Painting, Valentine's Day, and Playing in the Snow

Happy belated Valentine's Day to everyone! We had a very busy weekend, we went to a friend's baby shower, went to Bella's 2nd birthday party, then had President's Day with a bowling adventure. This time bowling did not go well, so I have no pictures....Today is Jesse's 32nd birthday, though! Happy Birthday, Jesse!

Milo has really been into "painting" lately. That's what he calls any type of coloring. This picture is of him coloring a Handy Manny picture. What amazed me was that he was attempting to color certain parts of it, like the headlights or Manny's face. He can name all 5 of those colors without a problem, though!

We had the Mother's & More Valentine's party on Friday. Milo got to decorate his own bag for valentines. He loved the stamps and that's all he had on it.
The kids also got to decorate their own cupcake. yummy....(mostly because I made the cupcakes!)
We went out and played in the snow this evening. The weather was warm for snow, so it was a good time! I love this picture of the boys shoveling together. Somehow in the last week we've gotten about 9 inches of snow! It was up to Milo's knee!
Sorry this picture isn't clear, but he has a good smile! He was walking towards me to throw that snowball! He had a blast throwing snow at me and Jesse.
Jesse pulled Milo around the yard on the sled and this is one of the only decent pictures I got. It looks like Milo's about to fall off, but he didn't. He loved it and near the end he told Jesse to "slow down"! He also said it in the car the other day, but I missed it....

Have a great rest of the week!

Air Zoo

Hello! We've had such an exciting time around here lately with Jesse getting his new position at work. He officially started on Monday and is very happy.

Today Milo and I went up to Portage, Michigan to the Air Zoo with our friends, Amy and Aiden (who is almost 4). This is two hangers full of old planes and aircrafts. Milo LOVED it! I couldn't get really good pictures of Milo next to the planes because it was dark in the hanger. What I thought was the coolest part was that all of the walls in the newer hanger are painted in a beautiful mural. Amy said it's the largest mural in the state of Michigan.

They also have rides that people of all ages can go on. We went on one ride and had to ask the girl to stop it because Milo wasn't comfortable with how fast and high it went. At least we tried it. He did, however, love the flight simulators! He could've stayed in there the whole time if we'd let him.

Milo in one of the flight simulators. It's one of the only pictures I have of him smiling because he'd turn his head every time I went to take his picture. Since we've been home he says he kept trying to turn the plane on.

This is the upstairs of the lobby. He just loved looking at the plane hanging from the ceiling.

The "Blue Angels" simulator. The main reason I put this picture on was because Milo was wearing the ride bracelet. When I got his first one he wouldn't wear it on his wrist, so I put it on his belt loop like when he went boat racing. I had to go back to the desk to get adult ride tickets and he wanted it put on his wrist. The man at the desk gave me a new one and Milo let him put it on and was so in awe of wearing it. He kept pulling up his sleeve like he was showing it off. So cute!
They even have a "kiddie" room where there are little rides. Milo wouldn't make this rocket move, but he sat in it and hit the other buttons.

We will definitely go back to the Air Zoo and take Daddy next time!!!

This is Milo's idea of playing lately. He turns everything over and dumps out all of his bins. yeah....at least he helps to pick them up.

Have a great weekend! Go Colts!!!!

Jesse's Newest Title

Congrats to Jesse! He is the new Assistant Chief Probation Officer of St. Joseph County!!!! This is the same department he's been in, he's just moved up the ranks! We are so proud of him! He starts the job February 1st!

Staircase Make-over

When we bought our house four years ago the staircase was not pleasing to the eye (who installs a railing like this?) and was prohibiting us from getting our furniture upstairs, so it was ripped out the day we moved in. We kept telling ourselves that by the time we had a kid we would have a new one installed. Of course by the time Milo came around there was no railing and we kept saying, "oh, once he's crawling we'll install one." Nope. Jesse just kept modifying the bottom few steps to keep Milo safe. So I finally told myself that at the beginning of 2010 we would put one in. AND WE DID!!!!

This is what it looked like when we bought the house. Notice the weird angle up at top...

This is how it looks now, 4 long years later! We just need to paint the wood, so maybe in another four years it'll be done. The angle is the same going ALL the way up, which the hand is very pleased with! It's bizarre because going up and down the stairs my hand naturally lands on it when we haven't had one in forever! Milo came out of his room on Sunday afternoon and was very surprised, he kept telling us that it's "pretty". He also likes walking up the stairs holding onto the rail.

Incase you didn't figure this out, we did all the work ourselves! We have big heads at the moment because of our awesome work!

Milo's First Time Bowling

Today was Milo's first bowling experience and he loved it more than I hoped he would! He bounced around non-stop for the two games we played and did a great job! Jesse and I are happy to know that this is something we can do with him and he enjoys.

Before I get to those pictures there are two others I wanted to share:

This is the guitar that Milo got for Christmas and he loves it. This is one of the few times he was sitting, holding it correctly to play. Today I caught him driving a car on it and had to tell me that it's not good for the guitar. He probably thinks I'm crazy (no comment) because he liked the sound it made going up the strings.

With all the snow we got last week Jesse and Milo got to go clean off the cars plenty. This is Milo helping Daddy clean off his car with a broom. He loves to do it!

Now for the bowling pictures!!!!
Cute picture of Milo ready to roll the ball down the ramp.

Concentrate....make sure all the pins are up.....he would even say, "ready, set, go!"

This cracked me up....Milo would want to take the ball off the ball return and roll it from back there. This happened many times and I would have to go to him and bring him up to the line. He did try to roll the ball "Granny-style" a few times and it would go straight in the gutter. He did not care if he got a gutter ball or knocked pins down, he just had a great time. He would jump up and down every time the ball rolled down the lane!

This is one of the times he did "Granny". Don't you love the expression on his face!?!?!

Milo has started taking classes at Fun-n-Fitness and is adjusting well to the structured environment. The first class was horrible (he cried the whole 45 minutes) but this week he participated almost the whole time! Progress, progress! Imagine how next week will go!

Have a great weekend!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to everyone! We had a very busy last few weeks of 2009 with Christmas and my sister getting married. The following pictures are in no particular order, so please bear with me!

Also, mid-december Milo decided that he no longer wanted to sleep in his crib. One day as he went down for his nap he started screaming his head off. Fun, fun. He would hop out of his crib (which he hadn't done in over 2 months) and open his door. We had NO time to talk up a big-boy bed, and the next day we converted his crib to the toddler bed. We bought a Handy Manny pillowcase and decorative pillow to entice Milo into sleeping in it. We had a rough few days, but he now wants to sleep in his "boy bed" and still takes a nap!

Jesse in a suit for the wedding, his first suit ever! Very handsome!

The cake table, courtesy of me! Yes, the giant cupcake is ALL cake. Stacy had the cutest cake-topper, bobble-heads with her and AJ's picture in them.

Me and Milo. He was not in a very good mood that day and this is one of the only pictures I have of him being upright with a smile on his face. He spent a lot of the day laying on the floor, don't ask me why.
Me and Stacy before the ceremony. People asked if we were sisters at the reception...
We got a few inches a few weeks ago (nothing compared to the 12+ we have now!) and so we went outside to play. Milo did have on his hat but once we opened the garage and he saw his helmet, he wanted that on! This picture is right after he attempted to throw a snowball at me. He didn't like the snow sticking to his gloves but he was good at brushing them off, just to pick up more snow to throw it again.

Of course "diggie" had to come outside and "scoop and dump" the snow. Cute picture!

This is as close to Santa that Milo got on his own at the Mother's & More holiday party. He did let me carry him up there to get his present and say "Thank you" and "Merry Christmas". He hadn't taken at nap that day and spent a lot of his time on the floor, again.

Decorating a cookie at the party. He really seemed to enjoy that, luckily!

A close-up of the cupcake wraps from the wedding. I LOVE these things and I'm so glad Stacy wanted them! They were so elegant!
Grandma Bunny reading to Maizie. :)

Yes, I am one of those dorks that asked and received a Snuggie for Christmas! So what if I was a little excited about it????

Milo, Uncle Mickey, and Cei! How cute....

Have a great week and a great new year! We're supposed to get snow all week here.

Catching up!

It's been a few busy weeks, but here are some new pictures!

This is our beautiful tree! It's a lot more compact that any of our other trees have been and we love it! Every morning Milo brings me an ornament (a few times a day, actually) and asks me to put it back on. He won't tell me where he got it from, though!
Milo just barely fits in the drawer of his train table! I couldn't believe it when he tried to get in it again.
About a week and a half ago we went to Tot Skate at our local rink. Milo wore his skates for about 15 minutes then took them off himself (they were just the ones that go on over your shoes with velcro). After that he just took his push toy and ran around the rink. He would run it into the wall and tell me it was stuck. I really wanted him to exert some energy so once we "hit" one wall I would ask him if he could hit the opposite wall. We did this a few times. He had a good time and didn't want to leave when it was time. I think they have it again this Friday, so we may go.
This is Milo standing by himself with the skates on. He actually moved a little bit by himself and then would fall. He didn't get upset, he'd just get up and try again!
We decorated gingerbread houses and a train over the weekend and this is silly Daddy with his beautiful tree ornament that he did himself! I think he then ate it, I'm not too sure, though!
Milo LOVED decorating the train! He was so focused the whole time that he barely ate any of the candy! Once he was done he ate plenty of the candy, though! I think Maizie ate more candy than went on her house!
Milo was nice enough to share his Lucky Charms with future-Uncle-AJ. They were both having a great time!
I just thought this was a cute picture of Milo and Maizie looking at each other while eating their Lucky Charms. Grandpa Joe looks pretty good, too!
Milo still likes to sit in the toy box and play. I think he'll stop when he's too big to fit in it, just like his train table.

Milo has been LOVING the Christmas shows on tv! He has us all lay down on the floor with blankets and pillows to watch them. I knew we should've DVR'd some of them because he's asked for Snoopy and Shrek since they were on! We are currently watching "Yes, Virginia" that I DVR'd Friday night while we were all out.

I can't wait for some light snow to fall so we can go see the Christmas lights in one neighborhood.

Have a great week! Happy Hanukkah!