Milo's First Stitches

We've had an exciting July so far, Milo got his first stitches, he was such a champ! Lena's vocabulary is exploding and she's cracking us up with her random words. Not sentences yet, but she did walk up to Jesse the other night and said, "I want more", a little shocking to us. Her new thing today is, "no, no, no, no, no!"

Jesse took Milo down to Madison, Indiana a few weekends ago for a big boat race. They braved 100+ degrees but Milo had a blast. It was nice for them to have Daddy/Milo time while Lena and I went to Cleveland for my cousin's high school graduation party. 

Onto the pictures!

 Jesse took the kids to the zoo Saturday so I could work on cupcakes for a wedding. Milo's new thing is wanting to ride the ponies. I guess Lena said she wanted to ride, also, but made it one foot and started screaming. They were nice and let Milo go around twice.

Lena enjoying yogurt! 

Father's Day morning before Jesse woke up. The kids made him paintings, which are now hanging up in his office at work. 

My parent's had two HUGE trees fall during a storm a few weeks ago. This is my dad showing Lena some of the damage. 

Lena making an obstacle course out of my parent's coffee table. 

My poor big guy about an hour after getting 5 stitches in his upper lip. This happened during the first five minutes of t-ball, and no, the ball nor the bat hit him. The ball went over his head, he turned to go get it, and fell onto the track surrounding the field. It was a clean split and Jesse took him to Med-Point. The doctor and nurses were so impressed with Milo, they said he did better than most adults! He didn't even cry while he was there and came home with stickers and lollipops! 

 Jesse and Milo making cupcake inserts so my mind could be at rest for delivering cupcakes to a wedding on Sunday. And I can reuse them!

Milo WANTED to wash the dishes that didn't fit in the dishwasher this morning. He thoroughly enjoyed himself! 

Milo got his stitches out yesterday morning! He was very nervous about it, but he did great, yet again! I think once it's fully healed, we'll barely be able to see it.

Silly Harley and Jesse at our friend's wedding. These two are goofballs.

The kids dancing! Look! Lena's more than three feet away from me!

Milo enjoying the splash pad!

This is the closest Lena got to the water by herself. For a child that LOVES the water, she did not like this. She's looking over my shoulder as I work on this and she keeps saying, "swimsuit"!

Jesse taking Lena into the "shower" at the splash pad. Good picture of both of them!

Hahahahaha!!!!

I took the kids up to the KOA campground in St. Joe/Coloma, Michigan to spend some time with my aunt and her family. The kids climbing the fence.

Uncle Jerry carrying Lena to the playground (it was SO hot yesterday!).

Milo digging at the playground, it was also the only part in the shade!

Goggle-eyes Milo taking a drink before getting in the pool. He was doing some awesome cannonballs and there was a lady that clapped for him every time he did one!

This is Lena's new "smile" when I ask her to smile. Either way, she is awesome in the water with her Puddle Jumper on!

Me and the kids with Aunt Lorraine, Uncle Jerry, Kevin and Andrea in the camp store (aaahhh, air conditioning!).

Have a great week!

Strawberry Picking 2012!

Wow, June already! We're off to a great start, for Memorial Day we went to a lake with the Tibbs' and our children are fish! We then went strawberry picking this last weekend.

Milo starts T-ball on Thursday! 

Jesse assisting Lena with swimming. She is WAY TOO confident in the water. She would jump (she thought she was jumping, really she was falling) off the dock into our arms and the water was shallow enough that she would walk until it was too deep.  

Lena, Milo, Kennedy, and Kamden on the float. Jesse would pull them around. Milo would randomly use a noodle to play/float on, but mostly he just swam.  

Lena coloring/drawing. She will do this a few times a day, and still use both hands. She swirls a lot, I LOVE it!! 

 Milo before swim lessons, interacting with Lena. :)

Milo wanted a picture of him in the flippers, it's a new thing at swimming. Not the best picture. Also on this day they put the pole in the deep end (9 feet) and the kids hold onto it and work their way down to the bottom and touch with their feet. Milo did it on the first try!!! I have it on video!

Lena loving the Cookie Monster slippers 

 Lena showing me a strawberry that she picked. It was VERY windy on Saturday! 

Master Picker Milo! He did great! 

This may be my favorite picture ever of Lena! Notice the strawberry on her face, her hand, and her shirt! Good thing the shirt was ruined before we went! 

I just had to get a picture of her face covered in juice! 

This is the 8 batches of jam and two strawberry rhubarb pies that I made from our strawberries! And we still have a bunch of berries left over!

May

Seriously, May is almost over!? It has flown by and we've had a lot of fun! Lena is very close to potty training, she randomly wants to go on the frog potty (our training potty), and will go! The problem is that we'll have a day when we aren't going anywhere so I'll let her run around naked and then the next day we're barely home, so there's no consistency. One of these days I'll make a true attempt. At least she's interested! 

We went to Milo's K orientation almost 2 weeks ago and it was pretty neat! They have a lot of technology, and he'll have ART!!! We found out that the first day of school will be his 5th birthday and there's an open house the night before. I'll be asking his teacher if he can bring in a treat, a bunch of people say that he'll make friends very quickly if he's able to. :) I think I'll be too much of an emotional wreck to make cupcakes, so whatever he can take will be store bought. 

Also on the first day we'll walk him to the main door at 8:40, he'll go in all by himself and we won't see him again until 3:00! I was pretty distressed when I found that out, but he's a social kid, participates in group activities and plays well with others, so I know he'll be fine. I, on the other hand, will need a tranquilizer. :)

I've told Jesse that I have no idea what Lena and I will do with all of our "free" time, and he told me that we're going to go get mani-pedis. Hahaha  

Onto the pictures!

"They've been working on the railroad" at the Elkhart Train Museum. They had a great time and the weekend we went was a train enthusiast weekend. Man, there are a LOT of men passionate about trains. Like I don't know what it's like to live with boys that are passionate about things with motors...

My boxcar children! Lena wouldn't smile for the camera but smiled when Jesse offered to get her down. 

Lena picking dandelions while we were walking through the train yard. I love this picture.

Milo "changing points"

We went to Fort Wayne last weekend to see family from Oklahoma and Illinois and got BK for dinner on the way. Milo being silly (maybe distinguished?) in his crown.

Lena mimicking Milo's pose. These two love each other SO much!!!

I bought Milo a snorkel at a garage sale last weekend and he figured out how to use it in my parent's hot tub. I'm pretty sure he used it the whole 30 minutes we were in there. He loved it!

My friend, Amy, gave me this tutu for Lena months ago. I finally pulled it out today, thinking it would fit (it's 18-24 months) and is a little too big on her. She loves it, though, and figured out how to keep it up, pull it up to her armpits! hahahaha

Have a great, safe, and HOT Memorial Day! We're going to our friend's house for a cookout, then heading to a state park to go swimming (let's hope the water's not too cold).

Updates

Welcome back! We've been moving right along with life. 

Milo is all registered for kindergarten, we go for orientation on May 16th! He's had his physical and blood work done and he was a champ! At the physical he got three shots along with a TB test and he didn't cry at all! Then three days later we went and had blood drawn (per the paperwork) and he didn't cry there, either! Jesse and I are SO proud of him! 

Lena is still slowly saying words. Her favorite is "up" but she also says: bubble, ouch, out, pup, PawPaw, hi-yo (hello), off, and ope (open). I'm sure there are more but I can't think of them right now.

We are now a pacifier-free family! I'd been thinking of "breaking" Lena's for awhile and finally did it Saturday night. She hasn't been as dependent on it as Milo was, and she's 7 months younger than he was when his "broke". She cried for 30 minutes the first night, she sounded so sad, but then she slept until 7:30 the next morning without a peep. 

Milo, being the smart person that he is, in the car yesterday asked me if I'd cut Lena's pacifier to break it. Jesse and I just looked at each other and smiled, that kid is smart. He hadn't seen the pacifier since it broke. I asked him how he knew I'd cut it and he said he heard the scissors! He was in the other room when I did it! 

Milo is also signed up for t-ball!! He starts in early June and he's very excited! Every time we go out back to play he wants us to pitch to him. He hits better when pitched to than off the T. 

Milo's new favorite game is UNO, we taught him to play over the weekend. He and I played 5 games this morning and he won 3 of them!

Onto the pictures!!!

We went to the Cleveland Zoo while we were there for Passover. Milo on the wolf. 

Jesse making his miraculous catch of Lena falling off the wolf.

Me and Milo on the horse-drawn wagon ride during the Easter Egg-stravaganza downtown South Bend.

Lena in her sack for the race!

Milo standing on a ledge at my parent's house, where he's not supposed to stand...

Lena during an Easter egg hunt!

Milo during the egg hunt-giving Jessica some eggs he found.

My mom's parents, GG and Grandad.

We didn't know how much our kids loved hard-boiled eggs until this year. This is both of them cracking and opening their own eggs.

Knight Lena slaying the Daddy Dragon!!

Milo got a new bed!! Our friends told us a few months ago that we could have this lofted bed with a slide on the side. It took us a few hours to make it work, but here's the finished product! I made the curtain to hide things under his bed (his train table is hidden under there!!).

Milo building a jet out of a diaper box. He worked on it for a long time and colored it! 

Lena "driving" on the way to the playground. She loves to ride in this thing!

Milo hanging from the monkey bars-I love his smile!!!

Until the next post, have a great week!

Crazy March Weather

Happy Spring! Wow, was our winter the mildest I can remember. We would get a lot of snow and then it would be gone quickly with decent temperatures. We've had fun playing outside in sweatshirts or even shorts, depending on the day! This last week we've had 7 days of record-breaking highs and I love having the house open!

Milo started playing basketball at the Y. It's learning skills rather than playing the game, but he has fun.

Lena has finally mastered running and then figured out running on her toes, which is very cute! Her hair is also long enough to put in a ponytail! Cutest.thing.ever!!!

Lena's vocabulary is s.l.o.w.l.y coming along. She'll say a word one day and then not say it again for a few days. Oh well, soon enough she'll start speaking and not stop (much like her brother).

Onto the pictures!

Lena on the bounce house slide at Maizie and Joey's birthday party. She loved it!

Milo climbing at the bounce house!

While I was working on cakes for the party Lena grabbed an apple and went to town! She ate the WHOLE thing, even the seeds! She makes it look so good...

We've had a virus running through the house and on this day Milo was extremely run down and not happy. I finally gave him some medicine and after half an hour he jumped up, grabbed his cape, and became a super hero!

Guess who's going to kindergarten next year!?!?!

For some bizarre reason both kids woke up at 6:00 one morning. Lena fell asleep in her high chair at 9:00 that morning in the middle of eating a waffle and even Milo took a nap that afternoon!

Playing outside in early March in shorts. :)

Goof ball playing with her shirt at dinner one night.

Someone figured out how to get on the back of the couch...

Milo's first basketball practice, doing the warm-up!

Milo at swimming lessons. This was at the beginning of class and they were in the deep end, without any floaties!

Lena climbing onto the table at my parent's house.

Lena's first time having cereal with milk, all by herself.

Have a great week!