Nana's birthday---a week late

Last Monday was Nana's birthday...We went up to Brighton and went to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. They cook in front of you and it was lots of fun! Nick and I were happy that Hunter sat my Nana and Grandpa b/c he hasn't been easy to take out lately. After dinner, we went back to Nana's house for cake and presents.

Emily, Danny, and Jack

Aunt Emily with Jack

Hunter had fun watching them cook, flip the food, etc. at dinner.

He even tried to use the kid version of chopsticks. They tried to toss food in his mouth, but missed. Helping Nana open her cards and presents.

Pumpkin patch with Couchmans

Last Saturday Nick went to the UM/MSU game. I met up with my cousin Connie, Heather (her baby Tyler), my Aunt Rhonda, and Brooklyn. Connie's friend has a little girl, Brooklyn, so Connie brought her along to play with Hunter. They've met before and have had fun together.

Posing with the huge pumpkin. Jack is off to the side sitting on the ground.

The Couchmans!

They had a cornbox and I was trying to get a picture of Connie with all the kids. Brooklyn, Hunter, Tyler, Jack and Connie. Connie is so good with them!
Hunter & Brooklyn in the cornbox.
Jack & Tyler. I'm sure next year they'll be running around together! They are about 8 months apart.

Hunter, Brooklyn, Connie & Jack when on the barrel ride. You can barely see Jack, but Connie took him in her barrel.

They had this huge slide thing...it was up a big hill The kids had a lot of fun and must have gone down it 10 times. We bought bracelets for the kids so they could do whatever they wanted there.

Brooklyn & Hunter went down together several times. They were screaming in the tube and it made a loud echo.
Connie took Jack down once. I was a little nervous, but I'd say he was indifferent about it. He wasn't crying, but wasn't smiling either! You can see Hunter was just crazy as he's screaming off to the side of the picture.

We took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch....
Tyler and his grandma, Rhonda...she had him zipped up in her sweatshirt to keep him warm. It's so fun to see her as a grandma! Hunter got one pumpkin to bring home. We are going to get more this weekend to carve.

Out looking for the perfect pumpkin...

Brooklyn & Hunter
Baby Tyler...he was probably so warm and comfortable!

Three Cedars Farm with Matt & Jacquelyn

Last Sunday afternoon we met Matt & Jacquelyn at Three Cedars Farm. It was HOT and the cider mill was super busy! We still had fun...donuts, cider, and a hayride :)

Matt was hiding behind holding Jack up :)

Our happy baby!

Jacquelyn & Hunter. It was so hot that we had to pull out shorts for Hunter!

Hunter & Matt on the hayride. Matt is Hunter's godfather and I love that they have a great relationship!

Three Cedars Farm has TONS of great things for kids to do, so it's nice b/c Hunter can be entertained and we can chat.

Jack 11 month update

Jack turned 11 months on the 9th of October. I am SO behind with blogging. Grrrr. I suppose everyone goes through funks and is just too busy at times. Anyway, here is what is going on with Jack these days. I seriously CAN NOT believe he's going to be one in less than a month. It is so unbelievable!!

• Jack is finally pretty much crawling. He still does the army crawl most of the time, but is crawling normal a little bit. My partner at work told me that babies who crawl later are better readers, so that could be good news. I'll just tell myself that. I still believe God is doing me a favor due to my back problems and once he is on the move even more, my life is going to get harder.
• He has two teeth on the bottom and looks so cute! I think two more are coming in on the top right now...he is really fussy. Either that or he's having a minor reaction from a shot he had on Monday.
• Jack is getting into Hunter's toys. He is very interested in Hunter and what Hunter is doing. Hunter gets very mad about this and it is hard to deal with. I have to try to keep them separated to avoid conflicts, but at the same time work with Hunter to have him learn to share.
• Jack is still eating baby food and bottles, but loves our food. He practically begs...he kicks his legs and makes noises to let us know he wants what we have. He eats fruit, breads, and lots of other stuff!
• Jack can go from laying on the floor to sitting up on his own, so we had to lower his crib a few weeks ago. He can also stand up and hold onto things for longer periods of time.
• He is sleeping well. He goes to bed at 8pm and usually sleeps until 6 am or later. Today he slept till 7:30 am and the day before that 8:30 am, so that was awesome! He naps twice a day. He takes a morning nap for about an hour or two and then again at about 1 pm--same time as Hunter goes down. This nap is always at least two hours, if not more. I am so blessed to have children that are awesome sleepers!

We just love this little guy so much and can't believe he's going to be 1 soon!! He is getting more wiggly and it's getting harder to cuddle with him, but I still do as much as I can. Tonight he was resting his head on my chest before bed and it's just the best thing in the whole world. I could hold him like that for hours!! He smells so good too--I am going to miss it so much as he gets bigger :(

Here are a few pictures of our cutie pie!

He loves the bath and splashes like a crazy baby! We have to cover ourselves up with towels or we get soaked.
Such a happy guy :)

MIA

I think is the longest I've gone without posting. Life has been busy! I have lots of fun pictures from last weekend and Nana's birthday last night, but am too busy to put up right now.

Hopefully I will get them up soon....Also, I am meeting with surgeon today, so hopefully I'll figure
out what I'm going to do. I'm so miserable. We cancelled trip to FL at end of month b/c I'm in too much pain to think about flying or handling kids all day every day for a week. I booked trip to Mayo Clinic, but now I'm reconsidering b/c I'm not sure I can wait that long to feel better. GRRRR. Be back soon :)

Boo and a boo-boo

Since no one thinks I'm nice to Chopper anymore, I thought I would post that I bought him a special Halloween boo treat at the pet store the other night. Hunter and I went to look for a vacuum to clean his fish bowl (the one my mom got does not work for it). We didn't find one, but I thought these treats were cute, so splurged $1.35 to get him one. We also finally found Hunter's halloween costume--more on that later.

"Come on people. Just give me the darn treat and stop taking my picture!"

Jack got his first boo-boo the other morning. Nick was closest to him, so we'll say it's his fault. Jack was standing leaning on this toy table thing he has and fell over. He was crying hysterically and we didn't realize until a few moments later that he really had hit his eye on the edge of the table when he fell. Poor guy...it even looks worse now--more bruised. People are going to think we abuse him with this black eye looking mark! Jack was fine a minute later after some distracting, but we feel so sorry for him.

Fall Festival and football

Hunter's school had the Fall Festival on Saturday. It was raining and yucky out, but we decided to check it out anyway and get the kids out of the house for a bit. We hung out with the Duprey family--Chris & Nick (and Jack) stayed at the house to watch the U of M game. Angela and I took Hunter/Mason to the festival for a bit. The kids had a really fun time together and it was so neat to see them play so well together.

They both went on pony rides in the rain :)
Such a cute smile :)

I didn't have luck getting them both to smile at the same time. The had a popcorn machine, cotton candy, and other fun stuff in the gym at the school. Most people were crowded in their b/c of the rain. After the festival we came back to our house and the kids played while we watched the end of the football game. It was so funny b/c the boys both had to change their pants b/c they had gone down wet slides outside at the school. I took Hunter to his room to change and Angela took Mason to the bathroom to change his clothes. They both came out wearing the same exact sweatpants! I guess their mommies have good taste in clothing! They sat and did this clock puzzle so well together. They would put it together, dump it out, giggle, and do it again--probably 10 times! I was very happy that Hunter was doing a good job sharing with Mason.
This picture was dark, but it was so cute....Nick put the fight song on the ipod speaker thing. The boys were jumping around, yelling "go blue", and falling all over the kitchen floor. They were not even talking to each other, but were being so silly! We were cracking up. I think I have a video that I'll have to put up later. It made me think about how Hunter said one of his Asian friends at school doesn't speak English...I can see after watching Hunter and Mason that it doesn't matter. They can still play and interact without really talking. I guess young children have their own way of communicating and it doesn't matter if they speak the same language or not!
At the festival they had a table set up where you could paint with apple slices. Above is Hunter's masterpiece :)

We had a lot of fun with the Duprey's on Saturday and Hunter has been talking about playing with Mason every since...And us adults are happy b/c Michigan won! We can't wait for next weekend when we play MSU and hopefully win!

Our weekend and cider mill with Gigi

We had a nice weekend overall. Friday night we had an impromptu pizza party with our neighbors. We invited Connor and Calise over for pizza and to play with Hunter. We had a really fun time and should invite them over more often! Saturday Nick and Hunter went to the movies in the morning (they have free movies at 9 and 10am at Quality 16) since it was raining while I ran to the store with Jack. Saturday after quiet time, we had the Duprey Family over to watch the football game. Angela and I took the boys to the Fall Festival at Hunter's school and then came back to watch the end of the game and eat dinner. I have pictures from Saturday that I'll post later. Sunday, the usual...church and Costco. Then the cider mill with Gigi...see below.

On Sunday we went to Three Cedars Farm with Gigi. We were happy she could come with us! It was really cold and windy. I am the worst mom ever and with the chaos of getting out the door, I forgot Jack's coat. I had even gone in the basement to dig it out of "storage". Fortunately, Hunter had lots of layers, so I took one of his sweatshirts off and put it on Jack--and I had the hats, so they were ok. Nick was clearly annoyed and thought we should have driven back home, but he doesn't help to think of what needs to get to the car, so it's always my fault!

Walking in...He didn't want to hold hands with anyone, but finally convinced him to hold Gigi's hand.

Jack had fun in the cornbox. Thankfully he had the binkie in, or that corn would have been in his mouth! Working on his fine motor skills picking up those small pieces--I know, I'm a dork. While Hunter played on the slides we got out of the wind and sat in this covered area.

I was a good sport and climbed up the ladder to get my picture taken with Hunter. Once as a cow, and once as a pig. Then the easiest way down was the twirly slide, so we went down it together.

Hunter played on the train while we sat and relaxed for a few minutes.
I love my Jack!! He is getting to be quite squirmy and doesn't want to cuddle quite as much which is disappointing. Everyone says I hold him too much, but I don't care. I am going to while I can b/c Hunter never cuddles anymore.

Overall, we had lots of fun. Hunter was a stinker (nice word for brat?) while we ate cider and donuts. He didn't want to sit with us and didn't eat one donut, so he just wanted to go back out and play. Gigi loves him no matter what, but I think she sees we have our hands full with him! I think he said "no" over 100 times in the 2 hours she was with us.