Buried Treasure...

This will be the third blog in a row with some reference to Cheerios. Something about toddlers and their favorite snack food that makes life so interesting...

The other day I gave Lucy her snack cup of Cheerios to tie her over until lunch. Recently, I have found her favorite place to sit is right by our front windows, nestled up by the heating vent and the Christmas tree. I didn't really think anything of it...figured she liked the hot air from the vent, the smell of the Christmas tree...or watching people pass by on the sidewalk.

A few minutes passed and Lucy rejoined me in the kitchen asking for more food - presenting an empty snack cup. I figured she had given most to Bailey - so I refilled a few more Cheerios in the cup and followed her to make sure she ate her snack rather than giving it to the dog (see previous blog regarding feeding Bailey her snack). She took her cup and ran back to her favorite spot. This time, I watched as she took out a few Cheerios, held them out - and dropped them. "Clang...Clang...Clang" I heard....

Then it dawned on me...THE AIR VENT!!!! So I watch her again. She smiles big, looks at me....grabs a few more Cheerios. Then she looks down into the air vent - and drops another few in. I closed the air vent and proceeded to use it as a teaching event to not do this in the future. As you can see from the pictures below - it took a while (and several hand-fulls of Cheerios) to get her to understand she should not drop Cheerios down the vents.

To wrap up this funny story - I got out my vacuum, and fed the hose down the air vent to clean out the few Cheerios. The "few" Cheerios turned into a buried treasure of ~50 that I sucked out with the vacuum. I think this had been going on for a few days....

Enjoy the pictures below. Life is always an adventure with a toddler. :)

-Chris

Viral Marketing!

Sometimes the internet can be a funny thing....tonight I logged onto our website to check out the "website analytics." Basically it is who is viewing your site and how much. You can typically find out a viewer's "city" and their view count.

So enough with the internet marketing lesson, and on to the funny story! So I was checking out my analytics when I noticed something funny. Typically our family videos get a few hundred views - but the latest one was off the charts with over 1200 independent viewers! WOAH...So I started doing my investigation. I noticed in my references that most views were coming from a Cheerios owned facebook site. I followed the rabbit hole and found the reason!

Someone in Cheerios (probably a social media analyst) stumbled across our video/blog and reposted it on their site! BOOM....viewership explosion! Anyway - if you want to "rewatch" the video or see the comments we got - follow the link below! Our favorite comment voiced concern over germs since Bailey licked Lucy's hand. :) Germs in our house...Melissa would not allow it!

Link to Cheerios Facebook Site

Cheerios....

As I've stated in my previous posts, Lucy and Bailey are best friends. It's funny that we even spent any time worrying about how the two would interact! Check out the video below; it tells the WHOLE story! Lucy has found that the way into Bailey's heart lies with Cheerios....

Lucy at the Park!

Lucy is growing up so fast these days! She's 15 Month's old, and some days I feel she runs as fast as I do! We are always chasing her around the yard, the house, and anywhere we take her!! It was the right time to introduce her to the park! We recently got to hang out at the park with some friends, where we learned that she LOVED the slide.

Enjoy the short video below of Lucy on the slide - or click the link to see it fullscreen! (It's a little shaky as I shot it on the iphone).

The Beach with the Beahms...

Last week we finally snuck away for a family vacation to the beach! It was an awesome week filled with family, fun and of course food! We had 3 sets of Beahms together for the week in South Carolina!

We started the week in Charleston visiting Michael & Lynn. They were amazing hosts and we had a great time seeing their new place! We finished up the week in Pawley's Island at my parent's beach house. There were quite a few games of "Settlers of Catan" - and I have to shout out to Melissa who won 2 games!!!

Lucy had an a great time and despite trying to eat the sand, she loved the beach! We had the chance to get some great family pictures and enjoy a few sunsets at the water's edge. Click here if the slide show does not play.

Summer fun....

It's been an awesome summer so far. I've graduated from Grad School, I've turned 30 (ouch), Lucy's turned 1, Lucy's started walking....wow. With a growing baby it's amazing how much changes in the blink of an eye!

She's on the move (click here if the video does not play):


Here are pictures from Mom/Mimi's Birthday & 4th of July:

Mimi's Birthday & 4th of July

And some updated pictures from the summer:

Lucy 10-12 months

We are so thankful to have been able to spend so much time with friends and family these past few weeks!