You might notice there is a new look to our blog! With the cold weather starting to creep in, I wanted to have something a bit more uplfting. Not that I don't love fall weather, but I have reached a point where I pretty much detest winter (well, January and February really) because I feel like we spend the entire season sick, which means we spend a lot of time in the house trying to recuperate! Hopefully this winter won't be too bad though!

We took a trip to FL the first week in October with my whole family, which was really nice. Kelly and Louis have a beautiful new house which can accomodate all of us. And a pool, so of course the boys were in heaven. :)  Here are some pictures from our trip...

We brought Grady's bike with us, so he had a great time riding it! Kelly and Louis have a paved driveway, so he got to get a lot of practice in (a treat for him since we just have gravel). :)



As always, everyone had fun at the beach!



Louis was a good sport and let the kids (well, and me!) bury him in the sand! 



We all went bowling one day, and Grady absolutely loved it! He got so excited every time (even when he didn't knock over one pin!).

And it isn't called vacation without some popsicles!

Despite the fact that we could not find one single pumpkin patch in Vero Beach (which I found shocking!), we still got pumpkins for the kids and had fun decorating them. Kelly got special decorating kits for Grady and Landon - Mr. Potato Head pieces! For those of you who don't know, Grady and Landon are kind of obsessed with Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.  Grady decided to start off painting his pumpkin a vibrant.... black. :) 

Hannah is giving her pumpkin a hug! Poor Hannah had a fever the last day we were there courtesy of our boys...once again we managed to bring some nice germs down from NC.

The finished products!

It doesn't get better than this....

Gosh, I love my boys. :)

A new year of preschool...and other things!

A new year of preschool started after Labor Day, which also means the end of summer.  While I am always sad at the beginning of another preschool year (because I can see how fast Grady is growing up!), this year I felt like it was a really good thing for him. Here he is on his first day! Of course Landon wanted to go in with him. 

This is Grady before leaving the house that morning. It was sprinkling a bit, so he was thrilled to be able to carry his umbrella. His favorite color is red, so he tried to incorporate it whenever possible (the hat, umbrella, shirt, etc.). He was upset that morning because he desperately wanted to wear red shorts too...luckily, he forgot that he had some red athletic shorts, so he had to go with other ones!

Here are some other pictures from preschool orientation...

While we have thoroughly enjoyed Grady being 4, he definitely keeps us on our toes lately! I think 4 is kind of a big transition to boyhood, so we often find him testing us and seeing what he can get away with (and not to mention the energy level of a 4-year-old boy can be exhausting!!). And this brings me to mention my love for sticker charts! I used sticker charts all the time when I was teaching, and they essentially allow you to give kids small goals to work towards and  incentives (stickers) for reaching those goals several times throughout the day. Sticker charts have always worked really well for Grady, and we find that we don't even need it anymore after a few days. It just makes him really stop and think about what he's doing (which is something I think most little boys probably struggle with here and there)! :)  Grady and I also made a set of house rules together, which was a lot of fun.

In other news, Landon tells us periodically that he wants to go to use the potty, which is pretty exciting. We haven't started potty training officially yet (mostly because we don't feel ready!!), but hopefully it will be a quick process once we start. (We are trying to avoid the mistake we made with Grady in starting way too early and dragging potty training out over 6+ months!) He is awfully cute on the potty though, and here you see that he enjoys doing all sorts of things while he's going. :)  You will notice there is no toilet paper next to him....that's because one of his favorite hobbies is to pull all the toilet paper off and drag it down the hall. :)

And here are the boys sharing some brotherly love!

And this is what happens when you have an older brother....

Here Grady is playing "church," which I thought was pretty cute. As the priest, he was not too happy that Landon would not stay in his seat and listen to the prayers. :)

Finally, Grady started soccer a couple of weeks ago, which is always fun because he plays with two of his good friends, Gavin and Grant. 

A Weekend in the Mountains

We took a trip up to Boone to visit Granny and Gramps over Labor Day weekend and had a great time! It's always nice being in the NC mountains during the summer, and we decided to take the boys on a Blue Ridge Parkway trail to take advantage of the nice weather and beautiful scenery. This is something we'd love to do more of as they get older, so this was a good start. Landon spent most of the time in a hiking pack and seemed to really enjoy it.

This picture was taken right before Landon decided to plunge into the water...luckily his head didn't go under, but he was pretty soaked and covered in mud. He was fine with it though, so we just stripped him down once we got back to the car. :) 

At the last minute (the following day) we decided to go to Tweetsie Railroad in Blowing Rock. We have been several times before, but the boys were still a little young for it and didn't really appreciate it, so we were not going to go this year. Grady all of a sudden seemed interested in going, so we figured we'd try it again. (Plus, Gramps has free passes every year, so that was a definite incentive to try it again (considering it's around $20 for a child to get in and $30 for an adult! Thanks Gramps!) We're glad we did because the boys had a great time!

We did not end up riding the big train, but rode a lot of other rides, which the boys loved. (Grady hates the whistle on the big train because he thinks it's too loud..he has very sensitive ears!)

They also have a pretty large petting zoo there This baby goat escaped out of the fence! :)

As always, we had a great time visiting Granny an Gramps! This is a picture of Gramps reading Polar Express to the boys...it is one of their favorite things to do with him!

Little Boys in Ties!

We went to a wedding up in DC in early August, which was a lot of fun! The best part was that I got to see my cute little boys dressed up in their ties!  There is just something about a little boy in a suit that gets me everytime.  I may not be able to buy cute little dresses and girly things, but this is almost as good! :) (We all kept saying that Landon looked like a little traveling salesman! Grady refused to tuck his shirt in, so he was going for the more casual look. :)

Grady, Landon and Hannah really enjoyed dancing at the reception! Grady has always loved to dance (especially at weddings), but as he has gotten older he has become more reserved in situations where there are lots of people. We weren't really sure what to expect... He was shy at first and didn't dance right away, but then once he got comfortable he was all over the dance floor! 

Here is a video of them dancing. (Landon is busy playing with Hannah's pocketbook! :)

We also had a chance to visit the National Zoo before heading back home, which was a lot of fun. I love this zoo because all the animals are in close proximity to one another, and it's of course free (which is always good!).

Summer Fun.... Part II!

The last blog post left off after July 4th when Kelly, Louis and Hannah were visiting.... They stayed in NC for a week, and Grady, Landon and I drove back to FL with them to spend a week there because Brandon had a work conference in Texas that same week. I figured it was a great opportunity to spend some time there (and have some adult interaction so I didn't go insane while Brandon was gone!). It worked out perfectly because I was able to drive back with them, and then fly home a week later. Of course driving 12 hours with three little ones was a bit scary, but they all did great! If you can believe it, we only stopped twice during the whole trip (once for lunch/gas, and then another time for dinner/gas).  It was a tight squeeze, but we made it! :)

Kelly and Louis moved into a new house back in May, so this was our first time seeing their new place. One definite highlight is that they now have a beautiful pool! The boys absolutely loved it, and I really enjoyed it as well because I could take Grady swimming while Landon napped. And as you can see there is a nice, big step so they can just hang out there and play.

We of course also enjoyed time at the beach! Here are Hannah and Landon picking up shells....

Landon was a little nervous about the ocean at first, but Hannah has absolutely no fear. She will literally run straight into the waves and laugh hysterically...it is so cute!

Grady was not too interested in going past his shins in the ocean, but somehow Louis got him out there! This was a big step! :)

During our visit, we also brought the kids to a sprayground, which they of course loved!

Another perk of our trip was that we were able to be there to celebrate Hannah's 2nd birthday! Kelly and Louis planned a birthday party for her at the end of the week with lots of friends and family, but she did get one present early (from both sets of grandparents) - a kitchen!

Here are some pictures from her party....

Digging into her birthday cupcake!

The day after Hannah's party, Grady, Landon and I flew back to NC. This was the first time I flew by myself with both boys, so I was pretty nervous about it. Our flight was delayed two hours, so my plans to have Landon nap during the flight didn't work out so well. All in all, the boys did pretty good though.... Grady was wonderful (and was primarily concerned that his seat belt was tight enough in case we got in a crash....our little safety officer!), and Landon spent most of the flight trying to get down and wander around the plane. Luckily we made it home just fine! :)