March visit at Ellie's with Grandma and Grandpa Jeff

The first week of March Grandma Melody and Grandpa Jeff came up to Ellie's for a visit. We hadn't seen them since Labor Day week so it was great to catch up when we came down for a long weekend!

We beat the kids home from school Friday so Max and Ali had at all their small toys which we're not used to at our house!

We celebrated Luke's 9th birthday with an awesome tornado cake!

Even had craft time...

And some down time...

And lots of crazy basement play time!

On Saturday it was nice to we went to Downtown Warrenton. Some folks fixed up a really old jail and it's pretty cool (and scarey!) to visit...

The rooms apparently did get very crowded but they probably didn't have to sit UNDER the benches...

Had a snack at the Red Truck Cafe...

And a nap with Grandma:)

More pics

Because of course Ellie's pictures are much better than mine:)

Out of the mouth of my babe...

I'm behind on pictures from our VA Grandma visit but I just wanted to post a conversation so it stays with us in memory forever...

Being goofy the other night...
Max: All the toys [in the house] are mine!
Me: What about Aliyah?
Max: (after pausing a moment) Liyahs not a toy...

I laughed and laughed so he kept saying it, having NO idea why I thought it was so funny. I tried to explain that some of the toys were hers but it went over his head. At least I know he wasn't saying it to be selfish:)

Shenandoah Crossing and Nate's Birthday

Happy Birthday Daddy! We had our first birthday celebration at Grandpa Ken and Grandma Diana's complete with party hats and cake!

Then we had a long weekend in Shenandoah Crossing. We had a great time despite Nate getting sick. We had nice weather and the kids actually slept well! Friday morning we headed into the Discovery Museum in Charlottesville which the kids loved of course!


Dress up costumes.... the giraffe was a little small.
Peanut loves to be pretty!
Lightening McQueen race outfit seemed a bit more fitting!
This is the look you get when she knows she is doing something wrong but wants to make sure you see it. She did turn around before going down the slide!

Play time outside!



And lots of swim time.
Then Aunt Ellie, Uncle Josh, Luke and Emma came to visit. We had lots of fun seeing the horses, going to a Mardi Gras party, swimming and having more happy for daddy's birthday!






It was a good weekend. Monday I had off for Presidents Day so we set up a surprise birthday party for Nate in the dining room with all kinds of left over party supplies and home made birthday banners with sorbet for dessert. Max loved to have his party and give him his presents. Unfortunately on Nate's birthday, Tuesday, he had gotten so sick he had to come home from work but he seems to be on the mend now.

Not too much else in other news. Besides lots of traveling but we'll be done that soon because we start swim lessons in a few weeks. I found a class we can all do together because Max and Aliyah will both be in the same class and it's with parents. Max did pretty good on vacation he just needs to get a little braver to swim without holding on to one of us. The kids are so light it's just hard to find the right devise that will hold their heads up.

Our other news is that my mom lost her job. For now she will be collecting unemployment and watching the kids all 3 days. This means we'll be dropping the Tuesday sitter for now so I can pay my mom instead. I do really like her but it will be a lot less hassle for me getting the kids up and over there, packing all their stuff, etc...I'll only have to take them to my mom's one morning and they literally go in their PJ's to her house and just eat breakfast there so it's a lot less packing and hassle. We're also starting to look for pre-schools for Max!! With his October birthday he'll start kindergarden late so he'll have 2 years of pre-school starting with Tues/Thurs in the fall and then Mon/Wed/Fri the following year. It's so scarey to think about but I do think he'll enjoy it. He's becoming such a big boy it's so fun to watch him grow out of toddler hood into a preschooler. He can write his name himself, tell you where he lives and our latest big accomplishment is waking up dry (sometimes getting up at night to pee)! He's been potty trained for a long time but not for sleeping. This also means we make many potty trips while traveling but I realize this is all part of things! Aliyah is good, she's still working on her last two top teeth. She has a huge temper and crazy personality but is so cute it makes it hard to get mad at her. We're working on some days only having one nap and really shortening the morning one (or she won't sleep in the pm) but she wakes up so early (6am-ish) it's just a long time for her to go. I'm lucky I have such good sleepers (Max still sleeps 1 1/2 -3 hours in the afternoon!). I can't imagine the day when they don't nap. But they're so cute, starting to really play together and just being such good, self entertaining kids! We just really are so blessed!

Mogel Family Reunion weekend

Well, this winter was a little tough for the Mogel holiday get together.... it was the first one since we sold mom-mom's house but since we all like to be together we worked it out. Most of the VA/NY gang stayed in Harrisburg between my mom's and our house and we had a blast. The kids had so much fun playing together and Max loves when people sleep over! (We did miss Michelle though but glad she stayed home and let her back heal.). Saturday we had brunch at my mom's and then took a trip to Chocolate World in Hershey. We had dinner back at our house. Sunday we headed in to catch up with the rest of the family and visited with mom-mom. Unfortunately her place was in lock down due to a bug going around but we were able to meet at the Chapel. It was great to see Katie's growing belly and meet Ryan's fiancee Tracey and just have almost the whole family together! Can't wait for the next one!!!

Brothers:)
Kids enjoying late Christmas gifts!

Hoping someone got a better shot!

Snow!

We finally got some snow!! We've been waiting anxiously. It wasn't snow man snow like Max wanted but he did get to do the second best thing, make his snow angel!

The neighbors came down to play (and share a new snow blower!). Lost one!

I had to wake her up from her morning nap so she wouldn't miss the fun. Poor kids, I only had one mitten for them each so she is wearing baby mittens not made for snow. (Max wore the one mitten I had for each of them, luckily the snow covered Ali's pink leopard print one).


It didn't last long but we'll take what we can get. If it's going to be cold it might as well snow!

Farm Show 2012

Yet another year of the farm show. It was fun that Aliyah was old enough to really enjoy the animals this year. Max was less than thrilled with them (I really think he was kind of scared to be honest) but he loved the tractor parts of course. This picture is "Frank" from the Cars movie. He likes to take all his cars and act out the scenes and this is one of his favorite when Mater and Lightening go Tractor tipping until Frank comes and scares them away!

Max walked almost the whole time till we got to the end. Then he wanted in the stroller. Aliyah was SO excited to get to ride on daddy's shoulders. I figure it was quite a different point of view from up there than where she had been the rest of the time.

This is his "cheese" face.

She loved the animals "look mom a cow!"

She just stuck her hand in, big brother was scared but she sure wasn't. He even talked about it for days how Ali wanted to touch the animals!

I had to get Aliyah a bathing suit for our Shenandoah Crossing trip coming up in February since there is an indoor pool. Luckily for me (crazy for them!) Target has some out already. I got it a size up so she can still wear it in the summer but I wanted to try it on her to make sure it would be ok for now too. I did and it fit and I put her PJ's back on but she thought it was so pretty she wanted it back on and wore it like this for about 3 hours until I made her take it off for her nap (yes, some days the kids stay in their PJ's all day...). To top it off she wanted her mittens on as well, quite an outfit!