Dick and Jane

Isaac absolutely loves it when Noah reads to him!

It's the best kind of bedtime story!

Screwdrivers and Electronics

Anytime Matt's toolbox comes out, the boys come running!

Here are two projects that the boys recently helped with:

Matt was putting together a back-up server for a client, and the boys were fascinated with the process

Noah slid the hard drive into the box

then used Daddy's special screwdriver to screw it in

Then, the boys helped remove some old telephone equipment from under Daddy's desk in the office

which meant unscrewing lots of screws

Isaac is great with tools too!  He's left-handed and figures out a way to do everything that Noah is doing.

Washer Helpers

We recently needed to buy a new washing machine, and we bit the bullet and bought the matching dryer too.

We didn't anticipate that it would bring so much excitement to the house, though!

The boys pull up chairs and watch the washer go around and around.

Noah is the "washer helper" and Isaac is the "dryer helper."  They each load and unload their respective machines and push the buttons to get their machine running.

When the machines are done, they play music.  We love it!  We run into the laundry room and dance.

For Mother's Day at preschool, Noah was asked a few questions about me for a project.  When he was asked, "What does your Mommy like to do?"  He answered, "She likes to do the laundry."

I would have never said that's true in the past, but at least for now, it is fun to do laundry with these new machines.

Playing Together

Daddy Time

Travelling with Kids

We felt like our trip to New York and Washington, DC was a great success.  The boys' ages of 2.5 and almost 5 were good for travelling.  Many of our pictures were to document them being in front of famous landmarks because we know they won't remember in the future.

One thing that made our travelling easy was the single jogging stroller with the glider board behind.  Here, Noah is standing on the glider board.  It was a great way to navigate city streets and trains.

We packed lots of little "treasures" that we could pull out when needed, but there was always so much going on that we rarely used them

Of course, Baby traveled with us!

One thing we quickly found was that naps can and should be encouraged any time and anywhere.  Here is Isaac snoozing on the Lanigan's couch as the other boys watched a movie.

Look at those cheeks!

Noah adamantly insists that he is NOT tired and DOES NOT need to take a nap...

Noah snoozing in the car on the way to New York City

Trevor pushes the stroller with the glider board

Isaac snoozes in the car...

Isaac insists he is NOT tired...

Noah snoozes on the train...

Our arrival in Washington, DC

One of my favorite pictures of the whole trip...Isaac fell asleep so hard that we changed him into his pajamas and brushed his teeth without waking him up.  That never happened before, even when he was an infant!  Here he is with his face covered in chocolate ice cream...

Isaac, how old are you?

Noah, how old are you?

At one point, both boys insisted that they could no longer walk, so Matt carried Noah while Isaac rode on his shoulders.  They were all so tired!  Noah could not take one further step until he spotted Grammy in the distance.  Then, he got down and ran and skipped the whole way, shouting "Grammy!  Grammy!"

I wanted to get a picture of the boys at the WWII Memorial, but Noah is saying, "I can't sit next to Isaac!  He has a poopy diaper!"

"Oh Mommy!  I can't sit next to him!"

We had a suite at the Hyatt in Bethesda, and that gave us plenty of room to spread out and relax in the evenings

Whew!  A great tip!  We're looking forward to many more fun trips in our future.  Travelling with kids is fun, as long as you keep a sense of humor about it!

Family Fun

It was great fun to meet in Washington, DC.  Here's some family pictures from along the trip:

Our hotel had elevators that were fun for the boys.  Of course, they pretended that they were blasting off in a rocket ship every time we went for a ride!