NCSU and HNT

dad and i had a little fun with holly and the camera... yes, i did say dad and i. (by the way, holly will smile now... that last picture - that is coming off of a HUGE smile - intentional smile, not gas smile!) and this outfit is a hand me down from melissa. all her kids wore it! GO PACK!

play date with kate

"HI!"

holly is wearing the hat aunt melissa made her for christmas!

we went to the kiwanis park in wake forest last friday afternoon after a long cold week. it was only 50 degrees out, but we had to get some sun!!!

the ladies man

just a quick story... today i was on the way home from the grocery - sitting at the stoplight, i was in the turn lane, about a half-car length ahead of the car beside me (in the straight lane). kendal was in the backseat. i looked in my rear view mirror (which never looks out the back of my car - it is on my kids faces) and noticed kendal playing peekaboo out to the side of his carseat towards holly's seat. well, holly wasn't in the car, she was home with her dad. so i peeked out the side of the car and saw a very attractive young woman (early 20's) playing peekaboo with kendal from her car.

my new favorite channel

back when we switched from cable to satellite, we got all the movie channels for free... for about 3 months. we actually were quite disappointed in the movie selection avaliable on the channels, which included all the HBOs, Cinemaxs, and STARs (several channels of each). this past weekend, for some reason we got HBO and cinemax again for free (just for the weekend). anyway, while we watched several good movies like Juno (and some not so good like an old 1980s movie with fred savage called the wizard), we re-discovered the independant film channel. we've always had this channel but for some reason we just forgot about it. anyway for the past 5 days, we've both watched several movies and documentaries. the funniest was a documentary titled BaadAsssss cinema (blaxploitation was what it was called in the documentary). no kidding. we turned the channel and there was a black - american woman with no shirt on (this is mid 70's vintage), the next scene was a naked black man from behind (saw his butt). not that there is anything wrong with the color of their skin, but what was weird was that this was showing at 7pm - prime time! and this was not a channel that we have to pay for. nathaniel recently watched a movie called 11:14 which i didn't see, but i do want to... last night, i watched most of dreamers for the second time (rented it a long time ago when i had netflix). this is a weird movie set in paris where twin brother and sister are lovers... and they include an american boy in their "play." (have i mentioned many of the films are rated MA? they are good movies, great cinematography, so good that you hardly realize it is so explicit... although this one was just creepy because of the whole brother sister thing.) american splendor is on right now. i almost forgot how much i both loved and hated that movie. the whole movie is kinda drab to me, i didn't get into it the first time i saw it (i think i actually slept through it the first few times i tried to watch it), but in it are some great one liners... like as the main character, harvey pekar (who is a middle-aged man, who is quite unattractive, dumpy looking...) looks at himself in the mirror says outloud "Well, there's a reliable disappointment." speaking of great one liners... i noticed that 2 nights ago, CLERKS was on IFC at midnight... too bad my baby care shift takes over at 2am... i could have watched it! (randal graves~ "Oh, no no, it's cool, I'm taking it back. " - which is not from the first clerks, there are actually three of them!)) fargo comes on tonight at 9:45. i will try to watch it, but i'm sure i'll not make it past 10:30. no worries, nathaniel... at 4:30 on sunday, GERRY comes on again. this time maybe i'll get to watch it!

DUDE the faucet is on...

i couldn't which of these comics was funnier at describing what started with me this morning about, eh, 6am. yesterday my throat hurt (thought it was from snoring, turns out it is some drainage...). this morning, though... uugh. i've already added 2 boxes of tissues to my today's shopping list. boy i hope holly doesn't get this!

well lick my ear and call me funky!

i need to thank dad for going up into the attic of the barn to find the sled. boy are these sleds old, and just holding it brought back memories. back when they were new, they had handles on the sides and two of us could fit in one sled (of coarse being younger, we were smaller too). now the sled has nearly dry-rotted into shreds, but... it lasted one more winter. we had these orange sleds when i was growing up... melissa and i each had one, we'd run up to the top of the hill behind our house and get a running start (or sit and push off), jump over "kitty litter hill", then see how fast we could get between there and the barn, at which point we'd have to make a hard left or we'd crash into it... and then we would have to sink our feet into the ground or else we'd end up in the creek. that ususally wasn't a problem but i can remember one winter that it snowed and then iced which made it hard for us to plow into... (by the way, "kitty litter hill" was the spot where we always dumped the litter boxes, back in the day of clay non-clumping litter that you didn't just scoop to clean. we'd dump it there and in time a huge mound was created... the mound became more of a linear form, and anyway it became a bump on our sled route! -this hill is still there, although smaller, and grass and trees are growing on it.) that sled was fun to have back then, and it seemed fun to have today. i wish i could have participated in it a little more today, but someone had to stay with the baby! maybe in the morning i can have a go on her... here is kendal's first reaction to the snow. well, its not his first reaction, but his first reaction to RIDING on the snow. anyway, here are a few pics from today.

nathaniel and kendal walking back into the woods.

nathaniel said "boy i wish i could ride on this thing!" with aprehension on whether or not it could take the weight of a grown man (did i mention it was in near shreds?) i said "well get on it, if it breaks we will just have to buy a new onw. kendal can sit in your lap!"

here are the results:

unfortunately i was inside while taking these photos, holly was hungry... i did see nathaniel walk back up the hill at least 3 more times. i guess it was fun. in all they were outside for about 30 minutes. kendal's fingers and ears were still warm when he came in! yay for dad! (ps if you didn't "get" my title, it is a quote from the movie "snow day")

proof

well please ignore the fact this may be the worst picture EVER of me... as i had been with 2 kids... alone... all morning - no caffeine, no food, no shower, and little sleep the night before (kendal has some congestion that keeps him up coughing, plus holly had her "awake time" between 4 and light). but anyway, here is my kids' proof that they were there... although it was on TV and not in person.

Holly's first trip to the Tea Room!

This past Saturday, Mom and Kate invited me (and Holly, not Kendal!) to join them on a mother-daughter date with family friends Paulette and Lauren (haha - it turned into a triple M-D date!) to Wake Forest's Old English Tea Room. We all had a great time, Holly slept through the meal and between lunch and dessert, I ordered her a cup of hot water (to warm her bottle) and she ate... then kept on sleeping. we stayed forever because we talked and talked and talked! You know, some friends you can just do that with... and Lauren and Paulette are two of those kinds of friends! Plus there was a lot to catch up on... engagements, babies, jobs, etc. :)

Lauren and Kate snuggling with Holly. (Everyone has red cheeks because it was hot in there!)

Aunt Kate and Holly in the after tea bliss...

...What Holly looked like for most of the visit! Can you see her brain???

Holly's Tea Time

Holly's seat at the big table!

(again, these pictures are posted in reverse order! sorry!)

uncle mart

you'd think with a half a dozen neices and nephews that this man would know how to hold a baby! :) welcome to our family, soon-to-be-officially-uncle-mart!

Old Man

Old man take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you were. -Neil Young

Kendal's first bubble bath!

I'm sure you're wondering why I waited this long to give Kendal a REAL bubble bath... But, since he comes from a long line of folks with sensitive skin, I wanted to make sure he'd be ok in such soapy waters! We went to Whole Foods the other day to get Holly some Gripe Water and while I was browsing the baby section, I noticed some banana scented bubble bath. Well, we just had to get it. It was for "sensitive skin." So, the next night was bath night... we filled the small tub with hot water and bubbles, I got in, Kendal got in.. and the fun began! Actually, he didn't really like it as much as I expected. He doesn't like to get his hands dirty, so the bubbles sticking to his hands was kinda like "dirt" which made for some interesting drama in the tub. But after a while, he started to play, but by then I was getting cold! Anyway, here is the footage! (incidentally, these photos are in reverse order. so if you look at them that way, you can kinda see the "i'm not sure about this!" to the "this is fun!")

Kendal and Holly - Love at First Sight!

All he wants to do to her is open mouth kiss her. and grab her, and hug her, and squeeze her... and take her pacy!

have i mentioned she looks like her brother?

the humming harmonica

everything is explained on the video...

kendal's favorite "toy" - unplugged!

kendal discovered my computer keyboard and mouse. i made the mistake of letting him sit in my lap one day... while i was typing. so, now that is what he wants to play with and he gets mad when i won't let him. and i used to just unplug the wireless adapter and set it on the floor for him, but now that isn't good enough either. he literally wants to sit in the chair, and he knows when it is unplugged. it isn't as fun when it is unplugged. so anyway, here are some cute photos of him on the keyboard. look at those little fingers on the mouse! isn't that cute???

colts vs chargers

couple of weeks ago nathaniel said to me "make sure kendal wears his chargers jersey today" and then... "and take some pictures of it so i can send them to steve" luckily the chargers won that game (agst the colts)... but then they lost the next one. kendal didn't wear his jersey the second game, maybe he was good luck the first game. steve gave him the jersey.

jan 1st - gabe's birthday

kendal (15.5 months) and gabe (2 years) playing on the floor

back on jan 1st, we (as always) go to washington for a birthday party. we will never forget when gabe was born.. and i won't soon forget when gary called me either (to tell me he was born) because he was a month early! i know emily wasn't ready! anyway, these pictures are both from emily as i didn't even take my camera out that day... but, i had to share them to make my january pictures complete! these moments were too sweet not to share!

kendal really tried to steal kisses from samantha (23 months i think). really. nathaniel said he cruised over to her, grabbed her collar, and open mouth kissed her face! yea. he got his dad's smooth moves, eh?