Our Last Visitors

We had our last visitors come and visit in the middle of August and it was my brother and his wife!!! We were hoping they would bring some of their kids, they have 5, but plane tickets are a bit expensive nowadays. But we were still REALLY happy to have them come see us and have some fun! 

We introduced them to Max Brenner's and I think they fell in love...with the food. They really liked it. 

We also were able to go over to Grand Central Station. I had never been there so it was fun to see the bustling terminal. It was really big, and the windows were so tall, I loved it!

The clock!

I love any American flag hanging in places like this. 

While we were there Tyler was telling us there was this whispering corner. Where if one person stood in one corner and whispered up the corner of the wall, and another person stood in the corner opposite it and listened, they would be able to hear them! We tried it, and it didn't work. Then we tried again and it was the weirdest thing ever! It was like the person was standing right next to you talking. 

After that we went outside and stood beneath the Chrysler Building. It's one of my brother's favorites, and pretty cool how it was built. 

We wanted to also go to the big Public Library, and so while walking to it we turned around and got this great view!

I love libraries and think they are just wonderful, the bigger the better! So I was very excited to go and see the big New York Public Library! Spencer and I also love movies, and The Day After Tomorrow is a favorite and guess what is in that movie??? The New York Public Library!!!!! 

This is Spencer and I pretending that a big wall of water was coming after us and we were trying to run into the library to get to higher ground. 

The inside of the library was gorgeous. Whenever I can have a library in my home....maybe I'll do some of these decorations. 

Where do those doors lead to???

This room is in the movie a lot! It was pretty cool to be there, and look at the lights hanging down...so cool. 

I definitely want this painted on my kids' wall. Just so they know Mom always wants them to read and learn.

I loved these lantern type lights too.

Having my brother and his wife with us for a few days was so fun! I hope they had a blast too, especially with all the good food we ate. It was fun also to explore places we had never been to yet together. 

The Many Faces of Preston part 2

Preston has started to become quite the character, and we love watching him! Tyler and I will often just sit around and watch Preston figure things out, try out new things, or just sit there and play with toys. He, of course, is just too stinkin' cute. 

Enjoy the many faces. 

This one is seen a lot when he is extremely happy about doing something. We saw it all day on his birthday. 

He loves to cuddle!!! While in church on Sunday we walked by a little boy who was holding onto the wall because he couldn't walk just yet, and Preston goes right up to him with arms wide open to give him hugs. Oftentimes we'll be sitting on the floor and he will come over and hug us and lay his head on us. It's super sweet. 

We are seeing this face more and more. This is his trying to do something hard face.  

soooo excited!!!

Ta-da!

This is HALLOWEEN!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Here are the boys in their costumes. Spencer has become a fan of Adventure Time (a cartoon on Cartoon Network), so he wanted to go as Finn. Then I thought, well Finn's best friend is a dog named Jake...so, why not have Preston go as him?!? So we did, and they are cute! 

This year instead of spending $60 on getting costumes, I decided to MAKE them?!!? For Spencer all I had to do was the hat, and luckily a lady online had made a pattern. YES! Preston's I had to kinda make up. Found a pattern that had pants, shirt and hat. This is what it looked like all cut out....then I had to figure out how to piece it together.

The pants were pretty easy, the shirt proved to be a little difficult, and the hat was confusing, BUT I did it, it fit and he wore it...once. I also put the felt face on the hat so people would know who he was. 

In case you don't know who Finn and Jake are....here is a picture of them. Pretty darn close I would say! 

Also, I made all of this for half the price! YAY! 

Happy Birthday Preston!!!

It was Preston's 1st birthday in August!! 

Here he is looking at all of his gifts...I know none of them are wrapped, but really I wasn't about to wrap those big gifts...he didn't care if he had to unwrap or not. This year he got the Mega Blocks, the Chuggington car rider thing, and then a ballapolloza toy. He has LOVED them all.

Ready to make the new toy!

Big brother showing him how to work the rider toy. 

He loves this riding toy, even though his legs are not quite long enough, he has figured out to stand on it, push it backwards, and put hide things in the seat.  

And it helped him figure out how to walk....fast. 

Happy Birthday Preston!!!! He really wanted to touch that flame!

What a little devilish face there...like he is just thinking "this cupcake is MINE! MINE!!!"

He devoured this cupcake within two minutes!!! 

And got frosting all over his face. 

Too cute!

What? Is there something on my face?

He loved his birthday, and we loved celebrating it!  

Tough Boy

We went on a house hunting trip down to VA at the end of July and we took the boys with us so we could drop them off at my parents, so they could watch them. Well we had the boys for one night in a hotel and guess what happens? Preston cuts his face open on the edge of the coffee table!!! He was just learning how to walk, and so he was not steady to say the least. So an urgent care trip was taken by Dad and Preston that night.

Here they are waiting to get seen. I wasn't going to have Preston go to the urgent care, but the cut seemed to be fairly deep. 

Got it all cleaned out and put glue on it!!! Thankfully the doctor there just did glue so we wouldn't have to go back to a doctor to get stitches or staples taken out (remember when we were moving to Congo at the very beginnings of this blog?? Spencer split his head open and had to get 4 staples!!). Our boys seem to be rough I suppose? Or just need to get their "badge" of toughness.

After we got home this is how it was looking. We had kept bandaids over the cut because we didn't want him scratching the glue off, so that is why there are red marks on his face. 

It's tough trying to heal, so napping with Daddy helped. 

Looking really good!!! Today it's just a slight pink line! 

But let me tell you when we moved out of our apartment in NYC and stayed at the hotel that night....guess who bonked into that coffee table??? PRESTON!!! Luckily the skin didn't break, but he had quite the forehead for a while. 

Catch up of July

So, we've moved, again. 

That's why the blog has not been updated in a LONG time, but alas, I have finally finished unpacking and wanted to take some time to catch up on this blog. I found some random pictures of what July was like, so here you go!

I have this picture from when we first moved to New York to show the difference of One World Trade Tower. It's that small building on the right side with the two cranes on top of it. I cannot even believe it was that small when we got to NYC. Crazy.

And here it was when we were leaving, and my dad. My parents came to visit us before we left, and so I had to steal his picture to show you the difference! Crazy right?! 

Well we were lucky enough to live right by it and to see the actual spire going on top of it! So I looked out our kitchen window and started taking pictures. This is the crane lifting it up to the top.

Almost there.

It is the tallest building in NYC now. Pretty awesome to be able to see all the milestones that happened with this building with all the history. It felt great to be able to see something being built back up.

Here's Preston while waiting for the elevators in our building, relaxed as always. I really think he is a true New Yorker....he ALWAYS wants to be outside here in VA.

Preston playing around with Daddy's phone.

Wait, you don't want me to put it in my mouth?

For reals??

One day Tyler came home from work and said, "You remember seeing that stage being built on the pier right by us? Well there are going to be concerts there and one of the performers for the next two nights is Fun.!" I was all about it, I love some of their songs. So, being the spontaneous New Yorkers we became to be, we walked over to the pier next to the one they were performing on (tickets to see them on that pier were $45!! Ours were free!). I was glad we were able to take the boys over and just listen to some music. 

It started raining, but it wasn't that bad, since it was summer. So we stayed for a little while in the rain then went home. 

Preston loves music so I don't think he minded the rain at all. 

Baby Yoga!!!! Preston did this move randomly, but then started to do it when he was mad at us, but whenever he got into position we all said "Baby Yoga!!"