Spring Might Just Have Arrived

The weather has been wonderful here for a week and I hope its hear to stay. As a result of the gorgeous weather we spent lots of time outdoors this weekend. Holden and I met some friends at the farmers market first thing Saturday morning. Not a lot of goodies yet, but one more month and the market will be back in full swing, I can't wait. Afterward we went home and Jeremy and I got Holden's new room almost finished. One more big push this weekend and it will be ready for the big reveal.

Sporting our Kyle Busch hat from Grandma Hassler on the way out to the market

Saturday afternoon, we met up with Stacey and her family at the Nature Museum in Charlotte. The museum wasn't worth the money, but the kids loved it and we walked this little nature trail butting up to a great park in Charlotte. The kids ran and ran, took a few tumbles and spontaneously held hands (none of the parents were fast enough with their cameras). It was awesome. Cameron and Holden had a great time.

Sharing a snack on the nature trail (photo courtesy of Stacey)

Saying "cheese" for the camera (again thanks Stacey)

Sunday, we had a bunch of folks over to kick of Nascar with the Daytona 500. Cameron and Holden again had a great time. Just a couple time outs for not sharing, but all in all I think they are becoming fast friends. Its pretty awesome to see the two of them play together, for 2 years Stacey and I have been waiting for them to play together and not just next to each other. They interact and share most of the time. Cameron loved sharing her snack with Holden, and Holden stole a kiss from Cameron as they said goodbye. Too cute to handle.

Stacey got stuck reading stories for quite awhile Sunday afternoon. Disregard the finger sucking problem we are having with Holden (we are at a loss at how to stop it)

Holden and Cameron hanging out in his new room, the big boy bed is a big hit

Fried Food and Farm Animals

We made a trip to the North Carolina State Fair on Saturday. Its a 2.5 hour trip to Raleigh so we prepared for our first day without an afternoon nap. And I will say Holden did awesome. The fried food and people watching probably helped. We hit the fair with some friends that have never been to a state fair (were they in for a treat).

Holden loved the animals, we hit all of the livestock barns and saw a steer get auctioned off to the local grocery store, Harris Teeter. And we walked through the rabbit shed and a petting zoo. He was so excited feeding carrots to the goats he couldn't contain himself. He kept jumping up and down and squealing. I tried to catch it in a photo but the photo doesn't do it justice.

The boys, Jeremy and Jay, were overly excited about the fair food. Here is a list of items that were purchased and sampled (or consumed in entirety).

• Fried frito pie
• Chocolate covered bacon (pig lickers)
• italian sausage
• gyro
• corn dog
• fried oreos
• funnel cake
• fried snickers
• fried mac & cheese
• krispy kreme bacon cheeseburger (see photo)
• fried reese's peanut butter cup
• fried cookie dough
• corn on the cob
  

The favorites were the snickers, oreos and frito pie. And I would say 4 adults consumed way more fried food in one day than we have all eaten in 6 months combined.It was an awesome day even with the 5 hours of driving.

Festival in the Park

We went to the annual Festival in the Park this weekend. It was hot but a good time. Holden went on his first carnival ride. The first of many I presume. He was pointing at the ride but Jeremy said he didn't think it was as cool as before he got on. He did like the giant slide however.

Holden is pointing to the carnival ride Holden on the carnival ride, not so sure anymore

He loved the giant slide

Outdoor Fun

Holden turned 14 months old today. Time is flying. We had a great weekend, great weather and got a lot accomplished and enjoyed some outdoor play time. Saturday we went to our friends Stacey and Cameron's for a lunchtime play date. Cameron has a very cool sand and water table that Holden enjoyed immensely. He was covered in sand and water by the time we left.

Sunday we had gorgeous weather so we decided to pull Holden's water table out for him to play with. He had a great time, I think we have a water baby on our hands. He was soaking wet by the time he was done.

The farmer's market is in full swing now, I got a little carried away Saturday morning. There are buckets and buckets of strawberries now and the first crop of sweet corn. It was very tasty for dinner tonight.
Lastly everyone was tuckered out from a big weekend.

What's new

It has started to get really nice around here, aside from the spring rain showers. Though, the rain is making my spring garden sprout really nicely. We have been taking Holden outside to explore and unfortunately we aren't over putting EVERYTHING in our mouth. So he has now officially tasted every type of leaf, stick and dirt that is in our yard.

Playing in the backyard

His 2nd tooth arrived last week. I think the top front teeth aren't far behind. He has taken to screaming when he is excited about something. Its a tense all of my muscles and yell loudly until my face is red and I'm out of breath scream. Kind of funny but certainly not an inside voice. He also has a stubborn streak, going to blame that one on Dad. We have been working on "no" to no avail. We get either an immediate pouty face and full on bawling or a laugh and lets do it again like we're playing a game. It can be quite frustrating during the morning rush, and I know we are just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to learning to listen.

Holden trying to figure out the new snack cup

Enjoy the photos, we have been a bit remiss on catching him with the camera. Packing to many things into our weeks I'm afraid.

From our trip to Raleigh this weekend