Our DIY Weekend

We were busy little beavers this weekend, trying to get some outside stuff done before it gets too hot. On Friday, the dump truck came with 2 tons of gravel to recover the front "yard", which was looking pretty sad. Daddy figures the whole reason he had kids was the free labor so he put the boys straight to work.

On Saturday, we tore the old plants out of the garden and put in three tomatoes, two basil, and some sunflower seeds. Christopher liked helping to plant the sunflower seeds. Patrick liked supervising - a kid after my own heart!

Enjoy!

Sedona

Here are a few pics from our trip to Sedona last weekend (Mommy & Daddy's side of the trip). It is beautiful up there and the weather was great. We got to take a nice hike Saturday morning and just all around relaxed.

Here is crazy Mike standing on Devil's Arch, the rock bridge we hiked to. I reminded him more than a few times that he's the baby daddy now, but he did it anyway. He swears it was wider than it looks.

Here he is cooling his feet in Oak Creek with Cathedral Rock in the background.

And this was the view from our bedroom. Not bad - lots of trees!!!

And since I know you don't really want to see us, here's one of my big sliding boys at the park the day before we went to Sedona. Patrick loves the slide, and Christopher loves going with him.

While Mom and Dad Played ...

Well, the boys played too. Mommy and Daddy went to Sedona for the weekend (yipee!!!) and the boys stayed with Grandma and Papa (Uncle Mark came down and helped out a lot as well). All three will most certainly be up for sainthood! On Saturday they went to a zoo in the Phoenix area. Apparently you could feed the ducks and giraffes among other things.

Christopher feeding the ducks (he didn't learn to throw like that from me!)

Uncle Mark feeding the giraffe while Christopher watches from a safe distance - their tongues freak me out too!

Grandma holding the boys on the train. That's about 60 lbs of kid right there! Christopher asks at least daily if we're going to ride train see animals again, so it must've made quite the impression!

And from the "Apparently this is what happens when you have boys" front, my sofa is now a train shed. Thomas and Percy were lacking lodging the other day and so Christopher decided to see if they would fit between the couch cushion and the back. Voila, it's their new shed. As we're going to bed tonight he gives me the trains and says "Trains night night green fosa, Mommy". I'm putting $10 on him making a beeline for the sofa when he gets up in the morning. Until then, Thomas and Percy are snug as bugs in a rug.

Enjoy!

A Milestone

We had a milestone on the way to the library today. Christopher was sitting looking out the window a few minutes after we left the house and asked, clear as day, "Are we almost there yet, Mommy?" Now if only their little legs would get long enough to kick the seat, things would be fabulous...

Just because I can't post without a picture, here's one of the speed demons at Home Depot.

Enjoy!

I Scream, You Scream...

We all scream for ice cream!!! Despite the long line making haircuts impossible on Sunday, Christopher got ice cream (because Mommy and Daddy wanted some too!!) Patrick got his first taste of ice cream too.

Here's Christopher digging in.

And Patrick - hey wait, that's a camera, not a spoon. Grr...

And Christopher sharing some of his shalala (chocolate) ice cream with Patrick.

In other news, Christopher is now Mr. Personality, or at least Mr. Commentary. New phrases in the last few days include "Be right back", "He's so sweet" (about Patrick), and "I did it!". We can expect to hear any and all of these at least 20 times a day until he comes up with something else :-)

Look What I Can Do!

Patrick has made some big strides in the last few days. No, literally...

He has figured out how to walk behind his walker. Putting all that weight to good use, here he is pushing Christopher around.

And just so he doesn't feel neglected, here is sous-chef Christopher helping make some fab chicken fried rice the other night. He's taken to covering his face when we ask him to smile for the camera, hence the hands and weird expression. Oh well. With a 2 year old you win some, you lose most.

Enjoy!

Since we've done NOTHING exciting today, I thought I'd cheat and post pics from a trip the boys and Daddy took to the Phoenix Zoo a few weeks ago. I was invited to a baby shower up there, so while I was at that, they went to the zoo with the new baby's daddy and big sister. Here are the little men checking out some cows - I think they were mooing or something.



P-Jiggley with a goat - I love the perplexed expression on Patrick's face.

Big C gittin' 'er done on a tractor. He loves all things mechanical - the bigger the better!

I think we're finally over the hump with the coughing, knock on wood. It's been half an hour of napping with noone making a sound! Yipee!

Patrick's Birthday

I realized I never posted pictures from Patrick's birthday! Here are a few of the big guy at his many parties!

Getting ready for cupcakes on his actual birthday

Making cupcakes with playgroup friends

Ready for Mass in his snazzy birthday overalls

Tucking into his birthday cake

Uh oh, the bug guy just showed up and nobody has napped (too much coughing) and the house is a mess. That's all for now. Enjoy!

For A Monday

Back to the grind. Um, Mom, do we have any more books? I need something a little more thought provoking than Where is Baby's Belly Button?

What a Difference a Year Makes

As Mom just reminded me, a year ago today we were partying like rock stars to celebrate my baby sister's wedding. Well, that's assuming there are any suburban, white, middleAmerica rock stars... Christopher was 19 months old and Patrick was 12 days old.


The bride and groom celebrated and then jetted off to Wyoming to ski. Their son just turned three months old, so it must have been some good time :-) Happy Anniversary, Cindy and Matt - congratulations on surviving the first year and the first pregnancy and we wish you many more happy years!

Movie Time

I thought I'd check out the video capabilities, since they're one of the toughest things to share. Most of them are too big for e-mail and I never seem to remember to bring them with us when we visit. These are off the digital camera, not the video camera, so the sound isn't great - you might have to turn the speakers way up to hear my fab narration :-)

This is Christopher a few weeks ago doing one of his favorite things, moving his wagon of rocks around the yard.



This is Patrick on his first trip into the sandbox (or at least the first one where he did something other than eat sand). His head isn't really (quite) that big - the picture distorted when we rotated it.

Enjoy!

A Perfect Day for a Picnic

It has been ridiculously hot here the last week (like 90F already), so since it's cloudy and only 70F today I thought we'd have a picnic lunch. We went outside and cleaned off the patio table and had lunch out there. Needless to say, Christopher was impressed - he got to eat lunch and tell me about the airplanes and helicopiters (like Uncle Matt builds) and owls (or mourning doves, maybe) he saw and heard.

Patrick was just excited because, well, it was time to eat. That's all it takes for him. I decided to experiment with the cheese sandwich - below you will see him flexing those fine motor skills carefully picking all the cheese off the bread. Oh well, better luck next time!

Just one more - out of the blue this morning, Christopher decided he needed to hold Patrick. This would have been great and sweet 9 months ago, but they now weigh the same amount and Patrick is unlikely to sit still for anything. Here was the result - cute anyway!

Enjoy, and when you stop laughing at the thought of me willingly writing anything, let me know what you think!

Welcome

I've been terrible about keeping up with the boys' baby pages for a while now because I can't figure out how to separate the pictures for each kid, so I thought I'd try this instead. The other benefit is that now you (and by you I probably mean no one but me) can be regaled by the day to day fun that is our life! I'll try for at least a post a week, hopefully more, with relatively new pics of the little men and our adventures. I may also add sewing/knitting posts if the mood strikes me.