Friends

All of your time wasn't spent relaxing at home! A few times you hit the road with your mama and we hung out with some very good friends:)


This is your Auntie Aliki. She and Mommy have been friends for about 16 years and counting. We met our freshman year at college and lived across the hall from each other. We took nearly all of our classes together too. Aunt Aliki invited us to her house for what we thought was just a lunch but it was really...

a surprise belated birthday party for you two! How sweet is your auntie! Leatha came over with K and I and there was even another baby there too! You guys had a ball with Baby P. You had a fabulous lunch, 'cause Aliki is a fabulous cook :), you had ice cream and cake, and presents from Baby Gap! Ryan, notice how intently you are looking at that cake! LOL

Ryan, in this picture you are with Mommy's dear friend Ms. Kim (yep, this is how you two will learn to refer to adults. You've gotta put some kinda "handle" on adult's names just like Mommy and Daddy were taught). Ms. Kim and Mommy met at work about 5 years ago and have been great friends ever since. Ms. Kim is the absolute sweetest person Mommy knows.

Evan, you are with Ms. Rosalyn, another good friend that Mommy met at work. Actually, Ms. Rosalyn, Ms. Kim, and Mommy were like three peas in a pod! They couldn't wait to meet you two! In these pictures we are out having lunch, and after we ate I know we stayed right there for at least 2 hours laughing and talking! Oh the talking and laughing we did on this day! You two actually fell asleep on us:) It was old times for the three of us again! Before Mommy married Daddy and left Montgomery the three of us would be together literally all the time. We worked together, then we'd leave work and head to dinner and/or shopping, and/or a movie or a play. We did this at least twice a week. Their hubby's worked in the evenings and Mommy didn't have a hubby yet, so we could do that with no problem. Good, good times:) Life with you two is even better, though.

One thing Mommy hope for you two is not only for you to be FRIENDS with each other, but for you to find a few life friends as well. Having a good friend is a special gift, sons. If you have just one you are blessed. Having more than that, well that's just icing on the cake. Find friends that you can trust. Friends that accept you for who you are, and friends that you can have fun with.

Day to Day

So guys, your day to day life was filled with eating, playing, visiting, getting spoiled, and playing some more! You handled the extreme heat like champs, though we tried to have you outside as little as possible. During the day we spent most of the time inside, but we did manage to spend some time here and there outside. Check out this picture:

This is your Uncle Ralph. This is your maternal grandmother's brother. Evan, you took to him right away. Ryan, you...... didn't! Now Ry, you had no problem crawling into his room and getting into his things, but if he tried to hold you that was another story! He'd try his best to get to to come to him, but you wouldn't budge. Not only would you not go to him, but you would actually make a point of forcing your hands at your side as if to say you may NOT hold me! You did cooperate long enough to take this picture. It was early in the morning so it wasn't too hot. Both of you enjoyed watching the cars and trucks zooming down the road.

Evan, this is you with Mommy's grandmother, your great-grandmother. She came to visit you when you first came home from the hospital and for your 1st birthday party. She was trying to sing the theme song from Yo Gabba Gabba to you here.Ryan, this is you with Mommy's grandfather, your great-grandfather. Just wait until you see the videos of you two! Grandfather loves to sing these songs to any baby who comes into his home. Every single child in our family has gotten "Humpty-Dumptied" as we call it! Grandfather was happy to pass on the tradition to you:) Ryan, you loved it! In fact, you would go to him for him to do you. Evan, you weren't really in to it as much. This was your first time meeting him and you had a lot of fun together.

You boys learned lots of new things this summer. Evan, you started cruising, standing unassisted, and you figured out how to turn your walker into a push toy! All around the house you would go with this thing! Oh and that helmet? You officially said good-bye to it yesterday (August 4th)!

Ryan, you figured out how to do a lot too. You actually earned a new nickname: Hercules! You are the strongest little boy I know! You had already mastered pushing your walker, but this summer you figured how to push other things like Grandma's kitchen chairs! Yep, you my dear pushed Grandma's kitchen chairs all around the kitchen, managed to lift a gallon of your nursery water, lift a 2.5 pound weight, and hoist your dump truck on top of Grandma's coffee table! I told you you were busy and into EVERYTHING!

Boys, one thing Mommy and Daddy want you to learn is that family is very important. We made sure you were introduced to as many family members as possible. You also met your Grandfather P, your other Aunts, and a host of distant cousins. We will always travel South as much as possible to keep you connected to them-to your roots. It must be tough to welcome a family of four plus their dog into your home for three weeks. Who else would do that besides family? Mommy's folks made it clear a long time ago that I can always come home. That's something your Daddy and I want you to know too. You can always come home to us, no matter what. It's a love thing!

4th of July

We had a bar-b-que at your great grandparents house on the 4th of July. This was an exciting day because it was the day that you would meet your Grandma P and many of your cousins.




Evan, this is my absolute favorite picture of you from this summer! It pretty much sums up who we found out you are--a social butterfly! You are the friendliest baby I know:) You love people and you love to wave hello. And your smile? That smile warms your mama's heart something serious. Your cousin Jameriah is holding you. She was a big help that day!

This is your Grandma P! Can't you tell how excited she was to hold you two? :)

Of course your grandmother spoiled you!

This is your Aunt Angie. We went to visit Aunt Angie a dew days after this picture was taken and she actually watched the two of you for us. It was the first time your Mommy and Daddy could totally relax because we knew you were okay. We knew that you were with Angie and if you were with Angie you were in good hands.

Ryan, you are a bit more cautious than your brother but you enjoyed your folks as well. This is you and your cousin Priscilla.

So your great-grandparents' house is not baby-proofed and it didn't take you two long to figure this out! Your favorite thing to do was go in and out of cabinets and pull things out. Good Lord you two were busy! You probably heard the word NO no less than 25,000 times! We figured out a solution for keeping you out of the cabinets, but you always managed to find something else to get into!

Road Trip!

Dear Ryan & Evan,

You recently completed your very first road trip! We traveled 18 hours from our home to Connecticut to the home that Mommy grew up in in Tuskegee, Alabama. Daddy and Mommy were so proud of you! You made it through this long ride like champs. We made frequent stops along the way, we watched LOTS of Yo Gabba Gabba, and Mommy sang lots of silly songs. The plan was to drive about 9 hours and then stop for the evening. We tentatively had plans to stop in Troutville, Virgina to give all of us a break from the car. And guess what? Our plan worked!
In this picture the two of you are in Maryland at Waffle House. You were awake after a long nap and you guys were hungry!

Once we made it to Troutville, we stopped and had dinner. You both had a blast playing in the unbaby-proofed hotel room! It was quite a feat for Mommy and Daddy to keep you two out of trouble and danger. You wanted to get into everything! And poor Badger; you nearly worried him to death! Here you two are right before bed. I mean, right before we thought you were going to bed:)

Southern Living

I lived in Alabama most of my life. I never appreciated the charm of the South until I no longer lived there. Now I understand that the South is an alluring place. There's something about southern living that makes me more calm and at ease. There's a laziness about it. People move slower and talk slower. People aren't as self-centered as I have found some people in other parts of the country to be. People don't mind sitting and chatting for a spell. People speak to each other; make eye contact with one another and somebody always smiles. If you go anywhere in the South I'll bet you'll hear a mother teaching her children to say yes ma'am and no sir. If a mama calls her child and that child is crazy enough to reply, "What?" you'll hear what it sounds like to have a southern lady get on to said child. People who are absolute strangers will offer their food to you if they are eating something and you're not. You'll hear the standard, "Have some?" Of course you say no, but everyone knows that it's proper to make the offer. A southern lady can say "Bless your heart" and use it as a term of endearment or an insult. Hey, people are polite even when they're being mean! A southern gentleman will see you with an arm full of babies and wait for your food to be ready so he can bring you your tray. He's already eaten and was actually leaving, but that doesn't matter to him. You'll smile and say, "Thank you so much!" and he'll reply, "Yes, Ma'am. Y'all have a nice day." You don't know him and he doesn't know you. You understand that this is how he was raised. You don't get offended that he called you ma'am even though you're young and spry! You were raised this way too and you get it. A man you have never seen before will notice that you drive the same car as his wife and stop you to have a five minute conversation. You'll find out that he bought a cargo carrier like yours but couldn't get it to work and then he'll tell you about the transmission work he had to have done. Next you'll chat about going to Tuskegee University. At the very end of this conversation you'll find out his name! You won't mind, even though you were really supposed to be pumping gas so you can get back home to your children. After all, you're in the South. You're at home. This is who you are and this is what you do. It immediately comes back to you, no matter how long you've been away.

This is the foundation we want to establish for Ryan and Evan, our native New Englanders.


This is a part of who they are because this is a part of who we are.

This is why we hitched up the SUV, packed it to capacity, grabbed the dog, two babies, and the Yo Gabba Gabba dvds and took an 18 hour car ride. Yep, 18 hours. In the car. With a dog. And two babies. We weren't in any hurry; we didn't have to be anywhere at any particular time so we took our time. Ryan and Evan did surprisingly very well on the drive down. It was tough on them the last stretch of the drive, though. By the time we made it to Atlanta they were over being in the car seats and wanted out! The solution to our problem? A stop in Super Walmart! I tell ya, I miss me some Super Walmart. We don't have those here, and people don't know what they're missing! We made it to my grandparents' house in Tuskegee on Saturday July 3. I'm going to recap our time down south in a series of posts in letter form to Ryan and Evan. I want to "speak" directly to them since this trip was about so much more than visiting. There are life lessons to be learned one day. Lessons I want to teach our boys about good 'ole southern values.

Wow! What a vacation!! We finally made it home and let me tell you--it feels good to be back. We have lots to share and post so we can document our first family vacation. The Peas had an absolute blast with all of their family and it seems as if my sweet babies are trying to grow up on me. They are fast asleep right now and I'll bet that they are glad to be home too. Vacation recap is coming soon.

We made it ya'll!