What a gorgeous day!

We ventured outside today to enjoy the beautiful weather. It was in the 50s! Lawrence was on cloud 9 -- he LOVES playing outside and asks all the time to go out, but it's been too cold. His face absolutely lit up when I asked him if he wanted to go out when he got up from nap and I could hardly get my shoes on fast enough for him.



Lawrence stepped in mud while he was playing. If you know me at all, you know that mud + shoe = a freaking out Jess. You'd be proud, though, because I was chill about it. And my mother probably wouldn't believe me (I could hardly believe it myself, even as I was saying the words), but Law said "uh oh" about the mud and I told him "It's okay -- we can get dirty outside."

Lawrence is definitely my kid, though...because being dirty really bothered him. I kept telling him it was okay, but he found a leaf, dipped it into a puddle and tried to wipe off his shoe.

While cleaning his shoe, his hands got messy...and then he wanted to go inside. I was almost moved to tears!

Not at all a good photo, but in case you were wondering, Andersen enjoyed the nice weather, too. He was snuggled in my BeeByMeCouture wrap (which he loves! Sometimes, it's the only way I can calm him down) all the while Lawrence and I were coloring with chalk, driving his new trike and freaking out about getting dirty.

In other news, AJ gave me his first true smile yesterday. I was starting to freak out just a bit because my weekly baby development updates keep telling me I should be "enjoying baby's smiles" and I hadn't gotten any intentional ones yet...only the ones in his sleep. It was so cute, too -- I was talking to him and he suddenly grinned and then he seemed to get all embarrassed and looked away. Andersen shared the love with his daddy this morning.

Hope you all have a fabulous Super Bowl Sunday!

It's all going too fast!

I knew it would...time went far too quickly when Law was a baby and I knew it would only go by faster this time around. It's hard to believe Lawrence is now TWO and Andersen will be six weeks old tomorrow.

Here are a few pics of my big boy:

And here are some of Andersen over the past few weeks:


Around two weeks old:

First smile on camera:


you can see his red hair in this one:

...and his chunky cheeks in this one (I can stop kissing them! They're so squishy and delicious!)

And here are some of them together. Lawrence still loves his brother and hasn't shown any jealousy. He is, of course, still a normal two-year-old and spends plenty of time in time-out, though.

The boys just before bed in their matching onesies:

Lawrence had a great birthday. He started off the day with an extra-special birthday donut (the remnants of which can be seen on his face):

After breakfast, we went to the Durham Museum to see the trains. He LOVES "choo-choos."

We had birthday cake at Nana & Papa's that night:



Law had his birthday party this past Saturday. It was a "Choo Choo! Lawrence is turning TWO!" party.

He had SO much fun!

He had a great time with his friends and family and the slide he got from Grandpa was an especially big hit!

A pic of mommy and her little guys:


Tonight, the boys had their first bath together. I think Law was a bit annoyed to share...his LOVES his bathtime and AJ's tub took up more room than I think he was happy about.

Hope you're all doing well and having a great start to your 2009!