Fun times!

We decided to try out a new Pizza place with some friends on Saturday evening. Incredible Pizza Place-it is like a much bigger, updated Chuck E. Cheese (which I am determined to not set foot in). Connor & Noah had a blast together. They were quite the duo when it came to the antics.

Two boys sitting next to each other at dinner...who's idea was this?!?

Connor & Noah playing on the booth.

Connor on the mini (3-seater) carousel. He had fun.

Daddy & Connor on the Go Carts waving as they sped by us.

As we walked around to look at all the different games they had, we all sat and watched the go carts. The boys were in amazement, so I asked Connor if he would want to go on them, he was SO excited. I was expecting him to say NO WAY! So, I took him over to see if he was tall enough-he was close enough, so off the boys went: Chris, Connor, Mike & Noah. They all had fun, even Mike & Chris :) And Cheryl, Mady, Dylan & I enjoyed watching them and waving to them as they passed by. I love that the boys (and Dylan & Mady too) are so close in age. What a fun evening with great friends!

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Dylan is Two Months Old!

Happy Two Month Birthday Dylan!

We just had Dylan's 2 month well-visit this morning. He is healthy & growing,

He weighs 11 lbs, 7.5 ounces (which means he has nearly doubled his birth weight). WOW!

He is 23.5 inches long.

He is in the 50th percentile for weight, 75th percentile for length, and the 25th percentile for head circumference. All in all, he is doing awesome. Dylan was a trooper for his one shot & oral vaccine. I think it istill hurts me more than the kids-I hate it when they get shots! I just feel so bad! I thought I would be better this time around, but it is still hard!

He is still such a happy baby! We couldn't ask for anything more!

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Summertime is here...

Ribs, pool, strawberry picking, and yard work! And Thunder Storms...definitely summer!

Strawberry picking at Lakeview Farm

Mama, Connor & Dylan picking strawberries.

He just had to 'try' them-make sure they were tasty! And they were!

Connor insisted on carrying the box of strawberries all around the strawberry farm.


Connor & Daddy picking strawberries.

It is the very beginning of the season, so the strawberries were scattered and it did rain (only sprinkle) on us, but it was so much fun. And the strawberries made pretty good strawberry daquaris and frozen strawberry lemonade. I don't think anything will ever top the wonderful strawberry margaritas we made in California. But we sure will give it a shot.

Ribfest-Downtown St. Louis


The band playing with the arch in the background-I couldn't resist the picture.

View from where we were sitting-great look at all the 'wonderful' people events like this attract! Yes, we know, we were there too! We did enjoy the entertainment of 'people watching'.

Connor was thrilled that Jackson brought his Dinosaur chair-good thing Jackson likes to share! Lately, those horns are very fitting on him :-)

Connor & Jackson hanging out in the Dinosaur chair together!

We went with our friends Beth & Chris (and their little one Jackson). We had our fix of greasy food for the week! We ate wonderful ribs, a blooming onion, and some sort of fried potatoes. YUM! The boys had fun playing and it was nice to enjoy the cool (80 degrees & humid) beginning of the summer. Gotta love St. Louis summers!

POOL

He really did have fun although the picture doesn't look like it.

We got out the pool in our yard and Connor & the neighbor girl played in it-the water was freezing cold, but they didn't seem to mind. And our subdivision pool opened saturday and we went-Connor had fun playing in the kids pool-it is only about a foot & a half or so deep, so it is wonderful not to have to get in the pool with him. He enjoyed it. I am sure we will spend lots of time there this summer.

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Dylan is 8 weeks old!

Sleeping in his bouncer...until Big Brother decides he wants to play.

Exercising those arms!

Bathtime-all wrapped in a towel.

Hanging out in the sun!

It is amazing that Dylan is already 8 weeks old. How quickly the weeks go by. He is awake a lot more during the day and really starting to interact. He continues to be laid back, however, loves to be held A LOT lately. That is my cuddle boy!I apologize to him on an hourly basis how much Connor loves him. He has been drooling a lot lately, I am hoping he isn't teething yet. We go to the doctor next week for his well-visit. I am so excited to see how much he has grown.

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Updates

The weather has been awesome here-between 70-85, which is perfect! Friday night we even had a nice thunder storm roll through, which we all sat and watched out the window-very entertaining!

We had a birthday party this weekend-Jackson turned 1! I love first birthday celebrations-so fun! I can't believe he is already 1! Which also means it has almost been a year since we have been back in St. Louis-how quickly the times flies.

Updates...

Garden: It is official...we are not cut out for starting plants from seeds! We attempted it for the first time & pretty sure we failed! We shall see. They sprouted up great, but haven't really grown much. So, instead of transplanting the tiny plants outside to our garden, we bought a few tomato, pepper, and cucumber plants. So our garden outside has everything planted! Let's hope it does well! Connor enjoys helping me water everyday & Dylan comes along for the ride :) I don't think Connor has realized he could spray Mommy with the hose if he wanted, I am waiting for the day he realizes that. We have had a few straberries, but the birds have gotten to them first-so we bought some netting to keep them out.

Spring cleaning: no updates, it has been non-existent. I can barely keep up with the laundry & dishes, what was I thinking I could begin spring cleaning?!?

Connor: still way too into dinosaurs, it is starting to drive me crazy! He enjoying being able to play outside lots & we have managed to go on several walks. He enjoys taking bread to feed the ducks (sometimes their are ducks to feed, sometimes just turtles & fish), but he loves eating the bread-he thinks it is hilarious! Crazy kid!

Dylan: growing, getting chubby! Still such a happy baby. IS still tolerating all the LOVE from his big brother, which is pretty amazing. He enjoys all our walks too-he loves the fresh air. His smiles are so cute!

New recipes: I have been doing well on trying new recipes (at least 1 a week), which part of my New Year's resolution. At least I have kept up with that :-) Lately, I have made a honey, lime, and soy sauce marinade for chicken, which has been really good. And cinnamon rolls-very tasty. Oh yes, and a shredded pork in the crockpot. Those have been the highlights.

Invention Mondays: every Monday I am going to come up with a new activity/game/thing to build/make/play. This monday we 'built' a ramp. We didn't really build one, but Connor was thrilled with the phrase, so I went with it. It was just a piece of molding (we had in the garage) and set it an an incline outisde and raced cars down it. Connor was thrilled by it & it entertained him for hours. He he brought the neighbor kids over to play show it off & they were impressed too. So, that is going to be our new thing for Mondays-since Monday is such a hard day with Chris going back to work after the weekend.

I will have some new pictures soon.

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Adorable Boys...

Well, I made the attempt to start spring cleaning, that is half the battle right? I am lacking the motivation, but I am convinced I have the right intentions. I am going off of the spring cleaning 10 day guide at SimpleMom. She has some great ideas-day one was supposed to be going through the entire house and getting rid of stuff you don't love or use as well as cleaning/organizing all surfaces.

So, this is how my progress went on day one: I started off the morning great, I was able to organize the vanity in our bathroom, not spotless, but not cluttered. I started laundry (diaper day), then got distracted with washing towels, boys clothes, our clothes, etc. Then in an attempt to go throuogh the boys clothes, fold them all, and put them away-I aquired a VERY big helper. Connor learned to fold clothes. So I took out his drawer so he could put them away in the correct place. You can see what a great job he did :) He was concentrating so hard while folding, then showed me, asking for my approval. It was so sweet. I couldn't bring myself to 'fix' them and fold them correctly-he was just so proud of himself. It sure looks like Daddy is the one who taught him how to fold, but pretty sure it wasn't :-)




Then, once he got bored of folding, he decided to pile the clothes on top of Dylan. What a wonderful and patient little brother he is. But notice, they are all dinosaur clothes-both Connor's & Dylan's. At least he is practicing his sorting skills. Dylan almost looked like he enjoyed it!



Dylan loves to hang out on Connor's bed while we fold clothes. So cute!

Connor was so proud of sorting his clothes and piling them on Dylan. Connor thinks Dylan likes dinosaurs as much as him. They are both so funny!

Adorable! I love that gummy little grin! Dylan has been smiling like crazy the last couple of days. And I finally got a few pictures of it. Those first smiles are the absolute best!

Connor decided that Dylan was feeling left out anytime the phone rang-what a great Big Brother, looking out for his Little Brother. Not sure who he is supposed to be talking to, but Connor felt like he should be talking to somone and Dylan didn't seem to mind.

So, obviously my spring cleaning hasn't been a success so far. Then last night I started going through our clothes changing out winter & summer clothes and putting away all my maternity clothes-didn't get very far on this either. We made a much bigger mess than we started with in the bedrooms & that wasn't even a part of the assignment. No wonder I don't get anything done, I get so easily distracted. And I spend most of the time taking pictures of them-they were just too cute to miss out on those opportunities. The big accomplishment of the day was getting the lawn mowed. And least something got completed.

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New Projects.

I am going to attempt to begin my Spring Cleaning. I have never been a fan of Spring cleaning, but I am determined. So, hopefully to hold myself accountable, I will be posting daily or at least every other day about my progress. However, I will not take any before pictures-yes, it is that bad! But hopefully I will be proud of my cleanliness and my organizing skills ( if I get any) and take some pictures.

If I keep on schedule, it will only take me two weeks! But my deadline is to have it all done by June 1st-then it is pool season. Which also includes another goal of being able to get into a swim suit-YIKES! That will be a whole different ordeal & I am so not ready to even think about trying on swim suits. So, I will attempt to continue my daily walks and am starting to do Wii Fit again.

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Happy Mother's Day!

Connor thinks Dylan wants to play with his new Stingray. At least he wants to share, we will see how long that will last.

Dylan sleeping in his bouncy seat-he sure is getting some major fat rolls. He doesn't look as much like Connor anymore.

Dylan's first time on the swings. He enjoyed it :-)

Daddy & Connor on the swings. Connor loved Daddy playing on all the toys with him.

Connor running/jumping across the bridge at the park-doesn't he look big?

I can't get enough 'loves' form my boys! What a wonderful Mother's Day! Chris & Connor brought me Starbucks in the morning & Chris made delicious strawberry crepes-from scratch no less & homeade whip cream. Delish! Then we went to the park to play & Olive Garden for lunch-bread sticks with alfredo & Zupa Toscana soup-YUMMM! And then, Chris finished the day off with a fabulous dinner. He made BBQ ribs. The rub on the ribs was awesome & he made homeade BBQ sauce, which was amazing as well :-) I think this weekend he cooked more than he has in two years combined-what a wonderful treat! I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day, or Mother's Day Weekend as I liked to put it! Almost as good as the real thing :-)

Chris even made me a wonderful "Mamarita"-unfortunately no real margaritas for me!

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Mother's Day Weekend!

Happy Mother's Day Weekend! Yes, it is true, I have turned Mother's Day into an entire weekend celebration! It has been a great weekend-this morning I was up before anyone else & enjoyed the peace & quiet. And I guess, maybe I was a little bored, so I made some yummy blueberry muffins. Then the boys got up, we ate breakfast, went to Kohl's to do a little shopping-I found 5 shirts, which is amazing! I am very in need of clothes that fit! Everything is too small or too big! So, I was happy I found something. Then, we went to the park-Connor had a blast running, climbing, jumping, and going down the slide. Dylan just slept the entire time.

Then, on the way home, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some food to donate to "Stamp Out Hunger" for our mail lady to pick-up. Connor helped me carry it out to the mailbox and I was explaining to him that it was for people who were hungry. He told me he was hungry. How to explain this to a two-year old. It was too cute, was he was very excited to see the mail lady pick up the food, we went outside and chatted with her-she likes Connor.

We went to Costco to pick up a few things and ended up with much more than what was on the list. When do we not?!? Then, I had a coupon to use at Borders and was looking for a Love & Logic Parenting book, but they didn't have any in stock, so I decided to browse the Parenting section while Chris & Connor looked at dinosaur and shark books in the children's section. I found 'The Discipline Book' By Dr. Sears. Yah! I like all the other books, so I am sure I will like this one as well. Then, we went to the play on the toys at the mall, Connor enjoyed the play area at the mall-it is so fun to watch him play.

We got home and it was just about dinner time, so while I fed dinner, Chris cooked dinner! It was wonderful!!! He made shrimp scampi, brushetta, and a great salad. What a wonderful dinner and even better that I didn't cook :)

Connor is sleeping in his own bed right now & I just put Dylan down in his crib-this is a first for night time, we will see how long it lasts! But it is a start!

Needless to say, this has been a WONDERFUL Mother's Day weekend so far. But then again, how can you go wrong with shopping & good food?!? On the agenda for tomorrow is strawberry crepes-made from scratch from Chris, Starbucks, and the park in the morning. Then, I have requested Olive Garden for lunch. And we will be having BBQ ribs for dinner! Wow-how can life get any better?!?

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Rainy Day at the Zoo

We were determined to make it to the zoo today to see the new stingray exhibit-it officially opens tomorrow, but was open today for zoo members. Unfortunately, it was raining (hard-not just sprinkling) along with lightning & thunder. But we made it, getting soaked along the way! Dylan managed to stay pretty dry. We all got to 'pet' the stingrays. Connor was fascinated by them, so we let him pick one out at the giftshop on the way out. We only saw the stingrays on this trip-it was quick to say the least. And of course, as we were just pulling into the drive way at home, the rain stopped & the sun came out-go figure. Nonetheless, we got to make it to the zoo one more time and the stingrays were pretty cool. Unfortunately/fortunately, no pictures of us-as we looked (and felt) like drowned rats! Yuck!

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Dylan is 6 weeks old!

Dylan is 6 weeks old today! Wow! He is getting more alert everyday and getting big so fast. He has already grown out of most of his newborn sleepers! He is adorable and we are starting to see his personality come through. He is quite laid back & really only whines when he wants fed. He is totally a Mama's boy-but I think he just likes to be held all the time because he knows he is more protected from Big Brother when he is in my arms :) Smart kid!

He has had a very active 6 weeks so far with a couple trips to the zoo, parks, Science Center, a few restaurants, shopping, lots of walks, and lots of time spent outside. I can't believe it has already been 6 weeks! How quickly the time passes by.

We are truly bless to have such a wonderful addition to our family, we couldn't have asked for a happier & healthier baby-he only wakes up once during the night to eat-I am amazed! And I am still waiting for a terrible, sleepless night because of him, but remain hopeful it never happens :-)

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Even more good-byes...

We had a great visit with my mom & sister. They both had a blast playing with Connor & cuddling with Dylan. We were sad to see them go. But had lots of fun at the Science Center, playing outside, playing with dinasaurs, and a couple trips to the park.

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St. Louis Science Center Fun!

T-Rex at the St. Louis Science Center

We built the Arch-good thing Chris is tall, it was much harder to build than it looks.

Kylee & Connor doing a BIG math puzzle that only Chris understood.

Connor loved playing with Aunt Kylee and learning some new dinosaur names. Very cool!

Connor & Aunt Kylee in front of the lava rocks.

Dylan & Mama at the Science Center-Dylan slept in the carrier the entire time-what a trooper.

We had fun at the Science Center today. I had never been and was pleasantly suprised by how big it was and how many really cool exhibits there were. The dinosaurs were the main reason for going, as that has been Connor's new favorite thing. he loved the huge T-Rex and Triceritops. And playing with the small dinosaurs, digging for fossils, and some of the other hands on activities were also high on his list of fun things. They even have a build-a-bear dino that we agreed we would let Connor create, however, he decided he didn't want one, so we didn't force it. Who's child is this?!? After being there for a couple of hours, we decided to go have a late lunch at one of our favorite places, El Vicino-they have delicious brick oven pizza. It was wonderful, as usual. Connor is having a blast playing with Kylee. He is keeping her quite busy.

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