Fall 2009

We've had a fabulous Fall 2009! The boys are both loving school, which is always a plus. We took a visit to Dewberry Farms... Zia & Ava came for Halloween...we enjoyed a day at the Renaissaince Festival with Grandma & Grandpa...

Nanny & Bobo came to visit, and so did Uncle Juju (who helped us out with our Gargage sale at 7:00am!)...

and spent some quality time at Bammy & Papa's farm.

Whew...

1st Cubs Scout Campout

Cole decided to join Cub Scouts this year with several of his friends from school. We actually had so many boys sign up, that we formed our own "Den". And guess who (oh so willingly) stepped up to be our Den Leader (yep, you guessed it...Andy). Thanks Honey for making Cub Scouts such a wonderful experience for Cole. Oh, you look really good in your uniform too!!!

Anyway, these are pictures from their 1st Campout. (Carter and I were at a family reunion, so we weren't able to join them). We look forward to being their for Campout #2 in the Spring.

Cole's 7th Birthday

Cole's birthday party this year was at Laser Quest. What more could a boy ask for than a Star Wars themed cake, a room full of his friends, music and guns? These kids had SO much fun!

I think these were two of his TOP fave gifts...

Nintendo DSi... look at the excitment of his face?

And, these two pet frogs! He loves these guys!

Puppies Galore...

These are random pictures, but I had to post them because they are so cute!!!

The lady that cuts my hair also breeds Labs. She has raised over 100 litters of puppies! Anyway, this most recent litter is from her yellow lab which she bred with a chocolate lab. She ended up with 12 puppies (6 males, 6 females, 6 yellow and 6 chocolate). I told Cole about the puppies and he was just begging to go play with them. He was in heaven with these little guys.

They were so precious. It was funny because I kept trying to be quiet so they could all sleep and Cole kept touching all of them so they would wake up. I loved watching them all pile up on top of each other and fall asleep.

And... it took about 5 minutes before he was IN their kennel with them.

Just in case you are wondering... no we did not come home with any of them. We have a 14 year old Cocker Spaniel that is begging for some love and attention :)

1st Day of School for Cole & Carter

Cole started 1st Grade today, and of course, was SOOO super excited! He woke up about 6:30am, and was fully dressed by 6:33pm, and ready for breakfast. My next door neighbor helped out in Cole's classroom the first day. She called me later and said, "Lisa, the whole time I was in the classroom, Cole never stopped smiling!" Wow... if we can just keep this up for about 15 more years, that would be great! Our neighborhood cut our bus service, so we are now riding bikes to school. It is actually a lot of fun and great to get in some more exercise everyday. I did attach a handy first aid kit to my bike after a crash on day 3 with no band-aids, no neosporin, no tissue, no cell phone, etc. etc. Cole was so brave though, he got back on his bike and rode to school. I brought him to the nurses office for a little t.l.c., then off to class he went. (Only about 15 minutes late)

Carter starts Preschool!!!!

He is going to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday. I think Cole's excitement rubbed off on Carter a little... he was ALL SMILES!

Andy and I walked Carter to his room, and though he had a pretty tight grip on our hands, he did really good for his first day ever in school.

And, here is how we found him when we came to pick him up!!! Completely covered up. Actually, we were really impressed because ALL 14 kids were sound asleep when we got there. More fun to come throughout the year, stay tuned!!!

Awesome Transformation!

With school starting next week, (and nothing else to do...ha-ha-ha!) I decided that I could squeeze in one more "project". I have been wanting to redo Carter's room for a while, and got inspired to tackle it. I did a wall treatment called "brown bagging". The walls are literally covered in torn brown bags, or kraft paper.

So, Tuesday night I tore a whole roll of kraft paper into different shapes and sizes. Then, the boys helped me crumple each one, and flatten it out. It is quite a time consuming process, but well worth it in the end.

This is Carter's room "before".

"Brown bagging in process." This was about 5 hours into it. Sue and I started the project off for the first several hours, then she took the boys to her house for the night. Thank you Mema!!! Andy & I teamed up and got the whole room finished by 8:30! Well, except for the final clear coat which we did the following morning.Here is the FINISHED room. Its so hard to see the colors in this picture, but the walls almost look like leather with different variations of brown tones. I think it turned out so awesome. Carter LOVES it. He walked in and said, "Sweet Mama!" Gotta love that. Now, he is just waiting (very patiently) for his Big Boy bed.... hopefully coming soon!

The last two pictures are from 2005 when we did this same wall treatment in a bedroom at Bridget's house. The walls were still wet in the "after" picture, so you can really see the color variations.

Lake Tahoe Summer 2009

We just got back from an incredible vacation to Lake Tahoe. Bob and Wendi (aka Nanny & Bobo to the boys) just remodeled their home, and we were so excited to see it. Our family went along with Cousin Jon and his boys Davis and Grant. Uncle Mikey and his girlfriend also joined us for several days. I really think this is one of the most beautiful places on earth.



Sorry this post is SO long, but I could only narrow down the pictures so much. Lake Tahoe is so beautiful that I took about 200 pictures in 6 days.
Carter was running in the sand saying, "This is perfect, this is perfect!" It was adorable how excited he was to be there.
Our "zen baby" just taking it all in.MUSCLES!!!

I love this picture. This is in their backyard. The boys were so excited to have their own table at dinner one night. Cole thought he was really "big" being able to order for himself. Do you see trouble in their future? I do.I took the boys on a scavenger hunt one morning. They each had their own bag and a list of random items that you might find along the way. The coolest item on our list was "The Biggest Pinecone". I think Carter won, his pinecone was about the size of my head! This metal llama was our last stop. What do you think Davis is thinking?

It was a little cold and overcast one day, so we decided to all go to the bowling alley. We had so much fun playing arcade games, air hockey, and more!

Davis and Grant were so sweet helping Carter bowl. They would help him carry his ball to the line and then stand there with him while it hit the pins.

Cuddle time!

Carter LOVED minture golf. He did so good, and I got 2 hole-in-ones!

Friedman boys in the hot tub... watch out girls!

You can certainly tell these boys are cousins. We are just missing Uncle Trevor and Uncle Juju then all the Friedman boys would be together.This is at the top of Diamond Peak, after our hike. We did this hike twice while we were there, it was beautiful! Great looking family!I just couldn't resist this one!The boys spent hours at the beach catching crawfish. I think they had about 20 in their bucket by the time they were done.

Grant took this picture of me and Cole. It's not the best picture, but I am always the one taking the pictures, so I am rarely in them and I have to take whatever I can get.

This past year, Bob and Wendi remodeled their house. It looks incredible! Here are some of the pictures.

View from the backyard.

Another view from the backyard.

Its amazing, the whole back of the house has windows, so you can see the lake from anywhere in the house.

Beautiful kitchen! With a view like that, I think I could wash dishes all day long.

Living Room. Carter wasn't allowed in here after the first day. He went running (full force) to see the view of the lake, and didn't realize that the whole wall was one big window. Yes, he crashed head first. Luckily his head and the window were both ok.

Thanks again Bob and Wendi for the wonderful week! We can't wait to come back again soon.