Our Baby is THREE!

I think this will most likely remain my favorite picture of all time. How could it not? On this day, three years ago, our family became complete. And two brothers became mesmerized with each other.

 We celebrated LJ's birthday on his ACTUAL birthday. This is a big deal to the oldest son. He doesn't understand why we have birthday parties on other days. He thinks everyone should have a party on their ACTUAL birthday. 

 YAY for a cars party. It was a toss up between this and a certain train, but with the newest movie opening less than a week before his birthday, we thought it was meant to be.

 The cake. I am so proud of this cake. It is dairy and egg free AND it tasted good! And I made it. Yup. Baked the cake, cut it out into a 3, crumbled oreos for the top and even did lots of the icing. My mom, who has baked and decorated about 1000 cakes in her life, helped with the green icing. That part intimidates me still.

 Big surprise. JW surrounded by two of his favorite friends.

 YAY! It's my birthday!

 I think Daddy making the face helped him blow those candles out. ;)

 I get to eat my cake??? Cool!

 Our sweet family and friends.

So the only part of the party that didn't go quite as planned...opening gifts. LJ opened one present, wanted to play with that one present, and didn't want to open any more. None. He threw a fit. I took him into the hall to have a "talk" with him. Finally, we convinced him to open some more. I think he was glad he did!

We sure are thankful for our little Lovebug! Right now, he can't get enough of mommy's kisses and daddy's hugs. He thinks just about everything his brother does is awesome, and wants to be JUST like him. He is adventurous, loving and full of life! He loves to laugh, especially at brother. He runs F-A-S-T. Really, really fast. Must be those large thigh muscles. He isn't scared of much, except the muppets, which we found out during the previews of the movie. Weird. He has manners and uses "Please" and "Thank you" when he should. He can also scream very loudly, but we're working on that. Mostly, we have lots of fun and I will cherish every single kiss he wants to give me.

New Mexico Part 2

This trip was exciting. First, it was LJ's first time on a horse. Of course, he had to ride with an adult, and lucky me, I got the honor. ;) Actually it was fun, just a little hard on the lap/hips by the end of the hour long, through-the-mountains ride.

  On our sweet horse, getting ready to ride.

 The REAL excitement was the JW was old enough to ride all by himself. He was beside himself with excitement. He did great and had the sweetest (and rather small) horse.

 I want to be a cowboy.

 JW received a certificate for his first "solo" ride. LJ had to have one too, because, ya know, brother got one. 

 More horse pictures. This is a short 2 minute ride at the Flying J Ranch. Easy peasy after his solo ride.

 LJ had fun riding by himself this time. Even if only for a couple of minutes.

 One of our favorite stops, Capitan, the home of Smokey Bear. Papa helped with puzzles and coloring pictures inside Smokey's museum.

 Only YOU can prevent wild fires!

 Sweet boys.

 Standing in front of the Valley of Fires in Carrizozo. This is a huge stretch of lava from a volcano that erupted thousands of years ago.

JW and I laughed b/c it looks like we are standing in front of a giant pile of you-know-what, but nope, that's just a HUGE mound of lava.

 Hee-hee. One day, they'll LOVE that we did this. :) LJ cried through most of it, but we got a couple of cute pictures. 

 We took pictures and ate lunch in Cloudcroft. At over 9,000 ft elevation, one can get a little light-headed up here. But it's beautiful and the town is so quaint, it is worth the drive and dizziness!

We visited lots of other place again - historic Lincoln (with the BEST meal at a historical home owned by Murphy's partner, Dolan), Funtrackers (b/c putt-putt and go-carting in the mountains is just cool), and more. As always, it was fun for all and I know my boys will be asking when we will get to go back to the mountains with Ghee & Papa!

New Mexico Part 1

 We traveled to New Mexico again this summer with my family. The hubby didn't get to go to White Sands last time we all went, so that was one of our first stops this time around. 

It.is.so.cool.

 The boys found sticks (somewhere) and drew and drew. LJ called the sand "snow" and got upset when we corrected him.

We also visited the Three Rivers Petroglyph Site. These amazing rock carvings were made over 600 years ago. We had to hike up a rocky mountain half a mile - I wasn't sure how the little man would do but he LOVED it. 

 Hiking up the rocks.

 Checking out some of the carvings.

 One of the amazing carvings...

...and another. Some of the patterns and pictures looked very modern. Not 600 years old!

 Dad and boys maneuver the rocks.

 We couldn't go to NM without a stop out at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. The kids favorite part of our visit out there...

 ...it wasn't taking pictures...

...it was skipping rocks in the lake! Dad/Uncle J showed the kids how to do it a couple of times and they went to town!

Kindergarten Graduation

So proud of our sweet firstborn. We made it through Kindergarten!!! (And when I say we, yes, WE made it through! lol)

What a blessing this year and this school has been to our lives. I feel like I'm being given an opportunity to experience some things with my child that some others may not. Not that other mommies aren't teaching their children every day, I know they are and have many friends who are EXTREMELY involved in their children's education. I just feel that there are some really cool moments that I have been blessed to be a part of with my son. Being a co-teacher is a sacrifice and work, for sure, but in return I have been given so many "moments" - many I can't even really explain with words. I just know I will forever cherish this time I've been given in such a unique way with him.

So many fun pictures from that day. Both sets of grandparents were able to celebrate this milestone with us. There were only a few tears, but very happy ones. Thank goodness his next graduation is a looooong time from now!

NYC - Final Day

 As I mentioned, we found out that OBL had been "taken care of" as soon as we got into a cab after touring the ESB. Here is a picture we took as we were leaving.

When we got back to our hotel, I think we finally realized that we were in a very special place to be hearing this news. We immediately turned on the television. People were starting to gather at the WTC site, as well as in Times Square. We decided to simply watch from our hotel room (it was about midnight NYC time at this point) and were amazed by the scene. The most touching was, of course, the firefighters at ground zero. They were smiling, but it was far from a party. It was a celebration, but with tears.

We headed back to the WTC area the next morning. It was eerily quiet. There were quite a few people there but it was far from a circus. We paid our respects, prayed, then went to grab some lunch and do some last minute site seeing (we really packed SO much into those four days - we walked down to Battery Park, then headed back up to grab another slice of pizza, which was a MUST DO before we left!)

We found ourselves with about two hours until we needed to leave for the airport. We decided to go back to the WTC area, primarily to look for a book for the boys. We both love history and what better place to find information to help our boys understand what happened on that day. What we found as we stepped off the subway was overwhelming. There were news crews EVERYWHERE, people standing in the streets all around the fences that were up around the construction of the memorial site, people sitting on the benches, curbs, everywhere. There were policemen standing guard around the perimeter of ground zero - not to keep people out, there were TALL fences doing that job. No, these officers were there out of respect and honor. There were people, what we assume to be family/friends of those lost that day, sitting in front of the church, weeping. There were flowers and notes being left all around. We will never forget that day and seeing a tiny glimpse of the horror that city endured. Most of all, we'll never forget 9/11.

Of course, we couldn't help but think of those lost since that awful day, too. All of the brave soldiers who have fallen fighting as a direct result of this attack. We were directly affected by this, as unfortunately, so many people in our great country have been. We will never forget.

 And because I love this picture, and I want to end this post on a happy note, because our trip was A-MAZING, here is my sweet hubby eating a cannoli before we left. YUMM-O!

NYC - Day 3

Museum Day!

American Museum of Natural History.

Total Awe. We felt like little kids.

Bridge at Central Park. 

In front of The Met. The white scaffolding in the back was prep for the big Gala and unveiling of Alexander McQueen's collection two days after we left. Boo.

Monet heaven.

Degas. I studied these paintings in fourth grade for memory competition.

I know, I know...I actually didn't buy anything at this store. Saved the serious shopping for H&M!

 

After a yummy Italian dinner at Carmine's, we ended up on top of the Empire State Building. The coldest night of our visit. At this very moment, the world was learning of the death of OBL. We heard as soon as we got into our cab to head back to our hotel. Needless to say, Day 4 of our visit was one we will never forget...