Family photo shoot

A few weeks ago, our good friend Jill took some family photos for us.  Jill says that she is just learning about photography, but I think she is AMAZING!!  I love how these photos came out and they are the unedited ones!!

*An extra special thank you goes out to Jill's husband Corey, who was the pack mule for the morning, carrying not only Jill's stuff, but our stuff around as well and for trying to get smiles from the kids...Brayden was in a difficult mood and Lilly was more interested in her monkey than anything else*

Love how she is looking up at Brayden in this one!

This one took a little convincing.  "But I am going to get dirty!"

Touchdown!

She had to try on my (actually Jill's necklace) too!

Another favorite

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this one!

And this one....how cute is this!

This totally captures Brayden!

Look at that spiral and perfect form!

He is totally happy when playing ball!  So glad we took the football with us!

Daycare Life

We have been blessed to have some wonderful people take care of our kids each day over the past few years and they are both thriving because of it! 

Even though Lilly is not smiling in any of the pictures, I promise that she loves these ladies and they love her (and Brayden)!

Ms LaTonya (1 year old teacher who Lilly was ATTACHED to)

Ms Chante (gym teacher/floater...she rocks!)

Ms Brenda (1 year old teacher...love her Puerto Rican spirit!)

Lilly recently moved up to the 2 year old class (this was a hard one for me because so much transition happens in this class...potty training, dressing themselves, colors, numbers, etc, etc).  Basically, it means that I don't have a baby anymore but instead I have a little girl.

I was actually concerned about how she would transition to the new class, but she went for her 2hr visit and never looked back!  There was no transition week for Lilly.  And apparently, she is now "in charge" in the classroom.  Small and mighty, I tell you!  She knows what she wants and knows what to do to get it!  She is also fiercely independent!

Within 2 weeks of moving to the new class, Lilly decided that she was ready for potty training so off to Target we went to buy Minnie Mouse and Princess panties.  She is doing OK with it, but still has at least 1 accident daily (mainly #2 or because she can't get her pants down far enough not to pee on them when she sits on the potty). 

I can't figure out to turn this thing (but this is Lilly's score card for the 1st day of potty training :)

Brayden has also been doing very well in his new class.  He moved up in early August to the Pre-K 2 class (rising kindergartners)!  They have "homework" 1-2 nights a week which I am fine with as long as it isn't mandatory just yet :)  Most nights we do the homework and he enjoys doing it because he loves to write, draw, cut, etc and that is what the homework is.  His 1st assignment a few weeks ago, was to write 5 words that start with each letter :D, E, and F.  Brayden came up with the list on the ride home and immediatly went to work writing the words out.  Of course, I had to help him spell them, but he did a great job! 

Tonight's assignment was to practice writing big "G", little "g", big "H", and little "H".  Brayden jumped right on that too, and went a step more and wanted to write a bunch of G and H words out!

     Duck, Dog, Daddy, Deer, Dare, Ethan, Egg, Eye, Ears, Eat, Football, Foot, Feather, Family, Friends

I love his enthusiasm for doing his "homework" right now!  I just hope it continues next year when we start school!

Light the Night 2013

In honor of Uncle John's fight last year with cancer, we did Light the Night again this year.  Light the Night is the Leukemia and Lymphoma's big fundraiser done each year.  This year (due to scheduling) we walked in Durham instead of Raleigh.  Our team this year was a bit bigger than last year!!

John and Dana
Benny and Teresa (aka BB and Nana)
Joe, Amy, and John Toomey (walking in memory of Joe's dad)
Joye and Ethan Mullis
Matt, Brayden, Lilly, and myself

Our team raised about $2000 (Matt has a bit more money from his office to put in!)  That is an amazing amount that go do so much for cancer research!

The reason we do this walk each year.

Team Toomenzor!!

T-Ball Fall 2013

Brayden is playing T-Ball this fall for the first time and is loving it!  I am not surprised though!  Most of the team is kids from daycare so he is very comfortable playing with them and one of his friends mom is the coach. 

They have 30 minutes of practice and the a 30 minute "game" each week.  It is perfect for this age and short enough for the younger siblings not to get into too much trouble!  They are learning the basics of hitting, catching, throwing/pitching, fielding the ball, etc.  During the games, each kid gets at least 1 turn to hit the ball and run the bases.  They don't play with outs right now so they just run to 1st base, then the next hitter hits and they run to 2nd base, etc. 

The kids are all so cute sitting on the bench cheering for their teammates when they are up at bat.  Each and every week, they have done this "Go Zach, Go Zach!!" or whomever is at bat.  SO. STINKIN'. CUTE!

The organization that he is playing with is big on sportsmanship, which I really like.  They encourage the coaches to teach the kids about a different aspect of sportsmanship each week and then at the each of each game, 2 kids are awarded for good sportsmanship.  The kids get a medal and get to take a big sign home for the week to put in the yard!!

Brayden won this past weekend!  We couldn't be more proud of him!  Keep up the good work buddy!  That is what it is all about! 

He is already asking to play basketball this winter...not sure about that one yet.  But we will definitly be signing up for soccer again in the spring as well as swimming. 

Dan Nicholas Park

About 1 month ago, we went to visit my parents and go to Dan Nicolas Park.  It is a county maintained park outside of Salisbury, NC (about 45 minutes from my parents house)

The last time I went to the park, I was probably about 8 years old and it was ok, but nothing special (although that was where we went for class field trips when I was little because there were not many options around!)  Back then, they had a big lake with paddle boats, putt putt, a playground, a merry-go-round, and a mini zoo area.  At least that is all I remember from when I was a kid.

Boy, was I amazed at how much the park had expanded and improved over the years!  It is HUGE now and has tons of stuff to do and see!  Thankfully, it was a beautiful day...clear skies, light breeze, and upper 70s (although a little chilly in the morning when we first arrived).

Now the park has 2 newly renovated putt putt courses (amazingly challenging I might add), a huge playgound area (with some equipment that I am certain I played on as a kid still there and an All Children's Playground area), a merry-go-round, small train that you can ride, splash park, larger than previous mini zoo, reptile center (with lots of snakes!), a petting zoo, large lake with paddle boats, camping spaces, picnic shelters and tables, and a gem mine!

The 1st thing Brayden wanted to do when we got there was to play putt putt.  It was right near the parking lot, so off we went.  We all had a great time and Lilly almost made a hole in one just by dropping her ball and letting it roll!

Then it was time for a slightly early lunch.  Most of the other attractions were a little ways away, so we figured it would be better to eat a little early than have to walk all the way back to the car and waste time.  My mom packed a picnic lunch (a huge one because that is how she does it...brings everything that you could possibly want/need on a picnic...and it usually all comes in handy at some point!).  We ate out in a huge grassy field and when the kids were done, they got to run around a little.  Perfect!  Then we hit the playground for about 15 minutes.  After that, we headed to the main part of the park. 

We first saw the merry-go-round and Lilly got all excited which made my mom happy.  Lilly and my mom rode the merry-go-round together.  We tried to get Brayden to do it, but he was not interested.  He is like me and doesn't like things that go in circles...I was getting sick just watching them ride!

Then we rode the little train around.  It was not all that impressive but the kids enjoyed it :)
We went into the mini zoo area and saw 2 bears, 2 wolfs, some deer (which we see all the time so they were not very exciting), a few birds, and several other animals that I don't remember now.  We then headed to the nature center (snakes, frogs, turtles, fish, etc).  Brayden enjoyed this...Lilly, my mom, and I only stayed about 2 minutes.  Not our thing!

Next we headed to the petting zoo and saw sheep, pigs, donkeys, chickens, and a few other birds.  They also had old wagons, tractors, plows, etc so we talked with Brayden about how farmers used to plow the fields, milk the cows, and about pioneers. 

We then headed through the woods to the lake.  Because Brayden is terrified of my dad's boat, I figured he would want nothing to do with the paddle boats, but I was wrong.  My dad took him out for about 10 or 15 minutes and Brayden loved it.  It wore my dad's knees out though!  If we had known that 2 adults and a kid could have gone, Matt or I would have gone to help with the paddling, but they survived and had fun.

The last thing we did was to go to the gem mine.  We bought 1 big bucket of dirt and sat at the troughs going through the dirt/sand with water and sifters.  We found sevearl nice rocks/gems that we kept.  The kids above us must have had a bucket with sharks teeth because I kept finding them...probably 8-10 in just a few minutes and I was scooping dirt/sand out of the trough instead of out of the bucket!

It was a fun day and we will definitly be going back to Dan Nicolas Park in a few years when Lilly can enjoy a bit more of the attractions!