at the end of the day...: March 2013

The Bike

When I was talking to my mom recently I realized that I have gotten so very far behind on blogging, and that I really wanted to back-blog a bit just to document some of the significant events in our lives over the past 6 months or so- Nana coming to visit, Thanksgiving, Gigi and Pops coming to visit, Christmas- it's crazy how much I have missed.

Even though it is definitely going to take me a while to get caught up, I promised Nana and Papa that I would post about Elijah's favorite riding toy to date- the "Beemer Bike". We call it the "Beemer Bike" becuase it has a "BMW" logo on it, and because Elijah says it is a racing bike (be sure to watch the videos below to see one our infamous races together).

These videos were taken the first day he started riding the bike. It took him a little while to get the hang of the handlebar brakes, but now he can zip around everywhere carrying Auburn Grace in tow. He asks to ride his bike every single day and he never gets tired of it. He loves carrying all kinds of things in his basket, and he loves to ride like the wind (Don't worry grandparents. He does have a super cool helmet that matches his bike that he rides with.)

Definitely. All. Boy.

Mini Photo Shoot

For any of you who have little ones or have every had little ones, you definitely know how difficult it can be to get a great shot of them; but it was such a beautiful afternoon, and the kids were wearing complimenting colors, and they were not filthy yet, so I decided to give it a go. Each of them did smile for many of the pictures, however getting both of them to look directly into the camera and smile at the same time proved to be quite the challenge.

They both said "cheese" every single time, but they were often saying it while looking off into the distance, poking the other one, or trying to get down!

They did some really sweet kisses, but due to the speed of the camera I could never get them at the right moment (note to self- bring big SLR to every photo opportunity!).

In the end, I did get some fun ones, some sweet ones, and some super cute ones too! Enjoy!

Bouncy!

Our kids love to jump on things- couches, beds, mommies and daddies. Recently in trying to curb their indoor jumping addiction we decided to take them out to a nearby park to try out this fun bungy jumping contraption for kids. They absolutely loved it, and did not want to have to stop. It is a great way to get all their jumping energy out and share a lot of laughs while we're at it!

To the Beach in January

This January, to escape the cold weather for a bit, we took a little family vacation to a little island in China that has warm weather and nice beaches. Though the kids definitely loved the pool, they absolutely went nuts over the beach. They loved being able to play in the sand (read "get dirty without getting scolded by mommy"), jump the waves, and swim out to sea with daddy. As you can see from the pictures, AG is our messy girl, and Elijah is our boy who always wants to keep his hands clean. They are really so funny about this!

We stayed at a nice hotel, ate hamburgers for lunch, and had stir-fried ice cream for dessert at nights. We didn't check e-mail, and we had no agenda. It really was one of the most relaxing things we've done together as a family so far, and we will definitely do it again!