Disney on Ice

One of the advantages to living close to Hershey is they get lots of fun shows and concerts. This weekend Disney on Ice: Dare to Dream came to town. Since Lucy has fully immersed herself in the world of princesses we thought she would love this. We found a babysitter for Max and Lucy got to go on a date with Mommy and Daddy. Lucy loved the show and sat nicely and watched the whole thing. She did keep asking what they were doing for the first half of the show. I think she was a little confused about the skating aspect of the show.

Eating a special treat in a special Rapunzel cup.

The Fultz family joined us with their grand kids. Lucy and Emi are good little friends. There were so many little girls dressed up in their princess dresses. I felt bad that I didn't have Lucy dressed up as well.

The show was really wonderful. They had some really good skaters and the show was really well done. The show briefly told the stories of the Princess and the Frog, Cinderella and Rapunzel. Lucy kept asking when Rapunzel was coming, as they saved her to the end. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald came out in between to introduce each story and the show ended with all the Disney princess coming out with their princes. Lucy loved this and named them all.

The highlights were Lucy's comments:

1. At the end she said "Let's watch it again"

2. When she woke up the next morning the first thing she said to her daddy was "Thank you for taking me to the princess show." She has since repeated her gratitude multiple times.

Snow in October

It's true, it actually happened. We got about 8 inches of snow. It was beautiful, fluffy snow and was not accompanied by ice. We took full advantage and went out to play.

Maxwell spent the entire time eating the snow. Good thing it was fresh.

Snow Angels

Snowmen

Kisses for the Baby Snowman

Halloween 2011

Lucy was so excited to go Trick-or-Treating this year. We had many discussions about what she wanted to be for Halloween. Her ideas were usually for a Disney Princess, but would change depending on what day you asked. One day it was Sleeping Beauty, the next day would be Belle. So I started thinking up ways I could make her a Princess costume and I finally found a blog that gave a tutorial on a Tinker Bell and Peter Pan costume. It was too cute to pass up. Here was the result. The pictures aren't super great as the kids are not very cooperative when it comes to picture taking.

Most people thought Maxwell was Robin Hood. Didn't matter he was just adorable. Our ward had a trunk-or-treat night where the kids got their first stash. Pennsylvania also got to trick-or-treat on actual Halloween as they postponed our regular trick-or-treat night, which is usually Thursday, because of rain.

Smiles

Maxwell recently learned to smile and say cheese for the camera. So here are some of his smiles to make you smile. He sure makes us smile.

So long Summer

Summer came and went and we had a lot of fun. We filled our summer with lots of trips to the park, swimming in the backyard, a trip to Utah/Yellowstone and a few natural disasters.

Besides our trip to to see family the highlight of the summer was our trip to the beach. We had perfect weather and great company as our friends the Rusten's joined us. We all squished into a little 2 bedroom apartment and we all got along surprisingly well.

Here are a few pictures to highlight our trip:

Ice cream on the boardwalk. We were lucky to find a place that was a block and a half from the boardwalk and beach. This meant we could walk to the beach whenever we wanted.

                                                               Ready for some sun

The kids loved splashing in the waves. Someone always had to have a hand on them as the current was very strong and would have washed them all away.

I wanted to include this picture because you can see little Maxwell's hand is all wrapped up. A few days before we left for the beach he touched the lawn mower exhaust after Daddy was done mowing the lawn. He burned his pointer and middle finger, which then blistered. They then burst and became open sores. We tried to keep it wrapped up while we were at the beach. But it was hard to keep it clean when he spent most of the time digging in the sand.

This is Lucy and Teagan playing in the water with their daddies. Lucy and Teagen were great little friends. One day we were trudging through the sand loaded down with all our stuff and Lucy was moving in her slow mode. That is until she heard Teagen yell her name, then she raced across the sand to find her Teagen.

Snack Time

Maxwell LOVES his trucks, cars, trains anything that moves. Also, his snack time at the beach usually included stuffing sand in his mouth.

The dads got to relive their bachelor days and spent some time surfing.

The kids thought the surf boards were great for bouncing on.

A bike ride along the boardwalk. What Lucy remembers most is eating a pink sprinkled doughnut.

We also ate some DELICIOUS seafood outside along the pier, went for a cruise through the bay and ocean. On our cruise we even got to see some dolphins. It was such an awesome trip we couldn't believe that in the 4 years we have been married we have never been to play at the beach.

Drumroll please....

After much coaxing and waiting, yes people, we have a walker in the house. This video was taken the day he started walking. He had taken a couple steps here and there but nothing major. After his nap one day he just kind of took off. He has a adorable little waddle and hasn't quite discovered that he can put his arms down while he walks. The video also shows Lucy trying to share in the spotlight and imitate Maxwell.

You will have to excuse the mess of our house...I had started packing at this point. And Lucy was helping by taking everything out of the boxes.
Maxwell has become a walking fireball of fury. He never wants to stop once he gets going and he has absolutely no interest in going the direction he is allowed/supposed to go. He is quickly learning to keep up to Lucy. He is so proud of himself now that he can walk.

The kids personalities are quickly evolving. Maxwell is all boy. He is most happy when he has some mode of transportation in his hand. He loves cars, trains and tractors. Lately he has been a little more cranky as he is cutting his 2 back teeth, but he is very happy otherwise. Lucy is still obsessed with princesses. The kids have a t.v. with a VCR attached and I have been picking up Disney movies at garage sales. I think we have collected just about all of them. She also loves her friends, and even the little girl that walks by in the supermarket is her friend. Nothing excited her more then when I say we are going to play with her friends. All in all these kids keep me going and on my toes.

Catch-up

Since our arrival home we have kept busy. I was asked to co-direct the Youth Roadshow this year. It took a lot of time but was a blast. Our next project was the move. In between these big events we have had some fun adventures. We went on a spontaneous camping trip with some friends. It was so fun. We got poured on during the night and everything remained wet the entire time we were there.

The local community college also sponsored a Family Fun Day. Everything was free and there was lots of fun things to do.

                                                             Air bounces.

Lucy surprised us more than once. We thought for sure that she would hesitate getting on this large animal. However, she climbed right on and despite the look on her face LOVED it. She talked about it for days.

She also love this gymnastics obstacle course. Where she even did a backwards somersault.

Daddy and Maxwell also went on the Father's and Sons camp out. They both came home nice and dirty.

We also did a day at Hershey park. Chad's company did a company day. We spent the morning at the Water park, had some lunch and went back to hit some rides. Lucy loved the rides and I was surprised how many rides Maxwell was allowed on.

This is a video of Lucy on the Pirate ship...I hope it works for everyone. Her favorite ride of all was the mini carousel. We had to literally tear her away from it. Maxwell would have enjoyed the rides more if he hadn't been up for hours the night before and had a very short nap in the stroller. We are hoping to go again soon.

Onto the next adventure....

The next adventure we, the kids and I, took was a visit to Canada. My brother Brett was coming home from his mission and we wanted in on the fun. So I grabbed some courage and took the kids on a plane ride alone. We survived, and I would do it again if needed, but it was not so joyous.

Our flight took us through Toronto, which meant that we had to go through customs and security before we could board our next plane. I had come prepared and Grandma had sent a child harness for Lucy to wear. She was not a fan.....Lucy loves to run and explore and has not yet learned that sometimes she needs to stand right by Mommy. Customs was a very, very large room with rows of people waiting. There I stood with a infant in a stroller and a screaming 2 year old. Luckily, we got through quickly. It was a long day and this was the result.....

Our flight landed at 1:00AM Harrisburg time. Lucy managed to stay awake the entire trip until we started to taxi to the gate. She even stayed asleep while a kind man next to me carried her to the baggage claim where we met Carla.

We had so much fun with cousins and grandparents and getting to see Brett get off the plan that it made it all worth it. I don't have many pictures of the trip as our camera started acting funny and has now decided to completely die. The fun included an early Easter egg hunt, lots of movie parties and swimming.

After much waiting and anticipation....

I have finally decided to update the blog. Now there is too much to blog about. A quick general life update we are now officially moved back into our house. We didn't have much luck selling so we decided to move back in. We are actually quite happy to be back and to have a yard for the kids to play in. We also have a long to-do list that we are anxious to get started on.

I guess I will start where I left off and go from there. Back in March Maxwell turned 1!! The year went by so quickly and we are so glad to have this happy little guy in our home.

This guy loves to eat. We had pizza for dinner which he obviously enjoyed. We invited our good friends the Fultz's over to join in the party.

Lucy was a excellent helper opening presents and Maxwell was happy to let her help. He loved all his presents. Lots of music and noise coming from his presents.

Maxwell LOVES to talk on the phone. Anything that he can get his hands on can become a phone, he puts it to his ear and chatters away to whomever. He was very spoiled.

Here is his birthday, they are supposed to be building blocks. They are far from perfect as I am still learning the art of frosting a cake.

                                         What a great party!! We love this little monster.

The Joys of Life

This is Princess Lucy. We have fully entered the 'princess' stage. We can not walk through a store without stopping to look at anything that has a princess on it. She loves to put on 'pretty dresses' and is constantly asking 'Mommy, dance with me?' She has even started to imitate scenes from the movie. Yesterday she was Ariel from the Little Mermaid and had lost her voice.

This is Maxwell trying to push over the baby gate. He has discovered the stairs and is obsessed. If he sees a staircase there is no keeping him away. Maxwell loves to climb. His current favorite hangout is the dishwasher door. He loves to pull it open and sit there and pull all the dishes out.

This is the joy of living in Pennsylvania and living without a garage. However, this is also our new mini-van which is a joy to me every single say. I love this van! (I also love my children too)

Chad and I also just celebrated our 4-year anniversary. He is the joy in my life. He makes me laugh and helps me grow into someone better everyday. I love my man.

January has come and is almost gone. How did time go by so quickly? We filled our January with lots of fun adventures. We ended December on a low note with both of the kids sick resulting in 2 visits to the doctor one day after the other. Maxwell had a ear infection and also an infection in his throat. Lucy also had an ear infection, so we pumped them with lots of antibiotics but it still resulted in some long days.

Maxwell wouldn't settle down for his nap and so I brought him out to try and wear him out a little more. I left the room for a minute and came back to find this.

We celebrated New Year's by staying up until midnight and then we headed to Monkey Joe's, our new favorite place to play. It is a huge room filled with a bunch of air-bounces.

This is Maxwell at Monkey Joe's, he mostly just watched. This picture perfectly captures the smile he gives everyone, showing off all his teeth.

January also has finally brought us SNOW in Pennsylvania. We have waited so long to see this beautiful, white stuff. I can't tell you who was more excited about the snow, Lucy or Chad. These are pictures from the first snowfall. There have been more since, and it is snowing right now.

Throwing the snow in the air because we are so excited.

Snow Angels.

This month we also went to the PA farm show to see animals, take in the smells and eat delicious food. Chad went on a scout camp out in the snow and tried to stay warm. Maxwell turned 10 months old and is hanging onto 80% for height and officially cracked 20 lbs.

We love January!

A Pennsylvania Christmas

Here are some highlights from our Christmas adventures. The kids were well spoiled and sugared up.

Making sugar cookies. Lucy is showing you where most of the icing and toppings went...in her mouth.

Learning about the Nativity story

Christmas Eve Pajamas.

Putting out cookies for Santa. She was actually quite opinionated about what treats Santa would like to eat.

Christmas morning...Where did the cookies go?

This is where all of Maxwell's presents ended up.

Lucy delivered with her excitement for the MANY gifts she got.