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.