And THIS is why I HATE paved driveways. Check out those hands!!! Both of them were threatened w/eternal wall scrubbing if they touched ANYTHING in the house before washing up. Ugh!!!!......but at least they were having fun & were doing it OUTSIDE. I am grateful for that. :)

Marc stops to pose & Andrew pretends to do some amazing dribbling with his imaginary basketball!!! You go Hammer!!

Yeah - warm temps & no rain!!! :) The boys couldn't wait to get out & play ball today. It really did feel warm even though it was in the 50s -- all you So California people probably think that's still too cold!!

Our most exciting event of the new year so far! Joey lost his first tooth!!!! :) We just noticed it was loose the other day & he's been driving me NUTS asking "When is my tooth going to come out Mom?" A few bites into a pear tonight did the trick - good job Joe!

And a better view of Andrew - turned around now. This is my favorite place to go in DC - the Lincoln Memorial. Happy New Year everybody!!!!! :)

Okay, not the best shot of Andrew because it's a little blurry....but the view of the monuments is really neat from here. He's standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Behind him you can see the WWII Memorial (the stone pillars with wreaths on them) & then, obviously, the Washington Monument & Capital Bldg beyond that. It's even more beautiful in the summer time because the WWII Memorial has fountains going all around the center. We really love the sights in Washington!!

Just a great shot of my 2 big boys. This kind of picture always makes me stop & wonder, "How did they get so BIG???" :(

Next stop - International Spy Museum!! I think Andrew is trying to look tough (like an int'l spy) in this picture.

Day 2 - Norm took the big boys back downtown DC to see more sights. I took the little boys (Joey & Charlie) to visit an old high school friend. So, all the pics are of they "big boys" trip, because I didn't take any! :( Marc & Andrew said they saw Aslan (from the Lion, Witch, & Wardrobe) - I think this was what they meant. This is at the National Peace Officers Memorial and if you look closely, you can see that a verse from Proverbs is engraved beneath the lion.

Marc in front of the Old Executive Office Building. Norm took some great pictures of the White House at night, too. They also saw the National Christmas tree & all the state trees.

After we went to the Air & Space Museum, we dropped Norm & Marc off at the metro station & they went to downtown DC to see the National Archives. Anyone seen the movie National Treasure??? Marc just watched it before Christmas for the first time & couldn't WAIT to go see the real Nat'l Archives. I think this is the Declaration of Independence he's standing in front of. Pretty cool.

All of my boys in front of the Space Shuttle. They had a whole room dedicated to Space Flight and the shuttle was right in the center. Thanks for the goofy smile, Andrew!!! :)

The rest of these are from our trip to Virginia last week. This was at the Air & Space Museum Annex that is fairly new. It was HUGE and had some pretty cool planes like the Stealth Bomber & the Concord. We told Joey this plane (behind them) was just his size!

Just couldn't resist posting this one! :)

Adam Russell with his tractor. He LOVES tractors & always wants to go out to the big garage at our house to see the "tra-tor". I think he had a good time playing with all his cousins that day & it was cute to see Marc & Andrew wrestle around with him like Rusty always did with them at that age.

Joey with Rusty & Lianne's dog, Zeke. Joey REALLY wants another dog, so he had a GREAT time playing with Zeke.

I guess you can't really tell from here, but he just laughed & laughed & wanted to touch her face. It was really cute.

Okay, here we go! I'm getting caught up from the last 2 weeks. This was at Rusty & Lianne's house the day after Christmas. Dad Russell came down & we had a nice lunch & visited for a little while. I'm holding Ellie while Charlie stops to pose. He was FASCINATED by her as you'll see in the next picture, I think.