Happy Memorial Day!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable Memorial Day. I know technically it's still going on, but we spent our weekend at the Inlaws river house on the Rappahannock River and the boys had such a great time! Both Bryce & Hayes both experienced a beach like setting for the first time and I think we have two beach bums on our hands! :)

Hayes played in the water and dug in the sand. Bryce loved having the waves crash over his legs and also eating sand. Yuck! I think he actually liked the stuff, because he kept trying to put handfulls in his mouth. We had a great time there though with Chris' whole family.

Tag, your it!

I've been tagged so I shall do this :)

Here are the rules... Each person tagged gives 7 random facts about themselves. Those tagged need to write in their blogs the 7 facts, as well as the rules of the game. You need to tag seven others and list their names on your blog. You have to leave those you plan on tagging a note in their comments so they know that they have been tagged and to read your blog.

1. I am the youngest of 3, my sister is 7 years older than me and my brother is 2 years older than me.

2. Being a Mom is not nearly as easy as I had imagined

3. If I could read all day, I would be extremely happy.

4. I sometimes envy people who have lives different than me.

5. My parents changed our last name when we moved to PA from TX.

6. I used to hate peanut butter and now I love it!

7. I was supposed to have a career in music.

I think I'll tag Kelly.

Life as I know it is over!

Bryce started crawling a couple of days ago! My life is totally going to change now. And to make things even harder, Hayes has decided to start having an attitude! Just what I need!

Mother's Day

A belated Happy Mother's Day to all of your mothers out there. I hope everyone had a wonderful day yesterday. We celebrated just with our little family on Saturday by going out to lunch. As usual, with an almost 3 year old, it was interesting. :)

Sunday morning, I woke up to Hayes saying "Happy Mother's Day!" I got a card from each of my boys and they were all just wonderful. I guess you could say my present this year was that Bryce finally said Mama! Of course, now he says it all the time and I don't think I will ever get sick of it. (Well atleast not until he is 2!)

We spent the rest of the day at my Inlaws house. We surprised my MIL with lunch and her whole family was there, my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and his girlfriend. Then we spent the rest of the day hanging out. Hayes, my MIL and I walked up to Coldstone for a treat. :) And we all went to dinner at Bottom's Up Pizza with Chris' grandmother, uncle, aunt and cousin. It was really a great day.

As much as my children drive me crazy at times, I love them with all my heart and I thank God for giving me such beautiful and loving children.

An Update

Thought I would give you a bit of an update on what has been going on with us and what new things the boys are doing.

This past Saturday our friends the Aldorisio's came for a visit. Hayes & Caitlin had a blast together! It was so nice to see our friends again, we have missed them since we moved.


And now for the update on Hayes & Bryce

Hayes:

• Is working on writing and can write H & A of his name!
• Can write the number one and sometimes two and is really great at tracing the other numbers
• Has a great imagination and often creates his own scenarios when playing with his trains or other toys
• Is very into art and art projects
  

Bryce:

• Has 5 teeth now!
• Is so close to crawling, he can crawl backwards
• Claps
• Says Da-Da and Up
• Waves Bye-Bye
  

A trip to Newport News

This past Saturday we drove to Newport News, VA to visit with some friends from college and so I could attend a friends baby shower. We had a great time seeing everyone and I think Hayes made a new friend, Logan. Hayes, Gavin & Logan had a great time visiting. It's so neat to see all of our kids play together! We are hoping to get down to visit again soon so the boys can play again. We are very thankful to the Siegels and Wilsons for letting us visit.

Hayes' 1st visit to the dentist

This morning Hayes had his first dentist visit. Chris took him and said he did really well. He loved the dental hygienist and was fine with her cleaning and flossing his teeth! He was not a big fan of the Dentist though, but did pretty good. Here are a few pictures of my big boy!

Support

I wanted to post again to express my sympathies to all of those who have been effected by the VA Tech shootings. As an Alumni of JMU, I normally would not be a huge fan of Tech but under the circumstances I want to show my support.

Where does the time go?!

Bryce is now 9 months old and had his 9 month Dr check up today. He did great! Even had to have his finger pricked for the iron test and he didn't cry at all! He now weighs 22 lbs and is 30 inches long! He is just getting so big.


This past weekend my sister, Amy, and her 2 boys, Jacob & Austin, came for a visit. Hayes had a blast playing with his cousins. Unfortunately, it was a cold rainy weekend but we made the best of it and went to the mall to play in the play area there. The boys had a great time.


















We also had a great visit with Kelly & Gavin last week. They came for the day so we could go see Thomas Live! together and the boys had a great time.

Back in Business!

We bought a new digital camera so I am back in business. Don't really have much to report. The boys are both doing well. I will give a brief update on each of them.

Hayes~Can now write the letter H! We are working on the rest of his name. Understands the concept of addition! He uses his fingers to count, which is just so cool. :)

Bryce~Is clapping his hands both when you clap and also when you say the word clap. "Says" the word clap when he is clapping, although it sounds like "bap!" Can wave bye-bye and says bah-bah when he does it. Can scoot around on his bottom when sitting. And pushes himself backwards when on his belly.

And since I have my new camera now, I must leave you with a picture, or two! Here is my friend, Lora, with Hayes. She surprised us with a visit today. :) And a picture of Bryce, because he is cute!

Visit to Herndon

Last Sunday we drove to Herndon, VA (where we used to live) for our friends daughters birthday party. We had such a great time! Hayes was thrilled to see his friend again! It was a princess party, which Hayes didn't seem so sure about at first, but he had a great time. Bryce also joined in on the fun. :)

Lost!

So, our video camera is broken because a certain preschooler decided to throw it across the room! It is hopefully being fixed as I write this. Unfortunately, our digital camera decided to stop working as well! So, I am with out a digital camera and have been taking pictures with an actual film camera! Eeek! Never realized how much I really used those cameras until now. So, I will be with out pictures for a little bit. Hopefully, not too long though! I feel so lost with out them.

Cool Rider!

My father-in-law recently bought a motorcycle and brought it over to show off the other day. Hayes was so excited! He wanted to sit on it and didn't want to get off!! I am in big trouble! :)

Blessed

Lately I have realized how blessed I am. I am the mother of two wonderful little boys and the wife of a great guy. What more can you ask for in life?

We have been enjoying the gorgeous weather we have been having lately. We all just love to be outside and have been spending lots of time together as a family. As Hayes tells us on a daily basis, "The 4 of us are a family." :)

On the 22nd we celebrated my 28th birthday. Many people have asked me if I am getting nervous about getting close to 30. I'm not at all nervous. I have a feeling my 30's are going to bring lots of wonderful and exciting things!

The picture is one I took of Bryce for his 8 month photos. He is getting so big! He is such a joy to be around and he adores his big brother. I'm so lucky to have 2 such wonderful children.

Children's Museum of Richmond

We have had a great weekend! Yesterday, March 17, we went to The Children's Museum of Richmond.

Hayes absolutely loved it there! And the best part is that we got to meet Curious George!! It is such a great place and we can not wait to go back. We actually bought a membership we liked it so much. :) Hayes really liked the grocery store and he loved the water play tables!

A trip to the zoo

Recently we took a trip to the Metro-Richmond Zoo.

We all had a great time and decided to buy season passes! The boys and I have already been back once and plan on going as much as we can when the weather is nice. This zoo is just amazing, you actually get to feed the giraffes yourself which Hayes just loved!

Wow, It has been a while!

I have long been neglecting my blog and have decided to ressurect it so to speak.

A lot has happened in the last year! We welcomed another baby boy into our family on July 14, 2006. His name is Bryce Thomas and he is such a wonderful baby. He is now almost 8 months old and is a lot of fun.

Hayes is quickly approaching the age of 3! I can not believe how fast he has grown. He is quite the character and makes us laugh on a daily basis. He still loves Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends and is now also obsessed with Curious George.

In January 2007 we moved to Midlothian, VA. Chris now works for Circuit City, the corporate headquarters not at a store. We are just south of Richmond, VA and only about a 20 minute drive from Chris' parents, which we love! We are living in a 4 bedroom house and loving it!

Right now we are still adjusting to the move and trying to get our house in order.

I have joined a new Moms group and I'm trying to be active in that. The boys & I have gotten into walking and try to go as much as possible. Our new neighborhood has some wonderful walking/jogging trails.

Chris is busy with his new job and also enjoying the fact that he can do home improvement projects. :)

Now that I have updated, I will hopefully be back more often!

It's a boy!

On February 24th we went for an ultrasound and found out we will be having another boy! All 3 of us are very excited. We just know Hayes is going to love having a little brother. The babys name is going to be Bryce after my paternal grandfather who passed away in 1999. A middle name has not yet been decided.

Some of the Christmas chaos in PA!




Hayes playing with his cousin, Grace.



The start of a pregnancy belly, 14 weeks

An update on the holidays

I have been neglecting my blog! We were quite busy with the holidays. We spent a week in PA with my family. Witnessed our niece, Grace, being baptized and spent Christmas with my entire family! Including Kathy & Fred. It was really nice, even though almost every person got sick! Hayes & I both had a stomach virus and then we had to take Hayes to the ER on Christmas Day due to a high fever! He is fine though. Just had a bad ear infection.

We were supposed to go to Richmond for New Years Eve and Day, but since we were all sick we decided not to risk getting Chris' grandparents sick. Instead Chris' parents were going to come to us, but then they got sick! So, we celebrated the holidays with them last weekend when they were up for a friend of the families wedding.

January has been a quiet month so far. Chris is busy with work and he started a new semester of grad school. Hayes & I have been keeping ourselves busy with playgroup activies and this week applied for Hayes to go to the church preschool in the fall! I can't believe my baby might be going to school in September!

On the pregnancy front, I am now in my 2nd trimester! My morning sickness is basically gone and my belly is starting to round out. I am feeling major girl vibes this time around, but we won't know for sure until I have my ultrasound sometime after I am 18 weeks. Everything is going well though and Hayes is starting to be interested in mommys belly. :)