kids had a BLAST on the play area. Home for naps and then Noah and I went back to the pool for a very short trip. Then we were off again to pick up the car again and met Nana and Grandad for dinner. Very nice!

Two last pictures to sum up our weekend. :-)

When we got home, we had a movie night for the kids. We watched How to Train Your Dragon and it was really cute!

Movie and popcorn

The weather is getting cooler so we can actually play outside without being in the water! Noah started soccer at school this week and was so excited so they played soccer together outside one night this week.

This week is going to be all about getting ready for DISNEY WORLD!! We are getting so excited. We leave next Wednesday for Disney with Grammy and Papa for a week - and Aunt Leah is coming for the weekend, too! YAY!

A special weekend for everyone!

2011-09-07T22:50:00.001-04:00

This year, we have two tickets to the NC State football games so we were trying to decide who would go to the first game this past Saturday with Waylon. He really wanted to take Noah, so I decided it might be fun to split up and have a girls and a guys weekend. It was a very last minute decision and it took some planning but it really worked out well for everyone!

Kylie and I went up to MD to stay with my parents and hang with them, my sister and good friend Julie. I was having a some issues with the decision for a little bit last week. I was very concerned that Noah was going to be really upset about us leaving him at home, so I made sure to have some fun plans for him.

First, a quick picture from last week. While I was making dinner one night, I gave the kids each a printout of the same picture and put a basket of crayons in the middle of the table. Noah chose green yellow, orange, and black and Kylie chose pink, purple, and green. How strange is that?! It was like a psychology experiment. Kylie is pretty consistent in telling me that her favorite color is purple and likes to choose it whenever she has a choice. Makes me wonder if we pushed the 'girl colors' on her or if it's just natural. Strange....

Anyway, Grammy came back to our house last Tuesday night after returning from my Gramma's house (and the lake - she went up to clean out the fridge since the house had been without power for several days after Hurricane Irene). When we decided to make the trip, we decided that Kylie and I would ride up with her on Friday and then fly home on Monday.

Since we wanted to make sure Noah had lots of fun plans, my mom kept him home from school on Thursday and took him to the Durham Life and Science Museum. They stayed all day and had a blast! He really enjoyed it and it worked well to help tell him that he had his special time with Grammy and then that weekend Kylie would have hers! :-) Pics from the museum compliments of Grammy....

Climbing a rock wall

Playing with the clouds

Riding the train

The dinosaur walk

They saw some black bears. My mom told me there was a camera and she didn't think he'd be able to actually find the bear using it but he did!

Popcicle treat

On Friday, we packed up and got ready to leave. Daycare was closed for a 'teacher workday' so we made more special plans for Noah to spend the day with Grandaddy!

First I'll go through Noah's weekend - no pictures from his since he was with Waylon. :-)

Another super fun day for him on Friday!! We dropped him off around 8:30 and he was so excited - not sad about us leaving at all! They went to Marbles - two museums in two days (and no naps each day either!) - and also went to the imax show there. They had a blast. Then they met Nana and Savannah at the mall to play there for a bit. Waylon met them there later that afternoon for dinner and the hand off. I talked to them around 7:30 - they were just getting home and Noah was asleep in the car - a big day for him!

Saturday morning, they went out to breakfast for pancakes and went to get an NC State t-shirt for the game that afternoon. Noah got a nap that day and then they took off for the game. I was told he did great and was really well behaved. They stayed pretty late (the game didn't start until 6:00) and had a blast!

Sunday morning, they went to play putt putt and ran errands that afternoon. Monday morning was playtime at home and then they came to pick up me and Kylie at the airport! It was a great boys weekend and they both had fun bonding. :-)

Now for the girls weekend with pictures.....

After we dropped off Noah, we got right on the road. Kylie watched a few Doras on the way and then we were trying to get another 1/2 hour down the road before lunch but she started falling asleep so we went ahead and stopped around 11:15. After Panera for lunch, Kylie slept a bit - but not really too long. We decided to stop in DC to visit Leah at her school (this was a weekend of last minute decisions!) so that was fun to have a stretch break and also see her school - I'd never seen it before.

We arrived at Grammy and Papa's house around 3:30 and just played played played!!! Kylie was beside herself - she was so excited and I think really enjoyed getting all the attention and all the toys! :-) It was pretty cute....

Playing piano

Friday night, Roz and Duane came over and we ordered Ledo's Pizza for dinner. Yum!

On Saturday morning, I had a date with Julie and Ali. Julie and Peter are getting married next July so we decided to go try on some dresses! It was so fun to see Julie in all the beautiful dresses! I wish I could post a few of the shots I got but I wouldn't want to ruin anything if she decided on one of them! :-) She also had Ali and I try on bridesmaid dresses just to see the color she wanted so that was fun, too. After our appointment, we went to a great lunch at the Cheesecake Factory - appetizer, lunch, dessert and coffee. So nice!!

Back at home, Kylie was still reveling in the attention. She had a nice morning with Grammy and Papa and then Aunt Leah arrived right around lunchtime to take over babysitting duties since my parents went to the Baltimore Grand Prix that afternoon.

Walking with Grammy and Papa (and her baby doll!)

When we got back, Julie decided to stay and hang out with us for the afternoon. We were trying to decide what to do when Roz and Duane called and said they had just picked up their grandson, Max, who is just 2 weeks younger than Kylie. So they came by to play for a bit! The had fun together and only had a few small issues with sharing - I think Kylie had already gotten used to not having to share! :-) (typical for this age of course)

Hugs before leaving!

After they left, we (Leah, Julie, Kylie and I) took off to Old Navy for some shopping and then we decided to grab dinner at Don Pablos. Very fun and again, sporatic! :-) We got home around 7:30 and Grammy and Papa were there to greet us. We just relaxed at home after that and then watched a movie. Julie didn't leave until midnight and Leah spent the night so it was a fun girls day!

Julie caught this shot with her cell phone :-)

Sunday, my parents were supposed to go back to the race so Leah and I were going to maybe take Kylie to DC but when they decided not to go, we decided to mix up our plans, too (again last minute being the theme!). Mid-morning, we took off to the park to have more Max time - this time with his parents, Jill and Dan. We took Kylie a picnic lunch. Very fun! We got some great pictures there....

Lunch time!

Steering the ship

Me and my girl

Look at these flirts!! :-)

The 'kids' :-)

Papa and his girl

After the park, we went to the mall for a while. We all shopped for a bit and then around 1:30, Papa took Kylie home for her nap and my mom, Leah and I stayed for a shopping spree! Grammy and Papa bought all of us some great things. Kylie got a jacket and a few outfits (and got Noah some, too!) and Leah and I got shoes and clothes, too! WOW! Thanks Mom and Dad!

When we got back, Kylie and I had some playtime.... :-)

Airplane!!

Leah went home not long after we got back and then Julie and I had talked about getting together again. I really wanted to pick crabs but we were back and forth about whether or not we should do it. In the end, we decided to do it and are so glad we did!! It was so much fun. We went to a local restaurant and it was awesome. So yummy and fun. We got there at 8:15 and didn't leave until almost 11:00!!

YUM!!!

BFFs for almost 20 years! Hard to believe...

Monday morning, Grammy and Kylie went to walk around the neighborhood but it was short-lived...

Had to take her babydoll again

Piano with Papa

So we decided to all go down to the elementary/middle school and play on the playground. Luckily, Papa drove in case it rained (Grammy, Kylie and I walked). As we were just about to climb in the car, the raindrops started... good call, Papa!

Little Monkey!

She's actually hanging here!

When we got back home, it was time for me to pack up and for us to head to the airport. Kylie's first plane ride! I wasn't sure what to expect - especially since it was during naptime - but she did great! Just ran around the airport before we boarded....

Watching the planes - she insisted on keeping her shades on for at least 30 minutes after we had gotten inside. :-)

Carrying her purse . :-)

Waiting for our flight

Once we got on the plane, I gave her a snack and then when we were about to take off, I asked if she was tired. She said yes so I gave her her paci and she just laid her head right down and went to sleep. She slept the whole way back and I rested too! I had no idea flying with an (almost) 2 year old could be so relaxing! :-)

Just landed

We were so excited to get home to see our boys! The kids kept saying hi to each other in the car when Waylon and Noah picked us up from the airport which was so sweet. And they were actually really nice to each other that night and the next morning, too. Maybe we need to split them up more often!! :-)

All in all, it was a great fun weekend for everyone. We all missed each other but we had some good bonding time also. Yay!

Two weekends of fun!

2011-08-29T21:46:00.005-04:00

After we got back from the beach, Waylon started his new job! He's so much happier and really excited about this opportunity. So far, so good! Kylie also moved up to a new room so lots of new things.

That Friday (the 19th), I got to sneak out and go to dinner and a movie with some girlfriends. It was a nice evening out for me!

Saturday morning, we relaxed at the house until it was time for Eli's birthday party. So much backyard fun!

Kylie swinging with the birthday boy

Kylie and Noah trying out their toys

Kylie loving the bounce house!

The big birthday boy

Kylie getting ready to watch the game :-)

They had sponges and filled them up with water and tried to be the first team to fill up a jug.

Noah in motion!

Cupcake time - homemade!!!

(not sure where all of Evia's energy comes from!)

Kylie enjoying her cupcake. :-)

Saturday night, we went to dinner with Megan, Jason and Ryan. After we ate, the kids did their normal run off their wiggles. It was pretty cute.

Kylie in action!

This was the starting line

Hugs for Ryan before we left

Later Saturday night, Waylon took his turn at a night out so that was nice. Sunday morning, he mowed the yard and I took the kids to the pool with Megan and Ryan. Then in the afternoon, we had an impromtu get together with Cory and Jennie, Megan Jason and Ryan, and Megan and Dave. We grilled out and everyone brought something to contribute. So fun! No pictures though. :-(

Last week was a typical week for us except for Friday, we sent the kids to school and I stayed home to deal with workers in the house in the morning (punch list items from our 90 day walk through). Then I went to get my hair done and got a little shopping done which was really fun. I got the kids a little early and met Megan and Ryan at the park. It was a pretty crazy trip since while we were there the skies opened up on us (the first band of Hurricane Irene). We went to Target to waste some time before meeting the guys for dinner.

Saturday morning, we enjoyed a relaxing morning watching the hurricane coverage. Things were okay here but pretty nasty on the coast. Around 10:30, Waylon and Noah took off to the grocery store and Kylie and I had some mommy/daughter time. While they were gone, we painted her toenails, too! :-) It was fun. She was really excited but then halfway through she wasn't sure about it. We used a hairdryer to dry them before she went walking on the carpet! :-) She was very proud...

After naps, we got prepared for toddler-palooza. Waylon went to a fantasy football draft and all the wives and kids came to our house! We had 8 kids 4 and under here. The first hour was strangely calm while they were all warming up to each other. The whole night was actually pretty good though. No major issues which was very nice!!

Kylie getting ready for the silliness

Snack time

7 of the 8 kids

(L-R) Brendan, Maddy, Noah, Mackenzie, Kylie, Rory, and Ryan

(Wyatt not pictured)

One aftermath picture :-)

Sunday was a really nice day. That morning, another lazy morning before heading to the park as a family. It was a nice outing and we had a picnic there, too.

After the kids woke up from their naps, we went down to the pool for about an hour and a half. It was really nice cause they were playing really well together and Waylon and I were actually able to sit down (at the same time)! It was great.

We came back to the house around 4:30, just in time to have another impromtu get together!! :-) We had been invited to Nana and Grandad's for dinner but we were expecting Grammy that afternoon and had some other commitments so they were nice enough to pack up all the food and bring it to us!! That's the way to have a dinner party - someone else brings all the food! :-) Thanks again, Nana!

So about 10 minutes after we got back from the pool, my mom walked in and about 5 minutes after that, Nana, Grandad, Andrea, Sean and Savannah arrived also. Lots more playtime and a yummy dinner!

Noah and Savannah were feeding their 'baby'. Kylie was a very willing participant in this. I walked in and asked they were doing and Kylie looked at me and said, 'I the baby!' :-)

Playing cars with Uncle Sean

Grammy stayed over last night and then went on to my Gramma's house for the last clean out there - they are finally closing on the house on Wednesday. She will be coming back later this week so that will be nice.

This morning, she took Noah to school on her way out of town and I took Kylie to her 1 year follow up appointment for her hernia surgery. I can't believe it's been a year! Crazy. Everything checked out fine... the muscle layer is still nice and strong. We talked some about cosmetic options. He wouldn't recommend anything before age 4 or 5. We can also just leave it alone and let her make her own choice down the road on whether or not she wants to fix it. We have a few years to decide on that though, so that's good.

Tonight, Noah was playing on the computer and he looked like such a big boy...

We are all going to have a fun weekend this weekend - more to come on that!!