Year in Review...

I know a lot of people skim over this type of blog entry, but I think it's fun to look back over the year and see the good and... if we must... bad things that made this year different from any other.

I pretty much summed up January, February and March, then my life became hectic. So I guess instead of a year in review it will be 3/4 of a year review.

In April everyone started feeling better after our bouts with the flu and infections. It was starting to get warm in our neck of the woods, so that meant lots of trips to our local park. The boys always have a blast on the swings, the slide and the see-saw.

By the way, that gash on Elijah's nose was (I think) from a collision with his trundle bed.

In the middle of April was Easter and later in the month we hit up Sandy Point State Park for a little trip to the "beach". It's in quotations, cause to Marylanders, actually going to the beach means trekking to Ocean City. Caleb wasn't sure how he felt about the whole thing.

Elijah loved it.

There was also a lot of hopscotch being played.

May brought even warmer weather, Mother's Day, and a trip to the airport.

The boys enjoyed the warm weather in the backyard before the mosquitoes overtook it.

In June we visited a firehouse where we saw a medivac up close and personal.

 We did some creating...

 (Elijah made this whale out of coins)

Played with lots of angry birds...

Made lemonade...

  And had a picnic in Grandma's basement. It was a pretty fun month.

 July was hot and humid, but we made the most of it. We washed a lot of cars, had a 1st birthday party for a certain little person. August was pretty non-eventful. We had a visit from our friends, Steve and Brie, who brought over their kids, Sammy and Delia. Other than that just hung around the house out of the heat... except when we went to the fair at the end of the month.

September was jammed packed full of fun. We attended Andre's birthday party. He is the son of one of my best friends. They had it at the Fire Museum of Maryland.

The boys -loved- it.

There were toys for every age and they even had clothing where the kids could dress up like real firefighters.

Here are Andre and Elijah working on the fire engine.

The kids even got to ride in the basket of an old fire engine.

Everyone had a great time.

During the week, while I was at work, Joe would take the kids out to different playgrounds around the area. This was one of their favorites.

Later in the month, on an absolutely beautiful day, we decided to take the kids to DC. It's only an hour from our house, so we go down at least once a year. This was Caleb's first time on the Metro and boy was he excited. Elijah had been on it before, but he was excited as well.

We ended up at the Air and Space Museum. Elijah is big into space, planets and stars, so we thought he would have fun. (I hope to have a full post with more pictures soon)

On one of the last days of the month we took Elijah to his first Orioles game.

As you can tell by his face he was very "into" it.

Also during the month we celebrated Caleb's dedication. He is such a little blessing to everyone. It was a great day.

October brought cooler weather and the anticipation of Halloween. We were goofing around with the camera one day and figured out how to make the pictures red, like in some scary movies. Caleb was very scary.

Elijah didn't get the concept. He was a happy scary guy.

During the middle of the month we went out to Frederick with Joe's side of the family. There was lots of things for the kids to do.

After they played on, and with, some of the things we went out to the pumpkin patch to pick the pumpkins for this year.

On the 29th we went to two Halloween related activities. In the morning we went to a Harvest Party for my mom's group (just like last year). This year the theme was pirates.

The kids got to dress up and they had lots and lots of activities. Mostly crafts, but some for the tiny people to do too.

This is one of the crafts Elijah made.

Later that evening we went to Trunk or Treat. Caleb the mountain climber, Elijah the Angry Bird and Joe the mountain.

We had to wait in line a while, but the kids made the most of it. It was awesome. Lots of unique trunks. I plan to do an individual post about it because the one I posted last year got about 1800 views, in October alone, so I will continue to share the love (and ideas).

In November we apparently decided not to take any pictures with our regular camera for most of the month. But we made up for it when we went to the Festival of Trees the day after Thanksgiving.

The people that decorate these trees have some of the best ideas. Here are a few of my favorites.

Spirit Tree - It had little bottles of booze hanging on it... along with a smattering of other things.

This one is an "I spy" tree. On the packages underneath they had clues like, "Find the green stocking". I thought that was cute and fun.

Charlie Brown Tree

After we looked at all the trees, we headed over to the train garden.

As you can tell, the boys loved it.

I made sure to take a couple pictures with my boys, since some people have pointed out that I'm hardly ever in any of the pictures I post.

Then December rolled along. The first Saturday of the month we attended "Breakfast with Santa" at Joe's job. He works downtown for a copy center of a law firm that is on the 19th-21st floor.

The view is quite nice, if I do say so myself.

They had a balloon twister (who made Elijah a Santa hat) and gingerbread cookie decorating along with some other crafts.

They also got a present from Santa. Elijah got a football and Caleb got a book.

Later in the month we decided, spur of the moment, that we would go down to DC to see the train garden at Union Station and the National Christmas Tree. This was one of the worst spur of the moment trips I have ever taken... and we take a lot. We are old pros on the Metro, but on this trip we actually missed one of our transfer stops, had to go two stops down and ride another train back.

When we finally (FINALLY) got to our destination... Union Station, everyone was hungry and ready for a sit down. We took a few pics in front of the Christmas tree outside and then headed in to find the train garden.

Not as good as the one at the Festival of Trees, but the boys liked watching the two trains go round and round.

Union Station was decorated very nicely. We ate at Unos for dinner, which was less than wonderful, but we got to sit down and eat, which was nice. Then we took in some sights, like the Capitol being all lit up and just the city at night is really pretty also.

After that, we headed over to the National Christmas Tree. The thing Elijah wanted to see the most.

It was quite nice, but the boys were less than enthusiastic about seeing it.

They also had a Nativity, which I was sure was outlawed, in public, years ago. It was nice to see it. They also had Santa's workshop nearby, but the line was about a mile long, so we ended up making the trek home.

During the rest of December lots of creations were built with Legos (this is one of my favorites)

And Elijah had an open house for roller skating lessons. He's been taking them since September and he's starting to get good. There is a show in April that he will perform in. I can't wait to see it.

We also took some time to goof around. It was especially cold one day, so we put undershirts on the boys. (I actually call these type of undershirts "wife beaters") They looked so cute in them I couldn't help but take a picture. A few days later Elijah came up to me and said he wanted his "White beater" on. I just laughed. Guess I better watch what I say.

Then Christmas came. We celebrated at my in-laws on the 22nd. Elijah enjoyed modeling a few hats and playing with all the toys he received.

The pink hat isn't his. He borrowed it from one of the girls.

On the 24th Azalea waited up for Santa and was very surprised he came while she was still awake.

The boys got to see what Santa brought the next morning.

A few days later it snowed and Elijah got to play in it with Daddy. They made a great looking snow man.

On New Years Eve we tried to take a nice family picture, but this is how it turned out.

Crazy, as always.

I say it was a pretty great year, full of ups and downs, but it was special none the less. I hope your year was as good as ours and even better.

A Five-year-old Elijah?

I don't know how this happened so soon, but our baby boy is turning five today. He has grown up so much this year. Starting to learn how to read and write and helping out around the house with all sorts of chores.

He's also a really great big brother. He plays with Caleb and watches out for him, so he doesn't get hurt. We all love him a whole bunch and hope he has another great year full of learning and fun.

Thankful... To be able to Give

We have lots to be thankful for in our lives. We have two great kids, a good dog, a nice house and plenty to eat. We are thankful that I have a job and that God provided enough for us to get by when Joe was unemployed. Did you catch that? I said was. We are extra thankful this month that Joe found a job. I think a lot of people take for granted the things they have... us included. I didn't realize all the extra we were spending and the things we would buy just on a whim. It took Joe getting laid off to make us realize how much we had and that we could get by without all the extra stuff.

So for this Christmas we are doing things a little differently. We really want this Christmas to be about giving to those less fortunate than us. The people going through hard times... or they've always had hard time, but they are just taking it day by day by day... and it must be exhausting.  Elijah has reached an age where he is very aware for things and remembers a lot. I want to instill this need to give to others early in life, so as he gets older he will want to do it on his own.

He helped me pick out some things for an Angel Tree child and we have some other things lined up to do. I won't say what but here is a list of some things to do if you want to spread some holiday cheer too:

Pick a random table at a restaurant and pay their bill
Pay for the person behind you (it can be anywhere, a store, a fast food place, coffee bar, cafeteria, toll booth, etc.)
Give food to homeless people, either through a shelter, food pantry or buying a hamburger for the homeless guy on the street
Sponsor a family
Get an Angel Tree child
Bake cookies for neighbors
Give money to organizations to help the needy (we like to put money in the Salvation Army kettles)
Volunteer at an organization. It doesn't cost any money and the rewards are amazing.
Buy a present for Toys for Tots (or any of the other program like it)

That is all I can think of and I'm sure there are a ton more. Leave a comment and let me know how you spread holiday cheer by giving to others.

Caleb's Dedication

A dedication is an important step in our family. For non-denominational Christians it takes place of a baptism for infants. The parents get up in front of their friends and family to say they will raise this baby (or little child) to believe in Christ and God, take him or her to Sunday school and to lead them in a Godly walk. They ask the people that attend to help the parents on that journey, also.

On September 15 we dedicated Caleb. Elijah was dedicated in 2008. I never posted about it, but I made a layout  and my Mother-in-law blogged about it.

It was on a Saturday morning, so we got all dressed up and ready to head out. I don't know about you, but I love a little boy in a dress shirt and tie. Two of them makes me doubly happy, especially since they are my own.

Caleb is a ham. Pull out a camera and he loves it... He even loves to pose. This was while we were waiting for everything to start, at the church.

Then he realized he was sitting on stairs... It was over... stairs trump picture taking.

 It was a nice ceremony.

 This was only half of the parents that were dedicating that day. There were approximately 8 more families that went before our group.

After the dedication was over we headed to the Boulevard Diner for some lunch. All the food was so good.

What a great day filled with family and friends for a very special occasion.

Book - It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Elijah adores Halloween and Charlie Brown, so when he found this book at the bookstore last month we had to buy it.

It is kind of like a sticker book, but not really. It comes with a few sheets of stickers and as you read along you put the stickers on the pages to complete the story.

He had fun figuring out where the stickers belonged. There are white outlines to help piece everything together.

This is Elijah's favorite page. He loves reciting the lines:
"I got a chocolate bar"
"I got a quarter"
"I got a rock"
Laughter ensues every time...

He couldn't figure out where some of the stickers went, so daddy came to the rescue.

This is a great Halloween present (cause apparently that is a new thing that people do) or a "just because" present for any little person you might know. Barnes and Noble was running a special when we bought it, buy two kids books you get this book for $3.99. Since we were already there to buy a birthday present and we were looking for another book as well, it worked in our favor. I found out this weekend that they are still running the sale this week. I have also seen it at Walmart for pretty cheap ($6 or $7), if you want to pick it up there instead.

State Fair 2012

As per our annual tradition we went to the Maryland State Fair this past August. We went three half days again this year. Because Joe was at home with the boys he would take them over around 3pm and I would meet them there about 6pm, since my job is only about 20 minutes away from the fairgrounds. We went one day, by ourselves, so Joe could go to a Newsboys concert they were having. My mom treated to admission for the other two days.

This year we visited and saw some different things than we usually do. That's what great about the fair, year to year they always have some new things to see and do.

This was the first day before I got there. They were tuckered out.

Once he woke up Elijah decided to get on some rides. He loved the fact that this year he could get on more by himself.

At that point, Joe went to the concert and the boys hung out with me for a few hours.

We ate dinner while we watched a guy carving a log with a chainsaw. It was pretty awesome, minus the gas fumes... Caleb didn't know how to feel about the whole situation.

Then more rides.

And a photo-op. Sorry for the blurriness  I was attempting to keep Caleb on the seat with one hand (cause he kept lunging at the camera) while taking the picture with the other.

We walked around a lot not really doing too much. We checked out the concert from afar. Not too long after that Joe joined us again and we headed home.

Thursday was the second day we went. Joe took them over again before I got off of work.

This was Elijah's favorite ride... He could have rode on it all day if we let him. It's the type of ride that goes fast in an oval and when you reach either end it pulls you back in your seat because of the force. Funny thing about this is that when I was pregnant with Elijah, Joe and I went to Hershey Park and the only ride I allowed myself to get on was the whip, which is the adult version of this ride. Too weird.

The fair would not be complete without eating. Mmmm fair food is so good. The corn especially. (By the way, in case you were wondering, that is my sister and my brother-in-law sitting with us.)

That evening we were treated to some random fireworks. They were planned, but they were random to us because we didn't know they were going to happen. When they first went off a lot of people thought it was gunshots. Fun times, fun times...

They were pretty good.

Caleb wasn't impressed. He's a very cautious child, unless it comes to climbing on something, then he has no fear.

Elijah, on the other hand, loved them.

After the fireworks the boys played the duck grabbing game. They won this giant banana (unfortunately... haha)

Then it was time to take the annual picture. We ended up asking some random guy with a tripod if he could take the picture. He did an awesome job!

We were walking towards the exit when Elijah (and Joe) spotted the bumper cars. They rode on it several times.

Then he took a ride with his Pop-pop.

This year Caleb was only able to get on the Merry-go-round, but next year, he should be able to get on some other rides.

We were kicked out of the fair that night. The first time that has ever happened.

The next day we went for the last time. Originally it was just suppose to be Joe and I, but my mom and dad had brought the boys just to walk around.

We started out in one of the pavilions looking at all the neat 4-H creations and projects. I think I might look into taking Elijah to 4-H starting next year. I think he would really like it.

This was his favorite display. He stood there for about 15 minutes examining everything on it.

This was another great one.

That evening in another pavilion they had a pumpkin carver. He does awesome work!

This girl photo-bombed this picture.... Don't know who she is. I had to laugh when I found it on the camera though.

There we go. Two sweet little boys.

They also had a fake horse you could pretend to ride. Elijah thought it was awesome.

Then there was a craft... Horseshoe decorating. Elijah decorated his all by himself.

Joe made Caleb's. I plan on hanging them up in Elijah's room or in the living room.

During "dessert" Caleb was eyeing up my ice cream, but didn't like it when he took a lick (weird child).

That was the end of our week of fair fun. There was tons more that we didn't take pictures of, like a caricature of the boys, Elijah and I playing bingo, Elijah, Joe and I going on the tilt-a-whirl together and so on and so forth. These are the best days of summer... It's always sad to see it go. But as we have Elijah say when leaving the fair, "Bye fair! See you again next year!"