The Long Family - longfamilywebsite

Carter at San Cristobal 2.jpg
Carter at San Cristobal 2.jpg 2012-01-23

Carter at San Cristobal 3.jpg
Carter at San Cristobal 3.jpg 2012-01-23

Carter at San Cristobal.jpg
Carter at San Cristobal.jpg 2012-01-23

Carter at the beach 2.jpg
Carter at the beach 2.jpg 2012-01-18

Carter at the beach 3.jpg
Carter at the beach 3.jpg 2012-01-18

Carter at the beach.jpg
Carter at the beach.jpg 2012-01-20

El Yunque 2.jpg
El Yunque 2.jpg 2012-01-24

El Yunque 3.jpg
El Yunque 3.jpg 2012-01-24

El Yunque 4.jpg
El Yunque 4.jpg 2012-01-24

El Yunque 5.jpg
El Yunque 5.jpg 2012-01-24

El Yunque.jpg
El Yunque.jpg 2012-01-24

Gavin 2.jpg
Gavin 2.jpg 2012-01-23

Gavin at Senor Frogs.jpg
Gavin at Senor Frogs.jpg 2012-01-23

Gavin at the beach 2.jpg
Gavin at the beach 2.jpg 2012-01-23

Gavin at the beach.jpg
Gavin at the beach.jpg 2012-01-18

Gavin.jpg
Gavin.jpg 2012-01-23

Liam and Carter at Senor Frogs.jpg
Liam and Carter at Senor Frogs.jpg 2012-01-23

Liam at El Yunque.jpg
Liam at El Yunque.jpg 2012-01-24

Liam at San Cristobal.jpg
Liam at San Cristobal.jpg 2012-01-23

Liam at Senor Frogs 2.jpg
Liam at Senor Frogs 2.jpg 2012-01-23

Liam at Senor Frogs 3.jpg
Liam at Senor Frogs 3.jpg 2012-01-23

Liam at Senor Frogs 4.jpg
Liam at Senor Frogs 4.jpg 2012-01-23

Liam at Senor Frogs.jpg
Liam at Senor Frogs.jpg 2012-01-23

Liam at the beach 2.jpg
Liam at the beach 2.jpg 2012-01-20

Liam at the beach 3.jpg
Liam at the beach 3.jpg 2012-01-20

Liam at the beach 4.jpg
Liam at the beach 4.jpg 2012-01-20

Liam at the beach 5.jpg
Liam at the beach 5.jpg 2012-01-18

Liam at the beach 6.jpg
Liam at the beach 6.jpg 2012-01-24

Liam at the beach.jpg
Liam at the beach.jpg 2012-01-20

Liam sleeping.jpg
Liam sleeping.jpg 2012-01-19

Luquillo beach 2.jpg
Luquillo beach 2.jpg 2012-01-20

Luquillo beach 3.jpg
Luquillo beach 3.jpg 2012-01-20

Luquillo beach 4.jpg
Luquillo beach 4.jpg 2012-01-18

Luquillo beach 5.jpg
Luquillo beach 5.jpg 2012-01-18

Luquillo beach.jpg
Luquillo beach.jpg 2012-01-20

Old San Juan.jpg
Old San Juan.jpg 2012-01-23

San Cristobal 2.jpg
San Cristobal 2.jpg 2012-01-23

San Cristobal 3.jpg
San Cristobal 3.jpg 2012-01-23

San Cristobal 4.jpg
San Cristobal 4.jpg 2012-01-23

San Cristobal 5.jpg
San Cristobal 5.jpg 2012-01-23

San Cristobal 6.jpg
San Cristobal 6.jpg 2012-01-23

San Cristobal 7.jpg
San Cristobal 7.jpg 2012-01-23

San Cristobal 8.jpg
San Cristobal 8.jpg 2012-01-23

San Cristobal 9.jpg
San Cristobal 9.jpg 2012-01-23

San Cristobal.jpg
San Cristobal.jpg 2012-01-23

Carter
Carter's vocabulary parade, kindergarten.jpg 2012-01-16

Waiting to play in the snow 2.jpg
Waiting to play in the snow 2.jpg 2012-01-09

Waiting to play in the snow 3.jpg
Waiting to play in the snow 3.jpg 2012-01-09

Waiting to play in the snow.jpg
Waiting to play in the snow.jpg 2012-01-09

Wizards game 2.jpg
Wizards game 2.jpg 2012-01-14

Wizards game 3.jpg
Wizards game 3.jpg 2012-01-14

Wizards game 4.jpg
Wizards game 4.jpg 2012-01-14

Wizards game.jpg
Wizards game.jpg 2012-01-14

Cuddling.jpg
Cuddling.jpg 2012-01-08

Gamers.jpg
Gamers.jpg 2012-01-07

Carter 2.JPG
Carter 2.JPG 2011-12-31

Carter and friends.JPG
Carter and friends.JPG 2011-12-31

Carter and Jack 2.JPG
Carter and Jack 2.JPG 2011-12-31

Carter and Jack.JPG
Carter and Jack.JPG 2011-12-31

Carter.JPG
Carter.JPG 2011-12-31

Countdown 2.JPG
Countdown 2.JPG 2011-12-31

Countdown 3.JPG
Countdown 3.JPG 2011-12-31

Countdown.JPG
Countdown.JPG 2011-12-31

Daddy and Liam.JPG
Daddy and Liam.JPG 2011-12-31

DSC_0039.JPG
DSC_0039.JPG 2011-12-31

Gavin 2.JPG
Gavin 2.JPG 2011-12-31

Gavin.JPG
Gavin.JPG 2011-12-31

Liam 2.JPG
Liam 2.JPG 2011-12-31

Liam.JPG
Liam.JPG 2011-12-31

Mommy and Liam.JPG
Mommy and Liam.JPG 2011-12-31

First presents 2.jpg
First presents 2.jpg 2011-12-24

First presents 3.jpg
First presents 3.jpg 2011-12-24

First presents 4.jpg
First presents 4.jpg 2011-12-24

First presents 5.jpg
First presents 5.jpg 2011-12-24

First presents 6.jpg
First presents 6.jpg 2011-12-24

First presents 7.jpg
First presents 7.jpg 2011-12-24

First presents 8.jpg
First presents 8.jpg 2011-12-24

First presents 9.jpg
First presents 9.jpg 2011-12-24

First presents.jpg
First presents.jpg 2011-12-24

Santa Photo.jpeg
Santa Photo.jpeg 2012-01-10

'Twas the Night Before Christmas.jpg
'Twas the Night Before Christmas.jpg 2011-12-24

Coming down the stairs 2.JPG
Coming down the stairs 2.JPG 2011-12-25

Coming down the stairs 3.JPG
Coming down the stairs 3.JPG 2011-12-25

Coming down the stairs 4.JPG
Coming down the stairs 4.JPG 2011-12-25

Coming down the stairs 5.JPG
Coming down the stairs 5.JPG 2011-12-25

Coming down the stairs.JPG
Coming down the stairs.JPG 2011-12-25

Gma Hegg's House 2.JPG
Gma Hegg's House 2.JPG 2011-12-25

Gma Hegg's House 3.JPG
Gma Hegg's House 3.JPG 2011-12-25

Gma Hegg's House 4.JPG
Gma Hegg's House 4.JPG 2011-12-25

Gma Hegg's House 5.JPG
Gma Hegg's House 5.JPG 2011-12-25

Gma Hegg's House 6.JPG
Gma Hegg's House 6.JPG 2011-12-25

Gma Hegg's House 7.JPG
Gma Hegg's House 7.JPG 2011-12-25

Gma Hegg's House.JPG
Gma Hegg's House.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 2.JPG
Opening presents 2.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 3.JPG
Opening presents 3.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 4.JPG
Opening presents 4.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 5.JPG
Opening presents 5.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 6.JPG
Opening presents 6.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 7.JPG
Opening presents 7.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 8.JPG
Opening presents 8.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 9.JPG
Opening presents 9.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 10.JPG
Opening presents 10.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 11.JPG
Opening presents 11.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 12.JPG
Opening presents 12.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 13.JPG
Opening presents 13.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents 14.JPG
Opening presents 14.JPG 2011-12-25

Opening presents.JPG
Opening presents.JPG 2011-12-25

Playing with presents 2.JPG
Playing with presents 2.JPG 2011-12-25

Playing with presents 3.JPG
Playing with presents 3.JPG 2011-12-25

Playing with presents 4.JPG
Playing with presents 4.JPG 2011-12-25

Playing with presents.JPG
Playing with presents.JPG 2011-12-25

Waiting at the top of the stairs 2.JPG
Waiting at the top of the stairs 2.JPG 2011-12-25

Waiting at the top of the stairs.JPG
Waiting at the top of the stairs.JPG 2011-12-25

Waiting to go downstairs 2.JPG
Waiting to go downstairs 2.JPG 2011-12-25

Waiting to go downstairs.JPG
Waiting to go downstairs.JPG 2011-12-25

Well, it looks like we will be a household of boys!  Baby boy Long #4 is due April 29, 2012.  It is officially time for Mommy to let go of her hopes and dreams of frilly dresses and dance classes and embrace to world of wrestling, obscene bodily sounds all day (that are, apparently, hilarious) and weekends packed full of thrilling baseball games (yay! ;)).  However, we discussed with the boys that one of them will have to serve as a stand-in girl for Mommy and dress in princess dresses.  They quickly agreed that Liam would be the one (although, we're kind of thinking Gavin would be our happy volunteer as long as we took him to Cinderella's Castle).

It is amazing how quickly the boys are growing up.  In a couple weeks, we are sending Carter off to Kindergarten and Mommy is already nervous about his first ride on a school bus.  Gavin will be starting preschool in September and is a little nervous, but also a little excited to finally be a "big boy" and get to go to "Carter's School."  It will be neat to see his personality emerge more as he finally goes off to socialize and make friends without Carter around.

 

We've been having a pretty great Spring and Summer.  A trip to Florida on the auto train to spend some time on the Gulf Coast and then drop by Disney in May, OBX with Grandparents Long in June, lots of summer fun (pool, fruit picking at the farm, summer camps, fireworks!), a trip to visit the Ohio family at the lake cabin, and tomorrow off for one more last minute trip with Grandparents Hegg to Myrtle Beach.  Mommy is definitely exhausted, but has succeeded in her goal of making sure the boys are completely exhausted at the end of each summer day:)

 

Many milestones have also been passed this Spring and Summer.  Liam started walking in April/May and turned 1 in June, Gavin is potty trained, Carter has started reading a little, and Carter and Gavin have learned how to swim a little.  Liam is now quite the "big boy" himself (or at least HE thinks so as he follows his brothers around) and has a lot to tell you in his baby language. 

 

Dreading the end of summer, but looking foward to a busy and fun Fall season!

Life has been very busy around the Long household lately! 

Carter is still in school 3 days a week, speech therapy 2 days a week, involved in after school activities, and is getting ready to begin a trial of martial arts classes before beginning his first T-ball season in the Spring!  It is hard to believe that 5 years ago Carter was born.  He is growing up way too fast!

Gavin is in the process of potty training and just registered for preschool.  He is very excited to be a "big boy" now and mentions it all of the time, unless of course, it is convenient to plead that he is a "little boy" and therefore can't help with something like cleaning up.

Liam is turning into our biggest trouble maker of the family and manages to get into just about everything while in his walker.  He just started crawling and something tells me we are going to have our hands full in the coming months!

We are all going a little stir crazy with this winter weather and are counting down the days until flip flops and shorts :)

Liam Michael was born after 41 weeks on Wednesday, June 16 at 11:06am.  8lbs, 15.3oz and 21 3/4 inches.  Labor and delivery were quick and fairly smooth.  Recovery has been going well.  Carter and Gavin absolutely love their little brother and are often found cooing over him and playing peek-a-boo.

We've finally hit the home stretch and are starting to get ready to welcome Baby Liam home.  Carter is very excited and asks often when Grandma Hegg is coming to stay at our house:)  The boys attended a Big Brother class at the hospital and learned the important things, like where they keep the ice cream machine.  Gavin has fun pointing out babies, especially the one in his belly (according to him).  The boys have been helping prep a little and, of course, have shown a special interest in helping Mommy replace the batteries in all of the baby gear and testing everything out.

 

Carter has had a pretty busy Spring so far.  He just finished up his first round of swim lessons and is now able to search for dive sticks underwater and float on his back unassisted for a couple of seconds.  He will have another round of lessons at the beginning of summer to give Mommy a little extra piece of mind as we enter pool season with 3 boys to look after.  He is also in the middle of his first soccer season.  It took him a couple of weeks to warm up, but he seems to be getting the hang of things although still gets upset that he doesn't score the most goals.  We have a feeling he is going to be much more of a baseball kid once we start him on T-ball next spring.

 

Gavin is developing very rapidly right now and seems to come up with new words every day.  He is able to repeat all of the characters from many tv shows, every Thomas the Train character, and most importantly his favorite show, Dora the Explorer.  Mommy had a fun arguement with him the other day when he was dead set on buying a Dora nightgown at Target - complete with frills and ruffles.  The purple Dora socks were one thing, but we had to draw the line at princess nightgowns:)  He is hard to argue with though because he has such a little personality now, and is too darn cute for his own good.  Don't try to tell him that he isn't even 2 years old yet though, he seems pretty convinced that he is 4 years old, just like his favorite person in the whole world, Carter.

Looks like Mommy is destined to put away her hopes and dreams of princess dresses and tea parties and stick with wrestling and playing with trains from now on! :)  When Carter was told that it would be another boy, he said, "see, I told you it be a boy."  He is pleased with this, although he probably doesn't realize that this will be one more little boy that he has to share his trains with!  Everything at the ultrasound looked very healthy and we are still right on track for a June 9 due date.  Unfortunately for #3, he is going to be stuck with lots of stained clothing and re-gifted boy toys for many years to come:)  The general consensus in the car today is that this baby is going to be named "Bob the Builder", or "Bob, bob" for short.

 

The holidays were really fun this year and the boys had a blast with Santa and all of their new toys.  Gavin is still saying "ho, ho, ho!" quite frequently (embarrassingly so, he pointed and said this at an old Amish man at the aquarium too!) and Carter is still very happy with the Murdoch and Murdoch's tender that he received, although he has already started putting together his birthday list!

We just had our 12 week ultrasound and everything is looking great.  Erin has been starting to feel a little better over the past couple of weeks (still nauseated, but spending a little less time camped out on the couch).  The next (and probably final ultrasound) will be shortly after the New Year and we should be able to find out whether it is a boy or girl.  Carter is still undecided about which he would prefer:) 

 

Gavin has hit 18 months and has become quite the terror.  He has started scaling many high counters and pieces of furniture lately, resulting in many tumbles and tears (and skipped heartbeats for Mommy).  He is also often doing his best to instigate a fight and can be found belly bumping and poking Carter a lot in hopes of getting him to wrestle.

 

The boys are getting ready for the holidays and having lots of fun putting up decorations and dancing to Christmas music every night.  Carter has been diligently coming up with his Christmas list and then deciding for Gavin what is on his Christmas list too.  This year we started a new family tradition and have had a little pixie "Elf on the Shelf" visit our home.  He keeps an eye on the boys during the day and goes back to the north pole to give reports to Santa at night.  Each morning he can be found hanging out in a different place and the boys are having lots of fun looking for him each morning.  They have named their new elf Hershey.

 

We are happy to announce that Baby #3 is due on June 10, 2010 (although with our track record, it will likely be a week after that!).  We just had the first ultrasound at 8 weeks and everything looks right on track.  Baby #3 is proving its worth in this family already by making Mommy way more sick then the boys did.  Although, it is much harder for Mommy to take a nap on the playroom floor this time around with a very active Gavin constantly jumping on her! :)

Well, after a very busy summer that seemed to go by way too fast, Carter headed off to his first day of preschool.  He was a little nervous, but generally pretty excited, and quite frequently made a point of saying how "Gavin can't go to school because babies don't go poo-poo in the potty."  Poor Gavin, he is very sad that he can't join Carter each day when he gets dropped off. 

 

Gavin is still adjusting to spending time with just Mommy and has started to go through some major Separation Anxiety/Stranger Anxiety.  Without his security blanket of Carter around he seems pretty lonely (however, he is definitely taking advantage of free time to play with the trains without Carter pounding on him!).

 

Carter has had a couple very good days and a couple not-so-good days, but he is still gladly returning each day which is a good thing for him.  He has also started showing much more indepence with using the potty and dressing himself, so school already seems to be having a good influence.

 

Carter is very excited that the weather is starting to cool down because that means that Cox Farms FINALLY opened!  He has been waiting for this day since February (literally, he asks Mommy every single day if it is open yet).  The boys had a blast there and we will have to visit some other farms during the season too.  They went out shopping this weekend for their Halloween costumes (Captain Hook for Carter and Bob the Builder for Gavin) and have a blast looking at all of the "spooky" Halloween decorations in the store.  They get a kick out of watching the monsters rip their heads off and other gruesome decorations (gotta love boys!).

We've been so busy this summer and it is hard to believe that we are almost into mid-August!  Mommy and the boys have been keeping busy with loads of daytime activities including block parties, pool playdates, Rocknoceros and a puppet show at Wolf Trap Children's Theater, a firetruck demo, a frozen custard shop tour, playing in fountains, and lots more playdates! 

 

The boys got their first taste of a water park this season at the Reston Water Mine and both boys had to be forced by Mommy and Daddy to leave after they played so long that their lips turned blue and they were shaking.  Gavin went down one of the slides the wrong way and twisted both of his ankles, but that didn't stop him from playing because he discovered that Mommy and Daddy would carry him over to each of the slides, so he continued to go up and down many more times!

 

After many, many long months of hard labor, Super Daddy has finally finished building our deck.  It has already been broken in with 2 parties and the slide off of the back is a big hit.  Pictures of this will be posted soon.  Thanks Daddy!!!

After a healthy dinner of soda, juice and fondant icing, Carter was running around with a 5 year old boy who taught him how to catch "glowbugs" for the first time!  Even though Carter wouldn't touch any of them himself (surprised?), he had a blast running around near the vineyards and finding them.

Apparently Gavin didn't get the memo that the terrible twos don't start until AT LEAST 18 months.  Now that he is 1 year old and has learned to communicate what he wants/likes/dislikes, he will go into full on temper tantrum mode (including laying on the ground while kicking and screaming) at any moment.  I would say he learned this from his older brother, but even Carter never performed this classic of a temper tantrum.

Liam swimming.MOV

Carter and Gavin swimming.MOV

Carter swimming.MOV

Gavin swimming.MOV

Carter and Gavin Dancing.MOV

Tommorrowland Speedway Video.3gp

Gavin's dance moves.MOV

8/1/2011 1:54:05 AM - 004030302673
Andrew and Erin, Anne gave me this wesite and we are now enjoying the pictures of the boys growing up and fast too! Love to all Charlotte