Happy Birthday

To my first baby.


Thank you for making me a mommy.


I love you to INFINITY and BEYOND!!

Under Construction

Notice anything new?

Jon just informed me that he didn't like my changes.

Bleh!

I think it looks fresh and fun. And it's my blog, anyways, right?! I tell him all the time that he needs to get his own blog, thankyouverymuch. :)

Anyways, I'm still trying to iron out a few things, but I hope you like the new look!

Caught In The Act ...

Imagine how delighted I was when I peeked around the corner after lunch to find this:

Backyard Bash

Oh, my! I'm soooooo behind!

Instead of sitting here and feeling overwhelmed at how much we've done since I last posted, I'm just going to start from where we're at now.

Today we had a small birthday party for Tanner with a few of our most special friends. It was his first birthday party outside of a family party. Each year, I've gone back and forth about whether or not to have a "friend" party for him, and each year I've decided not to do it.

This year, though, he was having such a GREAT time at everyone else's party, I thought he needed his own! I still wanted to keep things simple, so I decided to do it during the week, in the backyard, with just his closest friends. It was total chaos (or maybe every hostess feels like that), but I think it's safe to say he had a great time!

Our theme was Toy Story. We attempted a few games: Toy Bowling and Potato-Head Mix-Up -- but most of the kiddos were much happier just playing around in the baby pool. I did order a Buzz Lightyear balloon bouquet, but you won't see it in any pictures. I decided that's the last set of balloons I will ever order. It was whining and tears from the time I picked them up yesterday -- Tanner and Landon fighting over them. Tanner wanted to run around with them screaming instead of leave them on the table (didn't he understand that they were the centerpiece???). Then they started popping. No. More. Ballons.

Ever.

Anyways ... Here are some pics from our little bash!

The Invites

The Ugliest Cake Decorating Job Ever
Courtesy of Baskin-Robbins
(but it tasted GREAT!!)

Just ask my boys ...







I don't know WHERE my children learned to lick there plates. They were the ONLY ones doing this, which makes me think it must have learned it from me or Jon. Probably me, since ice cream was involved. :)




Tanner was so excited to blow out the candles all day.
He was totally caught off guard when he went to blow them out and the wind had already done it for him! Poor guy!



Tanner and one of his best buddies.

Sidetracked

I have good intentions for this blog. Really, I do. Each day I plan to carefully go through the 600+ pictures I've taken in the past week, find the best ones, and then write a witty post about what we've been doing.

But something always comes up.

Laundry needs to be washed and folded.

Some sort of exercise needs to happen.

The boys go on a nap strike.

I sit down at my computer for two seconds, look over my shoulder, and find Landon on top of the kitchen table ... or one of the end tables ... or eating food out of the trash (this befuddles me, since he throws EVERY SINGLE MORSEL of food that I give him at mealtimes straight onto the floor). Or, every once in a while, I hear a strange noise that sounds like splashing. Where could that be coming from? Oh yes, the toilet.

And really, before I know it, Jon has talked me into watching The Bachelorette with him -- his new favorite show :) -- and it's 10:00 at night. And I'm just tired.

But, I did at least go through some pics and select a few of my faves from the past week or so. We've been having a blast outside. This is the time of year that I am so happy to be staying at home with my kids! There is so much going on and so many places to go and things to do. And if a day comes when there isn't any place to go, we can always just hang out in the backyard and have fun anyways.

"Look, Mom! My hair is crazy like Lewis'!!"
(You will only appreciate this if you watch Meet the Robinson's 17 times each week)

"Don't worry, Mom! Now that I'm almost 15 months, I can TOTALLY climb up this playground equipment meant for 5-12 year-olds!"

Over Memorial Day weekend, my dad told me that he and my brother were going to take Tanner out fishing on the lake behind their house. I was like, "See you in about 15 minutes!"

Oh, how I underestimated my firstborn!
He stayed out in that boat for 1.5 hours and caught 6 fish ALL BY HIMSELF -- reeled 'em in and everything. I'm so so proud!


*Hope you're enjoying your summer as much as we are!!*

Catching Up

The weather has been consistently nice here, which is SHOCKING ... and also my excuse for slacking here on the blog! We are having so much fun and doing so many things, I don't even have time to write about all of them! But ... I've promised myself to try and catch up a little bit here in the next few days.

For right now, I'm going to tell you about the little trip I took. Remember the one I mentioned here a few weeks ago? The one I was going on sans kids? Oh yes, that's the one!

Almost two weeks ago I left to spend 4 days in beautiful Sea Island, Georgia with my family. Everyone was there except for Jon and the kids. He stayed back to be Dad of the Year with my little munchkins. More on that later (he totally ROCKED IT!!) Anyways ... I flew solo for the weekend and loved every second of it. Imagine waking up to this every morning:




I spent all four days on the beach with my favorite people. The highlights:

Good Food
Great Conversation
Sleeping In
Going for a few runs
Brainstorming names for my sister's baby (Lauren -- she's about 16 weeks pregnant!!!! :)
Taking care of NOBODY but myself






A few days before I left, Jon asked me "What are you most excited about -- only having to wipe one person's bottom all weekend?"

"Ummmm .... YEAH!! That pretty much sums it up!"

(I know, he's so eloquent and proper. Actually, he didn't even say bottom, he used a bad word instead. But I won't repeat it here.)

Jon was SuperDad while I was gone. The first day, he went to Tanner's end-of-the-year preschool party. The next day he took the kids to the children's museum. (I haven't even had the guts to do that on my own yet!!) They also went to the zoo and the forest preserve. And on the last day, Jon set up the baby pool for them in the back yard and they had a ball splashing around in the water. I can't tell you how IMPRESSED I was with all that Jon did with the boys. And even more importantly, when I got home he was STILL smiling! He said it was one of the best weekends he's had in a while.

That makes two of us :)

More to come on what we've been up to! Stay tuned!