More bouncing fun

On New Year's Eve, we went to another "bouncy place" in Loudoun County - this time out in Ashburn. Our friends Jen & Justin were having their daughter Alie's 5th birthday party there; Natalie and Alie enjoy playing together, and other friends of ours from college were there with their 2 girls, so it was nice to get to all catch up for a bit.

I think I like this place better than the previous one we went to in Leesburg; the layout is nicer, and they have a ton of activities for the littler ones too. Henry was still not a big fan of the bouncy houses, but he had a great time chasing the balls around the room (particularly this giant soccer ball)

Playing on the little slides (this photo cracks me up because he looks like such a devil!)

 and in particular he LOVED the little trampoline.

 Natalie, of course, was in love with the giant inflatable obstacle course; particularly the big slide at the end.

 In order to convince Henry to go into the inflatable, I jumped in there. I wasn't the only one - at some point, all of the adults ended up in there. Honestly, they really should have an adult-only playtime at places like this. So much fun!

 I was able to get Henry in there with me - he still wasn't too sure about it at first, but he did end up bouncing around some and laughing for at least a few minutes.

 Towards the end of the party was everyone's favorite: fun with the giant parachute. Even Henry got in on the action and shook it up and down with the bigger kids.

 And finally, the older ones all lined up making silly faces (the birthday girl is on the far right).

Playground in January

Ok, 10 days between posts - definitely longer than I like to go! It's been a bit crazy around here, with explanations to come (a run down of all the stuff we've had going on), but for now let me try to catch up on some posts that I've been planning to write for a while. Same old story: busy during the day, tired at night, and I'm working on a cross stitch project that I'm busily trying to get done, so that's how I'm spending my evenings (pics to come on that soon).

Three weekends ago my mom came to visit us. My dad had an away wrestling tournament for the weekend (he's a coach for the high school team), and Evan had a big all-day meeting on Saturday, so it was a win-win for the both of us. Even more lucky, the weather was absolutely beautiful! We ran a couple of errands and then took the kids to the playground at Ida Lee. Not only did we know they'd have a blast, but it also gave me a great excuse to play some more with my camera.

Not only is this a cute picture, but Natalie did not used to be able to climb this curved ladder by herself (which she remembers), so she's very excited that she now has the skills to get up it by herself.

I got a couple of action shots of her running up the ramp, but this one was my favorite (you can tell that it was taken Before Haircut). I love the look of excitement on her face.

While mom took Natalie onto the swings, Henry decided to do a little wandering around the playground, which let me get some good shots of him. Unfortunately the lighting isn't great in this one (again, still figuring out the settings on the camera), but it's such a great shot of his thoughtful, serious guy face!

Then it was time for Henry to do some swinging. I absolutely LOVE these two shots. He was having the best time, as I think you can tell from his big giant grin.

 Natalie has also gotten braver with swinging, including leaning WAY back to be almost upside down on the up-part of her swing.

And then being a really good big sister while helping to push Henry

Later that afternoon we took the kids back outside to blow bubbles. This is one of Rizzo's favorite activities - she LOVES chasing the bubbles!







Henry was very entertained as well!

New Year's Eve Cuteness

We had a couple of friends come over to celebrate New Year's Eve with us - nothing big, just a few good friends from college. Our friends Beth and Jason came over late afternoon and we hung out for a while, then got the kids ready to go to bed (they spent the night because Ellie needed to go to bed at her normal time)... all before the rest of our friends showed up. Turns out that Ellie and Natalie have almost identical pajamas!

Too cute not to get photos of them - so adorable in their piggies. And of course the kids all love their books!

Henry and Ellie were very interested in each other, and actually did a very nice job sharing their books.

Yay for kid cuteness! Ellie went to bed first, followed by Henry, and Natalie was allowed to stay up as late as she could. Just after 10pm she looked at me and said "Mommy, can I go to bed now?" As if I was forcing her to stay up! Needless to say she went to bed with no complaints at that point. And yet of course was up at 6:30 the next day...

All in all a good evening: watched UVA lose horribly at football, had pizza and lots of yummy appetizers, talked with our friends all evening, played some board games...and on New Year's Day we headed over to the Outlet Mall with Beth & Jason to do a little shopping. All in all, a nice way to ring in the new year! 

All dressed up

...and we had somewhere to go! As I mentioned in my previous post, we tried out a new church on Sunday. Turns out that the Unitarians are a bit more laid back then, say, your Roman Catholic church, and we were WAY overdressed compared to everyone else there (norm was actually jeans or khakis with a nice sweater). I say it's always better to be best-dressed than worst-dressed, right?

I like this photo cause it almost looks like I photoshopped Evan into the photo behind Henry, peeking over his shoulder! 

To get this last shot, I used the timer function on my new camera. Sunday was the first day I had played with it, and it turns out that it holds Henry's attention for a photo even better than just taking a photo, as it beeps for 10 seconds before taking a series of photos. While I don't think the lighting conditions are quite perfect, I think this is a pretty nice shot of the 4 of us!

Weekend update

We had quite the eventful weekend! On Friday, I FINALLY got my haircut. It's been driving me absolutely bonkers, and I've hated how it looks. Of course, on the day I'm going to get it cut, it actually doesn't look half bad! On the left is the "before" photo I took of myself just before going to get it cut.

And on the right is the after photo. A vast improvement! Cut a couple of inches off, put in a lot more layers - definitely frames my face much better. I love my stylist - she did such a great job.






One of the reasons I had it done on Friday was because that night was our Noldus "holiday" party (yes, it was after the holidays, but it was the best time for everyone). I figured why not get a professional to style my hair for the event! We went to The Melting Pot in Reston for yummy fondue! It was SO good - 3 different types of cheese dips for appetizer, 2 different types of broths to cook the food in for dinner (chicken, steak, salmon, shrimp), and then 3 different types of chocolate for dessert (my favorite was the cookies & cream with marshmallow chocolate sauce - soooooo good). My coworker snapped this shot of Evan and I.

This is my good friend/coworker Paige, myself, and Yvonne our office assistant (she's like a mom to us all).

Some more lovely Noldus ladies (me and Paige in the back; Donna our office manager, a coworker's girlfriend, and our sales assistant Shanyn in the front).

On Saturday morning, we were supposed to meet our friends at Eggspectations for breakfast, but unfortunately my friend ended up in the hospital having her appendix out instead! So, we had breakfast there just the 4 of us, and then headed to Wegmans for a much needed grocery store run. I then took Natalie to also get a haircut - she needed one pretty badly as well, and was a bit jealous that I had mine cut without her. I didn't take a before photo, but I found this one on the left from the weekend before; you can see how long and crazy it is. And on the right, the new haircut! It makes her look SO grown up, and she loves the length.

Here we both are with our new haircuts.

We then headed over to Woodbridge to celebrate my friend Kathy's birthday a day early (it was really on Sunday)...turns out that after we left, she went into labor that night and gave birth on her birthday to her baby girl Katie! So mommy and daughter share the same birthday. I actually got to go over and meet the baby last night, and check in how Kathy is doing (great!). Nothing like snuggling with a one-day old baby!
On Sunday, we did a very new thing in the morning: I took the family to church! That's right, me! We tried out a Universal Unitarian church with some friends of ours who are members there. This is my kind of church: no Bible, no Jesus, God was only mentioned a few times - it's the most hippie, touchy-feely church I've ever seen. It's all about being a good person, and doing unto others...everything I believe in, without having to throw the threat of God onto it. I think we're going to go back again, as this may be something we can try and do once a month or so as a family. I felt really good while there and afterwards, and to me that's what it's all about. We did get all dressed up as a family, and used it as an opportunity to take photos; I'll do a separate post with them.

On Sunday afternoon we headed over to Peter & Alison's house for a few hours. We hadn't hung out with them in a while, and Pete offered to make us dinner (he's a great cook, so I said sure thing - how can I turn down yummy shrimp alfredo?!) Of course kids love playing with new toys, and there are an abundance at P&A's house. Mine particularly liked the musical instruments

Here are Peter, Alison (holding Liam) and Evan. Any excuse to use my new camera!

Henry playing with the big firehouse (it's like a dollhouse aimed at boys!). It's a big hit.

And we somehow managed to get all 4 of them on the couch for a photo at once. Natalie is not holding a light, but a flourescent bracelet that caught the flash. Still a good photo of the four!

Fashionable girl

I used to refuse to allow Natalie to wear what she wanted, and instead tell her "No, you have to wear pants and a shift today, you can't wear your Halloween costume". I realized recently that there's no good reason for me to deny her wearing what she wants; it's not like these costumes are really going to be worn again! And as long as we're not doing something where a dress could be dangerous (like climbing or running, where she could trip), then why not let her wear what she wants.

On New Year's Day, she came up with this fantastic outfit on the left all by herself.

Let me break it down for you: gray shirt and pants under a pink princess dress with big tutu skirt, pink puffy vest, and new pink snow boots. She then put her baby in the carrier and strapped that to her back...and did some posing.

I like this last photo - she's got a little "hip hop/gansta" pose going on. Ha!

Henry's new skills

Henry's 21 months now! I can't believe how close he is to being 2. In the past month or so he's started making so many cognitive leaps: his vocabulary is expanding like crazy (making it much easier to understand what he wants, luckily!) - I need to make a list of the words that he knows just like I did for Natalie around this age - and he's started learning how to do some new things.

1. Feeding himself


2. Feeding Calla

3. Rolling! I actually missed this as I was in another room when Evan took the video, and I haven't seen it live yet. I need to get him to do it again!

We're actually going through a bit of a tough time right now, at least in terms of food. He's super hungry, but as soon as you sit down to eat a meal he starts crying, refusing to eat...it's extremely frustrating. He's doing it at every meal (except breakfast, really - that's the only time of the day he's actually willing to eat), and for both us and daycare, so it's nothing that any of us are doing specifically. I know it's a phase like any other, and it's a way for him to try and exert control, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. We're just reinforcing that if he cries/screams he has to go sit in time out, and he can only come back to the table to be with us (which is what he wants) when he stops. We've managed to get him to eat most evenings in this manner - he just won't get over the crying to actually eat until the rest of us are basically done. That's ok - as long as he understands the rules and does eat, I don't care what time it is.

Doggies!

Calla and my parents' dog Rizzo are great subjects for practicing with my new camera. They're both pretty photogenic, and are actually willing to sit still for some photos which is even better. Calla tends to be a difficult subject to take a good photo of, as she's SO dark, but I'm hoping to learn more tricks to take good photos of her, particularly indoors. However, I think the photo below is pretty darn cute!

Rizzo, however, makes a very good subject. Her coloring is very conducive to taking good photos, and she's a beautiful dog. I love this photo of her!

Christmas day: Miscellaneous

I found these random photos that I took of the kids on Christmas day, and thought I'd just throw them up together in one post. The lighting isn't quite right on some of them, so I'm still working on getting that right. But it doesn't really matter when you have kids as cute as this, right?!

See, the lighting in the one below really isn't right. However, I kind of like how her lips look almost purple - I think it's a cool effect. And her eyes look really pretty.

Evan took this one of Natalie and Linda helping me make the cheesecake. Yum!

One last photo in front of the Christmas tree!