Labor Day weekend 2012

We enjoyed having a nice long weekend to hang out with one another and enjoy the last days of summer before school started.

Labor Day marked the beginning of football season.  Owen commemorated the day by dressing up in his Tar Heel football uniform. Though we couldn't be there in person, we watched it on tv.

Being that we live in NC, it was still really hot! The boys enjoyed playing in the sprinkler together in the backyard while Daddy did some projects in the backyard. I even joined in!

We were supposed to have a small group cookout over at our house and everyone kind of backed out last minute. We did have the other Cox family over for dinner and the kids played in a bounce house we borrowed from a co-worker. (I can't seem to find the pictures though.)

It was a great end to the busy summer!

Sneaky Sneaky

If you follow me on Facebook, you have heard about my little mischievous 3 year old. For record purposes, here's the story.

One Thursday night, I went out to dinner with the ladies from our small group. The boys had been put to bed  and Jeremy came back to do some work on the computer.  Everyone was quiet for a while, so he went out to the garage to do some work. He would check in every so often and look at the monitors...he heard nothing. Later that evening Jeremy went upstairs to get something and found Owen was still awake. He went to Owen's room and saw brown stuff all over his sheets. J worried that he had thrown up or pooped, he asked Owen what happened.   He said he had been painting. Jeremy was confused as to what he meant so he asked Owen to explain. Owen then pulled him to our bathroom to show him that he had been "painting" with my makeup.  The brown was an almost full bottle of foundation that he had used to paint his face, bed, his pjs, and later we found his whole sink painted. He also played in my mascara and lipstick. Luckily I wasn't home at the time, so I could find it amusing.  However, I didn't find it very amusing when I was scrubbing the sink, door knob, light switch, etc. that we found covered the next day. After this incident, our bedroom door is now locked every night.

Not even a week later, he struck again. We came home from church, ate lunch, and put the boys down for a nap. I left and went to the grocery store while Jeremy listened out for the boys.  Again everything seemed quiet.  Jeremy heard some knocking around and went up. He found Owen had had poured out almost his entire BRAND NEW bottle of shampoo on his carpet! Seriously kid!? He evidently loves playing with liquids. After hours of spraying the carpet with water/white vinegar (to help reduce suds) and shop vac-ing it up, we finally got the carpet back to a reasonable state.  Later that afternoon, in anger, he unrolled an entire roll of toilet paper while going to the bathroom. Needless to say, he got in trouble.

What am I going to do with this kid?

 

iPhone Pictures from August

Most days I snap random pictures of the boys, but they are never enough to have a whole blog posts. So here's what we were up to in the month of August. 

Playing hockey one night after dinner

Sunday afternoon stroll through the neighborhood

We made one last trip to our old house to make the final repairs before we sign it over to the new owners. 

Owen has stopped taking a nap most days.  One afternoon he sat with me while I finished up some computer work and fell asleep on my shoulder.  He wasn't sleepy though. :)

We found this old robe of Owen's and Oliver loves wearing after his bath

By far my favorite picture! One night while running errands, Owen said, "Look Mommy, we're holding hands" I love them!

Playtime cut short by the rain

Kids of the technology age--Apple commerical--Oliver using an iPhone while Owen plays on Nana's iPad

Playing Wii baseball

Owen asked Jeremy to draw tattoos on him one night before bath.  What we we thought were washable markers, lasted a week on his skin. 

Owen's First Trip to Dentist

On August 23rd, Owen made his first trip to the dentist. Yes it's kind of late but I was apprehensive on how he would do. But as usual, he surprised me and did awesome.

His dentist office was so kind and kid-oriented. Owen's favorite was that he got to watch a movie while they cleaned his teeth. He also was very excited about the goodie bag full of teeth cleaning tools.

Dr. Beth said his teeth looked great and she was so impressed how well he did Hopefully he'll always love the dentist.

First glance at the tv on the ceiling

Mouth open wide for the hygentist 

So mesmerized by the movie, he's not even paying attention to the hygentist

Getting his teeth cleaned

Dr. Beth counting his teeth and looking for cavities (There were none!) 

Lego Duplo Read and Build Party

Saturday August 4th the boys and I hosted a Lego Duplo party.  House Party is a company that offers free products in exchange for hosting a party.  We have hosted one other party, The Pull Ups Potty Dance Party, back in March. 

Owen and Oliver both have really enjoyed building with blocks lately. We have a big Mega-Blocks set but they were getting to be too simplictic for Owen.  He wanted to create more but was limited by the size.  

Lego Duplos are an awesome size for him! Our friends, the Lyes, let Owen borrow their set and he has played with them every day since.   Therefore, I was really excited when we got selected to host this party.  

Lego Duplo has a new product called the Read and Build Series.  The kit comes with a small board book that you read to your child  While you are reading, each page has a figure to build out of Legos.  We were given the Big Farm set and the boys love it.  The animals are simply enough for them to build by themselves, but fun for us to do together. 

Onto the actual party...

The food station...here you could build your own edible lego.  There was cheese (cut into little circles) and square crackers as well as graham crackers with M&Ms (held on with a bit of frosting).  To make it a little more healthy, I added a fruit bowl . :)

The Lego mobile above the table.

 The drink station..juice boxes covered to look like Legos (thanks to Daddy for designing them!)

The coloring station with coloring sheets from Lego's website

Owen playing with the Legos while waiting for our guests

 The Busy Farm set with the Rooster

Owen couldn't wait to try a juice box

The Terrys playing with our huge stash of Legos

 More of the party guests

Sadly I didn't get a picture of the whole gang together as some of the younger kids enjoyed the playroom toys more.  Thanks for those who joined us! 

Summer 2012

I'm sorry I've been such a bad blogger.  We've had a busy summer but I feel like there hasn't really been anything really blog-worthy.  For memory-sake, here's what we've been up to this summer.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings have been spent at the Y just like the school year.  I have been co-leading the 3 year old preschool camp. It's been a HOT summer so it's not always been very pleasurable to be outside, but luckily the Y has many activities scheduled for us inside.  The pool helps of course. :)  The boys are still going to childcare at the Y while I teach and they have been enjoying their pool times and games as well.

Tuesday and Thursdays we've been for running errands, having play dates, and going to the pool. We have made many trips to the library as well and finished our summer reading programs.  The boys each earned two new books through the program, which was fun.

The weekends have been jammed back I feel like.  We have made several trips to Rocky Mount to work on our house.  One weekend was just cleaning and yard work, while weekend 2 was to paint all the bedrooms. Luckily all our hard work paid off and we are finally under contract!! The showings had been slow coming so we were getting nervous. We got one low-ball offer and could never reach an agreement, but the following week we had another couple come in with one.  They are giving us our asking price; we just have to pay their closing cost! We are so excited about this and are now just praying that the inspection and appraisal go well.  The expected closing date is not until September 15th (due to the loan), but we are hopeful that we will soon be done with this house.  We have never been more excited to NOT be homeowners!

Speaking of buying/selling houses, my parents are now under contract for a condo here on Lake Norman.  They have always wanted a lake house and now with both of their children here in Charlotte, they thought it would be a great place to have one.  The condo will be great for weekend visits, summer weeks, and hopefully as a retirement home. We look forward to seeing them more!

At nights, Jeremy and I have been working on random craft projects. TV in the summer kind of stinks so it's been a good excuse to turn it off and get some stuff done. Jeremy is building Owen and Oliver a train table and I've been doing some sewing and playing with my Silhouette. (Note to self: Do a post on craft projects).

So that's it...that's been our summer.  Low key but busy at the same time.

8th Anniversary

On July 10th, Jeremy and I celebrated 8 years of matrimony! It's been an amazingly fast 8 years! God has brought us through so much and we are so thankful that He gave us each other. There is no other person I'd rather walk this crazy life with. :) On July 7th, we were able to go out and celebrate thanks to Groupon and our friend Emily. Emily graciously babysat the boys so that we could go out sans kids. Thanks to Groupon, we got a great deal on a local vineyard tour.

Treehouse Vineyards is a small vineyard in Monroe, NC that has been open for about 18 months.  They make a variety of muscadine wines that are both rather sweet. Our Groupon gave us a winery tour, tasting, and a sample.

The actual treehouse on the property. You can rent it out for date nights. Sadly it is rented out until December.

8 Years! 

After the tour, we had dinner at Miro Spanish Grill.  We enjoyed reflecting on the last year and "planning" the years to come. We pray that the Lord gives us many, many more together.