Davis' first bike ride

The boys love riding bikes around our driveway but if Davis is on anything with pedals, it usually involves me having to push him.  A big step was made today...he learned how to pedal himself!  My back appreciates this the most!  The look on his face was just priceless when he realized what he did for the first time.  The video was about his 3rd attempt.  I bet he will be zooming around the driveway with his brother in no time at all!  Way to go Davis!

First Week of School

After a very fun, busy summer, the boys finally started their first week of preschool at Summit.  I think we were all getting a little antsy so everyone was very excited leading up to this week.  We met both of their teachers last week and were very impressed with all of them.  Harrison was most excited about seeing his teachers from last year and is still wishing that he could be in their class again, but I think once he gets more comfortable he will be just as excited about his new teachers.  Harrison started back yesterday so we took our customary first day of school pictures.

I had seen an idea to take a picture of your child holding a picture of his first day from the year before.  I thought this was really cute, so here he is.  Its hard to tell the difference and really, to me, he looks pretty much the same, but he did shoot up a few inches.  Here is his last year's picture:

His head was below the deadbolt on the door last year and is now just above it.
He was being silly, but he let me take a few pics.  I loved these two, I just wish they weren't so blurry!  Oh how I miss my camera!!

He had a great first day and his old assistant teacher said that every time she saw him throughout the day, he was glowing and having a great time!  Exactly what a mom wants to hear!

Davis was upset yesterday when Harrison was getting ready for school and it took me a little while to realize that it was because he wasn't going to school.  When I got him up this morning, I told him it was his first day of school.  He put his hand in my face and said "no!".  Uh oh!  I made the boys a big breakfast and he finally came around and kept raising his hand and saying "Meee!!!!  Meeee!" because he was excited to go.  When I asked him if I could take his picture, he got excited and ran and grabbed his school bag.  I think he remembered how Harrison took his pictures the day before.
Of course big brother needed to show him how it was done!

I took a million pictures trying to get them both to smile at the SAME time and this was the closest I came.

Then he got a little distracted by the cool picture on his bag...

I think once we pulled up and I took his seat belt off, he knew what was about to happen and was all smiles.

I was afraid he might get upset when they took him out of the car, but he just hopped on out and walked on in, without turning back once!  Such a big boy!  It almost made me tear up thinking my baby isn't such a baby anymore!  I didn't have time to roll my window down, but I still think its sweet!

 

We have truly loved Summit and I'm so excited to see how much the boys learn this year!

My little fashion models

Harrison decided that he would dress himself this morning (a rare thing in a house with 2 boys).

Shirt from grand mommy, play shorts, knee socks from Aunt Liz's wedding (that have a big hole in them) and gym shoes.

Of course Davis couldn't be left out of this fashion statement.

Catching up - Part 2

Our trip to Tuscaloosa & Cincinnati:
It had been quite a while since I had visited my sister in Tuscaloosa, so when Julie called to invite us over for a visit, and both of our schedules were clear, we jumped at the opportunity.  Since we both have 2 kids, it seems that it gets harder and harder to line up weeks when we are both free.  Harrison has been asking to see his cousins, so it was perfect timing.  We hopped in the car on a Tuesday and stayed through Friday.  We spent the week playing at Julie's house, swimming at Indian Hills and visiting the Children's museum.  The time always flies, but we had a great time.  The only time that I remembered to take pictures, was at the museum.
Harrison found a life size Jenga game, which he loved!  I think that will have to be a Christmas gift this year...the actual game, not the life size version!

Davis scooped up some ice cream for us...

and drove a tractor...

We wore Davis out and judging from these faces, I would say they all had a great time!  I think this is my new favorite picture of the boys.

Davis hangin with the big boys!  (and Aunt Julie who made me crop her out of the pic since she just woke up)

Mid week, my mom called to let us know that my sister, Elizabeth, went into labor, so we changed our plans, and hopped in the car to head north instead of heading home.  We took this opportunity to stay at my BFF, Teresa's house in Birmingham so we could visit and make our drive to Cincy a little shorter.  The kids had fun getting to see Aunt Teresa, Mr Lance, Madeline and Paxton.  And they loved getting to eat at Moe's and having a special treat at Yogurt Lab for dessert!

We got up early on Saturday to head to Cincinnati and we headed straight to Liz's house when we got there.  What a sweet baby girl!

We spent most of the week keeping the kids busy, visiting with family and spending time with Elizabeth and Isabela.  My parents put all of the kids' toys in storage, so we lucked out that my parents purchase a glider for Liz the day we got there.  I immediately asked if we could keep the boxes to use as a play house.  That ended up being the highlight of the week for the boys!  I guess if you asked Davis, it would be his new helmet and the play house!

I mentioned in an earlier post that my parents sold their house so they are now in an apartment.  I was a little nervous staying there with the kids since it was only a 2 bedroom apt, but it went well and the kids loved it!  They have a ground floor apt which was nice, because we had more space to roam.  The kids made at least one trip a day, down the path, through the rocks, and over the bridge to the front office where they had cookies and mints waiting for them (as well as dog treats for Annie).  I'm sure these were for potential renters, but they were very nice and happy to share them with us too. 

 

My cousin Laura was in town her two girls, Adrienne and Catherine, so we got to spend some time with them as well.  We made a visit to Totter Otterville, which all of the kids loved!

They had a big indoor playset/ball pit, like at Chick Fila, a soft toddler area, train tables, a conveyor belt with blocks, a water table, do-it-yourself face painting and more!  And the best part was that it was a small enough venue that you could pretty much see the kids no matter which section they were playing in.  Of course, Davis loved the water table the best!

and the toddler area...

Harrison loved the conveyor belt..

and the face painting...

I helped him draw Spiderman on his face.  Thankfully I paid attention when he had this drawn on his face at Kings Island, so I had an idea as to how to paint a web.  He said that Spiderman has a black line down the center of his face, so that's what we did.

After our visit to Totter Otterville, Liz came over with Isabela and boys were starting to warm up to her.  They were a little nervous about the baby at first, but after the first day or so they were asking to hold her a lot.  Harrison did such a great job...

We spent some time at Grandmommy's pool and of course, instead of playing with the toys I brought, the boys spent over an hour playing with the these little pebbles from the landscaping around the pool...

We also made a trip to Union Terminal with my Aunt Carol and Cousin Laura.  We visited the children's museum, but also went through the natural history museum, which ended up being the hit with the large sandbox and cave exhibits.  I didn't take very many good pictures here, but managed to get one with Grandmommy before we left.  I didn't realize that Davis had fallen asleep in the stroller until after I took the picture!  Its such a pretty view with the city in the background.

By the end of the week, Davis found some time to play with Isabela too!

On our last day, I took the boys out to breakfast so Grandmommy and Granddaddy could sleep in.  After that, I was planning on taking them to the local splash pad.  On our way, we accidentally found a little festival setup so we stopped by for some impromptu fun.  What boy doesn't love a pirate and pirate ship???

And of course, a fire truck??

We then picked up grandmommy and headed to the splash park. The boys had a great time, but my mom took all the pics, so I will have to post those later. 

What a busy month, but we loved getting to see so much family! 

Catching up - Part 1

Every time I sit down to update my blog, I feel like the same thought crosses my mind.  How has this summer turned into such a whirlwind??  At this point, I feel like we were gone more than we were home throughout the month of July.  Lance surprised me for our anniversary with a weekend trip to Reynolds Plantation, then I took a last minute trip with the boys to visit my sister and her family in Tuscaloosa.  While on that trip, we got the call that my baby sister went into labor, so we made another last minute trip to head straight up to Cincinnati to visit with my sister and meet my new niece, Isabela Kate.  In order to keep this from being 10 pages, I'm going to break this up into 2 posts...
First up - rest and relaxation for the weary!  I have been wanting to go to Reynolds Plantation for a few years now after hearing from a lot of friends as to how peaceful and relaxing it is.  After 9 years of marriage, my wish came true.  Lance setup with our friends to watch Oakley and his parents to watch the kids, so I dropped them off in the morning on the Friday after our anniversary and headed down to pick Lance up from the office.  I was so nervous because it was pouring down rain in Marietta when I dropped the kids and dog off.  I thought, of course, the weekend I have away, its going to rain the entire time.  Thankfully, as I started driving down the highway to pick up Lance, the clouds parted, the sun came out and we had a gorgeous weekend!  We made it by mid-afternoon, checked in and headed straight down to the pool.

Aside from getting massages and eating, we pretty much spent the entire weekend sitting here or wading in the pool.  It was the perfect getaway!
We even remembered to get a picture together!

 I was also excited that they had hammocks all over the property.  Growing up, my grandparents had a hammock in their backyard when they lived on the bay in Florida.  I would sit out there for hours reading, napping and listening to the waves.  This totally brought me back!

Combine this with my other favorite thing on the planet...smores, and you definitely have the perfect weekend!

They had a puzzle setup in the lobby and since Lance's mom's favorite past time is working on puzzles, I had to add a few pieces for her

We went to the Linger Longer steak house on the property one night to celebrate with a nice dinner and at the end of your dinner, they give each table cotton candy on a stick.  I thought this was such a fun touch and of course, we took some home for the kiddos!

This is the life...

While I'm excited for our first family trip to the beach in a few weeks, I know it won't be quite as relaxing as this trip, so we made sure to soak up every ounce of leisure that we could!  Thank you Lance - this was the perfect way to celebrate our 9 year anniversary! 

Davis' Two Year Check-up

We had Davis' two year old check up this morning and I was a little surprised with how smoothly it went.  I completely forgot that they don't get shots at this one, so we were all happy about that!  Harrison had been telling Davis this morning, "Davis, don't worry, you are going to get shots this morning but you need to be brave and not cry.  They are going to give you shots right into your bones and it is going to hurt, but don't worry little buddy".  I think we need to work on his soothing/comforting skills.  Thank goodness Davis didn't really know what he was talking about!  He ended up just getting a little finger prick, but he did great.
He is now 36" tall (90th %), weighs 28 lbs (50th %), and has a head circumference of 18.8" (25th %).  I always love to see where Harrison was at his check-ups for the same age and Harrison was:  35.25" tall (70th %), weighed 26.8 lbs (33rd %), and had a head circumference of 19.25" (55th %).  We have always thought that Davis might be the tallest of the two, so we will see how the cards fall.

Overall he is a very healthy, happy little boy.  The only area that we have ever had any concern is his speech.  I absolutely love our pediatricians, but at Davis' 18 month appt, the doctor said that he was behind in his speech and that I should think about taking him in for an evaluation.  I got really anxious about it and freaked out a little.  After a million opinions on what we should do, I followed my gut and decided to wait a little while to see how he does.  I just felt that kids all grow at such different rates and that he might just need a little more time.  They said he should be using 2 word phrases at this point, which aside from "excuse me", he doesn't really do.  I saw a different doctor in the practice for this appt and he did not seem alarmed in the least bit.  He has four boys and said this is definitely far from unusual.  Soooo, we are just going to keep watching him and I am going to continue being anal and writing down every new word as I hear them. :)  I am very proud of him in that he will really try to repeat words now if you ask him too!  He is really working on dump truck right now and gets excited to try it.  He has the "uck" part down, but never seems to get too frustrated with this.

Davis just has such a sweet nature about him.  He has always been a little on the quieter side, but his silliness has definitely started coming to the forefront in the past few months.  He loves to dance, play with any kind of balls and especially loves his trains.  He has learned to be a little on the territorial side since he has a brother that likes to take things from him.  We checked out a train book from the library a few weeks ago and it is his prized possession right now.  If Harrison even comes near it, he freaks!  It is going to be a sad day when we are forced to return it!  He loves knocking down towers (Harrison hopes this phase will end soon!) and will eat just about anything right now.  I would say his favorite food is yogurt popsicles and still loves sleeping with his 2 lovies.  They are looking very "loved" at this point!  We love our Davis with all of our hearts and can't wait to watch him grow this year!

Happy Birthday Davis

There is just something about summer that makes me want to just go with the flow, enjoy lazy days with my boys and not plan a thing...not good when one of your kids has a summer birthday!  On our nation's birthday, my sweet little baby Davis turned 2 this year!  Thankfully Davis had a great time despite the lack of a big party.  We had quite a few celebrations throughout the week, the first, on July 3rd.  Our little city of Kennesaw always holds a July 3rd fireworks celebration, which is nice because we can all stay up late and Lance doesn't have to worry about getting up early the next day for work.  Our "ex-neighbors" (we still love them though), the Mayfields, decided to come back to the hood to join us for our annual dinner/walk to the park for the fireworks, as well as our friends the Nesmiths.  Going with the theme of laziness, I decided to just order pizzas and let the kids play here instead of joining the crowd downtown.  We hung out until about 8:15 then drove over to watch the fireworks.  We sit there every year b/c is isn't crowded at all and the kids can run all over the baseball field and are "caged in".  This makes it much less stressful and easy to keep track of them.  Thankfully Kiera brought glow in the dark necklaces for the kids...once it got dark, they all still wanted to run around, and we could see them easily with the necklaces on!

I had to get a picture with my birthday boy!  I did after all plan a fireworks show for his birthday! :)

It was a fun night and all of the kids did great.  I was nervous that Davis wasn't going to like it because he isn't a fan of loud noises, but he didn't even flinch.  He just sat sweetly in my lap throughout the entire show.  I love those moments!

On the fourth, we had plans to go to the Marietta parade and to a friend's house for a barbeque, but we all woke up late, around 9 or 9:30 and were just exhausted.  We opted to play at our pool instead and it was so nice.  There weren't too many people there and Harrison had fun showing his daddy how well he is learning to swim.  He even swam through the deep end of the pool to the ladder!  We hung out at the house for the rest of the day and Lance's parents came over and brought a barbeque chicken dinner for Davis' birthday.  We are definitely spoiled getting to live near one set of grandparents!  Harrison and I made a cookie cake for Davis so he got to blow out candles on his big day.  Here is a short little video of Davis blowing out his candles:   

Harrison helping his brother open his dump truck and bulldozer from Grandma and Granddaddy Randolph:

 

Davis lucked out and also got to spend part of his birthday week with his grandmommy and granddaddy from Cincinnati...they got stuck on a layover in Atlanta on their way home from St. Maarten so they stopped and stayed with us for a few days!  Since it was a short, impromptu trip, we didn't get time to run to the store for a birthday present, so Davis and I went to Toys R Us this week while his brother was at VBS, to pick out his present from his Grandmommy and Granddaddy Koeppe.  How did they know he would want 2 mechanical Thomas the trains??

On July 5th, I had a little playdate birthday for Davis and some of the boys' friends came over to play and sing happy birthday.  I made the mistake of putting the cupcakes on the table that morning and while I was cleaning up before the crew came over, I noticed it got awefully quiet in the house.  When I walked into the kitchen, I found this:

 

He swiped two cupcakes without thinking twice!  How can you get mad at that sweet birthday boy though?  The kids played, ate lunch and had ice cream sundaes and cupcakes to celebrate.  By this point, Davis was a pro at blowing out some candles!

Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate last week!  I know Davis felt very special and loved!

Our anniversary also happens to fall that same week, on July 5th.  Grandma and Granddaddy watched the boys over night for us so we could have a relaxing evening together.  Lance took me to Chops for dinner and surprised me with a trip to Reynolds Plantation this coming weekend.  I am definitely looking forward to a few peaceful days of lazing around with my best friend/husband!  Thank you Lance and happy 9th anniversary!