March 2014

See?  Eh??  March!  I know it's almost the middle of April, but really - does time actually speed up when you have kids or is it just me?!  

March was a good month - we saw the last of the snow (knock on wood)!  And we are FINALLY enjoying spring!

Arianne and I started our Thursday library tradition:

It started out as a story-time tradition....but after a few weeks of being too late and missing it for one reason or another, we decided maybe we just aren't cut out for story-time...but luckily, the library welcomes us any time!

And here are some random pictures I love.

Because who couldn't love those two on the left??  And Piper is one of Troy's favorite people lately, he is always asking where she is, or where we went.

The last of week March/first week of April was Dusty's spring break, and we drove to our old home, Florida!  It was so wonderful.  The green, the sun, the people, I loved all of it.  Except the drive home - I hated that.  Not that we were coming home, I just literally hated the drive - we started at 1 in the afternoon on Saturday, and lets just say we will never ever do that with a kid again.  Mistake.  

The green:

We LOVE the springs :)  Troy was so so excited about every little thing outside, it was adorable.  I loved seeing him enjoy nature so much!  He was a little confused about all the Spanish moss - he kept trying to put the moss that had fallen back on the trees:

And what's Florida without a few close encounters with the alligators?

I don't know why it looks like I'm trying to feed Troy to this one...I swear I'm not!  Just trying to get a  good pic, I guess.  Troy looks like he's the only one who realizes the danger...

The people:

I miss these people!!!  The Coopers had a dinner for us Sunday night with all my old YW girls, and our old neighbors made us a true southern breakfast the next morning (Troy wouldn't eat the grits, but he was all about the fried vienna sausages).  And the Sims were so gracious to let us stay with them for a couple nights, even when I kept Rachael up talking WAY past both our bedtimes :)  Her freezer happened to break while we were there - we had to finish off that cheesecake.  Wouldn't want to it go bad.

We also got to stay with my Uncle Lee and Aunt Kit, and managed to not get any pictures of them! They did get some great ones of us, though (they are the best!)  

Troy did SO good swimming!  He loved the springs just as much as us.

We ended the week with a couple of beach days :)  

Then right before we left, we noticed a tick in this cute boy's eyelid - yes - EYELID!  Right in the lashes - poor kid.  We were at a spring and asked the park rangers for a pair of tweezers but we couldn't get it out on our own.  We drove to the nearest fire station about 10 minutes down the road and the firemen helped us - they were awesome.  It took 3 of us to hold Troy down and it was so sad to hear him scream :(.  But they got it, and Troy got this nifty frisbee!  He calls it his "circle".  He also got to sit in the fire truck, which he was pretty excited about until they turned the sirens on and he freaked out.  But hey, the kid just had a tick pulled out of his eyelid - he was on edge.

But overall - we had a great time!  And we came back to CT with 60 degree days - not bad :) :)

February 2014

Hello there! Long time no see, or write...sorry about that. New resolution: I'm going to post one blog for every month. I can't promise it will be during that month, but hopefully it will be pretty darn close to the last day of the month. So with no further adieu, February!

Troy turned 2 years old- holy moly!! We had a semi-train themed party at my parent's house for him, made some homemade pizza (well, it was store bought crust, which was much easier), smoothies, and not one but TWO train cakes! All of Troy's favorite things :) Plus, my parents have swings in their basement and for a two-year-old, it doesn't get much better than that.

Trains are pretty high on Troy's list right now, right along with cars, gee-tars, drums, airplanes (recently added), and dancing and singing his little heart out. He is so energetic, so loving and sweet, and so funny- I feel so blessed to be his mommy! He loves dragging Dusty or I out of bed in the wee hours of the morning (I'm usually the lucky one) to line up his cars, build a train track, or put some music on and dance. He gives us our guitars, and lately we also need to be standing on a book (?). I'm always surprised at how many words he knows and how smart he is. He knows almost all his colors and he counts like this, "two, three, two, three?" Or "four, five, four, five?" Always with the question mark. And this morning as he walked into the kitchen and the light from the window blinded him he said, "Oh! That's shiny!" He has finally started going to nursery without screaming (knock on wood) and I love picking him up and seeing his face light up when he sees me, seeing his scribbles (I have some of them framed) and hearing him telling me about nursery in his little voice. He mostly just says, "Nursery! I go nursery!" He is a major mama's boy, sometimes I love that and sometimes I hate it...but he is branching out to Dusty. He calls his daddy "Dusty" at times and wants to do everything he does, but he keeps me in sight. Lately he wants to sleep on the couch if Dusty is sleeping on the couch at Troy's bedtime. But he always has been SO excited to see his daddy when he gets home from work, and I think he looks forward to it all day because he asks for him, or where he is, periodically.

(Don't worry, that top left picture isn't poop- it's kinetic sand!)

Troy's new love of airplanes was inspired by a trip to the New England Air Museum- it was pretty awesome!

February was the month of snow days for Dusty! We loved getting to have him home with us, it was a nice and needed break for Dusty and me :). But now we are anxious for him not to get anymore- we want a summer vacation, too!

Michelle had her baby- beautiful baby Zoe Violet! She is perfect. She looks so much like Penelope did when she was born, without the dark hair.

And I have officially started working on building a business! An etsy business, that is. And I guess it's not actually official yet, seeing as how I haven't opened shop yet, or thought of a name...but I am making things to sell! That's the most important part, right?

Must...drum...
This is how I feel right now, except it's more, "must...blog..."

Happy happy holidays

This year Dusty, Troy, and I made a last minute (well, last few weeks) decision to go to Idaho for the holidays, and here we are! We've had a great time seeing our family here- Felica, Natalie, and Edward were able to drive up from California for new years. (We are missing Michael and the Flakes!). Troy has had such a good time with his Grandma and Grandpa- he calls their basement his "house". It is kid-heaven down there, so I cant blame him!

He loves trains, trucks, cars, drums, and guitars, so he's pretty much got everything he needs in his "house"! Troy remembered Grandma right away

Christmas morning: Troy woke up at about 5am (per usual) and came downstairs to find the above rocking horse piled with stuffed animals and puzzles at its foot. He was so excited that he just started running circles around it with a big smile on his face, pointing at the horse and saying, "horse! Horse!" It was adorable- I wish I had been awake enough to think to get a video.

We also got to hang out with my good friends the Pursers, which unfortunately I neglected to get any pictures of! It was so good to see them, though. I hate that they had to move away from Ct, but Boise is lucky to have them!

Thanksgiving is my favorite :)

Happy Thanksgiving, people! What better time to start blogging again? Maybe if I'm lucky i will get the at least the holidays recorded here.. I decided today that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love that its the beginning of true Holiday season; instead of being sad that its over at the end if the day, im looking forward to decorating for Christmas, which is only in 4 weeks!! And I officially get to listen to Christmas music (and pretend like I don't the rest of the year, too).
Today we went to my parent's house for lunch/dinner. Actually, we ate our (enormous) lunch at 3ish, then we pretty much had dessert for dinner, since we ate that around 5:30 :). We enjoyed the fire and good company, watched 'The Lion King'. I listened to Mish try to explain to Piper why animals die in stampedes without actually saying how they die, and that no, water can't bring them back to life if they are really dead (she asks tough questions about death, lately) (plus, that movie is pretty intense). (Mish did great, I think- I'm definitly no expert!). Troy got to play with his cousins and Memere to his heart's content, feed Matt and Jenean's fish, and play with Memere and Pepere's toys. All in all, it was a great day :). Unfortunately, I hardly got any pictures! Here's what I did get:

Lately, Troy loves anything that even remotely resembles a guitar or a baseball bat- he goes back and forth between the two sporadically. For example, one minute the kitchen spatula is a guitar, the next it could be a baseball bat, you just have to watch out for his swing. Especially when the object is long and pokey -

(Just don't ask me why I let him bring that stick inside) Right now it's a guitar, if you can't tell. He also sings, which is adorable :). Of course, thanks to Heavy Metal Mater, a lot of his singing is heavy metal style...still adorable! (For now...)

Happy holidays and happy blogging!

Aloha hawaii

This is our last week in Hawaii. Actually, our last week in Hilo was last week, this week we are in Kauai with Dusty's family. This picture was taken our last day on the Big Island:

Of course we spent it at our favorite black sand beach (Kehena!), and it was a happy and sad day for me. Excited to be here, in Kauai, with family, and excited to be on our way to the East Coast to actually LIVE near family (!!), but sad to be leaving this beautiful place (again).

We are loving Kauai and running around like crazy as is usual per Williams' family vacations! Troy went to bed tonight at 9pm, and he fell asleep so easily I'm almost tempted to give him a new bedtime...well it also helps that there are 8 other adults plus a 2 year old to keep him busy!

Troy made some friends at the park our first day here- they were such funny kids. The girls were so interested in Troy and the boys kept saying, "why is his hair is so white?!"

We bike the Coconut Coast, which Troy was not too happy about, hike the first couple miles of the Na Pali coast trail (which I believe is my most favorite hike in the whole world), saw a blowhole, Troy and Milo went on a train ride with Grandma and Grandpa (which troy was really excited about), and we've seen a new beach (or two) every day. And the fun will continue tomorrow!

Popcorn popping

So I know it was forever ago, but thats just the way my blogging is happenning lately! Dusty's famiy came to visit a couple weeks ago, and I wish they could have stayed forever! It was so much fun to have them around. We all crammed into our one bedroom apartment (all 6 of us- good thing we have a loft!) which made it feel like a big slumber party all week long. I feel like most people wouldn't love their in-laws crashed on their living room floor, couch, and all around them for a week, but not me. I definitely lucked out in the in-law department, because I would have been so sad if they hadn't stayed with us and I think I might have jumped for joy if they said they were going to stay another week. They're that great, seriously.

We had a blast hiking to Waipio Valley, seeing waterfalls, hanging out at the nudie I mean black sand beaches (lol), driving up Mauna Kea (seeing the snow that caps the mountain close up!), going to the volcano, going to Kona, playing in the waves. Jumping off South Point- the most southern point in the United States and the bluest water I've ever seen, ever. Poor Troy, after watching Dusty jump, then me, I think he thought that was it for us. He was so relieved when we climbed up. It was so good to see Troy getting some good Grandma and Grandpa time while they were here. He warmed up to them so easily I think he must remember them- and of course I think my child is a genius so what else is new! :)

The last picture was taken at a swimming hole at what has now been dubbed, "engagement point". Dusty's sister Felicia got engaged while they were here! We loved being able to celebrate with them, and of course we did it with a "happy engagement/happy birthday Kevin" pumpkin cheesecake pie, our favorite. And in fact, Dusty's other sister Natalie recently got engaged, too! We're so excited to have 2 new members of the family, hooray for getting married!

Troy is one! And other big news :)

Since i havent posted in.....well a long time, I've got a lot to post! I wont bore you with one loong post though, so i'll just hit the big ones. Like our baby is not a baby anymore! Toddlerhood is just as fun as babyhood, just with more teeth and injuries. Because this kid can run! Toddle-run, that is. It's adorable. Oh I love him. There's more laughing, too, lots of laughing. I haven't posted a "watch Troy grow" picture in awhile, but believe or not I did take them. Most of them...well I missed a couple of months but believe me, there were definitely pictures taken! So I ad-libbed (not sure if that's a word) a little.

By 12 months, he was not having the whole, lie-still-on-this-blanket-and-let-mommy-take-a picture business, as you can see. And yes, he is wearing the same shirt in his 12 month photo as in his 11 month photo. Oops. He is also still wearing some 3 month sized shorts...ah well, neither Dusty or I are unusually tall or anything, so I think he'll grow up just fine :). At his one year check-up he was 21 lbs and 29 inches long (correction! I wrote the wrong height on a previous post and i dont know if that post will show up...oops again!), 46th percentile for weight and about 18th percentile for height, depending on what website calculator. Poor shrimp. Just kidding, I shouldn't make fun of my kid! In other news, (i told you this wasn't going to be a long boring post- i promise i'll keep my word!), Dusty got accepted into Teach for America and was assigned to Connecticut!

Which I am very excited about. Dusty is less so, but he already has plans for buying a river kayak (or two), practicing flipping over in my parents pool and then taking it down the (raging) connecticut rivers. I think he'll survive the two years. I am loving Hawaii, but missing family (both families!). So we have about 3 more months until we move, first to Idaho for a week or so then to another cross country drive to Ct. Its going to be a loong trip...