no stinkin way

Does anyone know if blogger changed during my absence.  It appears that I can't upload multiple images at a time? I have to click through each picture to add it to my blog.  So my December post with lots o pics was going to take another 4 months.  So...maybe I won't be catching up tonight.  It's just not meant to be :)  Anyone know anything about this? 

Sure why not!

Sure I'll update the blog...it's only been 5 months or so!  The kids are doing great!  C is officially on spring break and we are so excited to not HAVE to be anywhere all week.  It feels like summer break it is so late in the year.  But i guess they make it later here because it is just now getting warm.  Here is the official catch up........ drum roll please

Day out with Thomas

 Everyone still loves Thomas in our house so off to the railroad we went!  Always so much fun and cold.  But worth every cold second of it! 

Leaves

Well the annual rake-a-thon has begun!  This is what we will be doing for the next 4 weekends.  If anyone wants to come join us, I promise we'll let you rake some of these beautiful fall leaves...

After N raked the leaves the kids wanted to jump in them.  We had some friends over so they all got in on the action!  Sooo much fun.  Folks in Texas.  It doesn't get better than this.  I'll mail you some leaves so you can experience it :)

Then I had the realization...

The one where I agreed to make two piles of leaves...

To split the perfectly good huge pile into two little piles...

so there wouldn't be an argument...

I (ahem) used to think this was ludicrous.  Buying two of the same cups, a shirt for both kids, 9 grapes on each plate instead of two handfuls...

I'm sorry for judging you friends.

I'm so sorry for suggesting your kids just deal with it and reminding them that life isn't fair!

Ha Ha Ha...

I get it now :)

Over the river and through the woods...

 The bike trail runs along side the potomac river.  There are fun bridges that the kids love that extend over some marshy water.

 Wait two more days and these leaves are going to be great!

 Beginning the ascent over the VA/MD bridge

 Oh my..cars everywhere and they were LOUD!

 Directly over the top

Where do you want to go today?

 Family picnic!

Silly boy!

The weather has been gorgeous here and the fall leaves are an excellent backdrop for our drives around town.  I love living in the north because of the fall!!!  We went on a family bike ride over the weekend.  N thought it would be fun to go over the bridge to Maryland.  Hmmm.  I wasn't so sure.  But in the end I was glad to check it off the list.  It was pretty loud but I never felt unsafe.  The city is very bike friendly and they had an entire separate area for the bikers.  We stopped on the way home and had a picnic.  Great afternoon!  Love these people :)

Trick or TreaT

This year we had Optimus Prime...Hi, my name is Woody, and Bullseye to go trick or treating with.  We started early and made our way to the crazy street in our neighborhood.  A couple brothers go all out with the decor and have quite the star wars collection on display.  The police come and block off the street so it is pretty safe for the lil tikes.  The Brothers own two houses one to store all the stuff in!  It is craaazy!  We caught up with some neighbors as they came by to steal some candy and went to a few houses with them too.  We really love our neighborhood!  The kids did great.  It was neat to watch lil G run to the houses and trick or treat with the bigs.  Our little family is growing up and it is so awesome to watch them interact and discover traditions with each other.  C was so excited to get all the decorations out this year.  My nannie hand paints ceramics and C loved remembering them as she pulled them out of the bins...  She is very protective of everything and tells the boys not to touch!  Can't wait for christmas.

What a great Halloween!

We finally carved our pumpkins last night :)  We had a lovely time!  Projects like this are usually pretty stressful with blown expectations and G man getting in the middle of it.  But after the kids went down, N and I looked at each other and said, "hey that was pretty easy...and pleasant."  maybe we are starting the get the hang of this parenting thing :)  J wanted a mickey pumpkin and C wanted a SCARY one.  Imagine that...  So we went online and found some pictures that fit the bill, printed, traced and cut.  Easy peasy!  We didn't have any candles, so I stuck my humongo yankle candle jar in the pumpkin for the pictures.  It really lights it up good!

Pumpkin Patch

I love fall!  Seriously, it's my most favorite season :) I can't wait until the leaves all change and get really pretty!!!  We love to go to the pumpkin patch and play outside.  This year we took on a little adventure and drove a ways to the country.  It was a neat little place called Great Country Farms and they had some fun activities for the kids and a real pumpkin patch.  Daddy made sure we got pumpkins off the vine because he was convinced they just dumped a bunch all around to make it seem like they grew out there.  C wanted the biggest pumpkin of all and she enjoyed helping the boys find theirs as well.  Aren't the mountains in the background beautiful?  Fun Family day :)

September Catch-up

So when we left in August we were still on our cruise!!!!  

 This is the boat we were on.  We didn't know this when we booked the cruise but it is the oldest boat in the fleet.  When we walked on board it felt very outdated and we were worried about what we have gotten ourselves into.  But by dinner we were more at ease and enjoying ourselves.  We just had to get used to being on a boat!!  Yes, our room was small but we were on a boat!  The food was awesome.  We could eat all day if we wanted to.  I liked the fact that you could eat dessert first if you wanted to and I did a few times :)  The dessert were not awesome and I find that odd...  They had shows, games, and karaoke at night and we just laid out and relaxed during the day.

The first place our cruise stopped was Progresso Mexico.  It was real Mexico and was interesting to see how they lived.  Most people did Mayan Ruin Excursions so we did too.  We enjoyed checking things out both concluded that the Mayans were pretty crazy people.  

There was a cool Cenote Pool which is a spanish way of saying "sink" hole.  Our guide told us it was clean and locals come on the weekend to swim in it so we decided to cool off.  I lost my favorite sunglasses in that sink hole and I think they sunk right to the bottom of the ocean because I never found them :(  It was refreshing but I guess we'll never know how clean it really was.

 When we were walking back to our ship we noticed the thousands of jellyfish that we all around the ship.  It was so crazy to see sooooo many jellyfish. I wonder why they like the boat so much!

 Of course the animal towels were adorable!  

Here we are before dinner one night in the hotels center lobby 

Us eating dinner with some of our new friends.  We were so lucky to find nice people to eat dinner with every night.  The couple on the right, Matt and Carrie, are both nurses 

The kids stayed with N's parents for half the time and my mom and dan half the time.  They had so much fun.  J said to me the other day.  Mom I don't like VA I want to go back to Grandpa's house in Texas.  Then he told me he wanted Freebirds.  Me too J Me too!  Grandpa and kids

Kids with GranDan and Nana

Yep pretty much sums it up :)

Being silly in the airport.  Did you know that if you are military you don't have to pay for bags on airlines.  Even for the rest of us...while we were on vacation!  Cool huh?

First day of school breakfast.  I don't think she ate any of it

Ready to go.  Piggy aka Hamlet came to school this day.  She kept him in her backpack and I think it helped her feel more at home.  There is a moth on her shirt.  See it?

The kids and the secret service

ugh.  I miss this girl now that she is gone all day

ugh.  he misses her too.  LOTS.  We were talking when we went to bed tonight and he told me the favorite part of his day was when Sissy came home and they played monster (g) in the back yard.  A game she created, where G is the monster and they run and scream when he finds them.  Then they go on adventures all over the yard to try and hide from him.  They were having a great time.  Mondays are good days because she has half days which means lots of play time.

G buddy love

Daddy love.  She has finally started to talk about her day but gets frustrated when I ask her and then Daddy asks her so lately she wants me to wait until Daddy gets home so she only has to tell us one time:)  She's a multi-tasker!

A week after school started for C, J got to go too!  He was soooo excited and soooo ready.  Every time C went last year he asked if he could go to school too.  Nope sorry J. Preschool in VA is like another car payment.  Sorry bud, you'll have to wait!  So this year he started.  He ran in class the first day and has never looked back.  I have to follow him in and find him to say goodbye to him.  His teachers are amazing and we feel blessed to be at his preschool.  He still wants to go every day but seems content when I tell him he goes on Wednesdays and Fridays :)

"I'm three mom"

Wait for me Jacob, I am supposed to walk you into class

Right at home

A friend at N's work gave us some tickets to see the redskins.  It was fun to be able to go to a real football game.  The tickets were incredible up on club level where they have couches and big screen tvs outside the stands.  Restaurants instead of snack bars.  Pretty cool experience.  They were playing the Texans that day so we cheered quietly for our texas team :)

The texans won in overtime :)  Yeah team!

Okay, i think i will do what he is doing now.  I am exhausted from all this catching up!