Men at Work

Silly Boys

Christmas: Part Two!

Christmas morning began with amazement about Santa eating the cookies we left out for him (and milk!) and then doing stockings. Did I mention that Jake started believing in Santa this year? It is truly magical to watch. Paul always does the best stocking for me. I need to get more creative (note to self). We followed with opening gifts that Santa brought us. Jake was super excited about his gumball machine and Handy Manny workshop. Josh thought his xylophone was pretty fantastic. (He's easy.) After a mad dash to get dressed and look presentable, we headed back over to Paul's parents house for brunch and stockings. I love stockings. Always have, always will. After watching Toy Story 3 (and me taking a brief snooze), we went to my parent's house for Christmas. More gift unwrapping and screams of delight from all of the kiddos (4 kids, 6 adults, lots of noise). Some hits: the old school fischer price record player for Josh and a chainsaw (yes, chainsaw) and new workbench for Jake. Let's just say that those were put together and being played with before Christmas day was over with!

Slideshow below of more pictures of Christmas day at our house and my parent's. Hope you and yours enjoyed a happy, healthy, and magical holiday this year!

Christmas: Part One!

With both of our families being local, we're blessed to be able to spend time with everyone during the holidays. For Thanksgiving, we switch houses each year. For Christmas, we alternate XMas Eve and XMas Day. This year was XMas Eve at Paul's parent's house in Fairfax. B and BoBo even joined in on the festivities! We had a delicious (of course!) dinner prepared by Kathy, the boys ate at their own "kids' table", and then we opened gifts. Jake was quite enamored with his Toy Story 3 landfill, his very own ridable digger, a Handy Manny shirt and jacket, and a fireman's outfit! Josh liked all of the boxes and tissue paper! Ha ha, no really, he likes whatever Jake got. Ha ha, okay he loves the fly new shoes that Aunt Allison and Mr. Brent got him (for whatever reason, my boys always have the "coolest" shoes, and I never buy pairs of shoes for them!), the Stand 'n Play racetrack, puzzles, and his very own workbench (which will be interesting to see how that plays out at home).... And lots of other very fun things! By the end of the night, we were exhausted and both boys passed out on the way home. Paul and I headed home to do stockings and catch some zzzzzzz's... Tomorrow morning is Christmas at our house with just the 4 of us, then back to Paul's parents for brunch and stockings, and then to my parent's house for Christmas with Mom, Dad, Nick, Kelly, and the kiddos.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

The Grown Ups

Every once in a while we like to get dressed up and socialize with other people from our generation. Of course, that usually includes being silly and doing things like taking shots from an ice luge and playing beer pong. Pictures below from last weekend -- Nate and Kate's annual holiday party. Fun times had by all! (Note that we did have a designated driver; thanks, Jason!)

Children's Museum

Last weekend we took the boys to the Port Discovery Children's Museum in Baltimore. Oma and Pa were on hand to join in on the fun! This place was really cool. There are activities for kids of all ages to enjoy and Jake and Josh really had a great time. Of course the main attraction, and reason for our visit, was the Bob the Builder exhibit. Hence, most of our time was spent there (and almost all of the pictures are from there!). Slideshow below.

Highly recommend a trip here!!

Holiday Program at School

Last night was the boys' holiday program at school. Paul got a great picture of Jake and I.

The first video below is from Josh's performance. They sang "Jingle Bells" with their own little bell bracelets around their wrists. Ms. Amber is holding him in the video; that is his primary care teacher in the Toddler room. The two infant rooms participated with Josh's Toddler class. The woman singing and playing guitar, Ms. Em, if one of Jake's teachers in his preschool room. Most notable from Josh's video is his slight meltdown at the end when Ms. Amber is holding him and then he sees me and realizes that I am not the one holding him. (Note that this was at 6:45pm and he is about ready to put on his PJ's and settle down by then.)

The second video below is from Jake's performance. His class did their own rendition of "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas" with hippo headbands on. All of the kids up on stage are in his class. Most notable from his video is how he is looking for me in the audience and then towards the end he sees me, does a quick little jump, his face lights up, and he says "mama!". Then at the end, he claps, and does the cutest little wave ever ("hey, mama, I see you, yay!").

OK so I am not the best videographer in the world, but hey, at least I have the fun times captured on film. We'll have to be sure to have these kinds of videos around when the start bringing home girlfriends :-)

jake holiday program

josh holiday program

Dance Party!

We like to do a lot of singing and dancing at our house :-)

Playground fun!

Today we enjoyed a lazy Sunday morning with a stroll to the neighborhood playground (pictures below). There is nothing better than sunny fall Sundays with the family!

Thanksgiving lunch at school

This past Friday, Paul and I had Thanksgiving lunch at school with the boys (something they do for parents every year.) Yummy food was enjoyed by all!

Chowing down!
Jake's classroom

Jake showing daddy all the tools in his classroom!

Jake and Daddy having lunch together

Josh having lunch in his classroom

Josh's room and his friends

Jake's playground at school

Everyone loves football!

Touchdown Eagles!!

Brotherly love :-)

Everyone say CHEESE!

The boys and their Auntie G!

Fall Fun!

We've enjoyed a lot of fun family time together this fall and haven't been too incredibly busy. We're taking advantage of that now as the holidays are right around the corner! We've been able to watch a fair amount of football on Sunday afternoons so Paul has been happy.

Slideshow compilation below of some fun times from this fall:

• Pumpkin Patch by Nana's house
• Cox Farms 2010
• Renaissance Festival
• Disney's Toy Story 3 on Ice

Paul just recently returned from a trip to Vegas for work. He left last Monday evening and got home really, really late on Thursday night. The boys and I survived. Actually, we had a nice time together. They were very good little men. Paul had fun but it would have been more enjoyable had there not been the three hour time difference and if it hadn't been such a quick trip. He came back dying for sleep.

Josh is finally better after a nasty week-long flu bug. He had a double whammy... upper respiratory bug (runny nose and cough/congestion) AND the icky stomach flu (couple vomiting episodes and didn't eat much for a whole week). The poor guy was miserable but he's back to his happy self now (thank goodness). He goes in for his 18 month check-up tomorrow. Gosh he is growing up so fast. I see a little 18 month old tantrum activity sneaking in from time to time, but most of the time he is all smiles. He is also still the best little sleeper EVER.

Jake is starting speech therapy at our local elementary school in the next couple of weeks. We've been through several evaluations recently through Prince William County public schools and finally have a diagnosis of a disability in speech (for articulation). Basically that means that he has a really hard time pronouncing words and sounds correctly so it makes it difficult to understand him. His vocabulary and expressive language skills are great though. We're hopeful that the speech therapy now will help him be totally prepared for kindergarten in less than two years. (Side note, Josh does not appear to have any of the speech delay issues that Jake experienced at the same age.) Otherwise, Jake is doing great... totally potty trained (even at night -- no pull-ups!) and quite his own little person. He is very affectionate and sensitive but has a goofy side. He loves to make people laugh.

I have officially moved out of my office at work. This means that I share my time working at home and working out of the McLean office. It's about 50/50 at this point. Booz Allen is implementing its "Work Where You Live" program which is essentially implementing a hoteling model for the DC metro area. So instead of having an assigned office space, I access a hoteling system online and sign up for an open office for whatever days that I need to be in McLean. The others days I can work from home, or work wherever I need to in order to get done what needs to get done. I miss my cozy office, but nothing beats the flexibility of being able to work from home and avoid a long commute at all costs!

Enjoy our photos below!

Halloween 2010

Tonight we took Jake and Josh trick-or-treating as Handy Manny and as a giraffe, respectively. Auntie G, Titi Eva, Eva's two younger brothers, Oma, and Pa were on hand for the fun! The boys were REALLY into it this year. Both of them ran up to every door step in anticipation of adding more and more candy to their pumpkin bags. Josh perfected his "trick-or-treat, thank you, bye bye" routine at each house. Jake loved going from house to house with Matthew and Lucas, the "big kids" (Eva's brothers). Enjoy slideshow below!

Through the Years: Cox Farms

Three years of Cox Farms with Jake & Josh!

2008: Jake is 14 months old and Josh is in my belly!

2009: Jake is 26 months and Josh is 5 months old.

2010: Jake is 38 months (3 yrs) and Josh is 17 months, almost 18.

And just for fun.... a little comparison around the same age.

(Top) Jake at 14, almost 15 months old.

(Bottom) Josh at 17, almost 18 months old.

Silly to see how similar, yet still how different they look!

Fall is in the air....

Jake and Josh took their first trip to a winery this weekend.... without mommy and daddy (we were working, boo!) It was a crisp, cool, but sunny day and they had the time of their lives with Oma, Pa, Auntie G, Aunt Allison, Titi Eva, Mr. Brent, and lots of other friends. A couple of my fav pictures below.

For those of you who aren't in on the joke, Jake has a funny way of holding up three fingers to show us that he is three. Makes us laugh every time!

To Infinity and Beyond!

Amazing but true, Jake does like something other than tools.... He loves Toy Story, and more specifically, Woody and Buzz Lightyear. I am not sure which one is his favorite out of the two though. I am pretty sure he likes them equally, maybe a little more partial to Buzz. So he was wearing his Buzz PJ's this morning and starting jumping from one side of the couch to the other with his arms out yelling, "to infinity and beyond!" Super cute, had to catch a video of it on my blackberry (hence the not so great video quality). Love that little man!

299

This is my 299th post. Whoah. I have spent a lot of time blogging since July 2008. Maybe not as much as I used to but hey, two kids, a full-time job, and weight loss program (refer to mention of two kids) take up A LOT OF TIME. It's okay though, we're still having fun.

Here is a bulleted list (I organize my life in a bulleted fashion) of our current "favorite" activities (really, they aren't all fun, but at least they are funny.... most of the time):

• Jake is the most opinionated little boy I know when it comes to the clothes he wears. This is applicable for: outfit to wear to school, underwear, socks, shoes, and pajamas. You never really know what to expect when it comes time to dress the little man. Every once in a while he will surprise you and not really care about what you're dressing him in. Most of the time it becomes an all out battle with screaming, tears, and tantrums (and that's just describing how mommy and daddy react!). Great example: this morning. First off, he insisted on wearing the same Handy Manny underwear that he wore to school yesterday AND to bed last night. Okay, whatever. It still looks clean so fine by me. BUT it has to be on backwards. Why, you ask? Because Handy Manny has to be on the FRONT, not the back as designed. Again, okay, whatever. (Paul, please tell his teacher that we aren't the WORST parents on the face of the earth.) But the icing on the cake was going through FIVE different shirts before finally picking.... which one you ask??? The HANDY MANNY t-shirt. Oh well, at least he wore a jacket to school. I do appreciate and enjoy the fact that he is opinionated and somewhat stubborn. He stands up for what he believes in and doesn't back down. That's not such a bad quality to take through life!
  
• My dear sweet baby, Josh. What the little character he is. He's a stinker. I can see it in his eyes and in his smile. He is diabolical. But oh so sweet and lovable. At 17 months old, he is talking A LOT. I am super impressed with his expressive language skills. Of course that also means that he shrieks "mama, mama, maaaaammmaaaaa" at the top of his lungs when he wants me to pick him up or give him something (usually a banana). Oh, the other kicker? "NO!!" Oh, he has that one down pat for sure. "Josh, come here and put your shoes on, please." Running in the other direction, "NO!". Well okay then. But he has learned his manners. He is very good about "please" and "thank you". He thinks that most dogs are named "BoBo" which is super adorable. (Jake and Josh both call Mosley, "BoBo".) He completely skipped the sippy cup and went from bottle to straight open cup. It must be a competition thing. He had to keep up with what his big bro was doing. Of course that translates to many "wet events" that entail water all over (1) his plate, (2) his pants, and (3) the floor. But he's gotten pretty good and getting most of the "wawa" in his mouth. Really he can do no wrong because he sleeps like a champ from 7:30pm to 7:30am every day, NO exceptions!
  
• Paul is back at VW and doing real estate on the side. There were a number of factors contributing to this decision: (1) money (self-explanatory), (2) he missed hanging out with the guys at the dealership and talking about guy things, and (3) he was bored at home by himself. An extra perk? He just brought me home a brand new shiny VW water bottle. Of course that also means that now he wants to buy the new VW Touareg. I had to remind him why we got rid of the one we used to have. It isn't BIG enough! I love the Honda Pilot. Nice and roomy. He can keep driving the BMW. (Not that you will hear any complaints from him about that. I do believe he likes the BMW more than the Passat!) Downside? He isn't home AS much but he is still off on Sundays which at least makes it seem like we spend the weekend together.
  
• I have two kids, work full-time, and am going to the gym as much as possible. Yep, that about sums it up for me! No really, I find myself very happy and content staying busy and feeling productive. I feel fulfilled (especially when I sneak in the occasional massage or facial). And to think I want a THIRD one! Well, really because I am desperate to see what a little girl produced by Paul and I would look like. I need some pink in my life. No, no, not seriously going down that path right now. I still have some convincing to do. I have been committed to the gym and dieting (read: eating healthy) lately. I started working with a personal trainer at the beginning of August and two months later, am down *almost* 15 pounds. It's nice to have my pants feel loose for a change. I still have a ways to go and some work to do, but for someone who never saw herself as a "gym member", I really do enjoy going there as often as I can. I love food so the modified diet is tough but I am working on it. Probably the most exciting recent development is that I will be working from home a lot more often starting in November/December. Right now I am working from home one day a week but beginning later this fall, I will be working at home anywhere from 2-4 days a week. WOW. Talk about dramatic improvement to quality of life. I might not know what to do with my free time!

I'll be back soon with some pics/videos to round off the 300th post!

King's Dominion

September is here and that means Employee Appreciation Day at King's Dominion (aka, Family Fun Day)! We headed down there with the boys last weekend. The weather was great and the boys had a great time. The highlight of the day was probably meeting the characters from The Peanuts (Jake & Snoopy and Josh and his blanket buddy, Linus!)


Slideshow of pics below as well.

Jake & the "Jackhammer"

Jake insisted that I take a video of him pretending to use the "jackhammer" (which is really one of Daddy's belts). He's such a silly little man!

THE Beach Trip

Where to begin? We had all been super excited for our family trip to the OBX at the end of August. Paul and I were long overdue for a vacation and we were really looking forward to seeing the boys have a blast at the beach this year. Mission accomplished.... for the most part :-)

We headed down on a Sunday, car jam packed, with Auntie G along for the ride. (I sat in the back between the two car seats and tried to occupy a 3 year old and a 16 month old for 7 hours. Awesome.) We knew Hurricane Earl was churning out there in the Atlantic but we were hoping it would take more of a north-easterly path and miss the Outer Banks.

Monday and Tuesday were GORGEOUS! Bright blue skies, not a cloud in sight, hot, perfect beach and pool weather. Paul, Gretch, and I did a great job of working on our tans. The boys had a great time playing in the ocean and building sand castles with Daddy and Pa. We had a hard time getting Jake OUT of the ocean numerous times (he likes the ocean better than the pool -- go figure).

That's about when it all started to go downhill... My sore throat had started on Monday night but got worse through the day on Tuesday to the point where I slept from about 3pm-7pm on Tuesday. Thinking maybe it was just a cold coming on, went to sleep it off that night. Woke on Wednesday morning in agony and wimpered for Paul to take me to the urgent care center. Jake had also developed a pretty high fever by this time so we took him along with us so we could both get tested for strep. Almost an HOUR drive later, and a THREE hour wait at the urgent care center, and my strep test came back positive in about 45 seconds. (I could have told them that.) The doctor actually did look at me very sympathetically because in her words, my throat looked like raw red meat, and she could tell that I was miserable. Antibiotics in hand (for me and Jake), we drove an HOUR back to the beach house and I promptly went to sleep for the rest of the day. Ugh.

At this point, the path of Hurricane Earl was still pretty uncertain. They had only evacuated part of the Outer Banks near and including Cape Hatteras. We thought being in the northern part of the OBX (Corolla) would spare us. But when we went to bed that night, we knew we were dealing with 50/50 odds of staying. Paul's dad woke me up at about 7am on Thursday to tell me it was too close to call and we needed to pack up and head out. They had started to evacuate other parts of the island including Nags Head and Kitty Hawk which wasn't too far south of us. By 9:30am, we were packed, house was cleaned, and we were on our way out -- much to all of our dismay (but pretty impressive amount of time to pack up all of the people and stuff we had at the house AND clean it). At that point we found out that a mandatory evacuation had just been ordered for our part of the island. Upside? We got out of there before everyone else did and only had to sit in minimal traffic! (It's the little things....)

Back at home, we enjoyed our 4 day STAYcation at the pool, having taco and Monopoly night with friends and family, attending a neighborhood birthday party and BBQ (complete with moon bounce), with a hike in the battlefields, a trip to the National Zoo, some more pool time, and a BBQ at my parent's house with Nick and crew.

Back to work and school came too soon, but we were excited for the boys to start their first day in their new classrooms. Josh moved from Older Infants to Toddler (where he will be until he turns 2) and Jake moved from Preschool I (2's room) to Preschool II (3's room). Next year he we will be JK (Junior Kindergarten -- 4's) and then he starts kindergarten! Hard to believe. It's one thing to picture yourself as the mom of an infant or toddler but school aged is a completely different notion! They both love their new rooms and teachers and friends :-)

Slideshow below of pictures from the beach, our staycation, and some randoms of our neighborhood as shot from the neighborhood pool.

Now to plan for another vacation that might last longer than two whole days!! .....