Life Repeats Itself

Why does this look so familiar:




See blog post from June 9, 2008 for a clue.

You never know what you are going to walk in on...

Getting Peter up in the morning is almost always interesting. He talks up a storm and frequently has something strange going on.

One morning, I walked in and he was standing up saying, "Monkey stepped in poo poo."

After investigating, I found that Peter's diaper had not been able to contain his mess, so he proceeded to walk his two stuffed monkeys through the poop on his sheets. Fun laundry day for mommy!

On another occasion, I walked in and he was completely undressed (with the exception of his diaper).

See video:

Stair climber

We have another climber in the family...

Tour de Cure

Back in June Brett and I signed up to ride 33.4 miles in the Tour de Cure - a bike ride for Diabetes. Together, our team - DiaBEATERS - raised $540 and made it the whole way!

My mom and Sally took the kids for the day, and Brett and I headed out to Reston Town Center for the start of the race early in the morning. After getting our rider numbers, bananas for breakfast, and a route map, we were off!

The first 10 miles was pretty easy, and we even rode past a sign for the Gardner Family adopting the section of the W & OD trail that we were on (nice photo opt).

At the first rest stop around mile 11 I gracefully dismounted off my bike. Pretty much when we went to stop I thought I was placing my foot on flat ground, but due to over grown shrubs the fact that I stopped at the top of a slope was hidden. I put my foot down, fell off my bike and rolled down the hill, covering myself in thorns and scratches! However, at the time my pride was hurt worse than anything.



After we re-hydrated and ate our power bars we got back on the trail for the next 14 miles. This was the hardest part of the trip. The first 5 of the miles were a slight uphill that seemed to take forever. Both Brett and I debated giving up and going back, but we managed to power through by going slow and taking short breaks.

2 more stumbles off my bike later and 9 more miles and we were passing the last rest stop (10 miles from the finish line) - I had momentum, so we didn't stop and after about 4 hours of total riding (with stops) we finished!

Our friend's, Mike and Sarah Merrill, were at the finish line cheering us on and then we got to chow down on pizza!

Many thanks to friends and family who were so generous in donating to this cause:

Mary BeVard
Erin and Carlos Sanchez (Erin Marie Photography)
Steven Gardner
Danny Douglass
Sarah Newell
Patti, Tim and Grey Leonard
Mary Jane and Jon BeVard
Brett Ledder
Krennie Steenburg
Stephanie Rodelander
Ron Furgerson

Family Movie Night!

Brett and I decided that we wanted to start a tradition of family movie night once a week.

On those nights, we give the kids their baths and then all snuggle up on the couch for a movie and pop corn!

So far we have seen: Kung Fu Panda, Space Chimps, and Cars. The kids still haven't made it through a whole movie, but we still enjoy the time together.

Dog crate

Now that we have a dog, we are teaching the kids what are their toys/things and what belongs to Rusty.

Peter would prefer that Rusty share. See video:

New Family Member!

Back in February, Brett and I had to put our Cat, Angel Food Cake, to sleep after she had been suffering with what the vet thought was a brain tumor for three months.

Since then, I have really wanted to replace her with a new furry family member, but Brett thought we should wait a little while. However, I was pretty determined, so I constantly checked dog and cat adoption sites, waiting for the perfect pet.

I wanted a dog that was an adult, house trained, good with kids, small to medium sized, low shedding and allergy producing, good on a leash, and quiet - so there was slim pickings. Until one day I found Rusty.

Rusty was a 5 year old dog, 28 pounds, good with kids, good on a leash, low shedding, house and crate trained - or, in my world - PERFECT!


I mustered up the courage to ask Brett (completely expecting to be shot down), and he agreed to go to the adoption event to meet Rusty.

That weekend, we headed to the adoption event to meet Rusty, and loved him as much in person as we did online. The adoption people let us take him for a walk and play outside with the kids and we were sold (even Brett!).

We applied for him, had 2 interviews, and the next day they called to tell us that we had been approved to take Rusty! The following Monday, he moved in and has been a loved member of the family ever since.

He is remarkably tolerant of Peter (who tries to ride on his back yelling, "Rusty-a-sauras"), great in his crate, and is almost totally over the separation anxiety that he had when he first got here.

Looking forward to everyone meeting him!

Hershey Bears Game!

After the Washington Capitals lost their chances in the playoffs, my Mom, our friend, Nora, and I decided that we weren't ready for hockey season to be over.

Lucky for us, the Caps farm team, The Hershey Bears, were in the playoff finals in their league.

We looked online, bought tickets, and planned a day trip to attend a Sunday afternoon game.

We learned quickly that minor league hockey is a lot different than Washington DC/NHL hockey. First of all - the fans are all REAL fans! They were all completely into the game, knew all about the players and rules of hockey, and tailgated in the parking lot before games (next to their Bears decorated cars).

The game was tons of fun! We knew a lot of the players because they had played for the Caps during the season, and best of all - WE WON!

It wasn't the final game, however they did end up winning the Calder Cup 2 games later!

After the game we walked around the stadium, where my Mom and Nora spent lots of time looking at all the team pictures posted around the concourse.



I made fun of them being super fans and knowing everyone in the pictures, but they got me back when I tried on the Bears head that we had bought for the boys:


It was a great trip (although short), and we plan to go back and cheer for the Bears again next year!

Trip to the National Zoo

A few weeks ago my friend Lauren came for a DC visit, so we decided to take the kids to the DC zoo.

We have been to the Reston petting zoo before, but I wasn't sure if Peter would be entertained enough to go through a zoo without being able to touch the animals. I was wrong in being worried - He loved it!






He wanted to get out of the stroller and look at every animal display, and made it through the entire zoo before having any melt downs! We were also very impressed with how many of the animals he could identify.

This will definitely be something we do on a regular basis!

Burnett's come for dinner!

Recently, our friends Josh and Sarah Burnett and their daughter Savannah, came over for dinner.

It had been a while since we had gotten to hang out with them (something about them being new parents AND getting ready to plant a new church in Maryland keeping them busy), so it was a nice to get together.

The cutest part of the evening had to be Peter holding Savannah - although we didn't get the best pictures, but hopefully we will next time!

Say sorry...

Why do I get the feeling that I am not being listened to?



We are working on Peter saying sorry on the first try (and just not doing things which require apologies), and on getting a video of how funny Aaron is when Peter plays peek-a-boo (nicely) with him.

Reston Fun

The first weekend that Sally lived with us (see previous blog about summer intern) we looked online and found that a Beatles cover band was playing at the free concert stage at the Reston Town Center.

Loving the outdoors, town centers, and free entertainment we decided to go!

The only problem? When we got there we realized we were a week early (the first week in June was tacked onto the last week of May on their online calendar).

However, since we were there and we had a picnic dinner we decided to take the kids to the water fountain and have a little family fun.

Sally and I took turns chasing Peter around the water and trying to feed him in between runs through the fountain. Brett stayed with Aaron for most of the night, and had him in hystarics playing a game of "boop, got your nose." The following video was taken about 5 minutes into the game:

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried

Peter has recently learned to count to ten and say all of his letters. However, like most of his words, some of it is a little hard to understand ("w" is my favorite - he says "da-ba-ba"). The number "four" also sounds a lot like "fork".

Tonight at dinner Peter held up his fork and said, "Look, Daddy!"

Brett responded with, "Fork!"

To which Peter said, "5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10!"

I am pretty disappointed I didn't have the video camera out.

Pool Fun!

Memorial Day weekend was also the weekend that our community pool opened.

On the holiday Brett and I took the kids for a mid-morning walk and to the swings by our house.

Just like his brother, Aaron loves the swing:



And now that Peter is getting bigger, he sometimes tries to push Aaron on the swing:



Peter is also big enough, that he had his first try on the "big boy" swing:



After playing at the swings, we headed over to the pool for some water fun. We started out in the baby pool, where Peter enjoyed splashing his brother and playing with his toys:



Then, we headed over to the big pool for the summer's first swim:



Peter is working on kicking and swimming, but he really likes to hold on to mommy's back and get pulled around:



After a couple hours the kids were cold and tired, so we headed home.

Annandale Carnival

Around Memorial Day weekend, Annandale held a 2 week carnival in the parking lot of our K-Mart. Our friends, Mike and Sarah Merrill and Alex Goode, came along with us one weekend and it was everything we expected.

There were tons of scary rides, including one that the guy running the ride convinced me to go on for free. Then he proceeded to turn the ride on full speed until I was screaming for him to stop.


Brett and Mike went on some really stomach turning rides:




And Peter and Aaron got to ride some of the kiddie rides including the carousel:





After we rode $50 worth of ride tickets, it was time to play games!

We managed to win a stuffed animal for each kid (monkey for Peter, and fish for Aaron Fish), and a gold fish (Dale) for the family (Dale has since taken a trip down the toilet to fishy heaven).


Next is my favorite part of every carnival - FAIR FOOD! We chowed down on corn dogs, cheese steak, cheese fries, fresh squeezed lemonade, and ice cream before heading home for the boys to nap.

It was all you could expect out of a town carnival in a K-Mart parking lot, but we had a great time. Hopefully next year the kids will be tall enough to ride on a few more rides!

July Curves Schedule

For my ladies who are interested in coming to work out with me at Curves in McLean, here are the dates and times I am working in July:

Sunday July 5 - 3:00-6:00pm

Thursday July 9 - 6:00-8:30pm

Sunday July 12 - 3:00-6:00pm

Thursday July 16 - 6:00-8:30pm

Saturday July 18 - 9:00am-12:00pm

Sunday July 19 - 3:00-6:00pm

Wednesday July 22 - 3:00-6:00pm

Thursday July 23 - 6:00-8:30pm

Free 10 day membership to all new comers, so please come give it a try.