Part 3 - Vacation 2009 - Hilton Head Island

On Sunday morning, we slept in as long as we could. Seems like now we're programmed to get up early. I didn't really sleep well because I kept waking up at various times during the night and thinking I need to go check on the boys. At home, whenever I wake up during the night, I always go in and check on both of them. Boone sleeps in a sleep sack right now, but Fenn always ends up out from under his blanket so I'll cover him back up.

I forgot to mention something about dinner last night in the Part 2 post.  I mentioned that we talked and thought about the boys a lot {but not the whole time}.  We did, however, have a lengthy conversation about when to call and check on them.  "Should we call BEFORE they go to bed and tell them goodnight?"  But then that might upset them and make it harder for Todd and Angie to get them down for the night.  Or... "Should we wait until after we think they've gone to bed and then just ask Todd and Angie how things went?"  We opted for the latter, concluding that would be the best thing for all involved.  And it turns out that was probably the right decision because they both went to bed pretty easily.  Cousin Jesse even played his guitar for them before they went to bed.

So we got ourselves ready and headed out to breakfast.  We found a cute little place with outdoor seating.  And we, of course, called again to see how the night went.  I think Fenn only woke up one time very briefly, but otherwise they both slept through the night.  In fact, they both slept in a little late.  When we called, they were already working on packing up all the boys' stuff so they could head over to Hilton Head.  Dan and I walked around and did a little shopping for Christmas ornaments and Salty Dog t-shirts for the boys.  Then we went to the grocery store to get a few things for lunch and dinner.  We got back to the condo and before we knew it, Todd, Angie, and Seth were arriving with the boys.  We found out that Fenn never once asked for us!  But actually I'm glad because it makes it easier when you know they weren't really missing you.  And he got to ride the 4-wheeler with his cousin Jesse again that morning.  Anyway, we could tell they were both glad to see their mommy and daddy.  And we were really happy to see them, too.  It was time for Fenn's nap, so we let him play a little and then started working on getting him down.  He was so excited, and then also being in a different place didn't help matters.  He ended up taking quite a while to finally fall asleep.  Which means his nap was going to cut into our beach time later that afternoon.  {I love this next photo, even though it's a little out of focus.  Why is it that so many of my favorites are out of focus?}

By the time Fenn finally got up from his nap and we got everyone ready for the beach, it was 4:30 when we got out there.  Surprisingly {extremely surprising, considering how much Fenn loves the water}, Fenn was a little hesitant about the ocean at first.  So daddy decided to run and jump in the waves and generally just act a little goofy to demonstrate how much fun it was to Fenn.  I think Dan was acting like a monster in this photo. 

Then Dan took Fenn and walked out into the waves to give Fenn a chance to get used to it.  When Dan tried to put him down, he immediately pulled up his feet. 

But within a few minutes after that, he was loving the water and running around all over the place.  He just needed to see that it was okay. 

Boone hung out with his Aunt Angie, while Fenn built sand castles with daddy, Uncle Todd, and Seth. 

And daddy even took over the camera duties so I could get in on the fun with Fenn.  In the next photo, check out Fenn's hands.  He was grabbing fistfuls of sand from the sand castle, running back to the ocean, and throwing the sand back into the ocean. 

In the next photo, if you'll look closely, you can see the ripples on the water and water splashing up where he just threw in some sand. 

Boone got in on the fun, too.  Well, not really.  He wasn't very fond of getting his feet dipped in the water.  Hopefully he'll love it next year, though. 

We only had a little more than an hour to play on the beach.  Then it was time to go inside and get baths so we could do a quick photo session back out on the beach.  We rushed in, cleaned up, and got back out to the beach around 7:00 p.m.   We were quickly losing light.  Todd, Angie, and Seth were all so sweet to stick around and help us with the photo session.  They still had to drive back to Rincon and then the next day was a work day.  We got several good photos, but I didn't have time to get creative and do anything different. 

And I should have been watching the camera's shutter speed, because by the time I realized it, some of the photos were looking grainy and I needed to change to my portrait lens which does a better job of shooting in low light.  By the time we got some family shots, the boys were getting hungry and tired and completely over the whole photo session. 

So I never did get any great shots of them by themselves or of the two of them together.  I did, however, get a few good shots of Todd and Angie, Dan and me, and one of Seth and Boone together (the oldest grandchild and the youngest grandchild).

Todd, Angie, and Seth headed home.  And we got the boys fed and down for the night.  Dan and I had a nice dinner and then watched part of Marley and Me.  We were so tired, we just couldn't stay up for the whole thing.  {And we still need to finish watching it!}  The next morning, we packed up and headed home.  We even shaved an hour off of the trip and made it back in about 8 hours.  We had a great time, but wish we would have had more time.  We were trying to pack a lot of stuff into a very short trip.  But that's all the time we had this year because of Dan's schedule.  Next year, we'll probably go on vacation in either May or June and we'll take a full week.  It's just too hard to try and go between Dan's September 15th and October 15th tax extension deadlines.

If you want to see lots more photos from the trip, look over in the right-hand column of the blog under "More Photos of Fenn and Boone".  Then click on the link for "Summer Vacation - September 2009". 

Part 2 - Vacation 2009 - Day 2 at White Horse Ranch

On Saturday morning, one of the first things Fenn wanted to do was go outside and play with the dogs, Sarge and Deuce, and also to see the horses.  So after breakfast, that's exactly what we did.  First off, Fenn rode around on his daddy's shoulders.  I love the first photo even though it is a little out of focus.  Fenn has the cutest expression on his face. 

They walked over to the fence to see the horses for a while, and then it was time to get down and run around with the dogs. 

Deuce, the border collie, was especially interested in Fenn.  He kept herding him just like he would do with cattle.  It was lots of fun to watch as Fenn ran around, giggling the whole time.  And Deuce was really gentle with him.  Sometimes, it was even hard to tell who was herding who.... I think Fenn actually chased Deuce around a little. 

Afterwards, it was time for a little break from all the running around.  Fenn sat in a rocking chair on the porch of the horse barn.  I love the shot of Sarge with Fenn in the background.  Sarge, an Airedale Terrier, is about the funniest dog I've ever been around.  Just the expression on his face is hilarious!  If you're not paying attention, you'll suddenly feel something slip through your legs and when you look down, his funny face will be staring up at you.

Then the big event of the day finally arrived.  It was time for Fenn to saddle up and ride a horse for the very first time.  Yes, he rode a pony for a few minutes at school back in the summer.  But this time it's a real horse... much bigger than a pony. 

We put him up on Jake without any kind of protest whatsoever.  I swear, this child is completely fearless.  I hope he is always this way and willing to try everything (well, almost everything) at least once.  Jake is a very gentle horse, so we felt comfortable letting Fenn ride.  Plus, at all times Fenn had someone on each side of him, holding onto his leg or foot in case he started to fall.  I love this next photo because he looks like such a cowboy, out on the range watching his cattle.  {As usual, one of my favorites is one that is a little out of focus!} 

His Uncle Todd talked about how great he was doing and what a natural he was in the saddle.  Todd said he did a great job of just moving with the horse instead of tensing up like so many people do. 

He rode and he rode and he rode, smiling the whole time.  He really did love it.  He was even holding onto the reigns and clicking his heels into the horse trying to get him to go. 

After a while, he decided he wanted mommy to ride with him.  And then he wanted daddy to ride with him.  By this time, it was getting really close to his nap time and you could see how tired and sleepy he was.  But he still didn't want to get off.  He kept saying, "Again... again."  Look at how tired he looks in this photo. 

He ended up riding for about 30 minutes total.  We finally convinced him to get off and took him inside for lunch.  Then it was naptime.  And he crashed almost instantly.

While Fenn was napping, we all had lunch and got ready for the day.  We still had to get showers!  We had just thrown on some clothes and gone outside that morning to play.  And then Dan and I had to get ready for our overnight trip (by ourselves!) to Hilton Head Island.  Being the OCD person and control freak that I am, you know I had tons of instructions for Uncle T and Aunt A.  I needed to get all the boys' stuff organized so Angie could find things.  And I needed to show her how to mix Boone's bottles.  And Dan had to install the carseats in their car.  And then Dan had to give them a tutorial on putting the boys in their carseats.  {Their kids are 21 and 19, so it's been a while for them!}  And we had to show them how to fold up the Pack 'n Play and the travel infant bed.  Yes, it was a long list.  Fenn woke up from his very long nap.  Things were going well and we seemed to be right on track for getting away so we could get to Hilton Head in time to relax a little while before going out to dinner that night.  We were playing with Fenn in the family room when all of a sudden he proceeded to vomit all over their floor.  Thank goodness it wasn't on the rug, though!  Needless to say, that slowed down our progress and even briefly made us wonder if we should even go.  But after a while, we could tell that Fenn seemed perfectly fine.  It was just one of those things.  Maybe it was from all the excitement of the day.  Who knows?  He has only thrown up one other time.  That was during his 12-month photo session.  We decided to go ahead with our plans, knowing Fenn was in excellent hands and that we would see him mid-day the following day.  We were finally about to leave (of course later than we had hoped) and Fenn started fussing a little as we were telling him goodbye.  Todd quickly distracted him by taking him out to the garage to see the four-wheelers.  It worked and he barely even noticed us leaving.  After we left, Fenn rode a 4-wheeler for the very first time.  No photos, though.  Angie was holding Boone and not able to take any.  But he apparently loved it... once again.  We finally got to our condo at Hilton Head.  We freshened up and headed out to dinner.  We sat outside and there was a band playing some great music.  We had a great time, but you know we talked about and thought about the boys the whole time.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of the post about our vacation.  In the meantime, you can see many more photos from the weekend by looking over in the right-hand column of the blog under "More Photos of Fenn and Boone".  There's a link to our Summer 2009 vacation photos.

Part 1 - Vacation 2009 - White Horse Ranch

We finally squeezed in a little "mini" vacation this year. We didn't want to plan something too extravagant with high expectations this year since Boone is still so young and then end up with a repeat of last year's Chevy Chase vacation in Colorado. {if you want to read about it, click on the link at left to get to July 2008 posts and scroll down ~ there are 5 separate posts} Don't get me wrong, we still managed to have a good time last year. But with Fenn being sick with both an ear infection (that we thought would be much better after being on meds for a couple of days) and another viral infection on top of that (which we didn't find out about until we got back to Tennessee), it wasn't quite the vacation we had hoped for.

We decided to pay a visit to White Horse Ranch in Rincon, GA (aka Todd and Angie's home and horse farm). We knew there would be tons of stuff to keep Fenn busy there. Plus, we thought it would be great to take them up on their offer to keep the boys so we could have a night away to ourselves. It would be the first time for us to leave them and go somewhere together. Although we did leave Fenn with Angie for two nights when Boone was born. But that was out of necessity and this time it was by choice {or maybe this time was also out of necessity!}. We're both firm believers that you have to leave them occasionally and have some time to yourselves. Anyway, we ended up getting a room on Hilton Head Island for two nights. We stayed one night by ourselves and then Todd, Angie, and Seth brought the boys over on Sunday so we could all get some time on the beach before heading home on Monday morning.
We headed out on Thursday morning, of course leaving later than we had hoped. We wanted to be on the road by around 9:00 a.m., but it ended up being 10:00 a.m. Why does it take so long to pack when you have babies? I think one reason is that there are so many things you can't pack until the morning of. And then you have the babies wanting attention and pulling things out of bags while you're trying to get them packed. We thought we had it down pat with Fenn, but having a second baby really throws a curve ball in there and makes it much more difficult.
The trip went well. That's partly because we broke down and bought a portable DVD player to help keep Fenn entertained. I don't know how he knew, but as soon as I unzipped the case and the screen was revealed, he immediately said, "Einsteins!" He somehow knew he was going to get to watch TV. We had estimated about 8 hours for the trip, but it ended up taking us about 9 hours to get there, so we didn't arrive until a little after 7:00 p.m. That is normally when we start getting the boys down for the night and we still had to feed them. Needless to say, they were up way past their bedtime that night. But I suppose it's okay to relax that a little when you're on vacation. We had to give them some time to wind down and stretch their legs after being in the car for so long. Fenn loved meeting the dogs, Sarge and Deuce.
On Friday morning, Fenn and Boone got to meet the horses. It didn't take long at all for Fenn to warm up to them. Almost immediately, he was calling for them to come to the fence and making horse noises. He even got to feed some apples to them. He was so cute calling them by name! He is definitely an animal person... loves all things with fur! It's too soon to tell with Boone, but I would imagine he'll be an animal lover, too.After naptime, we headed down to Darien, GA to meet Dan's Aunt Susan and Aunt Sonja for a late lunch. Susan had met Fenn once before, but neither had met Boone yet. They showered the boys with hugs and kisses while Dan and I ate a delicious lunch of fresh fried shrimp ~ straight from the docks just a few blocks away and right to the restaurant! Yummy! We visited for a while and then it was time to head back to the ranch. On the way back, we made a quick stop to check out the shrimp boats. Boone was tired and almost asleep, so we didn't get him out of his carseat. But we did snap a couple of photos. What a beautiful backdrop for photos! I wish we'd had more time for a photo session here.
When we got back to the ranch, Fenn was in for a big surprise. He got to drive the backhoe with his Uncle Todd! He had already seen it that morning and had even climbed up inside to check it out. But we didn't know he was going to get to drive it. He wasn't scared at all when Todd cranked it up. Although he did smile some, he mostly had a serious look on his face as he was watching all the different scoops and arms moving. He was definitely taking it all in. Todd tried out everything and let Fenn help pull the levers and knobs to control the different functions. And they drove it around the yard, turning around and stopping in different places to "work". When it was time to get off, he said "Again! Again!" He loved it. Thanks, Uncle Todd, for making such a great memory with Fenn. Next year, Boone will get his turn. We didn't let him ride this year because he's still so small.
After the excitement of driving the backhoe, it was time to feed the boys and get them to bed. Once we got them down for the night, the adults enjoyed a great low country boil dinner and then roasted marshmallows outside over the fire. My nephew, Jesse, and his girlfriend, Olivia, joined us for the evening. I'm sad that I didn't get any photos that night and therefore, didn't get any photos of the two of them with the boys. I thought I was going to see Jesse the next afternoon, but he didn't get back until after Dan and I had left for Hilton Head.
That's it for Part 1 of our trip. More to come later. In the meantime, you can look over in the right-hand column of the blog under "More Photos of Fenn and Boone" and click on the link titled "Summer Vacation - September 2009" to see lots of photos from our vacation.

Boone Discovered His Feet

Boone recently discovered his feet. I'm not exactly sure of when this happened, but it was sometime in the last couple of weeks. Now it seems like he is always holding onto his feet and playing with them. And because he's pulling his feet up to his face, that also makes it easier for him to roll from side to side. So I think a true "roll over" is in our near future.

Boone at Four Months Old

This is Boone at Four Months. This is the fourth installment in the "12-month onesie" series. I did actually take the photo last week on his four month birthday, but decided to wait and do the post this week so I could include the stats from his 4-month check-up today.

These are his stats at 18 weeks (or 4 months) old:
Weight: 15 lbs. 11.5 oz. (61st %)
Height: 25.5" (65th %)
Head: 41.5 cm (26th %)

Compare this to his stats at 9 weeks (or 2 months) old:
Weight: 12 lbs. 14 oz. (75th %)
Height: 23.5" (69th %)
Head: 38.9 cm (27th %)

Something kind of new that Boone is doing now that I just love is when I'm holding him in my lap, he'll turn his head and look back at me and then smile. He'll hear me say something and realize I'm right there behind him and decide that he wants to see me. He has also become very curious about the world around him. A few days ago we went to the mall to get out of the house on a rainy Sunday afternoon. I sat on a bench and gave Boone his bottle while Dan and Fenn walked around the mall. This guy came over and sat on a bench across from us. Well Boone just about got whiplash turning his head to see what that guy was doing. And then he wouldn't stop staring at him. So funny! Oh, and Boone has also recently discovered his feet. He grabs onto them and pulls them toward his face all the time now. Be on the lookout for cute "Boone holding his feet" photos in the near future.

Speaking of photos... I'm a little disappointed in this photo. It was later in the evening than I would have preferred so I didn't have as much light coming in through the windows. Because of that, a lot of my photos were blurry. We had just gotten Fenn down for the night and Boone was ready for his bottle (translation: He did NOT want to have his picture taken.). Oh, and I cut off his toe. I meant to take some more photos the next day, but just didn't get around to it. So I'll just have to accept the photos I got. Don't forget... you can look over in the right-hand column under "More Photos of Boone" for the link to see all of his 12-month onesie photos.

Fenn and His Daddy and His Bubbles

These photos are from the same "photo session" a couple of weeks ago. Fenn had been outside playing with his bubbles. He has the funniest expression on his face in this picture. I think he had just blown some bubbles and had bubble liquid on his lips. After a few minutes, he decided he wanted to go over to Ms. Evelyn's house and play underneath her big tree. He likes going over there and climbing up on her front porch. He, of course, took his bubbles with him. Afterward, he decided to come back to our yard for a while to play. In the next couple of photos, he was singing "Ring Around the Rosies" Fenn-style while holding his bubbles and circling the tree. Fenn-style is like this: "Aaa SHE Aaa SHE...aw....fa...DOWNNNN!!!" Usually he'll fall to the ground when he says "DOWNNNN" at the end. He leaves off the "ring around the rosies, a pocket full of posies" part. After all that, it was time to tackle his daddy. That is one of his favorite things to do right now. He gets a pretty good running start and comes off the ground. You have to protect yourself or else he'll hurt you when he lands on you. Once again, notice he still has his bubbles.

At Least I Tried to Get a Photo of Them Together!

A couple of weeks ago (see... I'm still behind on blogging), I decided to dress the boys in their "Big Brother" and "Little Brother" t-shirts and try to get a good photo of them together. The key word here is "try"! I am quickly discovering that it is almost impossible to get Fenn to be still for me to take his photo, much less pose for me. We kept telling him to sit beside Boone and look at the camera. He would squat down, lean in for a couple of brief seconds, and then off he would go to start playing again. So frustrating! The first photo is the best of the bunch. But I would have preferred one of them both looking at the camera. However, this one is really sweet and I do love it. Here are a few more from the "photo shoot"... some of them together and a few more of Boone by himself that I really liked.

See what I mean!?!? He would lean in for a second but would not look at the camera.This is a sweet one of Boone.This next one totally cracks me up! I swear, he smiles all the time. But he also has this really serious expression sometimes.There are no words for the next one! He looks completely pained to be sitting there. Like he's saying, "Come on mommy... can I play now?"And one more sweet photo of Boone (with his famous expression, of course!).

I have a few more from this same photo shoot of Fenn that I'll post later. So be on the lookout for those!

BEFORE and AFTER

In honor of my last blog post where I talked about us trying to sell our house, I thought I would post a couple of photos. The first one is the way the house looked the first time we saw it in May 2005, a week before we got married. Hideous, I know! We were moving from Georgia a few months later and had come up to meet with a realtor (who is now our friend) and look at some houses. We asked her to show us houses in a certain price range so we could get a feel for what we could get for our money here in Knoxville. We looked at a few houses in the neighborhood we're currently in (all fixer-uppers) and we looked at newer houses. We really DID NOT want a fixer upper because we knew things would be busy with Dan's new job and knew we would be starting a family soon. But we just could not find a new house that we both could agree on. Something about each one just didn't work for us. Either the houses were too close together or the yard was too small for our three big dogs, or because of how the house was designed there was no way to put in a dog door so the dogs could get into the garage and out of the weather. So, when we came back again in July, this house was still sitting here. No one wanted it. But we could see past its ugliness and knew we could make her look much better. We closed on the house at the end of August 2005. And this is how she looks four long years later. Better, huh?

It's a Busy Life!

We've been really busy around here lately (what's new?). Actually we have been even busier than normal because we've been trying to get our house ready to sell. And that task is almost impossible to accomplish with two babies in the house! It's not just a matter of cleaning up, de-cluttering, and staging the house for us. We've also had to finish up several unfinished projects from the last 2 or 3 years. We've had a painter, a plumber, electricians, and a landscape guy here. One day, they all even showed up on the same day.We're still not ready, but we had to go ahead and at least put the sign out last night. We've had a contingent contract on another house in our neighborhood for about a month now, so we don't want to anger the owner's by not keeping up with our end of the bargain. The house is about 20 years newer than our's, about 1,000 square feet larger, and most importantly has fewer projects so we'll have more time to focus on spending time with Fenn and Boone. And, it is still in the neighborhood we love.Because I've been so busy working on the house whenever I have a spare moment, I have fallen behind on blogging. So I thought I would just do a quick post about Boone with some recent photos of him. We're seeing more and more of what his personality is going to be like. He's mostly laid back like Fenn, but does have a little shorter fuse. If you put him down when he wants you to hold him, he lets you know in no uncertain terms. He has discovered his hands and chews and sucks on them all the time (see photo above). He has also started drooling, which leads me to believe he has started teething. He enjoys sitting up (assisted, of course) so he can see the world from a new perspective... not just looking up at everything any longer. He sleeps completely through the night most of the time. We'll put him down between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. and he sleeps until anywhere from 6:00 to 7:00 a.m. If he does wake up during the night or earlier than 6:00, we can usually just give him his pacifier and he'll go back to sleep. And I don't think it will be too long before he is able to find his pacifier on his own and put it back in his mouth. He's pretty good with his hands. I like this last photo because it shows one of his many expressions. He has such an expressive face. Oh, and notice the drool on his chin.