Selling Our House

The day we left for Vegas we put our house up for sale...the second day on the market we got an offer!!!  The appraisal went through this week - so unless something drastic changes we will be closing on our house soon.  Just wanted to give an update.  Will post more soon.  It is scary but I am so excited for all of the changes...

~ Love, Hugs &Kisses ~

 The B Family

Las Vegas!!!!

Will and I spent last week in Las Vegas...for a much needed vacation.  We had such a blast! Our hotel was the Monte Carlo, which was pretty nice. It had good options for food and drinks.  Throughout our time there, we explored several hotels, but we kept ending up at New York, New York (I think we may want to stay there next time)...I also liked Paris.  We went to see a Cirque Du Soleil show called Zumanity.  I will just say that it was very...interesting.  The acrobatics were amazing though!  We originally had plans to see a different show but the times did not work out.

During one of our early morning walks (Will was not understanding that when you stay up extremely late you should sleep in past 6 AM) we went to the M&M store. I fell in love with their new dark chocolate with Raspberry M&M. Delicious!  Especially when accompanied by a glass of red wine.  We called Colin and let him pick his colors. He wanted (of course) Iron Man - red and gold.

We enjoyed a few clubs - acting young again :)  We went to Coyote Ugly, which was OK.  Seems more the style for going out with friends.  Our favorite was Nine Fine Irishmen pub. It had live Irish bands and good beer.  We actually went there a few times.  There was also a girl doing the traditional Irish dance, but I could only see her legs - so it was a headless dancer. Still good and possibly more entertaining that way.

It was fun dressing up and going out...and to just get away.  We had no work deadlines to worry about, no crying babies...just a good time.  We did end up missing the kiddos a lot and were very happy to see their faces at the airport!

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

 The B Family

Quick Picture Update

It has been so busy that I have been horrible at posting pictures of the babies.  Here is a quick look at our sweet little kids the past few months.  Do not worry, I have also been horrible at taking pictures, so not so many. I did not even take my camera with me to Texas.  That is the first trip without it.  I guess that shows I travel a lot. I hated the idea of lugging it out again.  There are more pictures of Mae...Colin has been a little harder to get pictures of lately. Stinker!

Little blue-eyes

We were finally able to celebrate Grandma Liz's birthday.  Meli loves cuddle time with Grandma!

Meli likes to try and sleep on the stairs lately.  Such a unique individual.

Colin showing off his new OSU outfit.

Well need to go pack!  Will and I are going on a vacation sans kids!  Going to miss the little babies, but oh so excited!!

~ Love, Hugs &  Kisses ~

 The B Family

My Sunset Run

Here is a picture during my run last night. Such a beautiful night!

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

Will and I went to Baltimore to see Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at Rams Head Live.  Such a great concert!  Below are some links to a few of her songs.  I love her!  She has so much energy on stage. It was a great night - enjoying some time kid free!

One of my favorite songs - Stars
They ended the night with this song, Paris
I love this one too, Medicine

 ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

Talkative Mae

Mae is just talking up a storm lately.  She has new words each day. Recently she has started saying guin (for penguin), ear, eye, nose hair...she is working on Colin.  She learned Buckey (her aunt and uncles' dog), bite and many more.  When she is in a talkative mood her words seem to go away and she just blabs. Super cute. Below are two videos of Meli.  The first one is of her telling us a story and the second is of her acting like a lion.

I hope everyone has a great Super Bowl day!  GO RAVENS!!!

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

The Kiddos

It has been quite a while since I have posted an update about the babes. So, here you go...Colin and Meli are doing great! Colin had a bout of the flu that has been going around.  Thankfully only one really rough night. Meli (knock on wood) was able to keep the virus at bay. She was teething at the same time, so she kept scaring us with little fevers, but then was perfectly fine the next morning. 

Both kids are at such a fun stage. Well...fun for the most part. Colin is at a phase of asking questions. Who knows when this phase will end. "Ask, ask, and then ask some more" is his motto.His reponse to everything is "why?" Question everything! Our own little Socrates. His questions cover every topic you can pretty much think of: from what things will be like when he is a dad to what happens to Will's tattoo when he is dead. Colin ask about death a lot, which makes sense, since that is such a hard concept to get at any age.  It is hard though, because he does not understand that we may not know something (like when he asks, "Were we dead when the dinosaurs were around?") Trying to explain the concept of he did not exist is super hard. We ended it at a truce... with the explanation that we were little angels waiting up in heaven for our time to be born. This idea of not existing comes up a lot. He asked me the other day, if he was in my belly when I was a kid. I quickly said, "um...no".  So again, he was an angel waiting for mommy and daddy to meet. There are so many more questions, but I will save those for another post.

Well, one more...the other day when we were driving home Colin got very serious. 

Colin: "Mama, I need to ask you something".

Me: "OK" (getting nervous)

Colin: "Well, I was wondering...Will Mae be a mommy when I am a daddy?"

Me (yay not so hard) "Maybe...if she wants to be"

Colin: "no, no, no.  Will she be a mommy when I am a daddy?"

Me: "She can be.  She is a little younger so maybe not at the exact time. But if you both decide to have kids, then yes she will be"

Colin: "Why would we not have kids?"

Me: (Oh no)

The questions he comes up with just blow me away sometimes.  Kids are too funny. 

We have started reading chapter books to Colin.  We wanted to work on his ability to focus and thought that this would be good practice, since there is not that many pictures.  We are reading Snot Stew, a book that I enjoyed as a kid.  So far, Colin is loving it.  I think a big part of what he enjoys is the one-on-one time with one of us.  Right now, I am reading this book - but next Will is going to read him The Wind in the Willows.

 I think the last time I posted about the kids, I may have mentioned that Colin was going through this rough phase of pushing all of the boundaries.  He was not listening and just being straight out defiant.  We started this reward system of having a glass jar that he gets to put these little glass pebbles in.  He earns them by listening the first time or doing nice things without being asked.  It actually has worked fairly well.  When he fills the jar he gets to go to this new frozen yogurt place that opened up near our house. This is something I saw on pinterest.  The pin I saw was using a fish bowl but I bought something smaller.  It would take FOREVER to fill up a fish bowl. One of the things that was emphasized, is that once they earn a pebble do not take it away for bad behavior.

Meli has really transformed to a little toddler. She is acting older with the way she plays and interacts with everyone.  So cute...but so sad at the same time.  She is not my little baby anymore.  Lately, she has been playing a lot with her little tea set. Super cute. I love watching her trying to pour the tea and hand out the cups.  Her favorite part is to stir the tea with her little spoon.  Mae loves it when people pretend to drink it!

Baby girl still loves to dance.  Each week it seems that she has new moves to add to her repertoire. I cannot wait to get her into dance classes.

Her vocabulary has blossomed at well. She just talks and talks.  Most of it is babble but here and there she throws a word in.  There are times when she is saying something that we do not understand. She gets frustrated with us because she knows what she is talking about and thinks we should too. Some of her newer words the past few months are: door, please, thank you, bad, cheese, cookie, turkey, owl, ....and I am failing to remember the rest.

~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

New Floors!!!!

Sorry attempted to do this post on my phone and it published before I was ready.  Anyways, we got new floors installed yesterday!  I just LOVE them!!! The floors turned out perfectly.  It really transformed the three rooms.  We had the main level done (kitchen, living room, entry way and half bath).  The contractor we used did such a good job and at a very reasonable price.  We will definitely consider using him again when we want some tiling done for the backsplash and in the master bathroom.  Next up: either getting our countertops redone or new stainless steel appliances.

Pardon the pictures. They are from my phone and we still need to put things back in their places.

2013 - Off to a Good Start

Besides Colin having the flu this week - life has improved so much in just the first two weeks of the new year. I really hope it stays on this path of moving upward. One can only hope.

One thing Will and I are trying to be better at this year, is making sure we have time to ourselves. Our relationship has definitely taken a backseat to other life priorities at times. This happens to a lot of couples and is something we want to get out of the habit of doing. So to start the year off right, we have plans to go to a concert coming up here soon and we also booked a 3 night trip to Las Vegas!!! We are both super excited. We have both been before but not together. The first time we stayed the night away from Colin was for my 30th birthday this last November. That is really sad. We did things together but were always back in time for bedtime. So, kudos to us for finally planning trips for ourselves...We are working up to Scotland, hopefully next year!

We are also sticking to our new healthy lifestyle. Will is still boxing and doing his workout routine. I split my time between the gym, my shredding video and the same workout routine that Will does. I have to mix it up, otherwise I get bored. Plus, your muscles can get bored too. Sounds weird but I learned that in a sports class. Need to change it up to be the most effective. We can both see a tremendous difference. Will is looking like his early firefighter days and I am the size clothes that I want to be. I am now just working on toning specific areas.
Another new year resolution is to work more on house projects. We got lazy there for a bit.. We have been back and forth with whether we wanted to get a bigger place or maybe even head back west...but we both feel our time on the east coast has not ran its course. Plus, our place is great for us. I would rather have a lower mortgage and be able to do more things. We are also in the city we want to be in. Our house is in a great location. The area is being built up so the property will be worth even more here soon. So here we stay. We are also getting new floors on the main level. We are attacking the things we do not like as much to make it a "longer" B family home. Next will be new counters and appliances!! So exciting.  I am also wanting to start a little garden. Grow my own veggies!

Will and I also decided that we need to work on individual goals, as well as ones together. The boxing was part of Will's list of things to do for himself. I am still working on making mine. Something we are going to do together is to do more outdoorsy things, like kayaking and hiking. Kayaking is more what Will wants to do and hiking more me...great how compromise works - we do both!

What else, what else.  I want to get Meli into dance.  She just loves it so much.  Colin will continue Taekwondo but will probably play soccer again...or maybe tee-ball. We are getting ready for Colin to start Kindergarten this year.  Yikes!!

I think Will and I may try to do something fun and crazy for our birthdays this year.  Both of our 30th's were kind of mild.  We just need to brainstorm!

I am sure I am missing things...

 ~ Love, Hugs & Kisses ~

The B Family

Goodbye 2012

With this post, I am saying my farewell to 2012: the year of many milestone moments and some not so good ones.  I am not so sad to be closing the book on that year and moving forward to 2013. A fresh start. Do not get me wrong, 2012 had some great moments, but the not so good ones definitely overshadow those. I think that this year was one of me being the student and life being the teacher.  Some would say that is what life is all about. The lessons we learn.  Enjoying the happy times and enduring the hard ones...learning what you can from them. Life's lessons that are intended for us. Hopefully in 2013, I will be able to see how those lessons have changed me as a person, a mom and a wife.  We will see.

Some of the good times:

*Graduating with my Bachelor's degree
*Enjoying being a mom of a rambunctious one year old and a clever 5 year old
*Traveling to some of the beautiful places that this world has to offer: Prague, Germany, Italy, Japan and South Korea. That includes California and Oregon too!
*The year of Milestones - I celebrated 5 years of marriage with my wonderful husband, 5 years at my job, and 5 years as an east coaster
*Colin turned 5 years old this year...I turned 30. I was a little sad to see my 20's end, but am excited to see where my 30's take me
*Having my mom and brother here for Meli's 1st birthday

Even with all of my personal issues this year, God always seems to have a way to provide some perspective. To put me in my place. Mine came with the tragic events of Newtown at Sandy Hook Elementary. No matter how horrible I think my life was getting - it could have been a lot worse. My heart goes out to all of the parents and family members of those little angels whose lives were cut tragically short. Those parents have been dealt one of life's catastrophic blows that there is just no getting over - I just pray that 2013 can bring them some healing and peace.

Good riddance to the year that ended on such a horrific note.  Here is to 2013: the year of not taking life for granted, for cherishing loved ones even more, for tackling old dreams and discovering new ones, and to living life to the fullest.  No holding back. To all of you - my loved ones, friends and strangers who happen on this blog...wishing you a happy & blessed 2013.

Best Wishes -

The B Family