Moving...

physically and virtually. Any guesses where? Here's a hint:
It's going to be very different.

We're excited (and a little nervous). If you'd like to go on this journey with us send me your email address and I'll invite you to our new blog. We're moving that, too... and it's private. I know, I know :) nicolinisnail at gmail dot com. Hope to see you in our new home!

He's a Sunbeam!

Liam graduated from Nursery!
In church kids are grouped into classes by age. Nursery is the youngest class, with kids from ages 18 months to 3 years. Now he's in Sunbeams, an actual Primary class!
Oh, this makes me feel so old. I can't believe how big Liam is getting. And he's only going to get bigger. Yikes.
He's been in the Sunbeam class for 2 weeks now and is doing really well! I hope it continues :) Love my Sunbeam!

Gingerbread Construction

My sister, Jackie came to visit after Christmas. One day we made graham cracker "gingerbread" houses; A tradition in the Pilcher household :)
Liam started out putting the candy on his house, like you're supposed to.
But he soon started just eating the candy. Should I really have thought he would do otherwise?
And then it started to fall...
Liam will huff and puff...
and knock your fake gingerbread house down.
These two houses survived... Mason didn't actually make his house...
Liam tried his best to demolish them, believe me.
I have these visions of doing projects like this with my sons and them turning out well! I want my boys to use their creativity and ingenuity to actually finish a project. The realist in me knows that projects will always turn out like this, though; Destroyed before they're even finished. I'll keep trying. Maybe one day it'll work out ;)

Christmas 2010

Christmas was nice and relaxed this year. We mostly just sat around in our PJs and played with toys. I loved it! Here's the tree before it was ransacked:
Mason wasn't interested in opening presents, but he was happy to play with the ones that were already opened. Liam was ok with that as he finally got the whole Christmas/presents thing and wanted to open everything. On Christmas Eve we even had Santa "talk" to Liam on the internet and he was totally enthralled by it! I'll be excited for next year when Liam really understands what is going on :) It makes Christmas so much more fun!
Plastic wrapping is way more fun than toys.

It snowed for about 5 minutes. I was really hoping for a white Christmas... I guess partially white is good, right? Better than Florida, anyway.
We went out to find some good, Christmassy things to do. We found an ice-skating rink next to a big Christmas Tree. Fun :) *check out Liam's face*
Liam started shivering, though, so we didn't stay long. Poor, thin-blooded Floridians.
I love Christmas! And I love that it was cold for us this year!
I hope you had a lovely Christmas!

More of Mason's B-day

Liam "helped" open the presents because Mason really didn't care about them...
He liked them when we got them open, though :)
Family Photo. (This would be decent if the boys were looking at the camera)
And then we played.
And Mason walked.
These are actually from earlier that day. Mason got a play tent that Liam was obsessed with. It was fun.
Everyone had to get in the tent.
Good times :) Oh, and Happy New Year!

Mason's Birthday Cake!

Mason's cookie-construction cake.
I totally copied this idea from a friend. It was just so perfect for a boy's first birthday!
I don't think Mason knew what to think when Dave brought out his cake.
Liam and I helped him blow out his candle. Mason just tried to touch the flame.
Mason's personal "1" cake.
He didn't know what to do.
We tried to give him bites but he just wasn't very interested. The bulldozer was a big hit, though :)


Liam, however, finally learned the joy of cake (he usually just eats the icing).
And you may notice that he refused to use his fork. He's been doing this more and more lately... is it because Mason doesn't use a fork?
My sister, Jackie, was able to be in town for the mini-festivities :)
Mason made a decent mess, but didn't actually consume much of the cake. I'm not sure if he enjoyed the experience. What do you think that face says?
He'll learn. There will be plenty of birthdays.

This Little Guy

Turned ONE today!! Let me tell you a little about him.

He's adorable. Dark hair, interesting bluish/green/grey eyes and so, so sweet. He's super cuddly. Often he'll crawl up to me just to give me a Mason-hug, which is him dropping his head in my lap/on my leg/wherever he can reach for a second then finding something else to do. It's so cute!

He loves his blanket. He has to have it to sleep and will often go find it just to give it a little snuggle and maybe chew on it a little.

It's funny; He'll crawl over to it, face-plant on the blanket, then chew on it for a minute. Very cute.
Mason has 8 teeth but I'm pretty sure he's teething again. I only really notice his birthmark on his left ear, which is good since it used to cover half of his face.
He crawls all over and is pretty fast, getting into everything. He has started walking a little, although he's not very steady yet. It doesn't help that Liam is always pushing him over.

He's much quieter than Liam, although he is finding his voice. It takes more work to make him laugh and smile, too :) He loves to eat bananas and string cheese. And we love this little baby!! Happy Birthday, Mason!

We hope you had a Merry Christmas!

Someday I'll send out Christmas cards... someday.

Botanic Gardens

After seeing the trains we visited the rest of the gardens. While beautiful, Dave, Liam and Mason were just not very impressed...
until we found the huge Christmas tree in the main courtyard. Lovely. And there was another train.
The main courtyard also housed mini National Mall replicas. See the Washington Monument behind me?
Botanic Gardens--Fun place at Christmas :)

Botanical Trains

The National Botanic Gardens has a Christmas train exhibit so we went to see it.
There were poinsettias everywhere!
The mini trains run through landmarks from around the world, which are made entirely from plant materials! See the train over Liam's shoulder?
There goes Percy flying by. We also saw Thomas the train chugging around. Liam, along with every other little boy there, was captivated. He stood by the little barricade, unmoving, searching for trains.
The workmanship on these mini monuments was very impressive! It looked like a lot of fun to make.
Liam could have spent hours in here watching the trains. But it was starting to get crowded so we left to explore the rest of the gardens...