Do you have any baby dolls?

That's what Caroline asked Kim, a mother of 3 boys, when we walked into their house.  Yesterday we went over to Aidan's house for a play date and lunch.  Kim has an almost 5 year old and then 18 month old twins.  Caroline and Will had a blast!  It was hard to get them to go home for nap time.  We stayed and played for 3 hours and also enjoyed having lunch as well.  Kim and I get along really well so it was nice to sit and talk with her.  Her husband also works at Walter Reed and they are moving at the end of March.  Aidan is also the kid Caroline calls her boyfriend and the guy she says she is going to marry.

Caroline obviously didn't have any baby dolls to play with but all the Star Wars, race tracks, and cars were fine with her as well.  Will had the most fun I think having an older boy to play with.  

Then after naps it was Ellie's afternoon  to have my kids over.  They had more fun with friends and Caroline definitely had baby dolls to play with over there.  I had a chance to speed clean while they were gone.  Since the house was already picked up I got all 3 floors vacuumed and all 4 bathrooms cleaned!

Now on to getting the house ready to rent in 2 months!!

The Dixie Stampede

After all the fun of going to the beach and to the jumpy play place  we added to the day by going to the Dixie Stampede for dinner and of course the show.  I had been when I was a child and remember that it was really neat so I was excited to go again.  I knew the kids would love seeing the horses and Will surly wouldn't mind eating with his fingers!  The price was right as well with the tickets being $7 thanks to the deal Christian gets being a Hilton employee.

This year they included long horn cattle to the show so that was neat to see along with all the horses.  

The first picture is before the show even started and will was giving Justin great big hugs as he calls them but I missed the shot and got a good reaction from Justin instead of the cute hug.

This was a trick rider demonstrating that the horses aren't attached to each other.
Caroline talking to one of the shows riders after the show was over.
Will and Brandon rubbing "Toy".  Will asked if he could get on!
Well so far I have posted pictures of half our time at Myrtle Beach and there are still plenty more pictures that I will eventually get around to posting.  I took tons of pictures trying to get a few good ones.  We had a blast hanging out with the Schroeder's and can't wait to meet their new addition at the end of May.

Myrtle Beach

Last Wednesday night the kids and I went and picked Justin up form Walter Reed and headed south.  We stopped in Fredericksburg for the night and then drove the rest of the way to the beach the next morning.  The trip went very well.  Justin and Christian got to play 2 rounds of golf and we did lots of neat things ( more posts to come).  Caroline didn't want to leave the beach.  We got to their house around 2 Thursday afternoon and Justin took off for a 230 tee time.  The kids and I napped and then headed to the beach!  I love this picture because Caroline isn't on the ground.  Both kids were jumping in the water which was FREEZING by the way.  

It was so nice to have our toes in the sand.  As we were walking along the beach Caroline say a girl with her dad and their dog.  She of course runs right up to the little girl and starts talking and playing with her.  Will follows her lead and before I know it I am talking with the dad and the 3 kids and dog are happily playing.  Not a shy bone in that girls body!  
Then Friday morning the boys went back out for more golf and Rachel had a doctors appt. so I took the 3 kids to an indoor bouncy playground place.  We stayed for an hour and they had a blast.  I took lots of pictures trying to catch them but they were moving so fast it was hard to get a clear shot.
This slide was a fan favorite and I love going down it too!  You can see the smiles on their faces even though it is blurry.
They even had a blow-up obstacle course.  Caroline and I would race through it laughing the whole time.
That is just some of what we did watch for more in other posts!  

Thanks for having us Christian and Rachel!

Extended Valentines Weekend

This weekend was the best in a very long time.  It started out with us going to the gym Saturday morning and then going to the mall to shop for a birthday present.  We ended up eating lunch at the mall before heading home and getting naps.  After naps Sara came over to babysit the kids so Justin and I could enjoy a Valentines dinner and a movie.  The kids had a blast with Sara (she is an occupational therapist in Justin building and did the 3 day walk with me) because she brought her dog, Sky, with her.  The kids love Sky and she is a therapy dog so we see her at work when we go see Justin.  Sky even helped bathe the kids by licking them clean at bath time.

Justin and I had a wonderful evening together.  Thanks Sara!  Sunday we went to church, then came home and played some before lunch and naps.  After naps we went to the gym where the kids took gymnastics lesson back in the fall.  They have open gym and we had coupons so off we went.  I forgot my camera but they had an awesome time jumping in the foam pit, jumping on the trampoline, swinging on the bars, and just about any other equipment that is at a gymnastic place.  We ended up staying for over an hour.  The kids didn't want to leave but were so tired.  Below are some pictures from Sunday.  Will asked Justin to wrestle with him and Caroline had to join in too.  There was lots of giggling and laughing.

Will has a great time tickling and wrestling as you can see by the huge laugh on his face.
Then Justin was off on Monday.  So after I taught my water class we took the kids swimming.  They love to swim and aren't afraid of the water at all.  Caroline is learning to blow bubbles under the water and is getting a little better each time we take her swimming.  I am going to try and take her to swim lessons this summer where ever we end up.  The picture of Will below is my absolute favorite all time picture.  Can't you just eat him up!
Caroline with her head under practicing bubbles.  I know you might wonder why only 1 water wing.  I couldn't find ours and the pool only had one.  So one it was and she did great.

The kids wore themselves out swimming for an hour and then went home ate lunch and slept for 3 hours!  It was hard for the kids to say bye to Justin this morning as he headed off for work.  Surprisingly Will has only asked for him about 20 times not 200 as is the usual.  I have kept him very busy this morning running here there and everywhere.  

Tomorrow we leave to go to Myrtle Beach to visit friends so I will post when we get back next week.

How do you keep Will out of Trouble?

The question isn't really how do you keep Will out of trouble it is how do you delay the trouble making.  And yes I meant for trouble to have a capital T.  It seems that trouble should be his middle name most days.  Either that or accident.  He is always getting hurt or getting into something he shouldn't be.  He likes to make toys out of things that shouldn't be toys.  Like my sliding glass door, which is a great place for bouncy balls to be thrown against, or the stairs which he likes to thrown things down.  Most of his trouble comes form throwing or hitting.  I am hoping this stage ends so before I lose my mind.  

Friday afternoon it was my turn to have Ashley and Juliet over.  The kids were playing very nice is the den with the big girls dressed up as princesses of course.  I think they were playing Sleeping Beauty, one lays on the couch pretending to be asleep waiting for the prince to come kiss her.  Will I guess was supposed to be the prince and instead of kissing he climbs on the couch and terrorizes Sleeping Beauty and the other girl being the evil witch couldn't do enough magic to contain prince Will.  Juliet, poor thing, is just minding her own business playing nicely with the doll house and I have to come in the room yelling at Will to get off the sofa and end table and to leave the girls alone.  I leave them to playing again and go back to the kitchen where I was making some casseroles to put in the freezer.  Again I hear the girls complaining about Will this time  he was taking his undies off.  So back in I go and tell him he has to come play in the kitchen with me and leave the girls alone.  He thought I was putting him in time out making him stay in the kitchen.  He loves to sit on the counter and "help" so I asked him if he wanted to sit on the counter and that finally got him to stop crying.  

Of course the pictures loaded in reverse order so the first 2 are from Will helping me make biscuits Saturday morning (still trying to keep him out of trouble) and the last 2 are from Friday afternoon.

He loved eating the leftover biscuit dough.  Cleaned the bowl for me.
Busy scraping the bowl with his hand.  He does a great job stirring and patting the dough and then using the cutter to make the biscuits.  His favorite part is picking the cut biscuits off the counter and throwing them onto the pan.  I think he likes the sound they make when they slap down.  Drives my need for the biscuits to be all lined up in neat rows crazy but I leave it.
So instead of helping me cook on Friday he realized that the sink with a bowl of water, a ladle, and a whisk were going to me loads more fun.  So he sat of the counter filling up the ladle, measuring cups, and anything else with water.  He had so much fun and got surprisingly very little on the floor.
Washing his feet was also a blast.  He sat on the counter for at least an hour.  The girls were much happier and I didn't have to yell at Will every 5 minutes.  

Now if I could get him to not copy everything his sister does it would help him get hurt a lot less than he currently does.  He ended up biting his tongue twice Friday to the point that it bleeds.  Once was leaning from the sofa to the coffee table so he could get on the coffee table and jump to the sofa again without touching the floor.  Of course he saw Caroline do this and when he tries falls hits his throat and mouth and ends up with a bleeding tongue!

And with all this we have only had to take him to the ER one time!  I don't know how much longer that is going to hold up but I hope for my sake it lasts a few more years.

The many looks of Caroline

Most of you know Caroline is a unique child.  I mean besides her uncanny ability with words starting at an early age.  I have been told she is a girl that beats to her own drum.  I let Caroline dress herself in the mornings.  I don't feel that I need to dress her anymore.  I also don't feel that it is worth it to argue with her about what she is wearing.  And she is very good about dressing weather appropriately.  There are very few times that I have to adjust what she is wearing for the season.  So I have looked back through a few photos and tried to find some of her "best" outfits.  This was an outfit for going out to dinner.  Yes she wore the wings all the way into the restaurant.  The shoes are matching here with doesn't always happen.

This is how she got bundled up to go play outside last winter.  Notice that under the toboggan is a base ball cap.  She also borrowed Aunt Susan's scarf to complete this winter look.
This was a great outfit that she put together just on Thursday.  She was looking so cute.
This is what she would wear about 4 days a week.  Meaning different patterns and colors.
An example of another matching outfit(without the tights).  With the tights is made it more Caroline's unique style.
Caroline will tell me that it matches if at least one of the same colors is in every piece of clothing.  It is also a little more difficult to "match" when she only have 4 solid colored shirts.  No one will ever forget Caroline that's for sure.  She makes great impressions upon people.  I love her unique sense of self and hope it never goes away.

Our best parenting moments

Sometimes I am not the best mom.  I say things I probably shouldn't.  I regret them afterwards and also laugh at most of them.  I know Justin feels the same way.  Parenting isn't for the weak that's for sure.  But I will share some of our not so great moments in our brief parenting careers and some of the funny things the kids have made us do.

Just last week Will was driving me crazy.  Whining nonstop while Caroline was at school.  He was sitting on the potty pooping and I was kneeling in front of him holding him.  HE thinks he will fall in and wants me to have a hand on him so he won't fall in.  I was also talking on the phone.  Will started whining and I had had enough at this point so I told him that if he didn't stop whining I was going to put him in the potty.  Karen (on the phone) died laughing and Will burst into tears.  Probably not the best thing to say to a kid who is already afraid of falling in, but jeez enough with the whining already!  He has been fine with using the potty since so no harm no foul right?

Caroline just this week has told me that she was going to run away to Ms. Ellie's house if I didn't start being nice to her.  And then tonight told me she wanted a new daddy, one that was home more.  The morning she told me she was going to run away I almost drove her over there myself.  As for a new daddy, not a chance but he worked 16 hours Monday and is still not home tonight and it is 930.  So I understand that one.

This next parenting story happened before Christmas and some have already heard it, still a great one though.  Caroline had been driving me crazy all day with not listening, not taking a nap, tormenting her brother, you name it she had been pushing all the buttons.  Justin got home just in time for bath and I told him I couldn't go in the bathroom with her or one of us might not come out.  He was great and was going to bathe them after he got out of his uniform.  The kids were already in the tub and having a great time.  I was standing in the bathroom doorway and I see Caroline stand up on the edge of the tub to reach a washcloth from the rack on the back of the door.  This is a big no-no for several reasons.   She could slip and fall and Will will try it and for sure fall.  I told her to get down (in my nicest voice I am sure!) and that she knew better and we have told you several times before.  Well Justin marches in the bathroom and yanks her out of the tub and carries her not so gently into our shower and turns it on and tells her to stay put (nicely again).  He comes back and bathes Will  and Caroline is still crying in our shower.  Then I dress Will while he goes to talk to Caroline and wash her.  The water had gotten cool on Caroline and she was sitting in the shower crying that she was cold.  He talked to her and explained why she was in trouble then told her to go get her jammies on but with out the bottoms.  She was going to get her spankings.  He sat in the glider in our room and told her to come get her punishment.  Justin asks her, "How many spankings?"  4 she replies.  So she got 4 bare bottom spankings!  Why did she say 4 you ask?  Well ever since she turned 4 she has to have 4 of everything or she thinks she does.  Ask her how many cookies, crackers, crayons, stickers, anything and the answer will be I want 4.  Justin and I didn't think she would want 4 spankings.  Well, I am glad to report that she hasn't even stepped foot on the side of the tub again and for the most part has stopped asking for 4 of things!  That child!  

I know there will be more of the great parenting moments to come!  I can't wait to share more with you.

Going to see the deer

This past weekend was beautiful.  The weather was warmer than usual so we tried to be outside as much as we could.  Caroline desperately wanted to have a picnic but it was still a little chilly for that.  So instead we went for a nature walk on the trail behind our house.  It was very muddy and wet still from all the melting snow.  So we put on shoes and clothes that were good to get muddy and dirty.  Caroline requested that we go to the rocky place so off we headed.  The rocky place is a little patch of "beach" that is rocky sandy bank of the creek.  The kids have a blast throwing the rocks in the water.  While we traipsing through the mud Will's shoe got stuck and he ran out of it and got his sock all muddy.  He didn't like it too much and I got all muddy putting his shoe back on.  We all loved spending time in the woods.  Of course the great benefit of going for a nature walk is seeing deer.  We did see lots of deer and Will was delighted of course.  Since then he has been randomly yelling "No, deer!" around the house.  I have been telling him that no deer will come in the house and that Daddy keeps them out.  That seems to keep him content.

Then today at lunch Will and I were talking to Nana.  Here is part of the conversation that we had with him.

Will- Knock, Knock

me-who's there

W-owl

Me- owl who

Then Will laughed.  What a cute little 2 year old joke!  I didn't even know he knew how to do that!  Craziness!

I can't wait to hear more of his "jokes" as he grows up.

Well after naps we are going to enjoy the warmer weather and go outside to the playground with friends.  I used to be a fan of cold weather and really liked it.  Now that I have kids all that I can take is about 2 months of winter.  I really enjoy being able to take them outside and not having my house constantly destroyed.  Can't wait for Spring!

Making cookies

I love days when Caroline goes to preschool.  It means I only have 1 child which is easier to run errands with and generally get things done.  But it also means that I get to spend some great one-on-one time with Will, which he of course loves.  He also asks for his sissy a lot too.  But this past Thursday while Caroline was at school we made red, oatmeal, chocolate chip cookies.  I wasn't feeling very well and we had already spent most of the morning cuddling on the couch reading stories.  So I decided to get up and do something and this was easy since he loves to sit on the counter and "help".  HE did a great job of adjusting the speed of the mixer and helping dump in the ingredients.  You can see below how much he was enjoying the "clean up" part of cookie making.

The quality of the pictures isn't that great because I took them with my phone.  All the batteries for my camera had died and I hadn't recharged them yet.  Oops!
He ate enough dough to equal about 4 cookies!  He had red dough everywhere including his legs!

I should have added this to the last post but I forgot.  Along with all the other accomplishments that Will has done lately he can add breaking a picture to it.  He has finally gotten strong enough or his aim better that he through a little football and broke the glass in a picture.  The picture didn't fall down just cracked the glass in 2 places!  I knew it would happen one day but just not when he was 2.

Run Forest Run

Well, I guess I should say,  Run William Run!  The boy is a running fool lately.  All the muscles and neurons have finally connected I guess and the boy  is flying.  He wants to run everywhere.  It also helps that Justin goes running and Will always wants to copy daddy.  Will ran the whole way around our court without falling which is a minor miracle.  He would always run and you just knew he was going to fall.  He always falls.  i guess now that he can run other things are coming together too.  He has been able to do "thumbs up" very quickly lately and I started him with a big boy cup yesterday too.  Now he drinks lots more milk than he did out of his sippy.  He and Caroline continue to have lots of fun pretend playing and they ask where each other are if they can't find each other.  So sweet.

Will's vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds and he is trying to keep up with his sissy (which is what he calls her). It is a big task since she uses words such as; I prefer, he's frustrating me, he's aggravating me.  Big words for a 4 year old.  Will isn't as clear as Caroline and I still have trouble with some words but some of my favorite are nicnic (picnic) and mam-ich (sandwich).

his imagination is also running rampant especially at night.  He woke up last night and told me deer were coming.  I told him that Daddy was home and would keep the deer out of the house!  IT worked for the time being I just don't know how long it will last.  He talks about deer all day.  We do see lots of deer in our neighborhood but they of course run away from us.

Our weekend full of fun

This past weekend we went and spent all day Saturday with Susan, Graham , and my dad in Baltimore.  We had a great time visiting and hanging out.  After eating lunch at Suz's house we headed to the inner harbor.  We went to the Science center and saw a Imax movie about going to the moon.  Neither Will or Caroline would leave the 3-D glasses on for the movie.  Oh, well.  We also had fun looking at all the fun interactive exhibits.  This is a picture of Caroline in her dress ups before going out.  We had to take 2 dress ups with us to Susan's house.

My little paleontologists.  They had neat areas set up where you could brush away sand and "find" bones.
Dad taking a picture of Caroline and Will stealing the ball off the air vent.
The kids had a blast playing with the air vent and throwing the ball.
Crazy hair Caroline.
Then on Sunday the youth were having a pancake breakfast so we went and enjoyed not having to cook or clean up.  Then home for playing, lunch, naps, then it was riding bikes since it was close to 60 degrees.  Caroline rode her bike up the big hill leaving our neighborhood all by herself.  She did great and all I did was tell her to keep pedaling.  On the way down was another story.  I usually don't let her go up the hill because she isn't the best braker.  Uncle Graham taught her how to use her brakes a few months ago but she still doesn't use them.  So going down the hill was an adventure.  I had Will on a big wheel in front of me (it had a handle) and then I was slowing Caroline down by putting my hand on her handle bar and reminding her to put on her brake.  All went well and there were no wrecks.  We had a quiet super bowl evening.  Justin and I  decided a few years ago that hosting or going to super bowl parties weren't much fun.  If we have people over then we don't get to watch the game or the commericals with everything going on.  If we go some where then we have to keep an eye on the kids and leave at a decent time to get the kids in bed.  It just isn't fun for us, so we stay home and have a great time and the kids stay on schedule.  We still ate plenty of junk food though!