Walt Disney World

In December we joined Dave, Traci, Lily, Lexi, & Lydia in Florida at the timeshare and to go to DisneyWorld. I think the kids had a great time. I know the parents left more exhausted than when they arrived. I guess this is our first "family" vacation and now I know to expect a lot of work and not too much relaxation, but good family memories. The boys did great on the airplanes, Nikolas had the window seat and was mesmorized by all the action outside out the window. Nathan fell asleep almost right away. Smooth sailing, quite literally!

Monday was our first day at Disney. We started off at Magic Kingdom. Apparently a lot of other people had the same idea b/c it was packed!  However Disney is truly a magical place and I'm always amazed at how they can handle lots of people, especially kids, in a orderly manner. From the shows to the parade to the rides Disney never ceases to make you feel the magic. The boys and girls did pretty well, but we probably pushed it a bit and so several meltdowns ensued. Nikolas liked to run of course, so I was one of "those" parents who put him in the dog harness for kids and pulled him around. Actually, it was pretty great! He liked being pulled/tugged and didn't mind wearing it since that meant he could walk instead of strapped in the stroller.
We also spent some time at Animal Kingdom, Magic Studios, and Epcot. We saw Micky, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Princesses, Tiger, Pooh, Chipmonks, and Lightening McQueen. The big girls liked to riding the scary rides, like Tower of Terror, and the little kids liked riding the kiddie rides, like the Teacups. Overall I think everyone really enjoyed Disney. There just a few trying times along the way. Maybe we'll go back again, but not until the boys are 5 - 8 yrs old and can walk by themselves!

On the airplane

Of course he fell asleep as we were landing. Luckily we have a Go-Go traveler that attaches to his carseat. We pulled him off the plane and rolled him all the way through the airport and to the car rental before he woke up.

The crew right after we walked into Magic Kingdom

A quick photo op, the first of many - one of the few with us all looking forward.

Cinderella, I think.

The kids with Mickey & Minnie

Nikolas thought Mickey was pretty cool.

Probably his favorite part - meeting Lightening McQueen

Playing at Honey I shrunk the kids park

One of the many times he did not want to ride in the stroller. This was a problem and caused us a lot of grief.

Nathan - always so happy!  His first time swimming.

The crazy man...

Donald at Animal Kingdom

I thought this one turned out pretty cool.

We had so much fun! See you next time Disney!

The big move

Summer with both boys was a little hectic. Nathan is the worlds best baby and sleeps a lot, but eats often - like every 1 - 2 hours so that doesn't leave me much time to do much else. Nikolas likes to run and will run away from me at the drop of the hat. That essentially equates us to a lot of "home" time.

We did get to have fun down at Grandma and Grandpa's Lake and then also at G &G's Farm. While we were back for a short vacation we had fun going to Andrew and Niki's wedding and also baptized baby Nathan.

Shortly after that Justin took a new job that required us to relocate to the Dallas Tx area. As you can imagine cleaning up the house, listing it for sale, house hunting in TX and moving down was the craziest time in our lives to date. We packed as much as we could into our expedition and made the long drive down to TX, stopping to stay the night at G&G French's. We arrived in TX on Nov 2 and found our temporary apt. While small, it was nice and cozy and after all it was just temporary. After 74 days of living ther (who's counting?) we finally moved into our new house on Jan 14, 2010. So far we are really enjoying it, there is much more space to run and play and we even have a decent backyard for Ginger to play in.

Not to make excuses, but between chasing the two boys and moving to TX, I could not find time to update the blog. Those times were filled with highs and lows, including so many new words and phrases that Nikolas can say, most of them so funny! Nathan continues to go with the flow and is quite content sitting and playing. When he finally started to crawl at 11 months he finally realized there is so much to see and do. I will continue to remember and share the great times from that year, but mostly I am focusing on the future!

A few pic's:

Hands free!  Nathan loves to sleep in here.

Nikolas and his bff/next door neighbor Ryan

Like Father, like son....

3 months old - what a great smile!

In their Cow shirts from Aunt Keenie

4 months old. Nathan liked his swing. Good thing b/c he spent a lot of time in it!

Taking the double stroller for a test drive...

Brotherly love... my favorite picture so far. Also my computer background.

Grandma F and Nathan, 6 months old

At the Apple Orchard in late October. It started snowing this day.

On the farm with Gpa B. Nikolas loves riding in the tractor and looking at the cows.

Nathan's baptism with Godparents, Aunt Colleen, Aunt Gloria, Uncle Derek.

Happy Halloween from the cowboy and the turtle!

More cute than scary.

After bags of Halloween candy these boys are still going strong.

Nikolas' buds: Ryan, Connor, Nikolas & James.

I have never seen our car so full. 4 suitcases on top and the insides stuffed to the gills. Ginger in the front seat, me and the boys in the middle.

At the new apartment where we stayed longer than we expected. Go K-State!

The big # two b-day

Shortly after coming home with Nathan we set about planning Big N's second birthday. He really only had once request, which we heard 2 million times "choo choo cu-cake birfday" Translated to laymens terms: we promised him we could ride the train to the Choo Choo restuarant and he could have a cupcake. If you remember, we had already checked this out and he did not forget the promise we made to visit again. So while my parents were up we made our trip to the Choo Choo and delivered our promise. He was a happy 2 year old, which was sometimes hard to come by these days. He is really starting to talk more, becoming more independent and more bossy. Of course he always wants mommy when she is feeding Nathan which creates some problems. Funny stuff he like to say is "walk away" "No, I do it"   "mmm cu-cakes" Mostly he just likes to run - and he can run fast! 

We also threw him a little backyard party with all of his friends. I think the kids had a great time running around and feasting on cupcakes. Thank goodness G-ma and G-pa were here to help out. Little n did great - barely notice he's around since he sleeps so much. I just love having a little(wonderfully easy) baby around again!

Catch up...

On April 28, 2009 at 2:11pm we welcomed sweet baby Nathan Edward to our family. He was a lot smaller than Nikolas, weighing in at 7lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long. I think he is beautiful! He has blondish wavy hair and a beautiful swirl/cowlik at the top of his forhead (which he's probably hate some day) He is such a good baby - loves to nap, eat, poop, and nap some more :)  Nikolas enjoyed seeing him too - for about 1 minute and then he was off to explore the hospital room, touching all of the things he is not supposed to and trying to run off if he could. Here are a few pic's from the beginnings of Nathan's life:

Back that bus up...

Whoa - has it really been 10 months since I've updated this blog? I guess that's right, little n arrived 10 months and 6 days ago. Feels like yesterday - kind of.

Well, good news is: we're back! 
Bad news is: we got a lot of catching up to do.

Keep checking in, good stuff is on the way....

Spring is here!

It has finally warmed up here in Chicago, the grass is turning green, the daffodils and Hyacinth's are blooming and even the tree's are budding. Hooray!! Nikolas is also growing and I can't believe how much he's changed in a month's time. He is now in his "big boy" twin bunk beds(were daddy's old beds) and is loving his new room. It has a farm theme- cows, horses, and tractors. Plus I put some Winnie the Pooh fabric under the top bed so he can look up at it. Now every night is "night pooh, night tigger, night piglet, night tra-tor, night moo" Luckily this does the trick an he goes down for the night!

There are so many other funny things he can say - his speech has really improved even in two weeks' time. Here's a few to remember:

"pretty momma" as he pats my skirt

"pretty flowers"

"Choo, choo, cu-cakes, birfday" (We promised him we could ride the train to the Choo Choo restuarant again and eat a cupcake)

"more cu-cakes" The kid loves sugar....

"shut da door"

"cat-hat, read it"

"ooo, goatht" This is usually in the dark.

"walk away mommy"

" more chebup" that's french for Ketchup - he dipps pretty much everything in it.

I'm sure there's more I can't remember right now. I will try to do a better job of posting those things.

A few pictures too:

Nikolas and James checking out the bunny cake.

Easter egg dying before

Watching "Daddy snow blo-der" We got about 5 inches of snow at the end of March.

Using the juice box straw to stab his cereal and eat it.

Fun with Papa & Grandma

Last weekend Papa & Grandma came up to visit and Nikolas had such a fun time entertaining them. The most fun part was a ride on the Metra train to the Choo Choo restaurant in Des Plaines. This was Nikolas' first time to ride the train and he was enthralled by it all. He kept saying "ride choo choo" the entire time. The conductor even punched his book a couple of times for his ticket.

The Choo Choo restaurant is a fun place, a model train rides around and brings your lunch right to your table. And when there's a b-day, it brings a cupcake, followed by the birthday song and real train whistle's throughout. As you can imagine, it was filled with little kids and pregnant mom's. Nikolas loved it! He fell asleep on the train ride back.

Papa and Grandma also brought up new big boy bunk beds. Not really new, they were Justin's when he was a kid, but they are going in the new big boy room to make way for the new baby to come. I think Nikolas think's they are pretty cool. Now we'll see if he'll actually sleep in them...

We almost pulled out a win over those 'Hawks. Maybe next time.