A Little Bike Riding and a Snow Day?

 We were so excited to have Susie, Joe and Rachel come over on Saturday!  This was our last hang out date before their sweet baby boy joins our group!!!  The weather was supposed to be crummy all day, but it actually ended up being a nice day!  They brought over Rachel's bike and her new helmet and bell to ride with Jackson.  Josh put Jackson's new Spiderman bell on his bike too before they all took off!  Jackson has FINALLY gotten up the courage to ride down the side streets off of our street that have big hills.  He LOVES it, but it does make us a little nervous and he takes off tearing down the sidewalk!   

 Rachel decided to join him, so the daddies went off to keep track of that!

Our last picture with Susie pregnant!

 Susie and I did some laps around our cul-de-sac with Graham...in his stroller.  NOT on our bikes ;)  After they exhausted the outside playing, we ordered Chinese for dinner before Susie and I went out to do a baby errand and then have a dessert date at Cracker Barrel.  We had the most amazing apple dumpling deliciousness!  YUM!

On Monday we woke up to a snow day?  This was probably the most frustrating one so far.  There was a very light dusting on the grass and cars.  NO reason for Jackson not to go to school.  GRRR!  We actually ended up having a great day at home!  LOL  I got the house clean a day early, everyone was in a good mood, and we just enjoyed hanging out.  Jackson had asked if we could watch a movie together and have popcorn because we had done that the week before (I had DVRed "Gnomeo and Juliet" for us to watch together) and that was his favorite thing!  I told him we could do that on Tuesday.  So, on Tuesday, we went to Wegmans for groceries and picked up "Rise of the Guardians" to watch.  Both movies were SUPER cute!  We watched during Graham's nap, and then we took a walk to the Redbox at the end of our neighborhood to return the movie.  Jackson was dying to ride his bike down the big hills again, so the plan was to do that on the way home.  On his way down the first big one, he began to wobble and ended up flying into a mailbox and falling off his bike :(  THANK GOODNESS FOR BIKE HELMETS!!!  All he ended up with was a scraped hand.  The scrape is a little bad, but for how bad the fall looked, he is in good shape!  I have since found a couple big bruises on his knees, but still not bad at all.  We did carry his bike home, but he is already talking about riding down the hills again!  That was a scary moment for a mama to watch!  I'm sure there will be more between these two... (As they sit on the floor wrestling as I type!)

Cars and Trucks on St. Patrick's Day

Graham loves pretty much everything about life, but I'm always looking for what will keep him busy and happy for a few minutes while I do X, Y, or Z.  He was having fun with some small trucks in Jackson's room (these small Chuck the Truck trucks that are a great gift, especially paired with something like this), so when we came downstairs, I pulled this car ramp toy out of the playroom for the boys to play together.  (We LOVE all of the Wheelie cars that go with this toy and a couple others we have.)  They LOVED it and played so happily together :)  It made my heart SOOO happy!!!

Graham really liked the little spinny party ;)

Checking out some new-to-him trucks.  These are one of my favorite gifts to give to little boys--perfect for little hands discovering the wonderful world of things with wheels :)

Such a big boy...

Making a move...

LOVE this sweet little face!

Brothers and their trucks :) :) :)

While this fabulous playing was going on, this AMAZING corned beef brisket was cooking away in the Crock Pot.  It was SOOO yummy!  I cannot wait to make it again!!!

Grandma Cullen's Irish Soda Bread and Cinnamon Jell-o rounded out dinner.

Grandma Cullen's Irish Soda Bread

Makes 2 loaves

4C Flour

1/2 Sugar

1T Baking powder

1tsp Baking soda

1tsp Salt

1/3C Butter

1 1/2C Buttermilk

(1 1/4C milk + 1/4c vinegar or just buy reg buttermilk)

1 Egg

2C Raisins

Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter with a fork or pastry blender. Add buttermilk, egg, and raisins and mix well with a wooden spoon. Knead for a minute or two to fully incorporate. Separate into 2 balls. Place in greased round pans and smash down to fit. Slice deep crosses into each loaf. Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy!!

 For dessert, we had Shamrock Protein Shakes.  Josh loved them--they were more like the shamrock shake that hooked him years ago.  He felt the ones last year and this year were not living up to the original standard...  I think we are on the right track, but I think I would like regular vanilla yogurt better rather than the Greek yogurt.  Plus, the mint extract is REALLY strong--beware!

Overall we had a great St. Patrick's Day!  Jackson was full of fun facts about leprechauns, rainbows, pots of gold, and all things green thanks to school :)  I LOVE all of the facts that he is packing into that head of his!

Graham's First Haircut!

 Graham's hair had gotten SO long!  It looked quite handsome right after his bath when it was neat and combed, but the rest of the time if had just become a mess on his head.  So, it was haircut time before our big trip!  Jackson was my photographer for the event, and he actually did a really good job!  I have also included some of his artsy photos he took :)  Above is the before shot!

 During when it was not so bad...

 Still not awful...

 This is not fun anymore!  It went WAY down hill from here :(  

 Cute little feet

 Graham was rewarded with a fun bath afterwards, and he seems to have forgotten the trauma.  I am loving his cleaned up look!

 Jackson caught Daddy right as he was coming in the door.

 More Grahammers

 I liked the wiggly/blurry edged effect on this one.

And a pajama pant self portrait by Jackson :)

For comparison, here is the link to Jackson's First Haircut!  His was MUCH earlier at just over three months!

Spring Sneaks In!

 Jackson has been too busy enjoying our beautiful spring days to get photographed, but this little guys still just sits still and makes a great photography subject :)  The weather finally broke last weekend, and we took advantage of it!  The boys and I went to the grocery store Sunday morning, and from the minute we got back around noon, Jackson was outside playing until 6pm! He took a short break for lunch, but that was it.  The friends rotated a bit, but he was so happy our there with his friends and their outdoor toys :)

 Josh and I worked on organizing the garage, so Graham kept us busy out there.  He Exersauced in the driveway when he was in a good mood :)  We also took some good family walks--Jackson is now brave enough to ride his bike down the big hills down the side streets off of our street!  He is SO proud :)

 I am so in love with this jacket!  This will be painful for me to watch Graham outgrow :(

 Peek a boo!!!

 Monday was also supposed to be super nice!  We made a date to meet Cole, Meredith and Baby Blake at the Lion's Mouth playground.  It was a little cloudy, but still a nice day to be outside.  Graham got to swing for the first time!!!

 He loved sitting in the swing and dangling his feet!

 SOOO happy!!!

Snow Day!

  Typical D.C., we got a "big" snow in March!  LOL  We sat right on the edge of this storm--depending which way the weather tipped, we either would have gotten TONS of snow, or a couple of inches.  We got a couple of inches, but school was closed for two days!  Unfortunately, the first day when it was actually snowing was not so pretty for playing outside :(  But, we did get out for a bit! 

 Jackson was excited to sled!  He was excited to go out and play with Reagan and Avery.  Some of the other girls in the neighborhood joined them to help make a snowman!

Jackson, Avery and Reagan with their snowman!

 Working together!

 Snuggling back inside!  Jackson still loves his Elmo slippers he got for Hanukkah two years ago!  His toes are just about ready to poke through---I suppose a new pair is in order soon...

 And, Graham had slippers of his own--horsey slippers!  He was pretty entertained by them :)

Graham is Nine Months Old!

 Well, it is getting a little trickier to get Graham to sit still WITH his sticker ON to take these monthly pictures!  LOL  Graham turned nine months old on March 4th :)  He had his check-up on the 5th and here are his stats:

Height: 27 1/4 inches (11th %ile)

Weight: 23 1/2 lbs (95th %ile)
Head Circumference: 18 1/4 inches (86th %ile)

The doctor was really happy with how Graham is doing!  She did say that although I don't mind getting up in the night to feed Graham, he really doesn't need that feeding.  So, we are sleep training...AGAIN!  Teething, super stuffy noses, and travel have prevented us from making much progress on that front.  BUT, I'm determined to make progress before we leave for Evanston in a couple of weeks!

 Graham continues to be a rolling over champ, but he still hasn't crawled!  He is SO close!  He does get around by rolling and scootching.  He has his two middle teeth poking through on the bottom!  They weren't too terrible coming in, but we knew they were there...  Graham continues to be a pretty happy, easy going baby!  He doesn't have a super-concrete schedule.  He does go to bed around 6:30pm each night, and he is up for good around 6:30am.  He is usually ready for a nap again at 8:00am, which works well on school days because it gives me some time to get  us all ready to leave the house while he naps!  Several shorter naps seems to be his M.O., at the moment, but his disposition is happy and content :)  He has liked everything we have given him to eat and he is now eating three meals a day in addition to nursing four or five times during the day.  He is wearing size three diapers and is in nine and twelve month clothing!!!

I love watching how pleased with himself Graham gets as he tests out new skills!  He is pretty proud of being able to feed himself small pieces of food using his pincer grasp.  He LOVES listening to his own voice and the sounds it can make now!  The smile that accompanies the sound is absolutely priceless!  He gets such joy out of making other people smile--just like his brother when he was a baby! 

This picture is of Graham's sweet little fingers peeking out of a special blanket my good friend, Kim, made Jackson when he was born!  I LOVE using those special items for Graham too!  Kim is due with her first baby (a GIRL!) any day, and I cannot wait to meet her!  She will have to settle for the storebought gifts I have put together since I am not nearly as talented as her ;)

What a Weekend :/

Here is one of the wonderful points of our weekend in Staunton!  Gramma soaked up as many snuggles as she could get :)  We had a great visit with Uncle Larry, Aunt Murph, and Gramma J, but there were quite a few things that we could have done without :( We started with some wet jammies for Jackson when he was surprised by Aunt Murph and Uncle Larry's dog in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom.  Josh woke up with a HORRIBLE crick in his shoulder/neck, and was in a good amount of discomfort for the next few days.  I got probably the second-worst migraine I have ever had while we were at Gramma J's.  I went straight to bed once we got back to Murph and Larry's, which was so disappointing because Murph and I had plans to go get pedicures :(  I did feel better as the night went on, and we had such a fun evening hanging out!  It was COLD, and Windjammer is always so cozy with the fire going and hanging out in the great room.  Murph made a delicious dinner, and she and Larry were wonderful hosts, as always :)  In the middle of the night, Jackson woke up throwing up, and then it was just back and forth between Jackson and Graham waking up and settling back to sleep only to have the other wake up, and so on...  We hit the road as soon as we could get packed up on Sunday morning, which cut our trip short a bit, but we just wanted to get back home and settled in!  Jackson seemed to be on the mend pretty quickly, but then Graham started throwing up a couple of days later :(  OY!  I had a touch of whatever they had too.  The difference between how yucky I felt Tuesday and Wednesday and then on Thursday was crazy!  I felt SO much better!  Good timing since Thursday was Graham's worst day :(  He finally kept his feedings down overnight on Thursday and is finally back to eating his normal menu!  

We will just have to plan another trip soon so we can really relax and enjoy ourselves without these little complications!