The Azalea Festival & Mommy's BIRTHDAY!

I decided to start this post off with brother comparison pictures. I thought by now they would look very different, but they might as well be the SAME BABY!! Good thing they are so cute! :)

I love how they even have the same little expressions!

I showed this one to Nelson and he admitted that if I hadn't labeled it, he wouldn't know which baby was which!

Our little Beckham turned 4 MONTHS OLD on April 22. I really feel like time is going by too fast!! Nelson heard the Darius Rucker song, "It won't be like this for long," on the radio on the way to work yesterday and we listened to it together when he got home. Talk about a TEAR JERKER!! I know that I will look back on this time and yearn for our children to be babies again so I am really focusing on finding joy in the journey and cherishing each day I spend nurturing and loving our boys. 

Beckham has become very animated and makes the cutest little faces and sounds. See how excited he is to look at Mickey?? 

Ashton is SUCH a good friend to Beckham. He always says, "Let's play Beckham!" and will bring him toys to hold. I love how they are holding hands in this picture.

No one wants to do tummy time alone! :)

Oh how I LOVE this sweet little boy!! 

Ashton's new favorite activity is playing matching games. I have an app on my phone that he looooves. Ashton has the BEST memory and can recall names of people he has only met once, so I knew he would be good at the matching game. I always say he will make a good bishop someday since he is so good at remembering names. :)

Ashton constructed a "slide" the other night. I love how his stuffed animals are always by his side, enjoying the fun!

They boys eating Play Doh sandwiches!

Cute boy!!

Sooo sweet!

Ashton climbed into Beckham's car seat and I couldn't believe how long his legs looked! 

Beckham was sitting in his Bumbo while I was making dinner. Nelson came home from work and excitedly picked him up. He quickly discovered that Beckham had blown out and he got poo all over his cashmere sweater!!

Ashton got ahold of the camera and took pictures of every member of our family! Not bad!

Aren't these bath buddies adorable??

We live right next to Wilmington, which is a beautiful city full of rich history. They have an annual activity which has been going on since 1948 called the Azalea Festival. The celebrations include concerts, parades,  celebrity appearances, touring of gardens and many other fun community events. We toured some beautiful gardens with Stacey, who works with Nelson at McLeod Architect, and her family.

This tree behind us is over 400 years old!

Mommy and the boys by a fountain.

I thought this tree was so beautiful! 

Here we are sitting on that long branch!

Since we both grew up in the west, North Carolina's history is very new to us! It is very interesting to learn all about early American colonization history as well as Civil War history. 

Ashton was so excited to see so many "gooses" and swans!

Ashton found a large leaf and carried it around for most of the day!

This is Stacey's little daughter, Lana. She is Ashton's age and we have already decided on a prearranged marriage! ;)

The gardens were absolutely beautiful!

Out on the boardwalk!
There were two-story boat garages on the other side of the dock. I asked Nelson how they get the boats on the second level and my question was soon answered when we saw a huge forklift lift a boat out of the water and up into the garage. It was amazing!

Sweet Beckham sleeping!

This was the first established church building in North Carolina! Pretty neat! You can see Stacey's husband, Joe, off to the left of the picture ringing the bell. Dinnng doooong!! Time for church!

After a yummy lunch, we headed to Ashton's favorite place: THE BEACH!! 

Since we were in Wilmington, we decided to go to Wrightsville beach instead of the beach in Surf City, where we usually go. We noticed the water looked much greener, and since the weather has been getting warmer, the water was only a little chilly.

Ashton is having the time of his life!

It was a beautiful day!

Picture perfect!!

I'm so sad I cut off Ashton's face...isn't he handsome?!?

Poor Ashton face-planted on the carpet and got a pretty bad rug burn. Everywhere we go people ask what happened!

We found a gem of a park here in Hampstead that we will be returning to often!

We talked about temples for Family Home Evening last week and Nelson helped Ashton construct a temple out of mega-blocks!! Ashton is so lucky to have such a talented daddy! :)

P.S.: Ashton is sporting Nelson's old "Rocky Mountain Fever" t-shirt! I love it!

We just LOVE this sweet, roly-poly boy!

Lastly, I turned 24 on April 21!! I had a wonderful day with my boys! I went to a Stake Relief Society Activity for 4 hours while Nelson conquered my month-long grocery list. What a man! It seriously takes endurance to get everything on the list and he did it all by himself! We did some thrift store shopping that afternoon and signed some papers...
for
 a
HOUSE!!
I'll update with details and pictures soon. I am so so excited to move into our house! :) Life is just fabulous.