My guys

Housekeeping. Literally.

I adored my lightweight Electrolux Pronto while it lasted, which sadly was less than a year. Now I'm dustbusting my whole house on a daily (or hourly, depending on what the boys are doing) basis, which might just turn me into a hunchback. Please PLEASE let me know if you have a vacuum that you really like...it's got to be light and good for hard floors & carpet.

On another note, have I mentioned recently how much I love, love, love thrifting for my kids' clothing? Gone are the leisurely hours at the mall, and I have no intention of paying a ton for my boys' apparel. I mean, these children get dirty. But I can spend 20 minutes in my favorite thrift store and come out with a TON of high end stuff in great shape. Like Will's $4 Columbia ski coat for next year. And Thomas' $3 Strasburg spring ensemble. And the multitude of Gap/Polo stuff for $1-2. And last but not least--Will's tacky Spiderman shirt. I'm not one to dress my kids in cartoon characters, but it was a couple of bucks...and it made him so very happy.

OK, it's off to enjoy this gorgeous weather. Nearly 70 degrees in February is just fine with me. Will went swimming in our backyard creek, Thomas wanders outside in a diaper and tee, and it's almost Valentine's Day. Gotta love the Southeast.

I know, I know--it's been awhile...

So I'll try to get back into the swing of things and update this little blog of mine. You mean you don't want to admire my Christmas photos for another 11 months?

Big news #1--Will is (during the day at least) potty trained! Woo hoo! Though I've got to say--with the "I want to do it myself" wiping jobs and "Mommy I didn't mean to [not make the deposit entirely in the commode]," diapers sometimes seem the less-messy route. But it's time, and he is adorably so proud of himself.

#2--Thomas is walking! He's perfected this crazy army crawl for months now, but he finally decided that using his feet is more fun. He's also getting at least six teeth right now, so he's been acting uncharacteristically cranky recently. Super. And doesn't he look like a big kid with his new haircut?

#3--My sister is pregnant with #2! Since our mom already blabbed the news to all of Richmond & the facebook community, I figure it won't hurt to share. Yippee for Carson's baby brother/sister coming in October!

#4--So Will got this butterfly house for Christmas...You know, you send away for the caterpillar larvae, watch them get disgustingly large and fill their plastic cup with poo, transfer the chrysalises into the mesh house, and wait... Will is mildly interested, Colin is grossed out, and I'm reliving my grade school science experiment days. I don't care if you think I'm a dork, it's fascinating.

That's all the excitement and profound thoughts for today. Happy weekend, all!

We had a lovely Christmas, and as of yesterday we're home. Seeing as how someone gets ill every trip (can't forget two Christmases ago when we infected 10 family members with a "memorable" stomach bug), we learned last night that Thomas has pneumonia. He seems to be doing a little better after beginning antibiotics, but he's pretty pitiful.

In random order and without explanation, here's proof of our fun and family-filled several days in VA.

He's 3!

Celebrating Will

Yep, big Will is turning 3! Not quite yet--Monday, actually--but we had an early celebration when my parents, sister, brother in law and nephew were in town this weekend. It was Will's first real "party," since I am convinced no kid younger than three would care about it anyways. Or maybe I'm just depriving my children. (They'll survive.) So we did the whole plastic tablecloth, matchy matchy Cars Movie paper products, streamers, balloons, hats, presents, pizza, cupcakes & ice cream. Being my offspring, he of course licked the icing off three Dewey's cupcakes & neglected the actual cake. The poor child had such a great time that he was left forlorn when the party ended and his guests headed home. So now I need to figure out how to make the real day special too...


He'd already opened several the night before, so here's Will opening the remaining gifts. His favorite part, I'm sure.
Some of the enthralled guests...

Bet you'd never guess these guys were related...

Little bro had a blast too. After all, now that Will has fresh loot, maybe he'll allow access to the old toys.

Check out the pirate cupcake. SO cool.

FOUR G'S

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

December so far

I know, I'm a blog slacker. Since I'm tired and not motivated to write a detailed update, here's my synopsis:

A week of two sick kids, two infected ears, fevers & snot galore. No sleep for days. Self-medicating with diet coke and chocolate. Quite glad time & the pink stuff finally kicked in.

Fun Thanksgiving with friends Annie & Neal in Durham. Hopefully our kids didn't scare them too much, seeing as how their babe will be here soon. (We only broke one bowl, after all. Not too bad.)

A decorated house (nothing says Christmas in the USA like a Walmart-purchased fake tree with colored lights). Endless Christmas tunes. Coats and mittens and hats (finally!). Wrapping paper. Toys R Us. Addressing cards. Nostalgic TV Christmas specials.

Staring at our nativity and remembering. Reading books to Will and remembering. Mary and Joseph. Bethlehem. The census, the stable, the manger, the star, the shepherds, the angels. Jesus! Remembering the birth of our Savior.

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And now I present--Thomas with his big boy haircut:
The shovel doesn't stop this thumb-sucker.

A plastic pool filled with rocks makes a boy very happy.

And he's 1!

November 9, 2007

November 9, 2008
Finishing up his pumpkin cake

We love you sweet boy.

Happy Birthday!!

Did you?

What a way to begin November...

...a gorgeous day, happy kids, & a couple of hours outside. Sadly, Colin is stuck indoors at work. Though if he was home, he'd probably be watching football--isn't UVA playing today?

Happy Halloween!

We got together with friends for dinner and trick or treating--it was Will's first time begging for goodies, and he was a quick learner. His routine consisted of a quick "trick or treat," a gleeful peek in the bag, a prompted "thank you," and a command for "next house!" Seeing as how he's still mumbling to himself in bed (at 10:14 pm), I'm guessing the sugar might have overloaded his system a little. I'm thinking this pirate enjoyed himself. The bumblebee, on the other hand, would probably have preferred to be in his nice warm crib. Or maybe he was just jealous of his bro's stash.

Regarding the three pictures below--Yeah, you try and get two children under 3 to look at a camera and smile simultaneously. I give up. Will kept scooting away from Thomas, screaming "don't bite me brother" (yep, T's found a way to strike back), and Thomas was interested in everything but my camera.



I knew a smile was in there.

Morning in Africa

I love love love the zoo. The rest of my family doesn't mind it too much either. Even in the rain.



Snacktime in the chimp house.

Thomas looks bored here, but I promise he had fun. And look how close the zebras (and giraffes and ostriches) were! So cool.

Sleepy, hungry & wet, but still pleasant. I can learn a lot from this guy.