Thanksgiving 2009

We drove up to Virginia last Wednesday to spend the Thanksgiving with Mom's family. Aunt Shelley and Uncle Mike hosted their first Thanksgiving dinner and they did an excellent job. Aunt Shelley decorated her house beautifully and even had a special kids table with crafts, place cards and pilgrim hats!







After dinner, all of the kids jumped on the trampoline and the adults played corn hole. It was a great afternoon and we enjoyed catching up with our family.





We have so much to be thankful for!

Sailing Boats

We were so excited when our friend Kirby invited Noah and Jude to sail paper boats with him last week! His mommy, Bebe, made boats for everyone and we launched them in the Willow Branch creek. Noah called Grandma afterward to tell her to be on the lookout for his boat, he was convinced it would make it to the river and sail to her house!

Noah ready to sail his boat


Jude showing off his boat


Kirby and Noah watching their boats sail down the creek


Baby Roe can't wait until he's big enough to sail a boat!

Thankful

Today we went to Noah's Thanksgiving celebration at preschool. He was so proud of his pilgrim hat and he sang his class song so well! It was funny to watch him search the crowd for us and to watch his eyes light up when he finally spotted us. He was even more excited when he saw that Noushin, Uncle Alex, Grandma and Grandma's friend Penny were there to watch him too. Noah loves going to school and we have so much to be thankful for!

Triple Trouble!

Cousin Bodie came to visit for the weekend and the three boys had a blast! Noah and Jude wasted no time in showing Bodie all of the fun in our backyard.



We headed down to grandma's house on Saturday and played all day!

Genie drove us around for a little while...


We fished for a little while...


And we swung in the hammocks!


Sunday we had a great lunch outside by the river...


It was such a fun weekend and Noah and Jude were happy to teach Bodie all of their tricks!


We can't wait to see Bodie for New Years!

2 Year Check Up

Last week, Jude went in for his 2 year check up. He weighed in at 27 pounds (50%) and is 36.5 inches tall (90%). Noah tagged along with us to the doctor- and for the first time, it was not chaos with both boys there! Noah sat quietly and drew pictures while Dr. Sanchez examined Jude. He said that everything looks great and was satisfied with his speech development. Jude is picking up new words each day and it seems like we are on the verge of a vocabulary explosion... at least we hope so! The frustration level is getting pretty high as he tries to communicate his desires! We are working on it though!

Halloween

This year for Halloween, Noah was a Fireman and Jude was a dalmation.



We went a great party at our friends' Ruthie and Edward's House and then everyone trick-or-treated together.



It was a pretty hot afternoon, but the kids all had a blast!

Jack-O-Latern

We finally got around to carving our pumpkin this morning! The boys had fun watching Dad get messy, but neither one wanted to get their hands dirty!



Happy Halloween!

2 years already?!

Jude turned 2 on Monday and we had a little pirate party for him over the weekend.


Aunt Shelley and Uncle Mike sent a really cool tricycle for Jude. Now he gets to "ride" his bike alongside Noah.

Boy Genius! (from a biased perspective)

It's official, Noah can write his name! He just picked up the magnetic pad yesterday and with a little instruction, wrote his name. This morning he continued to write it and even wrote a lot more letters on his own. It think another thing is official, he is left-handed!

New School Year

Noah and Jude started school this morning! Noah will be in the three day threes and Jude will go one morning a week to the mother's morning out class. They have been really excited to start school this year. And Mom is excited too, she has Wednesdays free!

Jude is mostly excited about his new lunch box. He has been carrying it around, filling it will all sorts of goodies!



Noah is excited about seeing his friends from last year! We went to orientation on Monday and Noah got to explore his new classroom. He is really looking forward to playing with the cash register... he has been talking about it all week!



It is nice to have a big brother that will show you how much fun school is!



There were no tears at our house or at school this morning! We are ready for school!

While Mom & Dad were away...

Grandma let the boys play!



Thanks to Grandma and Papa (and Chester the dog), we got to get away for the weekend. Congratulations to Jennifer and Chuck- it was a beautiful wedding and we were happy to be there to celebrate with you!

Summer Fun

We can't believe summer is already half way over but we've been having lots of fun with friends recently. We met lots of friends at the park this week to have popsicles and play.


Jude and Eli are driving the fire truck!


Jackson and Noah are holding on!

Let the Unsupervised Play Begin...

Just kidding! But seriously, we finally got a privacy fence in our backyard! Now I don't have to take everyone back inside for every potty break or phone call. Now we can have friends over and not worry about their little ones wandering out front into traffic.





Now we just need a combination lock for the gate, to keep Jude inside!

Big Changes...

Big Changes are coming to the McDonald Backyard!





Stay tuned for the "After" pictures....

Happy Independence Day!

Busy June

So we started off June with a visit from Aunts Sarah and Heidi. Noah and Jude had so much fun playing with their cousin Bodie... he is already 10 months old!



While they were here we had a little party to celebrate Daddy's 34th birthday! Noah helped me make a yummy lemon cake for the occasion.



Then we piled in the car to drive up to Virginia for Taylor's high school graduation. Jude decided to cry most of the way there and as a result, we stopped what felt like every ten minutes. We were very happy to finally get to Uncle Shawn and Aunt Regina's house! We spent the next 4 days running around and watching the kids play together.



After visiting with family for a few days in Virginia, we headed down to Myrtle Beach for 5 days. We had never been there before and we probably won't go back- let's just leave it at that! We did enjoy the aquarium and Noah played his first game of miniature golf. Here are some photo highlights of the trip: