Last Day of Summer Break

Last day of Mommy's summer break :-( I picked James up from school early and we met up with Gma Chele and the Wehrle's at Pirates Cove for some amusement park fun!

ARRRR! Ahoy there, Matey!


By far, his favorite "ride" was the hand-cycle trains -- he went around and waited in line 4 times for them!

Abby, Bella and James



Last ride -- what a fun afternoon!



What a Difference 6 Months Makes!

I was determined to get a picture of Ben (James' friend Katie's little brother) and Logan in cute matching outfits while they were still "little" (doesn't really apply to B.Dub anymore as he's rocking the top end of the growth charts)...needed some cute pics to bust out at high school graduation :-) It's really nice to have kids that are so close in age to compare war stories with...confirms that you aren't the only ones going through the tough times (non-sleeping nights, teething, 2-year old independence, etc.) and you can enjoy the fun things with them too!

Ben (9 months) and Logan (almost 3 months) Logan sitting in the Bumbo for the first time -- we'll have to bring our Bebe pod chair up and let him practice -- still a little bobble head-ish but getting stronger and more control over it every day!

Halloween 2011 :: Execution

James was excited to go to school and dress up "in a costume" today. Logan and Mommy were able to join him for a parade through the attached school (which had all the students and faculty ooh-ing and ahh-ing at the Young Preschool and two tag along Infants' adorableness). I'm happy for maternity leave as Logan and I were able to get to school in time to participate as this is probably my only chance to attend an event like this because my school district usually schedules a Teacher Institute day on Halloween (and you don't miss those in these tough times of RIF-ing teachers). Ms. P told them all to grab a teacher or a buddy's hand and off we went! They were actually very good at walking and staying together, you can tell they've been practicing.
After the parade, Logan and I headed home for him to eat and to let James enjoy learning the rest of the day (they had dry erase boards and black paper w/ chalk out when I left for practicing writing skills; also, he was excited to get a turn wearing the astronaut dress-up as I believe they are talking about astronauts this week). The rest of the day was hectic trying to get things done at home, finish up a training session for school (didn't have to do them on maternity leave, but don't want my name on any "list," especially with a new principal who may not know I'm on leave) and then back to pick up James. Gma Chele was at home when we got back, she helped me get James into lion form and I moved a (finally) sleeping Logan into his puppy costume and into the stroller (had a tough afternoon). Daddy got home from work, got his camera and adult beverage and we were on our way for some trick-or-treating :-) Gma Chele was nice enough to stay at home with Easton and hand out our goodies so we didn't eat all the left overs :-) Uncle John surprised James with a visit too on his home from work!

Now the hunt begins for next year's costumes!

Hospital Stay

We stayed a day less this time around, but Momma and Logan were ready to head home and start our adventure! (Obviously, not when the picture above was taken...this was the first time I had gotten out of bed - still had IV and catheter hooked up, yuckies)!

Gma Chele finally getting to hold Logan -- Gma and Uncle John only got to see Logan through the nursery window the night he was born -- hospital rules make pre-term babies stay in the nursery for observation for 6 hours before getting to meet people, which was way past visiting hours at 12:30am when we finally got to see him for more than a minute (even though his APGAR scores were good at 8 for 1-minute and 9 for 3-minutes, still have to follow protocol)

Uncle John doing double nephew duty :-)

One of the pictures that the professional picture people from the hospital staged with Logan in Jim's hand (thanks Amanda for snagging it)

Logan meets Aunt Jen

Meeting Aunt Amanda

Pops and his grandsons!!! What a handsome bunch!

Aunt Cassie and Logan getting aquainted

Living the Thug Life -- C$ is ready to go home (and not too happy about having real clothes on - which are a bit big since they told us he was going to be huge and only had 0-3 month clothes with us, haha)

Hi there, Lowgs, Momma loves you and that dark hair with light blue-grey eyes (hoping they stick around)

Logan passed his car seat test the night before (an 1.5 hour test all pre-37 week babies have to take which measures their oxygen levels while sitting in the car seat), so we're ready to go home!

Let the real fun begin! It was nice and calm outside with beautiful weather and not too many visitors at the hospital on a Sunday night at 7:45pm :-)

Splash Park

We visited a splash park on one of James' days off school. The neighbors and a friend of Jim's from elementary school and her daughter met us there. What a great, enclosed space...and cheap! Only $3 per person! James loved all the aqueducts and trying to figure them out.
He was also ecstatic to pretend to be a firefighter!!! Here, the only picture I could get of him and Jillian "playing together" :-) She's in the green, and, believe it or not, 2 months younger than James! I'm going to start teaching her volleyball now!

Our Fireman!

Water war with Abby

Both Mommas with version 2.0 on the way! Katy is due about a month ahead of us (although at time of this posting, she has yet to deliver and we're probably being moved up, so they may only be just over a week apart)!

Brookfield Zoo

James and I found a cooler day to enjoy our zoo membership with the Wehrle girls! We had a great morning/afternoon and both took good naps afterwards :-) Of course, each zoo trip must start with a ride on the carousel! James picked a kangaroo (which he saw later and was so excited).
Bella, James and Abby -- our happy zoo-sters!

James was sooo excited that one of the first animals we saw were the horsies -- these are actually some Polish ponies of which I could not even try to spell or say correctly (it started with "Pzt" or something impossible, a girl didn't even have a chance)

The bald eagle was very cooperative for this picture (which I hear doesn't happen often)

Meet Ms. Sofia

Sofia is here!!! She made proud parents out of Jen and Dominic on June 11, 2011 :-) She was 6lbs 4oz and 19 1/2 inches long and cute as a button! James can't wait to meet "Baby Fia."
Above :: Proud Momma
Below :: Fia snuggles with her Aunt Dani
Uncle Jim got Fia to finish up her bottle -- what a pro!

Belly Pics

Jen and Dominic are expecting their first baby girl in June -- can't wait to meet Ms. Sofia!!!
Who says you don't carry boys and girls differently?!?! Jen is 37 weeks and I'm only 25 weeks in these pictures -- boy = all out front and girl = wrapped around nicely (and what looks more comfortably to me)! Our ham bone, James, had to get in on the photo session :-)

Jen and Dom watched James this night so Jim and I could cash-in their Christmas gift -- dinner at Melting Pot (yummy)! James had a blast playing with them!!! Unfortunately, after we left, I had Jim go downstairs to check on the fans we had running (we had gotten about 3.5 inches of rain in less than 5 hours and had seepage through the foundation)....I knew things were bad when I heard all the cursing downstairs -- the sewer clean out valve had popped as it was a "fill up" and at least all of James' bath water (and some yucky sewer water) had made it's way all over our basement floor. Ben and Rachel were awesome and helped clean up some of the water (I was useless downstairs anyways as pregnancy and sewage don't mix well) and the emergency plumber charged an arm and a leg to work for, literally, 7 minutes. Update :: sewer has been fixed, check back later to see those pics -- not a good way to spend a free day off work, but Jimmy did a good job with it all.

Our Lil' Sailor Boy

Showing off his six pack
Smelling the flowers

Jimmy (and John and most of the other boy cousins) wore the same sailor outfit at 2 years old -- James definitely has his chin, but I still think he's a pretty good mix of us both

Trying everything we could to get James to look UP at the camera

Sailor James gives his friend, Katie, the tulip :-) So sweet! Awwww!

School Pics

James is a ham both at home and school :-) Seriously, I can only imagine the phone calls we are going to get from his teachers as he gets older! Above :: You're not supposed to label children, but I think he picked a perfect "awesome" label here :-)
Below :: "Nor, make James pretty!" Any time the girls get their hair fixed, the boys must have a turn

Mikey and James showing off their pretty mohawks -- ROCK STARS!!! Part I'm most impressed by is that they are sharing the stool and holding hands -- total focus on the camera
Insisted I put a pony tail in his hair because I had just made "Evie pretty" :-)

Random photo from home of him "rockin'"

James is pretending to sleep on Nora...what a silly boy, I can hear his fake snore..zzzzz!

Play Date

Above :: Enjoying some warm weather on one of the few nice days we've had this spring.
Below :: hiding his eyes from the sun on our way home from school -- he really doesn't like it very much when the sun is in his eyes

On our way to Evie's house!!! James was soooo excited to go see Evie's house -- he talked about it (and counted cars) the whole way there :-)

Toddler Heaven :: a humongous kitchen! Evie and her parents were so kind as to have us over for some indoor playing, lunch and outdoor playing. James loved climbing up the wall and going down the slide.

Jen's Baby Shower

My wonderful mom came into town over her spring break to help me throw Jen a baby shower! I wouldn't have been able to get everything together without her help -- THANK YOU SO MUCH, GG!!!! We went with an "A-B-C" theme and asked people to bring a book to help start Baby Sofia's library for her :-) I think she got a decent start! Jen ordered the cake to go with the A-B-C theme and the elephants that are on Sofia's bedding -- soooo cute!

Grandma Jane with Jen showing off the quilt she made for Sofia

Grandma, Great Grammy and Mommy (4th generation on her way in June)!

A really cute Noah's Ark cross from Great Grandma Joann

Two preggo ladies :-) Jen (approx. 28 weeks along) and Dani (17 weeks along)