"I wanna watch a show!"

This last weekend was huge for a lot of reasons. Sterling Henry still sleeps in a crib, which I love and hope he will FOREVER! He has never attempted to climb out. On Saturday however, we put him to bed only to see him reappear 45 minutes later. He not only climbed out of his crib, but now can open doors... GREAT! He sat down on the couch and announced, "I wanna watch a show!" You betcha! He had this smile on his face that was priceless.
He still has been going down at nights and still naps but it is a bit alarming to know that he can get out. I knew this day would come. I had just hoped that is would be when he was 7 or 8.

We also got together with good friends who were in town for the weekend. The Wheatleys and the Hatches.

Boy shot.

Girl shot. (I don't feel like a giant around my girlfriends, but whenever I see a picture of us, I realize that I sort of am...)
Great weekend minus the the crib issue.

THANKSGIVING DAY CELEBRATION

We had a great Thanksgiving this year. We spent it with friends and had DELICIOUS food. We ate a 1pm which I thought was perfect. We had the rest of the day to sit and talk and make room for pie.

Here is some of our feast.

Sterling Henry was being such a pill about taking this picture. He sat up to eat before anyone. He was HUNGRY, as you can probably tell.

I made mashed potatoes, a lemon sour cream pie, and these delicious place setting treats. I think that sour cream lemon might be my new favorite pie. I was really happy with how the pilgrim hats turned out and they were really tasty!
Sterling's sister Rachel delivered her little baby girl, Norah Jane yesterday. We can't wait to meet her at Christmas!

We sure have a lot to be thankful for in our family.

Thank You!

I have so much to be thankful for today.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Fort Washington

I am so happy to be married to someone that is so adventurous and fun. I would never do half of the things that we do on my own. Sterling is so good and planning things and following through with them.

On Saturday we went to Fort Washington. It is something that we have wanted to see for a while. The day was beautiful and after spending the morning/afternoon in our pajamas, we got ready for the day and headed out. Sterling Henry especially loved spending the time with his dad running around outside. We wore him out!

Outside the fort. This is a drawbridge... very cool!


The fort is right on the Potomac and has a beautiful view.

Our little growing family.

Me and my boys. They had all these cool underground tunnels.

The sunset was unreal.

Sterling x 2.
I love day trips and love living in an area where there is more to do than we have time for!

BOY TIME

By the time dad gets home from work, Dellin is already in bed. Sterling Henry usually stays up and watches Nascar with dad while dad eats his dinner. The other night Dellin would not go to sleep so we busted him out and let him partake in our nighttime white-trash dinner with dad. Of course we pulled his highchair over and let him eat with the boys as well.

He loved it.

Nascar really brings families together!

Sometimes they switch out Nascar for sharks or a sweet dinosaur show. My boys have got it good.

WEEKEND FUN!

The only thing better than going to the zoo is going to the zoo two days in a row and dad coming along the second time. Friday and Saturday were both so beautiful so we spent the day enjoying the weather.

The boys with the flamingos. The flamingos at the zoo are probably one of my favorite things. They make LOTS of noise so naturally Sterling Henry loves them too.



We usually go in the morning and the cheetah is never out. We got to see him Saturday afternoon. Sterling Henry loved it.

This is my favorite sign at the zoo. I always forget my camera but made sure to grab a picture this time. Aggressive Cranes... YIKES!

The boys watched lot of Nascar together. Dellin makes this face almost every time I take his picture now. Love it.

And this is the boys this morning in their new matching cowboy shirts and new haircuts. They really are the cutest!
Great weekend with dad. We look forward to lots more!

"I'm standing and I can't get down!"

I really love this stage. Dellin is such a crack-up right now. He pulls up to stand on everything and then can't get down. So he either screams till I come and get him, or he falls. We are working on trying to get down on his own.


I can't believe that this little boy is 9 1/2 months old. Where has the time gone???

Darling boy.

PLEASE COME BACK MOM!

My mom has been here for 11 days and just left yesterday. We had the best time. The boys just love their grandma and really enjoyed spending so much time with her.

Unfortunately we were all sick for 3 days while she was here so we spent a lot of time just hanging out. It was perfect. We did manage to get out and see a few things.

We went to Hillwood estate and gardens. It was founded by Marjorie Merriweather Post—the heiress to the Post cereal empire. Both of her parents died when she was 27 and she became the richest woman in America. Her 3rd husband was the American ambassador to the Soviet Union. They lived over there for a time, and she bought up lots of Russian art, china, and many other beautiful things, that probably would have been destroyed otherwise. She has one of the largest collections of Russian imperial art outside of Russia today. She also had many French pieces as well. We LOVED it!

The backside of her house. The gardens were amazing.

Her husband's daughter lived with them in the Soviet Union and put together an art collection of their time there. They have in displayed in this darling Russian dacha. I loved seeing all the pictures of the people and especially the children. It reminded me so much of my mission.

We hit the Leesburg Outlets while my mom was here and scored these awesome Hot Wheels shirts for $1.50 a piece. Thank you Old Navy Outlet!
Dellin's face in this picture is priceless.

We decorated Halloween sugar cookies.

Jacob and Tyra moved their family to New Jersey this summer. So we've been trying to get up and see them but haven't been able to make it work. We planned to go up for a few days with my mom but then the boys got sick. We did meet them in Lancaster Pa. one day. We had a blast despite the rain. We loved seeing Tyra and the kids.

I've been to Lancaster a few times but this time we went to Amish Village. You get to tour a real Amish home, a school house, farm and many other things. We learned a lot about the Amish people. I highly recommend this tour if you are ever there.
It was hard to say goodbye to my mom yesterday. She makes life so easy when she's around. It is so nice to have someone to talk with all day. We are missing her like crazy but realize that she can't stay with us forever. Thanks Mom for everything. (And thanks Dad for going without her for so long.)

We are looking forward to the holidays when we can see all our family again.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We went to our ward trunk-or-treat last night. We had a blast! Sterling Henry got a kick out of just walking up to people and asking for treats.

I wish I would have had someone take a picture of us with grandma. We are having a blast with my mom here. Lots of pictures to come...

MR. BIGTIME

Dellin is 9 months and pretty much thinks he is BIGTIME. He is the sweetest baby. His smile is contagious.

He is up on his knees crawling like crazy!
He is also our resident troll. He likes to hang out under chairs, tables, and bridges.


We always know where we can find him.

He pulls himself up on everything now and gets stuck constantly. A friend gave us this little table and he has been in heaven.

He is obsessed with his older brother and the affection is most of the time mutual.

We love our little Delli Belly!

I LOVE A GOOD PROJECT!

Sewing has been a bit of a challenge lately. I decided to try out some new things.

I knit know. Ok, so I am clearly an amateur but really enjoying it. I made these two hats and think they turned out pretty cute. I am very happy with the gray one.

I finished the boys Halloween costumes. I think this might be the last year that I can pick out Sterling Henry's costume so they are M&Ms. Cheap, easy, and pretty cute! (Blogger was being ultra annoying and kept turning this picture.)


Oh and the best news of all, my mom comes tomorrow for 11 days... Hooray!

COX FARMS

I have been just dying to get out to Cox Farms, and for one reason or another we haven't made it. This year I prioritized and it was all I hoped it would be and more.

We started out going on the hayride. It was the most random and awesome hayride ever. We saw lots of very unexpected thing including, aliens, Disney characters, The Rugrats, elves, dead presidents, Michael Jackson's grave, dinosaurs and a million other things that I cannot remember. The whole thing was very comical.

One of the aliens...


Sterling Henry was completely freaked out and wouldn't leave my lap!

On their website, it said they had slides. I imagined 2 or 3. They probably have about 25 slides, some big and some small. My family will be happy to know that I went on the big one. Having kids has really helped me grow up and overcome some childhood fears...

I want to build a slide like this.

Jessica wins the prize for funnest mom. She went down with all the kids. No wonder Sterling Henry is obsessed with her.

Lots of live animals to look at and touch. Sterling Henry was completely freaked out by the cow (that you could milk if you wanted too), but loved the little calves. He and Matthew sat here for some time...

Tons of wooden trains to climb on. HEAVEN!

You get a free pumpkin with the price of admission. Sterling Henry loves his pumpkin and was very excited to carry it around.

This picture took a lot of work. For some reason getting all 4 boys to smile, hold their pumpkins, and look at the camera was not happening. Sterling Henry fell back right as I shot this one. Action shots are more real anyway!
If you live in the area, I HIGHLY recommend Cox Farms. They have free apples and all the free apple cider that you can drink from a small Dixie cup. We refilled a LOT!

MY KIND OF WEEKEND

Lazy mornings.

And evening walks around the monuments.






Hope you had a good one too!

Ps. We bought our tickets for Christmas to go home to Utah... YIPEE!

WE LOVE TO PARTY!

Sterling Henry turned 2 on Saturday and boy did we party! We started at 7am with presents. Why not when he wants to play with them all day anyway?!?

Here he is with the gifts and balloons.


More trains. We can never have enough right?!?

A couple of Sterling's buddies have this Matchbox transporter and he is obsessed with it so he got his own. He has played with it non-stopped!

We picked up Maria and Colby, then went to breakfast at the Crackel Barrel and headed out to Manassas Battlefield. Little Man loved the canons.

It's that time of year for apple picking. We went to the cutest orchard that was packed full of people and apples.
Little Man loved to pick apples with dad assisting of course!

It has been so nice but Saturday was HOT. Here with our with all our apples.

I love this picture of my Sterlings.

They had lots of pumpkins. Little Man had a hard time sitting there because there were horses over the fence that he was dying to see.


On Sunday night we had a HUGE birthday dinner for him. Colby and Maria came over to that too. We had all his favorites which include Mac and Cheese, green beans, squash, strawberries, grapes, and bread sticks. We ended the dinner with cookies and ice cream instead of cake. He loved the candles and blew them out. We lost our camera for 3 hours and have NO pictures of dinner or blowing out the candles. You are just going to have to take my word for it that it was awesome and he loved it.

Thanks Colby and Maria for joining us and for the sweet animals and sunglasses. Little Man loves them!

We spent Columbus Day at James Madison's house, Montpelier. It is about 2 hours from our house (with all the stops we made). We had a great day. Montpelier was a beautiful house but a little bare bones on the inside. They just opened it for visitors 4 years ago so they are still working on it. The grounds and surrounding area were amazing.

The backside of the house.

James and Dolley Madison statue. Sterling Henry was a bit freaked out by it. Our stroller is really scary looking in pictures.


Just some of their land... no biggie!

The front of the house.
We had the BEST 3-day weekend. We all woke up this morning exhausted... even our newly turned 2-year-old!