Happy 4th of July!

Mason & Shannon joined us in New Bern. Although we skipped the fireworks and parades, having the entire Brown/Bailey clan together certainly made it a festive day!




Counting (and peeking) for hide-and-seek. Noah can't see them, so I'm sure they can't see him, right?


No water restrictions in New Bern, so Mike & the kids washed the car.


Here I come!


Relaxing with the inseparable cousins.


While the boys chilled out.....


Mason posed for pictures...such a ham...such a cutie!


We stayed outside until the bugs and darkness drove us in. Fun, fun, fun!

A FUN Visit to New Bern!

We spent the 4th of July holiday in New Bern. It had been much too long since our last visit and we enjoyed every moment!


While Mike and Bob played golf, Peggy and I took the kids to a cool park. Griffin loved driving the car, while the older boys had fun playing hide & seek. Miles actually gave me a little 'feedback' that my hiding spots weren't good enough!


Noah didn't quite get the concept. Maybe next year.


We had a fun lunch at the 'Cow Cafe' -- complete with a farm playroom and homemade Maola ice cream (yum!).


After lunch we took a bike ride to the nature trail in Grandma & Grandpa's neighborhood. We parked the bikes when we got to the trail. The boys loved running through the paths.


When we exited the trail Miles spotted someone fishing. He sat down immediately in awe. We eventually had to tear them both away. Guess I better learn how to hook a worm!


For some reason, Noah suited up with his goggles during our art-time. Guess he was thinking of Uncle Jason?


Looking forward to our next visit!

"The Donald" Made Me Do It!

Mike has been pressuring me for weeks to cut Griffin's hair. I've been holding off, convinced that I want at least one of our boys to have long hair -- that is until I saw this picture of Griffin with our friend Jonathan. The 'Donald Trump comb-over' had to go!




Griffin cried through his first haircut. Guess he wanted to have long hair, too?


.....afterwards he felt like a new kid!


No mullet here!


Clean cut and lovin' it!

Look At Me!

The boys are in the groove of me snapping pictures every time they're doing something cute -- so Miles made a point to tell me that he had something blog-worthy. Here he is pictured with "the longest tongue ever"! (I thought I was buying fruit roll-ups....who knows what he actually ingested.)

At the last second sweet Bodie decided that he wanted a piece of the action too.

Let's Climb!

You can't get much better than a cool climbing tree and awesome friends to share it with. We had just that with the Williams on Sunday night!


Mike and I played several rounds of tag with the kids. They were ecstatic!


I helped Griffin climb the tree. His expression seems to be saying, "I'm really doing it!"


Noah was so excited about climbing the tree. He actually yelled, "take my picture! TAKE MY PICTURE!"


Noah's favorite friend Jack gave him a bear hug as they were waiting in line to climb the tree. How cute is that?


We climbed and swung until way past the kids' bedtime. Gotta love these carefree summer nights!

Mike, Miles and Noah went to see the movie WALL-E this morning. They all loved it. Miles wouldn't tell me about the movie -- he wanted to draw about it instead. Should I be prepared for a portrait of his first crush someday?


We spent the hot afternoon in our baby pool. Griffin and Miles loved it.


Griffin was a daredevil on the slide.


Noah refused to play in the pool. He informed me that 'pools aren't fun anymore. The only thing that is fun is Zip.' (He's referring to the guy he's holding that he just got from the 'treasure box' last night. Nothing can compare to the intense passion for a new toy!)


Mike was a rock star and cleaned up the pool (...all of our mess, come to think of it) when we were done. Miles told Mike several times today that he is "so cool" (e.g. after watching Mike juggle apples and oranges). I gotta up my game!


As usual, Miles kept Griffin safe from looming danger (much to Griff's dismay)


I swear, this bathing suit is Griffin's size.... And, don't let this picture fool you -- at 13 months, we're still eagerly awaiting his first steps!

One Mean Batman & One Airplane

Miles was surprisingly willing to pose for a picture tonight -- but, as soon as the camera snapped, he said, "Wait! I need to be a mean batman and Noah needs to be an airplane." Well, there you have it.

Mind Your Manners (if you know how!)

As we were leaving swim lessons today, Miles said, "Mommy, David said to the swim teacher, 'ok, sir" (he then burst out laughing, since his teacher is a female). I said, "That's silly. What should David have said instead?" In all seriousness (and quite proud of himself) he said, "ok, woman!" I laughed and a lady walking by us said, 'He just sounds like my husband!" As we continued our walk to the car I gave the boys a refresher lesson on 'sir' and 'ma'am', who you'd use each for, and that its a very polite way to speak. They appeared to be soaking it all in. When we got into the car, I strapped Noah into his carseat and smiled at him. He flashed back a huge grin and genuinely said, "thank you, man." Looks like we'll need a few more lessons tomorrow.....

Toddlers or Teenagers?

The majority of time, Miles and Noah act just like 3 and 5 year old boys --- for example, last night we played "horse" after Griffin went to bed and Noah insisted on wearing one gardening glove and Miles insisted on wearing only flannel pj pants (totally makes sense...everyone needs some level of control, right?). However, lately, they've been blurting things out that only teenagers should say! Last week, Noah and I were hanging out and I tried to do something silly (dorky?) to get him to laugh. He looked me straight in the eye and said, "mom. that's not cool." A few days later Miles and Noah were talking at the kitchen table. They were having the cutest little conversation and I just wanted to soak it in. Miles looked over at me watching them and said, "Ah, mom? I'm talking to Noah." To make matters worse, Mike witnessed the entire exchange and just shook his head and laughed. Alas, maybe I'm doomed to be an uncool. :)

Griffin is teething (molars - ugh) so we had to leave the house to distract him (and us!). We headed over the Space Kidets, which is where we celebrated Miles' 5th birthday. They have jumpies, mini-golf, arcade games, skee ball. Surprisingly, the owner remembered us and let us in free. Even better!


Noah was ecstatic. He kept yelling, "Batman to the rescue!"


Griffin loved skee ball and had pretty good aim -- even with two at a time.


Noah taught himself how to play PacMan. In this picture he is literally screaming at a ghost for eating him. The competitive desire to conquer starts early!


Check out the intensity while Miles 'drove a motorcycle like dad'!

Suit Up!

While Mike and I were unpacking from our sprint trip to Raleigh, Miles and Noah were mysteriously quiet in their room. When I went to check on them they were quite a sight -- Miles had dressed Noah up as Woody and suited himself up as Buzz. It was quite a sight! I yelled for Mike to come quick before they changed -- and he did his part to help Buzz 'fall with style'.