Beach to Blizzard

Late last week we took advantage of the awesome weather and met my friend Nora and "baby Samuel" (as our family refers to him as) at Yorktown beach. Sam made a friend and had fun throwing "treasure" into the water yelling "Arrrrrr!" every now and then for good measure. Liam is a little hesitant of the sand but loved all the little puppies that were running around. I made Chris take a picture of Nora and I because I felt like our outfits screamed spring!! (you can see Nora's gorgeous skirt better in the first pic) After the beach poor daddy had to go to school and I for some unknown reason was bitten by the "Oh my gosh we are moving in a few months and I am going to be super ridiculously pregnant when we do so I better start packing now" bug (bet you never heard of that one). So I started with our hall closest which has become the bain of my existence. We only have one non-clothes closet in our entire house-- ONE!!! So everything gets shoved in there, which in turn makes getting the vacuum out a virtual war with the random items that all seem to fall on my head. I took out the four rolls of Christmas wrapping paper I had left over from two Christmas's ago and threw them towards our front door with the intention of them eventually making it to the dumpster. I underestimated Liam's interest in what I was doing though and soon all of the paper was off of the rolls and into our hall way where he went to town, eating, ripping and eventually coloring on all of it with Sam. At least it was used somehow I guess.

Train Show!!!

On Saturday Chris and I drove the boys down to a train show at the convention center in VA Beach. The original idea was for Chris and Sam to go by themselves but at the last min we decided to make it a family event--- that turned out to be a BAD idea. First off "train show" is a loose term it should have advertised "900 booths selling trains event-- oh and a few fun trains set ups" So we essentially paid 7 bucks each to come a huge store where Sam wanted to buy everything and Liam wanted to touch everything and the people selling things were old grumpy men with big signs that say "DO NOT TOUCH!"-- awesome. After about 30 Min's, if that, Liam had a full on meltdown. I had to drag him out of the show and through the convention center with him trading off screaming and biting me. It was fabulous. So we sat in the car watching Lilo and Stich while Sam got a little while to enjoy himself. He took being the conductor very seriously and loved pulling the cable to blow the whistle! On the way home we stopped and got the boys Pizza for lunch. Apparently this put them in a REALLY good mood because they had a serious attack of the giggles, which was a shocking follow up to the worlds biggest temper tantrum. Chris got a ton of adorable pics but these are some of my favs:

What the HUH!?!?

Monday I got to sleep in (thank you Chris!) and when I came down I looked out our back window and got quite the surprise. Hello tons of snow! Williamsburg does NOT usually get snow, let alone THIS much snow. Christopher's school was actually cancelled (I know all my family in UT is thinking what for that small dusting!) Chris had mentioned that it might snow but I was not expecting this, as is obvious by the fact that the hose is STILL in the "pool" which was not even emptied from our day basking in the sun!! Sam our snow bunny had fun tromping around in the backyard kicking snow off his castle and breaking the ice in the water. Liam stuck literally one toe out the door and came back inside. He decided his time was better spent being a little punch drunk knight for the day! (Strange things happen when you are stuck at home ALL day with each other :))
Don't worry this weekend will be 72 again! Talk about mood swings :)

SMALL ASIDE:

Have you ever thought about "modifications" you would make if you could on yourself. This week I have decided that if I could get some sort of freaky science fictiony thing done I would get cameras placed in my eyes. There have been more times that I have witnessed something heartbreakingly cute this week then ever before and of course I didn't have my camera right there and ready to snap away. It would be very useful if I could just think CLICK and PRINT and there it was... I know weird and random but would be so convenient!

When it is even a little warm

I am a HUGE outdoors person. If I don't leave the house at least once in a day I tend to freak out. Today it was about 65 degrees which in my mind means SUMMER!!! Okay so it really isn't THAT warm but I was so excited. I knew the boys would want to get out as much as I did so I planned lots of outdoor stuff today, washing the car, cleaning the yard etc. After lunch I decided to go all out and fill our empty sand box with hot water from the sink and let the boys splash around. I tried to get Sam to keep his shirt on for some warmth but he informed me he didn't want it to get "Alllllll wet." The boys had a blast playing with their buckets and shovels. Liam took it very seriously trying to fill his bucket up to the brim. When I threw in their toy sharks it got crazy, lots of shark attacks for one little pool. After about 45 Min's Sam told me he was cold and it was time for a bath then nap time. Talk about nice when your child informs you they want a nap! Tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer which only means one thing-- THE BEACH!!!!

Vaca to Celeveland

We have been out of town for the past little bit visiting our friends the Tillmanns in Cleveland. Sam was soooooo excited to visit Lucy and it did not disappoint. Of course we left a few items there including one of my cameras memory cards (soooo typical of me, Chris bought me an extra just to keep in my camera bag because I always leave it in the computer.) So I don;t have a lot of the fun pictures that we took while there. I do how ever have the pics of when we took the kids to the Rain forest at the Zoo. This was soooo cool! I thought it would mainly be plants and butterflies etc. But it was practically a whole other zoo. The kids loved how open the enclosures were and having birds fly all around them. The animals were very active which made for a great show. They got to see a huge alligator swim right along the glass next to them. Liam of course sat and growled at him for a long time. Then we saw the baby orangutans. One came right over to Sam and Liam and played peeka boo. It was so great! The mom sat in the background with this face the entire time. I thought to myself yup that's about how I would feel if I had a ton of baby monkeys to look after all day with everyone gawking at me. Liam found himself to be a gorgeous exhibit and I snapped this picture that I think is so funny. I have no idea if he is making that squishy face at the animals or at his reflection! It was a really wonderful vacation. I have lots more pics of Lucy's birthday and general craziness and will post them later.

name for the baby

We have been talking to Sam lately about getting a new sibiling. We have asked him twice now if he wants a boy or a girl. Both times he said a girl. When we asked what her name should be the first time he said "Sophie". Sophie is Sam's best friend Fischer's little sister. I think it is honestly the only girl name he knows. Last night I asked again and he said "Ischer! Then I'd say 'this is MY baby ischer'". Apparently we should just let the Adams' name our baby because Sam is a HUGE fan of the names they pick.

Table for FIVE!!!

Yup that's right were expanding LITERALLY. This is "baby with the adorable nose", seriously how cute is that nose! Chris and I have known for a while but were waiting on a due date. Apparently we are 14 weeks and Cute Nose is due Aug. 4. We thought it was high time Liam stop being the recipient of the big brother beatings and be able to dole out some of his own :) Unless of course it is a little miss in which case all she will get is LOVES right boys?

Sams Latest Obsession -- Pancakes

That boy can pack 'em away!

Ode To VA Living Museum

My membership ended this week to one of my Fav places here locally, the Virginia Living Museum. I have LOVED having this place as my go to on rainy boring days. Unfortunately the membership fees have more than doubled and it is simply not in the budget. Jordan and I tried to squeeze all our monies worth though by going a few times during our last weeks. We also had received free passes to the Planetarium and they were showing what was supposed to be a under Five show about the sun. We were pretty excited and Chris even joined us! This is the boys before the show and let me tell you their enthusiasm matched the quality of the show. I am just glad it was free. As always though they did enjoy pulling out all the "please touch" items and petting some pelts. Liam took a ride on the frog and climbed through the tunnel saying "peeker boo" to me through a hole. Sam's absolute favorite thing is the center where you get to touch crabs and sea stars! He LOVES it. When we frequented the aquarium in UT he was really weirded out that you were supposed to just reach in and touch stuff and kept asking the guy to "put it in a cup". What I especially love is what an impression it has left on him. The past few nights when it is bath time he pulls down my Loofah and says to me "Its a puffer fish mom, do you want to touch it? See its legs?" and then lets Liam pet it, telling him its a crab and it's okay it won't pinch. I have decided that the museum will now be replaced by Jamestown settlement as my go to on boring days. Although they don't have animals I think their amazing ships will be a hit and their free admission for locales fits perfectly in the budget!