Colton, Sulley & Ainsley

Fun at the Lake

2011-06-11T09:01:00.000-04:00

Our first trip to the lake this summer was a success.

The kids enjoyed the lake as usual... both swam in the lake but sulley is definitely our little water rat.

hamming it up with baba

pretty sure sulley stayed in the water the whole time and only got out for food

Colton LOOOVED riding the jet ski and the boat.

Cheetos, favorite dock snack

picnic lunch on the dock

late afternoon boat ride

I love the lake!

sweet baby ainsley

2011-06-01T08:50:00.001-04:00

More May shots

2011-05-24T22:35:00.000-04:00

Summer involves lots of playtime outside and fun treats like Popsicles and cupcakes...

baby ainsley's first bath

2011-05-21T22:35:00.000-04:00

life is exciting around here, especially the morning and night-time routines. greg and i actually remembered to snap a pic of Ainsley's first bath...

Ainsley's first bath at home

We just love all cuddling in the bed... here are some post bath shots with the three clean munchkins...

3 little monkeys laying in the bed...

Day 2

2011-05-17T15:03:00.000-04:00

This was pretty much the standard scene when the kids came to visit!

Sulley loves to hold baby Ainsley, but let's face it, Colton could really care less...

CAMERAS!

2011-05-16T23:59:00.001-04:00

Say Cheese!

Colton and Sulley were presented with their very own digital cameras from Ainsley on the day she was born. Although we haven't taken many pics in a few days, both kids have already blown through one set of batteries. What better way to make them feel included and have fun at the same time than by giving them their own cameras.

Little Miss Ainsley

2011-05-16T22:52:00.000-04:00

Welcome Miss Ainsley Layne! Born 5/16/11 at 4:31pm. 6lbs, 10oz and 20 inches!

We are thrilled that you have finally been welcome into this world !

Looks like the standard hospital hats, just got a bit fancier with the addition of a bow!

Colton and Sulley were pretty sweet meeting the baby for the first time. Neither one of them wanted to hold Baby A the first night but both enjoyed loving on her!

Notice the black and white bow that sulley picked out to bring the baby!

First day in the sprinkler

2011-05-15T21:34:00.001-04:00

The clouds broke long enough for the sun to come out today which was so nice considering it was supposed to rain all weekend. Greg brought out the new sprinkler and before you could blink, both kids were soaking wet and sulley was dressless!

Bubbles

2011-05-14T21:32:00.000-04:00

It's amazing that bubbles never get old for these kids!

new toys!

2011-05-13T21:28:00.001-04:00

Sulley loves her princess castle that she got for her birthday! too bad it takes up half of the playroom in the basement! if you look closely, you can see her at the bottom - just look for the blue princess dress ;)

Colton has been enjoying his new (Thomas the Train) big wheel. He's been working on pedaling...his legs are just barely long enough but i think he's got it down now! When he's not shooting basketball, you may find him wandering the walk in his big wheel!

2011-05-11T21:24:00.000-04:00

Since the weather has been fabulous all week, we've spent the majority of the time outside... even in dress up clothes. Clearly, colton is the odd man out in the this pic....

two princesses and a prince

CHEEEEEESE

When it's sunny, the kids drag every single toy outside!

and love to play hide and seek...no matter how they're dressed!

a big shiner!

2011-05-07T21:19:00.000-04:00

Sulley's black eye... day one day two

Afternoon grumps

2011-05-04T21:58:00.001-04:00

Waiting...

No Colton, I dont want to play basketball...

Still grumpy and waiting...

Basketball Diaries

2011-05-03T21:54:00.000-04:00

Colton is loving his new basketball goal! We spent most afternoons playing ball while waiting for daddy to get home.

Favorite Things

2011-05-02T21:52:00.000-04:00

Sulley LOVES her daddy and loves to squeeze his face!

Loving some bling!

Happy 3rd Birthday!!!

2011-04-25T21:47:00.000-04:00

We celebrated Colton and Sulley's 3rd birthday as a family! After having cupcakes with family on Easter, cupcakes with classmates at school, and cupcakes at home, they were almost burned out on them! It was a great day though - we took them to McDonalds for play and dinner per their request. We hope to have a party at the end of summer!

Artsy Easter pics

2011-04-24T21:26:00.000-04:00

Thanks to zach who snapped these photos and edited these fun shots...

Easter fun continues

2011-04-24T21:21:00.000-04:00

Easter morning

2011-04-24T21:10:00.000-04:00

The Easter Bunny was very good to Colton and Sulley...

A 3rd egg hunt on Easter morning!

PAAS

2011-04-23T21:06:00.000-04:00

As if we didn't have enough easter activities, we decided to add more more to the mix - easter egg dying. it's not easter unless you dye some eggs so this year we went with the good ole PAAS easter egg dye. nothing fancy schmancy and it was perfect for our little ones. The four of us had fun coloring the eggs and made a minimal mess!

Easter Egg hunt with friends

2011-04-22T21:18:00.000-04:00

Easter Egg hunt at Kyle and Luke's! thanks to Kris who snapped this photo!

Egg hunt at EHB

2011-04-22T21:03:00.000-04:00

And then there were cupcakes...

2011-04-22T20:58:00.000-04:00

cupcake decorating with aunt martha

best scratch chocolate cupcakes ever!

Twas the week before Easter

2011-04-22T20:51:00.000-04:00

The week before Easter was a fun and busy one. We started the week dressing for spring and then moving on with cookie decorating... our kids could have cared less for the sugar cookies but enjoyed dumping sprinkles everywhere!

Under the Big Top!

2011-04-17T22:13:00.002-04:00

Our first trip to the circus was a success!! We got the tickets from a friend but still managed to spend at least $50 in concessions! The show was about two hours with a brief intermission and the kids did great. Sulley was obsessed with the clowns and elephants while Colton loved the motorcycle act. We're looking forward to going back again next year.

First glimpse of the elephants on the way to the show!

$12 will buy you cotton candy (and a free? hat)

circus cuties!

family photo op, post show

Fun with Gigi

2011-04-10T21:45:00.002-04:00

A big thanks to gigi who was here all week and weekend! not only did she cook, but she cleaned and probably did one million loads of laundry. We've had fun having her here and look forward for her to return in a few weeks... hopefully with big D!

Swing Batter Batter Swing

2011-04-08T21:39:00.000-04:00

Since the weathers been getting nice (for the most part) we've been enjoying playing outdoors. Colton and Sulley have been enjoying their tball set that we've had for probably at least a year. Both kids are batting with their left hand... we'll see if things stay this way!

New Guitars!

2011-04-07T21:32:00.000-04:00

These days, Colton and Sulley's favorite toys are their guitars. Both love to sit and play their guitar but their most favorite thing is to watch a you tube video of Laurie Berkner and pretend lto be apart of her band - singing, dancing, and playing guitar all at the same time!

"We are the dinosaurs marching...marching...

Fun with Cake

2011-04-05T21:38:00.000-04:00

Miss Emmeline came over briefly tuesday am while kris ran out for a bit... we decided to make a chocolate good cake. It was evident that all the kids a) enjoyed themselves and b) were hungry!

more cupcake faces

2011-04-03T22:04:00.000-04:00

love and laughs!

2011-04-03T21:41:00.000-04:00

I never met a mirror i didnt like

2011-04-01T22:00:00.000-04:00

yes, you guessed it. miss sulley loves looking in the mirrors! i guess she comes by it naturally!

3 generation of Allens

2011-03-27T21:58:00.000-04:00

cheese biscuit, please!

2011-03-27T21:55:00.000-04:00

favorite breakfast! a "cheese biscuit" - sausage and chese on a biscuit!

love the telephone

2011-03-21T21:53:00.001-04:00

it's no surprise that sulley loves the telephone. when she's not asking to call greg, she's asking to call baba and grandad or gigi and big d.

thug love

2011-03-20T21:50:00.000-04:00

thanks to jen and luke who came down on sunday to help us do some house work! colton, sulley, and luke had a great time sitting on the couch, snacking, and watching the tele!

St Pat's Day 2011

2011-03-17T21:56:00.002-04:00

Group shots just aren't as easy anymore...

Irish Eyes

2011-03-17T21:52:00.000-04:00

Are these even my kids?

cousins

2011-03-12T21:48:00.002-05:00

colton and sulley had fun spending the afternoon with their cousins julia and grahme. they spent all afternoon running around in the yard with them playing chase, kicking the soccer ball, and just goofing off. this is one of the few pics i snapped and well as you can see, colton looks half asleep in this pic. it's still cute!

12 de marzo

2011-03-12T21:45:00.000-05:00

Chinese yo-yos

2011-03-11T21:43:00.000-05:00

who knew chinese yo-yos could be so much fun? uhh, these guys went a little crazy with them!

our sweet sweet babies

2011-03-07T22:29:00.000-05:00

TWIRLS!

2011-03-07T22:23:00.002-05:00

sulley could twirl for hours. morning, noon, and night.

no surprise there!

colton tries to join sulley in the spinning action but sulley critiques him...

"colton - put your foot this way"

Baby Love

2011-03-07T22:15:00.003-05:00

After almost a year, Sulley is really loving her baby doll and paying her lots of attention. it's funny to watch her pretend with the baby. As you can see from the picture below, sulley realized the baby had poop and put a pull up on her. She also loves to spread the blanket out and put the baby doll on the blanket. She's great at feeding, holding, and burping the baby. Greg and I are hoping she's as gentle and loving with her new sibling...

how we stay busy these days

2011-03-06T22:07:00.000-05:00

these days, the kids are enjoying playing with the following:

the "monica"

every day is a train table day

angry birds!

IPAD!

more cupcakes!!

2011-03-05T22:03:00.000-05:00

if there is one thing our kids love, it's sweets - more specifically, cupcakes! thanks to some friends who we visited with on saturday, the kids enjoyed trying 'cakes from Furins, yet another bakery/cupcake place in georgetown. pretty tasty!

pre Valentine's day treats!

2011-02-11T21:18:00.000-05:00

Aunt Martha hand delivered valentines and homemade cupcakes to colton and sulley on thursday! the cupcakes made for the perfect dessert and potty training treat! yum!

Dressing for dinner

2011-02-11T21:12:00.001-05:00

Since we've been working on potty training the past few days and the kids have been running around in their underwear and a shirt, Sulley decided it was time to get dressed for dinner:

Every little girl should wear a princess skirt and carry a wand to the dinner table.

business as usual

2011-02-08T21:09:00.000-05:00

Princess series

2011-02-06T14:42:00.000-05:00

someone got a haircut!!

2011-02-03T14:41:00.001-05:00

wowzas! is this the same Colton?

fun with the IPAD

2011-02-03T14:34:00.000-05:00

We enjoyed a quick late afternoon visit from Baba and Grandad! Of course grandad came with his IPAD in hand, and sulley and colton quickly jumped in his lap for some fun.

More fun in the snow and sledding too!

2011-01-26T14:30:00.000-05:00

Fun with the camera

2011-01-24T14:22:00.000-05:00

It amazes how interested little people are in "big" people things... like cameras and photography. What's not to like about a big bulky black camera that flashes and then pops up a picture of yourself on the screen? i guess the next time we're looking for something a little more complicated to give them, we'll try an amateur camera. Anyways, I took it upon myself to help show colton and sulley how to snap a few fun pictures. their subjects were of their own choosing:

First - Sulley's attempt at a picture with my help. a tinkerbell doll!

And colton's subject: PERCY!

Sulley's fun again:

and mine: off center shot!

these are a few of our favorite things

2011-01-20T14:16:00.000-05:00

It's been almost a month and a half since Christmas and colton is still standing beside his beloved train table both night and day! When he's not playing with the trains, he's pulling apart the tracks and trying to put them together... or else trying to stack them and make a tower!

And Sulley...never gets sick of her dress up clothes. She LOVES LOVES LOVES her glasses but breaks them after a few minutes. I think we bought her at least 3 "good" pair of sunglasses this past summer and lost one pair and she broke the other two. These fun glasses she's wearing now, didn't make it 5 minutes in her hands. she poked the lenses out before we even left our friend's neighborhood!

Everyone gets a turn....

2011-01-14T14:10:00.000-05:00

We like to fight over the use of the stool in our house... mostly to wash hands but occasionally, i'll get a little help cooking:

Sulley prefers to wash her hands and sometimes the dishes...fine by me as long as they get clean!

"mommy...i do myself...you cook!"

ice cream with nerds

2011-01-08T21:51:00.001-05:00

Sulley's newest favorite dessert is ice cream with NERDS!

going...

gone!

the best time of the evening

2011-01-06T21:48:00.000-05:00

the best time of the night is dessert time! since colton is little and can afford the calories, he's been enjoying snickers ice cream bars for dessert. he prefers to eat them with a spoon and doesn't miss a bite!

one for you, one for me!

busy body

2011-01-03T21:45:00.000-05:00

no surprise here that sulley is a busy body... she hardly ever slows down and when she does --- CRASH!!

Christmas!

2010-12-27T17:32:00.002-05:00

Every christmas with the kids is fun and they just keep getting better and better! this year was especially fun since they understood who Santa was and what sort of things he leaves for good girls and boys. Neither one of them really expressed what they wanted but sulley said she wanted "NERDs" in her stocking and a "purple present." When we asked colton what he wanted, he sorta just stared at us. We suggested a train table and he agreed. So that's what he got - trains and a custom handmade table by Dad Allen.

The big gift that has already gotten hours of use

Once the first gift was opened, no one really cared about the others

Sprinkling Reindeer food on the lawn christmas eve

post church photo - you'd never know from this photo how awful they acted in church

Hope everyone had a fun christmas!

Happy 31st Birthday!

2010-12-23T12:02:00.000-05:00

No birthday in this family is complete without a chocolate eclair cake! so in addition to all the other holiday goodies that were floating around the house, we had a chocolate eclair cake too! no worries though - it was gone in a mere two days!

colton assisting with the candles

big birthday wishes for a great 2011

all smiles and ready for cake!

Being silley with Rowan

2010-12-20T11:55:00.000-05:00

We had fun hanging out in greenville before Christmas! We didnt do much except visited with friends and family, did a little shopping, took a trip to the Children's Museum, and ate...

Rowan

they sat still for approximately 10 seconds and we didnt even get a good shot

silly sulley

trying to tickle Rowan's feet or pull them out from underneath him?

Claude

2010-12-18T22:07:00.001-05:00

WE MISS YOU AND LOVE YOU!!

Festive Oreo Cookie Pops

2010-12-16T22:05:00.000-05:00

There hasn't been much time for baking this holiday season but i managed to squeeze these in while the kids were napping post snowfall. They're pretty easy and pretty cute. I never actually sampled the finished product but have been told they're delish.

First Snow this December!

2010-12-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

not so happy to be outside

happy to be outside

New Toys

2010-12-12T21:53:00.000-05:00

After spending the day with friends in Richmond, Colton and Sulley came home plus one new toy each! Colton loves his new drill, tools, and toolbox while sulley is keeping busy these day making apple pie... or as she calls it, "pizza!"

examining the new saw

part chef and construction worker....

releasing all his aggression before bed

one serious chef

order up!

Gingerbread House and Giggles

2010-12-07T14:31:00.001-05:00

VOILA! our gingerbread house is complete! It only took us 3 days, one to build and two days later, we finally found time in the afternoon to decorate it!

The ghetto window on the right side accentuates the curb appeal

The Aftermath- after trying to eat the candy all afternoon, my two crazed kids enjoyed running around screaming at "waldo the elf" and enjoyed being filmed by greg. They thoroughly enjoy watching the videos of themselves acting like hoodlums. Note - look at sulley's shirt - you can see crusty icing and icing stains left from her work on the house. ATTRACTIVE!

Out with the old and in with the new

2010-12-05T14:24:00.000-05:00

We started decorating for Christmas on Saturday and soon realized that our faux fir looked pitiful so we quickly ran to the corner and picked out a lovely Fraser Fir! yay!! WE FINALLY HAVE A REAL CHRISTMAS TREE!! and no allergy problems yet!! 120ft of lights later and all the decorations we own, our tree is complete! well...we're still lacking a tree topper...

Sulley's newest ornament, handpickd by her little hands at Merrifield.

And...Colton chose the firetruck! No suprise there!

Children's Tea

2010-12-03T14:01:00.000-05:00

We kicked off December by attending a Children's Tea with some friends. There goodies and snacks galore, crafts everywhere, and a huge scottie dog and a santa. Colton and sulley loved following the dog around and loved looking at santa from afar, but neither of them would sit for pictures. On the other hand, Connolly, Bobby, and Nattie, all posed for pictures.

Connolly and some random girl

Bobby running away from something

Colton and his cupcake

Sulley and her plate full of goodies

we are all part alexander!

2010-11-27T22:28:00.002-05:00

It's been a fun week and spent the evening of black friday hanging out with 2nd and 3rd cousins. It's definitely a rarity to know your 2nd cousins, much less communicate with them and even more rare for your kids to know their 3rd cousins. So the common denominator here is that myself, Lilli, and Kate (mom's of the kids) all shared the same great grandmother because each of our grandmothers were sisters...

Third Cousins:
Sulley, Benjamin, Simon, Jane Bell, Rache, Colton

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-25T22:22:00.000-05:00

thanks to gigi and big d who spent almost a week with us leading up to thanksgiving. we had fun even though we didnt do much. i was out of commission on monday and sick the rest of the week. we did make it to the mall and to merrifield for some flowers. dad did some yard work and blew the leaves and cleaned out our garage so that was awesome. not sure how we managed NOT to take any pictures except these two crazy pics from Thanksgiving at Aunt Martha's house.

yup, this is our child

2010-11-21T22:16:00.002-05:00

this is what happens when you...

1) have a daughter obsessed with fashion accessories and
2) you disappear long enough to get breakfast together

This is not Kansas, it's North Arlington

2010-11-18T19:55:00.003-05:00

It's been an exciting 48 hours around here...because we experience our first "mircoburst." Greg and I awoke at approx 12:45 am Wednesday morning to high winds. the next thing we knew, we heard branches hit our window and glass come flying through our bedroom window along with leaves and other debris. Power went out. We just both sat there in bed saying, WTF just happened? so next we naturally went downstairs to grab the broom to clean up some glass in case the kids tried to come inside our room during the night or early morning... that's when greg decided to look out the door and realized we couldn't even open the storm door because a tree was blocking it. yes! you guessed it! - our neighbor's tree fell on our house and my car. So at this point, we run to put on our shoes and go outside to assess the damage in the dark and as we make our way over the tree, we see our neighbors standing directly in front of us looking dumbfounded. as we all left the yard, we realized our OTHER neighbor had TWO trees fall and come entirely uprooted. it was a warzone. thank god no one was hurt and in the grand scheme of things, there was minimal damage done to houses. any house could have been easily chopped in half by these big old oak trees but for some reason, everyone was spared major damange. Most of the damage is roof repairs, gutter replacements, screen repair, and window and car repair in our case.

our neighbor's mama jamma tree that fell...
went almost to the end of our street into a total of 3 yards.

part of "the tree" that totaled my car and wrecked our house

aftermath

More fun with leaves!

2010-11-13T21:28:00.001-05:00

Fun with leaves!!

2010-11-13T21:25:00.000-05:00

lollipop lunatics

2010-11-09T21:18:00.000-05:00

it's not even 7am and we've located the lollipops

we are so funny...and proud of ourselves

oh, you don't think it's funny?

but i'm still cute, anyways...

Sunday at the Jefferson

2010-11-07T21:12:00.000-05:00

mud pits at "the pit"

2010-11-06T21:06:00.001-04:00

We love going to "the pit" to play so we decided to spend saturday morning there. It was lots of fun but suddenly became even more fun once the kids discovered muddle puddles...and how fun it was to splash in them.

The fun lasted probably 10 minutes or so until they both started complaining of being cold and wet. so what did we do next? took them to lunch at jud and ing's pantless and then to costco, again - minus pants. classy, i know.

my studious one

2010-11-04T19:38:00.000-04:00

a mouthful of raisins

2010-11-04T19:31:00.002-04:00

as we continue to try and allow our kids to only eat what we eat for dinner, we are constantly surprised at their likes and dislikes. for instance the other night, both kids made a great effort at having butternut squash risotto. sulley was having so much fun with it, than she in fact asked for a "leaf" for her risotto. of course, i gave her a piece of my spinach salad and the next thing i know, she's rolling risotto up in the leaf. uh, whatever. tonight, colton was calling the carrots in his beef stew - hot dogs. again, whatever works. food continues to be very hot and cold with my two but these days, i have to say i'm proud of our progress.

I snapped these two pics the other day when my kids suddenly decided they LOVED raisins.

not so flattering

her raisins almost look like she's got a mouthful of "chew" in those cheeks.

Halloween 2010

2010-10-31T14:25:00.000-04:00

once again - here are our pics in reverse order. sheesh, i really need to work on this.

Halloween was a success! by the end of the wknd we were practically partied out and exhausted. luckily, the kids took a great nap before we headed out for neighborhood festivities and therefore, by 5pm, they were literally out the door before we were.

The Aftermath

sulley prefers to run during parades

sittin pretty, pre parade

when may we eat candy?

let's roll!

we probably only took the kids to about 15 or 20 houses. they loved running to the door and ringing the doorbell, when it was within their reach. sulley preferred to pick out colton's candy for him and colton liked to drop his candy in sulley's bag. Colton couldn't get off the doorstep before trying to open a piece of candy to eat and sulley just darted off to the next house.

Pre-Halloween festivities

2010-10-30T14:03:00.002-04:00

So i guess we'll work backwards since my pictures are a little out of order.

We waited a little longer than usual to pick out the perfect Allen family pumpkin and finally picked it out yesterday afternoon. The week has flown by, mostly because I was concentrating on getting things together for the Halloween party i cohosted with my friend, Mary.

We cleaned it all the guts and let the kids have their own shot at scooping the junk while we supervised. Of course we used a pumpkin carving kit and in no time, our pumpkin turned into a masterpiece.

The Final Product

the dirty work

Ready to skip down the yellow brick road

The scarecrow, minus part of his headpiece.
I can't blame him though, i wouldn't want burlap wrapped around my head either.

Gearing up for Halloween!

2010-10-27T15:53:00.003-04:00

okay so these aren't the most flattering pictures of miss sulley, but i just thought i'd post two of her in the very adorable and festive dress that baba made her for halloween! miss thang wasn't much for cooperating with the camera the other day so this will have to do!!

i'm a succor for anything festive so naturally it suits me to have my children dressed in the appropriate holiday attire. thank goodness for grandmoms that love to sew! sulley's been blessed with handmade blankets, bedding, dresses, hairbows, and halloween costumes! oh and dare i forget - both kids have also been blessed with a grandfather that loves to make furniture! hooray for handmade goods.

now go check out etsy.com and buy handmade!

Pumpkin Patch, Take II

2010-10-17T16:05:00.004-04:00

Of course one trip to Cox Farms isn't enough, so $60 later, the four of us were back in action having fun at the pumpkin patch. We still didn't make it on the hayride but had lots of fun going down slides, playing on bails of hay, listening to bluegrass music, and feeding the goats.

Morning Coffee

2010-10-17T15:55:00.000-04:00

Pumpkin Patch 2010

2010-10-08T16:03:00.000-04:00

daddy is always so much fun!

2010-10-06T20:15:00.001-04:00

Fun at the Farm

2010-09-29T20:48:00.003-04:00

After a wash out of a Thursday, we made it a point to spend Friday outdoors!! We ventured out the historic Oxon Hill Farm. We were looking forward to a wagon ride but for some reason the workers didn't feel the need to offer the ride to ALL 7 of us that were at the farm. We literally were the only people there... silly lazy workers!

It was fun to mosey around though and look at the cows, horses, goats, and chickens. We also came across an old wagon of sorts that provided lots of entertainment for the kids.

tales of pony tails!

2010-09-26T20:36:00.003-04:00

sulley now has enough hair for decent looking pony tail!

she also loves how the rubber bands double as fashion accessories - colorful bracelets!

Sunday Funnies

2010-09-26T20:33:00.000-04:00

my cars! my truck!

2010-09-26T20:25:00.002-04:00

colton really could care less about any other toys except his train, matchbox cars and trucks! his favorite activity is playing with his cars and his racetrack.

the racetrack doubles as a stepstool, a seat, and a apparently chew toy.

playing with a favorite lime green cement truck...who know cement trucks liked to race?

a hot mess

2010-09-26T20:20:00.002-04:00

what in the bow-jesus i mean bejesus is sulley thinking?

i know, sulley's head almost looks like a piece of art. thanks to gigi, sulley is the proud recipient of about twenty new bows. at first she wanted the light pink one in her hair...then the other pink bow... then the green bow....the the " green polka" and the next thing we knew, she had all of them in her hair. at least the end result makes for a colorful picture!

the latest and greatest of the cutest

2010-09-21T15:20:00.001-04:00

First Fall Family Outing...Apple Picking

2010-09-11T21:29:00.005-04:00

We ventured up to Homestead Farms today for our first fall, family outing! We spent a few hours on the farm mingling with the goats and cows and also managed to pick over 15lbs of apples and about a dozen tomatoes.

the cows wanted nothing to do whatsoever with colton and sulley

on the way to pick tomatoes

mmm ap-ples!

the goats were a little more receptive....

learnin' the ropes

Sunday Fundays!

2010-09-05T21:22:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since we took an early morning trip down route 1 to krispy kreme. Of course we had no intentions on stopping unless the "HOT NOW" sign was on...and what do ya know...it was on! Everyone enjoyed the donuts except Colton, who was much more interested in watching the donuts and playing on the ledge.

"Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole" - Oscar Wilde

Popcorn!

2010-08-20T22:32:00.001-04:00

Colton and Sulley love eat popcorn with their dad!

Cow Tippers in Training!

2010-08-20T22:30:00.000-04:00

on strike!!

2010-08-20T20:59:00.002-04:00

Greg and I finally bit the bullet took of the sides of Colton and Sulley's cribs so now they're officially in their "toddler" beds. Why? it was time. they both escaped around the holidays and we've just never had a good stretch of time to have them adapt. naps were becoming few and far between so why not?!

it's been a tiring transition but hilarious; only 3 naps in the past two weeks. all we can do is laugh. i don't have the time or the energy to worry if they nap or not. i've managed to snap a few pics from some of the funny stuff they've done.

climbed the changing table twice!
Notice the window in the back - they ripped the curtain off and crinkled the blinds.

who knew that dropping diapers behind your crib was so much fun?

clean diapers on floor!
dirty diapers from the trash can emptied on floor!

So we've had our fairshare of messes in their room, a whole roll of toilet paper shoved in the toilet, crib switching, bed jumping, furniture climbing, furniture moving,and well plenty of playing on the floor! i guess you know it's time to lock the door when at 3:45am you hear, "ma ma...ma ma"and sure enough, sulley is downstairs sitting on the couch with the remote saying "i want pablo!"

the two's

2010-08-08T14:12:00.003-04:00

We're not quite at the two and half year point and life continues to only get crazier with colton and sulley. we find ourselves often forcing ourselves to turn our head trying not to laugh at their antics. both colton and sulley continue to play well together but are having more tug-o-war fights with toys. both seem to grasp the concept of trading but as we all know, it just doesn't always work. greg and i are trying to teach them manners (as much as we can at such a young age) and i have to say...so far so good. they both seem to have a handle on their thank you's, your welcome, and sometimes, the occasional "excuse me." "I'm sorry" and "it's ok" is mostly heard from only sulley. We haven't started with the "sirs" and "ma'ms" but will soon enough. with that being said, their language skills are improving weekly. sulley has begun using simple sentences and colton continues to use mostly two and (some) three word phrases. colton and sulley practiced counting steps when we were in SC so we're trying to continue habit here. both have been singing to a few tunes and of course when they're not singing to the music, you may find them jumping around or "dancing" to the beat. no one is potty trained yet but sulley has successfully peed in the potty twice. effortless attempts!

Litchfield

2010-08-05T14:57:00.003-04:00

ah, the beach. there is nothing better than spending a week at the beach...except these days, there is NO relaxing on the beach, no reading on the beach, no leisurely sipping on beer or cocktails. it's more like a game of chase when kids are involved! overall, the beach was great; the kids got re acclimated with the sand and enjoyed playing in the water, learning to jump and ride waves, looking for clam diggers, and of course loved playing at the pool.

It was hard to get good pics this year because the kids are so busy, no one wants to stay still long enough to look at the camera.

sulley thinking that my dad pulled his blackberry from her belly.
Yes, you read that right. don't ask.
big d has a hobby - magic tricks.

rowan aka "ro-nan"

playing catch with dad on the beach is so much fun.
but yeah that's a football, not a watermelon.

the kids couldn't get enough of the pool.

typical sulley on the beach, sprinting back and forth