Our Anniversary Trip!

Brian and I left the kids this weekend in the capable hands of our Mothers and got away! We've been planning on doing something for our anniversary for awhile, but we aren't big on "plans." It's too hard with the kids to set something in stone, but we've known for a few weeks that we would go away this weekend. We narrowed our choices down to hiking in the mountains, going to the Outer Banks, and going to Williamsburg. We finally settled on Williamsburg, and off we went!

We left Saturday evening to drive up and check into our hotel. We wanted to stay at Great Wolf Lodge both nights, but we ended up staying at a Courtyard Marriott or something the first night. We were able to go get something to eat and relax. No bedtime routines or anything! It was crazy!

On Sunday we slept in (we both woke up at 6:30 sure that we were up for the day, but then fell back asleep until 8:30), and then headed off to Colonial Williamsburg. I know that some people don't find it interesting, but I love it! Since we live close by we go frequently, but I still remember the first time I went. I am a history buff and everything about Williamsburg interests me. I feel extraordinarily lucky to live in this area. There is so much history here, I don't understand how you couldn't appreciate it all! Fortunately, my husband is on the same page, so we both always have a lot of fun!

Embarking on our Colonial adventure!
The gardens outside of the Governor's Palace.

Brian and I in the gardens!

More Governor's Palace

Look, even Colonial Williamsburg is energy efficient!

We only stayed part of the day there and then headed to the Outlets for some shopping. Brian got some new shoes, I got a few work clothes, and then we spent a ton of money on the kids! They both got some new clothes for fall (the outlets are amazing - Carter's, Gymboree, Osh Kosh, Stride Rite), and even some for next summer!

We checked into Great Wolf Lodge after our shopping trip and we had a great time! The room was amazing, and the Water park was a lot of fun. We were able to try some rides that we've never been on before, and we always come back with lots of ideas for Brian's job. But mainly, we just had a fantastic time. It's a lot of fun to be able to get away and do things like that together like we used to. We kept talking about the things that the kids would love. Actually, we just kept talking about the kids!

Monday morning we woke up and went to the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Can I just tell you that breakfast might be my favorite meal of the day?

Cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs with cheese, hash browns, sausage and french toast sticks! Delish! (And today I start Weight Watchers)....

Here we are in the foyer of the lodge. I have to say that I was slightly underwhelmed when we walked in because the lobby is nothing compared to the lobby at the Wilderness Lodge at Disney World. But that was completely made up for when we got to our room! WOW! It was amazing!

This is the fireplace where they do story time for the kids every night. We had a great time and can't wait to take the kids back one day! I think they're still a little young, but it will be perfect in a few years!

We were so excited to get home to the kids last night that we couldn't stand it. We spent the day back at Colonial Williamsburg, and then headed home. We were so excited to see our babies, but we've always tried to make spending time alone a priority too. I know our kids will have a much happier childhood if we stay happy, so it's something that we definitely carve time out for (thanks to some pretty awesome grandparents). And it's so worth it. Even though we missed them like crazy, we came home recharged and more of team than we were when we left...and we were quite the team then! I (secretly) can't wait for our next get-away!

Our Anniversary (and Traditions)!

Yesterday was our third wedding anniversary! I can't believe it's been three whole years since our wedding day! We both spent our days working (well, I spent my morning working as usual), and when I came home I found these beautiful flowers waiting for me!


We have a few anniversary traditions. The first tradition is that we always buy each other one "traditional" gift. For the third anniversary the traditional gift is leather. I got Brian a leather golf glove, and he got me new leather boots! Brian also got a picture frame, golf balls and a Titleist Yankees hat, and I got a gift certificate for a pedicure. I am so excited to go get a pedicure!

We also traditionally go out to eat at Rockafeller's, which is where we had our rehearsal dinner. Yes, it's apparently a family tradition to have our rehearsal dinners there.

The restaurant sign
Brian wants to let everyone know that the Miami Dolphins are Number 1. But this is not a Miami Dolphin! Our city has these dolphins everywhere. People buy them and decorate them.

Here we are outside the restaurant by the stairs leading up to the room where we had our rehearsal dinner!

We had a lot of fun at dinner, though I think I made a poor decision about my meal. I got crab stuffed shrimp, but it was fried in tempura batter. It was good for a little bit, but then it was too much. Brian's salmon was very good!

After dinner we went to Guad's for some drinks. It was a lot of fun, like the olden days before we had kids. Brian used to live near the restaurant and we used to go all the time for drinks and Mexican. I love chips and that white salsa! Soooooo good!

We're planning on sneaking away from the kids for a few days to spend some time alone in the near future! We're super excited to have a little get-away to celebrate three fantastic years!

Reese!

Last night Brian and I were looking back at the blog from just after Wyatt's first birthday so we could see what he was doing then (not to compare, because we don't expect them to match up). Then I realized that I haven't really updated about just Reese lately!




Her new favorite thing to do is to sing her ABC's. When I say "sing them" I mean she says "ABCDE" and then stops. But she's so proud of herself, and she's working on the rest. She's also in love with books. She will grab one off the book shelf (usually Wonder Pets themed) and walk over to one of us, hand it over, then turn around and plop down on our lap! She loves to turn the pages while we read to her.



She got her first pair of big girl shoes today too! I wanted to buy her a few cute pairs from Target, but everytime I put them on her, her feet are too wide. Today we went to the mall (someone has an anniversary on Wednesday....) and stopped by Stride Rite to get her measured and to look for shoes that would fit. Let me tell you, she is in love with shoes! She got the biggest smile on her face when we walked in the store. She sat up and started reaching out for every pair! She gets so excited to try different shoes on, and then she likes to sit and stare at her feet with them on. I told Brian that I'm pretty sure she's going to grow up and design shoes. She loved every pair that she tried on but we ended up buying these.

It pained me to spend that much money on shoes, but I've done my research, and I know that the first shoes that they wear after they start walking are important. Wyatt had Stride Rites when he started walking (but his were hand me downs from his older cousin Derek), and they fit him perfectly. I know that these will be great for her, and they match pretty much everything she has for fall!

She is quite the little baseball fan, although she isn't saying "ball" yet.

Words she is saying:

Mama

Dada

Pop Pop

Didi

Baba

Mimi

Duck

"Quack"

Bunny

Nana (banana)

Yes

Doggie

Bye

Here she is, completely distressed because her seventh tooth is coming in! It's another one on the bottom, but it doesn't seem to bother her. I'm hoping that she will be as easy going with teeth for the remainder as Wyatt was. It got to the point that we stopped noticing when he was getting teeth because he didn't cry or anything! Fingers crossed!

What We've Been Up To....

We've had a lot going on the past few days! On Friday the virtual tour of our house was completed. This required a lot of cleaning and straightening so the house looks its best when people "tour" it online. The kids behaved really well during the whole process, considering that the guy came right in the middle of nap time and they had to wait until he was done to nap! The virtual tour should hopefully be up online soon.


Potty training is going really well! He has maybe one accident a day (usually if he's in the middle of doing something fun), and the rest of the time he pees in the potty! He hasn't really pooped in the potty yet (he's gone twice), but he's still doing really well! On Friday afternoon we were running errands, and while we were driving through a parking lot, Wyatt got a really uncomfortable look on his face and said "I have to pee pee Daddy!" This was not a shock considering he and Brian had just shared a huge Lemonade at Target. We didn't have a potty, so we pulled over to a little median in the parking lot, and he peed right there on the grass! He was very proud of himself!


We went to go look for shoes for Reese after that adventure, and while we were there we found rain boots for Wyatt. They're Spiderman boots, and while Wyatt doesn't actually need them, they were only $3! The second he put them on he started strutting through the store! I was mortified when he refused to take them off, and wore them out to dinner at Red Robin, but I suppose that's life with a toddler...

Great Day to Play in the Water

Monday was such a nice day, and I couldn't say no when Wyatt asked to play in the water on the way out of the zoo. He had such a fun time playing with Brian. Brian was swinging him around in the water, and Wyatt was actually brave enough to run through it. He had such a good time!

Trip to the Zoo!

The Waterpark is closed! YAY! I had the kids to myself all weekend while Brian worked and he stayed home with us today. We decided to go to the zoo because it isn't too crowded this time of year, and we basically had the whole place to ourselves!'


Our first stop today was the barnyard (uck). Wyatt really enjoys the barn animals, but I felt like we were on a superspeed tour of the zoo. We breezed through the barn yard and he told us he was taking us to the snakes and monkeys. We've probably gone to the zoo once a month this summer (and I honestly don't think we went in August), but Wyatt has the place memorized.

We just recently started going to the nocturnal area (I'm afraid that I have some sort of wizard gene that I don't know about and can speak Pareseltongue. I live in fear that the glass will disappear and a snake will slide out. I know the snake will be nice to me if I am in fact a Parseltongue, but it still scares me. Plus, if I am an heir of Slytherin, I don't want to know about it.) and he knew every animal before we got there. And yes, that entire tribute to Harry Potter should prove to you what a dork I am. Brian's gotten very mad at me lately for all of my vampire references from reading Twilight, claiming that they're inaccurate. I say that ultra dreamy (borderline stalker) vampires do exist, but he says they're all mean and want human blood. Whatever!



Anyway, back to the zoo. After the snakes we went to see the prairie dogs. Wyatt had a pretty good view...

He didn't realize it was up there until I told him!

Reese absolutely loves the prairie dogs! She sat there and talked to them and pointed them out. She thinks that they are so funny!

This was too cute! I have no idea what they're talking about.

Today the kangaroo exhibit was finally completely open! The last two times we've gone the kangaroos have been partially hidden so they could get acclimated to their new environment, but today we were able to see them hopping and everything. Both kids loved it, and there are at least 10 kangaroos!

We stopped to take a picture of Reese in the butterfly garden. She looks so big!

Wyatt and I looking at the "Daddy Lion." He was able to tell us so much about the animals today. He is just learning at such a fast rate that he even surprises us with some of the things he says and does. He's becoming a better big brother every day, and he's even opened up to some new foods lately! He's also doing really well with the potty training (although I am going to buy new potties tomorrow), and we're so proud of him!

Much Anger In Him, Like His Father.

So Wyatt and Brian aren't angry at all (although Wyatt makes some pretty angry faces) but I thought a Star Wars quote was rather appropriate with these pictures of my little Padawan learner*.

Showing off his moves
Although this picture does make him look kind of angry, he was actually very excited because he found his light saber yesterday. He loves playing with this thing!

Excuse the lack of pants. We're potty training by letting him run around in big boy pants. It's made for some fun messes, but he really recognizes when he goes potty!


* I am not actually a Star Wars dork. I just know the quotes that Brian repeats. And that's it. In fact, I've only seen the original movies once, and I'm not looking forward to ever watching them again.

Potty Training!

For the last few days we've been attempting to potty train Wyatt. While he has not actually peed in the potty yet, he has pooped in it! I prompted him because I was sitting next to him on the couch and kind of picked up that he had started, so we ran to the bathroom where he promptly eliminated it into the toilet!

For that little "deposit," he was rewarded with the prize of being able to dump it into the toilet and flush it all by himself. On top of that exciting time, he also got 3 M&M's!

This whole process is killing me! I'm not even that convinced that it's going to make my life easier. Now, on top of the haslle of going out with two kids, I'm going to have to stop, do something with Reese, and then take Wyatt to the bathroom. Other Moms - how do you take one kid to the bathroom when you have multiple kids? I can't just leave Reese in the middle of a store! Right now we're still wearing diapers when we venture out, but I don't know how this works. Any advice would be appreciated!

He Likes to Move It, Move It!

Brian is gearing up for football season (there are multiple football pools) and he started watching the game tonight. Wyatt has already told me that his favorite team is the Dolphins and he's running around the house playing with Brian. Before all the throwing started, Wyatt did a warm up with some dancing. I'm not sure why Wyatt found this Tim McGraw song to be danceworthy - except to say that old Tim McGraw songs are about 8 million times better than new Tim McGraw songs.

Anyway, here he is showing off some of his moves.

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

I am SO SICK OF RAIN! It rained every day last week, and it's rained pretty much every day this week too. Add that to the fact the we have severely cut down on TV time, and I've had one very bored little boy!

We spent Monday afternoon coloring and working on colors. Wyatt is getting pretty good at pointing them out, but he also gets really silly. Reese thinks it is so fun to watch him color (she prefers to try to eat the crayons).

Laughing at her big brother
Coloring together!

Fortunately for us all, Brian has been home a lot this week. He's been home by nap time every day (and he's been using nap time to take naps himself!), so Wyatt and Reese have had a lot of fun playing with him. On Tuesday the boys built a fort, and Wyatt loved it. Reese loved trying to knock it down!

The boys in their fort

Reese destroying the fort

Where did the boys go?

First Birthday Party!

Yesterday was Reese's birthday party! I was super prepared (meaning the house was already cleaned), and really just needed to run and blow up balloons, clean bathrooms, decorate and vacuum the house before the party started at 2 yesterday. Until we woke up and found that we were under attack by ants.

I hate ants! They are so gross. I don't even know what they thought they were going to find. There is not a crumb anywhere in this house! While Brian took care of destroying them (at least the ants downstairs, we decided to destroy the ants our bathroom with bait to take back to their vicious colony). I ended up having to take the kids with me to blow up balloons. Fortunately, my sister came with me, so I was able to leave them in the car while I blew everything up. We also had to stop and get peppermint extract. Mixing peppermint and water and spraying it is a deterrent for ants. We sprayed everywhere yesterday, and so far we seem to be okay.

I was able to get everything done before the party, and everyone had a lot of fun. Reese slept through the first 15 minutes (no use in waking her up so we'd have a whiny baby at her party). I got her dressed in her party outfit and brought her downstairs!

Here she is saying hi to her new friend Audrey! I got her tutu at the Polka Dot Market and ordered the onesie on Etsy. Her little hair bow came from Pigtails & Crewcuts when I got Wyatt's hair cut last week.
She loves baby Audrey! And I love that tutu!

Taking a closer look!

We ordered ice cream cupcakes from Cold Stone Creamery for everyone else to eat, and I picked up Reese's smash cake from Harris Teeter. They have a deal where you can get your baby's first birthday smash cake for free if you're a VIC card holder (which is what we did for Wyatt), but I forgot to sign her up, so we had to pay. Oh well!

Reese was very polite with her cake. She would only eat it with a spoon. I put it in front of her, expecting her to go to town, but she looked at me like "Where's my spoon?" Once I gave it to her, she started eating away!

And she finally started using her hands!

Reese needed a new fall wardrobe, and now she is set! She got so many cute clothes that I (almost) can't wait for it to get colder to put her in them!

We set up the slide and a few other toys out front for the kids to play on. As everyone walked out all the kids kind of congregated around the T ball set, or the slide or the wagon. Wyatt decided to pull Reesie in the wagon. I just had to supervise to make sure he didn't take her in the street!

Home Sweet (Even Though We're Ready To Move) Home!

A year ago today we (cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and then) packed her up in the car...

And brought her home....
So she could meet her big brother!

And with exception of a few pillows to the head, one or two incidents where she's been rolled over, and a recent interest in magic tricks making her disappear, they've gotten along splendidly!

Oh, and Reese learning to defend herself by biting has probably helped too!