West Virginia and Washington DC

We loaded up our swagger wagon and headed out on another Webster cross country adventure a few weeks ago. We were armed with lots of diapers, DVD's, books, snacks, juice boxes, and Tylenol. Lots and lots of Tylenol.

We spent the night in Tennessee and then made it to West Virginia the next day. The kids actually do great in hotels and Lainey had no problems sleeping in her pack and play. Good thing because she was about to spend the next 10 nights in one.

We made it eventually to see Rob's parents. Rob's Dad has been living in an Alzheimer's care facility for the past year and Rob has been to see him a few times, but it was my first time to see him there. It was hard. But it was good to see him nonetheless and to introduce him to Lainey. The kids did not seem too bothered by his condition, but it did upset Will that Granddaddy's hands were shaking a  lot. But it was wonderful to see him and hear his unchanged voice despite the extremely difficult circumstances.

And then we drove on to Rob's stepmother's house. We love Marsha and were so happy to spend some time with her. Her birthday is on July 5th so she and Will celebrated together with some cupcakes.

Mamaw and Lainey

After a day in West Virginia we hopped back in the trusty mini van and headed East to Washington DC. I spent most of my youth in the 'burbs of DC and I love getting back there whenever I can to reminisce and discover all of the new things going on. Rob's sister and her family live in Alexandria so we went to their house (which I love!!!!) and spent a day hanging out in DC.

 We spent our first night there in Old Town Alexandria. My friends and I would go there often in high

 school and hang out at the torpedo factory and then when I would come home from breaks in college some of my friends would be playing music in jazz clubs along King Street. I love anytime I get to go back and hang out there.

My family with Aunt Laura and our cousins Madeline and Max. Love these peeps!

 You never know what history you are going to bump into and you are just walking down the street. The lighting was obviously not great, but this is the church where George Washington's funeral was held.

 Hey, look! An Alabama flag flying. You can't escape us. We're everywhere. Roll Tide!!

The next day we went into the district to show our kids some of the monuments and museums. We have been to DC several times since they were born, but this was the first time we thought they were old enough to enjoy doing touristy things.

 Will really wanted to go to the Natural History museum to see the dinosaurs. So we did.

Bennett loved the bug exhibits. She is so not my child.

We met up with some great friends of ours from Montgomery who now live in the DC area. So fun spending the day with Carmen and Lizzie. I had Lizzie in my drama classes when she was 7 and now she is in high school. Sigh...

We had lunch out on the Mall. I know this is a bad shot, but I love how you can see that we were just eating with the Smithsonian castle behind us. Again, I have more memories than I can say of hanging out there and on the Mall as a teenager.

Washington monument. Obviously.

And then we went over to my favorite Smithsonian- American History.

 Bennett is convinced that she is going to be the first female president. She just might be.

 George Washington's chair.

 Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz.

 Elpheba's costume from Wicked.

 The original Kermit the frog.

 Harry Potter's robe.

And we finally made it to the White House. It looks like Lainey is just looking down here, but she is fast asleep. I mean dead to the world asleep. Poor girl.

After a long and hot day in DC, we packed up again, said good-bye to our friends and headed an hour and a half south to Colonial Beach, Virginia to meet up with the rest of the Websters for our annual vacay. Whew! And the adventures continue......

Happy 4th Birthday, Will!!!

I don't know how to put some things into words. Certain things are extremely easy to write about and others are harder. Trying to explain how much each of my children mean to me is something that I am not good at capturing. I always struggle on their birthdays to adequately describe them because words just can't do it justice.

I have been sitting here thinking for awhile about how to sum up Will's 3rd year of life and I really can't. Words can't capture his adorable lisp and the way his eyes get so round and big when he is telling you a story. If you have never met him you won't get how he loves to have "talk time" and cuddle at night with this adorable enthusiasm and innocence. He loves games. He could play board games for hours. He loves to fix things. He has the brain of an engineer and will sit for hours playing legos, building train tracks, and playing with hot wheels.

He is sensitive. He is a people pleaser and always gives in to his big sister. He can't stand it when anyone is sad or hurting. He takes life by storm and runs through each day with arms wide open ready to explore.

He is really funny and quirky. He has a very interesting sense of humor. Things crack him up easily and he is the clown of the family. We all sit at the dinner table and just laugh at Will.

Here is a typical Will sentence that he just said the other day.

Me: Will, you know you are going to have to protect Lainey. You are her big brother and you will have to always protect her and look after her.

Will: (sighs and groans) Ugghhh... I guess I'm just gonna have to get a sword and shield.

I.love.my.baby.big.boy!

This is what I posted on facebook on Will's birthday and it sums up how I feel perfectly.

I was a tiny bit disappointed for just a few minutes when the doctor told me I was having a boy because I wanted B to have a little sister. I think those were the most ridiculous few minutes of my life. Happy 4th birthday to the little boy who has every single bit of me wrapped around his finger. I have no idea what I would do without you. I love you, buddy.

 Here are some pictures from Will's birthday on July 1st. We were in Colonial Beach, Virginia on his actual birthday at my brother and sister-in-law's river house. It was an awesome place to spend a little boy's 4th birthday.

We put balloons outside of his door so he would have something fun to wake up to. And boy did he wake up excited. At 5:45 am!!!! We only allow such madness on birthdays.

To let the rest of the family continue to slumber in peace, we took the kids outside quickly. You can do that when you are at a house right on the banks of a beautiful river. I love this shot that Rob took of me taking a picture of the 4 year old!

Here he is! The birthday boy!

 Early morning stroll on the dock to look at the water.

Fishing first thing in the morning. Otherwise known as still letting the aunts and uncles sleep.

 He caught one! Way to go, birthday boy.

 I think I'll frame this one for his room. Laying in a hammock and watching life go by. Perfect way to spend your birthday.

 Yay! Everyone is up! Aunt Laura made yummy birthday pancakes which we served with candles of course. He loved that. Anytime anyone called him all day the first thing he told them was that he had a birthday pancake for breakfast. He loved it!

 Then it was back out to the water. Kayak rides with Daddy.

 And more fishing.

 And just playing in the sand and water.

 That night we had a train cake for him and presents.

 The room we all stayed in had bunk beds and Will slept on the top bunk. Right by his bed was a little dormer window that looked over the water. After I put the kids to bed I checked on them all about an hour later. The girls were sleeping peacefully and Will was still awake. He was lying on his side, propped up on his elbow, watching boats pass by his window. I asked him what he was doing and he whispered, "Is it still my birthday?" When I told him that it still was, he smiled and said, "I'm just watching these boats. 'Cause it's still my birthday."

What a perfect ending to a wonderful day celebrating 4 years of loving this incredible gift God blessed our family with. Happy 4th birthday, Will! We love you so much.

Still here. Nothing's changed except my baby. She's talking!

Whew! I am so behind on posting. These past three weeks have been an absolute blur. Since the end of June we celebrated Will's 4th birthday, Rob and I celebrated our 8th anniversary, we all traveled through 10 states, drove a total of 35 hours in the van, checked out the White House, rode on some boats, caught lots of fish, waved some sparklers, saw lots and lots of family, I taught a drama camp, we went to Vacation Bible School, I kept my niece for a week, had my parents in town, Rob went on a guys weekend getaway to North Carolina, and much more. Seriously. There's more.

But I do want to post a quick video of Lainey. She is 9 months old now and changing every single day. She is waving, clapping, signing a few words, walking around on furniture, crawling everywhere, and talking a little bit.

Her second word(s) are night-night. She only says them when she is very tired. She actually started saying this at the end of her 8th month and I got this video of her while we were on vacation in Virginia. She was 9 months and 2 days when I took this. Sorry it is so dark, but she only says it a night when she is sleepy.



I'll be back soon to post pics of our awesome DC/Virginia trip, Will's birthday, drama camp, and more. But until then, I  have one more day of VBS to get through and then a much needed day of resting.

Camp Webster

Let me just say that you all should be very thankful that I did not have a blog when my nieces were babies. If you think I am crazy about posting pictures of my kids, you didn't know 22 year old Lauren Suttle who was obsessed with her nieces.

I found out I was going to be an aunt my senior year in college. I immediately ran to a toy store and bought a stuffed animal. I lived in a house with my 5 college roomies and we would write phone messages for each other on this large dry erase board. I demanded that any messages left for me were to be addressed to "Aunt Lauren." I seriously wanted to be called that when my sister was, like, 8 weeks pregnant.

I was traveling in Europe when my oldest niece was a baby and I drove everyone nuts looking for toys for her. I was working in a TV station when my sister had her second little girl and my office was plastered with their pictures. I begged my sister to let me keep them all the time. Even before Rob and I were dating I would keep them in my apartment and we would make brownies and watch "Sleeping Beauty" together.

We went to the beach together, I took them to the zoo, to the playground, to the park, to plays, to tea parties, and much more. And this was all before I even had kids of my own.

All this to say, I love my nieces!! And so I was thrilled when I got the opportunity to keep them for a week after Disney World. I don't have a ton of pictures, because I was just enjoying hanging out with them. But we had a wonderful week. We kept our connection strong when we moved to Kansas City and since we moved back we have picked up right where we left off. And now they adore my children and seeing the bond between the cousins makes my heart so happy.

And I have to say that being an aunt to teenagers and pre-teens is so much fun in a completely different way. Instead of them running in my room at 6am begging me to make them cheese eggs and take them to the park, I am now waking them up at 11am and dragging them downstairs. But I love having them sit on my kitchen stools as they groggily chat with me while I make their breakfast. I adore every stage of being an aunt and I am so grateful for these blessings.

While watching a movie cuddled up with his cousin one afternoon, Will slumped over and fell asleep on her. For 2 hours! Sweet Piper didn't want me to move or wake him so she let him sleep on her for two whole hours. Such a great moment.

 Cousins are your first friends. I should know. Mine were.

 Walking across the street to our neighborhood park one afternoon.

 Sutton hanging out with Lainey at Water World.

 My favorite crew.