{ Sunshine Served Daily } ::

a few weeks ago we went Blueberry picking with some friends! 


It all started here...   

And we did a lot of this...

   

 Finding lots of these beauties...

 

Resulting in lots of yummy goodness...

   

 We had an absolutely wonderful time and we both Loved picking the berries! It was a first for both of us! It was fun to be with friends and nothing better than hanging out with my little love bug! He really did an awesome job picking! This will definitely become a summer tradition for sure!

 

{ Summer Days } ::

we've spent many days at barnes and noble playing at the train in the kids section. we've woken up from naps and wait at the front door for daddy to get home from work. we've played sooo hard that we've had to lay down and take a break from all the fun. we've gone to the mall to ride the train, over and over again, its a love affair for this little boy!

 

we've gone to the science museum and had some science nerdy fun. we've found the frog boots i hide because its so blasted hot out, flip flops are a must, but if brody had the choice he'd wear his frog boots every single day. but his feet sweat in the them and well it's gross. but man alive i love him to bits and pieces it's crazy! more trips to barnes and noble to play and of course we have to stop in the music section and listen to songs. yeah we are cool like that.

 

tyson got called to be the Cub Master at church and his first big activity was a rain gutter regatta and he let me make the awards. i only had like an hour to bust them out, but i think they turned out so great and of course i was in heaven making them! brody likes to help tyson check his work email, he's very helpful if you can tell. a trip to Target would not be complete without a trip through the toy section - brody our photographer did a good job, as always. and what's an early morning thats not too hot or humid to go outside and sidewalk chalk. good times!

   

 a weekday breakfast of mickey mouse pancakes always makes me happy and my family happy and it's always more yummy when you eat mickey mouse. my water child...he LOVES to play in the water...so a hot day outside, calls for a fun day inside and playing in the sink is just the ticket = hours of fun! brody and i took a day trip out to the beach - yup that's the best picture i could get of us. Love him! he was yelling at seagulls telling them not to eat Nemo. ha! a picture from tyson's birthday lunch - and he was super surprised when the servers sang happy birthday to him!

we went on a family date to a Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball game. it was so hot and the team pretty much stinks. we've been to a few games now, pretty much for the fireworks at the end - and brody likes to get his groove on when the put on music. so its worth it - but really the team acts like they have never seen a bat or ball before. and days are not complete without playing the water, seriously its been SO HOT!!

one day brody said he wanted to paint a spaceship...so i said Ok! and i looked in the cupboard and found some goods and got my hot glue gun out and BAM! i created us some "spaceships"...see mom my art degree does come in handy! ;) we both loved every minute of it! we painted and i had tubes of glitter glue i bought at the dollar store and oh boy he loved those glitter glue sticks! such a fun activity!

just out together as a family! boy howdy i love these boys!! we've had some pretty fabulous summer evening thunder storms (love them!) and we saw a beautiful rainbow. a family lunch date in the car. we went to a bread store downtown called Montana bread company, its exactly like Great Harvest and OH SO YUMMY! we bought sandwiches and they had outdoor seating but it was raining so we just picnic'd it in the car. it was delish!!

and just this past weekend we moved!! yay!! we moved across town into a great place, close to awesome friends and really close to tyson's work. winning!! we love it so far and so happy we were able to make this move. And even better my brother came into town and helped us out so much. love him! 

so July's been good to us! I love my family heaps and gobs! they are best things ever!! i feel all warm and fuzzy just thinking of them. we sure are lucky to have each other! i can't believe it's almost August! we have so many more fun summer adventures ahead of us, I kinda can't wait to have more fun with family and friends! this is what summer is all about!

{ more fun than a barrel of monkeys } ::

Back in June, Tyson has a Statistics conference (sounds fun, huh?) in D.C. at Capitol One's headquarters - so we decided to tag along! While Tyson did his nifty statistics stuff during the day, Brody and i played. then in the evenings we got Tyson to ourselves for dinner and to play! it was a total win win for us all! Every night we ate ate at Cafe Rio! we were lucky and there was one minutes away from us! heaven i tell you, heaven! i was so happy i almost wanted to cry, but was way to busy eating to get that sappy!

   

on our first full day Brody and I slept in, ate breakfast in bed and played around our hotel suite. tyson joined us for lunch then he went back to work and brody and i headed into Georgetown to have some fun. it was a really hot day, so we spent sometime along the water front playing in the fountains. the water coming out felt like ice, which was nice because it was so warm but brody got cold pretty quickly. so after playing we walked over to Sprinkles cupcakes for a treat. it was nice to relax in the air conditioning and eating yummy cake! brody had his regular - vanilla cake with vanilla frosting with sprinkles and i tried the lemon cupcake. so good! after taking our time in Sprinkles we then headed back to the car but stopped off and walked through the canal paths. we got back to our room just in time to read some books and take a nap before tyson got back to our hotel room.

   

we had a blast enjoying our evenings with Tyson. we went swimming in the pool and relaxed watching some movies.

on our second day it was hot and rainy. a gross combination i tell ya! we headed down to the museums. we drove around for what felt like 100 hours trying to find a parking spot. those stink'in tour buses are everywhere right now and seriously take up every parking spot! just had to get there out there. anywhos...we finally found a great parking spot and we headed to the natural history museum. we checked out our favorite exhibits the dino bones, mammals, and oceans. and on TUESDAYS you can go see the butterfly exhibit for Free. so we hurried up stairs to get tickets and they had just given out the last bunch of them. SOB! So we sadly peeked through the windows and said hello to the butterflies. perhaps next time! after the natural history museum we made our way over to the air and space museum in the warm steamy rain. lovely. the air and space museum is pretty much a little boys dream come true. we love that place. after a couple of hours i realized our meter was about to run out so we both pretty much sprinted to the car, we made it just in time! you have to have your car moved by 4pm or you get towed. and cars were already being towed! we seriously got so lucky! we had some snacks and then brody fell right to sleep, so i just drove around until tyson was done with work!

on our last day we got a late checkout and brody and i took our time getting ready. we slept in, ate breakfast, danced around, played with cars and watched a movie, then finally decided to pack up and get things in the car. once we were all packed we headed over by the jefferson memorial and parked the car and started out trek. or should i say in brodys words...RUN! we ran. after a while cause it was hot, i would tell him to run so far ahead and then run back to me. it worked quite well until he was ready for me to pick him up. we made our way all the way over to the Lincoln memorial where we stopped for some popcorn and pop! after our little break, we ran some more. and then made our way along the water front. we played in the open park by some baseball fields, brody enjoyed himself while playing on a big mound of dirt with a few sticks and rocks. love it! and we watched helicopters fly really low over us. over and over again. it was pretty cool. we finally made our way back to the car and made our way to tyson. he was let out early in hopes to beat traffic (ha, yeah right!), we were smarter than that and we drove to cafe rio for one more yummy dinner. we are good now on cafe rio, pretty sure we wont be craving it for a while.

all and all it was a great few days, it was so much fun having little adventures away from home with brody! he's the best little sidekick and i love him to pieces. he is so great! And we were super happy we got to tag along with Tyson! we are super lucky to have such a great daddy who works so hard! we are pretty lucky too in the fact his work encourages their employees to have their families travel with them! so great! and perk they totally take care of us! double win! we kinda can't wait for the next travel trip!

{ happy 4th of July } ::

Happy 4th of July! we spent our morning with friends eating yummy food...we spent the afternoon as a family playing and hanging out, celebrating tyson's birthday and spending the evening once again eating yummy food, playing the in water and setting off fireworks that come to find out are illegal in our county, opps! nonetheless it has been an awesome day! 

we sure are proud to be Americans! HAPPY 4TH!!

{ Our Favorite } ::

Happy Happy Birthday to our most favorite person ever!

we are sure are lucky to have this guy as the best husband

and papa bear out there! 

we LOVE you oh so much!

xoxo

{ that one time in ohio } ::

let's travel back to memorial day weekend when we hopped in the car and headed back up to our favorite stomping grounds! 

we spent at week in columbus enjoying all the things we've always loved doing! we got to see our most favorite people, eat yummy food and have an absolutely wonderful time! 

 pretty much all my pictures are random - i didn't do the best job of documenting everything we did. we were having too much fun to worry about pictures! but i'm glad i got the pictures that i did take! 

 so this is kinda how things went down ...

 

the boys bonded by getting ready together (so cute, thank you very much!) 

we swam in our hotel pool 

we visited our favorite Goodwill store! classy, i know! isn't that what everyone does on vacation? and while shopping brody got in a workout with his "up and downs" as he likes to call them. and of course we had to take a walk around where we use to live and visit the dairy queen that is located just a block or two from our old house. good times!! 

 and we ate...we ate a lot! because well, eating is something we do best! and on top of it, we've been craving all the yummy foods you can ONLY get in Columbus. be glad i didn't document every single eating adventure!

 

northstar cafe and piada were just two of the many favs! and on top of that goodness we got to eat with some of our favorite ohio state university statisticians! whom all just need to graduate and come get jobs at capitol one! just sayin! 

 

and if i'm going to keep talking about food...

 

then i will tell you how we of course had to stop off at Buckeye Donuts one morning for breakfast! 

 and well, while i am at it...

 

we had to enjoy the most perfect "slushie/slurpee" known to mankind! our favorite mt.dew slushie/slurpee whatever you want to call it goodness! okay...so moving on... other fascinating highlights also included...

 

riding the bus! if you didn't know...it's one of brody's ultimate favorite things to do! you can read more about that here! 

 we also...

 

spent a few days at our favorite water park Zoombezzi bay! our passes were still good, that's one reason we went back to ohio...was so use our passes one more time! we had a blast!! 

 and on top of that...

 

we had a play date with friends at the COSI (science museum) and ate lunch at noodles.

 we BBQ'd with some of our favorite friends...oh how we love them all! 

brody got to see some of his favorite friends! 

my amazing friend kelli put together a little birthday get together for brody at the park and we ate cupcakes and ice cream sandwhichs and played! 

 and if that wasn't enough...

 

we had to take a picture with Brutus...because we all love Brutus! 

 and finally the cherry on top of our trip...

 

hanging out with our extended family the Tolman's! we just love them so much! tyson and brody got to meet baby Frost for the first time and brody just adored her! 

 Oh Ohio! there's a song that goes a little something like this... 

I wanna go back to Ohio State

 To old Columbus town, 

To the stadium to hear the band, 

By far the finest in the land, 

I wanna go back to Ohio State

 To old Columbus town, 

I wanna go back, 

I gotta go back,

 To Ohio!!! 

 I pretty much have been singing that song since we moved to Virginia. And even with multiple trips back the past few months...I always wanted to stay there and not come back. but this time was different. this time i had my boys with me and well...coming back to Virginia wasn't so bad, probably because we were coming back home together. i'm not sure what it was. but i was glad we are here. 

 i am so happy for everything and memories i hold near and dear to my heart that that amazing place offered us. but i am happy to be here in richmond and be in a new place that offers us more memories and adventures and on top of it the people we've met are so amazing, and for that i am grateful. i am sure i will long to be in columbus for a while longer, and i know we will be heading back for season upon season of football games. but it feels good when you finally are in a place and are happy to be where you are! and even if virginia is our home forever or wherever we be...we will always be BUCKEYES!! 

 THE END.

{ And then there was....) ::

The Month of MAY! Seriously how can it already be mid-june? whhhaaaa? seriously! a friend of mine said it perfectly...I am not exactly sure how to always be caught up on everything in life...somehow I always seem to fall behind. If there was a way to make more time in a day I would take it! me too...meeee too!!

 I am somewhat behind on where I should be on most of my domestic duties, but I know one thing for sure, I am ahead of the game when it comes to loving on my brody bear!! I hate when I have to put life chores in front of playing. I am pretty good at doing most stuff at nap time and at night, but there are those days that call for more. In a perfect world every day would be a park day with my little guy!!

 Pretty much we are just super lucky and we are just hanging out having fun around these parts. So here is a photo dump of our Month of May...and hopefully to getting caught up on our daily happenings!
     

Some randoms :: Brody and Tyson are little fishing pros! i tagged along one night and went fishing with my boys. so fun! i am amazed at how brody knows exactly what to do...cast and reel. what a little stud! 

 Playing in the front yard with the hose on a nice warm day! 

 we took a few trips to the zoo...feeding the giraffes is always highlight. brody loves it. i think it's so gross. those giraffes tongues are so gross and drooly! yuck! but hey it is cool to be so up close to such a cute animal. 

 playing in the dirt and collecting rocks at the historical farm.

    

for cinco de mayo...my friend kim and i got a bunch of friends together to have a little party! i made two pinatas that turned out to be a lot harder to break then ever imaginable! it ended up taking a couple of moms smashing the boxes against the tree to have treats go exploding! it was so much fun!!

 

more randoms :: always working on our painting skills. so much fun. i LOVE that brody loves to paint and be creative. makes my hearts skip and beat with happiness.

 family walk for some ...ice cream! 

 Two words :: Dance PARTY! Friday PIZZA! 

making our own homemade pizzas on friday nights is one of our favorite things to do!

 

for mother's day...i woke up with a terrible migraine. so not cool. so the boys went to church and i stayed home and rested. but i still had to get a picture with my little man. love him so much it's outta control! and my bear picked me out some beautiful flowers. lucky to have him and the hubs too!

 

brody and i took tyson to the aviation museum. brody and i have been multiple times now, but tyson's never been. well that changed, and he loved it as much as we did. its small, but has so much to see. it's so fun. and it's free for us, thanks for our science museum pass we have from Ohio. winning!!

 

so i'm kinda obsessed with finding the "BEST" of _________. you fill in the blank in place we live/visit. so one day i googled Best Donuts in Richmond Virginia. And this place - Country Style Donuts came up with mad awesome reviews. is was pretty much the only place that was recommended as being the bomb! so OF COURSE we had to go and try it! so we did... and the verdict?? AMAZABALLS!!! so good. like think about them, dream about them. good thing its like almost 30 minutes from where we live, otherwise we'd be in trouble. SO GOOD! end of story.

 

more randoms:: cleaning the car. brody loves when he and i go to vacuum the car and clean it. i clean, he plays.

 brody is pretty much obsessed with my green smoothies. drinks then ALL. THE. TIME. 

 i make my green smoothie like this :: 

1 big handful of ice 

1 cup of orange juice

1/2 cup of milk 

1 frozen banana ( i have a freezer full of over ripened bananas, i just stick it in the microwave for like 25 seconds, it makes it easier to peel it) 

1 honker handful of baby spinach (at least a cup of spinach) 

1 scoop vanilla protein powder 

 Throw it all in and blend up till smooth. It's delish!

 sometimes i add berries in, but we love the orange banana flavor best. SO GOOD friends...hello my 3 year old drinks it all the time! OBVIOUSLY you cant taste the spinach! just sayin! 

one day we were waiting for tyson to meet us for lunch, so i let brody out of his car seat and let him play. love'in life!

 and once again at the historical farm ringing the farm bell. one of his favorite things about the farm!

 

we went strawberry picking and had a really good time, and the strawberries were SO YUMMY!!! but the highlight was probably the tractor ride that we rode like 5 times. brody was in tractor heaven! such a good family outing!

 

last of the randoms :: tyson and brody went on there very first Father and Son's camping trip with church. they both loved it! brody loved throwing rocks into the lake, roasting marshmallows, and sleeping in the tent. tyson loved spending so much time with his little bear. tyson can't wait for all of us to go camping together. can't wait! i was kinda jealous of them. but so happy they went and had so much fun! 

 brody pushing his animals around and telling me he was going to play for 5 more minutes. okay buddy! 

 there was a local carnival over by our house that came into town and brody begged to go. so one saturday night we went for a little outing. we bought some tickets and they all got used to ride down this huge slide. brody loved it! he didnt want to do anything else. so he did it 8 times and then we were out of tickets. so pretty much we went so brody could ride down the slide. oh well, he loved it and it was fun! we ended that night with slurpees. 

 so there we have it. the month of May! i do have one more May post about a little trip we took to OHIO. so for now....yay for May....and hello June! I better hurry...it will be July before we know it!

{ Today you are 3 } ::

 

 Today my little bear you turned 3! 3! I almost can't believe it! Life sure changed for the best 3 years ago this day and we couldn't be happier! Oh how we love you! We love your spunky personality and your zest for life! We love how tender-hearted you are, and how sweet, loving and kind you are! You definitely have some spark plug in you as well! ;) Your heart is ginormous and exploding with love for everything around you daily! You never forget to tell us you love us daily and make sure we are smothered hugs and kisses! Life is so much sweeter seeing the world from your view! we definitely appreciate the little things more than ever! every stick, rock, pile of dirt, splashing in rain puddles, seeing trains and buses...we will always notice the joy these things bring to you and US! Even when I am in the car and I am alone and I see a garbage truck or fire truck my heart leaps with happiness for a few seconds wanting to point it out to you, it makes me so happy! oh how we love you!!

   

We love how your happiness is contagious! and we love how happy you make us and others that know you! you seriously are one funny kid! for instants just the other night your daddy accidentally said that something smelled like "dog crap"...but trying to hurry and cover up saying "crap" (because we don't say stuff like that ;) ) he said crumbs. And now you keep going around saying that things smell like "doggie crumbs". lovely. but it sure does give us a little chuckle! it may not sound funny to others, but you definitely know how to make up laugh! oh how we love you!

  

if you were given the chance you would ride in an airplane to Disneyland every. single. day! since our trip in February to the most magical place on earth, you PRAY daily and ask about 100 times a day to go back! i wish i could take you back daily too! your imagination is without a doubt one of my most favorite things about you! you are so creative and can come up with some of the most magical ideas! we have so much fun climbing snowing mountains and going camping on the beach and making forts with kitchens to bake cakes in, we swim in the ocean with dolphins and feed kola bears cotton candy! everyday is an adventure with you! if you could, you would probably want to live outside and run and run AND run! oh how we love you!!  

 

 you love to sing and dance! our nightly dance parties never get old and boy howdy you've got some moves that groove!! you love to sing and lately you will sing, but you've all the sudden started to whisper while you sing, silly boy. i am sure one of these days you will be belting all our songs from the top of your lungs. i look forward to it! :) we love that you love to learn! you somehow catch onto something new every day and some how we learn a new lesson in life too. sometimes we forget you've been just 2! and now you are 3! it's crazy amazing to think of all the things you've done and learned in such a short amount of time. you are incredibly amazing! oh how we love you!!

   

oh little boy. you are our lives! you are what brings up the most amazing happiness one could ever experience! how lucky and blessed we to have you! we feel grateful for you! I somehow scored the job of my dreams and get to be your mom. There are occasional not so cool moments, but there a lot of dreamy moments too. Temper tantrums & all, you send us over the moon. we cannot get enough of you...you make our lives complete. This whole growing up thing is a good reminder to take it all in while we can. It goes fast, but I am happy I even get the opportunity to be with you every single day - it's the opportunity of a lifetime and I feel so lucky!! 

 we love you little bear! HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!

{ just call me MOM } ::

"I don't want to drive up to the pearly gates in a shiny sports car, wearing beautifully, tailored clothes, my hair expertly coiffed, and with long, perfectly manicured fingernails. I want to drive up in a station wagon that has mud on the wheels from taking kids to scout camp. I want to be there with a smudge of peanut butter on my shirt from making sandwiches for a sick neighbors children. I want to be there with a little dirt under my fingernails from helping to weed someone's garden. I want to be there with children's sticky kisses on my cheeks and the tears of a friend on my shoulder. I want the Lord to know I was really here and that I really lived." — Marjorie Pay Hinckley 

this quote is among my favorites. it reminds me every time how much work motherhood really is and how it can truly mold you in all areas of your life, if you let it. there is a constant desire for mothers everywhere to do it all and look good doing it. i strive every day to just do my best and i know i have a long way to go. with my own mother as my role model, i take baby steps to where i hope to be. remembering the little things, and what's truly important will get me there. (with a lot of prayer). 

 i feel soooooo incredibly grateful and lucky to be this little guys mom. i am thankful for tyson who helped make me a mom and that i have him to help me be my best! i am so happy that i get to spend every single day with brody. i wouldn't change that for the world. i am so happy that i am the one who gets to teach him, have adventures with him, dance and laugh with him, wipe the tears, have hard times, and receive endless loves, hugs, and wet kisses every day! i'm happy that he's my little shadow that follows me around everywhere and wants to be where i am. i am happy that he is my little helper and loves to help me do the simple things. i love that i get to be the one to watch this little person grow and learn everyday and watch his personality sparkle and shine. i love you little boy more than you will ever know. you fill my soul with so much happiness and love that sometimes i think my heart could burst! there's nothing better than hearing you call my name "mom/mommy" a million times a day. i need you and you need me. it's perfect!

happy mother's day. xoxo.