The Brown Brick Road

Double take

January 13, 2017

My parents definitely have favorite pictures from the blog that they’ve remembered through the years. One of my Dad’s very favorites is this one of Maxwell from January 2012:

mbb 2012

Not really sure why he remembers it but he does and he loves it. Susan decided we should recreate it with Samantha and, well, it’s pretty darn cute and funny too!!

samantha

That’s for you, Daddo! Hope it starts your Friday off right!! Nothing cuter than babies in hats and boots…and nothing else! 🙂

Have a great weekend!

ps – Friday the 13th?! Spoooky!

Smooshed

January 12, 2017

When you’re in FL and there are 3 car seats and 4 adults crammed into a suburban, someone has to take one for the team and squeeze in the way back between two of those car seats!

car seat

Nowhere I’d rather be than smooshed between these two!

car seat

Please note that’s Maxwell’s hand by Spencer’s in the second pic. My fingers aren’t that small! Peace out!

More Florida

January 11, 2017

We had a nice stay in Naples with plenty of time to go to the pool…

naples

(Samantha looks like a little figure skater! ha!)

and the beach!

beach

We only lasted about 15 minutes on the beach before the boys started asking to go up to the pool! Not surprised! Of course, there was also time for breakfast at Skillets…

skillets

playing outside…

naples

plenty of good food…

pie

and, when the temps dropped a little, movies! We saw Sing and Rouge One. Both really good! I promised to take the boys to get ice cream after Sing and, note to self, take something other than your Amex with you to the ice cream shop because you can’t pay with that! Luckily Robert drove up with cash and saved the day!

ice cream

Overall, it was a lot of fun…

naples

and Robert and I loved getting to spend quality time with our 3 favorite people…

naples

Unfortunately, the week came to an end so we had to hug everyone goodbye…

naples

and make our way back to the airport to head home.

naples

It was a great trip and we can’t wait to go back! Bye bye!

naples

See you tomorrow!

FL or bust!

January 10, 2017

After Christmas we had one day at home to play with new toys (yay!), get all the Christmas decorations put up (ugh!), and apparently get strep throat (double ugh!). Yes, by Christmas night Maxwell was in tears because his throat hurt so bad and when the fever came too, I knew it was strep. We were up at the doctor first thing the morning of the 26th and got that strep positive test! So thankful we had a day at home to rest and start a round of bubblegum medicine!

hangover

I was also pretty proud of myself for getting the tree down and ALL the inside decorations put up that day. I knew I wasn’t going to want to come home from the trip to a decorated house so I made myself get it done. Check check!

By the morning of the 27th, we were feeling good and ready to head to sunny Florida!

backpack

With thanks to GJ, Samantha now has her own “baby iPad” to use for trips! Between that and plenty of gummies, we did just fine on the flight!

gummies

When we got there, the kids wasted no time making themselves at home…

florida

and then opened more presents!

florida

My favorite gifts were these hilarious Star Wars masks (Chewie was the best!)….

masks

naples

The boys’ favorite was these light up cars and track…

cars

and Baby loved her purse and sunglasses!

florida

Fun fun! We sure were glad to be there in the sunshine! See you tomorrow!

Christmas Day!

January 9, 2017

Happy Monday! We had a snow day here on Friday and through the weekend. Well, we actually had just a cold day on Friday with some freezing rain and sleet that started that night and turned this place into an ice wonderland for the weekend. Not much fun to play in (though the boys might disagree) but exciting nonetheless. Pics to come!

Today, the rest of Christmas day! After we had gone through the Santa surprises and opened a few gifts, we got ready for Robert’s parents and his sister’s family to come over. It turned out to be a beautiful 70 degree day so the boys were in short sleeves – their new Star Wars short sleeves that Santa brought to be exact!

xmas day

And baby got one last wear out of her adorable Santa dress!

santa dress

Everyone was enjoying the new toys…

xmas day

shark

Samantha sure was happy when “Baby Mah-get” finally arrived!

xmas day

We had a great meal planned and the table was looking pretty if I do say so myself! I finally have some of SuSu’s china here and got to use it for the first time.

xmas day

Robert cooked an excellent beef tenderloin that everyone really, really enjoyed…

xmas day

We also had twice baked potatoes, broccoli salad, squash casserole from Mary Lou, green beans from Mary Beth, and rolls (that were supposed to be homemade but my dough didn’t rise. Oh well). We also had Ina Garten’s cranberry and apple cake for dessert (it’s sooo good). The boys didn’t really care for any of that but they were happy to have a big bowl of ice cream with chocolate syrup!

ice cream