Aaron and Ryan at Play

Random pictures and videos:

Honey's 95th Birthday

Sunday we celebrated Honey's 95th birthday started with a celebration at Honey's church. They presented her with a quilt during mass, then had a special cake and punch celebration afterwards. After re-loading the kids, we then headed to one of Honey's favorites - the Landeck Tavern so that she could have some of their famous chicken.

Aaron at church w/ Papa Sadler!

Ryan's first day of Pre-school

Ryan started pre-school last week. He was pretty excited when he got to the school, but when it came time for Mom and Dad to leave, he was a little upset. Turned out that he was fine after we left and had a great day! Here is a video of Ryan going to pre-school for the first time! At the end, Ryan recognizes a girl that goes to his baby-sitter...and yes, he does hide behind Mommy when he sees her!

Check-ups

Today I took the boys for their check-ups. Aaron had his 9 month well baby and Ryan had to have a physical for pre-school. Aaron did pretty well with his check-up especially since there weren't any shots involved. He is right on track developmentally and needs to eat less food and drink a little more formula! We need to work on using the sippy cup and developing his pincer-grasp (finger-thumb coordination). Otherwise, he is healthy with three teeth in (bottom two, and right upper) and one almost in (left upper). He is in the 75th percentile for both height and weight. He weighs 21lbs and 4 oz and is 29 inches long. Again, not quite as big as his brother was, but close enough!



Ryan was also a trooper. He cooperated very well even when she looked at his ears-which is a first! He weighs 43 lbs and is 41 3/4 inches tall. No issues with him at this time and is glad we are sending him to preschool! I really can't believe how big my babies are getting!

OBX videos

OBX Vaction

Well we are finally home from a great vacation in the Outer Banks! We decided to drive straight through, and made it back home around 8:30 after leaving at 5:30am. Ryan was great on the ride; he watched a couple DVDs and even took a nap as we entered Ohio. Aaron was pretty grouchy as he has caught a cold. He was officially done after Dayton, but there was no stopping there! Kim also has a cold, and didn't have a fun ride home - but she was a real trooper, just like the boys!

Our house was in Rodanthe, it was about a 30 minute drive south of Nags Head. Info for our house can be found here. We shared it with 5 other couples, including the Swick's. There were a total of 15 children (13 boys, 2 girls!) from 9 months to 17 with 8 of them being 4 or younger. The house was about 100 yards from the water, so it was a nice easy walk to the beach. We tried to go to the beach and the pool each day. Ryan really liked the pool - he learned to jump in and would sometimes venture to shoulder-deep water - but he still preferred to stay by "his steps".

Our beach was great! The beach/water was really clean - no seaweed, garbage, etc.The beach had a "hump", so when high tide came in, it filled a channel-like tidal pool. The kids had a great time splashing in the water.

With the exception of the last day, the ocean water was cold, but you would get used to it. Ryan started the week afraid of the water, then would stand in the crashing waves holding hands, then finally braved the waves by himself (w/ Daddy or Mommy there to grab him for bigger waves of course). Ryan also collected some seashells and built a sand castle. Aaron mostly splashed in the tidal pool or sat on a blanket in the sand. We would also hold him while we stood in the waves w/ Ryan.

We ate a couple good restaurants (Kill Devil Grille was my favorite - Cheesesteak Egg Rolls!!!), and the gang cooked 3 great dinners and every breakfast at the house. BTW, we saw dolphins in the water every day, including while we were in the ocean the last day!

I have a photo gallery of the trip on Facebook, and will put up some videos really soon.

We really liked the OBX, and look forward to going back!

Outer Banks update

We are in Day 3 of our Outer Banks vacation and having a great time. I'll recap our drive down and a few pics w/ this update. We split our drive into 2 days, leaving at 3:30am. We made great time, and surprisingly, didn't encounter any construction or traffic. We got to Raleigh, NC just after 3:00pm, plenty of time to unwind w/ the kids at the hotel. They had a nice indoor pool (and a live performer!), and the kids had a good time!

We were anticipating a lot of traffic going to the Outer Banks, but again had smooth sailing. We arrived in Rondothe in about 3 hours. I'll write more about our vaction later, but for now, here are some pictures.

Ryan's first steps in the Atlantic Ocean.