Two Southern Boys

This summer is going to be a crazy one, we have so many huge events coming up in not only our lives (ohhhh, you know, just a 5 year anniversary TOMORROW!, a first birthday, and a 30th birthday!!!) but we have some pretty spectacular weddings as well. We are going to be some busy bees the next few months!!

So, naturally we thought we'd kick the summer off by going to Hilton Head. Kevin's Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom has a beautiful condo down in HHI and they were kind enough to let us use it for the weekend. The even better part was that my sister and her husband made the long drive down from Ohio to meet us, and we had the best time! It's always nice to spend some QT with your family outside of the holidays or family events... So, a big THANK YOU to Aunt Mary and Uncle Tom!

It was the first time Landon has experienced the ocean, and it was no surprise that he loved everything about it, the water, the waves, the sand and all of the action that every beach has.

Are we there yet? Because I'm not napping this entire 5 hour drive!

His first encounter with the water.

Who needs all that water when this water in a bucket is awesome!

HELP! My mom and aunt are so mean and buried me alive!

Clearly the best part about sand castles is destroying them.

Nottttt so excited about the slide... however

The swing is always a winner.

Sisterly love.

All that fun in the sun will wear ya out!

Swimming with dad and pool side block building leads to...

Just driving home with a few friends in our lap.

I'm also happy to report that since my last blog post (and in HHI) Landon has since learned how to sit himself down once he's stood himself up. This is a great victory in our house because it was causing a lot of tantrums.

We are still not walking yet, and although I look forward to the day I'm mildly dreading it. I have a feeling that although we think crawling is bad, walking will be ten times worse!

Last weekend Landon may have had the best day of his life. We went to the Virgina Highlands art festival where...

Mom gave me strawberry ice-cream, in a cone just my size.

Dad bought me a new fluffy friend.

I took a nap in the car with said friend.

After nap time I played in Emelia's pool.

And then, I had the best time flinging myself into a pile of pillows!

Here are some of our other favorite photos since the last blog...

Just pondering life...

I can tuck myself in mom, seriously.

Wait, is this how I'm to bathe from now on??

Chocolate popsicle for the first time (He prefers the strawberry ice-cream.)

Ohhhhh, so this is a water place too???

Just playing in puddles with dad!

And silly time with mom.

Story time for our stuffed friends.

FINALLY, I'd like to wish my husband a VERY special Happy Anniversary (tomorrow.) Writing this blog reiterates how fast the past 5 years have gone by and how much we've experienced! I am one very lucky gal to have you by my side through the thick and the thin, I can't imagine a better partner in crime!

It's hard to believe my last post was nearly a month ago, Landon is certainly keeping the two of us on our toes and we hardly have any down time these days when he's up and moving!

He's into EVERYTHING. He's fully mastered the art of pulling himself up onto the furniture, walls, and pretty much anything that is stationary. And while it's really rather adorable to see his head pop up like a gopher, it's making our lives a little more difficult... We can no longer have items on the coffee table, magazines are reduced to shreds, the coasters are used as drum sticks and the coffee table as a drum. You turn your back upstairs for two seconds and you hear water running, because he's stood himself up and finds turning the tub water on and off a hoot. The biggest problem of all this standing? Is though he's mastered pulling himself up he hasn't figured out how to sit himself down, and after all that fun of standing on a wall and he wants to sit, he wants to sit NOWWWWW.

Don't worry, I'll help wash my brother.

I've stood up and I can't get downnnnnnn.

Now that we've mastered standing our favorite toys are the ones that he can push around and walk on his own. It is a slippery slope because once you've agreed to allow him to walk himself around the house, you have to be there to assist him once he runs into things. Once it's time to be done walking, due to bath time, lunch time, etc... watch out, because he gets pissed. Like, throws himself to the ground screaming, how could this amazingly fun time be over, mad.

Oh, you mean not everyone wears a snowman scarf, in their diaper, while pushing a lion?

I've come to believe that the child who ate anything and everything, did so simply because he enjoyed being able to feed himself. This has since worn off and now Landon has become very opinionated in what he eats. I think at the ripe ol' age of one he's declared himself a vegetarian. His favorite foods... fruit, anything made by morning star, fruit, ANY kind of bean (yeah, yeah, I know we're insane to give him beans when we're still chaining diapers...) fruit, cheese, did I say fruit? We've learned to give Landon fruit at the end of the meal, if not he'll only eat that and then start crying for more. Overall we can't complain, he loves to eat healthy things and there are a lot worse things for him to love than beans and fruit!

Big boys get big bottles!

Sometimes, eating is just hard work.

Not only does he love fruit, he especially loves whole strawberries. Big fat ones.

I had a fabulous first Mother's Day with all three of my boys. We recently bought a pass to the Atlanta Zoo and I decided it was the perfect time to take advantage of it! Landon LOVED all the animals, as we knew he would. His favorites were the lemurs who all started screeching while we were in their exhibit, and the goats in the petting zoo. He found them strangely HILARIOUS.

Landon just found this Panda to be the funniest thing, so of course we had to get it for him!

The final count down for Landon's first birthday has officially begun as of yesterday. He hit the 11 month mark yesterday, which has left both of us in disbelief that in a matter of 30 days our sweet boy will be a year old. It also means we need to hightail it on the birthday party preparations!

The ONLY semi smile we could get from him...

Because he REALLY wanted his mustache pacifier.

All is right again.

Speaking of birthday's... our sweet first born fur baby turned SEVEN last month. I seriously can't believe this little guy is seven and believe me, he sure doesn't act his age. Not to worry, he has his usual fan fair, with a cake and presents.