Shanthi Patti

My parents and brothers are here celebrating Shanthi Patti's (Grandma Shanthi's) 80th Birthday!! My grandmother is here in the US for a few months and we are all gathering on the east coast this week to celebrate!

Ben has never met his great grandmother, but once she started playing with food they had an instant bond! I just love this picture!

Weekend Away...

Andrew has this week off, and since my parents were coming on Wednesday we decided to take a little mini-vacation-within-a-vacation before they got here. We were planning to camp, however the forecast did not seem to cooperate, so we went to Charlotte for three days instead! (YAY for a husband who travels and get hotel points so we can stay for free!) Here are a few pictures from our weekend!

Celebrating a birthday with a friend at Papas & Beer!



Naomi was not such a huge fan of the hat.



Our hotel... 6th floor.



Ben was impressed by the "trees that grow inside!!"



Naomi was NOT a fan of the glass elevator.



We ate amazing food... middle eatern, vietnamese, japanese... SOO yummy.



And no vacation is quite complete without a trip here... :)



And on vacation Ben gets to watch cartoons in the hotel... he loves it.

On Saturday Ben and Andrew went to the Discovery Museum... and watched an IMAX film.

They also built a New York City Skyscraper.



On Sunday we went to the Discovery Kids Museum, geared for younger kids. Naomi and Ben both had a blast playing in the water.



Driving a Race Car.



Riding a Cow. :)



And on Monday we took them to a huge mall in Charlotte, and saw the HUGE catfish in the tank at the Bass Pro Shop.

All in all a GREAT weekend!

Naomi: 17 Months

Naomi is already 17 months old! She is a spunky little girls who doesn't say many words but ALWAYS gets her point across. :) She can say Mama, Daddy, Uh-oh, & No with perfect inflection. :) She can sign please and more, and the rest she can communicate through a number of different ways... including her constant interpreter... her older brother. :)

Ben and Naomi have started really playing together. She LOVES sticks, and rolling around on the rug with a matchbox car making car noises. She wants to do everything Ben does. She likes reading, loves music and adores dogs. Any time we see one she jumps and squeals and points until we go and pet it.

She is not the automatic smiler that I thought she was going to be. She inherited her old brothers intense-knit-eyebrow look and uses it often... and always with new people. But she will wave anyone and everyone goodbye! :)

She is a crazy one and we love her to pieces!

Oh the hair! There really is a reason we call her Captain Crazy Hair!



This little girl loves the outdoors and is always up for an adventure!

We LOVE Crocs!

We are a crocs loving family. I got them first, then Andrew got a pair, and I don't think he has taken them off since. He has been through 3-4 pairs and wears nothing else (in the summer). At the beginning of summer we decided to get Ben a pair, and he has loved them! (And we love that he can put them on himself. I had been thinking of getting Naomi a "winter" pair since she has little thick feet, and I can't buy the target/walmart stuff that I always did for Ben. So when I saw THIS at the fair last week...

... and found out they gave Vendors a discount... I just had to go and look!



And here is what I found. :) I love them... and better yet... so does Naomi!



And the guys at the booth even game me these! Ben has been LOVING his little Croc Dude!
So there you go... Crocs are just awesome. :)

My Pirate

"Mom, look at me! I am SOO cool! Everyone is going to think I am a dead man!"

Post-Nap Hair

Oh, how I love it!

Picnic At The Biltmore

On Monday night Andrew was out of town, so being the wonderful, planner that I am... we went to the grocery store, and wandered around hungry until we found something we wanted to eat. :) (I am still recovering from the fair :-P... or at least that is my excuse). We settled on crackers, cheese, lunch meat, applesauce and oreos.

We had a great little picnic and even ran up and down the hill a couple times to use up all that toddler/little boy energy. :)

Rocking Girl...

Blogging Silence...

THIS is why I have not blogged for 2 weeks.... 106+ hours of my life were spent in this booth at the Mountain State Fair. It was worth it... but I am tired now! :)

And here are a few pictures from when I did get a away for a little bit!

And let me just say that I am one AMAZING husband. All 106 hours I was in that booth my children were with Andrew. He took them camping for two days (yes, alone), took them to the mall, to the Biltmore, to the botanical gardens, to Grandma's house, Sam's Club and More! And I even came home to clean toilets at the end of the week! That man deserves an award!!!!

First Jeans!