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!