He’s Loose!

Since Sean did so well sleeping in a regular bed at the beach, we decided to keep up the momentum and take the side off his crib when we got home.  He was really excited and made a great transition.  In fact, today was the first time he’s even gotten out by himself before we came in the room.  But now that he is potty trained it’s good that he can get out when he needs to - what a big boy!

Family Vacation

We took our first “family of 4 Family Vacation” last week to Hilton Head Island, SC.  The first few days were rainy with a tropical storm (that’s just our luck) but the rest of the week was beautiful. We stayed at the resort where Carolyn and I would visit the Harris clan 10+ years ago so the whole trip brought back a lot of really fun memories.   We also had a lot of fun and the boys were great – they slept in the same room for the first time and had fun giggling with each other at nap time.   We kept them up late and slept in most mornings and made the most of our first family vaca!

I had to put my pictures into a picture montage because  1) I took too many to include in a post here; 2) I love making picture montages; and 3) I like using the word ‘montage’.  Enjoy!

Dylan’s 1st Birthday

As I say in almost every post, where does the time go? Our baby turned one a few weeks ago and we’re still getting used to it.  I just can’t believe it’s been a year!  We had a really nice family birthday party for him and we were all very excited that both Grandma & Grandaddy and Pop Pop & GG came from out of town to celebrate.  We had a barnyard baby animal theme which was cute and Dylan seemed to really enjoy the cake.  In fact, you’ll see in one of the pictures below that it’s actually missing some icing because he took a big swoop of it right as he was blowing out his candle!

We started a new tradition of the Birthday Hat this year.  Since Grandaddy and Emmi’s birthdays are the day after Dylan’s they got to wear the hat and celebrate too!

Dylan is starting to get toys that Sean thinks are pretty cool so Sean had to try a few things out to make sure he could explain things to Dylan ;)

So Much to Blog, So Little Time…

I always have these great ideas in my head of picture collages, movie montages with just the right songs, extensive details about all of the important things going on with the 4 of us but can never seem to make enough time to do all of it!  So, in lieu of posting about Dylan’s 1st birthday, our surprise trip to MD or having a cute family vacation post, here is a little teaser video of my boys fishing our last night of vacation. It was a good time :)

Happy Father's Day

To our wonderful fathers, Happy Father's Day! We love you!

Aunt Laura’s Visit

While John and I traveled to Boston for Noelle’s graduation, Aunt Laura made her first trip down to Charlotte with GG to watch the boys for a long weekend.  As much as I loved getting to see Noelle, it was bittersweet because I would have loved to spend more time with Aunt Laura.  But as you can see, the boys had a blast taking walks, seeing horses, jumping in water puddles and just hanging out! I hope one day Sean and Dylan will take trips together like this… siblings have a special bond :)

Mommy’s Home!

Oh. False alarm. Don’t judge.

Two L’s is a Doctor!

That’s right ladies and gentlemen, Noelle (or “Two L’s” as my dad calls her) graduated from dental school this month! John and I were able to go up for the ceremony and spend some time in Boston.  Being an only child, I adopted people and families when I was younger. Next to Carolyn, Noelle was my other sister.  Her family was my family.  I loved all the chaos (6 kids in total) at their house and have so many fond memories of spending time together. We’re really proud of you Noelle. Congratulations!

You know I can’t help putting some oldies but goodies in here.

 

These are from back in Berrywood.  I think the one on the left has to be around 5th grade? And the one on the right is from our Middle School farewell dance.  I’d finally stopped perming my hair. We didn’t have dates.  We wore the same shoes in different colors.  It was awesome.

Fun Trip to Boca!

John and I met my Mom and Dad down in Boca Raton FL for a few days earlier this month.  Dad received an alumni award from his college, Florida Atlantic University!  Gus and Leigh came to stay with the kids and John and I dug out our shorts, bathing suits and suntan lotion for a rare getaway.  Florida, however, has some strange vendetta against me and John (Noelle and Scott can attest to this) so of course there was the worst storm just circling around our part of the state most of the time we were there. But we kept busy, didn’t let it get us down and eventually the sun came out.

We got to see Mom and Dad’s old condo – where they lived while they were “yung’ins” in Boca. We gawked at the mansions in West Palm Beach, visited some antique shops, got massages, rented a very chic beach cabana and ate way too much.

One really cool thing we did was to take an airboat ride in the everglades.  We saw a bunch of alligators and had the chance to see a nest (nest? is that right?) of babies who were very interested in the Cheez Its our captain fed them :)  Afterwards we toured the little zoo and saw this amazing peacock who was quite intent on catching the eye of a lovely lady peacock. I won’t attempt to make a comment about the turtles but how often do you get a picture like that?  Classy.  And somehow in the misty rain that day, I managed to get a sunburn on my knees. Double classy.

Thanks Gus and Leigh for staying with the boys and thanks Mom and Dad for an unforgettable trip!

Happy Mother’s Day

John and I couldn’t be blessed with better Moms.  We love you both.  Happy Mother’s day!

How Flexible is Flexible?

I know most babies are really flexible but Dylan takes it to a whole new level, dontcha think?

I’m a Proud Mama

Anyone who has been to our house over the past month and half knows about our baby birds – I’ve been a bit “enthusiastic” about it, you could say.  A very nice Carolina Wren couple decided to entrust our Geraniums with their modest (yet effective) nest made of all sorts of random things.  They thought they were pretty smart building their nest up on our deck where the wind and rain couldn’t get to them, but that was before the weather got really nice and we started spending more time outside.  But I think they got used to us, and perhaps even liked the fire table and weekend movie nights :)  Let me tell you, my motherly instincts sure kicked in with these little fellas, and when they actually hatched I was so excited I didn’t know what to do with myself. I’m proud to say that (as far as we know) we helped raise 6 fine looking baby wrens who are undoubtedly having a grand time dive bombing Polly and pooping on our cars. haha.  Here are some pictures I took over the past month…

April 2nd – 5 eggs! (when we first noticed the nest there were only 3 eggs)

April 3rd – Mommy Bird sitting in the nest, likely getting ready to lay another egg (it’s hard to see her but you can make out her left eye and tail if you look closely)

April 4th – 6 eggs!

April 6th & 8th – No major changes

April 8th – a picture through my bathroom window of Mommy bird laying on the nest.  For about a week she sat tight almost all day and night.

April 20th – BABIES! They can’t be more than a day or two old here.  They hatch with no feathers and are blind.

April 22nd – Feed us! [~4 days old]

April 25th – Starting to get some feathers [~7 days old]

April 27th – Getting bigger [~9 days old]

April 28th – Mommy or Daddy bird leaving after feeding the babies

April 29th – My last picture.  Look how they’re perfectly placed 3x3 [~11 days old]

We think they left the nest around May 1st which would have made them about 13 days old (they typically leave around 12 to 14 days and are said to do so quickly).  Carolina Wrens mate for life and stay together even when they’re not breeding.  I’ll tell you, after watching the Mom and Dad I’m convinced that every new parent on this planet says to their mate “What were we thinking?? All they do is eat and eat! I’m exhausted!” Those parents were busy…

But it’s all worth it in the end.  Here’s to the newest additions of our extended Ward family!

Full of Giggles

Dylan has been full of laughs these days. I guess it might have something to do with finally cutting 8, yes, eight, teeth (he has the top and bottom 4 already!). He's really been such a joy to be around. Well, ok, for the most part. After 6 pm babies just go into their "Witching Hour" and I just don't count those ;)

Easter Fun

Where to start with this post?! We had a Ward Family Invasion for Easter and it was a blast! :) We took Sean to the community Easter Egg Hunt where he found eggs, pet lots of animals and rode a pony for the first time.  We spent some good time just relaxing, shopping, eating, celebrating John’s birthday, boating and just catching up.  I can’t explain how much it means to all of us that everyone drove all the way here – it’s a long haul but we’re always so happy to see everyone.  And Sean was pretty enamored with his Aunt “Chelle”, Aunt Megan and Uncle Marshall – he’s still talking about them! haha

HAPPY EASTER 2012!

Matching T’s Photo Shoot

Thanks Aunt Laura and Uncle Ernie for the awesome T-shirts!

Touch a Truck

Last weekend we took the boys to an event called Touch a Truck where you can get up close and personal with all things trucks.  They had cars, fire trucks, buses, dump trucks, 18 wheelers… you name it.  You can only imagine Sean’s excitement when we got there – he’d never seen anything like it.  Our first stop was a dump truck.  The driver actually asked Sean if he wanted to honk the horn but Sean politely declined.  He said it was “too scary” ;) Here’s a glimpse at some of our stops:

At 2:00, all of the cars/trucks planned to honk their horns at the same time. For the adults, it was actually pretty cool… I couldn’t help but take a video of it:

It went on for over a minute, and we all know that’s like a half hour in kid time.  This was the the final result, poor baby.  He tried so hard to be brave but the last 15 seconds just did him in.

Afterwards we took the boys to the Big View Diner and got Sean his first milkshake!

By the time we got home John and I were giggling – we decided we acted more like grandparents than parents that day! No naps, running around in and out of trucks, milkshakes for dinner… haha.  But those are the best days, aren’t they?