MORE Snow and SO MUCH catching up

It's March and I just think it's wrong for it to snow in March!!  I think everyone is ready for Spring this year.  So, I'm home for another snow day and *gasp* I would rather be at work!  What's wrong with me?!  That makes me sound so old and lame, right?

I guess I should just make the most of my day off and get caught up on my blog with possibly the longest blog post.  Bare with me but I promise for an update and lots of Charlie pictures.  :-)  I'm not sure where to start but I had a long blog hiatus due to several things going on (see below).  Also, our laptop may be on its last leg and a little on the fritz which made it hard to get my pictures uploaded but I finally have them on the computer.  It's amazing that a computer doesn't like milk being spilled on it!  Who knew!?!

I'm not sure where to start but I'll try to catch you up.  First off, the biggest news that we have is that OUR HOUSE IS FOR SALE.  (Feel free to stop on by and check out our pictures and virtual tour.)  We started thinking seriously about it towards the end of January and then spent about a month or less getting it ready and then it went on the market on February 21st.  I thought it was super fast, considering we were really busy over that time and managed to do a good job, keeping a balance so that Charlie was not phased by anything going on.  Unfortunately, it has meant some changes for Charlie and he's done very well handling them.  We are all so fortunate to have support from our family and a very special big thanks to Grammie and Papa for allowing us to house the train table with them for a little while.  Most of the work was clearing out but by the time it went to the market, I was exhausted.  We went ahead and cleaned out the attic over a weekend, which now I appreciate that it's done but what a chore!  Thanks to Papa and Grammie for keeping Charlie for us during that time.  It's amazing how much stuff junk you can accumulate. Matt isn't a stuff person.  He doesn't have many wants or needs which means most of the stuff junk was mine.  It was pretty freeing to clear so much out.

So, we don't exactly have anywhere to go yet but we are hoping to upgrade and plan to move out of the city to the 'burbs.  Matt and I have very mixed emotions about moving.  We love this house so very much!  If you know anyone looking in the Richmond area, I just happen to know of the perfect house in the near West End (which is an awesome location to U of R, the city, lots of shopping, dining, Monument Avenue and lots more)!!!

Over the last month, we have celebrated many birthdays.  First off, we celebrated Wally's 8th birthday.

I remember the days of just Wally and I in Alabama; he was such a skinny pup.  He and I used to run together in Alabama and he was my little side kick.  Matt won him over the very first time by bringing him a toy the first time he met him.  Wally loves us all but there are no doubts that Matt is his favorite.  If Matt isn't home, Wally waits for him to return.  We were a little concerned at how Wally would adjust when Charlie was born and he is such a loving dog and I think he does a pretty good job putting up with Charlie

and Charlie  LOVES Wally.  First thing in the morning, Wally runs into Charlie's room to check on him.  Wally had a good year but we are realizing he is getting a little older.  We had a couple of emergency vet appointments this year but luckily, he is fine. His birthday party, complete with singing,

  cake,

birthday hats, and presents

was a perfect excuse to celebrate our wonderful dog.

We also celebrated Matt's birthday.

We had a birthday party with his parents and then another one at our house on his birthday.

We celebrated Madeline turning 3.  

Madeline is the daughter of my best friend at work, Christie.  She had a party of Romp & Roll and Charlie had a blast!

 

Madeline's cake was Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Isn't this cake awesome?

Finally, Pops and Mim had birthdays.  Charlie made them both cards and we had a nice lunch yesterday.  He and Wally went to stay with them 

 

with big plans to have a birthday party at their house.  

We also had some fun over the last month doing some activities on the weekends.  Lyndsay and I took Hailey and Charlie to a fun party/event that the local hospital threw in honor of opening their Pediatric Intensive Care Unit.  It was so much fun and perfect for our children.  They had bears that they gave out and we took them through stations in order to get a full check-up.  We checked their vitals, height, weight, got a xray of their chest, and even did some therapy with them. The very first step was to name the bear and Charlie named it "Splat the Cat", which is after his new favorite book from Aunt Margaret.  Charlie and Hailey had such a good time and spent the most time in the moon bounce but the highlight was that he got to have his face painted like Spiderman!  

 

This weekend, we went to the "Greatest Show on Earth"....i.e. the Circus.  

We all thought the elephants were the best part.

I'm not sure I would call it the "Greatest Show on Earth" BUT Charlie thought it was awesome and hearing him laugh and watching him enjoy it was so much fun for Matt and I.

 

As you can see, we have been busy.  As for other things, Charlie is having so much fun at school these days and is a little sponge.  He is able to recognize well over half of the alphabet and likes to point out the letters while we read his books.  He only knows uppercase letters right now and he knows several of his numbers.  He loves to mimic whatever we do.  He's had a lot of fun playing with his razor in the bath tub.  

 

And just in case I haven't included enough of Charlie, here's just a few more random pics/video:

 

Despite the cold weather and snow we've had, we did manage to have a couple of warm weekends and got to enjoy the a little warmer temperatures.  

 

Here's to hoping Mother Nature gets the memo that it's time to start moving forward to warmer days and bring on Spring days!  Also, I'm hoping to do a much better at keeping the blog updated but for now, I guess I better enjoy my alone snow day!

Snow

It's winter and this month we I have enjoyed getting to see it snow.  Today was my perfect idea of snow since I got a snow day and didn't have to try to go to work in it and I have electricity as I type this.  Charlie and I started the morning out with making a snowman

 

and had some hot chocolate.  This afternoon, I worked on some chores and was happy with my productivity.  As long as I have power, water, etc. and can stay home, it's fine to have one snow day every winter.  Too many and we all go stir crazy so I've had my feel and we can move on to Spring.

Back in January, we took a trip to Massanutten with Grammie and Papa.

 

It's actually where Charlie got to experience his first snow of the season.

 

We left Wednesday night and came home Saturday night.  I love it whenever we go, winter or spring.  There's plenty to do depending on the season.  Last year, Matt and I skiied.  This year, Matt wasn't interested and there was enough other things to keep me busy.  We went tubing in the morning on Thursday.

It wasn't very busy so Matt and I really enjoyed it because we got to go down the hill so many times.  Also, I thought it was the perfect speed.  I kept seeing all these toddlers about Charlie's age and they were having a blast.  So, we decided to go back in the afternoon with Charlie.  hot warm chocolate.

 

Unfortunately, it was a lot slicker which meant that the tubes were just flying down the hill.  Charlie thought it was too fast for him.  I agreed but I think we will be ready for him to tube next year.  We went to see the movie Frozen.  It was Charlie's first movie and he did excellent.  It was a fun movie!  We enjoyed their indoor pool and just hanging out and ate a lot of yummy food!  Here is Charlie having some

Charlie loved the big bath.

He ended up having Strep while we were there and he was not a good sleeper.  We had a good time even though Charlie wasn't feeling his best.  He has asked since then about going to Grammie and Papas house in the mountains.

I hope all are safe from Winter Storm Pax and would be happy if this is our last snow storm for this year!

Happy Birthday Matt

I know today may have been a busy workday but we are so excited for the birthday party tonight to celebrate you!!!  We love you so very much.  

Love,

Stephanie, Charlie and Wally

Twinkle Twinkle Traffic Light

I'm behind on blogging. I have a couple January posts to finish up like our Massanutten trip and Wally's birthday.

For now, here's a little song until I can get my other posts up.

January so far...

An advantage of working for the government is the holiday time and January is a good month for that!  With that being said, I'm enjoying my extra days with my family and our good friends.

Backing up to the January 1, Charlie had his first mustache.  

We had a good visit with the McGreevy's.   This is the only picture I took of Charlie and Hailee while they were enjoying their dessert.

We also got to hang out with the Hamrick's.

It was really cute to see Charlie and Wyatt throwing a football back and forth to one another.

Charlie has been a great helper these days; he's really into helping in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher,

filling Wally's food bowl, and cooking with one of us.  We made individual pizzas.  He took a lot of pride in making his own pizza.  We told him we were having a pizza party, which then reminded Matt of a commercial for a game called Pizza Party back in the 80's.  Matt looked it up on You Tube.  Charlie loved it and really jammed out to it.

Charlie is obsessed with watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse these days.  It's turned into a little bit of a struggle.  Every morning he wakes up and first thing he says to me is that he wants to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  This morning, he waited a whole 2 minutes before he asked.  He likes to get in our bed and watch it though and I do like being able to lay with my sweet boy in the bed and snuggle before having to get up.

We had a nice weekend.  I actually left from work to go see my friend Diane who lives in Durham, NC.  Diane was my roomie during pharmacy school.  It was a very quick trip but we made the most of it and stayed up until 1 am.  I told Matt and he was shocked that I made it up that late.  Those who know me, know I like to go to bed early.  I also slept until 9 am.  I am pretty sure it's been exactly 2 years and 8 months since I slept that late.  :-)  Diane took me out and showed me a little bit of Durham but the weather was not really cooperating with us doing too much which was fine with us.  We didn't stop talking the whole time we were around each other. We went to Parker and Otis and then had to stay a little longer than we planned due to a tornado warning.  It was pretty crazy for about 5 minutes. Luckily, I'm not sure that there was any tornado that touched down.  Anyways, I really liked that store and the food was delicious.  They had some fun things for me to get for Charlie.  I brought him a new place-mat home.  I started using them with him at the table when he turned 1 and he's a little obsessed.  I also brought him a wind up dinosaur which was a big hit. I also got a few other gifts that I'm going to give sometime later when I need a little something.  I left to go home that day and I was fortunate to not have any weather issues on my drive.  I didn't take a single picture of my trip but it was a lot of fun.

 Matt and Charlie had some time at home.  Matt is such a good Dad.  He took Charlie to get a doughnut and to the Children's Museum so Charlie definitely had a good time.  It's hard not to feel a little guilty when I leave home but I know they are both fine.  Matt is so sweet though; he told me he was glad to keep Charlie and was glad I got to go.  

Charlie is obsessed with trains and we had a train filled day.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

We did manage to get outside and got to go to the park.

Charlie told us today a couple of times that he didn't feel good.  When asked what hurt.  He told me his body hurt.  I then asked him about his different body parts.  I was able to rule out that his fingers, hands, and arms did not hurt.  However, his tummy, ears, legs and feet did hurt.  I'm not sure what that was all about.  He also complained of being hot so he took his shirt off to cool down.

I recorded a video tonight and it's evidence that poor Wally is the most patient dog and so sweet to Charlie who aggravates him all.the.time.  I'm sorry about the quality of the video.