Old Toys Are New Again

I pulled this old toy out. Ryan loves it and so does Nathan (again!).

Crazy, Busy Summer

When I last blogged, we were getting ready for our trip to Texas and San Diego.  We had a phenomenal time seeing all the family in Texas.  Introducing Ryan to Nannie for the first time was very special to me.  And meeting baby Hannah was a delight.  She will be grown before we know it.  As I always do with our vacation photos, I've created a slideshow on the right hand side of the page where you can view them all.

So - on to some recent activity.  Ryan started walking (just a few steps here and there) at the end of June but now he is doing a lot more.  Here is a video we captured this week of his achievement.

Ryan also learned something new at school...clapping.  We've had so much fun getting him to clap on cue.  Check it out.

Nathan has been obsessed with the song "Call Me Maybe."  And I finally got him singing it on video.  Love it!

We are preparing for Ryan's 1st birthday party in early September.  I can't believe it's already been a year...where did the time go?  The theme is Rubber Ducks.  Cutest kid ever?????

We actually went to the Jersey Shore for the first time last weekend (I know, we've live here for how many years and never went to the shore).  The boys loved the bicycle we rented.

Here are just some other random pictures of the boys.  Ryan is organizing the juice boxes on the floor...just like Nathan did a few years ago.

 This is how we spend our Sunday morning.  I love watching them play together.

Summertime Fun

I've been a little delinquent in blogging so let's catch up.  Randy's parents visited for Father's Day and Ruben got to experience his first "Donuts with Dad" at school.  

We visited Johnson Farm where we picked blueberries and cherries.  It was so much fun and we can't wait to take the kids back.

The boys recently had some summer school pictures taken.  I guess they couldn't pry that toy out of Ryan's hand.

We recently bought Nathan a chore chart.  He actually likes filling it in and we like less fights over things he should be doing.

How cute?

 This was Ryan's first taste of tomatoes.  Yum!

 We took the boys to see fireworks over the weekend.  Nathan was scared at first but then ended up smiling the whole time.  It was well worth the wait from 7pm to 9:30pm.

Bean Town Visit

We traveled to Boston this past weekend to visit my Aunt Jan & Uncle Ken.  My Mom, Charlie, my cousin Ryan, his wife Jess, and their 2 boys, Evan and Alex, as well as my cousin Paul, his wife Margaux and their son Reed also joined in on the fun. 

Who would have predicted a wild weekend would have started with an accordion lesson. 

Here is Reed (2.5 years old) and Nathan scarfing down on cookies.  That's my cousin Paul in the background.

 This was the boys club all weekend - Reed, Nathan, and Evan (4.5 years old).

And here was the baby club (don't tell Alex I said that).  Ryan and Alex (1.5 years old) had a cage fight in the pack n play.

Although it came out blurry, this is a picture of my Mom opening up "Middle Sister" Wine.  I think it was subtitled "Drama Queen."  Fitting?  Nah.

The boys were enjoying their homemade letter pancakes from my wonderful Aunt Jan.  

And before we came home, the boys decided to watch a movie in the media room.  Ryan/Nathan - don't get used to this...

 I hope we can get all the cousins back together soon.

And I had to throw in Ryan's official 9 month picture.  He is 29 inches and 18 lbs 13 oz.  Tall and thin...just like his Mama. ;)

Living & Loving Life

Not much has been new with us lately. We are just going about our lives and trying to enjoy every minute of it. Ryan decided it was fun to make raspberries on my leg. Check it out.

Nathan went to a birthday party and did this for 2 straight hours.

We had a BBQ at our house and Ryan played with his friend Austin the entire time. They are going to grow up to be great friends.

Here is Ryan trying to play with big boy toys. He wants nothing to do with baby stuff.

I love snuggling with my munchkin and my bug.

And last but not least, we have a wonderful new addition to our family. My cousin Holly had a little baby girl this week. Welcome Hannah!

One Lucky Mama

My special weekend started with a Mother's Day breakfast at school. I love this every year.

The only thing I really wanted to do today was go on a picnic...so we did.

When we got home, all Nathan wanted to do was play baseball.

It was a great weekend! I absolutely loved spending tons of time with all my boys. And getting some new bling wasn't so bad either (thanks Randy - I love you!)

Running Around...Literally!

I've been remiss in blogging for the last few weeks, mainly because we have been in the final weeks of training for the half marathon.  Our weekends are filled with 10+ mile runs and also all the sports that Nathan has been involved in lately.  Well - our efforts finally paid off and we completed the Pittsburgh Half Marathon yesterday morning.  It was a hot morning and the course was very hilly (compared to the flat training runs we did in Jersey), but we both did fairly well.

We were blissfully naive about what was about to happen...

Our groupies came prepared to cheer.

I decided early on that I'd take a few pics along the way since it really wasn't going my already slow pace.  This is heading back towards the city as we're about to cross the first bridge.

Crossing bridge #2.

Here is my proof that I finished.

Randy's good friends from Texas were in town to run the race too.  We met them on Friday night for a few drinks.  I'm sure that had zero impact on our times...

Here are the boys just hanging out at Grammy's house.  Notice the high chair from when I was a baby.

And since we haven't posted in a while, I wanted to share 2 awesome videos of my boys.  The first is of Ryan crawling.  He is already a pro at it and will actually probably start walking in the next few weeks.  Ryan also got his first 2 teeth.  The first came in the day before Easter and the second came in just a few weeks after that.

Then here is Nathan at his first wiffleball practice.  I think the video speaks for itself.