Merry Christmas

Who's good lookin?

Oh that's right, this big guy.

Month 10

Where has the time gone?! I love you Jackson Bryce. You are the sweetest little guy. I'm so glad you are part of my family.

don'tcha just wanna kiss all over those chubby cheeks? yea me too.

Just a glimpse..

Thankful

Today, on Thanksgiving I am grateful for the many blessings in my life. Especially these two.

GMU- WHAT!!!!!

I love my Alma Mater. We live near campus and I often become very wistful for the years I spent at George Mason. My husband and I met while there at school, we loved every single minute of our time there.

We are die hard fans. We faithfully follow the basketball team and are friends with lots of former players.

The season has begun....

Here's to another trip to the Final 4!

GO PATRIOTS!!!!

The BIG "C"

The Big "C".

cancer.

It sucks. I loathe the word "suck" but I cannot find a word to better describe my feelings towards cancer.

I have a wonderful friend who has a darling little boy, just my Abigail's age. 6 months ago Ben was frolicking on the beaches of Maui, strolling around Seattle, driving his Matchbox cars all over his Mommy's little preggo belly, waking at the crack-o-dawn every morning, etc. He was living the splendid life of a 2 yr old. Now Ben's life is full of hospital stays, pokes and prods, chemotherapy, puking, feeding tubes, being stuck in his house and not sleeping. Ben has neuroblastoma.

Carin, his Mom and my friend is 8 months pregnant. She is a saint and preforms her job as Mother and Wife so graciously. I cannot imagine how she feels and how her heart must ache to watch her sweet little boy fight every day for his life.

I wish I could take this burden away from her but most of all I wish that the cancer would leave Ben's little body. I wish that no one would ever have to suffer from this horrid and disgusting disease.

Ben, I love you. I pray for you. I pray for your Mom and Dad. I pray for your new little baby. I can't wait for you to be a BIG brother.

cancer sucks.

you can visit Ben and Carin www.caringbridge.org/visit/towne

Fall Leaves

Happy Fall!

Happy HallOween!

I hope you, err I mean, I hope your kids get lots of good candy.

Month 9

This is my main squeeze. Well, my other main squeeze. Oh how I love his chubby cheeks and chubby legs. He is the sweetest little fellow. He is obsessed with Abigail, his Mommy, and food. His current likes are: crawling anywhere and everywhere. Pulling up on things, laughing and rolling arund his crib. His current dislikes are: baby food and diaper changes.

Oh how I loOve this little man.

Seeing him growing so fast almost makes me wanna have another. I said, almost.

Obsessions

I am always obsessed with something. Not necessarily one thing, but always something.
I currently have many obsessions. Here are a few...

Candy Corn

I love candy corn. It means that Halloween is right around the corner. I can eat it by the bag full. Abbey loves it too. She will ask for "canny corns" everyday after lunch. I love it. She really is my daughter.


Great Jeans

While I was pregnant with Jackson I bought myself a pair of jeans I had been coveting for a long time. I waited and waited until I found them at a great price. I bought them in a size I wore before I got pregnant with my daughter almost 3 years ago. They were my motivation to get skinny (I gained 48lbs with Jackson, way more than 2x what I gained with Abigail). I think good jeans should be a staple in every womans wardrobe. So I have taken it upon myself to find the best pair of jeans. Here in the DC area we have a GREAT place called "The Denim Bar". It carries all different designer jeans. There really is something about a good pair of jeans. So my current faves are Seven for All Mankind, True Religion and Citizens of Humanity. Go on treat yourself, it's totally worth it.



Belle and Boo

Now that Abigail is in her big girl bed. She needs a big girl room to go with it. She has a cute little quilt, curtains, etc but she needed something cute and fun for her walls. After browsing some design blogs and Etsy. I found this darling little etsy shop. I bought 5 little prints for Abbey's room and I adore them. Mandy of Belle and Boo is so talented and I am obsessed with the cuteness that is her work.


Abbey and JackJack

Oh how I loOve and adore them. It's so fun to see them together, loving eachother, stealing toys from eachother, kissing, hugging, giggling. Who knew having kids could be so fun?!

Punkin Patch

It was too hot. 95degrees. seriously it's fall. Abbey had a blast and Jackson just wanted to eat the hay.

I just wanted to eat candy apples, hotdogs, french fries and drink apple cider.

I'll be the judge of that

I'm a sucker.

I watched Oprah and saw Jessica Seinfeld's new cookbook. She boasts that she adds pureed veggies into all of her kids favorite things to eat. I'm not worried about my kids, it's my husband. How on earth do you convince a grown man that sweet potatos and cauliflower aren't going to kill him, that spinach is his friend? Well you don't. I'm buying this book tomorrow and I'm going to try it out.

I'm a sucker.

I hope this is a better investment than the elliptical in my basement.

Oh the terror??

The BIG girl bed

The words "big girl bed", used to make me want to lose all bladder control. seriously. I would contemplate moving Abbey so that I could decorate her room for a big girl. Then I would remind myself that my child was sleeping like a dream in her crib. Why did I want to mess with a good thing?!

Well two days ago I went to Dani's Duds . I found a beautiful BRAND NEW oak toddler bed for 65$. BINGO. I dreamed all night long about Abbey's pretty new bed in her room with her newly refinished furniture. As I took my bed and the rest of my treasure out to my car I could see the other Moms eyeing my bed. It was a steal.

I bring it home Joseph loves it. Abbey wakes up yesterday morning and sees the bed. She loves it. She lays on it, sniffs it, pats it lovingly, they were instant friends. Joseph takes the crib down and places the new bed into her room, places her pretty sheets and blanket on the bed.

I freeze. WHAT HAVE I DONE?!

Naptime arrives. *thankfully we have a dual video monitor* I stare at the monitor wondering what is going to happen when Daddy leaves the room. I hear her scream "AMEN!" in her normal fashion and I think to myself "here goes nothing".
I stared intently at the monitor. She cried out 1 time folks. 1 time. She never left the bed. She peacefully slept for 2.5hrs. Woke up and never got off the bed. She simply looked up at the camera and said "Mom I just awake".

Bliss.

Bedtime was even better. She never even cried out.

My child is MENSA, seriously.

Now let's see how today goes.

Butter Bean

My baby is 8 months old today! HOORAY! We missed his 7 month update b/c we were out of town for the month and I never got around to it once we got back. Jackson can sit all by himself, crawl around the room, eat lots of food (he prefers tablefood to baby food), he is cutting his front teeth, stealing Abbey's toys, etc.

Jackson is so fun to have around, I can hardly believe he is 8 months old already. *sniff*

Trot Trot Trot

Joseph and I will be running in the Annual Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. We are running it with a few of our friends. I'm not sure what lead to this decision but we are doing it. We go running at night after the kids are in bed while Jake is doing his homework.

We might be crazy.

But I think you already knew that.

Our little hiatus

In August we took an emergency "vacation" (hardly a vacation) to Colorado. We were there for a month. It was fun for everyone to be together despite the situation that brought us all together. Here are a few pics of the fun time we had together.
The girls eating their cupcakes
Jake loves chocolate

Benny cruising the room

Annie devouring her cupcake

Singing Happy Birthday

Showing off her tough side

The girls playing

Brother and Sisterly love (a pictoral)

no children were harmed while taking this photograph

Oh how I love thee J.Crew

I love a good sale. Fall is on its way. I'm so excited. I, however, am not excited for what follows Fall.

My brother

Jackson Bryce is the spitting image of my brother. My brother, Paul, weighs 265lbs and is 6'5. This is the reason that Jackson is off the charts. Somewhere I was blessed to receive small genes and my brother got all the big genes. Obviously Jack got the BIG genes. Thank goodness Jack got them and not Abbey.

Six months!

Jackson is 6 months old, well he was on the 27th of July anyway. He is cuter than ever. He loves to stand, roll all over the place, he likes to try other peoples food, he loves to squeal, drool, play with Abbey and he loves his Mommy A LOT. Boys rule.

Happy 2nd Birthday Abigail!

Today is Abbey's 2nd birthday! I can hardly believe that she is 2! She is such a fun little girl. We had her little party on Saturday. We went to her favorite park with some friends. It was a blast. Today we took her shopping for her new bike. Then her very best girl-friends came over for pizza and icecream cake. It was great. She refused to go to sleep without her bike, so it is parked right next to her bed. Next Thursday we are taking her to see the Wiggles. We must be crazy.

Vacation Time

cousin girls

Jeremy, Lauren and girls

Our little family

Our lovely (humid) Nations Capital

Our trip to the Museum of Natural History

Our day at the National Zoo

George Washington's home Mount Vernon

Happy family

Abbey loves her Uncle Jeremy.

Abbey prefers this family

Cousin girls

She loves me.



Walking around Mt. Vernon

Jeremy, Lauren, Madeleine and Katherine came to visit us this past week. It was a blast. The girls played so well together and we adults enjoyed eachothers company when we weren't chasing after the wee-ones. We went downtown, did some sight seeing, ate some great food, saw old friends, had an adults only dinner at a fabulous restaurant and had a family cookout.
Jackson Bryce IS the best baby ever. He only cried when he was hungry or tired the whole week. Most of the time we forgot that he was even around. He is the best.
This trip helped us all to realize that we really need to live closer to family.
By the end of the week Lauren finally realized why, even though I have lived here my entire life, we never go into the city. TOO MANY PEOPLE!!