Lindley's first beach trip!

The kids & I were able to go to the beach a couple weeks ago for a long weekend with dad.  Wade had to stay home to work, sadly, but we had a good time!

Caden's typical breakfast... milk in a sippy cup, and a mixture of Cheerios, craisins & bran flakes :)

The first morning, we walked around for a little bit (and discovered that the pool & hot tub were closed for renovations - sad!).  Caden discovered the fountains by the clubhouse though, so that was entertaining for a while!

When the tide went out some and we thought it had warmed up a bit, we put on swimsuits & headed to the beach.  Caden carried his bucket of sand toys :).

It was pretty darn cold (and windy), so I ended up going back up to put on a shirt over my bathing suit... but the kids loved the sand and played around in it for a little over an hour, until it was lunch time.

We came in & Lindley quickly fell asleep on Bapa.  She took her nap there, while I fed Caden lunch & got him ready for his nap.  We went to Lee's Inlet Kitchen for dinner - Johns family tradition!  And as always, I got the grilled chicken & it was great :).

Caden admiring the view

On day 2, we got up and played for a while in the morning, since it was high tide & still pretty chilly.

I tried to get a picture with the kids.

We repeated the playing in the sand activities of the day before.

Lindley discovered that she had to lick sand off her thumb every time she wanted to put it in her mouth.  She was a little deterred by that, but not enough to stop her.

After their naps, I took them on a walk around Litchfield by the Sea.

And on Sunday, we packed up & drove home!

Caden seemed somewhat scared of the ocean, although we didn't even try to put our feet in since it was so cold.  I hope he'll warm up to it when we go to the beach again in June & July, and Lindley will get an actual taste of swimming, since she hasn't yet!

Easter & start of spring

Slowly the weather has started to warm up, and it could not have come soon enough for Caden.  That boy's energy has been bottled up all winter inside this house, and he is just desperate to be outside at all times now!

This was a warm day a few weeks ago.  Caden kept insisting I put "Ni-nee" in the car with him.  It was so cute, although a little frustrating because they couldn't both completely fit, so there was a lot of shifting & pushing & whining.

Love the sweetness of a big brother!

Lindley loved it!

Easter Sunday in the nursery at church

We had our traditional "big kid" Easter egg hunt at Laurie's the day before Easter.  All the 20-30-something kids participated, although our growing numbers of toddler/preschool age kids may mean it has to be a little kid Easter egg hunt before long!

Caden walked around and got some eggs from the grass.

Found some!

Hmm... what's in here?

In mid-March we went to the 3rd birthday party of a friend of Caden's (son of some friends of ours).  It was a fantastic day for an outdoor party, and we had so much fun.

Caden enjoyed the sand table.

I love his little boyish expression here :).

Spending some time on a blanket with my best girl.

Winter into spring

I guess I'm just going to be a once-a-month blogger in this stage of my life!

We got some snow on Wade's birthday and again 2 weeks later.  Very brief snowfalls that barely accumulated and then melted quickly.  But enough for a few pictures!

Paisley dog

She doesn't get much attention these days, and wiping off muddy paws is getting to be one of the banes of my existence.  But she loves us, she's great with the kids, and she cleans up after meals better than any dustbuster.

Me with the kiddos

Finally someone got to wear this cute UNC snowsuit for all of 20 minutes!  Caden never fit into it at the right time.

Backyard before it melted

We've moved Lindley to the big tub with Caden now.  She's in a Bumbo seat here because her real bath seat kept rubbing her wrong & giving her welts, but now I put an old baby towel over it - problem solved. 

Finally the weather is starting to move toward spring!  We took advantage for some outside time the other day.

This girl is so smiley.  She has her fussy moments, but her smiley ones are so infectious.

Caden was having a rough afternoon.  This happens at least half the time after his nap.  He wakes up in just a terrible mood and stomps his feet, screams NO, and just collapses in tears at pretty much everything.  Even things like "here, have some of your favorite food" or "let's go play with toys outside!"  I think I just have to wait it out.  It's annoying, but I'm trying to just ignore it and not let it irritate me.

He sortof calmed down after a bit and had fun "runnin'" around the yard.  He'll run around saying "runnin', runnin'" over and over again - it's so cute.  The other day he ran about a mile on our walk home from the playground!

Looking like they like each other in the wagon.  Looks are a little deceiving here, but they get along fairly well.  Lindley is definitely curious, watching Caden a lot now.  Heaven help me if he comes in the room while she's nursing - I can just forget her eating any more at that point.  

He talks about her and I wouldn't say he's jealous (he's fine with me needing to feed her or put her down for a nap, etc.), but he also doesn't try to play with her or interact, unlike my friend's little boy who comes over on Monday mornings.  Ethan is always bringing her stuff, sitting with her, looking at her, hugging her, etc.  It's so cute.  Caden just co-exists with her.  I'm interested to see how that develops when she gets mobile & verbal.

It's hard to believe that grad school is really over (for now...  we shall see whether an Ed.D. is in Wade's future).  We're sortof settling into a spring routine?  Seems like things are still always changing. We have several trips coming up later in April/May/June/July.  Wade will be going to Haiti, we'll go to the beach a few times, and we'll go to Covenant for Wade's graduation!

Life lately

It's been just a LITTLE busy around here lately.  Basketball season has consumed us (Wade), along with grad school too.  It was a tough season - a lot of very close losses - but the team never gave up, so I know Wade is proud of his guys.

In the midst of it, Caden turned TWO!  We had the family over for soup, salad, cake & ice cream.  For the second year, Caden was not enthused by the birthday cake.  I think it was more the fire (candles) - because he's very anti-hot things, and everybody singing and looking at him that made him upset.

He got this awesome wagon from my dad, and this board with all different locks and stuff to play with from Aunt Laurie.

And a fun tunnel from Aunt Hillary!

This is Caden & Lindley playing with my friend's son, Ethan, who comes over every Monday while his mom teaches.

And our baby girl is 6 months old already!  She's sitting up better every day and rocking on her knees a lot.  She pulled herself forward a few times at about 5.5 months, but hasn't done it much since.

She's getting to be a chunker too...  she's well into 9 month clothes now and could easily outgrow them in the next month or so.  I'm worried she's going to overtake Riley, her 14-months-older cousin!  I may have to actually buy some clothes for her in the absence of hand-me-downs :).

Lindley is getting more regular with her 2 naps a day - around 11 a.m. and 2:30 or 3 p.m.  She goes to bed about 7 p.m.  Sometimes she gets up around 5:30-6:30 a.m. to eat & go back to sleep, and sometimes she sleeps all the way til 7 or 7:30.  She will not take a bottle, so I do all the feeding & putting her down.  She is doing better with solid foods too... it took her about a month to get the hang of it, and she didn't like carrots or pumpkin.  But she's had sweet potatoes, pears, applesauce, green beans & butternut squash that she liked.

I'm looking forward to the spring & summer - warmer weather, a lighter schedule for Wade, mobile children, daylight in the evenings, more walks & playground time.  Caden did the climbing wall at the playground the other day by himself twice.  It's about 8 feet tall - I definitely could not totally spot him at the very top.  I was praying he wouldn't fall from there!

My new year's resolutions are, um... not going so well.  I'm still flossing my teeth every day!  That's about it.  Going to bed at 10:00 just was not working because I couldn't fall asleep.  And then Lindley started getting up earlier, cutting into my potential workout time.  Plus working out at 6 a.m. is just not an ideal time for me.  I really need it to be 9 or 10 a.m., which unfortunately does not work with children!  Maybe someday, if I can join the Y... :).

My mini me

We discovered that Lindley looks just like I did as a baby!

New Year's Resolutions

I'm not a big believer in New Year's resolutions, but the start of 2013 is coinciding with my release from the "working" world to be a stay-at-home mom.  I have already sortof been a stay-at-home mom since June, but I was also trying to fit in being a work-at-home mom too, and it was just too much.  So... along with my new role, I want to make some lifestyle changes as well, for the betterment of myself and my family.

So here they are:
1. Floss every day.
2. Go to bed at 10 p.m. & get up at 6 a.m.  Try to fit in a workout, shower & quiet time before Lindley wakes up.
3. Meal plan & cook dinner most nights.
4. Clean out, declutter, organize & simplify our house, one nook or cranny at a time.

Eventually I may try to establish a cleaning routine, but I think I need to focus on the above ones first.  I don't want to get ahead of myself, considering I do still have a(n almost) 2-year-old and a baby.

And, in case you forgot them, here are pictures of those two kiddos just for good measure.

Lindley sporting her new Babylegs leggings she got for Christmas.

Caden sporting his super short new haircut.  Wade didn't realize that I was thinking of buzzing it with the longest guard (1"), so he buzzed it with the 1/4" guard.  It was pretty shocking at first, but it is growing, and growing on me, quickly!