22 Months!

Month 22 ran from Oct 25-Nov 25 so we had a lot of holiday fun packed in this month! Holidays with kids is just the best thing ever, IMO. I loved it as a preschool teacher and I love it even more now that I just get to concentrate on my own child ;)

We started off the month with a little Folly staycation. Our neighbors were nice enough to lend us their condo to stay in while we waited for the fumes to air out in our house.

It had a great porch where sister and I did some studying while B napped.

We went for a walk on the beach our last morning where we played with TRAINS of course.

We went to Dad's work for the annual Halloween party for families. 

Todd and I went to our neighbors party and dressed up like vampires...mainly because a cape was the cheapest item at the costume store and I really didn't feel like going all out because-pregnant. 

Brooks and Dad carving a pumpkin...we had to wait until Halloween day to do it because of the weather around here they rot almost instantly once you cut them.

My little puppy posing with the finished product. and of course-TRAINS.

Neighborhood parade with his friend Lilly.

This was the amount of candy we had LEFT OVER. seriously dangerous for a pregnant person to have this sitting around the house. Thanks for that extra 7lbs.

Reading his favorite Halloween book...

I took B to Skyzone one morning and he started building towers with the blocks and counting them. I sent this pic to Todd because our child is OBVIOUSLY a genius. 

He wasn't feeling well so we had a doctor visit. Ended with a rash and an ear infection but he played with this train coloring set for over an hour while we waited. 

We stayed in one day because it poured rain all day long so I sent this to Todd when he asked how things are going. Rainy day=total destruction

Unfortunately, Todd's grandmother Billie passed away this month so we made a trip up to Northern Virginia. It was a very sad occasion but we had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with Todd's family while we were there. 

Class Thanksgiving party...someone liked the snacks!

He was excited to see me there in his classroom.

To switch gears a little, we are hosting Thanksgiving this year and somehow (long story) the # ballooned to over 15 people. As an added stressor, Todd and I randomly decided to remodel the guest bathroom before everyone arrived. We had a huge punch list in there, including regrouting the tile in the shower, hanging all new plumbing and lighting fixtures and painting. 

We ran into a bunch of obstacles, as usual, and this is me sending Todd a picture to send to the plumber to try and figure out how the heck we were going to change out the handle in the shower. Luckily the plumber was a nice guy and we managed to do the entire project with no professional help. Todd can now add amateur plumber to his long list of attributes ;)

I will post the after pics soon! It looks really good...no more brass rusted everything!

At the end of the month Todd's grandma came to stay with us and stayed through the holiday. B had fun hanging out with her during the day and we discovered a new spot with great grilled cheese, fries, and ice cream - 3 of his faves.

Big News...

So I realized after the last post that I never mentioned we have some big news over here...

Baby P #2 will be here sometime around Feb. 19, 2016! We are very excited and I think its great that Brooks is going to get to be a big brother!  It has been a little touch and go around here...I was very very very sick this time around and it lasted for about the first 18 weeks so I just recently have started feeling a little better thank goodness.  Poor Brooks was watching a little more Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood than I would normally allow but what can you do?

I was actually getting ready to post about the gender reveal we did and realized I don't think I had even mentioned the whole pregnancy and it probably should get its own post. #oops #secondkidproblems #sorrysister

We found out this time because there is just no way I could wait 10 months to find out what we were having but we decided to at least surprise ourselves and do a gender reveal box and Skype everyone in so they could join in the surprise!  We had some complaints about our previously chosen method...apparently some people found a 25 piece puzzle too difficult to put together (ha!)

Here is Gram working on the box...we had the ultrasound tech give us a card with the gender in an envelope and she took that to party city and they filled the box with balloons and taped it shut for us so none of us actually knew until we opened it.  Pretty cool of them except they taped it a little too well which you will see in the video ;)

Surprise! It's a girl!! We are very excited, this will be the first girl pretty much on either side of the family so she will be very spoiled I'm sure as everyone is itching to go out and buy some of those adorable girl clothes, including me.  

Now its time to get cracking on our to do list and get ready for her arrival because February will be here before we know it.  Don't ask me how I'm going to finish up my last semester of grad school and practicum with a newborn AND a two year old because I don't really have the answer for you.  Someway, somehow, it will get done!!

21 Months!

Month 21 encompasses Sept25-Oct25 and we had a lot going on with getting the house ready to be painted...gender reveals...getting into the swing of things at school...a huge Charleston flood and so on.  So here's the pictorial recap!

We started off the month with a big flood hitting charleston and rain upon rain upon rain for days.  This is how high our backyard pond got...so as you can see we were very blessed!

We did have some water damage on the ceiling in the great room but that was actually a blessing as well because it allowed us to get it fixed before we had everything painted.

We had to do some indoor activities since we were trapped inside for so long.  B really likes painting, drawing, etc. right now.

Todd and I celebrated our 5th anniversary!  We had plans originally to go out of town for the weekend but with Rainageddon going on we decided to stay closer to home.

We went out for dinner at Langdon's and it was delish!!

We have officially entered the train phase...trains, cars, trucks, etc are a big thing around here these days!

I threw this in because I felt like it was a good picture to sum up what we have been dealing with around here...the blue stripes are from where we removed the wallpaper and the red is pretty self explanatory.  

He loves this "fire truck" song/video on Youtube...

Playing outside

Running around the park with his friend Stafford

Fav place=B&N train table, except I think we may have to quit going because someone pitches an embarrassing little fit when its time to leave!

My friend Tiggz was in town with her family for a few days so they came over and had a sleepover one night.  Brooks had so much fun playing with Colt!

And Colt was very sweet with helping us teach Brooks to share.  We are working really hard on that since we have started school and seem to be going through a bit of a "mine" phase.  Colt was very patient and understanding...you can tell he has had big brother practice!

These were the kiddos at breakfast one morning.  That's Gray in the middle--she is the cutest! As you can see we have our ever present train and aren't too happy about the photo shoot--pretty much sums this month up nicely ;)

One day we were heading outside and B tumbled head over heels down our brick steps!! It was awful...and he had these major marks on his face for at least 2 weeks, including class picture day at school of course.  Poor kid.

More fun days at the park!

We went to the pumpkin patch and he loved it.  He is actually kind of obsessed with "pump pumps" and loves all his pumpkin and Halloween books.  We (once again) had a hard time with the photo shoot but Gram ended up snapping some good ones on the go! 

He pretty much wanted to sit and drive this old tractor that they had the whole time.

After the patch we went to Jacks Cosmic Dogs for more driving!

This is one of his favorite books right now, Pete the Cat and the five little pumpkins...I was trying to get a video of how he will sing the whole thing. Excuse the Weezer in the background?!

Here is B helping me choose a paint color for the red room...

Not sure if you can tell but he is watching the trash trucks and the big machine that comes to pick up all the leaves.

Still love the C.C.

We took a road trip up to Granny and Poppy's house because ours was being painted and we had to get away from the fumes. I was really nervous about driving so far with him by myself (6 hours) but he did great! We left after school one day so he took a good long nap and then we stopped for a snack and he played with his trains for awhile.  He got a little fussy the last hour but thats when I busted out the iPad and we were all good the rest of the way.  He did great on the way home too!

He had so much fun running around in the yard and playing with Chase.

Chase was also very patient and helped us work on more "sharing". 

Brooks had his first DipDog experience!

He loved Granny and "pop pop".  When he woke up in the morning there he would always say, "Where Pop Pop go?" 

This photo does not do justice to the gorgeous leaves and mountains I got to see on the drive!  It was a great trip and I'm glad we were able to get up there before the holidays.

I have been trying to take more videos now that he is talking so much because it is just SO CUTE!! Most of them tend to occur at the table while eating because that is pretty much the only time he is still ;)