Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Over the weekend

Saturdays we have planned out. For the rest of the year. Pretty much. At least for the rest of the gardening season. Scott has put himself in charge of this year (I don't mind). He has drawn out the plans, literally, and has already started prepping our beds. He's watched tons of YouTube videos and borrowed books from the library. Our garden is going to be at least 4x's as big as it has been because he's got three more beds he has created now that most of our chopped wood is gone. It's nice though, because that means Addi will be going outside again with him. She really loves hanging outside with him.
It might be hard to tell- but he dug down about 8 inches right here and you can see where there is about 4 inches of soil and then a perfect line of where the clay starts...He's been digging all of it up so our roots can go further. What a champ.
Later in the same day we took a drive up to Pilot Mt. and met some friends of ours for the trip. It's only about 40 minutes away and we wanted to get a few of the geocaches that are dedicated to Pilot Mt.
The first was at a dedicated viewpoint of the mt.

another cache
The rule is that you cannot place geocaches in national or state parks. However, you can do virtual caches. That is where you take a picture at the determined place and log online with the picture that you were there. It's the sneaky way to get around it legally.

In the beginning Addilyn wanted to be held the whole time. Well I wasn't about to carry her- she is fully capable of walking! After the first 10 or so minutes she finally stopped asking and actually refused to be carried. She was having a blast walking around the rocks and climbing up and down. There was some leftover snow as well on the shaded parts of the trails that she made sure to step on.
It's cool to think that 2 years ago, Addi was in the same position here as Levi was this past weekend. Gosh, look at their blue eyes. Here is from our first time visiting Pilot Mt. Unlike that trip, we just drove to the top instead of hiking the whole thing. 
.


love this picture. looking for planes and birds.


love this sweet boy

Niel and Karen's car got stuck on the side of the road. We parked to go find the last cache and when they got back, well, they made a mess. From the left over snow and rain it made for quite a soft shoulder!

Thursday, February 20, 2014

#photosbyaddi

Addilyn is our personal photographer. Surprise! It's not me anymore. Her photography is a bit up close and personal. She likes to think my phone is hers. On instagram I am not posting her photos with the hashtag #photosbyaddi
Before Levi's Dr apt we went to the mall to kill a little time. GOSH he's cute. He's patterned after Addilyn with her size at this check-up. He weighs a whopping 17.8 lbs (22%) and is 28" (2something%) The biggest thing we talked to his Dr about was his sleeping. After some talking it was suggested we stick him in the pack-in-play in the basement- and leave him there. The first night he cried, a lot. Last night I didn't hear him until almost 5:30am. So far so good. He's still in the basement and will be probably until Sunday night and we'll go from there. 
The other day we went to the grocery store to pick up dinner. Scott found this cart for Addilyn and she was beside herself with excitement. She loves life. 

Some more candids by Addilyn. #photosbyaddi

Our Valentines party for playgroup had to get changed from Valentines Day to Monday due to the snow. We had crafts, music games, treats, and of course passing out Valentines! The kids had a lot of fun. Addilyn was rather, er, emotional that day. She thought it was going to be just her and Rowan (who she absolutely loves) but then more kids showed up. Hahaha...oh man.


checking out her loot.


Friday, February 14, 2014

9 months

This guy turned 9 months old yesterday. And on the same day, he officially crawled. Not any kind of pull, army, slide, etc. A beautiful up on all fours crawl. He only does it only a little bit because his sister is quick to attack when he is within her reach. His check up apt isn't until Tuesday, so I don't have any stats.

His sleeping has gone up and down. He goes to bed just fine, it's how long he sleeps for. He varies from waking up sometime from 3-5am. If it's before 4, we let him cry until then and then I will go in and feed him. He'll sleep until 7 at that point.

Eating has greatly improved. I love this point when they can feed themselves. That way it saves me time from sitting there spoon feeding him so I can feed myself or help Addilyn. Levi hangs out in his high chair and just observes while he munches on his food. The only downfall of the training period is all the food that goes on the floor. The broom is basically never back in it's closet. It's always in the kitchen.

Overall I think the greatest thing is seeing Levi crawl! It's such a huge milestone and I'm just loving seeing him grow so big and see his personality. He still only has his 2 teeth but he loves to munch on anything and everything like any baby.

As a side note for Addilyn-
She's a pistol. I've had to be a lot more on top of making sure she's fed and slept well so she won't have, well, a moment. She throws a tantrum here or there, but nothing that we can't handle (yet!) Also, one of our friends is very pregnant. And Addilyn has been fascinated again with having babies. She thinks something in your shirt, pant leg, whatever, is a baby. She'll hide a toy in her pant leg and say "baby". She thinks I have a baby, Scott, and even Levi has a baby. She thinks she is going to have a sister. Uhm...right...not for a while....

Snowpocalypse....Snowmagedon....

It snowed. The biggest snow storm in years in the south. I'm sure you've all heard it on the news and may have experienced it yourself. It started snowing Wednesday about 1pm. It stopped around 8 or so after giving us 4 inches. It was supposed to snow that night too, but it didn't start again until about 8:30am. It didn't stop until around 4. 
Scott brought home his computer and worked from home Thursday and today. He took an extended lunch and we took the family out for some fun. We had so much fun! Addi and Levi did extremely well.

We took the stroller around the block. It was a work out, but we did it. We just went to the closest hill that we could find hoping to get a few shots down the hill. Unfortunately it was a really week hill and we turned back.


We then went and built a snowman! Levi hung out and was happy in the stroller nice and toasty!
making her own snowman
I showed Addilyn that she could eat the snow, and that's how she spent the rest of the time. She loved it.

Today we ventured out to Costco after Scott was done working. It was 55 outside. Hopefully this snow will melt SOON. Our car ride there we saw a few cars that were still left abandoned. We also got to see this guy off the road. Don't know how he did it, with the road plowed and everything...



Thursday, February 13, 2014

From January to February

My lunch dates. Scott and his friend made a geo-cache one weekend and placed it just down the road from us. From the few people who've found it already, they've each already given them favorite points! That is a big deal seeing as you can only give a favorite point for every 10 or so that you find. That same day they placed it we went out to a deli (thanks to Groupon) for lunch. There were some Wake Forest students there and they thoroughly enjoyed their entertainment from Addi and Levi.
It SNOWED! And as I speak, it is snowing RIGHT NOW. This first snow is from about 2 weeks ago. Addilyn was claiming that snowmen came from the sky. Once outside I taught her how to make a snow angel. It didn't go over too well. 




Levi enjoying from his cocoon.

Post snow hot chocolate
Snow bunny
(Above) Addilyn will only get her hair done if she can do ours first. (Below) We went to a friend's birthday party. He turned 1 and we all wore mustaches. Sorry, the picture I do have of the birthday boy is blurry. He was enjoying his cake.

Chocolate mustaches
For those who are not aware, I am not a runner. However, I have secretly always wanted to run a 5k because everyone else does. I never said it before because once you say something like that, it's out there and you commit yourself to doing it. So here I am, training for my first 5k ever. And you know, it's not that bad. I did have to go pay with my left leg for real running shoes because what I was running in was killing me. Scott and I are both pretty impressed with how far I've come in just a short time. My 5k is on March 22 here in Winston-Salem.
Addi steals my phone and takes pics, here are some.
We've dedicated about 1 Saturday a month to geocaching. It's Scott's day to plan for us. Last Saturday we went to one of our favorite places, Reynolda Village. I think we did all of them that were in there. This tree below we've seen in full bloom. It's this huge magnolia tree and it's shaped like an umbrella. With it being winter and all, the shrubbery around it was down so we could go under it. We've never seen the actual tree part of it- and as you can see it is HUGE. 



We went through another tunnel to get to a cache. It was pretty anticlimactic. It didn't even have a log book. But it was fun getting down there. 


feeding himself breakfast

Another one of Addi's portraits.

(Above) Addilyn is our little ballerina. She likes to jump and twirl like one. And the other day she said for me to look, and this is what I found. Pretty impressive eh?
These pictures are from yesterday. School was canceled in the Piedmont, and there wasn't even snow. Just the prediction at about 3. Well, at 1:15 it started. And this picture above is right before Addi's nap when it was just barely starting to stick. It is still snowing. We got 4 inches yesterday and it started snowing again at 8:30am and is still going (almost noon). Scott brought home his laptop and is working in Levi's room. 
 Here is Addilyn loving the snow. Scott left work at 4 yesterday and still got home about his usual time at 5:30. He said there were cars everywhere just abandoned. And it was really backed up if you can imagine.

The story behind this picture- my phone fell out of my pocket onto Addi's bed right before naptime. An hour later I snuck in and grabbed it (by her head) while she was sleeping. I had a gazillion texts and a few phone calls. And that never happens! But she had put the do not disturb on, I'm sure by accident, and probably didn't hear any of them. She did however take several pictures and a few videos. Unfortunately the videos have no audio because she didn't say anything on them. That was disappointing. But there were several photos of what it looks like from her bed. When she woke up she was asking me for her phone and looking all over her bed. Hehehhee.