Broccoli

Lincoln is my carnivore and Ethan is my herbivore. Notice the broccoli on Link's plate and the lasagna on Ethan's plate. Ethan eventually finished his plate, but Lincoln put the brakes on his broccoli. I finished eating and had sat LONG enough waiting on Link. I went to clean up the kitchen and I hear, "Lincoln stop using your broccoli as a mop." Then I hear, "Daddy, it's not a mop. It's a wipe." I keep cleaning and then hear, "LINCOLN, take the broccoli out of your pocket." I think that's when Nate gave up and let him be all done.

Gobble, Gobble

We left Tuesday after work for our Pennsylvania Thanksgiving break. We started the trip in traffic and didn't get out of traffic for 3 hours! Needless to say, the boys were more than happy when we arrived.
We hung out Wednesday and just played and loved on Memaw! Nate took Lincoln on tractor rides.
Thursday the Davidsons and Lynchs made it out for Thanksgiving lunch. It was a real feast!
Ethan beat the socks off of Alicia at Memory.
Lincoln told everyone he was "a little bit tired."
So he had Nan carry him around.Friday we woke up to snow. It has snowed EVERY Thanksgiving I have been there. I don't know WHY in the world I didn't think it wouldn't snow this time. We brought thick sweatshirts for everyone and that was it. We bundled everyone up as best as we could and headed out for some snowball fights....
and mowing??
Saturday, we took the boys to the train display in town. I wish I could bottle up Ethan's excitement and get it out when I needed a good smile. He was soooo happy and excited. He loved it so much!

We all had a great time. The boys love, love, love going to Memaw and Pappy's house!

NEVER

Overheard in the car, on the way to school, this morning.

Lincoln: I Mommy's boy. I tell Daddy that.
Ethan: Daddy is gonna chase you if you tell him that.
Lincoln: Daddy NEVER catch me!

My lil crafter

He makes my heart proud! He's been painting and gluing and cutting. He has worked really hard this week making Christmas gifts!

The Wii

Marilyn sent us a Wii for Christmas and told us we could open it early. Nate and Ethan played for hours yesterday. Today, Nate left to get pizza for dinner. He accidentally ordered from the wrong place and was gone over an hour. This left ME playing with Ethan.
We started out with bowling. The boy is G-O-O-D. He got three strikes in a row! He beat me bowling.
I talked him into moving to baseball. I had to be decent at something! Sadly, it wasn't baseball. Luckily, he wasn't either.
I was worried when he suggested golf. I have to admit that this one was hard for us both. I just so happened to get lucky and beat him....BARELY! These scores were pitiful. She also got them a pirate game and they both loved it!

Planes

Ethan got a "shoot plane" as we call it for his B/Day. We've been putting off playing with it for weeks because it requires open space...which we are limited in. Nate played with them for a few minutes yesterday, but they didn't get the hang of it until today.
Lincoln walked up to me and said, "You take my picture, then I will shoot my plane."
He shot it off and then this crazy hug happened.

And then he looked at me like "What the heck was that?" I don't know either, buddy!

Church and Football

We laughed because today was the nicest day we have had the entire time Dad has been here. Of course, we only saw the pretty weather through windows. Today the Steelers played at 1:00 and the Cowboys played at 4:00.

He leaves tomorrow. We have had a great trip! It's easier to see him go this time knowing that we will see him in about a month when we go to Texas for Christmas!

Photo Shoot

We planned on getting Dad to take our Christmas picture in town today. We were thinking we would hit a museum afterwards. We did not plan on everyone being so cranky....including me! So we took our picture and then let the kids run off some steam. I had no idea that these pictures would turn out almost better than the Christmas ones.
The boys loved running around and having Daddy chase them!
Dad and I got five or six GREAT shots of Lincoln. Ethan wore himself out too early and sat in the stroller.
Since we ate at Good Stuff yesterday, we tried Five Guys today so Dad could compare. I think we all decided we like Good Stuff the best.

Tomorrow, it's church, Steeler Football, and Cowboys Football. This should be fun!

It only took six months!

Before Dad's visits we call him and ask what he wants to do while he is here. It seems we always forget to get tickets to at least one thing he wants to do in time. This time the stars aligned and we were able to get tickets to everything.
We started the day off at the Library of Congress. The architecture was gorgeous.
This was the library where Nicholas Cage showed the world the "President's book."
We took a tunnel from the Library of Congress to the Capitol because it was really, really, raining!
Dad found Sam Houston quickly! We were able to get tickets to the House of Representatives Gallery. They were not in session, but we sat and looked around. After the Capitol, we took him to Good Stuff Eatery. You can't be that close and not eat there.
We had tickets to go up into the Washington Monument for 2:00. It was so chilly and wet. They let us in thirty minutes early! The view up there is amazing, but today the windows were wet! This is a picture from the first time Nate and I went up.
We stopped by the Smithsonian Castle before heading home. That place is gorgeous!
There was no rest for Dad when we got home. Ethan had him playing Memory and Uno.

Nate, on the other hand, couldn't keep his eyes open!! It's early bed time for EVERYONE tonight!

Papa's here

Papa made it into town safely. We went out for pizza tonight. The boys were absolutely crazy tonight. I have never seen so much showing off before! Tomorrow the boys are going to school because we have a super busy day of touring. We have reservations at the Capitol and the Washington Monument.

Cleaning?

My dad is coming tomorrow and we decided to do a little cleaning before he arrives. I pulled all the chairs in the living room so I could mop. The boys can find fun in ANYTHING!!! I overheard "Hey, let's walk through the maze."

All I have to say is....they were occupied!!

Veggies

ALERT---ALERT---ALERT---ALERT---ALERT---
Lincoln Harris Leap ate Zucchini tonight! We ate at the Japanese Steakhouse tonight. For some reason, the boys will eat anything there. They even tried a bean sprout. We almost high fived the cook....but we just high fived each other instead.
Sorry for the old picture...I am upstairs and the pictures on this computer are OLD!!

Botanical Garden

We haven't been into DC in a long while, so last night we decided to head into town today. We weren't sure what to do, so I went on YELP and found that the Botanical Gardens was a 5 star spot. It was a pretty chilly morning and when we stepped into the green house we were overcome with warmth! It was so nice!
This place was huge and had some of the most gorgeous flowers.
They had a wing dedicated to the desert. They had the coolest cacti.
Their biggest exhibit was the jungle. It was so lush and gorgeous. There is a huge catwalk where you can see the entire jungle.
Our favorite part had to be the entrance of the Garden. The entire entrance was a re-creation of DC made out of twigs and sticks and leaves. Ethan loved the Washington Monument.
At the end of the little reflecting pond, was the Lincoln Memorial.This place had everything. They recreated the White House, the Smithsonian castle, the Botanical Garden building, and the Supreme Court.

The most awesome was the Capitol. It was gorgeous. We would totally come back to this place. I think that they are going to have a big Christmas exhibit with trains. We saw them unloading the trains as we left! We will definitely have to come back.