Simple Simon

Well, he's actually not very simple these days. In fact, he requires quite a bit of attention, redirection, discipline, you name it! At Simon's 15 month check-up his pediatrician described his age as a tornado. That's exactly what he is. A little tornado tearing through our house everyday. I had forgotten that about this age. But I also don't think Nate and Evie were nearly as busy as Simon is. Our house is a constant mess of emptied drawers and cabinets, with toys strung everywhere in-between. Amidst the tornadic activity, I've managed to take a couple pictures of our not-so-simple Simon the last couple weeks.

 One of Simon's favorite things to empty these days is our dirty laundry. 

He pulls everything out and gets inside the laundry cabinet. It might be a little 

unsanitary, but not as much as playing in the toilet water, so I don't mind it too much.

 LOVE those bright eyes peeking out at me!

He climbed up and sat with Stephen for a while on Saturday to watch the Duke game. 

Simon might be our busiest child, but he's also our cuddliest!

Eleven

Saturday was our wedding anniversary. I would love to write something long and sweet about our 11 years of marriage, but that just isn't going to happen right now. Instead, I'll recap our day and post a picture from the days when we looked a lot younger than we do now.

We spent our anniversary in Blan style. Nate and Evie had their first soccer games of the season, so they were out-of-their-minds excited about that. Both teams won and both kids came home with goals under their belts, so it was a happy day. Stephen made brownies and took the kids to the library to give me a few moments to myself. He tried to pick up takeout from our little Middle Eastern market on his way home, but they ran out of food and were closing down for the day. We had leftovers instead, with brownies and ice cream for dessert.

Last year, for our 10th anniversary, we showed the kids our wedding video my cousin's home video of our wedding for the first time, and they LOVED it! It became an easy tradition, so we watched it again on Saturday before putting the kids to bed. I love that they love it so much. 11 years ago I never would've guessed I'd be so happy to only have a home video of our wedding, but I love that we get to see the faces of our family and friends who were there. The wedding video I planned to have wouldn't have given that to us. Such a blessing in disguise.

We showed a slideshow during our wedding, and I wanted to post it here, but I can't figure it out right now. Maybe next year. For now, here's one of the pictures from it.

In December 2001, Stephen, a couple friends, and I drove to New Jersey to watch Duke and UK play. We made these signs to take to the game, but since 9/11 had just happened we weren't allowed to take the signs in. It was too bad, but still a great memory! Maybe our relationship has matured a little bit since then. Maybe.