Randomness

This post is going to be all over the place......

I am so excited for the pool that we joined this year to open up. Last night they had a get together for new members and Sarah and Addison went with me because their family is already members and Rob had to work and I didn't want to go by myself. It opens this weekend!

I am also so excited for the Nicholson's to come visit this weekend. Hopefully the children all behave and we don't tire ourselves out too quickly because we are hoping to do quite a lot (Golf for the men, Red's game, Pool, Kings Island).

I'm addicted to Amazon. I've got 97 books on my wishlist and can't ever find the time to read. I ordered these 2 last night.

That second one is a little old school, but it was recommended by another blog that I read and got great reviews. So we will see. 

Last week I finally finished putting together our 2009 photo book. Yes, I said 2009. And it is now 2012. I'm terrible about actually printing pictures, but I'm trying to be better about the whole "memory keeper" part of my job description as a SAHM. Anyway I ordered it from Apple (I read in some photography magazine at the library a long time ago that their quality was excellent). And since I already use Aperture 3 to organize and do a lot of photo editing it was very simple. But I have so many pictures that I had to have 2 books made for the year because they wouldn't all fit into 1. I have both books made on the computer, but only ordered one of them to double check the quality first - since my books are so large they're kind of expensive.

On the same "memory keeping" note I'm thinking of trying out Becky Higgens Project 365 for the kids. I really don't like "themey" things, but something has got to be better than nothing right? And her kits make everything extremely easy to use. They are out of stock on Amazon right now, but her website says they will be available again in late May (should be soon I'm assuming!) We shall see.

I've also been loving instagram lately. Just one more way for me to capture those memories!

That's all for now - Carson just woke up from his nap screaming!

A Great Weekend

A few nights ago I mentioned to Rob that I really needed to start blogging again, even though he used to pick on me for my silly little hobby. But this time he actually encouraged me! I've been thinking a lot lately about how fast time is flying by and I'm not doing anything except taking pictures (and never printing them). And since I'm not a big scrapbook or photo album person this blog is really the only documentation I will have of these years with out young family!

This past weekend was so great for us. I actually didn't take many pictures at all because I didn't want to haul my camera with me everywhere, but I wanted to write down what I remember so I can look back on it years from now. Friday afternoon Rob got home early and we spent that evening at our good friends, Jack and Sarah's, house. Brady had a ton of fun playing with their daughter, Addison. They rode around the yard in her Barbie jeep and swam in the hot tub after dinner. Rob and I have always said that we would never buy a motorized vehicle toy for our children, but after watching Brady's face light up every time he set foot in that jeep we may have to reconsider!

Saturday morning started out slow and I was becoming annoyed with Rob for "dilly dallying" all morning - something he regularly accuses me of! After lunch though we set off for the bike trail in historic Loveland. We brought Brady's new bike along with us and Rob and I rented bikes from Montgomery Cyclery as well as a trailer for Carson to ride in. We rode about 3 miles in one direction then turned around and headed back towards town. Brady was loving being able to ride so fast without having to constantly stop to cross the streets in our neighborhood. He got going a little too fast though and fell off his bike on our ride back. I thought for sure he was done for, but we eventually got him calmed down and he was excited to finish his ride. When we got back to town he played on the playground for a short while and then we headed to one of the sidewalk cafe's for a snack. While we were eating we ran into Jack and Sarah again who were riding on the trail too. Since Rob and I had rented our bikes for 3 hours and we still had a little time left we put Brady's bike back in Rob's truck and put him in the bike trailer with Carson and we headed off in the other direction on the trail. Brady was doing a great job on the trail, but I was stressing out a little every time another person would pass us. Some people ride super fast and I was so scared Brady would drift a little too far over into the other lane and get hit. With him in the trailer though Rob and I were able to ride faster and not worry about the kids. I think he enjoyed the break too. After our ride we turned our bikes in and headed to the Loveland Dairy Whip for some ice cream. Brady was so cute sitting on the picnic bench covered in sweat and dirt with sticky ice cream hands and face - just what a little boy should be!

{Carson at Costco}

Sunday morning we got up early and headed to church - we adore the new church we have found up here. It reminds us so much of our old church in Mobile. While there Rob ran into an old friend of his which was nice to see. After that we went to Costco and spent entirely too much money (as usual). That evening we did our first "family movie night". I use that term loosely because we put Carson to bed first and Rob and I both crashed on the couch by 9:45. Brady woke us up when the movie (Cars) went off at 10:30. Brady was so excited all afternoon though. He kept talking about us having a pajama party (and insisted that we all had to have ours on) and how we were going to "eat snacks, listen to music, drink milk, and watch a movie".

We are going to have another exciting weekend coming up - the Nicholson's are visiting! We haven't seen them since we left Mobile in December. Brady is very excited to see "No No" and show him his new neighborhood.

I've Got a Good Excuse

Actually I've got a few good excuses why I haven't updated this blog since November! The biggest reason is that of a cross country move back to our hometown, Cincinnati, OH. For the last 3 months our life turned into a bit of a comedy (or at some times drama) movie. I seriously think we could write a book. You would not believe the things that have happened to us over these past few months, both big and little. It got so crazy that all we could do is just laugh every time something else would happen (or in some instances cry). I have also experienced every emotion I ever thought possible during this journey. Some of them I am still trying to process.

But I am happy to say that we are finally in our new house and getting settled. I absolutely adore our new neighborhood. Brady has already made friends with many of the other neighborhood children. I still find myself really missing Mobile and Alabama in general. Whenever I look through old pictures on my computer I tear up thinking about our time spent there, the wonderful people we met and our old house that Rob and I worked so hard on and made so many memories in. I'm praying that I start getting that same feeling about our new home soon.

Here are just a few pictures of the past few weeks. Hopefully I will have some free time to post more soon.

Party Boys

I know I'm biased but how stinking cute are these two?!? I love everything about this picture....including the tightie whities :) 

Snow Tracks

Did anyone see this video?

Rob showed it to me last night and we were dying laughing. We had our own episode of "snow" in our house about a month ago. Early one morning Rob noticed that Brady was playing unusually quietly in the office and when he checked on him this is what he found....

"Snow Tracks"

"Snow Tracks" as Brady referred to them. He had gotten the coffee mate off the kitchen counter and emptied the whole can on his train tracks. All we could do at that point was laugh and let him play in them. It sure did keep him entertained for a while. I vacuumed up the mess a few hours later. I am SO glad the mess was contained to just one area! Can you imagine how long it probably took that poor mom to clean her house?!?

Trick or Treat!

Playing catch up - I figure I'll start with Halloween, since it's still kinda fresh in my memory. This year Brady was a UPS man and Carson made his Halloween debut (obviously) dressed as Winnie the Pooh. I had great plans to construct a UPS truck out of a cardboard box around Carson's stroller and let him be the "driver", but I don't know who I think I'm kidding with these big plans of mine. I never have time to actually do any of them.

Similar idea to this (via pinterest)

In the end, it didn't really matter because the weather ended up being cooler than anticipated and Carson was fussy and cried almost the entire way through trick-or-treating. None of that stopped Brady though. That boy is a trick-or-treating machine! We actually decided to leave our neighborhood this year and mooched off of a friend of mine's neighbors instead. She invited our family over for a pre-trick-or-treating rendezvous and we decided to stay for all the festivities. Brady is already telling me that he want's to be a "steam engine" for next year. Yikes, that one might take some creativity on my part!

Hello.....Anybody Still There???

Every single day I log on to my blog simply to check by blogroll and I have a little conversation with myself that goes something like this...

me: Audrey, you really should start blogging again
myself: why bother??? So I can write a post or two then take another 5 month hiatus?
me: you need to keep up with these memories. Time is flying by way too fast.
myself: I just don't have time to commit to anything anymore. There's no point.

You see, that incredibly cute 8 MONTH OLD (what?!?) is still using me as a human pacifier. And he's teething. And when I actually do get a brief (I mean very brief) break from him his older brother is usually crawling on top of me or begging me to play trains with him. And seriously, how can I resist???

Ok, I lie. I resist probably more than I should. But I really don't have a lot of time or energy for much anymore. This two kid thing keeps me much busier than I thought it would. Especially now that Carson is crawling and getting into everything. I was extremely proud of myself today for just making it to church and getting the dishwasher unloaded. I am going to try and start posting again, but I'm sure it will be sporadic. Our family is about to undergo some major changes in the next few weeks/months and even though it is sure to be a crazy, busy, stressful life change we are thrilled about it and I don't want to forget these precious moments in our lives!