Happy Birthday Aunt Laurie!

Happy Birthday Aunt Laurie ... we hope you have a great day! : )

Happy Birthday Grandad!

Happy Birthday Grandad ... we love you!  (See you in 2 sleeps!)

Happy Birthday Bubba!

Happy Birthday Bubba!  Hope your 30s are off to a great start! : )  See you soon ... we love you!

Happy Birthday Nana!

Happy Birthday Nana!  We love you!  See you soon!!

Happy Birthday Uncle Shaun!

Happy Birthday Uncle Shaun ... we hope you have a great day!

Happy Birthday Aunt Laura!

I know this is super late getting onto the blog, Aunt Laura's birthday was December 13!?, but we made it on time and sent it to her on her birthday.  Just wanted to make sure I posted it here too! : )

Happy Birthday Aunt Laura ... we love you! : )

November Fun

November was another busy and fun month for us.

Kylee and Pete took a basketball class.  Pete said she did a great job and she really enjoyed it.  She got a basketball for Christmas that she loves to dribble with ... and she's pretty good for a 4 year old I think. : )

Kylee also had International Night at her school at the beginning of the month.  All the kids come with the families and perform some songs.  Each family also brings a food dish from their culture to share.  We end the night with a craft in the classroom.  Ryland got to make the craft this year too ... he and Kylee were both very excited about it!  Here are some pictures during the show ... you can tell that Kylee really is singing and doing the different movements for the song!  Yay!!!

We were even to hit the playground a few times in November because the temperatures were pretty mild.  As you can see the kids had a great time getting out of the house and running around.  We also learned that Kenzie (like her sister and brother) has no fear when it comes to the playground!  Her new favorite thing ... climb up to the slide and go down face first!

The Museum of Natural History was another one of our little adventures.  We were able to park near the Washington Monument which was great because we got to walk and see it up close.  Kylee remembered an old picture of her "holding" the monument so she really wanted to get another picture like that this time around.

Kenzie turned 11 months in November.  She was up and walking around at this point which was no big surprise.  If anything I think we were a little surprised that it took her that "long" to start walking. : )

  

Just some good old spaghetti fun! : )

When we got home from Thanksgiving we didn't waste too much time before pulling out the Christmas tree and decorations.  The kids were excited to get it up and since we always take it down early for traveling we usually put it up a little early too.  Kylee and Ryland were both excited about putting ornaments on and they were both into putting on their own ornament collections.  Kenzie wanted in on the action too ... she wasn't helping in quite the same way though. : )

The Tiny Tots Christmas Concert (put on by the local high schools) was a bit early this year and ended up being in November.  Kylee went there on a field trip and was excited to get all dressed up for the occasion.  (Thanks for the new Christams Tree shirt Nana!) : )

Pumpkin Patches and Halloween!

 Well, since I'm SO far behind in posts and there is going to be quite a bit going on around here in the next few months between moving and welcoming our newest addition, I'm going to do some quick updates on what we have been doing.  So, here it goes ....

October continued with lots of great pumpkin patch fun!  We went to Boostravaganza at the farm again this year.  The kids had a great time and their costumes were a huge hit (which made me pretty happy!) : )  There was even a little girl who asked to have her picture taken with them because she loved the cars movie!!

They did a great job wearing their cars around and still playing the different games.  Kenzie didn't stay in her stroller and since all the games were inside it wasn't worth trying to bring her stuff in with us so she just got to be carried around and enjoyed playing the in corn box.

After another successful Boostravaganza it looks like we will be back again next year! : )

Ticonderoga has a great pumpkin patch too.  We decided to meet up with Brayden, Taylor, and Julie after school one day and it was a great trip!  The kids pretty much had the whole place to themselves which was great because they were really able to just run around without too much confusion.  The kids had a great time playing in the tires and going down the slides over and over and over and over again! : )

Our final pumpkin patch of the season was at the Leesburg Zoo.  We were actually planning on going for the Halloween Costume Contest but ended up getting stuck in traffic and pulled in as the contest was starting. : ( It still turned out to be a fun trip though and the kids had a lot of fun!

Kylee was excited to have a place to paint her pumpkin and Kenzie loved being allowed to sit and play with the sand and the straw.  She tried to taste a few pieces of straw so we had to keep a close eye on her. : )

The slides are always a big hit and Kylee and Ryland loved the inflatable obstacle course that was set up.  Once they got over the first hill (which was a little steep and tricky for them at first) they would fly through the rest of the obstacles.

The ball swing was also a huge hit!  Both kids loved it (Kylee especially loved it when I was pushing ... Pete had to look away! HA!) : )

Then it was Halloween.  Flo and Lightning were ready to go (and Guido was happy in the stroller for a little bit.)  They couldn't wait to head out and get some candy!  They both did a great job walking around and making their way up some of the stairs.  Towards the end they were getting tired of the costumes bouncing around on them but I think they were pretty happy with the amount of candy they came home with and figured it was all worth it! : )

  

Once we got home it was time to get into our new glow in the dark skeleton pajamas!

To end the month, Kylee had her October Songfest at school.  It would have been way too much for her to wear her Flo Cars costume so instead she was Minnie Mouse.  She wore one of the old Minnie Mouse costumes that my mom had made for us!  It was hard to get many good pictures of her singing (which she was!!!) because of the crowd of people but we were able to get a class picture at the end.

Kenzie is 10 Months

Kenzie is 10 months old and continues to be a happy little girl.  She definitely gets herself into trouble with all of her climbing and grabbing but you can't be mad for too long when she starts smiling and giggling at you.  She is enjoying a lot of different foods lately and although she will still eat her "baby" food she does a great job with the different finger foods that we give her.  We are a little surprised that she hasn't started walking too much yet ... she is content standing, walking along furniture, and crawling (which is fine with us!) : )

Rebounderz

Nana, Grandad, Aunt Laura, Aunt Amy, and Jack came down to visit for the weekend so we decided to take a trip out to Rebounderz.  They had never been there before and we thought Jack would really like it there.  (We also figured Aunt Laura would have a good time too.) : )

The kids jumped pretty much non-stop for an hour!  They were having a great time!

Ryland loved the foam pit this time ... he kept jumping down the track and then standing on the ledge and jumping in.  It seemed like a lot of effort for him to "swim" his way out of the pit but he loved it and kept going right back in.

A new feature at Rebounderz is a basketball section.  Jack wanted to give it a whirl and he was able to score a few baskets!  Of course Ryland wanted to try too since Jack did and with some help from Aunt Laura, he was able to make a basket too.

Jack, Kylee, Pete, and Aunt Laura were all amused trying to do jumps off the wall. : )

And of course there was just plain old "see how high you can go" jumping. : )

Kenzie was pretty amused watching all of the action too. : )

Six Flags

We ventured out to Six Flags America for some rides and Halloween fun.  We had never been there with the kids and Pete and I hadn't been there in about 7 years!?  The weather was great and all in all it ended up being a good trip.  There were a few height restrictions that seemed a bit "off" to me but luckily Ryland is really good about it when we tell him that he isn't tall enough to ride something.

First stop was the carousel.  The kids really liked the carousel because there were all kinds of different animals that they could ride on.

One of the big highlights of the day, especially for Ryland, was the roller coaster.  There was finally a coaster that he was big enough to ride on and he LOVED it!

There were a few different sections of the park that had a bunch of rides for the kids so it was nice for them to have a few to choose from in one area.  The helicopters were another big hit with the kids.

Kenzie was great and spent pretty much the whole time in her stroller happily looking around.  When we found an area for her to get out and play in she had a great time exploring everything she could (and trying to eat the mulch!?)

Matching PJs

The two girls have matching PJs and since they are the nice warm kind I'm sure we will be getting a lot of use out of them! 

(Thanks Nana and Grandad!)

A Boy and His Cars ...

This is how I found Ryland sleeping on night!  Ha!  He sometimes takes cars to sleep with him but the "rule" is that he can take two cars ... "one for each hand."  Apparently, he took this whole stash of cars and put them under his pillow.  Then after we said good night to him he pulled them out and lined them up.  Ha ha ha!

Burke Nursery Pumpkin Playground

We also hit the Burke Nursery Pumpkin Playground.  The kids have been watching the progress of them setting up the pumpkin patch for over a month now so they were pretty excited that it was time to head over for some fun.

First stop is always the motorized carnival swing.

And everyone knows I love comparison shots ...for some reason I don't have a picture from last year though so this is 2012 and 2010.

Cox Farms

Before Sam and the Aunts had to fly out of Virginia, and after Grammie and Pop Pop got in town, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and spend the day at Cox Farms.  It turned out to be a great time for sure!  The kids loved the slides and climbing structures.  Kenzie spent almost the whole time in the backpack and was completely content just people watching while we walked around.

Sam had been talking about turkeys all week.  (His new favorite animal since he has had some wild turkeys hanging out in his back yard lately!?)  Needless to say, we were all excited when we came across some turkeys for him to see up close and personal!

I think we hit EVERY slide at the farm ... most more than once!

This slide always has the biggest line, and rightfully so.  It was great that everyone was able to slide down together and as you can see it looks like it was a fun ride. : )

Ryland was excited to get his picture with a "Piston Cup."  HA!

We found an area that was pretty much abandoned so it was a great chance to get Kenzie out and let her do some exploring herself.  She had no problem climbing through the tunnels and mazes to find Kylee and Ryland.

Our attempt at a cousin picture didn't go so well ... ha ... maybe at Thanksgiving! : )

Kylee measuring up at the Cox Farm sign (this year and last year!)

Ryland turn at the sign (and also from last year!)

(Kenzie had fallen asleep ... maybe next year!) : )


Cox has one of the best hayrides of the different pumpkin patches too.  The kids loved looking at all the different (and random) things on the ride.  Kenzie was fascinated by the tractor and stared at it for most of the ride.

Definitely another fun visit to Cox Farms!

A Visit From Massachusetts

Early in the month, Aunt Susie, Aunt Laurie, and Sam came to Virginia to hang out with us (Grammie and Pop Pop followed a few days later.)  We had a great time and the kids really had fun playing with Sam.  We took a nice walk around to a couple of parks on one of the afternoons they were here.  Other than some bugs (followed by bug bites) it was a good day to be out and about.  Here are a few pics from our day out at the park!

Ryland is Playing Baseball!

Ryland has started playing baseball and it has been a really good experience for him.  Unfortunately he is the only kid that has shown up every week so although he gets a lot of one on one instruction he is missing out on being with some other kids.  He is doing a great job picking up on the different skills that his coach has been working on and he really seems to enjoy going each week.  The session is scheduled to last 45 minutes but since he is the only kid there he is usually spent and done with drills after about 30 - 40 minutes.  Sometimes it takes a little extra effort to get him to do the last thing or two but overall he is doing a really great job!

Here's our little speedster during the weaving part of an obstacle course.

This is the obstacle course that was set up for him on this day.

Here he is hitting off of a tee.  This was the second week (I think) and I can't believe how much better he has gotten at hitting since this video.  It is really neat to see!

This session is almost over so hopefully he will want to sign up again ... although I'm going to try and see if I can find out if there are any classes that have more students signed up. : )

Kenzie is 9 Months!

Kenzie is 9 months old ... and officially into everything!?  Ha!  Although she hasn't taken any independent steps yet she is always pulling herself up on things and walking while she pushes toys around.  She has pretty much mastered going up stairs too (down is a different story!?)  Kenzie is still a happy little girl and is usually pretty content.  She has two teeth as of right now and there is another one or two that look like they are ready to poke out any day now.  Here are a few pictures of our happy 9 month old!

Yes, Kenzie also reached the 8 month milestone but I wasn't quite up to date on the blog then.  So here is a picture from her 8 month photo shoot!