East Coasting

As Strider and I now live in Kensington, Maryland we have the priviledge of living close to the Washington D.C. Temple. If you're like us you may not have known that the temple is actually located in Kensington! It is also the tallest LDS Temple and it was the first temple built in the East Coast of the US.

We took these two pictures as we were driving

home on the freeway the other day...
We were able to attend the temple last Saturday for the first time.
It was so neat. The spirit found in temples is incredible.
These special places of worship are truly Houses of the Lord.

Finally a family photo! Kinda crazy, but we love when we can all
hang out together after Strider gets home from medical school.

It may not look like it... but Grayson loves all the attention!

Grayson loves hanging out with these guys.

He also LOVES to play with or see airplanes and helicopters.

Strider made a few planes out of his blocks and he thinks they are so cool!

These next few pictures are of Grayson at the National Museum of American History. These are what he loved most... "The BuTHalow"

Julia Child's Kitchen... good thing he couldn't go in!

Playing with blocks at the Invention Exhibit...

Building new inventions

Carrying them around

And lastly "the trucks" of which he was crushed when he found he couldn't get them out of the display case.

What I loved about the Museum was the First Lady's dresses and accessories on display as well as the Star Spangled Banner flag that inspired the National Anthem. There is so much more to see in downtown DC, but I'm glad Grayson and I will have plenty of time to do so!

Elder Inspiration

My little brother Kevin is serving a mission in Uruguay. He has been out for a year. His emails bring me such strength each week. This picture is from the day he left- I can't believe how much Grayson has grown since then! This is a quote from Elder Hinton's email today...

"I hope all is well with you all, that you are paying attention to the spiritual things especially in the times of trouble, but of similar importance in the good times. I find that the hardest trials come when we are strong and obeying the most because it is God giving us the chance to change, to make a decision and the best time is when we are already doing the best, and in a similar way in our times of troubles he helps us and sends more of his help because we are weak. Look for the Lord... He can heal us."

Yum!

Grayson helped me bake some cupcakes last week. He loves to eat, but he's never experienced anything like this before! The only thing he could relate it to was chocolate milk. Needless to say I think he thoroughly enjoyed himself...

Little G & the Alphabet

Grayson loves letters! He can spot them ANYWHERE. He sees them on T-shirts, signs, cereal boxes, books, you name it and he'll find em! Yesterday we had an "Alphabet Day". We used these nesting blocks to learn the alphabet song. He skips a few when singing, but he does know them all. Below are a few other resources Grayson loves... AKA Froggies. This video has been awesome for Grayson to review the alphabet and learn each letter's sound. And trust me "The A says aaahhh!" Grayson tells me all the time.

We recently checked this out from an adorable kids library nearby and it is an enjoyable book as you can see...
I sure am loving his thirst for knowledge, but boy do I need to brush up on a few things. This kid can't get enough!

National Zoo

Grayson and I ventured to the zoo today with some other young moms

from our ward. We had a fun time and boy did Grayson love

animals and going to the "zoop!"

Grayson ran back and forth at this display in the "Amazon".

They had huge fish and turtles.

Shh! Grayson would tell you... "Tiger sleepin"

Here was the mommy lion.

And the daddy lion. Grayson couldn't help but holler and growl at them.

We couldn't leave without seeing his favorite... the gorillas!

We also got to see these guys hanging around.

What a fun day just chillin at the zoo!

A Reason to Celebrate...

Baby #2!! HOORAY!! Things have been kinda crazy with moving across the country and we kept the fact that I was pregnant a secret for a while... However, today was a special day. We finally found out the gender of this new little one.

Today I brought these to Strider and a few of his friends at school. They have just finished their first 2 weeks of medical school. They were studying hard today for their first test next week. The snacks came with a little surprise though. The explanation was in this note...

Strider couldn't believe it. He didn't know that I finally got in for an ultrasound this morning. We have been trying to find out what this baby will be and haven't had much luck. Mostly because we moved around the time we could find out. Figuring out the new insurance and doctor took some time as well. But, FINALLY IT'S A....

BOY!!

We are all so excited.There's my pregnant belly. I can't believe there will soon be 4 of us! I will be totally outnumbered, but I don't care. I sure love my boys. They measured me to be 22 weeks and that puts my due date around the beginning of January.