Furniture Origami, Phase 1

About a month ago John and I started to tackle the house in preparation for baby. Being in a 3-bedroom townhome has it's challenges, and one of those is dealing with the furniture that we have without any additional storage and such. I think we have managed just fine so far! We purged the "guest room/Miss Ariel's room/Grandma's room" in order to make room for Adelyn. Here is a little before and after shots of our guest "quarters".

The "Before" of the downstairs playroom...






"Before" guest room...




"After"




Pictures of nursery to come soon!

Snow Day

We FINALLY had some snow to play with! After watching the rest of the nation receive snow, and kids everywhere getting to play in it, we finally get to join in the fun. Even if it was just for a little bit this morning...

The boys are ready to try out their new sleds from Grams...even if there isn't a lot of snow, there is ENOUGH for us!



We opted to just take a "walk" around the circle to try out the sleds. I certainly got my workout pulling these two!







Then we tried the "hill" across the way from our place...







It was a HIT!! Following a great morning playing outside, we had to follow it up with a little warm cocoa! Happy Snow Day!

A Texas-Size Trip

The boys and I headed to Dallas to spend a little time with Mimi, Poppie and Aunt Kiki before the holidays. This was our first airplane ride after 2-years of self-induced exile from any aircraft (thanks to Luke's MAJOR meltdown two years ago). The boys did FANTASTIC on the flight for me (with a little help from two PEZ candy dispensers)! They were real troopers throughout the flying process, and of course everyone thought they were TOO CUTE! Of Course!


Anxiously waiting for our airplane to arrive into Baltimore.


We're ready for this 5-hour journey! Let's hope the computer battery can hold up for a couple of movies...at least.





A "new" thing at Mimi and Poppie's house is the "arrival" of Mr. Tree. Okay...Mr. Tree turns out to be our good old tree in the front yard with an added feature of a face. Turns out Mr. Tree leaves presents for little boys and their mommy when they visit. Too fun!


Good Morning Mr. Tree!




Reading with Aunt Kiki


Check out those glow-in the dark bracelets from Mr. Tree! Too cool!


Bath time fun = water guns..."Shoot the wall, NOT MIMI!"

We wrapped up Texas with John meeting us in Austin and spending a whirlwind weekend in San Antonio and Austin. It was a great trip with both families filled with lots of love and laughter.

A great way to usher in December!

The Pout

Paden is our "Master Pouter". There is something about his little face and how quickly it can go from a sweet, smiley little boy to a fierce pout. He has the perfect lips for it too! Daddy asked him if he learned how to pout from brother Luke. Paden said "No, Paden." At least he claims it for his own!











FINALLY! All he wanted was a bite of Daddy's pizza. Guess that pout worked after all!

He's 4!

This has been the first year where we have actually had to count down to a certain little boy's birthday. Once November hit Luke knew his birthday was coming up...it was only a matter of 12 days...11 days...10 days...etc. What a hoot!

Friday morning came and we were greeted two little boys (as usual), only the oldest proudly declared "Hey Guys, I'm 4 today!"...he was so excited. I had asked Luke several times over the coming weeks what he wanted to do for his birthday and his choice was IHOP for breakfast and the aquarium. So what did we do? Well, we went to IHOP for breakfast and to the Baltimore Aquarium of course! What a fun day as a family! (We threw in Chick Fil A for lunch...not a bad addition.)

Here is our 4 year old!

The pure joy of opening birthday presents!










Yummy IHOP!




Baltimore Aquarium












Tired and Hungry...Chick Fil A comes to the rescue!






Checking out Frank the Fish


Happy Birthday Luke!

Halloween 2010 - Buzz and Woody

I owe you some pictures! We had so much fun this Halloween in our neighborhood this year. The young families got together for an early dinner/potluck and then split ways to take our kids trick-or-treating. We only did a few houses with the boys...we don't need a lot of candy in our house and the boys were tired too. Needless to say they loved their costumes!