Let's Hear it for the Boys (and Girls!)

Earlier in the month we celebrated Annabelle's first birthday and we took the opportunity to get a few family photos in. First, here are the two men in my life getting ready to party! 

And my little lady!

And here is the whole clan getting ready to partake in some cake!

I can't believe Annabelle is already one! Ellie is up next!

Fun on the Fourth

Yes the 4th of July was weeks ago, but work has been busy! Bryan and I have been trying to take better advantage of where we live - hikes in the park, local restaurants (very occasionally!), attending some of the local concerts, and finally, our first visit seven years after moving to our city, to the Catonsville 4th of July parade!

 Bryan and Kellen enjoy the Sunday night Lurman concert!

The 4th was hot but that didn't stop us from speed walking two miles up to our reserved seats for the parade with our friends the Hollywood's. Noelle and Bryan went ahead to make sure the chairs they set out the week before were still safe and sound and we all met them about 10 minutes before the parade started. Then we enjoyed the next 90 minutes or so of firetrucks, bands, cars, and floats. There were bands from as far away as Canada in the parade, pretty impressive for our small town! We all enjoyed ourselves (Kellen a little bit less - he was a bit hungry and tired!) and when it was over we walked, slightly slower, back home.

 Hydration is important on a hot summer day!

 Noelle pointing out the fire trucks, her favorite!

 Kellen wondering what all these people are doing...

 The Orioles car!

 One of our favorite floats

 And what parade is complete without the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile?

At home we grilled out and had a great dinner, finished with Nicole's famous ice cream sandwich cake, reduced fat version! Then I put Ellie down for a late nap, telling her she could only go to fireworks with me if she slept a bit first. Well that didn't quite work out so well since she wouldn't wake up when it was time to go to fireworks. Bryan and I watched them on TV.  Next year we will be true townies and hit up the fireworks as well!

Here is our little family of 4 celebrating the 4th! I love this bunch!

Nine Months!

On Monday Kellen turned nine months. Not a major milestone in the grand scheme of things but I feel like he has changed so much in the last month! First, his stats. Here is where things are pretty unchanged:

Height: 28 3/4 inches (50- 75%)
Weight: 18 pounds, 7 ounces (10-25%)
Head circumference: 46 cm (50%)

K is still pretty tall and thin. He really hasn't gained much weight at all in the last two months but the doctor says he looks great so we aren't worried. He actually looks pretty chunky in some pictures which cracks me up since he really is my little guy! We got the pleasant surprise of not needing any shots at his appointment this morning so it was a great visit to the doctor.

One reason Kel is not gaining weight is that he is constantly on the move. Kellen crawls everywhere and is super fast. He is also a master of pulling himself up and is working on trying to stand without support. Thus far he has shown little interest in cruising around on furniture and walls but I think that is coming soon. I would be shocked if he wasn't walking by a year, although we are pretty excited he isn't quite as early with that one as his sister!

Kellen loves toys. His favorites are Noelle's - of course, as well as his Melissa and Doug stacking shapes. He loves to play with Noelle's kitchen and her duplo table and spends most of his time hanging out in that corner of the family room.

Kellen also absolutely loves to eat. The only thing he isn't really crazy about at this point is avocado, funny since that was an early favorite. He has milk when he wakes up and before bed, as well as two 4 ounce bottles each day, and then lots of solids. He eats three meals of solids plus two snacks generally and eats mostly tiny pieces of whatever we are eating. He hasn't had shellfish, honey, or peanut butter yet but has tried pretty much everything else. We are working on baby signs for more and all done and he is doing a pretty good job telling us when he wants more or is finished his meal.

Kellen loves to talk to us. He is trying to repeat all of our sounds but besides dada and hi no recognizable sounds are really coming out. He is close though! 

K is also doing ok in the sleep front. He is waking up a lot during the night to eat again over the last week or so but I am pretty sure he just grew about a 1/2 inch and he was back to normal last night so I am hoping that is over. K is just a really light sleeper compared to Ellie. We have had lots of storms lately and they almost all wake him up at some point. He gets back to sleep on his own most of the time but I am hoping he will become a better sleeper as he gets older. Kellen also doesn't love to nap on a schedule anymore. He takes several catnaps in the car usually and then one longer nap. He isn't quite old enough to give up that morning nap yet but he is certainly trying! Thankfully our little guy remains happy the majority of the time. When he is unhappy we certainly know it though, as he goes straight past crying to shrieking when he needs something. It's a good thing we don't have to hear it very often!

I am so excited for Kel's next three months as he learns to move even more, talk, and experiences trips to the beach and the Saxton's favorite place on earth, Disney World!

Sleeping Beauty

I am in the middle of my least favorite week of the year. It is the only week my two summer sites overlap, and the majority of my day (or at least it seems that way) is spent driving back and forth from northern Virginia. I have to leave around 6 each morning, get to my site by 7:30, work 10 hours, and then get home between 7 and 8. In some ways I have it a lot easier than my colleagues. I get to sleep in my own bed, my days are only 13 or 14 hours long as opposed to closer to 17 or 18, and the issues I am presented are a bit less complex. But the drive is killer, and when I get home I have to do regular fun stuff like fold laundry, walk the dog, wash bottles, and get Kellen's food ready for the next day. I am excited for August 4th when my 12th summer with summer programs are over.

Thankfully my husband is a rockstar and has basically been doing 90% of everything with our kids this week. Despite also being busy at work, B has had pick up duty with the kids all week. Our littlest guy has fallen asleep on the way home from daycare with Bryan twice this week. He has then transferred right to his crib (something that never happens) and slept all night long with the exception of waking up for one feeding each evening. That must be some serious growing going on! Kellen and I have been snuggling during the night when he wakes up to eat but otherwise I have not really seen him this week. I also haven't seen Ellie awake much, meaning she has been pretty monstrous the few times I have seen her to try to get attention. I'm definitely looking forward to the return of our regular routine in a few weeks and some vacation time!

Baseball, Breakfast, and Booms

My parents drove up last Friday for the weekend to see the kids and go to their first O's game in several years. They hit a lot of traffic (we didn't think about it being a bad travel week when we planned months ago with July 4th coming up Wednesday) and they were hot and tired when they arrived. We relaxed for a bit late Friday afternoon and then when Bryan got home, my parents and I headed out in the 100+ degree heat to Camden Yards. We were blessed with awesome seats - Bryan's firm has 7 seats in row 3 right behind 1st base and we were able to snag three of them. Despite having the most annoying fan in the history of the game behind us and the heat we had a great time at the game and the O's managed to squeak out a victory. We got ready for the after game fireworks when I got a text from B that it had just started storming in Catonsville. We took a look at the radar and made a dash for the car. We watched the fireworks from the parking lot and 295.

As we got off of 95 towards Catonsville the wind started. It came from no where and was crazy. We drove down Hilton and had to stop several times to move branches off the road. And then we got to an entire tree laying across the road with power lines hanging intertwined with the branches. We couldn't possibly drive any further, we were terrified to stay put with all of the huge trees and power lines around us, and it was still storming like crazy. I called B, he told me power was still surprisingly on, and we decided to head down to the elementary school to ride out the storm. A little after midnight we headed back down Hilton and parked about a half mile from our house and ran home in the rain with distant thunder and lightening around us. Power had gone out by then and I just wanted to get home to B and my babies. As we ran by the downed tree we were impressed at the fact that neighbors were out sawing and tossing pieces out of the street. It was teamwork at it's finest! I shouldn't have been surprised we lost power when my parents came to town. We have lost power 3 times since we moved in 2 years ago, and 2 of them have been when my dad has been to town! And when I think about it, the third time was from the hurricane last August and I had told my dad they could come stay with us to stay safe from Irene...

On Saturday morning we got up early and went out to explore and get breakfast. Our early wake up time was the only way we got in to breakfast at all since everyone had the same idea! We hit up Bob Evans for what we were afraid might be our only meal of the day and had a great breakfast. We stopped at Costco on the way home to get some non-perishable items and I texted local friends to see who had power and freezer space since there was no way I was losing the over 100 ounces of pumped milk in my freezer or the 10 freezer meals we had not yet eaten from my last cooking day. To our surprise when we got home around noon power had been restored! We were so excited I almost did a little dance and cheer! The Hollywoods came over Saturday afternoon to share freezer space and dinner (Peace a Pizza was open and we wanted to introduce my parents to their yummy white pizza!) I then spent Saturday evening sitting in the middle of my driveway trying to get a cell signal long enough to call 30 families to tell them one of our camps was closed for several days due to damage and power outage from the storm. When I came back inside, this is what I found:

After the boys took their naps and Ellie went to bed, Bryan and I went on a journey to find ice cream. After trying three local places, we headed to Giant, which was surprisingly open despite all the other stores and traffic lights nearby being without power. They must have had a generator. While Giant had no ice or water they had plenty of ice cream and we made our purchase (along with three different kinds of mustard - pretty sure that was the craziest date ever!) and headed home to chow down.

Church was out of power Sunday so we decided to take a hike down to the waterfall to play before my parents headed out of town. We surveyed some of the storm damage along the way.

We brought Ellie's water shoes and towel so she could splash around in the water. It was hot in the sun but not too bad on the trails and it was nice to walk off some of the Bob Evans and pizza from the day before!

After our hike my parents showered and left town, finding a great new route home to the OBX for busy travel days! I headed in to work to figure out the power situation at my camp for Monday morning and was blessed with the power being restored mere seconds after I sent out an email to all the families saying it was out! That was easily fixed though, and we were just beginning the calls to families so got word just in the nick of time. Sunday night there were a few more storms and we actually lost power again in the middle of the night. When my work cell rang at 5:45 am I feared the worst, but thankfully they were just letting me know power had stayed on throughout the night at my camp location. Our power came back on around 7:30 am and our food and milk stash was again safe.

It's always an adventure when my parents come to town! This is one we surely won't forget (particularly getting home Friday night) but we are so thankful that we had power the majority of the time and stayed safe. I am sort of hoping next time dad comes to visit there is a little less excitement though!

All Aboard!

Two Saturdays ago we headed down to a friend's birthday party and one of our favorite local destinations - the tire park - for a train themed birthday party. Noelle decided to wear her shades and enjoyed playing with her little friends. The weather could not have been more perfect and the 4 of us enjoyed playing and talking with friends and chowing down on some yummy lunch.

My little sunshine!

Showing off her climbing skills

The girls all being nice and getting along! It gives me hope that maybe my daughter and her friends won't be the mean girls in school one day!

A Visit from Grandma

Bryan's mom came to visit for a long weekend in early June. Things have been kind of crazy with work lately so I'm just posting now! We had a great time relaxing, hanging out at the pool, and playing at the tire park.

Bryan and Kellen watch Ellie play!

Noelle stops to contemplate her next move.

Love you Grandmom!

Bryan and I took the opportunity to go out on both Friday and Saturday nights after we put the kids to bed - unprecedented time without kids in our almost 3 years as parents! Friday we went to a block party and hung out with our neighbors (scoring a free freezer as part of the deal!) On Saturday we went out to a local Catonsville establishment, Matthew's 1600, for drinks and appetizers. It was so great to spend some time with Grandma and some time with one another! We hope grandmom visits again soon!