More Family Fun

Since it was going to be another unseasonably warm day we decided on going to the park to get the boys out of the house. First though, lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings (Liam and Xander are easily entertained by playing the trivia game there). 

Edward was entertained by dipping his French fries in mustard (his favorite), eating his entire cheeseburger, watching "ice skating" (hockey) on TV, And periodically checking in on an episode of Dora:

The park we went to was fantastic! All three boys had a great time. 

Jay and Xander:

Liam!:

Jay and his Mama:

Love our pre-bedtime stories. Edward has enjoyed some new books we borrowed from the library - Potato Joe and Pete the Cat. 

Family Time

Edward has been playing so well with his cousins and continues to looove his grandma and grandpa. Here are some pics from our first day of spending time together - Edward taking apart a toy with Todd while Xander looks on:

Edward LOVES the piano. He sits there throughout the day and plays singing (his version of) ABCs or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star:

One happy Dad to have his son around again:

Edward giggling with Xander:

It was such a beautiful day we spent a whole bunch of time outside riding bikes and launching stomp rockets. Edward made us so proud - he figured out how to coast on his balance bike and had soooo much fun! I posted a video on Facebook - will try to figure out how to get it on here as well...

Todd and Xander:

After Edward managed to skip another day of napping we headed to a little family gathering at Jay's cousin Kyle's house. Kyle and his wife Becca had a little girl Alice in May. She is such a cutie!

Jay's Aunt Mary Jane (!), Edward and big Ed looking at the squirrels outside:

Edward took a break to play with his new Matchbox cars - I love how he lays on the floor to play with them:

My sister-in-law May, Jay and Xander chillin after dinner (I promise Liam was with us all day too!):

Edward playing with Molly, Jay's cousin Bryan's little 3-year old girl. We were so impressed with how well they played together!

Here is the whole group:

It was so nice catching up with everyone!!

Road Trip!!

The drive to Kansas City from grandma and grandpas is about 9 hours not including stops. While Jay thought of it as a fun adventure and "no big deal", the thought of a pregnant woman and a 2-year old on a 9+ hour road trip to me sounded like a nightmare. Luckily I was proven wrong!!

Edward did so much better than we both expected and kept himself entertained with his new cars, stickers, books and a very short amount of screen time on "his" iPhone watching videos.  

Grandma and grandpa got him this great travel tray for the trip and it worked out great!! It's nice and soft yet stable enough to roll his cars around on it. 

It also makes for a great sun shield when the sun first comes up over the horizon. "Too bright" he said and this is what we saw. What a goofball. 

Kansas. Flat. Boring. 

We had a "mommy poop in my underpants!" scare along the way and this happened in the parking lot of a gas station somewhere in the middle of America:

False alarm. Boo! He really did great with the whole potty training thing for the whole trip. Used the big pottys and urinals like daddy does. I just put a diaper on him when he was supposed to be napping (which of course did not happen - I mean...road trip!!!!! Why would he?!)

He is such a good traveler! He even would exclaim "road trip!" every now and then. 

We had a great run at one of the rest stops which I thought would for sure tire him out enough for a snooze. 

We made it in 10 hours - about two

hours shorter than we had planned and happily enjoyed dinner and some catching up with Jays brother and his family before heading off to bed. 

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpas

Let's start by the best Christmas present ever! Jay came home from work on the 19th and Edward was sooo excited to "pick up daddy!" I think it was the first time he actually understood what I meant when I said daddy is coming home. He flew into Denver and we were waiting for him with Grandpa in the terminal. It was a great time to be there because of the holiday season there was a guy playing the piano and singing Christmas music to entertain Edward while we waited. After each song E would request the next one be "ABCs!"  Poor kid didn't have a chance :) 

Edward has already had so much fun with daddy. Activities include "Edward scissor hands" training...quite the scary sight!

Tree decorating:

Jumping:

And cookie frosting:

Of course we have done a lot as a family as well...Edwards godfather Shawn came to visit one night and they had a lot of fun chasing each other around the house:

Making cookies with mommy, grandma and grandpa:

Waiting is the hardest part buddy:

Finally got to frost some:

And the best part - eat them!

I even made it in a few shots during another day of decorating! It's a rare occurrence :)

He looooved being the Sprinkle Master:

One more taste test:

On Christmas Eve we remembered to sprinkle food for Rudolph and the other reindeer on the front lawn so they could find the house! It was a cool mix of oats, cinnamon and glitter:

Then before bed we left cookies for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph. I was worried he would want to eat the cookies but he was good and left them alone :)

Santa came after we all went to sleep. It was a small Christmas this year because anything we bought or received we had to fit in the car or in our luggage. It all worked out great having him this young because he really didn't care. He was just excited to wake up in the morning and see that Santa came!

In fact, he was more concerned with the piece of carrot that Rudolph left. Don't tell Santa, but I think he likes Rudolph best ;)

Some of his gifts this year included pajamas, a Percy train, a Dora coloring set (for the long drive to Kansas City tomorrow), some cars, books, and little things like Dora toothbrushes and a toothbrush travel case like mommy and daddy have. It's fun how simple things like that can be more exciting than what we may think are the big exciting toys... His Rudolph Pez was also a huge hit!

After gifts and some breakfast (traditional orange and cinnamon sweet rolls then eggs and sausage later), Edward started getting cranky. His 2-year molars are coming in and I knew it was making him grouchy. As soon as I mentioned the ergo he snapped out of it and said "back" then pointed outside. This always works and we had a nice little walk together looking for stop signs and Chrismas decorations. Notice he's in his pajamas still and wearing his new slippers (like daddy!):

A little later the whole crew loaded in the car to the nearby park for some fresh air. 

Three generations:

He loves his grandma and grandpa - we have spent over a month together straight and it has been great bonding for them!

The park is less than 2 miles away so I didn't really think about bringing a change of clothes or anything (we are doing great at potty training but poop is still an issue in public). Soooo speaking of poop he's standing still at one point and grandma thinks maybe he pooped...I check and yup. And we don't have anything to clean it up with! Jay runs home to get something and we keep him standing and entertained while we wait. A family of middle-aged people shows up at the park and we say "Merry Christmas" to them. They say hi to Edward and he just looks at them and says "poop" with a look of disappointment on his face. Haha. The looks on their faces were priceless :) 

We had a great afternoon nap and then for dinner we had filet mignon, cheesy hash browns (family favorite), green beans, and carrots. Edward ate nearly half of my filet! We are so proud of what a great eater he is and tonight he didn't disappoint!

What a great Christmas! Among all the crazy changes I think we made it as special and memorable as we could for Edward and can't wait to spend it as a family of FIVE next year! *gulp*

Tomorrow we leave early for a loooonnng drive to Kansas City to see Jay's brother and his family. Continuing our adventure!!

(And now that I figure out photos I think I am even more likely to keep this up!)

Remember Us?

Soooo...lots has happened in the past, what, two and a half years since I last posted. I am not even going to try to cover everything, but due to some big changes in our family journey, I feel motivated to try posting again. Also, my friend Kiera is a blogging champ and she has inspired me!

The first big announcement? We have an amazing son Edward who turned two in August. He is hilarious, smart, energetic and stubborn among many other mostly positive qualities. I love being a mom, especially to a boy!

The next big thing? After over a year of trying to conceive again, we are finally expecting! I am due in May with twins and couldn't be happier! I am finally getting some energy back and the nausea has subsided. I'm trying to be strong and keep their genders a surprise (to us and everyone else) but am finding I'm becoming more and more curious (weak!) and with such an awesome husband who really wants to know, I just might be swayed. We will see. I'm at 18 weeks and so far, it's a mystery. 

The third and final big change is that we sold our home in Gilbert, Arizona (I guess that is another biggie I never blogged about - we bought a house!), and are moving to Vermont where most of my family lives. It will be so nice to be around family, especially with the babies' upcoming arrival! 

Jay's parents came down before Thanksgiving and helped me pack since Jay was still at work. Then we had the huge moving truck arrive on December 13th and then headed here to Colorado to await Jay's arrival. It was the first time I think Edward really understood what "Daddy is coming home!" meant. He was excited and they are having a great time together. 

After Christmas we head to Kansas City, then Lincoln and Omaha before finally arriving in Vermont in early January. 

Please bear with me as I'm hoping to find the energy to keep posting and to also get pictures up as well. I'm using the blogger app on my iPad and most of my pics are on my phone....gotta adjust my cloud settings and I'm sure I'll be all set soon enough!

So if anyone is reading this, welcome back! And please text me so I know it's visible...I can't remember how I last left all my settings....

Xoxo