Easter fun!

Hunter played on the slide while I waited in line for him to get his face painted

Showing off the Easter egg he had painted on his face

He loves the Easter Bunny--way more than Santa!

I LOVE this picture. They had an Easter egg scramble--too many kids & not enough eggs though


Hunter and Daddy--lately he has been calling him "Nick" and we keep telling him, "you call him daddy". That makes him want to say "Nick" even more!

Hunter has the cheesiest smile :)

On Saturday morning Nick and I took Hunter to this park in Ann Arbor that had all sort of Easter things going on. It was really cold, so our neighbor (Cheaney) watched Jack for us. It was her first time watching him and she was really excited. Cheaney is 12 years old and has her babysitter certification from the Red Cross. We brought Jack to her house b/c her mom was going to be home all morning and would help if needed. He was there for about 2.5 hours and was sleeping when I picked him up.

We took Hunter to the park. They had face painting, egg decorating, Easter egg scramble, and pictures with the Easter bunny. Hunter had lots of fun and we went out to lunch afterwards before heading home. I forgot how much easier it is to just have one kid with us instead of two! I thought it was hard before I had two, but now it's a piece of cake just being out with Hunter. I think he enjoyed the quality time and attention he got without Jack being there.

Jack's first taste of rice cereal

He's not sure what to think...

Friday evening we gave Jack his first taste of rice cereal. He seemed to like it! It's so cute to see how they just don't know what to do with it b/c it's a new texture. I am hoping if we incorporate this into his schedule he will start sleeping better at night for us. I know it's an old wive's tale, but a girl can wish.

Below are two pictures of when Hunter had his first taste of rice cereal

Tummy time!

Hunter has to get in the picture and practice his tummy time too!

Jack likes tummy time a lot more than Hunter did. Jack is just so cute and chubby! I love all of his rolls :)

Oh, and last Friday I took Jack to the dr for his 4 month checkup (a week or so after he turned 4 months). He's now in the 90th percentile for legnth, 50th for height and head. We have another tall baby! He was normal for length at the beginning, but must have had a major growth spurt between 2 and 4 months.

Taking the kids out

I think it's really weird that Jack is almost 5 months old and Nick has not taken both kids out in public by himself yet. I think he is scared. I have to say I wouldn't do it if I had the choice b/c it's always easier with two people, but I do take them out at least once a week by myself (to MOPS or other places to play). I have not ventured to the grocery store or anything like that yet...but why would I put myself through it if I don't have to? I suppose it would be easier when Jack can sit in the cart though b/c right now he is in his carseat it takes up the whole cart.

Tomorrow there is an easter egg hunt, face painting, and the easter bunny at a park in Ann Arbor. I think Hunter will have lots of fun this year! I am going to hide easter eggs all over the house for him to find on Easter Sunday. On Sunday afternoon after nap Hunter and I are going to meet up with my friend Amber to hang out and go to dinner. He has been saying her name all week since I told him we are going to see her. He knows she got him Tickle Me Elmo for his 2nd birthday and I'm not sure if he knows exactly who she is, but he's excited!

Have a good weekend :)

Our 2 1/2 year old update

Hunter is 2 1/2. He is such a little boy now and I can't believe how fast these past two years have gone! I look at pictures of him when he was Jack's age and they look the exact same. Nick and I can't even tell the difference and now he's like a real person with opinions, attitudes, etc. If I had to describe his personality, I would say he is outgoing, independent, opinionated, funny, and sweet. He says "hi" to EVERYONE. We are famous at Target b/c not only are we there once a week, but several cashiers remember him b/c he will say hi to them 40 times while we're checking out and they yell "bye" ten more times until we are out of sight in the parking lot. Nick and I are not very shy, so it's no surprise and I suppose I'm happy that he's outgoing rather than super shy...I don't want people to walk all over him, but I of course don't want him to be a bully either.

Hunter has the best personality. He makes us laugh all the time with his silliness. Now that he is talking more, it's even better. He wasn't talking as much as we thought he should be for his age, but now it's just flowing out like crazy. He was saying a lot and understands everything, but we thought it should be a little more by now. Everyone said it would start one day and it finally has starting a few weeks ago. A friend has a blog and said she read somehwere that kids who are slightly delayed in speech are more intelligent...I'll just tell myself that! She is worried about her 18 month old though, not a 2 year old! Anyway, it doesn't seem to be an issue anymore and he copies everything we say--we have to watch our words carefully now.

I also can't believe he will be starting pre-school this fall. He is ready. Of course every parent thinks their kid is smart, but he knows his ABC's, numbers up to 20, colors, shapes, and more. We just got a puzzle with all the states and he knows several of those already. I think he will enjoy learning new things at school and being challenged. He goes to the nursery at church every week and I am in MOPS, so he goes to school at St. Luke's every other Thursday for 2.5 hours. It is a classrom like environment and he LOVES going and doesn't cry when I drop him off. Most kids cry and throw fits--he just says "Bye mommy!!" and runs off. The big decision is where to send him....catholic, montessori, or just a regular pre-school. Nick wants the cheapest. I want the best environment for him. I am pretty much sold on montessori. I know lots of parents who put their kids in montessori and think it's awesome. There just happens to be a Christian montessori five minutes from our house that I've heard wonderful things about. Nick and I are going on a tour and observing a classroom next week and I'm really excited. It's relatively small, diverse, and the teacher seemed really nice (I've already gone once by myself). I really love the montessori way of teaching and love that they try to foster a caring Christian environment on top of that. Now I just have to convince Nick that it's the best decision and worth paying for....

We are really looking forward to this summer with him. We are going to take swimming lessons and spend lots of time at the pool/park/lake. We are planning a trip up north around the 4th of July (I think). We have a very busy spring--it seems like we have things going on every weekend from now until the 4th of July. We have a trip planned to go to the zoo, a Tiger's game, and several other fun things.

For the most part he is an absolute joy. Of course he has his moments--yelling, tantrums, and typical two year old boy stuff. We are so blessed to have happy healthy kids who have family that loves them!

New Raincoat and Boots

I recently bought Hunter some new boots and a raincoat. I wanted him to try them on when we got back from the store and take his picture. He did not want me to take his picture and this is the progression of how it went.

"Daddy, save me from this evil woman trying to take my picture!!"

"Even though I normally love smiling for the camera, today I am not in the mood and do not like my mother."

"I think I'll throw myself on the floor in a tantrum b/c having my picture taken is the worst thing in the world right now!"

"Ok, now this is kind of fun. I am a champ at turning the tears off in a matter of two seconds when I want to. Let me show you my new outfit"

Ahhh...here is the sweet boy we know and love showing us his new outfit. Was that so hard? Gotta love this age.

Hunter loves his new boots. He can take them off and put them on himself (usually on the wrong feet), but loves to wear them around the house. He even wears them out when it's not raining b/c it's not worth the battle when he wants to wear them. It's not like I care if he wants to look silly out in public. A friend of mind has let her son wear his cape or things like that out to the store. I think it's funny, but now I can see in the big scheme of things, who cares? If it makes the kid happy we'll just go along with it.

Our fifth family member

This is our dog Chopper. He is a rescue dog and is about 5 years old. This is the place we adopted him from. Actually, the picture on this page is Hunter and Chopper from two summers ago! Had to throw that in there :)

Anyway, he is a good dog, for the most part. Yes, he likes to eat diapers and wipes (and then throws them up), gets in the trash, scares anyone that comes to the door or walks by the house, doesn't listen, gets in your space, BUT he is good with the kids. Hunter tortures him at times, takes his toys, pulls his "you know what", yanks his tail, and more. Chopper has given a warning growl a few times, but is really good with the Hunter and Jack.

We got Chopper before we had kids. He was our practice baby. We loved him more than anything and thought he was perfect, but then kids came along. I never believed my friends who said "Just wait till you have a baby. You will not like the dog any more". I thought they were mean. Now that is me. The cat is gone. She was our baby until we got the dog. I could not take it anymore, so thankfully my sister adopted her from us. Nick would not let me get rid of the dog and I don't want to, but at times he drives me insane. Nick still loves the dog as much as the kids. Nick spoons the dog in bed instead of me....and I'm not joking.

This is the hierarchy of the way our family operates: Jenny, Hunter, Chopper, Nick, and then Jack. I say this b/c Chopper dominates Nick and Nick lets him. Something is wrong with this picture, but I'm just stating the facts.

**update: nick read blog tonight and did not disagree with paragraph above.

My dear husband

Nick with his roasted vegetable dinner

I love how colorful it was!



Mommy and Baby Jack

Nick is a very helpful husband. He gets up in the night with Jack, changes poopy diapers, sometimes cooks, and helps quite a bit around the house when I make lists for him. I have to say I feel as though I have trained (sorry, couldn't think of a nicer word) him well. If you don't, they try to get away with everything. Considering I work almost full-time and have a bad back, I just can't do it all myself. Enough about that though. On Sunday he decided to make us dinner. He'd found a recipe for roasted vegetables and wanted to make it, so he bought the stuff and made it while Hunter and I were at Target. It was really yummy, but I learned that I don't like eggplant or fennell. Fennell tastes like licorice and maybe I'd like eggplant prepared differently, but I'm not sure. I give him an A+ for effort, but was disappointed that Hunter wouldn't even try it (not surprising though). Hunter likes raw vegetables, but that's about it.

On another note, here are two funny things about him. Well, two of many funny things. First, in a crisis situation he completely freezes. When I say "crisis" situation, I mean like Sunday night I was carrying Jack in the Baby Bjorn and went to pour Hunter some milk for dinner. I dropped the FULL gallon on the floor, but couldn't bend over to get it b/c I had Jack in front of me (see picture above). The milk is quickly pouring out onto the floor and I'm yelling to Nick "HURRY!!! COME PICK THIS UP!!!" He totally froze. Finally, after half the gallon was spilled he came to the rescue--he was only five feet away from it. I don't get it...I just laugh it off and make fun of him for being "slow" (that was not the word I actually used).

Another example is from a month or so ago. When someone rings the doorbell Chopper goes nuts. He charges the door, jumps up scratching the you know what out of our walls, and scares the pants off whoever is at the door. It's not good. It was after 8pm, so Hunter was in bed and a neighbor rang the bell. Chopper had not yet realized it was the actual doorbell and must have thought it came from the TV. I said, "Hurry and grab Chopper! I'll get the door." Again, he completely froze. I'm thinking in my head "hurry up before he charges, barks, and wakes up Hunter!" He just doesn't react quickly when needed. I laugh when I think about it, but I just hope no one breaks into our house b/c I'll have to be the one to grab the golf club from under the bed and beat up the robber b/c it would take Nick 10 minutes to figure out what was going on. And, yes, we do have a golf club by the bed.

The second funny thing is Nick's fear of mice...or any other rodent like animal for that matter. We have (had) a family living in our garage. I would jump every time I'd go out there and see one scamper away. He got some traps and set them. We've caught 4 so far, so I think the family is dead. I believe we have more in the attic, but he is too scared to go up there and set the traps, so for now they are still alive and well. I don't know if he's more scared of the mice or going into the attic in the dark period. I'll have to ask my dad to help this weekend when he comes over.

Oh, I won't even get in to how he decided to wash the traps, after removing the mice, in our everyday dish bowls that we eat out of. A future post will be about his lack of common sense at times and how mad I get. I need to start a list and this will be #1. I used some pretty choice words when I saw the traps soaking in the bowls and we'll leave it at that. #2 will be teaching Hunter to "pull his finger".

Visit from Grandma Dori and Grandpa "D"

Grandma Dori and Baby Jack


Hunter with Grandma Dori



D was reading Hunter "Elmo's Trick or Treat" book...

Grandma Dori brought these back from New Orleans for Hunter.

We didn't ask her how she got them....??? Just kidding Dori!!!

D was a great sport about reading books to Hunter!

Nick's mom and stepdad are back from Texas and came to visit this weekend. Hunter calls them "Dori" and "D". It's ok for now b/c he can say those words. We had a really nice time--we hung around the house on Saturday afternoon, went out to dinner, and they spent some quality time with the kids (and us). Hunter loved "D" this weekend--he was forced to read Hunter many many books. It was so cute on Sunday morning....I went into Hunter's room to get him out of bed and I said, "Grandma Dori is still here , lets go see her!" and he said "Is D home???". I think Hunter would have cried if I said no. We walked out of his room and D was coming out of their room. Hunter ran to him and gave him the biggest hug and was just so excited to see him. D said it made his day too! Of course Hunter loves Dori too, but was especially liking D this weekend. Hunter usually takes a few minutes to warm up to D, but he may have been traumatized as a baby when Hunter's head fell into Dick's tooth (don't ask) and he cried. He must be over it now.

Jack is 4 months old this week...

I meant to post this on Tuesday, but have had a busy week. I don't know where the time has gone, but I can hardly believe Jack is 4 months old...on the 9th.

Here is what's going on:

• He is still drooling a lot and loves to suck his thumb and fingers. I'm not positive if he's an official "thumb sucker" yet, but we'll see. He likes the pacifier too. Hunter liked both as a baby, but grew out of both by 5 months or so and doesn't suck his thumb or take a pacifier. Lucky me. Jack just has a lot to live up to!
• Jack is really alert when he's awake. He looks around, grabs at his toys, and loves it when we interact with him.
• He is smiling and laughing and making lots of noise. Just this week when Hunter gets near him and laughs, Jack will smile and laugh/coo back at him. It's sooooo cute.
• Jack is still not as good of a sleeper at night as Hunter was. We were spoiled. He has had a few nights where he slept from 8:30-4 or 5am, but usually he gets up between 12:30-3pm, eats and goes back to sleep. Then up again at 4:30-5:30am and just wants to be held. I usually bring him back to lay with me so I can sleep a little longer--and he will fall back asleep. I never did this with Hunter, but I'm so tired that I'm doing whatever I can to get a little more sleep! Nick and I are both really tired and just wish he would start to sleep through the night soon. God knows I need my sleep so I hope he will answer my prayers soon.
• He has his 4 month checkup next week, so we'll see what the doctor says about his percentiles. He is pretty chubby for sure. He has some major leg rolls, but they are adorable.

Have a good weekend. My in-laws are coming tomorrow and they just got back from Texas and haven't seen the kids since mid-December, so we're excited for them to see our kids. Hunter can now say "Dori" (Nick's mom). He learned to say it from Finding Nemo and pronounces it "Dough-E". She will be excited to hear him say her name finally!

Jump City

Sunday late afternoon I took Hunter to Jump City in Ann Arbor. Nick wanted to watch the U of M bball game, so I thought Hunter and I would go out for a bit. They have lots of big inflatable things to jump on. It was rather busy and I was so paranoid about Hunter bumping heads with another kid. I tried to move him to ones that did not have many kids. He made friends with this adorable 4 year old girl (she was asian and didn't speak english), but they followed each other around the whole time. She was so sweet and helped him climb up the ladders that were too big for him. It was funny b/c just a week or so ago I was flipping through this little book my mom got Nick for xmas about fatherly advice to their boys (it's a little one line per page bathroom type book). One of them said "Teach you son be friends with the chinese boy in the neighborhood who doesn't even speak English". Haha. I love Ann Arbor for that reason. Anyway, Hunter had a blast and was laughing out of control--I don't think I've ever seen him laugh so much as he was jumping around and acting crazy. He has SO MUCH energy and it was a great way to burn some off. I even climbed in to join the fun a few times :) I took these pictures with my cell phone camera, so they aren't very good.

Hands on Museum

Hunter & Alex at the Bob the Builder area.

Of course Hunter found the puzzles!

This picture was from a few weeks ago at the museum,

but thought it was so cute. Again, at the Bob the Builder exhibit.

Last time we went Gym America was there and Hunter

had a great time letting the girls show him how to walk the

balance beam, hang on the bars, and do some rolls.

He had just gone through the "course" they had

set up. Good job Hunter!

Over the weekend we went to the Hands on Museum with my cousin (Kris), his two year old son (Alex), and Kris's dad. It was really busy there as there were several birthday parties. The Bob the Builder exhibit is leaving on 3/14 and Hunter is going to be sad. Every time we tell him we're going to the Hands on Museum he gets excited to see Bob. I also posted a few pictures from a few weeks ago when we were there. They had a member event one evening so I took him...they had lots of fun prizes and Gym America did a gymnastics show and then had a "course" for the kids to go through to learn some gymnastics.

Bumbo Seat

Jack is doing pretty well sitting in the bumbo seat. He has good head control, but not quite sitting up. He seems to like the seat and we've even put him in the exersaucer a few times with blankets around him to keep him in position. I just can't believe he is almost 4 months. Time is flying!!

Hunter is our puzzle lover. He starting doing them about a year ago and I was amazed when he put one together after seeing it only once. I remember getting out the video camera at the time b/c I couldn't believe how quickly he learned how to do them. Now he is on to the 24 and 48 piece ones. He is really good at the 24 piece ones and has a 48 piece one that he can mostly do, but loses interest sometimes before completing it. The child has over 20 Melissa & Dog puzzles (I know, it's ridiculous, but I did not buy them all...some were gifts). They are a great source of entertainment and it's about the only thing that will keep him sitting still for a few minutes. Although he has become more interested in books the last few months which I'm thrilled about.

Have a great weekend!

Hide & Seek, Smoothies...and Jack

Hunter loves to play "hide & seek". I don't know why we didn't think of this game before a month or so ago. He sits on the couch and covers his eyes (and apparently likes to stick his rear end in the air) while I count to 15...Nick goes to hide. It's quite easy to find Nick--all you have to do is look for Chopper and you'll find him. Hunter runs around looking for him and gets so excited when he finds him yelling "more daddy, more daddy, more!"

Hunter can also be a real pain about eating dinner. So, if he doesn't eat much we often make smoothies for dessert. He loves to help me make them and we've been letting him drink his from a big boy cup by himself. You can see the mess he makes on his face, but I think he looks so cute!

Thought I'd include one of Jack too...he's just not as exciting to photograph yet. He is the best baby ever though. He is smiling a ton, making lots of noise, and just being an easy-going baby. The baby never cries...we are so fortunate!! I have a video of him smiling and making noises that I'll post soon.

We are back from Arizona. The weather was disappointing and we are still tired, but loved to be able to eat our meals in peace, read, stay at a gorgeous resort, go for walks, and spend some quality time together. We did get to sleep a decent amount too, which was great. Thanks again Nana as we know you are tired! We drank a lot of wine and ate a lot of nice meals...thank you Nick for working hard to qualify and thanks to his company for rewarding him!