Bye bye kiddos!

Nick and I are in Phoenix right now. Nick qualified for this trip through work and we're at a nice resort/spa for the weekend--all expenses paid. We came here two years ago and brought Hunter with us, but it was really hard to deal with the time change (3 hours). He was up at like 4am and ready for bed at 6pm so we didn't want to deal with that again with two kids. We got here this morning...almost. The lines were so bad at the airport we had to ask people if we could cut in front of them and then RUN all the way to our gate. We made it with two minutes to spare--this is not like us, but the security lines were horrible. We left Jack and Hunter with Nana for the weekend...our first time away from Jack (and second or so time away from Hunter). I am very happy to be here although the weather is not as nice as we'd hoped. We really need the sleep and some time for us, but I miss them already. I know they will have fun with Nana, but I also feel guilty about the fact that my mom will be getting up in the night with Jack. I am going to try not to worry about it and enjoy this time away! We'll be back Monday afternoon and Hunter will probably not even have missed us :)

Our Weekend...

We had a nice weekend with the kids. Saturday morning I took Hunter to "Elmo's Birthday Party" at the bookstore since he LOVES Elmo (although Nemo has been more popular lately since we saw the movie Finding Nemo). There were tons of kids there and we had fun. They read stories, sang songs, and colored cards for Elmo. They did a drawing for some prizes drew Hunter's name first and I told him to go up and get his prize. He yelled out "Yay Hunter" really loud and everyone thought he was hilarious. Saturday evening we took him to the U of M basketball game. GG, Nana, and Grandpa Tom came too. Connie watched Baby Jack for us....we took Hunter to a Pistons game when he was about 4 months old and it did not go well, so we weren't about to make that mistake again. We played Penn State and lost :( Hunter wasn't sure what to make of it all for the first few minutes, but did fine after that. He LOVED the popcorn the most and had fun clapping and yelling "go blue!"

Sunday we went to church and Costco for some groceries/lunch (our usual Sunday routine). He has been doing really well in the nursery at church so we are very happy about that!

I love sweatervests

I fully intend on making my boys wear sweatervests as long as I possibly can.

He has more that I don't have pictures of, but I think they just look so cute!

GG

My grandma (Lois) is called GG. It stands for great-grandma and it kind of came about b/c we wanted to come up with something Hunter could say. She loves Hunter and Jack and they love her too! Hunter gets really happy when we tell him that he is going to get to see GG. We are so fortunate so have such a wonderful GG. Would you believe that Hunter and Jack have 10 grandparents? Grandpa Tom, Grandma Nana (Mary), Grandma Dori, Grandpa Dick, Hoppy, Mimi, GG, Great-Grandma Hidi (my grandma), Great-Grandpa Ron and Erika (my grandpa and his wife), and a Great-Great Grandma Marie. They are so lucky!!

We are taking Hunter (along with GG and my parents) to a U of M bball game Satuday night. Hunter has been practicing saying "Go Blue" all day. I sang the fight song to him this morning while he got dressed and he kept saying "more mommy, more mommy!!". We're getting him to love the Michigan Wolverines already :)

Jack's Baptism

We had a really nice weekend with Jack's Baptism on Sunday. Friday night Nick and I went out to the Melting Pot for dinner to celebrate V-Day. Connie watched both kids together for the first time and things went well for her. On Sunday, our family, my parents, my grandma Lois, Geoff, Anne, Emily, Danny, Mark and Brandie attended Jack's baptism. Emily and Mark are Jack's godparents. Hunter was really good in church which was so nice b/c I was so worried about it (he tends to yell a lot and usually lasts 15 minutes before we take him to the nursery...oh and sitting in the front row made it way more stressful). Nana (my mom) brought new books to keep him entertained which helped a lot. She helped a lot during mass, so thanks again mom! After mass we all came back to our house for brunch. It was a really nice day and we were so happy to have our families attend this special event. We had today off (President's Day), so that made the weekend even better!

On a side note, I don't know why the video in the prior post only works at certain times. Sometimes it works and sometimes a message comes up saying it's not available. I don't know why, but it does work at times.

Who does Hunter "heart"?

Hunter can't say "love" so he says "heart" instead. He also decided he doesn't like me to take videos, so that's why the angle is weird--he doesn't know I'm recording him over breakfast. We talk about who we "heart" and here is the interpretation of names (besides the obvious ones) in the order he says them.

GG--Great Grandma Lois
Hoppy--Grandpa Hopwood
Mimi--Anne Hopwood
Em--Aunt Emily
Ninnie--Emily's boyfriend Danny. Now we call Danny "Ninnie" thanks to Hunter. I'm sure he appreciates that.
Nana--Grandma Mary
Baboo--Our dog, Chopper. Hunter has basically renamed the dog Baboo. We all call him that now and we have no clue how he came up with that.
Nonnie--Cousin Connie. She babysits a lot and Hunter loves her!

My favorite part is near the end where he puts the whole bite of waffle in his mouth and then takes it back out to dip it in syrup. And when he says "I heart DaddyBabyJackBaboo" all in one long word.

Three months old...and a superhero

Hunter is so proud when he uses the potty.

He puts his arms up and yells, "yay hunter!"

Jack is three months old today.

Here is what we know so far...

--he is a chubby baby. He's been in his 6 month clothes for a few weeks now. He's in the 75th percentile for his weight. His head and length are in the 50th percentile.

--he is happy most of the time. He loves his baby einstein mat and musical star. He smiles and kicks his legs when we turn it on.

--he smiles a lot when we talk to him and make funny noises for him.

--he is a pretty good sleeper. He was sleeping better a few weeks ago, but has has a cold/cough lately and it's been waking him up. We've had several nights where he's slept from 8pm-5 or 6am straight. He usually goes to bed at 8pm, wakes up once to eat, and goes back to sleep until 6 or 7am.

--he drools a lot lately. We are not happy about this and have to put a bib on him quite a bit.

--he likes toys, falling asleep in his carseat, and taking baths.

As for Hunter, Uncle Mark and Brandie got him this superhero outfit thing for Christmas. I am not into the whole boy superhero thing and put the cape on backwards until Nick corrected me. See above. We are still working on potty training and that's why he has no pants on. It has been hit and miss--literally. At least he pooped on the hardwood floor, not the carpet. And at least Nick was home to clean it up. We bought Hunter some big boy underpants this weekend...it's actually sad for me. He looks like such a boy in his underpants and not my baby in diapers anymore!

Potty Time!

I bought Hunter this adorable potty several months ago. It has a sensor in it so if he pees in it plays a song. You can also "flush" it and it has a holder for a roll of toilet paper--it's so cute. Anyway, he sits on it when I'm in the bathroom going potty, but has not had much desire to go in it. I decided I'd let him do it at his own pace since everyone tells me boys take longer than girls to learn. Ok, I'm also too tired and lack the energy/patience to deal with it right now. He has been showing signs of being ready (telling me when he poops, hiding when he poops, etc). However, our awesome nanny (Monica), has been motivated to get him to use the potty...so today since they are at home all day since both kids have colds, they pulled out the potty into the kitchen. Hunter was naked from the waist down most of the morning and peed in his potty!!! He's used it 3 times so far. She said he sat on it for a long time reading books and finally went. She texted me this picture and you can see how proud he is of his pee-pee in the potty. I actually stopped home b/c I'd taken Jack to the dr this morning and we did a little dance around the kitchen so he could see how proud I was of him. We twirled around singing "pee-pee in the potty. pee-pee in the potty. yay hunter!!!"

We have a "reward chart" in the kitchen and he gets stickers when he does certain things (i.e. helps with Jack, helps with Chopper, helps with laundry, eats his dinner, etc)...the "using the potty" now has a sticker!! I'm so proud of him :)

Winter Fun

Hunter has been having some fun outside this winter. Monica (our nanny) took him sledding in the driveway one day and he had fun. Last weekend Nick and Hunter went out behind our house to see Fleming Creek. As you can see, Hunter did not have that much fun. I had hot chocolate waiting for him when he came back in which he was thrilled about.

Welcome to our new blog

We used to use a different site, but we reached the max number of pictures and are now converting to this blog, which we should have done a long time ago. I am going to try to keep it about our kids and pictures of them. However, I highly doubt I can resist temptation to talk about our marriage and Nick's annoying habits every once in a while (he does this to me on his blog, so it's only fair). So, here are two pictures--Hunter at the Hands on Museum with Monica (our nanny) recently and Baby Jack. I am also going to try to use Picasa and upload lots of pictures there...one thing at a time though! I hope to make improvements to the blog as we go, but I'm just figuring this all out.