Is it winter or spring?

What a weird and wonderful winter (if you are like me and dont like the cold). The weather has been all over the place, one day 40, the next day 70. It has been great to be able to do more than just stay inside.

Here is a glipse of this winter

Indoor winter fun:

At the air and space Museum- Jake calls this the NEW museum. He likes this one because they have a lot of interactive activities. he likes to try to fly the planes.







Stuck inside-- its ok..



George Washington hat




Cold Winter fun:

A neat little hiking trail by our house.. Kurt was a little cold in his shorts!





Our ONE snow day








warm winter fun:











Heres to a couple more weeks of "winter"

ok, Here we go!

Hello! welcome to 2012. It might a little late but I have a good excuse! It has been a rough 2.5 months for me, but I think I am over the hump and ready to join the world again. why was it so rough you ask....

I am Pregnant!

I am so happy to be out of the first trimester. Our first Ultrasound was not very good, they told me that the baby was not growing enough and we might not carry the baby for much longer. I was started on medication to help the baby grow and was told to go to work and then come home and rest. We anxiously waited 2 weeks until our next ultrasound.
our next ultrasound showed that the baby had grown but now had a cyst on the cord. I was cleared to walk if I wanted for exercise but nothing more.
We were scheduled for a third ultrasound 1 month later.
I spent most of the first trimester sleeping, trying not to throw up and trying desperatley to have a bowel movement. (I wont go further into that because I can hear my mom right now... Raaaaacccheeel)

so fast forward to last week, we had the third ultrasound and they saw a perfect baby, no cysts and no chance of down syndrome! to make everything better, I passed into the second trimester and have started to have more energy, no nausea and I can poop! (thats it mom, I promise)


We really held back our excitement but after the last ultrasound Kurt and I felt a weight lift off our shoulders and are now very excited.

We are due August 10th. Yes, I love Summer babies!

A HUGE thank you to the parents for all your support and extra trips down to help out with Jake while I was too tired to lift a finger!

Here are some pics of what we have been up to these past 2 months

Finally.. the Holiday blog

What a crazy Holiday it was. I worked through christams and new years with barely a breather. But I have some time now so here is the blog.

Despite working we had a wonderful Christmas. Kurt had someone hold over for him so he was home Christmas morning. My parents were with us as well as my brother.

Jake was so excited but we actually had to wake him up. Normally we would not have but Kurt only had 2 hours so we needed to get moving a little.

jake ran from one thing to another and with every present asked... "ohh, what is it?"
He made it through about half of his presents then refused to open any more.

me: "Jake would you like to open this present?"
Jake: "no, thats not mine"

Lol. it took hiim until 2pm the next day to finish.

A couple days after Christmas Gangi and Aunty Erica came down for a couple days. They bought him a "hot wheels" firetruck. its not really a hot wheels but the same concept and Jake loves it.


For some reason this wont let me post pictures and I am soo over it! I mean really, its february! lets try to start over with this blog thing.

I love Christmas time!

I love the holidays and it has really become a magical time of year watching it through Jake!. each holiday light brings a smile to his face, he loves looking at all the yard decorations, reading holiday books and talking about Santa.

today was breakfast with Santa at the Firehouse. Kurt and Jake went last year but I was working, so I was really excited today. Jake loves it because of the firetrucks! that kid would sit in the Driver's seat of the firetruck until bedtime if he could.

They bring Santa in on the firetruck which the kids love. I wasn't sure how Jake would react because he was not interested last year, but after a couple minutes of watching the other kids rush Santa, Jake decided he was ok and let Santa hold him. Jake told him he was going to be a firefighter!

We ate pancakes for breakfast, played more on the trucks then Santa read a story and all the kids lined up to sit on his lap. Jake sat on his lap and asked for trucks and choo-choos for Christmas. Jake had a great time!

Jake and Maddy



jake and Forrest in Battalion 1



Driving the Ladder-- Happy as can be!


Jake and Santa Claus




CLASSIC!




really-- could he get any cuter?


On the way home we picked up our Christmas tree!



Check back soon for more, hoping to decorate our tree tonight!

Holiday weekend of FUN

What a great 4 days this has been! Kurt and I have been off together and it is always great to spend time with all of us for more than a day!.

we went up to NoVa for Thanksgiving to spend the Holiday with Kurt's family. It was really great because his Grandmother (Nanny) came as well as Aunt Karen and Uncle Rich with his kids : Dina and Tommy who we have not seen since our wedding. They have never met Jake so it was very cool to spend some time with them.



Of course no Thanksgiving is complete without a ride in the wheelbarrow


Aunt Karen and Dina


Dina, Nanny, Aunt Karen


The FEAST



Of course dinner was fabulous, we all overstuffed ourselves and Jake was eating long after everyone else stopped!




The following day we picked up my parents and went to Alexandria to meet my brother for breakfast. Then we went on to Mt. Vernon. It was a perfect day, 65 degrees, no clouds and EVERYONE had the same idea we did. Mt Vernon was packed. We got our tickets around 12:30 and our scheduled time to see the actual house was 3:40. You do the math with a 2 year old. NO way we would be staying that long! But we did have a great time walking around the grounds.








We came home Saturday and today (Sunday)went to the airplane museum to see the train show. Jake Loves the airplane museum and what could be better than airplanes and trains!
this was the end of the train show so there were not many people there which was nice.



One train set-up had a cool Thomas engine where the kids could get in, pull the cord and make the steam whistle and control Thomas the train.









--if you are paying attention you will notice the necklace. Jake insisted on a necklace this morning when he saw me put mine on. This is the "manliest" one I have.



After the train show Jake took a nice long nap, we started decorating the house then we went to pick up a couple things to help decorate. Kurt has been wanting to get a train track to go around the tree and found one!
Jake was so giddy about the train, we was talking a mile a minute and kept saying " ohh thank you Mommy, thank you Daddy" " I'm happy with you Mommy".
I have never seen him this excited about something!

The set up. Upstairs around a fake tree we bought.










This might be in a tie for may favorite picture of the year




they have been playing with it for 2 hours now! They took a short break for dinner but Jake was so excited to get back to his " beautiful steam engine"

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Halloween

I was very excited about Halloween this year. We had been reading Halloween books for about a month and Jake was starting to get it. He would carry his bucket around and pretend to knock, then say Trick or treat. So i was excited to take him out!



This is his funny/mad face



My plan was to take to him to about 5-10 houses just within short distance of our house. We Live on a big circle and it is almost a mile all the way around! I have a friend/co-worker that lives on the opposite side and she wanted to see Jake so I had planned on going back to the house after a couple houses, getting his buggy and pushing him over.
Jake had a different idea after the first house gave him candy. He insisted on walking, and walking, and walking. I offered to carry him or his bucket but he said no and and kept walking! He made it the entire way around and was a little upset when we were done! He definitely has our sweet tooth!

Sitting anxiously on steps before we go


And we are off... this kid has a mission-- CANDY!




Back home with a mouth full of candy