The past month via pictures!

A look back through January & February through pictures! 

 

My little handy-man.  Love all the tools in his pockets. 

Checking out their computer together!

How sweet is Jim?!  He asked me to take a picture of him & his animals!

And then Ben joined in - Jim is with Teddy Bear & Fluffer's...And Ben has Teddy & Dingle. 

Coloring together....

I was trying to get a good picture of them next to the fireplace - I loved how the sun was shining - but neither wanted to smile, and I didn't capture how cool the sun really looked. 

Brotherly love!

Chasing the birds out back!

They both love playing here!  Lots of digging & building going on!

Snow!!!  Using their trucks to help plow the snow.

Jim pulling Ben over to Parker's for some sledding!

Mark had the day off!!!!  Built a little fire to help warm us up!

Jim had a blast!!!

Inside, warming up, hanging out together!

Diaper Free!!!

I'm very excited to say that we are now 100% diaper free in our house!!!!  Woohoo, no more changing diapers for us! 

We decided to start potty training Ben on the 1st of this month.  Mark was going to be home for a couple extra days, so we figured now's the time to do it!  (We didn't want to do it sooner because we had New Year's Eve plans, and didn't want to have to worry about that, priorities!) 

I will have to say Ben did a great job with the whole process.  The first day he had a bunch of accidents, which is to be expected.  But then the 2nd day, he had 1 accident - when he was outside playing!  3rd day - just 1 accident, same as 4th day again when he was outside playing - and then he was accident free! 

He even stayed dry during nap time & night time.  I think something just clicked with him and he knew he shouldn't go when sleeping, and only go in the potty. 

Great job Ben with the potty training!!!!

A look back on 2014

My 3rd year in review - check out 2013's, and 2012's.  It's always fun to look back on pictures from the past year! 

We rang in 2014 with our neighbors!

Lots of playing together, and helping each other out in February (really all year long!)

Ben turned 2 in March!  We enjoyed visits from Grandma, Papa, Aunt Ashley, Nanny & Papa!

Jim turned 4 in April!  Spent a week in Charleston, SC - fun in the sun with the family!  Celebrated Easter!

Enjoyed the wonderful spring weather in May - lots of time doing jobs & playing outside!  Having lots of fun with our weekly Friday night drinks in the driveway with our neighbors!

June we did a little 'summer camp' with the moms group I'm in - lots of fun with that!  Enjoyed a visit from Nanny & Papa, and lots of fun playdates with friends!

July we enjoyed a visit from Grandma & Papa and then Aunt Allison!  Lots of fun playdates with friends, as well as lots of fun at the pool!  Jim took some swim lessons, and he did great with that!

August we enjoyed a visit from Aunt Jenna & Blake!!!  And then Grandma flew down here so she could help us drive up to NY for a 2 week visit up there!!!!  (Speaking of that trip, I've been trying to get a recap of that on here - only been trying for how many months?!)

September started off with the rest of our visit in NY!  There were lost more playdates, fun playing outside, and Jim started playing soccer!!! 

October - lots of fall festivities & fun!  More soccer!  And having a little devil & firefighter for Halloween!

There was lots of raking & jumping in the leaves in November; and then a trip up to New York for Thanksgiving. Getting to play in the snow!!!

Christmas time is such a great time of year with a 2 & 4 year old!  We enjoyed a visit from Aunt Ashley in December!  Lots of Christmas activities, visits from Elfie, and then a week up in New York to celebrate Christmas!  There's like 500 pictures from December that I want to post here - but I'll keep it to just 3! 

New Year's Eve was dinner with the neighbors at Southside, and then we came back here for bit, and then went across the street to ring in 2015!  2014 was a great year - it's so much fun to see the boys growing, learning new things, playing with each other.  Exciting to see what 2015 brings!  



A brief December recap

Man, it's been almost 2 months since I've updated.  Guess the boys are doing their jobs at keeping me busy!!!  Everything is going good - the boys are getting excited about Christmas!  Jim helped with cutout cookies last night, and then both boys helped frost them today. Ben was very good at making sure every single part of the cookie was covered in frosting, and plenty of sprinkles!  They've been working together at wrapping all the presents...

Aunt Ashley came back home with us after Thanksgiving!  We had a great week with her, making gingerbread houses, going into D.C. to the Botanical Gardens and the Air & Space museum; lunch & shopping in Old Town; decorating for Christmas; Scottish Walk Parade in Old Town - we were busy all week long!  We're so thankful & grateful for her spending the week with us, we didn't have to worry about finding a babysitter for the wedding we were invited to, as she was our great babysitter!!!

Elfie has been busy in our house - watching over the boys making sure they're good boys so Santa can come!  It's fun to see them wake up in the morning, scanning the room and then seeing a big smile on their face when they spot him!