My 2 year old....

How cute is a 2 year old? I can't think of a better age, can you? So much energy contained in such a small little body... He has so much fun now when we go to the playground. He's so independent in so many ways too. His favorite line now is, "No Mommy, me do it." He tells me this almost every time I try to help him on the playground. It's such a special age where you never quite know what will come out of his mouth next or what milestone he will hurdle over right before your eyes. My sweet sweet boy...

Make Something Monday...

Do you like my Christmas Memory Book? I got the idea from one of my fellow crafty bloggers. I thought it was so precious and so...easy to make too. The idea is to create a small notebook filled with Christmas memories to be stored along with your ornaments. You pull it out and hang on the tree each year and fill it with new Christmas memories as well as look back on year's past. The original idea said to use a small spiral notebook and punch holes in one corner. Well, I did not have a small spiral notebook handy so I improvised and made my own with index cards, card stock and ribbon. I made it fun by adding some Christmas stickers on the front. It turned out cute and I know my boys will enjoy it for many years to come...

New Scooters

Dargan on his "new" hand-me down scooter
So proud...

Will getting some practice with his new Razor

Getting the hang of it...

Santa brought big brother a new Razor Scooter this year. Will has been practicing on it all week and is getting pretty good. It's hard to believe how quickly they can learn how to manuver those things around! Since big brother got a brand new scooter for Christmas this year, he decided to give his old one - a cool Spiderman scooter - to his little brother. Dargan is so... proud to have his very own scooter. The best part about this scooter practice session was that they did it in their new Clone Wars pj's. How cute is that?

"So Much Love .... on Saturday"

As you can clearly see...Will absolutely LOVES his "WeeChop." He told me just the other day, "Mommy, I love you and Daddy as much as I love my WeeChop." I took that as a BIG compliment.

Christmas 2008

The cookies and note we left for Santa along with the book we read every Christmas Eve

Reindeer Food left out for Santa's reindeer

Dargan in his Elmo costume with his Chocolate Chapstick

The boys playing with their new Moon Sand

Will as "Iron Man"

Dargan playing our new Sonic game on the Wii

Lovin' that Aqua Doodle Mat

Will as a Ninja

Dargan in his new Clone Wars Play Hut and pj's

I guess you could say that Santa was good to us this year... The boys had a GREAT time running around opening Christmas gifts and seeing what goodies Santa left for them! Will had a great time modeling all his new costumes and Dargan got exactly what he wanted----Chocolate Chapstick! Don't ask, it's a mystery why he likes it so... much. Will also enjoyed his new pirate legos and his new Sonic game for the Wii. After playing with our new toys for a few hours we headed over to the Grandparents house and the boys got to open more, more and more presents....The little guys literally fell into their beds at 9 pm tonight. From our family to yours-Merry Christmas!!!

Festival of Lights...

Our family enjoyed a night out at the Festival of Lights. A great time was had by all and it was even a little chill in the air for us! It was GREAT fun and a Family Tradition of ours...

Will & Mommy

The boys waiting for the Train Ride thru the park.....

Is Will tired already?

Train Ride

Could this be a Loggerhead Turtle?

All suited up for the climbing wall

Dargan on the carosel ride

A monkey riding a monkey...

Posing with a mushroom

Checking out the HUGE sandcastle

Wow! Look at Santa!!!

Will brought along his Santa Doggie

Worn out!!!

Pooped...

I can sum up the way I feel right now from just a few of the past week's Christmas activities...pooped! I can't think of a better word at the moment b/c I'm so tired. Just got back today from a 3-day trip to see my family out in the country, then as soon as we got home and ate some lunch we headed back out to do the Festival of Lights. The boys loved it, but both of them were sound asleep in the car not even 5 minutes after we drove away. I had a very hard time staying awake too on the drive home. So thankful for such a wonderful husband that doesn't ever mind driving the whole gang around in our minivan... Thank goodness he's a nightowl and gets his 2nd wind at night or we may not have made it home. Hopefully I'll get some much needed sleep tonight and will be all better for Santa's visit tomorrow night. Sleeping with your 5 year old snuggled up right next to you (on the same pillow) and your 2 year old in a crib in the same room does NOT make for good sleep....

Soapy Saturday...

Will LOVES a long bath. I think he could stay in there ALL day if I let him. He likes to put every toy he can find in the bath with him...makes for not so easy clean up for Mommy ---if you can imagine.

My brothers and me

I came across this picture from a few years ago of me and my 2 brothers-Ned on the left and James on the right. Both of them still live in my hometown with their families and I moved away. Since I have lived away from my childhood home for the past 20 years does that make me a local in both places? It's so nice to go home (I will always call it that) and see all of them, but it's somehow strange that I now have another place I call home. Isn't it funny how things change, yet some will always remain the same...

Christmas past...from 2004

This picture was taken from Christmas 2004 when Big Brother was almost 2 years old. It's hard to believe how much he has changed and how different he is at this age from little brother. They are so much alike in so many way, but still so... different in others. When this photo was taken he was watching his favorite show - The Wiggles in his little rocking chair. Little brother at 2 years old has NO idea who The Wiggles are and has absolutely no interest in tv. He does show some interest in ELMO, but still won't even watch Sesame Street. A little quiet tv watching (even 5 minutes) might be nice every once in a while...

Enough...

For Will and Dargan:

I WISH YOU ENOUGH...

• I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright no matter how gray the day may appear.


• I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun even more.


• I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and everlasting.


• I wish you enough pain so that even the smallest of joys in life may appear bigger.


• I wish you enough gain so to satisfy your wanting.


• I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.


• I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye...

With All My Love, Mommy

Wordless Wednesday

The "REAL" Santa

Such a Big Boy...

So proud of himself

Will got to sit on Santa's lap at the SC Aquarium this year. He told me after he sat in Santa's lap-"Mommy, I really think that's the REAL Santa." I asked him what he told Santa he wanted for Christmas and he said, "I couldn't think of anything special, so I just said toys." I think the little guy was so excited he forgot completely about the exhaustive...long list of things he wants for Christmas. This is the first year that he agreed to sit in Santa's lap. Dargan stood in line with us and told me, "Santa's lap Mommy?" When it came our turn he shook his head and wanted nothing to do with it.

Santa Lovin'

Friends for Life

Dargan loves... Santa

Giving Santa a BIG Hug

We intended to put this Santa inflatable outside for the Chiristmas season, but this year Santa has camped out inside the house. Dargan and Will love having him be a part of our family and very often run up to him and give him a BIG hug. It's too cute. I secretly think that the boys believe that if they give Santa lots of LOVE that he will be extra good to them on Christmas Day....Hummmmm, we'll see....

Super Hero Sunday...

My boys LOVE dressing up as SuperHeroes! I caught them in the act this morning BOTH dressed as Batman. Here are a couple of pictures of them showing off their costumes...