James!

My little Chunk!!

He's weighing in at a hefty 15 lbs.

And he's not even 3 months yet....

And he's so snuggly:)

Laugh for the day

Zach dropped his cell phone in the toilet.
ewwwww.
And it still works!
The screen doesn't though...

Naomi's Tag

Talia tagged me forever ago and I'm finally getting around to it! It's a tag about Naomi!

10 things she loves:

1.

Self Portrait Tag

I loathe tags:)
Thanks to Erica for this one!

Take a self portrait of yourself and post.
I tag: Brandy, Dani and.... Jamie

Welcome to the South

Speed Street, Charlotte, NC





Jeff Gordon on the card on the windsheild. It was cool to see the cars up close. I might just have to become a NASCAR fan. Just kidding.



Menu for a heart attack.
They also had Cheesecake on a stick. It was a frozen wedge of cheese cake that they dipped in chocolate right there. It looked soooo good. Maybe I should have bought one of those too.



Ribbon Fries- they stuck the potato on a drill with some sort of shredder attachment at the end and made a pile of fries! Yes, a drill, a real drill.



This guy is eating a Turkey Leg- people would just carry them around like that, biting off big 'ol chunks. Bleh.


Our first Deep Fried Snickers! With powdered sugar on top. Mmmmmm.


Yeah, it was REALLY good! The whole candy bar was melty and warm.



Naomi would have eaten the whole thing if I didn't make her share!


She spotted a "M M" and was SO excited:)


The mascott for the Charlotte hockey team- The Checkers



At the cereal booth, a picture with the CoCo Puffs bird.


Last weekend in Uptown Charlotte was Speed Street. It's hosted by a grocery store chain and there are tons of vendors giving out samples of all things food. Gogurts, a fizzy gogurt- carbonated? Cereal, gum, coupons, etc, etc, etc. The big event it's all winding up to is the Coca~Cola 600 race that was yesterday. There were about 15 NASCAR racing cars out on display, Naomi thought they were pretty cool. There were several stages with live music going round the clock. Friday night was Kelly Pickler and Saturday night was Travis Tritt. I didn't see either.....


But the most amazing thing about all this was the PEOPLE. Everyone and their dog, literally, was there holding a beer bottle. about a mile of city streets were closed off for this and people were just pouring into town. During the day on Friday I took the kids down and met Zach near his building when he was done with lunch. We rode in on the city's new light rail system. It's like the Metro but newer, smaller and cleaner:)


While we were there Friday there were a lot of other parents and kids and business people on their lunch breaks. Naomi and I had hot dogs and ice cream for lunch. We all went back down Saturday afternoon and it was more of a weekend crowd. Kind of like Lagoon.... if you know what I mean:)


While there the second time I decided that it was time to try some authentic Southern street vendor food.


Deep Fried Candy Bars. (or Twinkies!)


Zach couldn't keep his eyes off the enormous Turkey Legs people were gnawing on, but he declined when I told him to buy one.

It was a fun weekend, especially since Zach was home! Friday evening we had a little cookout at our apartment courtyard with some of the other Summer Associates Zach works with (and their significant others:) And today we spent the day at the mall shopping! What a husband huh? Really we shopped mostly for Zach, spending his b-day money from our parents on new "Business Casual" clothes for him. He was loving it:) Then he was a good sport and made a few stops for me, even entertaining both kids while I tried on things. Both Naomi and James were patient at the mall. Naomi was really sad to leave actually. Then she fell asleep instantly in the car.

So our long weekend is over :( But I'm looking forward to another good week here in Charlotte!

Natalie & Paul

Nat's wedding was beautiful and just perfect. It was full of little kids too:) I'm going to post a bunch of fun pictures from the day- and also Jame's blessing! We blessed him at my parents home Wednesday, the day before the wedding. It was really nice and nearly everyone could make it. It really was so awesome having ALL my siblings and their families together again. It probably won't happen again for quite a while.
I don't even have a picture of all of us- I need to get one from Natalie's photographer.
So, in no particular order:



Sneaking in some food at her reception at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in SLC





James and me and Zach and all the Grandparents for his blessing day!


Boys, boys, boys. From the left. Matthew (Jesse-Brooke), Max (Ginger-Dave), Jakob (Aimee-Mark), Drew (Jesse-Brooke), Joshua holding Jonathan and Tommy (Holly-Michael), James (mine, in white:), Dawson, Isaac holding Henry (Dave-Erica).




Dancing with Daddy...



Aimee and Claire










Naomi and Max



Girls!From the left: Naomi, Annie, Claire, Leia, -in the back- Emily and Alyssa.









Bridal Shower Lunch with all us girls!




Look-alike contest winners... Jeff and James on his blessing day.


James with his Grandpa's

Why does clothing cost SO MUCH?

Why does clothing cost SO MUCH? I have been to the mall a few times this past week to supplement my very sad post-baby wardrobe. I cleaned out my closet before we left for Utah and I realized I almost literally have "nothing to wear."
So. I bought a new pair of jeans at Gap. I tried American Eagle since they have such awesome prices on jeans but they had nothing for me. I was looking for a "casual" shirt(s) but not t-shirts. Anthropologie had some cute stuff but much more than I was willing to spend. Gap didn't have much and the cheaper-teeny bopper stores had lots of sleeveless and t-shirts. So I bought a shirt/blouse I love at Beneton. I also got a top at The Limited along with some earrings and a beige cami. I found some cami's at Delia's too. I bought some new flip flops at Pac Sun and some super cute metallic flats at Target of all places. Anyway, to the point. All this set me back over $200. And I don't feel like I got that many new pieces to work with.
Maybe I just need to be a better shopper....and you know what else, I did all that shopping with two kids. I think I would be a better deal finder w/o the kiddos.
I think this weeks mall experience has confirmed that I prefer shopping online.

What do you do in the Summertime?

We made a promised stop at the drive through at McDonald's for some ice cream! Naomi obviously enjoyed hers.

I turned around to find her asleep with the cone still in hand! I confiscated it and couldn't help but snap another picture.

3 on a plane

We made it. We are now in North Carolina! The flight(s) were a little long but Naomi and James were great flyers.... it was getting all three of us through security that was difficult. Picture this: James in car seat, in stroller, Naomi in back of stroller, it's a sit 'n stand:), two carry-on bags hanging from stroller handle and Naomi's car seat face down over the top of James' car seat shade/handle/stroller shade. Enter security line. Take my shoes off, Naomi's shoes off, my jacket off, Naomi's jacket off, put in bin. Take 1 quart size bag with containers of liquid or gels out of bag, remove DVD player from bag, put in bin. Take Naomi's car seat off and place on conveyor belt. Take Naomi out of stroller, hold her hand and/or pull her back to my side as she takes off towards something more interesting than mom. Take James' car seat out of stroller, fold stroller and send through conveyor belt, take James out of car seat, hold him while sending his car seat through on conveyor belt. We still haven't walked through the metal detector. The pile up is getting big on the other end; two bins, one stroller, two car seats. I walk through with no beeping. good. Now we reassemble. James into his seat first, stroller unfolded, Naomi in and STRAPPED in. shoes on, jackets on or stowed, bags hung and car seats back on stroller. Now to gate D13.

Seriously, flying with two kids on your own is not something I really recommend. It was OK, but it's juggling act. I really, really felt like a traveling circus!

Unfortunately that's not the end of it either. I choose to bring Naomi's car seat on the airplane, I feel like she's safer in it than just the seat belt, which she so suavely learned to unbuckle from watching me. oops. And I gate check the stroller and second car seat. Sometimes the flight isn't full and I can bring James' car seat on too- that's sweet. Anyway, I was getting to the boarding the airplane part. we disassemble at the gate again and then I need to get the two bags, car seat, baby and toddler onto the plane..... I still haven't managed to do it in one trip. I asked the flight attendant to help me by bringing the car seat after me. She must not have been the nice one, she blinked at me like I was asking her to let me fly the plane. But she did bring it for me, but then informed me that the car seat MUST be by the window. Apparently it will block me from making a timely exit from the plane in case of an emergency. Sigh. The guy next to me was very nice and talkative. I still feel kind of bad for him though:)

The leg from Cincinnati was much shorter and much easier. The flight attendant brought me a bottled water, straw and cookies for Naomi before we even took off. She was awesome. I'm going to send her a Christmas card.

I know I could do the whole airport/airplane thing different but in the end you still have to get from point A to point B and having a stroller for the kids and bags is easier than using a baby carrier and having Naomi walk. I would still have to take James out of the carrier to walk through the metal detector. And who knows of a two-year old that likes to hold hands? Yeah, I have a little monkey-backpack-harness I could use but then I really feel like I have a little pet dog with me, or maybe a monkey..... Maybe I'll try that next time. But I wouldn't get to gate check either car seat, or have them on the plane with me. I could check them with baggage but I only get one free "baby item" for the lap baby and we all know of the wonderful new 1 BAG policy. I think I will just stick to my miniature choo-choo train get-up for now.

In the end we made it and Zach picked us up and deposited us at our summer apartment here in Charlotte before zipping off to some social that he "really didn't want to go to." Right.

One of the best things about this summer is that Zach will be home by at least 7 every night and then that's it for work for the day. He, along with the other summer associates, does not have access to their work stuff at home. It's in-office only for them. :)

I took the kids over to the pool today even though it's only about 72 or so, Naomi LOVED it. She would only get in to about her waist. I can't blame her though, the water was very cold. James loved it too, sleeping in his car seat.

This city is so much smaller than DC. Yesterday I drove to Target and then took a different route home, basically exploring the downtown area, kind of on accident... but it's so small it's hard to get lost really. DC goes on, and on, but you are in and out of Charlotte in about 10 minutes. But the crazy thing is that Charlotte isn't really that small.

Enough about that, I gotta go back to being a mom.....

(But I have SO MUCH TO POST ABOUT! Natalie's WEDDING and all the fun in Utah!!!)