It's been a long while since I last posted! I can make excuses all I want, but that mostly has to do with us settling in after the move and getting used to stuff. But now we have a lot of ground to cover, so let's pick up where we left off!
The best part of our lives is definitely our two boys. They are such lights in our lives and I consider myself very lucky to have them and take care of them as my full-time "job." Charlie is very sweet and cute, although he's not as little as he was when these first pictures were taken!
The adjustment period to our house was initially a little difficult, since it wasn't quite as clean as we thought it might be and it's older and a little run down, but at the end of the day it's pretty cheap rent (especially for Northern Virginia) so we can't complain too much! After addressing issues like the air conditioning and heat not working, we've comet to make the space ours (and thank goodness it's bigger than our old student apartment was.) Rawley likes playing in the small fenced yard, particularly in the summer.
Rawley has also very much been enjoying "crafts" of any sort lately. He mostly likes doing the gluing in any project, but he drew the bee's mouth and doing a little coloring on the wings. I asked him recently whether he'd like to grow up to do band in high school and he said he'd like to grow up do do painting and art like me. I told him he can have a real job like Daddy and do art as a hobby if he wants ;)
Somehow, the ginger in Charlie's hands looks kind of like Charlie.
We really like going to the little shops on Marshall's main street. When the weather is nice we just walk from where we live because it isn't very far and is manageable even for Rawley to walk. He particularly likes the Red Truck bakery, where he often chooses to get a cookie (in this case, a red truck cookie.)
For the fourth of July, we went to BonChon Chicken for dinner. BonChon was the favorite dining choice we had on my mission for after meetings at the mission home. It's Korean BBQ, but it's popular in the Philippines as well.
We went to a fireworks display in Manassas (the town where Paul works) and it was pretty fun. Rawley was a little tired but enjoyed the fireworks overall.
Paul likes "playing" with the RGB I got him for his birthday last year.
There's lots of pretty butterflies that frequent our garden in the summer.
It's fun to hang out at parks in the spring and summer.
Rawley still likes to chew on green onions straight.
We like going hiking, although on this particular day Rawley didn't like it all that much because it was quite hot outside and h hadn't taken a nap yet that day, so we didn't get too far.
His favorite part was definitely throwing rocks into the stream.
Our little adventurer hobbit in the garden <3
Flowerpots make great hats!
Thank heavens our boys fall asleep easily in the car - plus it's super cute.
Hanging out with Grandma Suzie is so much fun!
Tons and tons of "touch me not" flowers on a trail we took in the Shenandoah park. I got to introduce Pual to how their seed pods explode because no one had ever shown him before.
Grandma Suzie gave us flowers the size of Rawley!
Rawley got this cucumber from a basket of vegetables someone was giving away at church. He then proceeded to just bit into it like this like a crazy little heathen.
Rawley is definitely at his most peaceful and precious when he's sleeping <3
And all the rest of the time he's a lot of fun!
Rawley likes to "help" with laundry XD
My zinnias ended up looking nice for a while into the fall, and so did the petunias Suzanne gave us.
Charlie liked his mobile a lot.
Snuggly PJ boys!
Charlie's first time in his bouncer - he loved showing off his jumping skills to Uncle Milton and Aunt Lizzy!
So much fun bouncing!
The boys always love playing with the lavalavas that Paul and I got from our missions. they're soft and flowy and fun to use like parachutes.
It's really fun to put the boys down to bed together for naptime and often bedtime as well. They like to cuddle in bed while I and sometimes Paul sing naptime/bedtime songs to them.
Rawley loves playing with cups, and so does Charlie XD
Charlie loved munching on his toes for a long time, and sucking on them briefly.
Rawley was really excited about his lightning bolt shirt and the "I'm 3 years old" pennant his great grandma and grandpa Risk gave him for his birthday.
Rawley was sore amazed over the summer about all the praying mantises. Admittedly, they are a pretty cool and awesome looking insect.
I had fun making some more figurines and such.
Rawley really likes books. This is a fun Doctor Seuss one his Risk great grandparents gave him. We read books every day, one before his nap and one before bedtime along with some bedtime songs.
We met a really cute corgi in one of the shops in town when we were walking around Marshall with my mom.
Rawley likes the local bakery, and it's a fun day trip for us.
We got him these fun fridge gears for his birthday.
Enjoying some quality time with Aunt Lizzy
Opening birthday presents for Rawley's third birthday.
Charlie generally does pretty well at church, although being on a two hour schedule instead of a three hour one definitely helps!
Happy birthday to Rawley!
Rawley "helping" with laundry - one of the biggest blessings of this townhouse we live in is the washer and dryer! Our student apartments didn't have that so Paul would have to drag our massive laundry bags to the laundromat in the snow and cold.
Larsen Family Reunion 2019
These pictures were actually on the way back from the reunion in Colorado, but we drove out with my parents in their SUV and flew home afterwards.We hadn't gotten much sleep because of the time our flight left, so I was able to sleep a little on the plane thanks to Paul. Rawley was also asleep next to me, but we had several long delays that tacked on about 2 hours extra to our flight - and Rawley accidentally peed himself on the plane while sleeping and we didn't think far enough ahead to have put him in a pull-up for the flight instead of underwear. He was really shocked and upset by it when he woke up out of his deep sleep and it took a while to calm him down!
Charlie slept pretty well on the plane using Paul's pillow to chill on, and Paul caught a few Z's too.
Rawley enjoyed our offerings from MacDonald's, and was very interested in flying on the plane and seeing the planes taking off and such. He's a cutie and very curious about a lot of things.
Sometimes they like to hold hands <3 They sit a little too far apart now for that to work most of the time now though, since Charlie has been upgraded to a big kid carseat (he weighs 25 pounds, is in the 90th percentile for weight and 95th for height, and is huge now but so cute!)
At the reunion, Paul read stories to Rawley sometimes and a lot of the other little cousins (I guess they'd be Rawley's second cousins? Once removed? At any rate, my cousin's kids) would come and join the story time.
Charlie loved spending time with Aunt Brooke!
One of my cousins has 5 boys, and Rawley enjoyed playing with them! He got in on this pile just a second later.
Brooke, our aunt Merina, my mom and I took a long hike to the remnants of a miner's cabin up in the mountains. It was unbelievably beautiful there! Here they are in the remains of the cabin.
There were a multitude of interesting mushrooms along the path, many of them being varieties I'd never seen before.
The pictures really don't do this justice! The miner would have woken up to this view every morning from his cabin.
The park ranger who told us about the hike also told us about an old mining cart a little bit off the trail. We initially looked for it and didn't see it, but then I managed to spot it from the trail. It was pretty cool to imagine some guy living up there on his own and running a little mining operation!
More crazy mushrooms! I hadn't seen red speckled mushrooms before, and there were quite a few of them along the trail.
The beauty of the area was pretty breathtaking.
Mushrooms tumbling down from the path
These blue columbine are apparently pretty rare in the wild, but something about the nutrients and air in the area makes them blue.
Some cool bridges we took on the trail
They had an "adventure park" there with lots of fun equipment for the kids to play on. Instead of playing, Dad decided to hang out and read.
Our view from the window of our room in the cabin
They had a pinata there, in part for Rawley's birthday, and the kids all had a lot of fun hitting it, Rawley included!
We had some technical issues with the pinata at one point and my cousin Christian climbed up the swingset to fix things.
The children were sore amazed.
Beautiful setting, this part was very close to the cabin.
The view around the place we were staying.
We drove way up in the mountains at one point, to the "highest road in the U.S." and got to see lots of interesting glaciers and glacier lakes, etc.
Mom in the distance, overlooking some great views on top of the mountain
It was freezing cold and windy but we stole a kiss - we had to being up so high!
We did some rock climbing with some of my cousins and it was fun, although it definitely proved that I have very little arm strength. Paul reached the top to ding the bell on a couple of the modes.
They had a husky dog meet n' greet that was fun. I think I liked the dogs more than Rawley, but whatever.
Gentle baby munches <3
Taking a walk from our cabin
Snoozing baby. It was at times hard to coordinate things around Charlie needing naps.
Enjoying some food while the boys slumbered soundly. Rawley was very pleased with his birthday balloon.
That's Rawley's special kid camping cot. He had some issues with rolling off of it each night we were using it there though XD
View from the cabin
Charlie meeting great grandma Larsen <3
The various positions of Rawley rolling off of his bed in the middle of the night and me finding him asleep on the floor
Rawley and his cousin having fun together while we were waiting to climb "Jacob's ladder" and other high ropes course activities.
Here are a number of action shots of us climbing Jacob's ladder. Paul climbed it twice, once with me and once with one of my cousins. (Paul really likes ropes courses and physical challenges like this.)
My serious lack of upper body strength kind of ended up biting on me plus my fear of heights, but Paul was very helpful!
You had to use teamwork to do it very effectively. We did alright at that, but I definitely don't have as much general strength as Paul! What probably made it the most difficult was that the whole thing would swing and move around because it wasn't tethered to the ground or anything. I think if it had been a straight up ladder climb it would have been a lot easier!
Paul helped steady things when I was climbing a lot` <3 We were sore for days after doing this. It was also pretty clear that being tall was a definite advantage in this (with long arms and legs) becuase the slats were pretty far apart.
This is what my arms looked like two days after the Jacob's ladder - it was a very challenging experience!
Charlie was still napping frequently (every 2.5 - 2 hours) during the reunion.
The boys like big fluffy hotel beds.
A fun fountain outside of a cheesecake factory we ate at, in part in celebration of mine and Paul's 4th anniversary.
Charlie did surprisingly well with all the driving we did, as did Rawley.
Stopping at parks to play is important when driving across the country!
The most perfect view Paul and I had from the backseat of the SUV.
Rawley insisted on sitting with grandpa as he watched TV when we went to a Chinese buffet.
Excited about his "special cot"
Charlie didn't start on solid foods until around 6 months, which was a little surprising because Rawley started on them pretty early. I think one really big reason is that Charlie's teeth didn't come in until much later than Rawley's.
I took it upon myself to start giving the boys (all the boys) haircuts. Rawley is still the most difficult one to give a haircut because he moves around so much. Charlie's hair is still pretty thin and is therefore much easier and quicker to cut with the trimmers. Paul's hair takes the longest but isn't too difficult since he gives me suggestions on how to do it as I go :)
He helped the first time with Rawley's to see if we could get an optimum boy's cut.
Rawley loves reading with Aunt Lizzy.
And we love Aunt Lizzy's noodles!
The boys always love to pile on Daddy as soon as he gets home. It's really cute to watch them all crawling and climbing on him, and everyone is pleased to see him.
Rawley modeling my light blocking eye mask XD
This is the little park ranger vest William gave Rawley. Rawley is very excited to use it when we go camping and hiking when the weather warms up!
Things that Rawley loves currently:
His grandparents
His parents
Charlie
Playhouses
Playdates
Toy guns and lightsabers
Sugary food and treats
Having books read to him and songs sung to him
Playdates with other children
Superheroes
"Crafts" of any kind
Dancing all crazy
This was Charlie's first time in his big boy crib instead of his little bassinet.
Both the boys love bathtime, and we generally give them baths together nowadays.
Poor little Charlie was sick and only breathing through his mouth, and we were all having a bit of a hard time of it, but at least baby snuggles are the best <3
Charlie loves the big blanket his Aunt Victoria crocheted for him
The Plains Scottish Festival
We went to a pretty big Scottish festival conveniently located very close to us in Marshall. They have big event grounds there, and William was representing the Buchanan clan/organization at a tent there, so naturally we had to go!
We all like and enjoy bagpipes!
A fencing demonstration. Rawley was interested but wondering why they were using sticks instead of swords.
My Scottish Buchanan clan boys
Some fun sheepherding with border collies
It was super sunny and hot, so what'll you do about all our closed eyes lol. Paul left with the boys kind of early since they were both kind of cranky and needed naps.
One of my favorite parts was little Westie dog races <3
When suddenly - a kilted storm trooper...
My mom and I checked out some Roman soldiers doing various formations
Paul likes to micromanage me when I give him a haircut, but I think he's starting to trust me a bit more now. He has a freak ton of hair when he lets it grow out for a few months!
Charlie likes chewing on green onions (it helps with is teething) but he also makes hilarious faces while munching on them
Parking a slumbering Charlie in the shade while Rawley and I play
These nice firefighters were practicing and spitting water out into the lake from their big hoses. We watched and it was pretty awesome. THEN they called us over and let us control the hoses a bit to spray out some water. It was really fun and nice and Rawley thought it was pretty awesome.
Playing with touch me nots we found by the pathway at the park (there's a park like 5 minutes away from us that's super nice and big, with lots of walking trails. It's a pretty big blessing for all of our family!)
Charlie and Rawley enjoy playing together, particularly now that Charlie is mobile and can crawl around. Rawley is a great and mostly considerate big brother and looks out for Charlie in various ways.
Charlie is often amazed by new-ish people, including my dad (he loves beards too)
We took the boys on an easier, more gentle hike and this time they loved it!
Rawley likes dirt, if you couldn't tell
Do you see the little friend we made?
A founders day celebration thing Marshall had at the community center, with free ice cream, bounce houses, etc.
He fits perfectly in the new entertainment center!
My view when we went running over the summer in the park. I've been getting into fitness now and I've actually been pretty consistent with it for approaching a year now. It's been a little bit hard since we've actually been sick pretty often since we moved here (lots of respiratory illnesses, and I broke out in hives when we first moved in here because our rented townhouse is old and dusty -but that's another story) and the boys benefit from the extra sunshine and physical workout too. Maybe one day I'll have a double stroller so Rawley doesn't have to run beside me, but he actually does a pretty good job when he's rested and fed (we of course stop more often than I would on my own, but it's still good for us, and Charlie loves getting fast rides!)
Rawley likes helping me shop at the local food lion sometimes (it's really nice to have a store so close to the house, but the town of Marshall is so small. Honestly I think Marshall is kind of a perfect little town.)
The view of the mountains and new humane society (where they have horses and donkeys) where I often run to from our house
Rawley was very serious but happy about getting mail from his Aunt Becca.
We took Rawley camping at a campground called Natural Chimneys pretty close to my parents' house in Bridgewater. I've camped there lots of times with the Harrisonburg ward growing up, so it was kind of nostalgic to go back.
The chimney formations in the campground
What Paul woke up to in the morning
We visited grandma Suzie's classroom while we were in Stanardsville to take a look at a "clay festival" that was held in Paul's old high school. It was fun to see and experience, mostly for me, but I think we all had a good time.
Charlie is a little pretentious baby eating this stuff, but he loves it!
Playing with shaving cream on a cookie pan
Slumbering at the park
Sometimes we feed our neighbors' cats
Charlie likes playing with light.
Playing with a fun cloth toy at a friend's house. One thing that has really improved my mood since moving from Utah is frequent playdates with other nice ladies around here. It's nice to have friends and get togethers, both for myself and for the boys (particularly Rawley.) For a number of reasons, it has been easier to make friends here than it was at BYU (the ward is more established without people moving out every semester/year being a big one) and it's nice to be in a place with a little more variety in the kind of people than there was at BYU (mostly just poor, overstressed, kinda depressed students with kids or newlyweds - honestly that was kind of the mix of things where we lived at BYU) but things are better here. We like having a somewhat bigger place than our apartment in Utah, we like living closeish to grandparents, and it's a good area/ward.
Learning letters with alphabet cookies :) Rawley can actually identify probably 10ish letters by sight now and count to 10 (sometimes, haha.) He's a pretty smart and impressive kid and we love him so much!
He's such a little charmer. I frequently tell Charlie I"m gonna steal him away because he's pretty much too cute to bear.
Both boys LOVE the play tent Grandma Suzie got them a couple Christmases ago. Whenever we go into Rawley's room Charlie now always makes a beeline for it and hides out in there XD
He just looked like such a funny little 90's nerd boy on that day!
It's actually pretty nice to go out with these two on occasion to go shopping, etc. Charlie doesn't fuss much at all and likes looking around at people, and Rawley likes helping put things in the cart and up on the conveyor belt when we check out. They are ridiculously good boys and we feel so lucky to have them.
Another shot of a view in Marshall when I've been out running. I've gotten a little out of the habit over the winter since it's been raining a lot lately, but a really nice couple in the ward was downsizing and was giving a bunch of stuff away, and they gave us an elliptical. That's pretty awesome because Paul and I get to work out every day on it whenever we want (and I can workout while still being with the boys.)
Things Charlie likes:
Broadway/operatic singing. He can't get enough of Daddy singing in particular, and it's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen. He likes it when I sing too, but he will just stare at Paul and whine a little bit sometimes until he sings to him. Charlie also likes music from any source, like a phone or TV and will always cue into where music is coming from.
Solid food. He's been gradually rejecting baby food altogether which has us scrambling to figure out what to feed a kid without his molars yet!
Things that light up and make noise generally
Rawley. Charlie always, always keeps tabs on what Rawley is doing and crawls around after him, and laughs and giggles at whatever he does. It's super precious
He's just barely starting to seem to try repeating words that we're saying. I'm not gonna say that he's said his first word yet officially, but he might've kinda said Dada, go, and "do that"
Charlie likes car rides. He just stares out the window and is totally entranced, or he falls asleep very soundly.
He loves Mama and Dada. He's not so attached to us as to cry or whine when someone else is holding him or anything, but it's clear he loves us a lot. This is especially obvious when Paul comes home from work and Charlie has a very sudden positive change in his mood and always makes a beeline straight for Daddy.
Dogs. Charlie really loves Grandma Suzie's dog Tira, and I think she's the only dog he's ever really encountered. He just crawls around and follows her and tries to pet her.
In the summer and fall we had a lot of fun playing soccer in the field next to our townhouse. Charlie just sat in the shade in his stroller and watched pretty happily. Pre-schools are pretty expensive here, so it looks like we probably won't be enrolling Rawley in a preschool (unless we start up a free joy school with some of the moms or something), but we did sign Rawley up for rec league soccer in the spring and I think that will be an absolute blast for him!
Trying on Uncle William's hats
Enjoying a little outing as a family in Marshall to a park
I'm pretty sure Paul is never more attractive than when he's being an amazing dad ;)
I'm pretty sure this was for Victoria's birthday; we went to Brad and Debbie's house and launched some paper lanterns which was pretty cool!
Rawley trying on a hat we got for Paul for a big event we had coming up
This cat, named Jorah, played a pretty prominent part in our lives starting about 3 months after we moved in here. He was a stray cat that seemed very friendly, but we quickly realized that he would act very friendly and then suddenly bite and/or scratch out of the blue. Now, I love cats, but this started to be a pretty serious problem and we quickly stopped petting him. Then, he attacked Paul from behind after Paul pet him, and Paul got worried maybe the cat had rabies because his behavior was totally unreasonable. So we had him caught by animal control (after Paul caught him in a box with some chicken) and they quarantined him to see if he had rabies. He didn't so they put him up for adoption. Then.. our neighbors, who had been feeding him, went and adopted him from the humnane society. However, he was still running around biting people in the neighborhood as an outdoor cat and generally causing a nuisance, so after a number of months our neighbors put him back up for adoption which was really the right call since he kept kind of terrorizing us when we'd leave our house and stuff, and he'd even jump up into our open car sometimes and stuff but then attack us if we tried to take him out. Hopefully he found a nice farmer to adopt him as a barn cat or something!
Another thing we like about Virginia (particularly this area) is that they have a pretty nice parks and recreation department it seems. In the fall they put on a fall festival thing that was pretty cheap, and at it they had various rides and fun activities like a mini ferris wheel, inflatables, and a train taking people all around the park, and even a field filled with inflatable toys. Rawley had a total blast! And unlike in Utah where everything cheap/free for kids to do was always too busy to even bother going, this wasn't too busy at all and had just the right amount of kids there.
Grand Caverns Grand Illumination Victorian Ball
In October, Paul and I went to a Victorian ball held in Grand Caverns. He and I had both been there before on school field trips growing up, but this time we did it all legit and in costume. It was fun to dress up like this!
This is reminiscent of the picture I have of Paul pumping gas in his tux at my high school prom, except this time we have the addition of carseats in the back XD
Go figure, my dress and cloak got really dirty by the end of the night dragging on the dirt floor, but they looked fabulous.
Part of the tickets included a candlelit tour which highlighted some of the Victorian era events that happened at the cave. They actually used to host big balls like the one we attended, and of course the only lighting would have been candlelight at the time.
Everything is cooler and more romantic in candlelight!
They had candles lit along the path as well as tons of candles in the main ballroom/dance area (they really call it the ballroom in the caverns as it was where they historically held the balls)
In the ballroom they had traditional Victorian dancing which was directed by a group that reenacts balls like this and had a "dance caller" directing us with what to do. We caught on pretty quickly and we learned a lot of really fun dances! Honestly, I can say it was one of the most magical and cool things I've ever done.
We went to a Halloween festival they had in Manassas. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the most fun or best planned activity we've ever been to, but it was fun to go with Grandma Larsen.
We actually carved pumpkins instead of just painting them this year! Rawley thought that was super super cool. He also loves, loves, loves Halloween, which in my opinion is in very good taste :)
Charlie thought the pumpkins were interesting, and then that he could take a bite out of it.
I don't even know/remember why he's only wearing underwear haha.
Rawley liked the candy the best, and his skeleton costume. He was a big fan of trick or treating and that people just gave him candy (Paul took him trick or treating while I stayed with Charlie and handed out candy to the kids who came. It was fun since we haven't lived in a neighborhood that got a lot of trick or treaters like that before.) Rawley insisted on being a spooky skeleton because he said you have to be something spooky for Halloween and not something cute.
Charlie made the perfect little cute puppy despite Rawley's assertion that Halloween costumes should be scary
Paul inspecting the loot
Paul started using his 3D printer that his dad gave him as a graduation present. He's been having a lot of fun finding stuff to print, and I've been painting some things he's printed off and on.
Charlie really loves cuddles. He is far more cuddly than Rawley ever was at any point, but even now that Charlie can move around and get places he still loves getting cuddles and we love it too <3
We voted! I hadn't voted locally for a while (I know, I know, I should've been voting in Provo but the logistics of that were tough and I kinda still wanted to stay registered in Virginia because I was hoping we'd move back after we graduated.) We actually walked with the boys all the way to the polling place in Marshall just for fun.
Rawley is impressively sweet with Charlie <3
Haircuts again!
Soft little baby hair
They put up fun displays on the side of a little fancy cafe/grocery store in Marshall that we like to walk to sometimes
Air mattress time
Hanging out with Victoria before she left for Wales to live with her husband
The first snow of the season! Rawley was pretty psyched about it.
All the baby cuddles!
You might think, why do they have a picture of a dishwasher? But this machine has been a pretty big deal to us, since we haven't had a dishwasher for our whole married life, and we still didn't have one in this townhouse either. So I found a used portable one for a good price and it has really upped our game as far as getting dishes done. It's pretty great to have a much cleaner kitchen!
Charlie "helping" with laundry
I had a fun time doing a craft fair in November. It was really nice of various family members of ours to stop by! It was an interesting experience and I was grateful for everyone's help.
Thanksgiving with the Risk great grandparents and others was a good time! It's nice to spend time with family.
Because Chick fil A makes everyone super happy! But Grandmas are guaranteed to bring joy <3
Hiking in the Shenandoah park. It's definitely one of our favorite places (Paul even asked me on our first date to go hiking to a waterfall in the park, so it has a lot of historical significance to us as well)
Christmas tree! We got it from a little mom and pop grocery in Marshall. It's the first time I'd had a real tree since I was about 5 years old
Rawley was very excited about all the possibilities Christmas offered, and the tree and lights.
Unwrapping ornaments, which are mostly mine from growing up
Charlie really liked the tree, but mostly because he wanted to chew on everything on it. We were very smart when we thought to put the tree on a table so Charlie couldn't completely wreck it.
Rawley is always interested in what Paul is 3D printing
Charlie started crawling for the first time a little bit before Christmas, and now in mid February he's starting to stand on his own for fairly long stretches.
All of the supports ripped off of a print Paul did
Charlie caught RSV and had to have special treatments through a machine that made medicinal mist come out. It seemed to help a lot and we're glad he ended up okay because he was scarily sick for a little while. We've unfortunately caught a lot of illnesses
It is fairly frequent that I am exceedingly grateful for modern medicine. Particularly with a young baby in the house. Charlie got sick a good number of times this fall and winter, but between my breastmilk and medicine he's done pretty well. Thank goodness I'm finally done pumping milk for him though! It's so time consuming and not very fun, but it's good for his health and development in various ways.
Paul picked up a lot of fun Filipino food from a market they have in Manassas where he works. I was quite pleased and it was fun to remember all the great flavors from my mission.
He also approves of Filipino treats :)
\Marshall has a yearly Christmas parade! Rawley and I had fun attending it - Rawley's only been to one other parade and I don't think he remembers it well so this was a cool experience for him.
Rawley was pretty interested in the band. I asked him later if he wanted to grow up to play in a band like that in high school, and he said, "No, I want to grow up to paint clay like you." I told him he could do band AND paint clay since they're not actually real jobs, more like hobbies. He thought that sounded alright.
They like playing in the tent together and it's super precious.
Rawley was very proud that he put this puzzle together with some help.
Playing at a friend's house
Hanging out with Daddy at the doctor. I think they were there because Paul had had a raspy cough for a couple months.
Christmas 2019
We had Christmas Eve at Lizzy's house. She made a lot of yummy niblets and bites for us to eat while we hung out and watched Christmas movies and listened to the traditional Scrooge recording Paul's family always has listened to for Christmas.
Charlie was only interested in Scrooge if he had milk coming his way.
Opening a few presents with family
Christmas morning <3 My parents stayed with us Christmas eve and into Christmas day.
Charlie really likes the octopus his Aunt Becca made for him.
Arguably one of Rawley's favorite presents was these Spiderman PJ's Santa brought him.
I made cornish hens for Christmas dinner with my mom's and Debbie's help. I definitely needed their help too! I didn't quite realize juts how long it takes to properly prepare poultry for a big dinner like that (especeially for a lot of people.) On the bright side, despite them looking a little burnt, they actually tasted amazing and were very crispy and well done.
My mom took myself and Rawley to see the Manassas lights and it was quite fun. We liked seeing all the displays. Rawley was really tired after an exciting Christmas day so he fell asleep for about half of it, but he liked what he was awake for!
Lookin' like Dopey from Snow White XD
Charlie wasn't especially pleased with the addition of the baby gates, but we were very pleased, especially so he now doesn't climb up the stairs or go out into the kitchen and eat crumbs to choke on that Rawley has dropped.
90's boy band style
Because the boys always pile on Daddy when he gets home.
Rawley really likes playing in the snow! And he loves playing with Daddy in particular
We made this cool cat snowman, but then the neighborhood kids came and knocked it down very soon after we built it :(
Watching Star Wars for the first time. We don't normally eat in the living room but this was a special occasion.
They had ice skating at the park that's 5 minutes up the road. Rawley thought it was pretty fun!
Rawley likes to help me when shopping, and both these boys always charm half the store by the time we leave
Charlie and Rawley really like the jungle gym area at one of our friend's houses! And I love hanging out with the other moms and ladies in the ward. We've met a lot of great people here in the Warrenton area.
Holding hands in the backseat. I'm so glad these two love each other. Charlie really looks up to Rawley, and Rawley is quite considerate of Charlie and loves him a lot too.
Practicing letters! Rawley drew a few of those
Charlie's a cute little muncher and he eats best when he's sitting next to Rawley and watching him eat.
Bakery trip <3 I used to say I wanted to live in the countryside, but now I'm reconsidering the benefits of living in a small town and being able to walk places. It's more fun than driving and good for all of us to get out and get a bit of exercise.
Playing the Beatsaber game at our friend's house
He often just hangs out there at the gate while I'm cleaning and cooking in the kitchen. I think he thinks he can slide through the slats but he's too chunky and big :)
I dyed my hair red! I really like it. I told Paul that I want to do more beauty oriented things now that I'm not pregnant or pumping milk, because those 21 months are kind of hard to give myself in such a physical way to the literal growing and then nourishing of our kids. I know lots of moms live for that experience, but mostly I'm just glad for the product of the efforts - two happy, healthy, boys, and now I'm excited to have my body be totally mine for a while!
We celebrated Charlie's first birthday with my parents because my mom's birthday is just three days before Charlie's.
Charlie hadn't eaten anything with refined sugar in it before, so he was pretty interested and excited about the cake he got to eat.
He enjoyed little bits of ice cream too!
Totally toasted, and totally pale.
Having fun with Grandma Debbie!
Charlie loves sticking his hands in people's mouths. I don't let him do it to me but Paul lets him do it all the time. Maybe Charlie will grow up to be a dentist ;)
Helping Daddy fix his computer monitor
Practicing writing
A fun birthday present from great grandma and grandpa Risk!
Charlie LOVES Tira. He's pretty interested in animals generally.
Paul and I went on another winter hike in Shenandoah, and we saw some awesome ice formations where water normally just seeps out of the rocks.
This was fascinating - little ice crystal spaghetti-like strands had pushed their way out of the ground, I guess because there was some water running along large parts of the backcountry trail we were hiking.
Trail spaghetti?? We hadn't ever seen anything like it before.
I'm pretty sure we crossed various streams like 8 times over the course of the hike, but it was beautiful!
A big ole' tree had fallen over the trail at one point
Do we go over it? Or around it? (Paul went over and I went around, haha)
More weird ice formations
It's always nice to get out together, and it's so great that we have shared interests like hiking and being outdoors.
Rawley was so excited that Grandma Suzie gave him a lightsaber! It belonged to Uncle William but since he didn't want it anymore Rawley was super stoked to get it. He wouldn't stop talking about it for like a whole week before we went to Suzanne's to go get it and go on a hike.
The moon was particularly huge that day, although you can't totally tell from the picture
Opening a present from Popop (Brad) and Grandma Debbie
Pleased with his lighsaber
Drinking from a cup for the first time... he though it was pretty funny
Charlie really loves snuggles, particularly right after he wakes up from a nap
Paul 3-D printed this Wonder Woman for a friend of ours and I painted it. It's fun to create stuff together!
Charlie got pretty sick a week ago and was waking up and refusing to go to sleep and just inconsolably crying in his crib, so we took him out and he was only happy with us. And if one of left the room he'd start crying again, so we just hung out until 2 am when he finally decided to go to sleep... but at least he was happy and cheerful when he was with us!
The littlest Padawan XD
Rawley wanted to hold Charlie and Charlie enjoyed it and just snuggled with him for a couple minutes <3
In conclusion, we're doing pretty well here. It's nice being more settled now, and it's very nice to not be students anymore and have a little more money and Paul doesn't have homework which is great. Things are good and we are blessed.
No comments:
Post a Comment