A Bees Birthday

I realize after this post that I must not use my phone for all my pictures, they are starting to make me nauseated!

The night celebrating our nephew Liam's birthday was the ultimate summer night, so I just want to document it!

We had the most tasty and adorable barbeque at my sister's home.

She had the hot dogs on an old fashioned hot dog roller machine, ice cream in little plastic baseball hats, and even cracker jacks!  We were excited to see there are still prizes inside but they are pretty lame, like a paper pencil topper.

We all headed to the Bees game after and were excited to be entertained by fireworks after.

Well, it rained and rained and poured some more.

That didn't stop us from having a wonderful time, especially all of the kids.

corinne. nicholas. me. andrew

The girls splashed, ran, and rolled down the wet grassy hill.  They were beside themselves with how much fun they had.  

I love seeing little Jane in other peoples arms, she just looks beensy.  Her calm temperament has us pretty smitten.  

We didn't see any baseballs thrown, but I have seen many baseball games.  I have never enjoyed watching   all of the kids play in such a storm.

It was a perfect celebration for adorable Liam!

We have an announcement!

We are pregnant!

Ok, just kidding, was anyone very scared for us, cause I would be!

(Although I would like to note that I have seen prego people and had pregnancy envy, go figure.)

The REAL announcement is that Adam PASSED the BAR!!!!

Wahoo!!!  Wahoo!

He found out on Saturday and we were all beyond giddy.  What a relief for Adam to have all of the hard work from the summer pay off!  We are so proud of how he juggled studied such grueling hours throughout the beautiful summer, helped us move and get the house ready, and was an amazing husband and father when little Jane came, even though it was getting close to testing day.

WE LOVE YOU ADAM!!

And since we are announcing things and need some pictures to feast our eyes on, Caroline started Kindergarten and she wishes that the weekend was filled with school too.  She has made lots of friends and has an obsession with one, Olivia.  It is the most innocent and carefree bond, I adore watching them.  They seriously almost hyperventilate when they spy each other at the bus stop.

Her favorite thing about going to school is riding the bus.  

We were going to wait a week and just drop her off at school ourselves, but she insisted on the second day that she ride the bus.  Adam rode with her just to make sure she was ok and wasn't too nervous (I just love how sweet you are babe!)

I am so glad he rode just so he could report how hilarious it was. 

The kids were chanting "Parent on the bus!  Parent on the bus!"  They thought it was the funniest thing.

Caroline sat by Olivia and they had a lot to say..or Caroline did anyway:

C: I can't believe we are riding on the bus!  Whoa, this bus driver drives crazy!   I hope he is careful.  Can you believe they don't have carseats on the bus?  That's crazy!

I can't believe you lost a tooth Olivia, that's crazy!

You have an Olivia backpack and I have an owl backpack.  Don't worry, it's not real, you can

touch it.

Adam said she used the word Crazy about 20 times. 

 The next day when Adam walked Caroline across the street to the bus stop, some boys were eyeing him up and down and said, "There's that parent."

He caused quite a commotion.

She has been giddy about everything, as you can see.  And Olivia and Caroline can't even get on the bus without holding hands.  

I knew she would be confident and thrilled to start school.  We were actually late the first day, (parent of the year, I know) which maybe was good because I didn't really have time to think too much.  

But when I quickly rushed her into her classroom where all the little innocent faced children were sitting, I started to lose it.

I had to steal a kiss from her, and poof, she was off and loving life.

I am so happy that she is comfortable and has a zest for life and learning.

Knock 'em dead sweetheart!  xoxo

The Great Outdoors

Nothing compares to being out in the open air!  We have had a lot of fun adventures this summer out in the beauty of Utah.  Nature does something magical for children.  The vast amount of space and countless new textures lures them into a state of endless awe.  

While we were down in St. George we went looking for petrified wood.  The place where we explored was right outside of Zion's National Park.  It was a perfect cloud cover day to keep the southern temps reasonable for being outside without a pool.

We found lots of great pieces and one is in our garden at our home!

Not only did we bring home lots of petrified wood, but Olive made sure we had all of the pinecones and other treasures she scooped up.

Another incredible day was spent in the Uinta's at Trial Lake.  Adam and his dad camped overnight, and the girls and I met them in the morning.  It was invigorating to be up in the mountains with the crisp morning air.  We fished most of the morning and then had some lunch before we headed out on the canoe.

We knew it was a day well spent because the girls were completely covered in mud.  I love filthy little kids because it means a day of complete fun!

Olive and Caroline both caught fish and reeled them in with the help of Daddy and Grandpa B.  Olive had a love hate relationship with the fish that she caught.

She is so disgusted here that she just had to spit at the fish.

She was also overjoyed that it was her very own fish!

"It's fo me!?"

Ahhh, nasty, get that scaly, slimy thing away from me!  

These are the only fish that I caught that day.  I think I will keep them and be entertained forever by watching them attempt to make fish faces.

I really wanted to go up every weekend after that, but life kind of got in the way of my plan.  

It was the perfect little getaway for our family with new sweet baby Jane.

Daddy is pretty lucky to have two little fisherkin.  They had a ball and were proud of their catch of the day!

It you are ever having a bad day and are close to the mountains, just take a drive and spend the morning or the day up there and I promise you will feel 100% blissful!

(sorry for the fuzz, it's a phone pic)

And just because she was not well represented in this post and she is such a love, here is pleasant Jane, who even has a sweet cry that melts my heart.

Celebrating the 4th

It was just the 4th of July right?  Well it sure seems like that!  Summer has flown by and school started for big Kindergartener Caroline today!  I love the feeling of a routine that is settling in our home, I am ready for a bit of routine.

We had a great fly by the seat of your pants summer though and I have lots to catch up on!

Little Jane is only a week old here, ah what a pure delight!  

The kids took a little spin on the bikes and scooter across the street.  The girls love riding their bikes, they never really rode the bike we had in Virginia, I was too lazy to get it out of the storage room every time.

We had divine sandwiches for lunch and then we enjoyed watching the kids throw water balloons.  They also all tried to fit in our teeny tiny kiddie pool (see it in the background below).  

Water (no matter how little) and kids = bliss to them!

Corinne made this incredible punch that was actually red, white, and blue!  

Filling up the ammo was half the fun of enjoying the water balloons!  They whipped through about 100 in less than a half hour.

That evening, our little family of FIVE! enjoyed lighting sparklers at home before the girls were off to sleep.

It exceeded all of my expectations for a fantastic 4th!

Neil Leslie Diamond!!

This is what started it all.  The cassette tape that we listened to and practically wore out as my family drove through Wyoming, Nebraska and other states to get to my grandpa's cottage in Wisconsin year after year.  

It is Neil Diamond baby, and the Winegar love for him started young!  I knew his music was totally amazing, but I didn't find out just how amazing until a couple of weeks ago.

Back in December my sister schemed a very thoughtful gift and gave Adam and I Neil Diamond tickets for my birthday.  For Christmas, she also gave tickets to my parents and sister and her husband.

It turned out to be perfect timing for the concert in July because Adam finished the bar exam on the 25th and so how perfect to celebrate big on the 28th at the Neil Diamond concert!

It was kind of a big bonding joke with my family and we all had some good laughs that we were going to the concert.

As we were walking in I mentioned to Adam that we were the only people our age at the concert.  He said, "Oh no, look there are some...." then he started to count and point out "one, two, three....oh there's four others."

Yea, we were totally outnumbered by an older crowd, but Neil is just that cool he can draw in all ages.

I left totally pumped.  If you have not seen a Mr. Diamond in concert, go to the next one, if he lives to do another one...he is 71 years old.  I don't doubt that he'll be back though, he was gliding all over that stage and shakin' his pleather covered hips.  Man does he have moves, we were huddled over laughing so hard as he opened his arms and practically floated across the stage.

He definitely knows how to please the crowd with 4 reprises of Sweet Caroline (such a great moment!).  On the last one he didn't even sing, he said jokingly that he was totally sick of the song and that he wasn't going to sing it anymore (pause)..."but you can with my band!"  The crowd just roared it was seriously perfection.

I thought I knew the man well.  I mean, I had even watched a Christmas concert of his years ago in Chicago at my awesome Aunt and Uncle's home.  We were drawn in by Neil then as we dined over Buona Beef.

I had no idea, however, that he wrote Red Red Wine and that UB40 did a cover of it.

He also wrote the classic song sung by the Monkees "I'm a Believer".

Other classics he sung were Shilo, Cracklin' Rosie, and of course Comin' to America!

We were a little disappointed also that we weren't dressed appropriately!  A true fan only wears sequins to the concerts, we will be prepared next time.  I already spotted some sequin shorts in a variety of colors for our next concert.

erika. justin. corinne. me. adam with sweet baby jane

Baby armoir

Years ago I found a pine armoir that I fell in love with.  Little did I know in my single, childless days that I would enjoy using it for our little girls clothes, blankets, shoes, and more later on!

I used it in Caroline's nursery, but didn't for Olive because there wasn't room in our little New Hampshire or Virginia apartments.  

I am excited to use it again in Jane's nursery and the first thing is up, the clothing dividers.  I have 3-12 month dividers that keep the dresses and bubble suits organized.  This keeps the favorite little pieces on display for you each time you open the doors to the armoir so you can enjoy them longer than they fit!  (Jane is already in size 1 diapers and almost out of newborn clothes at weeks.)

I have a set of wooden stamps that I got at PB kids on clearance years ago and that is what I used to stamp the numbers on the paper circles.  

The final outcome is something like this just for an  idea of what you can do! (We are not quite that organized yet, pics to come)

I was absolutely giddy to get out the teeny tiny clothes again.

I am so so grateful for baby Jane and her sisters.

Is it swim lessons yet?

"Is it swim lessons yet?"  This is what we heard every five minutes as we drove down to St. George last week.  Olive is obsessed and it's so fun to see her light up when we do anything at the pool.

While we were waiting for Jane to arrive, we found some swim lessons that fit into our schedule perfectly.  It was also a bonus because a dear friend of mine had her little girl at the same neighborhood pool so we had time to catch up!  Jane came with 2 lessons left and so my incredible mom took the girls for the last two days.

Our girls are little fish and have no fear when it comes to the water.  Having no fear is a bittersweet thing because water and children scare me to death, it can be a fatal combo.  It is also the best combo when they are watched like hawks.  I loved watching them do their ice cream scoop arms and dolphin kicks.  Olive has taken a liking to cannonballs as well after she saw Caroline do one.

She stands at the edge of the pool and yells in her excited toddler voice, "CANNONBALL!"  and then proceeds to jump into the pool.  

Here she is looking like an Olympic swimmer: composed, focused, and intense....and I must say that her toddler belly is a pretty cute one!

Ready, set,

Cannonball!

These two little sunshines made my day each morning when I got to watch them splash around completely giddy.  They cheered each other on and were so proud of each other too.  In St. George we played "Polympics" as Olive said.  Caroline was Missy Franklin and Olive was Rebecca Soni and they gave Michael Phelps (Adam as assigned by Caroline) a run for his money.

Every morning at 7 a.m., Olive would come up and say "I want to go to swim lessons."  Then she would put on goggles and wait until 10.  

Simply to die for!