Go Rams!

Fielder helped cheer on the VCU Rams last night as they won the CAA Championsip!!!

Hurricane Samara Jane

Let me just say, hat's off to all the parents of 3 or more....I don't know how you do it?! Last Thursday I babysat for Samara from 7 until Mom came to take over and then I left for work. I was pretty proud of myself - all 3 kids were fed, happy, and somewhat entertained!

Even though it was a crazy day, I loved having some time with Samara. Here are the girls dancing together. Claire was very sweet and helpful with her cousin.


I love this girl!! (She was having a very serious tea party)


I even managed to get outside for a walk and try out the double jogger. (I had Fielder in the Moby taking his nap.) Phew, that was HARD work! Luckily it was a beautiful day and the girls had fun kicking their feet, laughing, and "talking" with each other. Samara pointed out every single bird, dog, and cat saying "oh WOW!"

Meredith stopped by as my "reinforcement" for the lunch hour. I was worried about how I would get Fielder down for a nap and keep an eye on the girls. Thanks Mere! (Again, how do parents of 3+ do it??) Samara ate a good lunch and left a nice mess for Charlie to clean up later.

After lunch, it was time to switch off to Mom and I left for work. From what I heard, it was Fielder that caused all the trouble in the afternoon!

My dad likes to affectionately call Samara "Hurricane Samara Jane" - but that night, it was Claire that caused all the mess!! I accidentally let Claire keep 2 pieces of styrofoam in her room. (I just didn't realize she still had them.) By the morning they were completely shredded to bits and COVERED her entire room and she was spreading them all through the house. A crazy way to end a crazy day!

It's winter after all!

After all this springy weather, I have to admit that I was a party pooper and was not too excited about the idea of snow....but Sunday night it started snowing and it was beautiful! It didn't really start sticking until we were getting Claire ready for bed (had I known, I probably would have just let her stay up late and play outside). The next morning though, she came downstairs at 7 on the dot and we were out the door by 7:15! Daddy stayed inside with Fielder and luckily he slept until 8 so it worked out perfectly. Claire was so excited....if only I were a bit more prepared. Neither of us had appropriate snow gear. She is wearing the SAME COAT as she did in 2009....seriously!! That is really sad. We did have a larger coat (that is still too small) but she insisted on the blue one. Her snow pants are too short, her boots too small, and no real snow gloves, but we made do and went out to play anyway!


Pretty soon there were kids on our street out sledding. Of course, she doesn't have a sled (if I didn't even have boots and clothes for her, do you really think I would have a sled?!) but one of the little girls let her take a few rides. It was so cute and very sweet of the friend! I wasn't sure how she would feel about going so fast, but she LOVED it!

I didn't want to hijack her sled the whole time so I had a brilliant idea of finding something that might work....like the top to our ladybug sandbox. I swear, one day Claire is going to look back at this and be like "MOM. Seriously? You couldn't have bought me a $5 plastic sled? That is so embarrassing."

(It didn't really work by the way.)

I promise, I am going to the store and buying this girl some snow gear ASAP.


The weather has warmed up and most of the snow has melted, but the advantage to having such a shady yard is that we still have snow! Today while Fielder was napping inside, I let Claire play out on the deck. This was both a really lazy and really great idea! Claire had fun, Fielder napped, and mommy could enjoy her lunch while watching Claire out the window :-) Win-win.

Ok, that was fun....now bring on SPRING! :-)

Happy Valentines Day!

We started off Valentine's morning with some gifts (thanks Mary Lynn & Mimi!!!) And of course some pictures...

We did a few poses with Claire's Valentine bear

(Fielder was getting tired and just not feeling the love)



Unfortunately the rest of Valentine's day was not especially fun for Claire - a doctor's appointment and x-ray (long story but nothing too serious). We were so incredibly proud of her - she was the best she has ever been for a doctor and never cried at all. She was really brave for her x-ray and was a trooper for what could have been a very loooooong day.

We love our little valentines!! YYY

Valentine's Preschool Party

I was a "room mom" for the preschool Valentine's party again this year and it was SO MUCH better than last year!!
I think Claire really enjoyed me being there and Fielder was really good the whole time. Not the best pictures in the world, but here they are! Claire had so much fun when we got home opening all her valentines :-)

3 months

I haven't been very good lately with taking pictures and putting them on the blog, but Fielder turned 3 months on Friday so I had to get his picture taken :-) It's fun to compare his pictures and to see the changes! He is such a sweet, snugly boy! We still aren't on a very predictable schedule, but I can see one starting to take place. Most nights are pretty good (asleep between 8:30 and 10, waking up once to nurse, and up around 7 or 8 for the day) but that is certainly not set in stone! He is very social and loves to smile and coo at us. He especially likes to watch his sister and smile at her! He can roll from front to back and loves to lay in his crib looking at the mobile just like Claire used to do. (That mobile was worth every penny!!!)

Springtime in February??

It was the first day of February - and 70 degrees!! I packed up the kids and went over to Samara's backyard for a playdate. Claire was so excited to see the sailboat that Uncle Andy had built in the backyard - it's made from an old wheelbarrow. He's so creative!!



Claire had fun playing - and Samara sat in her swing for a whole hour. At first we thought she just really wanted to swing, but then we realized she didn't want Claire to have the swing so she was camping out!

Fielder "supervised" :-)