Family Vacation in Florida, June 2013

We went to Florida with our family friends the Karsanacs and the Carrs. We had a blast playing in the sand. I am a Nazi when it comes to the beach, so our family was on the sand as much as possible.

 The boys had Ben to play with who is about 9 months older than Chase. They laughed as they chased the waves, threw sand in the air and laid prone in the surf.

 Father's day fell within the week so we snuck away to give our gifts to Daddy...Ben didn't seem to mind.  He joined us for the event!

The boys love to make cards for people and we love to receive these precious cards too!

 There was plenty of trips to the ice cream store this week. Chase found his new favorite flavor- bubble gum!

 Jason took Kaleb for a special Father-Son breakfast one morning and Kaleb ordered the kids pancake...haha

 We had lots of good breakfast food. This is the vacation that I started drinking coffee everyday. Before this it bothered my stomach and I could only drink it on the weekends. Now I have to have my daily coffee!

 DATE NIGHT! One of the best advantages to vacationing with friends is having friends to hang out with after the kids go to bed and date night! We each took a night to go out. We had dinner at a seafood place and then went to a pavilion with a live band playing.  I must say that living in Nashville has spoiled us in the fact that anywhere you go in Nashville, you are going to have a good band to listen to...not the same in florida but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

We rented a paddle board for the day which gave us all a good workout, even the kids.

 Here's an icecream picture on Andrew and Ulla's date night. Both Melanie and Ulla were very pregnant this week, so they were pretty tired most of the time.

 More sand fun...ahhhh, can't get enough!!

Soon after our vacation Chase was potty trained. He was ready before but we wanted to get through this long road trip without having to stop every 30 min for Chase. He was really easy to potty train and since then seems to have a bladder of steel!

Summer Fun

 We spent a lot of time at the pool this summer. There was always someone there to play with but it was  never too crowded...perfect!

 Chase loved shooting everyone in the pool but never liked to get squirted himself.

 Chillin' with Ethan.

 Best buds!

 One rainy day they were just itching to get out so they played on the deck, jumping up and down, up and down.

 Then they played with their dump trucks. Chase is really into anything with wheels.

 And he loves tattoos. This was at a friends 2 year old birthday party and Jason got to try out a stache.

 But there is always time for chores.

 This is a succession of how Chase helping me turned out. First one, working hard...

 Wow, this is hard work.

 That's enough! Chase has started saying funny things...One July morning he came running out of the bathroom naked yelling, "I got my naked on!"

 We were so excited for Kaleb this summer. We borrowed a friends trainer board and Kaleb got up on his second try. Then he left me floating in the water for 20 min b/c he was having so much fun and wouldn't fall down!

 He had a blast and was showing off and bouncing around by the end of the day.

Memorial Day Camping Trip

 Love this picture! Chase was pretending to be a bear (see his hands in the air) and of course I was scared for my life. You can see how fast we are moving from the blur.

 Hot dogs and samore's...Can't go wrong!

 This is our second camping trip with Chase.  The first one he spent most of the night crying...This one, he spent most of the night crying.

 But we still have our happy faces on...b/c we got BACON for breakfast! Yum! I just love that I don't have to do the cooking when we go camping.  We used our new stove that my parent got Jason for his birthday.

 They had a great playground area close to the campsite. We also ran into an old co-worker of Jason and I's that was good to see.  It is random how you meet people you know in the woods.

 Daddy's happy campers are now doing a 2 mile hike.

 Brother bonding!

 Wow, this kid got heavy fast!

 Kaleb decided he needed to go #2 while on our hike. We tried to get him to go in the woods but he couldn't do it so Kaleb and I ran the last 1/2 mile back to the trailhead where their were bathrooms.

They were out within 5 min of getting in the car.  We had a great time but it took lots of preparation on our (Jason's) part.  Hopefully now that Chase is potty trained and in a big boy bed (and won't have to use a pack n play in the tent) things will be easier next time.

Mother's Day

 We went to Lowe's one Saturday morning to pick up a few things and they were having a craft day for kids.  The project was a mother's day picture frame.  They went straight to work to make me these gorgeous frames.  I think I will treasure these cute pictures of them more.

 Our friend Ben was in town. The boys always have a good time with him.

 On Mother's Day it was the traditional breakfast in bed, although lately all my food is disappearing quicker with 4 extra hands to compete with.

 We also had our traditional strawberry picking. Everyone enjoyed lots of fresh juicy strawberries and we picked over 5 pounds. We didn't even have to freeze them. They were gone pretty quick!

Look at this cutie!

April Soccer and bike riding

 Soccer games are always better when Grandma and Granddad are here to watch.

 And they have fun times at the playground.

 Kaleb learned to ride his bike in April without training wheels. He learned in exactly 49 sec. I videoed it and he was riding by himself in less than a minute.

 He has also decided that he wants to be a race car driver when he grows up.

We got him a big boy bike and helmet and he has not stopped since.

March 2013 Weddings and Easter

 My best friend from PT school, Alison got married in D.C. this March. This was the first time we both left the boys overnight. They stayed with our friends the Tumlins as we headed off for the most relaxing and fun weekend we have had in a long time.

It was good to rediscover there was still an Amy underneath the Mommy in which I have identified with for the last 5 years.  It was a little hard to come back after getting a little taste of the life I once had and completely forgotten about. Good Memories!

 I believe they got more candy this Easter than they did at Halloween.  They went to numerous egg hunts. Kaleb declared it was his favorite holiday, changing his mind after saying that on the last holiday, Valentine's Day

 They drew pictures for the Easter Bunny and we left him some carrots and grass to snack on.

 Found this cute matching suits, although Chase did not want to pose.

Best family pic we could get.

 Chase was so controlled during our egg dying this year.  At age 2, Kaleb was flinging all the colors and the eggs around and it was a complete disaster.

 At the end, they had lots of eggs and lots of fingers dyed.

Chase has a best friend these days. It is his monkey. He goes everywhere with Chase. He sleeps with him, eats with him and hugs him often. He is so sweet!