Liam is 2!!

Liam turned 2 on Easter.  I can hardly believe that 2 years have already gone by.  He has grown up so much.  He talks all of the time, and it is adorable.  His favorite word right now is "nope."  You can ask him anything, and that will be his answer.  If you ask him how old he is, he will say "orange"..no matter how hard we've worked to tell him that he is 2.  He is just so darn cute.  He loves his sister and loves to climb.  He is definitely a little monkey.   
This is the jeep he got for his birthday.  I guess it's kind of a gift for Emma, too, since he can't quite drive it.  He pretty much just sits in it and presses the pedal.  But he doesn't even put his hands on the steering wheel, so it just takes off and runs into whatever is in the way.

2 things I love about Liam on his 2 birthday:

1) He still loves to rock and won't go to sleep until we do.  I know I'm really going to miss this one day.

2) He's just so darn cute.  Every little facial expression, everything new that he learns every day.

   He's just so fun to watch!

Happy Birthday, Buddy!

Soccer has begun!

~Emma just started playing soccer.  We literally had 2 practices before our first game.  She had never even kicked a ball before her first practice.

~Needless to say, the soccer games are hilarious.  Four year olds running around, sort of kicking the ball but really having no idea what to do.  They pretty much just try to get the ball, even if it's from their own teammate.  They also spend a good deal of time just looking confused and wanting a snack.

~Emma did score 2 goals at the last game.  One was for our team.  The other was for the other team.  Luckily, we don't keep score!

Liam cheering for Emma! (he actually may have just been yelling to get out of the stroller, but he could have been cheering:)

Kid's say the funniest things...

We have a good friend and handyman named Carl.  He is from St. Lucia and is fairly difficult to understand when he speaks.  He has done a lot of work around our house, and Emma loves him.

Well, we are about to move and I was meeting with Carl to show him some things we need done to our new house.  The meeting took a little longer than expected, so I was about 5 minutes late picking Emma and Liam up from school.

(Now I need to go backwards a little before I tell you the next part.  Earlier that morning I'd gone over to one of our YL kids houses to wake her up on video as a surprise, and I'd worn a big afro big, and  I'd left it in the front seat of the car.)

So, when Emma got in the car I told her that I was so sorry I was late b/c I was meeting with Mr. Carl.  Then Emma looked in the front seat and said, " Mommy, I think Mr. Carl left his hair in here."  

Some other Emma classics:

-"I need some prisaby" (told to Liam as emma was going to the bathroom)

-"I'm going to new york city, baby" (after watching Madagascar 2).  She's also been inviting all of her friends to jump into the tv with her to go to new york.

And Liam's new favorite is to toot and then to point at his bottom and say "toot!"

-

Princesses and more princesses!

We had a princess party for emma's 4th birthday.  Seven little girls running around in princess outfits.  It was so much fun!

Mommy and Daddy even dressed up as the "King and Queen".

Emma is 4!

I can hardly believe that Emma is 4 already!  She is growing up so fast.  

We celebrated last night with a trip to Chuck E. Cheese.  Actually a lot of fun.  

4 things I love about Emma:

1..She takes a little while to wake up in the morning and after a nap.  She's a little grumpy..just like me:)

2..She loves to help, especially with cooking.

3..She loves to laugh.  

4..She is the best cuddler I know.

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

Tis' the Season!

Emma's Christmas recital.

decorating the tree.

Emma's 1st school field trip to see reindeer.

Liam's first "school" christmas party.

Just Emma being cute!

One of the 2 really good Christmas Card pics we got!

Searching for a Christmas tree.

Emma loves Santa..Liam not so much.

Fall is here!

It has been a busy couple of weeks.  The whole family went to DC a week and a half ago to see some good friends and for me to run in the Marine Corps marathon.  We had such a great time!  Emma and Liam made some new friends and we got to see some old friends that we haven't seen in way too long.  They were gracious enough to open their home to us...so we had 5 kids running around for 5 days!  Too fun! I think Emma is still adjusting to not having her friends with her all of the time.  

We had a great time going to a couple of museums and just enjoying the city.  It makes it hard to come back to Albany.  It was so nice to just be able to walk or jump on the metro to get to everything.  And there is just so much to do there...for FREE!!  And I just loved the "community" feel that we experienced in our friends' neighborhood.  It was such a blessing to watch neighbors who truly cared about each other..regardless of color or background.

(side note...i am now in an albany funk.  it seems to happen every time i go out of town.  albany can be such a tough place to live.  i think a lot of people have forgotten how to reach out to others here.  this is a fairly exclusive town and it is easy to feel lonely.  i sometimes long to live somewhere where it feels like their is true community.  all that said, we have been blessed with some amazing friends here.  )

And the trip was topped off by my running a marathon with one of my best friends.  

What a great trip!  Thank you Tom and Leah for all you did to make it so much fun!  

And then, of course, we had Halloween last weekend!  We had a great time going trick or

treating.