Vermont Trip- part 1

We decided our family needed a little vacation for ourselves. Since we live in the New England area, we thought, what better time than now to go see the beautiful foliage we have up here. It was a wonderful trip, and now you get to experience it through pictures, our pictures.

We rented a car here in the city so we could pack everything up in it from the apartment, instead of hauling a car seat through the train station and renting outside of the city. It was to be a good 6 hour drive, but it took us a bit longer. O-well, it still was fun, and the boys did great!

Here is Spencer, happy to start our trip and watching out for Preston.

 Preston fell asleep as soon as we started driving, here he is waking part way through and stretching.

 Can you tell Spencer and I were having fun?

 Cute little boy....with his hand stuck. I don't think I knew that was happening when I took the picture.

 First sights of the fall colors!!!

 The place we stayed was Stowe Mountain Lodge, and it was beautiful!! It was a ski resort type of place, and we paid a little more than what we wanted because when we went to look for hotels they were all booked!!!! So we quickly grabbed this one and it was perfect!

This was the room, and we had a little balcony looking up to the mountains. 

 Tyler holding Preston while we were relaxing.

 The HUGE bathroom! The tub was so deep, I loved it! And the shower was huge too. 

 The other side of the bathroom. For reals, you could have fit 20 people in there comfortably. 

 This is the view from the front door. Spencer is standing there in the little kitchen we had, which was good because we had lots of bottles to wash. 

The next post will show our drives out to see the beautiful changing leaves. We loved it so much, even if it was a little chilly. 

Birthday and Visitors- 8

Tyler's birthday happened and he was excited to be celebrating with not just us, his family, but his sister and her husband and kids came into town also! We had such fun with them, and loved having them and their two kids with us. 

Here's Tyler reading Spencer's birthday card to him, it was really cute.

The sweater I got him...looks happy about that sweater, doesn't he? 

He was happy to get this present. It's a date night at home or out, one every month, and each one being a different country! We just had our date this past weekend for October, we celebrated Germany! We had yummy German pancakes with bratwurst, then watched The Avengers....because part of it is in Germany! I got the idea from my sister-in-law, but the site is HERE.

Blowing out the candles on his cake. Preston is not quite sure what is going on. 

 Here is Spencer with his cousin. I think they spent most of their time playing their DS's, or video games. It was great that even though there was an age difference they played REALLY well together. 

More Preston!!

Yes, yes, I'm a mother to a newborn, and since I am I get the right to brag about him and share endless photos of him. 

Cute boy sleeping.

The tag in his shirt was bothering him, and when I took off his shirt his pants were hiked up like this. I had to take a picture because he looked like an old man....so cute.

I love that little foot peeking out at the bottom. 

I was about to take a picture to show how Preston will fall asleep with his eyes OPEN! No joke, he has done it where they are fully open, and it kinda freaks me out. So when I went to take this picture he smiled in his sleep and I caught it just in time! 

I can't help but think he is the cutest crier I have ever laid eyes on! He is so cute when he cries!!!! You might see more of these later.

Just chatting with mom.

 And then arching his eyebrow!? Where did he learn that from?? To which Tyler and I both tried to do this, but could not. 

Aw, baby is about to go to sleep all cuddled up with Mom.

Love how chubby he is getting....he really isn't, but his face has totally filled out.

Happy boy! Love it when we have our chat sessions two or three times a day and I get to hear him babble and see that smile so much!! 

New York lately

New York always has something going on, and here are two things that we got to see from our windows in the apartment.

September 11th is a day that no one will ever forget, but here in New York there is definitely a different feel to the day. Seeing the new One World Trade Center being built is a great way to know that we are getting past the destruction, and building hope back up. For September 11th the building also lights up in red, white and blue. It's really pretty. 

 Also we were able to see the beams of light from where the Twin Towers were before. I only got a picture of one beam, because the other one is behind it. 

A few weeks after that there was a 5K for the towers! Which meant that there was a lot of military running in the 5K. We didn't know it was happening until we heard cheering and then chanting. We looked out and saw this sight!

 It was really cool to see hundreds of military members running in this 5K. They were chanting and then we looked again and saw cheerleaders down there cheering them on and yelling "USA! USA!" 

Here they are finishing up. 

 More military members with their gear!

 And here are the other people running, there were also LOTS of firefighters and police members running too. I think some of their families were there also.

 We even got to see the FDNY boat spraying water out on the Hudson! 

Spencerisms

Lots of things have started for Spencer.

First day of THIRD grade!!! How do we have a third grader already??

He started his after school activities which are swimming and a club called Engineering and Architecture, which he loves both!

He also started soccer with the community league!!! He loves that too, even though he likes to socialize a little while running down the field, but he is getting better every week.

Spencer says some of the funniest things still. It's fun to have a conversation with him, because he questions everything and wants to know in specifics of how things work. Since the election is soon and we have been watching debates and talking about things, Spencer has picked up on it. Here is a conversation we had the other day.

Spencer: I want to vote for Obama.

Mom: Why?

Spencer: Because I like how things are going right now, and I don't want it to change.

Dad: What do you think will change?

Spencer: Well, I don't want a new president to take away the shows I like to watch on Nick. 

(at this point Tyler and I just look at each other and smile)

Mom: The president really doesn't have control over what TV shows to cancel.

Spencer: Oh, okay. (thinks for a little bit) I think I would still vote for Obama. 

The next conversation happened when we were talking about going to vote. Spencer has the day off of school and we vote at his school.

Spencer: Will I get to vote?

Mom: Not yet, you have to be 18 to vote.

Spencer: Well then could you change your vote and put my vote in your place??

Mom: You want me to vote the way you want to, so you have a vote and I don't?

Spencer: Yeah. 

Mom: Um, yeah, probably not going to happen.

I love that he is getting involved in wanting to know why we are voting the way we are and who the candidates are for the election. We'll definitely be taking him with us to the polls so he can see the rest of the process. It's fun to see how much he wants to learn about it all!! 

Brothers

Being an only child for eight years, we were a little worried about how Spencer would like having a new baby brother in the family. Well, it's been two months and he has been so loving and caring, it's amazing to watch! Not once when we have asked him to grab a diaper, or throw away a diaper has he complained or said no. Now we don't have him do it every time, only once in a while but still I think it's great. So here is their brother bonding in pictures. 

Spencer trying to get Preston to play with him or look at him. 

 Finally Spencer just moved to the other side. 

 Laying in bed together while watching a movie. Preston laid there with him for a while and just looked  at Spencer or the movie, it was really sweet. 

Do they look alike??

Maybe this is a better one to compare them with, look alike brothers? 

Preston watching what Spencer does. Preston loves to see Spencer and watches him all the time!! In fact, if Preston is crying and having a tough time, Spencer will stand in front of him and start dancing and singing and Preston will stop crying and just watch him with awe. It's so cute. 

I'm so happy these boys love each other so much already, and I hope they will have a close relationship as the years go on. 

Ape toes?

One of the things that I love about Preston are his toes! Why you may ask? Because they kinda look like ape toes. It's so cute! 

See for yourself.

Umm...yes, look at that big toe and how curled up it is!! LOVE IT!

And these are just cute pictures of Preston I've taken, because I know everyone wants to see them. 

 Big yawn.

 Stretching out...he is one long baby.

 Both Spencer and Preston love to snuggle things into their face when they sleep. I wondered where they got this from, and realized I do this sometimes too. Preston doesn't get to do it too often because at night he doesn't have extra blankets in bed, so when he can snuggle on into something...he will.