Birthday Girl

It's hard to believe, but our little Hannah turned 2!! 

She loved playing with play-doh in the morning. I played with her for a long time, then Grandma took over while I looked up ideas for her cake.

 Hannah helped me make her cake in the morning. She saw it cooling on the counter then I wrapped it up to put in the freezer. She saw the empty pan and was upset her cake was all gone!! It was pretty funny.

I decided to try a Barney and Baby Bop cake, since she loves them!! It wasn't super cute, but recognizable enough for her and she loved it!

(I have no idea why this pic won't rotate!)

 The boys love birthdays and could barely keep their hands off her presents. She didn't mind the help. 

She got all kinds of pink toys and we love them! Grandma had been singing the Happy Birthday song with her all week and she loved to sing along. Grandma also taught her to say her age when asked how old she was. What a cute girl we have. We all adore her. She loves giving kisses and hugs to the boys at bedtime and she feels sad when they don't give her kisses good bye when they leave for school. She's saying a lot more legible words now and loves to sing. We had her 2 year check up and she's in the 50 percentile range for height and weight. She has such a pretty smile and is definitely Miss Personality. She can throw a tantrum like no other, She loves to color and play with her doggies or dolls. She loves being outside, but usually without shoes. She loves her family and we just love her to pieces!!

We were so lucky to have Grandma here for Hannah's birthday, but realized we hadn't taken any pictures of her visit. These cute kids sure love their grandma!

Maine and Boston: Parent's Only!

This November Barrett and I celebrate our 10 year anniversary. We've been wanting to take a fun trip without kids and hoped to go to Europe with my sister and her husband, but then we bought a house and that dream went out the window. Barrett's mom found cheap airline tickets and was coming to visit in September, so Barrett decided we needed to go on an early anniversary trip while she was here. She changed her tickets to stay longer so we could get away. We originally planned to be gone 2 nights, but the more we thought about where to go and what to see, 2 nights turned into 4 nights and 5 full days. I've really been wanting to go to Charleston, SC because I was born there and have heard it's a beautiful place. I've also wanted to go to Maine to see the lighthouses. We ended up deciding to drive up to Maine and stay 2 nights then down to Boston for 2 nights. It was awesome! We could do whatever we wanted, see whatever we wanted, eat whatever and whenever we wanted!! No kids to complain or feed or nap. It was about the right amount of time for us. We don't have big hobbies or interests and don't really like spending money eating out every meal and we really started missing our kids...but, it was nice to get a break and hold hands again:)

 We loved Maine! We stayed in Portland on the waterfront and loved being able to walk from our hotel to fun things. We drove around to look at lighthouses. It was so beautiful!

This is Spring Point Ledge Lighthouse. It was fun walking out on this breaker to see it up close. I've seen similar lighthouses in Delaware and Maryland, but the view was much better.

 Then we drove over to the Portland Head Lighthouse. I was so excited walking up to it. It was soooo beautiful!! I mean, I don't think you could get a bad picture of it. We walked around and admired it for awhile. We shopped in the git shop for a few minutes too.

 

We then drove over to The Lobster Shack to see Two Lights. I think I only took a picture of one of these lighthouses. We also ate lunch. I'm not a seafood fan, but was caught up in the atmosphere and wanted to try lobster, until we sat down and I saw that little red creature in a basket with his eyeballs oozing out. Luckily, I ordered a cheeseburger and blueberry pie and Barrett ate the lobster. Good thing they had directions how to eat it on the tray! I tasted it but was too grossed out reading the directions for Barrett on how to eat it. Maybe I should have tried a lobster roll...next time:)

 The best part of eating here was the view. It was so pretty and peaceful! We also bought the kids lobster shaped lollipops at the gift shop there. I wish I would have taken a picture of them!

We walked around downtown Portland and passed Longfellow's house, but didn't want to pay to take a tour. We found Lobster Bisque and contemplated buying it for the boys since they love the Bisque guy on Studio C...but then we realized nobody would eat it, so a picture works too. We ate some pretty tasty food and gelato and wish we had more time to explore more of Maine. 

 We headed down to Boston and stopped at the Boston Temple. We never get to go in together plus Barrett found some family names to do work for. We figured it was the perfect opportunity to do the work! It was nice to be inside together and to do temple work for ancestors. I also chatted with one of the workers about Delaware and my grandparents which was really a special moment!

 It was too expensive to stay in Boston, so we booked a hotel 30 minutes outside of town. We had to take a train and subway to get to Fenway park to see a Red Sox game, but worth it! Barrett and the boys have been to lots of sports games this last year, but I haven't been invited, so it was fun to go this time! We had to leave before the game was over so we could catch our train home, but it was still fun...especially since we thought it was going to get rained out!

 We went back into the city the next day to walk the Freedom Trail. Boston felt like such a safe place. We've walked around Philly and DC and Boston felt much safer than other places. 

 We also walked around a little portion of Harvard, so beautiful. It was weird to see a color other than blue in a bookstore. All of Barrett's schools have been navy (BYU, UDEL, Drexel). 

 Across the street from the Harvard bookstore was this cute little shop, which we didn't go in, but thought the kids would like to see the picture. They're George fans!

 We hiked up to Bunker Hill which was 294 steps, but we did it! We rested on the grass when we were done, trying to muster the strength to walk back to the Italian district for dinner...so much walking!!

So, we're not great at taking selfies...or any pictures for that matter:)

The drive back was ok, but we were ready to be home with our kids. Driving through New York in traffic and having to go to the bathroom didn't help either! It was a fun trip and we're glad Grandma was willing to take care of our kids and get them to and from school and soccer! She also helped me by watching the kids during church Sunday so I could play the organ (Barrett had a high council speaking assignment in another ward) and play for choir. It's always nice to have another mother around:) 

Soccer Boys

The boys started soccer this year. They were really excited for their first practice and getting all decked out. They totally thought they were ready to play FIFA:)

 First game!

 Damon is really good. His team isn't that great, but for his first experience in soccer, I think it's fine. Come to find out, we are THOSE parents that yell and give instructions from the side lines. Barrett even ran along with Damon on the sidelines when he did a fast break towards the goal. Luckily Damon doesn't seem to mind us, yet:) 

Tommy's #7 and so far has scored 3 goals!!!! He is all over the field/ball, in a good way. He's a fast runner and loves to score...he gets so proud of himself!

His first game was against one of his best buddies:) We love bumping into them Saturday mornings on the fields.

 And this is what little sisters do during games when her parents are preoccupied watching...she snags lollipops out of mom's bag!!

September Pics

Somebody was mad when they were told they couldn't have another chocolate cupcake!

 A fun walk on some trails at a park. Hannah grabbed Damon's hand...it was too cute!!

 Day off from school, so we enjoyed the park.

 Hannah started doing little projects while the boys were at school. She loved making these animals! She says, "pih, cow, shee, duh" We taped them to the wall, but I would often find her playing with them somewhere or sticking them on a different wall. 

 Grandma came for a visit and needed help with her luggage at the airport!

Hannah helped herself to some Reese's Puffs one morning. She made it in the bowl, plus everywhere else. She didn't mind!

 Can we say CUTE?!! Grandma brought the boys new BYU shirts and Hannah got this adorable dress!! Lots of pictures were a must:)

Painting

Our kitchen and entry way were yellow. It wasn't bad, but we weren't totally in love with the color. In the kitchen it had the same tone as the cabinets and wood floors. Barrett really wanted to repaint, so we got serious. We had paint chips up all over for weeks. We finally narrowed it down, bought a few samples, then picked a color and bought the paint. We were so paranoid and taped everything! We primed it first and it took forever. If we didn't have kids that needed us, then we probably could have worked faster. I ended up taking everyone to Chick-fil-A for dinner so Barrett could finish. By the time the kids were in bed, we had to talk ourselves into pulling out the paint color. We were a pretty good team. At 2 in the morning, the color looked ocean blue and we were super nervous, but in the morning, it looked beautiful!! We still have to do another coat...maybe:)

Hannah kept herself busy at the paint store while we picked out paint chips.

 Taping, taping, and taping!

 Entry way before painting.

Kitchen before painting.

 Tommy loved helping screw in the outlets.

 The new kitchen!!

 New entryway

The kids had fun helping us take all the tape off and we made the biggest tape ball, which looked more like a mountain (there it is in the bottom right corner)!