the blog was getting old...

After three years of documenting our family, I felt like it deserved a facelift!  I hope you enjoy the changes I've made...and I may tweak more as time goes on!

Amelia @ 18 months

Yesterday Amelia turned 18 months old. We went to Portrait Innovations to mark the milestone. The photographer let Amelia hit the flash button, which she thought was hilarious. After each picture she'd say, "I wan turn." Here are a couple of my favorites:After nap we went to the Children's Museum. They were doing a food drive, so admission was free with a can of food. It's been months since we were there, and Amelia has never been able to play before. The kids had a great time.

And just so you can compare, here is Seth at the same age.

our duck

Once upon a time there was a duck toy that Grandma Sarah used as a bow on our baby shower present. It went with us EVERYWHERE (this is at a JDRF walk in fall of 2005). An obsession with bath ducks ensued. Flash forward to 2008, little Amelia spent a good bit of time trying to get the same duck out of the orbits...she, too, has a bit of a duck obsession, although hers in mainly pointing them out and quacking.

Well, wouldn't you know my wiggle worm from last year is going to a duck this year? Today we went to meet Seth's teachers and tour the new school (same program, but they are renovating this year, so it's located in a different church). Seth's teachers seem wonderful, and I really like the new set-up. Seth is very excited to get back to school, he's disappointed that he has to wait until Tuesday!

a couple 4-year-olds' perspectives

Nothing like having a cousin sleepover to make the last week of summer extra fun! Ryan spent two nights with us earlier in the week because Marie and Evan had to go back to school on Tuesday, and he didn't. The kids entertained each other from sun up to sun down. The highlight of the visit may have been when I took the kids to our new-and-improved McDonalds for lunch, playtime, and ice cream yesterday: The boys had a very funny debate Tuesday night. It went a little something like this:
S: I am a big boy.
R: You are not a big boy, you are a little boy.
S: I am not a little boy, I am a big boy.
R: I am four-and-a-half. You are four. We are little boys.
S: I have lots of fours. I am a big boy.
R: No. You are a big boy when you are six. We are four. We are little boys.

It was so funny, because I understood where each one was coming from. Seth's the oldest. As we encourage more responsibility, we remind him that he is a big boy. Ryan has an older brother (who happens to be six), so his view of big is different. And they agreed to disagree, how big is that?

Not My Child (or my other child, or my husband, or my dog, or me!) Monday

I know I haven't blogged a lot this month, and we don't have the end of summer blahs, just more of the same going on around here. Enter MckMama , who suggested another "not my kid Monday". Ah, now I have something to talk about.

While at Costco Thursday, my child did NOT insist on getting his Halloween costume. And since it was less than half what I've seen it for online, I did NOT go ahead and buy it. And it is NOT freakin' hilarious:

He did NOT inadvertantly spell a word he doesn't know with his ABC puzzle in the basement:

And he has NOT outgrown his sneakers the week before school starts, so we DIDN'T have to go shoe shopping over the weekend.

My other child? She has NOT become a Sprout junkie. She still loves Sesame Street, but she has added Caillou to her list of favs. She does NOT do a cute little dance whenever she hears one of her favorite themesongs:

She is also NOT counting "1,2,3" or saying "A,B,C,D", she's too young to be doing that!

My husband? He did NOT tackle his post-Vegas jet-lag by beginning to train for a sprint triathlon. He is NOT working out daily before work, and swimming twice a week. His insomnia issues have NOT magically disappeared (only thank goodness they really have!)

He has NOT read the first three books in the Twilight series and I am NOT waiting for him to finish the fourth one so I can read it.

My dog? She did NOT hijack a stuffed bird toy from the basement when the sitter was over. She has NOT hid it so far under our bed that I'd have to use a broom to get it out. She did NOT wake me up after midnight Friday to go out, and when she didn't come back in right away, I did NOT find her playing with a cat. A cat she'd try to tree during daylight hours.

Me? I did NOT strap Amelia into Seth's booster Saturday and think nothing of it until Seth said, "Hey, Amelia's in my seat!" (We were still in the garage.)

I am NOT getting motivated by all the running done by those around me and in the FB nation. I did NOT surprise myself by being able to run a whole lot farther than I thought I could. I do NOT have plans to run in my first race this fall. Not me! I'm definitely no athlete!

Is this the same kid?

The same little girl, who was not impressed with being caught in a storm Sunday... ...decided to join me in the shower today, fully dressed. It was easier just to change her outfit than to try to keep her out.

Brunch with Brian

Elise had her class reunion this weekend, and we met up with the Mayses and Sheltons in Charlotte yesterday for lunch. As you can see, the kids were excited to see Baby Brian again (and so was Aunt Sara):It was a beautiful day, and we walked to Jason's Deli and had a very nice lunch.

On the way back, the sky opened up. We hung out in the Bank of America lobby for awhile, but then we had to make a run for it. This was after our first stop. We were completely soaked by the time we got home. The adults had way more fun than the kids did. Except for Brian. He didn't seem to mind.

Luckily, I had a change of clothes for the kids, but Nathan and I had to borrow clothes until ours dried enough for the ride home. Then it was time for us to say our goodbyes, but not before Amelia got one last kiss in:

Bedtime bandit

Before we left last week, I had resigned myself to the fact that Seth was never going to nap again. But then he took a catnap in the car, and napped a couple times for my parents, but that created a whole new problem, a boy who wasn't ready for bed at a respectable hour! I let him sleep with me the two nights we were home...these pictures are from the second night. Exhibit A is where I found him when I was ready to go to bed (see MY pillows behind his head?) and Exhibit B was where he was when I woke up in the morning (again, see MY pillows?) For the record, he was supposed to be sleeping on Nathan's "side". It's a wonder he doesn't fall out of his twin bed more often.

Who knew 33.5 pounds could take up so much space in a king sized bed?

ready for school?

Seth is. Yesterday we got a letter from the school telling who his teacher will be, and for the first time, he wrote his name without any prompting.

first trip to Vegas

Earlier in the year, there were some rumblings that Nathan's work wanted to send him to a conference. We didn't hold our breath (or at least I didn't). But when a class showed up in Las Vegas the week after our anniversary, it didn't take us long to book our tickets (after we made sure the kids could go to Camp Cary, of course). After a minor fiasco (the Xterra had a "bad" battery and we had to have it towed from Nathan's work Wednesday and then fixed before we could leave town Thursday), we loaded up and headed to Cary. Dad's Taxi dropped us off at the airport early Friday morning, and we were in Las Vegas by 10am local time. We were able to check into the hotel right away, had lunch, and took a power nap. This is a picture of the hotel, from poolside: We did not stay out all night at clubs or in the casinos. We explored most of the casinos, and it reminded me of Epcot, how each place is its own little world. Here we are inside the Venetian, in front of the indoor gondolas:

Saturday night was our big date night. We ate at Les Artistes in Paris and then saw Phantom at the Venetian. Someone took our picture for us after the show:

Sunday afternoon we set out again with no real destination in mind. We road the monorail to the opposite end of the strip and walked through the Sahara, where Nathan had fun playing a Monopoly slot machine:

It seems like every time we left to explore, we were gone over six hours (of course it took almost 30 minutes to get to the monorail, nothing is as close as it seems...) This was our last time walking over Las Vegas Blvd Sunday night. It really is a fun city, especially if you like to peoplewatch, and you can get past all the secondhand smoke and the card clackers.

I flew back Monday, and Nathan will fly home Thursday. The kids had a great time in Cary and got good report cards, but man, there was some crankiness last night. Hopefully they got it out of their systems. We had a playdate this afternoon with three of Seth's former classmates; nothing like staying busy to make the time pass until we had to drive back to pick Nathan up!

zee artiste

Seth continues to spend hours at the table coloring/drawing/playing Legos/etc. Sunday he drew his first two stick people. The one on the bottom is me, the "fat" one on top is Nathan (per Seth).

We took Nathan to Bounce U for the first time this weekend, and still go to the pool whenever the weather and our schedule permits. Amelia has figured out how to balance in her float and channels her inner dolphin to kind of nudge herself forward across the pool. No more baby pool for us!

Yesterday was our eighth annivesary. We had a very quiet night at home, we're saving our celebrating for the weekend.