Kiawah - 2015

Back in June, Uncle Matt & Aunt Steph joined us for a trip to Kiawah Island in South Carolina.  It was our second time vacationing at Kiawah, and just like last time, we absolutely loved it.  Also like last time, we made overnight pit stops at my Aunt Donna's house in Waynesville, North Carolina on the way there and back.  Being able to visit with her is one of the main reasons we choose to vacation in South Carolina :).  My baby cousin Baili surprised with a visit when we stopped at Aunt Donna's on our way home.  She recently returned to the US after a yearlong study abroad in Argentina.  It was so wonderful to spend some time with her and introduce her to Matthias.

It was a very laid back trip - we mostly stuck to hanging out at the beach and the pool.  I think everyone had a great time, and I know the "crazy brothers" really enjoyed spending a week with their aunt and uncle :).  We can't wait to go back!

We're back!

Wow, I can't believe it's been 8 months since I've written a blog post.  That's almost enough time to grow a baby :)

So much has happened since we last spoke, but this is by far our biggest news:

We're due with baby number 3 on March 10, and we couldn't be more excited.  "Scramber" (as James has nicknamed the little one) is doing wonderfully.

What else have we been up to?

In July 2014, we moved into a rental house in Floyds Knobs, Indiana.  Matthew started his new job at Radiology Associates and we soon found out we were pregnant.  The house we were renting was too far from the main road to get high speed internet (hence the lack of blog posts), didn't have a dishwasher, and was kind of stinky, but it had a beautiful back yard and it was cheap!  We also had neighbors who had horses, llamas, chickens, goats, cats, and dogs which the boys loved seeing every day (especially when the horses got out of their pasture and decided to graze in our backyard!)

We also attended a Boone Family Reunion in July at my Aunt Patty's lake house in Henryville.  It was so wonderful seeing our family that is spread out over the country (and my sis from England) all in one place.

In August, we took a trip to Kiawah Island, South Carolina.  Just like last year, we made an overnight stop on the way there and back at my Aunt Donna's house in Waynesville, North Carolina.  She's the main reason we vacation in South Carolina :).  My cousin Tyler (also known as Taco) joined us at the beach for a few days.  We had gorgeous weather and really enjoyed our time there.  James even made a friend on the beach with whom he'd swap toys with every day.  He loved swimming, especially with Tyler.  Charlie was a bit spooked by the waves at first, but he warmed up to the water by the end of the trip.

I coached James in soccer this fall through the YMCA.  We would have a weekly Saturday 20 minute practice followed by a 20 minute game.  He would often do alright during practice, but once the game started, he pretty much refused to play.  If he did come on the field, he would often sit on my feet.  When he got a medal at the end of the season, he said "this is for watching the game."

We celebrated Matthew's 33rd birthday on September 22nd.

And on September 28, our beautiful, perfect nephew Caleb was born.  He looks a lot like his dad, makes adorable noises when he eats, and does a really good side-eye.  James and Charlie are crazy about him (for awhile, James called him "my baby"), as are we!

Jill & I pregnant at the same time

October brought some Nett family pictures for Patsy's birthday (taken by her brother-in-law Paul Schellenberger).

Our annual pumpkin pictures (this time with Caleb!)

And Halloween.  James was really into Halloween this year, and decided that he and Charlie would dress up as Curious George and the Man in the Yellow Hat.  He has become infatuated with all things Halloween related: skeletons, spiders, ghosts, bats, pumpkins, you name it.  He's already planning his Halloween costume for this year (skeleton) and is thinking of adding spiders to his Bob the Builder Birthday cake.

He really enjoyed trick or treating this year, too - although he liked to sort and arrange the candy rather than eat it, which was just fine by me!  I think we ended up throwing it out in early January after he left it lying on the floor one too many times.  Charlie was a trooper with his huge hat, and he definitely was not going to let his candy go to waste.  He ate as much of it as we'd let him (and tried to steal some of James's on occasion).

November brought us two more birthdays: Aunt Steph's and Aunt Jill's.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family at my brother Matthew & Stephanie's beautiful new home.  We took it easy this year and did a chili lunch, and then headed over to Matthew's cousin's house in Louisville to celebrate with his family.

We had a pretty good snowfall in November and were able to take the boys' pictures for our Christmas card this year.

(front)

(back)

James loved it.  Charlie did, too, for a little while, but soon wanted to go back inside.  He was pretty content to watch James play from the window.

On 12/13/14, Matthew's brother Jason got married.  They had a beautiful ceremony and reception in Indianapolis.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take too many pictures because I was busy chasing around these handsome rascals.

We had some wonderful family celebrations, but sadly Charlie came down with an ear infection on Christmas Eve, so we didn't get to attend the Boone family party.  The boys were both spoiled, as usual :)

James's annual "bow on the head" Christmas photo

In January, James started preschool at St. Mary of the Knobs.  He wasn't potty trained in time to start in the fall (he went his first full day without diapers the day school started!), but luckily they let him start in January.  He absolutely loves it.  He goes three afternoons a week for three hours at a time.  It's sometimes a little hard to get him to tell us what he did there (he always says he didn't learn anything!), but he comes home singing new songs, talking about his friend Jack (whose name is really Jake), and has mentioned more than once that he loves playing the Xylophone during music class.  He adores his teachers (and has asked if they can come over to our house).  They send home a weekly newsletter letting us know what he did in class that week.  I think he'll be sad when summer break rolls around!

We also finally closed on a new house in January (only took us 60+ days for the closing!) and we moved in during the last week of the month.  We counted once, and Matthew has moved 12 times, and I've moved 14.  This time, we did it while he was recovering from a nasty stomach virus, while I was 7.5 months pregnant, and while both caring for two young kiddos.  I don't recommend it!  Thankfully, Matthew's dad Jim was a huge help, both with moving and cleaning - we couldn't have done it without him!  And his mom (who was recovering from the same virus) helped watch the boys and even cleaned out our nasty fridge at the rental house.  We're planning on finishing an attic space above the garage right away, and have plans for some other updates down the road.

Now that we have internet again, I'm going to attempt to keep up with this.  Even if no one else reads it, I like looking back through the pictures :)  Just don't expect too many posts, especially after Scrambler makes his or her appearance!

xoxox,
Leah

Thanksgiving & Chicago

I know it's a bit late, but I thought I'd share a few pictures from Thanksgiving and our trip to Chicago.

My sister Emily and her husband Phil were in town for the week of Thanksgiving.  It was so great seeing them!  Emily, Stephanie, and I cooked the Thanksgiving meal for 13 adults.  That kept us pretty busy, so I regret to say I didn't take many pictures.  Emily took quite a few, though, so here's hoping that she'll send me some!

1. Charlie meeting Aunt Emily & Uncle Phil for the first time.  He was a big fan!
2. Charlie & James playing "Operation" with Papaw while we were cooking
3. SmartMatt & HazMatt carving the bird
4. An Adult Night Out: Emily, Stephanie, Kristi, Leah, & Jill at the Houndmouth concert

(we took one of these pictures with the 11 of us plus my Uncle Bruce and his family, but unfortunately there was a large spot from sun glare on the photo that looked pretty bad.  I spent about 20 minutes trying to edit it out without much success before giving up)

The week after Thanksgiving, Matthew, Charlie, and I went to Chicago for  5 days.  Matthew had a conference to attend, so Charlie and I tagged along.

1. Charlie's first flight!
2. The view from our hotel room
3. Charlie LOVED the large windows in the hotel
3. The Millenium Park Bean
4.  Close up of Charlie and I in the bean
5. Hanging out, waiting for Matthew to come home
6. Chicago River
7. Charlie's first trip to Michigan Avenue
8. Sweet boy :)

We debated about brining James with us, but in the end, we thought that both he (and we!) would have a better time if he stayed in Indiana.  He spent one night with Uncle Matt & Aunt Steph, and the rest of the time at Grandma and Grandpa Nett's.  We missed him dearly, but I think he had a lot of fun (thanks Steph, Jim, & Patsy for sending us pictures of him while we were gone!)

1. James went to Bass Pro with Matt & Steph; we received this picture saying that James wanted this for Christmas.  Ha!
2. One of his new favorite things at Grandma & Grandpa's: the red wagon
3.  Meeting Uncle Jim Book's dairy cows
4. Uncle Jim Book & James

We were able to FaceTime with him a couple of times while we were gone, too.

FaceTime!

 He said "I want to go to that room with Mama and Charlie."  Love that little guy!

Hope everyone had a wonderful New Years!

A Trip to the Emerald City

Matthew had a week off, so last week, the three (and 3/4ths) of us went to Seattle to visit friends. Here's how the trip went down!

*My apologies for the quality of these pictures - I took all of them on my iPhone.  I didn't get out my big camera once during the trip.  Shocking, I know.*

Taking a nap on Dada's lap somewhere over Texas.  

Awesome cooking class that I attended at The Pantry at Delancey.

Mocha at Cafe Fiore - one of our favorite Seattle coffee shops

Ballard Farmer's Market

Playing with the choo-choo's at Twirl Cafe while Dada and I had coffee & breakfast.

Playing on the "stage" at Nordstrom's while Dada is trying on new pants

Playing at Kids' Cove in Bellevue Square Mall.

Watching our dumplings being made before dinner (and before James threw up in the restaurant).  I've never seen so much come out of someone so little.  It was kind of awesome (I don't feel bad saying that because he acted like his normal self afterwards!).

Spending time in quarantine to try contain the stomach bug.

Dada came up with some creative ways to keep James occupied during his quarantine. 

James felt better the next day, and he and Dada went to breakfast at Cafe Besalu and then to feed the ducks at Green Lake.  Mama caught the stomach bug and stayed in bed.

Sunrise over Lake Sammamish, taken from our friends Karen & Addison's balcony.

The only empty seat on return flight was next to us so Little Man could stretch out, but even with the extra room, he still wouldn't take a nap :(

The main reason for our trip: to meet Parker Thomas (Karen & Addison's new baby).
I'm really bummed that I didn't get any pictures of this cutie, but after James got sick, we didn't want to get to close to him.  I think James liked him, though - when we first saw him, James pointed to him and called "Charlie Brown" .  And if you know James, you'll know that's a huge compliment.

Despite the stomach bug (which Matthew came down with the day after we returned), we had a really great time.  Almost makes me want to move back there :)
 (don't worry, James's grandparents - I don't think I can convince Matthew!).

And if any of my old co-workers whom I didn't get to meet up with because I was sick in bed are reading this, you are free to come visit us in Cincinnati any time!  :)

Mr. Stengel Goes to Washington

Back in mid-October, I participated in the Breast Cancer 3-Day walk in Washington, D.C.  The walk fell over my Grandpa (aka Pa) and Grandma's birthdays, so we asked Pa if he would like to join us and celebrate his 90th birthday in the nation's capital. 
We are so glad he said yes!

 

The walk was amazing, as usual (a big thank you/shout out to all my donors!!), but I actually had more fun exploring the museums with these three guys:

 

We all had our favorite things.  Pa's was the the Air and Space Museum 

(big surprise there :).

 James loved running around in the National Mall

 But in the Air and Space Museum, he found something he liked even more.  

Any guesses to what it was?

 Sputnik! 
As soon as we walked into the museum, he started yelling "Ga!Ga!Ga!" (his word for ball) and pointing up :)

 I liked the First Ladies exhibit in the American History Museum and the National Galleries of Art, although I'm not sure we'll be allowed back in after Pa touched a painting by Monet (and got reprimanded by the security guard, to which Pa muttered under his breath that he highly doubted it was an original) and Matthew asked a different guard if anything had ever been stolen from there.  I'm sure our pictures now reside at the front desk under the "No Admittance" list.

 Matthew liked running around with James and the new Star Spangled Banner exhibit

(he lived in DC for a month a couple of years ago, so he had seen most of the museums already).

 Despite the loooong car ride (and the debates about which route to take), we all had a great time.