I still love my children!

There was some doubt over the past few weeks. Day in and day out of tiredness....I had even started apologizing to my husband that my general personality of late was grumpy. And then both grandparents chipped in and gave... a night away.



The Breedloves gave us a gift certificate the The Historic Brookstown Inn for a night and my parents kept the boys. I was extremely nervous....and had been pumping for two weeks to store up enough milk for Sam.... but it all went so smoothly. My husband and I have only been on one date since living in Asheville - and that was only because a friend made me go the week before Sam was born. So needless to say we needed the time together. It had evidently become so aparent that my friends started offering to babysit for us to make it happen! It was so much fun, and an amazing part was that I missed my kids. It gave me enough distance to know that I do actually love them and, for the most part, enjoy what I'm doing. The room was bigger than our apartment in NYC - a junior sweet with two tvs and a pretend fireplace. Here is a picture of the lower floor, taken from the floor where the bed is.


We walked around Old Salem, spent time in the "arts district," had a nice dinner, and slept in! It was amazing. And I have to bring that back to memory as the boys tantrum and resettle to being at home after traveling to Nana and Poppie's (where macaroni and cheese is served upon command and Cars the movie is shown).

The pride of Winston Salem. Most downtowns seem laughable after living in Manhattan, but we had a great time exploring.

We did have an Egg Hunt before heading back to Asheville. Nana filled the eggs with pretzels and animal crackers to appease the parents.

And this was just a ridiculous picture I thought you may enjoy.

Day to Day

I wanted to quickly post to tell you that there are many things going on in my life that I don't get a chance to document here. It seems with two my life is a very different life then it was with one. Luckily the Lord gave me an amazing year of basic vacation in NYC before I dove into what is now my reality. I used to wonder why my mom only had two kids..... man oh man. My mother in law told me it never gets harder than two, even if you add more (I am skeptical of this). Somehow in God's mercy I am given the grace to make it through each day. And most days dinner is cooked and the house is usually picked up....just in time for me to crawl into bed and awake to a toddler who loves to destroy it again. All this to say, my blogging has definitely suffered from the birth of Sam. I am so thankful to live with the chaos of these wonderful boys, but unfortunately you don't get the benefit of me keeping you updated. And to think............some of my friends (who will go unnamed here) have a twitter. Ha!

Major milestones not mentioned-
Tarheel National Championship
Steven's 2 year doctors appt....quite funny if you ask me
His birthday dinner with friends
His new love of his life.......the train table
Sam sleeping through the night and therefore not during the day......

I'm sure there are many more, but I wanted to at least list a few. I will attempt to add pictures soon. We have two family events coming up so there should be lots to comment on!

You are impressed

Well, thank you Betty Crocker for the inspiration and directions! Here is Steven Edward's 2 year old birthday cake. After I finished I realized this may set me up for some late nights as the expectations grow! Happy Birthday Steven! I will post pictures of our dinner etc. later.

You too can do it! Here is a video of how to make your own!

Sam's Baptism Re-visited

Here are some pictures that I got from my parents from Sam's baptism. The ones of him getting his dress on made me feel like he was getting married.....and we were taking pictures of him getting dressed. Too funny.

Spring Break in Pictures

My sister and Melissa used to always laugh at me for having time to do things like post on a blog. I was a mother of one....and obviously I was just better at it then they were.....because I could always find time for myself. Then I had another. Now it has been two weeks since my last post. Enough said. Here are some pictures from my time with my families while Steven was chaperoning a trip in Europe. Other than Sam's refusal to sleep the time was lots of fun. Unfortunately for much of the trip I let other people take pictures for me.......so I don't have many from the week.

Our friends the Ropers came down from DC and we had a little NYC reunion with them and the Alexanders. We all had kids that didn't exist (at least externally) while we were in NYC. It was crazy!

Colleen and Sarah

Sarah and Jack

Avery and Mary putting on a show for us

I spent lots of good time with other friends and family in Chapel Hill....... no pictures later I headed to Greensboro where my family is.

We celebrated 3 birthdays that happened in two weeks....Steven Edward, Mom, and Brooke. It was really just my Nanny's excuse to bring a cake






We went to the NC Zoo in Asheboro during a break in the rain.





And we went to the science Center as well!

We dyed eggs. This is Steven in my dad's old shirt.

And we had an indoor toddler egg hunt

Flipper the Convert

You may be wondering about the title of this blog......... well, Sam has taken to a new form of communication. It has only been in the past two weeks, but happy or sad, Sam has decided to start letting out ear-deafening shrieks.

In fact, when we were in the mall the other day, a lady beside us commented that she thought he was trying to communicate with the dolphins. I thought that was the best description I have heard thus far. My mom seemed to think the fire alarm was going off the first time she heard it. Nice.

We also had an exciting weekend as both sets of grandparents came in to be a part of Sam's baptism (hence the second half of the title). It was such a fun time and a beautiful service. Sam even got to wear the family heirloom baptismal gown that his Nanny Sunshine made 60 years ago!

What What...

This is the second season since 2007 in which Carolina has swept Duke in both games.........way to go, Heels.

We found a way to beat daylight savings time! Get your kid hyped up about a Carolina game in order to keep him from napping so that he crashes in the car on the way home. He was so out that I picked him up, placed him on the changing table, changed his diaper, put on his pajamas, and laid him in bed for the night. Nice.




Here is our time to give a shout out to our Heels that have clinched #1 in the ACC and by tomorrow will probably be #1 in the nation. Hopefully on the way to the NCAA Champions as well...... but we won't get ahead of ourselves. We went to our friends - the Dudley's - to join some other Tarheels in WNC to cheer on our boys. Steven Edward and Sam were decked out for the affair. His dinner left a bit to be desired, but boy did he have a good time. And luckily his friend Ben had a train table, so he was entertained the entire game!





Notice that although we had 8 inches of snow last week, we are now in shorts.