Jacob's 2nd Birthday July 18, 2010

Happy Birthday Jake!! My little baby boy turned 2 this past weekend. We had a fun birthday party on Saturday. We did a Zoo theme party. The kids swam in the pool, had a bouncy house to bounce around in and a ball pit to jump in. We also had someone come and paint fun faces for the kids (and some adults.) Jacob was having WAY to much fun to stop and sit still for a face painting. He got lots of great toys and new clothes. His cakes were yummy too. Jacob is such a sweet little boy. I'm so glad I get to be his mommy. Although he did miss his nap and after crying for a few minutes passed right out on the living room floor. All the kids had a fun time and it was nice to see some family and friends we don't get to see very often. We love you Jake Jake!!!

Jake (in the middle) with his cousin Ty and friend Alex.

His Monkey and Tiger birthday cakes.

Blowing out the candle. Nicholas had to help him.

I love this pic. Ice Cream...Yum!!

Opening presents.

Uncle Brian.

Jake on his actual birthday.

Some face painting. Nicholas only had his on for about 5 minutes before it got wet.

The boys cousin Noel.

Noel, Marie and Elizabeth. (cousins)

Aunt Cathy and Karin with Marie and Elizabeth

Elizabeth. I loved her face painting. She also had little lady bugs on her arm. Really cute.

Swim Lessons June 28, 2010

Yesterday Nicholas started swim lessons. When we first got there he was so nervous to go in the water. He sat on the edge of the pool watching his class swim and kept saying the pool was "way to big." Finally one of the guys teaching convinced him to come in and as soon as he jumped in Nicholas had a smile on his face that was priceless. He was so excited to swim around and he learned how to kick his feet in the water to go faster. He even jumped off the edge into the pool. He really enjoyed it and is looking forward to the next couple of weeks. Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest. You can still see that smile I was talking about though.

Fathers Day and The Great Escape. June 20, 2010

Happy Father's Day!! Chad came home Saturday night (just in time for Fathers day.) The boys were so excited to see him. That morning they gave him a card. He actually got his present a few weeks ago because we weren't sure if he would be home in time. Then we went to church together. Nicholas got to sing "My Daddy is my Favorite Pal" with the primary. I'm not sure he sang at all but it was so cute. After the song all the kids went to the pulpit one by one and said "My daddy teaches me....." and they would fill in the blank. Nicholas said "My daddy teaches me how to build things." It is so true. Chad is truly amazing at building things. Whether its out of legos, lincoln logs or wood and nails. The boys quickly learned that playing with legos is sooo much more fun with daddy and not mommy. Its because daddy would build these tall building and robots. It is really awesome. Chad has also been working hard at building a deck on the back of our house (I will blog about that later) and letting Nicholas help him to measure and teaching him how to do things. I'm amazed at how much Nicholas knows about tools. We have our very own little Handy Manny. Jake is following right in his footsteps with his play hammer just pounding away and trying to be as helpful as and almost 2 year old can be. So after church Chad's family went to The Great Escape (like six flags only smaller.) We had a funfilled afternoon. The kids really enjoy seeing their cousins and its nice to hang out with family. I just want to quickly tell my Father how much I love him. He is a great father and I was glad I got to see him this weekend as well. Chad, you are a wonderful father to our boys. Although it breaks my heart a little everytime Nicholas says he wants to be a soldier like you, I know its because he wants to be just like his dad. We love you!

The boys at Great Escape.

Almost all of us on a kids ride. Elizabeth and Nicholas flying a plane. It is a cool ride. (Nicholas has 2 uncles who are pilots so I'm sure that is why he wanted to go on this one so badly.)

Jake and his cousin Ty holding hands. These boys are SOOO cute together.

Nicholas and Elizabeth riding in a car.

Elizabeth and Jacob flying on the swings. He liked this one.

Ty and Jake riding in the monster trucks. These boys really are adorable together.

Jake and Daddy hanging out.

Jake after going on the lazy river with Chad.

The end of our day. Jake was one tired little boy. I love that he is wearing his uncle Eric's hat. He put it on himself.

Cathy and Ross' Engagement Party June 19, 2010

It has been sooo long since I've blogged. I lost the charger for my camera and after a month of not being able to find it bought a new one. So this is what is happening here. My sister Cathy and her fiance Ross are getting married in August. They had their engagement party this past Saturday. It was a luau theme. It was a lot of fun. My only regret is that I didn't get a good picture of them. The only one I have is really dark. The boys had a blast and Chad came home that night so they were extra happy. My older sister Michelle planned the party with some help. I made 91 cupcakes on Friday and we decorated them all that night. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and we are very excited for their upcoming wedding.

Nicholas and Jake played on the the stage alot that night (which totally freaked me out.)

The cupcakes we made and flowers cookies that Debby made. They were yumy.

The tiki bar with punch and fruit juice.

While we were cleaning up I had to take a pic of Chad with Jake under the tiki bar.

Our picnic/BBQ May 5, 2010

Yesterday the boys and I ran some errands that took us about 3 hours. On the way home Jake fell asleep and Nicholas was really quiet. I asked him what he was thinking about and he said "Can we have a picnic tonight for dinner?" It was sooo beautiful outside I agreed that was a great idea. He also wanted to invite Aunt Shell. He really loves to being able to see her everyday. So we invited Michelle over and had BBQ chicken on our patio furniture. Then we went for a walk to the library and got some books and movies. To top it off we made some smores for dessert. It was a fun night and Nicholas wants to do it again when Chad is home. We miss him:( Hopefully the weather will keep up and we can do picnics more often.

Aunt Shell with the boys.

Jake wearing Aunt Shell's sunglasses.

Nicholas enjoying his dinner.

The boys getting ready for our walk.

National Pretzel Day. Herr's Snack Factory

Happy National Pretzel Day! Since today is Chad's last day off in the last week we will be here we decided to do one more thing as a family in PA. I was looking around last night for things to go see and noticed that today was National Pretzel Day and what better thing to do than to go to a pretzel/chip snack factory? Well it was about an hour and a half away which wasn't so bad there but the way home was kind of rough. It was fun though. We went on a tour of the factory and saw how they make the dough for pretzels and how they season the chips. It was pretty interesting how they reuse everything. They even have a machine that extracts heat off of the product and they use this heat to heat the building in the winter. They have NO heating bill throughout the winter. How great would that be? We got to try fresh chips that hadn't even hit the conveyor belt yet. They tasted soooo good. Everyone who goes to the factory gets a small bag of chips at the end of the tour but today being national pretzel day we also got a free bag of pretzels. The boys LOVE getting the souvenier pennies from those machines that flatten them and imprint a picture on them. It was far away but it was fun to spend time as a family. Its sad to think that next week at this time we won't be together in PA anymore. We need to take advantage of the time we get to spend together. Here are some pics of our day:)

In front of Chippers Cafe.

Some of their products displayed on the wall.

Getting their souveniers.

Jake had to turn it for himself.

The side of a wall on the building.

Happy 4th Birthday Nicholas!!!!

Today is Nicholas' 4th birthday. I can't believe it!! Where did the time go? Four years ago it was Easter Sunday when Nicholas decided he was ready to join our family. Thankfully I had a nap earlier that afternoon because he decided at about 10:30pm that it was a good time to get things started. Chad had to work an overnight shift that night (of course) and had already left. My sister Michelle came upstairs to see how I was doing (she lived in the apartment underneath us at the time) and my contractions started getting stronger and closer together. We left for the hospital calling Chad to meet us there. The hospital was only 20 minutes away. Michelle and I got there and I got changed. 15 minutes later my water broke and I was in serious pain at that point. I had an epidural within 20 minutes (so grateful for modern medicine:) After that things kind of slowed down which was good. About 3:15 I started pushing and Nicholas was born at 3:43am, 6 lbs. 13 oz, 19.5inches. It was the greatest experience of my life at that point in time. He has brought me such joy and I am so thankful to be his mom. Back to his 4th birthday, Chad and I stayed up until 12:30 this morning putting together his birthday present. We bought him a play kitchen. He LOVES to pretend to cook and since my kitchen is very small I'm hoping this will encourage him to use his more. He was so excited when he saw it. We also got to go to a kite festival at the playground right down the road. We got a kite at Target and it was a lot of fun. Both the kids got into it but it was sooo windy it kept crashing or getting tangled. Since we had his birthday party last week with our extended family and friends, I just bought a small cake to celebrate today. Happy birthday baby boy!!! We love you:)

Nicholas when he first woke up.

Ripping the sheet off his present. He was very excited to have his very own kitchen.

Flying our Woody and Buzz Lightyear kite.

A guy flying 3 HUGE kites.

Nicholas taking a break.

Jacob and Nicholas making Daddy do all the work.

They were pretty good about taking turns.

Jake flying it all by himself. Shortly after I took this he let go and Chad had to chase the kite down.

The Birthday boy!

Happy 4th birthday Nicholas!!