Drew Drew Drew...

Ahhhh Drew - earlier today your 9month post was going to but full of frustrations, cussing and possibly a swirly in the toilet (do folks even do that anymore.... well I was thinking about it...)  You have recently developed this schedule that, on an easy day is absolutely fabulous - but on your average day can be very binding - OMA SUE ARRIVES THURSDAY - She will LOVE your schedule!  I digress, but I remember my dad babysitting Nick at this age - he LOVED the 9 month schedule - Goomba was so good at it.  I think my dad is the one person that truly followed the advice - nap when the baby naps!!  2 - a - day - yes please!

With your man cave in tact (VERY dark room) you like to snooze away a fabulous morning nap - log some play hours with a lunch in there (now veggies, meats, yogurt etc) conclude with a full bottle and off to lala land for a wonderful afternoon nap.  Sounds fabulous right, well Nick has camp this week, we have afternoons at the pool or tennis court and you are sneaking in naps anywhere you can - good luck buddy - and yes, that doesn't make anyone happy right?  

Tonight in my efforts to make a fabulous family dinner - i was draining the yummy Japanese noodles to the tune of Drew's cranky alarm sounding - I thought I had it all under control when 50% of the noodles drained themselves in the garbage disposal.  relax - Nick, Shane and Chris got the other 50%, I fished out the top 10% for myself and Drew went without (it was his fault anyway right?)  I about cried, but carried on thinking I would laugh someday...

Now that he is SUPER cute and snoozing away his wonderful night time hours in the man cave - lets talk about all the wonderful things about Drew.

I am going to first start with those eyes.  I mean how can I resist.  We are so lucky to get a munchkin with the deepest brown eyes. I love your uniqueness.  I love the way you will play independently, but when you catch my eye, your face lights up with a smile.  I love (and hate) that you constantly want to be surrounded by your family.  

Yup, this is Drew making sure we were all close by

I love your ability to take a nap almost anywhere (as long as we are close by) and I too wish I could nap in the pool.  he seriously fell asleep just like that!  I love that feeling when you are holding them and every cell in their body just goes to sleep - what a fabulous feeling.  I think he is saying - I love you, can we just sway here for a moment......  see the kids battleing in the background.  Too funny!

I LOVE your hair and if it continues with that fabulous wave and strawberry blond color (seriously where did this kid come from?) I will do everything in my power to make sure it stays long and cared for!!  The longer the better little man!

I LOVE how you look to your brothers for help and sometimes they come through.  Its amazing to see Shane be the big brother and this is a favorite photo of mine - for more than just the shorts =)

hey buddy, I swear he is saying to me - seriously, Shane is crazy!  We are trying to get him to stand (not crawl)  no huge successes lately - mostly just table and hand aided

You LOVE the water.  Almost more than your brothers.  I can see why, we let you swim naked!  Only sometimes.

o.k. yes, the table is tasty, but the food is coming!

Here's hoping my strategically placed wash cloth keeps this video from being inappropriate. - but Drew really does love the water, tub, pool, you name it.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVJJSqbAeyM

This is Drew's voice from April - compare it to the one I took last night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hZZWxM_Ad4

Here is a night at the leadbetter - don't you all want to come join us.  There are the videos i want to remember - yes, I am crazy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny0kEbiP6iY&feature=youtu.be

Happy 9 months Drew - we love you

The traditional 4th of July Family BBQ

What a fabulous day for a 4th of July BBQ.  Thank you to the Leib's for hosting a wonderful day for everyone.  Your home was a beautiful location for a party.  The pool was WELL attended

The yard was segmented into a horse shoe course, bean bag toss, golf etc...  I think Bob Leib enjoyed the preparation as much as the party!

Here is a self portrait from our activity co-ordinator- he was also in charge of documenting the day.

We were told where the potty was (if you were male and or 6 and under)  Shane used it 1 million times.  He surely drank pool water for 2 hours straight  This is actually Robbie making good use of the 'facilities'

A little bean bag toss.  Nothing is funnier than watching their enthusiastic expressions.

Wyland was actually a bit under the weather, so we are thankful to have captured some of his active portions of the day.  He was such a trooper as it stinks to be sick when there is so much activity - especially your cousins!

Super Shane swinging

Mr. Leib also set up a golfing hole.

The spectators

We were excited to have COL Wyland enjoy a bit of the afternoon with us.  Barbara was seeing a bit of the quintessential 4th of July in Peterborough NH.  Last week she flew up there as she heard that her brother experienced a heart attack in the dentist chair.  She has been taking care of him since than.  As she sees improvement and he is able to come home, she will be back here in time for the rest of our summer adventures.  But until than - please keep Uncle Steve and Barbara in your prayers.

Here is a good portion of those Leadbetter boys together.

Love this shot of the 'middle' children.  

A quick video of the area and our little swimmer.  (or floater)  Shane LOVES the water and just seems to relax in it (sometimes a bit too much)  as to be expected, we have to keep our eyes on him all the time.  However, by the end of the day he was swimming without his belt (and not sinking to the bottom - as he stated)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhvjFCJCSnA&feature=youtu.be

I LOVE pool kids and these next few photos are just my favorite

Swimmer #1

Swimmer #2

Swimmer #3

Thankfully they love the water just about as much as I do

More swimmers!!

swimmers swimmers swimmers! - oh wait, a beer too =)

later that evening we found our way to the cul-de-sac for a little amateur fireworks show.  They strapped the final bit of fireworks to a ladder - really made the rest of of wonder.  But Mr. Leib knew what he was doing.  It was a fabulous waterfall finale.

The boys were told to put the sparklers in the water bin once they were done.  Robbie and Shane disposed of theirs a bit too quickly - but equally as excited.

EVERYONE slept well that night.

The next morning Nick was up early mowing the grass.

Mr. Leib serenaded us on the piano a bit.  The kids were mesmerized.

A little more pool time.  Watch how the bigger boys launch themselves into the pool - Shane just wants to be part of the action as he appears to stumble right in =)  I wish i knew how to put these 3 videos together - but since I don't, here they all are separately

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1KxdRqNSHw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKQyhv7jl3s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DnGhYhSdBk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Here's the whole crew together.  We have enjoyed the past week seeing you guys twice and look forward to a week long vacation together in Maine.  Personally I have enjoyed watching my boys excitement to be with their cousins as well as the time with Wyland and Shannon.  I love how well our families meld together and love that life is better together =)

So now you choose, sunglasses on, or off - Chris doesn't count as we seem to have lost his at the concert last weekend =)  

Fabulous 4th of July and we hope to do it again next year =)!

Cheers everyone

Friends that are family and family that are friends

The past 3 years we lived in Germany where many of our friends turned into family - sharing holidays, swapping kids and being important parts of each others lives.  When we moved back to Virginia we are now much closer to family.  This passed weekend Uncle Wyland and Aunt Shannon, wyland and robbie spent the night with us on their way from Wilmington NC to Baltimore MD (her folks have a wonderful home that is pretty much like vacation!)  We were thrilled to have them for a night and packed in lots of cousin pool time.

Here is the trek to the wonderful Brambleton 4th of July early celebration.

The cousin's had a blast together - its funny how awkward it can be for them at first, but give them a soccer ball or some pool toys and they are fast friends.

Shane enjoyed a bit of a slushy 

This is an early photo of Drew.  He was a trooped and stayed up through the fireworks.  He fell asleep on Dad's shoulder the moment they stopped.

It was a HOT HOT night.  Funny they had these sprinklers to cool off the kiddos.

Wyland graduated high school at West Springfield and College from Mary Washington - which means he has lots of buddies in the area.  This is Caz and a fabulous link up here in Brambleton.  His wife is a blast and they have 2 young boys too.  Teresa and I's paths have crossed many times, now we are finally friends too!

These photo are out of order - but I wish there was a time stamp on this one - it would say TOO LATE - I think it was taken at 1:45 AM - yikes right?

Here are some of the dudes at the concert.

It was a great night and the morning came WAY too early.  We all managed to carve out a bit of an additional nap throughout the morning as the kids enjoyed some time together.  

We took one more dip in the pool

Someone even managed to nap in the pool - I love the pool so much that a nap would almost be magical!

Later on Sunday they confirmed their folks had power and headed to MD for the week.  Its so easy to watch them head out knowing we will see them on Wednesday for a traditional 4th of July Family BBQ!

The Virginia link up

On Tuesday I got to link up with Steph Beaulieu and her little ones Alexa and Jack.  They are spending time at her folks in-between their move from WP to Kansas.  She was one of the most entertaining LTs I got to serve with.  I am so thankful we have stayed in touch over the years as its been fun to see how much we change but how much we are the same.  We both went from being LTs and CPTs in the Army to being stay at home moms.  We used to speak Army like it was flowing off our tongues - now the acronyms

 were becoming forgein to us.  what a funny transformation and really, who would have thought.  Honestly I never would have thought both of us would be one day stay at home moms chilling with 5 kids at an outdoor Threatre.  Too bad we weren't smart enough to know the $25 spent should have been saved.  This was the MOST attentive they were and it lasted 60 seconds.

Rolling down the free hill - lasted MUCH longer

here are the dudes 

A self portait too - as well as a thanks to steph for carving out time for us.  She is pregnant with her 3rd little one.  A boy!  She is also headed to Kansas where she will be living next to her best friend from college for hopefully more than a year.  (she is also a stay at home mom, and has 3 boys)  Honestly that just sounds like heaven to me.  The idea of being next door to my favorite at home buddy - would there be a happier place-nope.

Beer with Buddies

Sherry lives a different life from me - in the heart of DC - enjoying all the activities, social events, boccie leagues etc.  She always does her best to include me - I love the emails - Desmond Howard is in town, beer tasting tonight,  Its so hard to turn down all the invitations that she thankfully keeps sending me.  This was one I said yes too - Volunteering at the Leesburg beer tasting festival.  Your volunteer hours (5 hours of sticky sample pouring) = entrance fee and lots of drinks. - Thanks to Chris, we made this one work.

Now sherry is a pro at this kind of stuff, so she didn't mess around, we were immediately stationed at the Bell's tent (Michigan Brewery)  I do remember about every Oberon I have ever had at Good Time Charlies.  Fabulous summer wheat beer (wonderfully garnished with an orange slice)  So every moment of pouring this frothy beverage with my college roomie at my side reminded me of those college days.  Well spent my friends, well spent.  Many beers shared between sherry and I, so this... the perfect event.

The event was well attended by countless beer connoisseurs, chatty too, which works well for me.  Standing for 5 hours did not work for me, but the beer helped. (the body pump and spinning class that I taught prior to did not...)

Chris wanted to pop out to see what the 'buzz' was all about.  He LOVED the Frito pie and ordered one up in honor of our buddie Deakon.  Yum yum!

It was a toasty 90+ degrees today - and when it was all over, I was happy to grab some taco bell and go home counting the minute until bed time!