On the move!

Cooper is officially on the move.  He's been moving around for a while now, pivoting, rotating, rolling, lunging, stretching, etc.  Yesterday he put together the crawling moves and now he's off...  let the re-baby proofing begin!  

July Photo Highlights

Evan's First Watercolor

More Painting Projects

Yes, I'm cute.

 Beach Trip!

Night time fun.

Cooper loves his friends!

Finally!  We're at the beach!  Here's Evan's surfing interpretation.  He practices in the sand, since he wouldn't go any closer to the water.

Here's Cooper, hanging out in the shade!  He was a trooper at the beach....

...he even managed to get his morning nap.

 Hanging out at a Jimmy Buffet cover band concert

cool dude shades

More beach fun.

Cooper's first ocean dip.

The kids had soooo much fun digging and playing in the sand!

Pool fun in the afternoon

Back at home, we are often at the park 1-2 mornings each week.  Here's Evan at the top of a very tall curly slide.

Carroll County 4H Fair, tractor 'test drive.'  We also got to check out lots of pigs, sheep, goats and cows!  Evan was a bit intimidated by their big size and being so close.  We did get to pet a goat though! 

June Highlights

Uncle Aaron meets Cooper :-)

Pool time with friends.

Gingerbread playdough fun at Nana and Grandad's.

So this one requires some explanation...  my little brother's boss got a hold of his senior hockey poster, that had been in his school...well this is where it ended up, right out in the open in the Market Street Diner taped up on the milk machine.  Ha!  I'm a little behind on posting this (as it is now September...) but the last time I was up there, the poster was still there! 

Our first trip of the summer to the beach!

 Some Pool Time.  Evan took about 5 minutes to warm up to the pool, but after that you could see him becoming more and more comfortable in the water and trying out new fun tricks!

 

Off to the beach!  We got into a great routine at the beach.  We cooked up some breakfast and then hit the beach first thing each morning.  This way we were able to get great parking, maximize our morning awake time, and beat the worst heat and sun.  We'd head back for lunch then the little ones would pass out for a huge nap, giving us some rest time too!  During this trip, both boys took 3 hour naps both afternoons!  I think we wore them out!  Then in the late afternoon, we'd go to the pool, then make dinner, take a walk!  It was wonderful! 

 

The ride home.  (Cooper was out too :-) )

Red, White and 2!

I can't believe my baby boy is 2!  We are so lucky and blessed to have this sweet, loving, smart, wonderful little guy!  My boys are my world.  It's so amazing to watch them grow and learn.  I just don't have the words to describe how happy they make me.  Guess that's why I'm not a writer. :-)  Instead I take a ridiculous amount of pictures!  So here are a few from our little guy's 2nd Birthday!  Happy Birthday Evan!

Evan's first birthday surprise after his nap- a room filled with balloons! 

I managed to get pictures of most everything before everyone arrived, here's what the place looked like for those who couldn't make it!

 

  Favors: S'mores  :-)  Can't go wrong with chocolate!

I needed a bigger table, or more tables... We had a ton of people and went through a lot of food!  Most everything was okay, but I did have a few lessons learned for the future.  We had the classics- hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, mac and cheese, red, white and blue fruit, red, white and blue salad, PBJ, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered strawberries, red, white, and blue cupakes, apple pie and a red, white and blue cake!

 

I think he liked the sparklers :-)

Happy day!