Fire Station Visitation

We went to the fire station the other day for play group. Charlie was apprehensive at first, then he got so comfortable, you'd think the truck belonged to him! I love how nice the fire men are to the kids. I think they like being the hero in their little eyes.

As I was looking at this photo I realized I have a few photos of the kids in front of a fire truck. I never in my life thought I'd be a regular at the local fire station! I think I've gone at least five times. One time we were on a walk in Maryland and the fire fighters just flagged us in to come check out the truck. 

Here is one of Charlie in his pre-walking days.

Here is Pres during that same trip.

Then I dug up some pics of Noah in 2006 when we lived in Salt Lake. Doesn't he look like Charlie?

 Good times.

Meeting Big Papi & a Game

Josh's bro, Justin is in town for Josh's graduation. Since he's a big Red Sox fan, Charlie and I took him to meet David Ortiz "Big Papi" at our local mall. The event was at Victoria's Secret so we also got to meet a model, Chanel. Look how tiny she is! She's half my size!

Big Papi liked Charlie and rubbed his head for good luck. Notice the new haircut.

Check out the video. We are on the right of the screen, at the 13 second mark, talking to the police officer.

Later that night Josh and Justin went to the game and watched the BoSox beat the Cubs 15 to 5.

They were televised a few times with foul balls coming their way. Looks like they had fun!

little P

This weekend I spent a lot of one on one time with Presley. It was so fun. She is such an affectionate little sweetheart. Sure I have my moments of impatience with her when it comes to choosing outfits for the day or having her wait till I have a second to help her (when she wants help, she wants it NOW!), Pres is just the love of my life! She reminds me of me in so many ways. 

1. she's sensitive- I made the mistake of telling her teacher she will cry easliy if she is in trouble. Now I think her teacher notices a little too much and wants Pres to toughen up a bit. Maybe we'll work on that this summer, maybe not :)
2. she is shy yet loves the spotlight. I went on a field trip with her class and noticed Presley is a big hand raiser! She will raise her hand then get shy when she is called on! I thought it was cute. Her teacher wants us to work on this one a bit too. 
3. she can swing a baseball bat! She was one heck of a slugger at the batting cages and at the pinata at a friend's b-day party. 

Here Presley is on the Art museum field trip with her best buddy Kadijah. They are such cute pals!!

 Pres was so eager to help me clean on Saturday

 Then we went to the laundromat and waited for five loads to wash. Pres was rewarded with a lemonade. 

Then here is a video of me putting rollers in her hair! TURN DOWN YOUR VOLUME FOR THIS!! Josh's voice is so loud. :)

spoil me why don't you?

Happy Mother's Day everyone! I can't help but think of all the women in my life (mother's and non mother's) who influence me for the good and inspire me to be a better person. Thank you, thank you.

Wanna see what Josh got me for Mother's Day?

I had been wanting an ipod to exercise with for a few months now. I ran with it this week and had a blast. Josh was cute to get it inscribed for me. Mom, Wife, Artist, Teacher. He seems to think I'm something special ;).

One of the highlights of our week was a special family home evening that we had with our neighbors on Monday. We strung a string all throughout our house and the kids had to follow the string from beginning to end to find the treasure (ice cream sundae fixings with all kinds of candy and ice cream!) in our neighbor's kitchen. The string was supposed to represent the iron rod or the gospel and following it will lead to great rewards. It was slightly hazardous and we did almost break a lamp or two, but we had fun!

So our week was pretty crazy. On Tuesday afternoon Josh had a big project come into work that had him staying till past midnight a couple of nights and till 10 pm on a third night. 

I was on single parent duty running the kids to their activities and keeping things fun on the home front.

Here we are at this awesome building at MIT where Noah has swim lessons for scouts. I was floored that Noah gets to do this for dirt cheep in such a cool place. I am addicted to my camera phone these days!

I'm so glad it's warming up. This was fun. Pizza subs for the kids and philly cheese steak for me. 

When Friday rolled around, Josh wanted to get the heck out of town and as far away from work as possible. I didn't blame him. 

I'll give you a hint to where we went.

It was beautiful there. Everything I always pictured (including lots of old Volvos!)

First stop was Sharon, VT for a church history lesson. We visited the birthplace of Joseph Smith who was the first president of our church. It was amazing to re-learn about the story of his life.

Then we headed to the Benny and Jerry's Factory for a tour and some delicious ice cream! They had a dish of ice cream there called the "Vermonster" which had all the flavors and costed $44. It was meant to feed eight. We opted out of that one. 

Also this week we got Josh's thesis printed. We had to drop off copies all over campus to seal the deal on graduation. Such a good feeling to get that out of the way.

Spring has sprung...

...the grass is ris, I wonder where the flowers is. 

My mom used to say that all the time. Totally makes me laugh. Today, May Day, would've been her 65th birthday. She was way too cool to stick around and get old.

Here the flowers "is" in Cambridge! We are in full bloom. It is actually pleasant to be outside. We are soaking it in.

 This totally looks like an Easter hunt, but the kids actually were collecting rocks on our evening stroll. 

Finally there was no car parked in front of this blue wall that I want to use for a photo spot sometime. Not a stable place, though. Usually there are too many cars around here. 

 Random Josh. He is doing well in his new job. It is definitely a learning experience. It seems to be a good challenge for him so far. Definitely not boring. Love having him home all weekend without work runs. Horay!

Check out Noah's new teeth coming in. It's kind of scary to have to deal with adult teeth. These puppies need to be taken care of. Uh oh!

Did I mention we have a new tenant at the Plant house? We are babysitting our friends' mini pincher for the week. He is a big snuggle fan (not so much a food getting taken away from him fan or a help pick him up to get on the bed fan...)

Isn't he the cutest little half pint? It's fun to see the kids take such great care of him. It is really helping us to see what life will be like with a dog some day.

Yesterday we went to a place my friend Kate mentioned to me called Kimball Farm. It was a little mini theme park west of Boston. We did batting cages, pony rides, and bumper boats. It was really, really fun. We enjoyed the green countryside and all these outdoor activities to the fullest.

Future softball babe??

Now that it's warming up, I'm attempting my morning outside runs again. I get to run past my favorite Harvard building which makes it a bit easier: