Halloween

Fall in Maryland has been beautiful with colorful trees and low 70 degree weather. We didn't have much time available to find a sincere pumpkin patch, which was a bummer. We searched with the time we had, but none were great pumpkin worthy. We were spoiled too much by the Red Barn Farm in Weston, Missouri, and I will likely be comparing every pumpkin patch to it forever.

Halloween snuck up on our family. I spent a few late nights working on Jelly Bean's Peter Pan costume, and I am in love with how it turned out. He made the perfect Peter Pan. He flew, he fought bad guys with his dagger, and he owned it.

Costume was made from tracing clothes and making style adjustments by just winging it. Dagger, belt, sheath, and pants were lucky guesses. I got Kelly the hat from disneyland while we were dating.

Sweet G is my cowboy. I gave him a horse and he loved on it all night.

We took them in the wagon to the next street over for trick or treating. the roads were blocked off from cars for the safety of the trick or treaters and Peter Pan enjoyed flying from house to house while my cowboy preferred the wagon. The first house they went to after they received the candy, cowboy walked right into the house and Peter Pan followed him. It took a lot of coaxing to get them out. And no, we didn't know the homeowners. Silly boys.

What I love about Maryland

We've been in Maryland four months, and I've neglected my poor blog. But for good reason, we've been busy with fun new things. So to sum up my time away, I've made a little list of the things I love about living here.

The first thing I love is the most obvious, being on the coast.

The sea is connecting - to places I have been and places I want to go.

There's Assateague, a lovely beach with wild horses.

And Ocean City, the tourist beach with a fun boardwalk.

the little zoo.

I love the landscaping of it all.

The flamingos are G's favorite, and the peacock is Bo's.

the playgrounds

the summer brings blueberry picking, the fall brings apple picking, and I hear the spring brings strawberries.

Love it.

a cute little church down the street had a week long bible camp over the summer that Bo loved.

He showed them all how to move it during music time.

DC is just a couple hours away

it's October and still in the 70's.

our house. the boys run around the house screaming all the time. It's fun and I like it.

We also have a piano I got off Craigslist for $50, I'm looking forward to getting it tuned but that doesn't  stop the boys from enjoying it

We have a big backyard, with a new to us swing set.

church. I really enjoy our ward. I was called at the primary chorister, so I do music time with the kids, and although I suck at it, I really do like it.

where we live. It's a very small place, and the small town kindness is nice. I guess its always on the list of one of the worst places to live in the US because of crime, but I've only met nice people. I've even left my purse in a walmart shopping cart once and someone turned it in to their customer service.

I'm sure this list will be continued as we discover new things to love ;)

hello again

We are here. We've been here five weeks actually.

We live in a great house in a nice neighborhood, and the boys have already made friends. There are plenty of playgrounds. The zoo is small but beautiful.

But best of all the sea is here, and that is what makes it feel like home.

going away party

A week after graduation we threw a moving party for the boys. I rented out their favorite train for an hour and invited their friends for one last play date.

Everything was perfect.

the food was all G-Friendly

the weather was a bit windy with no chill

the train was the only planned activity

the decorations were simple and cute

the turnout was great

and my favorite part

my favorite of favorite parts -

Both boys had the best time I've ever seen. G was a bit tired, but still love it. And Bo was thrilled the entire time. It made me so happy that he was so happy. I couldn't stop smiling at how much he was smiling.

I love that on this one day, I was the funnest mama in the world.

Kelly's graduation - pretend this was published in May

Kelly graduated from Dental school.

We are getting closer my friends!

Kelly's mom, sister, and brother's family flew out for it. It was so nice of extended family to make the extra effort to come,  we love seeing them and don't get to often enough. His dad was most likely there too, just not physically. We were the luckiest with our seats, just off to the right of the stage, then when the graduates walked to their chairs Kelly ended up sitting just across from us. The boys loved that. As each classmate walked across stage and had clapping, Bo would give a little "wahoo" and sweet G would clap along and laugh. When Kelly walked across the stage, down the steps and back to his seat, Bo yelled the entire time "YAY DADDY!" loud enough that half the audience heard and was laughing.

The graduation ceremony was at 7pm, which happens to be my boys bedtime. But you can bet I had them come anyway to see their daddy graduate. I bribed them with too much candy, which worked until their sugar high crazed the hell out of em.

and they were more than happy to run into their daddy's arms before the ceremony was finished.

I can't blame them, that's what I wanted too.

I knew the late hour would be hard for them, so two months in advance I lined up a babysitter to come pick them up after the ceremony was over. It was perfect. We had the ceremony, took pictures, then Jessika arrived to take the boys home and put them to bed, still a good two hours past their bedtime. We then could enjoy the rest of the evening without feeling rushed to get them home. It was nice to see Kelly's classmates and their families (who we already knew well) at the reception after. It still felt like it wasn't the last time I would see everyone, but it was. Kelly, his mom, brother, and sister and I then took off to eat some real food at California Pizza Kitchen.

It's been a long road. He's worked hard for this. For us.

I'm proud of this man. I love him so.

weekends are the best

sweater weather + a saturday = a family zoo trip, which also = heaven for these boys and exhaustion for their parents

We thought we could go without a stroller, because there was one of each of us for the kids.

but we had to skip B's nap, and he went from full speed sprint to crawling on the ground to sprint again. It's hard enough for little boys to listen when they are rested and happy, but napless and happy.... the stroller is coming next time.

look close and you will see Bo trying to lick Kelly's ear.

he picked that up from 101 dalmatians, and surprises us with it just often enough.

There's nothing like having a little boy sneak up on you and lick your ear.

I love this family.

3

this is my boy and I just love him.

My sweet Jelly Bean turned 3 years old.

This is unreal.

He went from being a dream, a hope, a prayer, to a babe carried by our S, to a baby in our own arms, to a toddler, and now a little boy. He is the most wonderful journey.

His birthday was a conference Sunday, we stayed in and tried to do things he would enjoy.

We introduced him to cinnamon rolls. He doesn't care to try new foods, regardless of how delicious they appear. So we had to tell him it was cinnamon birthday cake with frosting. His horrified response? "But I want chocolate cake!" Good thing I waited to bake that planned vanilla cake. After convincing him he gets two cakes today, he dared to try the cinnamon rolls and enjoyed them.

We continued our little tradition of the birthday boy giving a small gift, to celebrate and show gratitude for their relationships. He handed out bubbles to just a few of his friends who were home, just enough to get the point across to him that his birthday is not all about him getting things. He really like it.

Party hats this year were cowboy hats from our most recent farm trip.

He loved to rip open the presents.
My favorite present to get him this year was a book I made for him "The Day You Were Born"
A very simple story, maybe I'll share parts of it.

We played outside in perfect weather.

Every year I have gotten him a radio flyer. His first year was a wagon, his second a scooter, and this year was a tricycle. I'm so glad it fit. He's slowly getting the hang of pedals.

We ate pizza dinner outside at his request. With G's new lift on soy he was even able to try a soy pizza made with soy cheese. Poor guy still knew it wasn't the same thing we were eating though (and it may or may not have given him a horrible night).

The wind picked up that afternoon and tried to blow out his candles, but between Kelly and our good neighbor Trent, they had them lit long enough for Bo to blow them out.

Yep, that cake is absolutely G-Friendly

Later that night, my parents came over and we sang happy birthday all over again. Bo loved it, he sang right along. Then when my camera wasn't working and I had to adjust a setting, I asked if we could do it again. Bo was more than excited to, he had been singing happy birthday to himself all day and having everyone sing along with him was heaven.

Oh how I love him.