Book Report 2012

In reading this year, I have discovered some authors that I am excited about! I was so delighted and impressed with Liane Moriarty who wrote What Alice Forgot, about a woman who passes out at the gym and wakes up forgetting the past ten years of her life. She has to piece together the things that have made her who she is now and realize how she has become someone she never wanted to be. It is entertaining, makes you think and I couldn't stop talking about it to my friends. Likewise, I read Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. Everyone should read this book.

I discovered The Cazelet Chronicles, by Elizabeth Jane Howard, a 4 book series about a rich family in England during the 1940's. I always like a long family saga.
 I also enjoyed new books by Barbara Kinsolver (Flight Behavior), Michael Ondaatjie (The Cat's Table) and Kazuo Ishiguro (Nocturnes). All in all, a pretty good reading year.

Driving

Checking on his patients.

Daddy Day Video 12/8/12

This past Saturday, Melissa went to New York to see some friends. I tried to shoot some video to capture the day with just the boys & me. I was not able to get the whole day on film, but I managed to get a few moments of play time. Here is what I have compiled so far. Good times!

Firsts

Tyler is about to be 1 year old! I can't believe how grown up he is. He can say, "Ball" and is pushing his cart all through the house. He is such a sweet guy! Here is a photo of Isaac and his friends, Jamison and Mary at Brynn's birthday party. They all go to church and school together!

My little dancer

Tyler will drop whatever he is doing to dance when any kind of music comes on. He is funny. Isaac loves to wear his hood, even inside.

Ben and I went out for our anniversary and wore our same clothes we wore at our rehearsal dinner. 9 years!

Peekaboo

Tyler loves to play peekaboo but doesn't always get the hand placement right to cover his eyes! Very very cute.

What's wrong with this picture?

I Love Tyler!

Is he cute or what?

Back to School

Isaac is back at preschool! He was very excited to go back and is now going 3 mornings a week!

Nags Head 2012

We spent a wonderful week at the beach with my mom, Walter and Michelle! It was full of kites,sandcastles, good food and good times.

School's Out

Isaac had his last day of school this week, which was sad (mostly for me). He had a great year and loved it. Here is a picture of his teacher, Matt and friend, Catherine on the last day.

Tyler is crawling everywhere, feeding himself puffs, and standing up (holding on)! He is very excited about Kato these days. And I spend most of my time keeping Isaac from tackling him.

My dear friend, Lillian and her daughter, Alice came to visit and the kids played in the pool in the backyard. It was great to see the kids playing together.

It begins

The boys have started to wrestle in their own way. Isaac tries to be gentle with Tyler, but usually can't help himself.

Tyler

Tyler is 8 months old now and has started crawling!! He's into everything and will do anything to eat our shoes.
We went to the beach with Aunt Michelle last weekend. I thought this was a funny face.

Brothers

After a rough day, I came across this sweet scene between my boys. Looks like we have another giggler on our hands. And it sounds like their laughs are so similar, I could barely tell which one is laughing when. I look forward to them playing together more.

Life at 3

On Isaac's birthday, he and I and Tyler went to the Please Touch Museum, our children's museum. Isaac loves it and concentrates very hard on all the mechanical games. We also went to Logan Square yesterday to have a picnic lunch.

Sitting up!

Isaac turns 3!

We can not believe our big guy is almost 3 years old! He has grown up so much in the past year and we are so proud of him. Today was his birthday party and it was a lovely day! We went to one of our favorite parks and had food and cupcakes and lots of friends. Cupcake Time

With Brynn

Nolan and Justin

The Chen boys

My little angel

Jason and Eli

Alex, Lilia, Charlotte and Zoe

The birthday boy!

Springtime

It's been awhile since I've posted and it's because we've been doing lots of fun things. In April, Ben's mom and my mom, sister and Walter came to visit to celebrate Tyler's baptism. Isaac had so much fun with everyone here.

In May, we drove down to Asheville, NC and met Ben's parents for Memorial Day weekend. It was very beautiful and we enjoyed downtown Asheville, the Grove Park Inn and the Biltmore. The kids did ok on the very long drives, thanks to our friends' dvd player!

Here are just some fun pictures of regular life too.

Cara came to visit and to read the boys a book

I think I like it

Tyler's first trip

We spent the weekend in Virginia at my mom and Walter's house. My brother Kevan came too and we got to spend time with him, which was great. We visited my grandma, Mimi and she got to meet Tyler for the first time, which was really special.

Lunch Cool