Trip to Denver

I had a chance to go to Denver for a GO of a new Next Gen store and took the opportunity to take Charlie and spend a few days with Andrea, Joe and their two girls.  It was a fast trip but we had such a good time catching up and letting the little ones play.  They also fed us really well with a couple gourmet dinners.  I wish I had brought my camera and taken more pictures but here are a few cute ones of the kiddos...

We didn't dress appropriately for the snow that was on the ground.  A pink fleece and stylish cowboy boots helped.

Charlie and Allie

Practicing how to play with baby dolls in anticipation of his baby sister

Emma got in there from time to time too

Marathon Man

James planned on running the Richmond Half Marathon today but ran a Full instead.  We couldn't be more proud of this big accomplishment!  He is our Superman.

At Mile 15 (where we thought we were taking him home)

Waiting at the finish line

Here he comes!

He did it!

Happy Halloween!

Life through the eyes of a three year old is such fun!  Since we were in China last Halloween, we really  enjoyed all of the big Halloween traditions with Charlie this year and he "got it" so much more than last year.

We started with a little pumpkin carving...

Telling dad to make a happy face

Happy pumpkin #1

Loving the candle in happy pumpkin #2

They were joined by a train pumpkin

Our masterpieces :)  They all start with the letter "P": our latest obsession

We started talking about Halloween a few weeks ago and Charlie has been firm the whole time about what he wanted to dress up as: a fireman.  I got ordered this little suit online and the entire week leading up to Halloween Charlie wore it every day after school.  On Halloween evening, he was all ready to go trick-or-treating.  We decided to do our block first then we headed down to Hanover to check out the festivities there.

Posing before heading out

Shy at house #1 so dad went along

Soon he got the hang of it and went up to each door by himself

We ran into a dog dressed as Robin (looks like Marl but isn't her... she had to stay home :()

Getting a little tired of walking

At the pirate ship on Hanover (look at a similar picture three years ago when he was a monkey)

Mom was there too!

Look at all this loot!

It's a Girl!!!

This week we found out we are having a little girl!  James and I went to the ultrasound appointment then found out over breakfast/lunch at Westhampton Pharmacy (following our tradition of unspectacular places.... it was Chili's for Charlie).  We waited a few days to tell Charlie this weekend.  I made some sugar cookies with pink frosting and we prepped him to understand that the cookie color would tell him if it was a girl or a boy.  While he has stated a preference for a little brother, he was so excited about having cookies of any kind that he took the news really well as you can see in the video below.  He is so sweet about the baby and loves to give my belly hugs and kisses.  This is a lucky little girl to have such a sweet big brother.

There she is!

Batter Up

We are several weeks into tee ball and we are having a blast.  Here is a video of Charlie at bat...

Apple Picking!

Carter Mountain apple picking is another fun Fall tradition but it is such a zoo on the weekends.  Luckily schedules worked out well for the family to take a Tuesday afternoon off to make a trip.  The place was empty and we had the whole orchard to ourselves.  Unfortunately that meant instead of following the masses, we had to actually find the area with apples on the trees ourselves which was no easy feat.  After hiking for what seemed like an hour, we finally found them!  We had fun filling our bag and then sampling some cider back at the barn.  We had a nice Charlottesville Sticks dinner before heading home for bedtime.

Pumpkin Patch

On a beautiful Sunday we headed up to Ashland to visit the pumpkin patch.  We went last year and had a great time.  They have a huge pumpkin patch that you take a hayride to and all sorts of other fun things to see and do.  It was really crowded so while I waited in line for the hayride, James and Charlie visited a "Scary House" (designed for a toddler) and did a maze through the cornfield. We picked three pumpkins... one for each family member :)

On the hayride

This place is huge!

Happy Birthday Dad

Charlie is such a good helper... especially when it comes to making cake and cookies :)  We had fun making and later decorating a cake for Daddy for his birthday.