GG's visit and more

I've been behind, but nevertheless here is a quick update:

GG and Great Grandpa George stopped for a visit on their way down to Florida. Both boys were good and had a great time! We hope to visit them in Florida soon!


GG, Jack and Patrick


Great Grandpa George and the boys

Jack had his first school pictures! He looks so grown up and handsome :)


Jack's first school picture

Grandma and uncle Sammy visited for a weekend. We had great weather and lots of fun.

Patrick had his first real haircut and did pretty well.


Patrick after his haircut

That was just a quick update. More to come with the holidays approaching!!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

Jack singing....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBdKnvrNDNE

Fall is here!

October is my favorite month! Love everything about Fall, from the food (of course!) to the weather and decorations. I am in the process of getting the boys' halloween costumes, cannot wait to take them trick or treating!

A couple weeks ago we went down to Camden, SC for baby Nahra's baptism. She is Mike's youngest cousin. Aunt Ann and Uncle Paul live there and it is a beautiful southern country town. We had a nice visit and the boys loved playing with all the other kids.




This past Saturday we took the boys to a pumpkin farm. We went on a hayride to pick out pumpkins, visited with some of the farm animals, played on the playground and ate lunch.



Patrick enjoying the hayride


Looking for some pumpkins




Jack and his pumpkin

Quick update and videos of the boys

It's almost Fall! Love this time of year. Already have a Halloween costume idea for the boys, just need to get the costumes.

Grandma and Papa visited a couple weeks ago. Mike and I went to a movie and dinner for our Anniversary, which was nice. We all went to Discovery Place uptown, where the boys played in the kids area. They mostly played with the train table set. They both love trains! That is already on our Christmas List :)

Jack is doing well in Preschool. The drop-off is getting much easier now and he seems to be getting involved more and having fun. Both boys are doing great. Jack is getting over another ear infection though but otherwise is fine.

No other big events coming up yet.
I finally uploaded some videos of the boys:

Here is Jack and Mike playing football:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpBBXI0yg7M

Lots of giggles!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJJg91sH1fY

Patrick walking with his trains:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xkbd0lKECmw

Jack starts preschool, Patrick walking like a wild man and my first race in Charlotte

Yes, a lot has happened over the past week!

Jack started preschool this past week. He goes Mon/Wed/Fri half day which includes lunch. He seems to really like it! Each day though it got a little harder to drop him off but his teachers said that is because he knows I'm going to leave. But they were really surprised at how well he is doing for his first time in school/day care. Friday was the roughest time dropping him off but then his teachers said he had the best day! I think he will be fine after another week or so and really get into it.

Jack on his 1st day of preschool!

Patrick is walking all over! He doesn't crawl much at all anymore. He looks like a little old drunken man, it is so cute! He is such a happy, content little boy.

Future Braves player??

He's not walking here but thought it was soo cute! Crazy how kids know exactly what to do with the remote!





Patrick is moving on up! We bought him a new car seat today, a forward facing one. He hasn't ridden it yet, but I know he will love being able to sit right next to Jack and see everything that is going on. I will have to take a picture tomorrow and post it.

Cute photo of the boys taken in the morning. Patrick always has great bed head!!



This morning I ran my first race since moving to Charlotte. It was the Yiasou Greek Festival 5K. It was a nice flat course but really crowded and I didn't feel like I ran my best. But turns out it was my best time so far! 24:03. My plan is to run one race a month. Next month there is a 10K and then actually 2 in October I'd like to run, but we'll see how it goes. I really do enjoy it. I might even try to run with the jogging stroller for a race! I think the boys might like it and that way I can drag Mike out and cheer us on! :)

This coming week is our 4th Anniversary! It honestly seems longer than that! :P No plans that night but Mike's mom and Frank are visiting for the holiday weekend so hopefully we can sneak out for dinner to celebrate.

Trip to Hotlanta

We took a quick overnight trip to Atlanta for the Braves games on Saturday. We were lucky enough to get free tickets from a family friend so we all went down on Saturday for the night. We were going to go the Aquarium but the line was VERY long, so we'll have to go back again and do that. But we did go to lunch and walked around Buckhead and just hung out in the hotel room. The boys had a great time just doing that! The game was fun too. Here are a couple pictures.


The boys at the Braves game






Patrick walking around the hotel room


Jack hanging out in the hotel room drawing

Patrick's 1st Birthday

I know it's a little late, but I'm just now getting things organized and somewhat back to normal :) Here are some pictures from Patrick's 1st Birthday. He had 3 parties! 1 was in the Adirondacks with my family, then his real Birthday and then a big party with Mike's family.

Celebrating Patrick's birthday at Big Moose Lake

Patrick's Real birthday

Patrick crying because I took his cake away to cut it up!

"Eating" his birthday cake

Singing happy birthday at his party

Tweetsie Railroad

This past weekend we took the boys to Tweetsie Railroad. It is a small amusement park centered around Tweetsie the train. It's up in Blowing Rock, which is about 2 hours away towards the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a perfect day and we had a great time! The boys really had fun riding the train and the chair lift and kiddie rides. I only have a few pictures to share because the battery on my camera died! I have to remember to charge it before we go to places like this. We took some with Mike's phone so will have to figure out how to download those next. But here are a few:

Jack riding the train

Patrick on the train ride

Jack and Daddy at Tweetsie Railroad

Patrick on the merry-go-round

Jack on the merry-go-round

First update in our new house

I have been meaning to update this thing but have been without my computer since we left Richmond! I have been using Mike's work laptop and just not the same. I am HOPING to have my computer back this week. I need to update lots of photos... from our trip to the Adirondacks, Patrick's 1st birthday AND our new house.

But for now just letting you all know that we are settling in and things are going really well. Mike is enjoying his job. MUCH better than residency. And I am loving his hours! The boys and I have been busy. I need to find a moms group soon though. Jack will start his pre preschool program Aug. 24 so I am sure I'll meet some moms then. We took a tour of the place on Friday and I think Jack will have a great time. I am already nervous about the first day though and how he is going to handle it. It'll take some time for him to get adjusted I'm sure.

There is too much to remember to update so I'll have to remember as I go through all the pictures. More soon!

4 days to go

Only a few more days left here in Richmond. Cannot believe it is that time. It has been a LONG time coming and we are so ready to start the next phase of our life. Thursday we will be heading down to Charlotte - YAY!!! I have packed a pretty good amount, but still a lot left to do. Thankfully Mike's mom and Frank (grandma and Papa) will be taking the boys to Busch Gardens on Wednesday and then leaving from there to drive down to Charlotte on Thursday. This is such a HUGE help. We are so grateful to them for helping us out and the boys will have a great time! We are going to pack everything up and load the truck up Wednesday and get up and leave Thursday morning. Hopefully we can have a good amount unpacked by the time they get in on Thursday.

Today we purchased our first washer and dryer. The house we are renting had every other appliance but these, which I don't mind because we would need to buy them eventually and I kind of liking have our own, brand new set. I know I know, not very exciting.

Last weekend was Mike's graduation dinner. It was a fun night and we are all very proud of him. He is now officially an Oral Surgeon! He will start work with Uncle Pat July 6. No vacation time whatsoever! We'll get our vacation... someday!


Me and Mike at his graduation dinner

I can't think of anything else right now. A lot is going on all at once so it's hard to remember everthing. Our computer crashed last week so we were without computer access for 4 days! I was going crazy! :)

Next post will be from our new home in NC!!

I am behind on pictures, will catch up after the move!


Patrick always smiling


Me and my boys - picture was taken for Father's Day

First time for everything

This past weekend Mike says to me - I'm going to wash the cars. I said, "What?! By hand!?" In our almost 11 years together I have NEVER seen him wash a car, so of course I had to take some pictures. His reason is that he's never had a car worth washing. I guess I'll have to continue to wash the other car, since it's apparently not worthy!

Hosting our first play date

Today we had a play date at our house with our playgroup friends. Each week or every other week someone hosts at their house and I finally hosted our first, and last :( Jack and Patrick love playing with all their little friends and I enjoy having some grown up conversation! We are really going to miss our little group. It is hard to find people that you can relate to and truly enjoy being around and just when I find a great group we have to move. It is sad but I know we will stay in touch and we will also make new friends.
Here are some photos from today:


Patrick hanging out with Madelyn and Jackson


Jack and Kate


Jack grabbed all his "stuff" and ready for a nap during out play date

Another quick note I just had to share, Patrick has learned to climb OUT of his exersaucer! There is no containing him now! I think after we move I'll have to get the pack-n-play out. Here are pictures of him climbing out:

Patrick's surgery, day at the river and more

I have been meaning to update as things happened but keep forgetting and now I'm trying to remember all that has happened over the past few weeks.

Patrick's surgery a couple of weeks ago went very well. He's still not totally healed but he's doing fine. He goes back for a follow up appointment the end of this month. He did so well after the surgery we barely even needed to use children's Tylenol. He's a tough little guy.


Patrick before his surgery


Patrick right after getting some "relaxing" meds before they took him back

A few days after Patrick's surgery we went to a friend's place along the river in Deltaville. It was our playgroup friends and we had a great time. Although, Jack doesn't seem to be fond of sand (probably takes after me!). He would NOT touch the sand or go near the water. He was fine once we blew up a little baby pool. Poor Patrick wanted to get into everything, but because he just had his surgery a few days prior I didn't want him to get sandy and wet. So he had to hang out in the stroller most of the time. They both had fun playing inside after lunch and slept well on the car ride home. We are really going to miss our group of friends when we move :(


Jack at the river, NOT liking the sand!


Patrick hanging out at the river

Let's see what else... OH! we bought a new car! This was totally Mike's idea. I was fine driving the Pathfinder and figured he should get a nice new car for himself, since he deserves it. We bought a 2006 Lexus GX. It is now mostly my car and Mike drives the Pathfinder. We are selling the Galant. A woman actually came by this week to look at it with her son so just waiting for her to get the money together and it will be finalized. I will miss my Galant, since that was my car for so long. I won't miss it too long though after driving the Lexus! It has a built in DVD player which is great for the boys.

I'm trying to remember what else... This weekend I am running the Xterra 1oK Trail Run. I am excited and nervous. My friend and I are checking the course out tomorrow and just hoping I didn't get myself too over my head :|

It's getting down to wire and need to start packing too. I have done a few boxes here and there, but I just stare and everything and wonder what to do next!? Mike's mom will hopefully be taking the boys over night so we can get things packed up and ready to go. We'll be moving July 2!

Some random pictures:


Playing in the pool


Patrick getting something to eat


This is how he fell asleep... so sweet.

New teeth... Cruisin'... and more.

This is just a quick update, mainly to post new photos and some video!

Jack is getting his last set of molars. He's been complaining that his mouth hurts but has been pretty good about. Maybe once they're all in he will FINALLY stop drooling!

Patrick is now cruising around the furniture. He will stand for a second and sometimes try to take a step if you hold him up. It won't be long before he's walking and chasing after Jack!

Here's some videos of the boys:

This one is hilarious - it's Patrick sticking his tongue out and making funny faces, you can hear Jack laughing in the background and you can't help but laugh yourself!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIKV9ZE7RYI

This one is Jack jumping in the pool when we stayed at Virginia Beach:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVOIB7f69UY

This one is Patrick "crawling" outside on the grass. He looks like a little crab because he won't let his knees touch the grass!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xw2eFz2j5w


Some photos from our trip to Virginia Beach and just hanging out:


Mike's grandparents and the boys


Me and my boys on Mother's Day


Patrick worn out from swimming in the pool

Jack on the balcony at the hotel


Just hanging out