Five and Five!

EJ just turned 5 and Jack is now 5 months!  Here they are the morning of EJ's 5th birthday.  EJ got a Krispy Kreme sprinkle doughnut for breakfast.

Yummy!

EJ was at the YMCA Rookie Sports camp all day and then we went to Red Robin for his birthday dinner.  His favorite part was the sundae and singing.

Here are the guys after dinner.  Full bellies=happy boys!

Jack's 4th month flew by and now he is vocalizing a lot, reaching for things and occasionally rolling over.

Here he is at church putting the "hurt" on another boy who was trying to eat his bumbo chair.  The funny thing is that Jack's legs are so fat he barely fits in the chair!

Here are a few more recent pictures. The summer is in full effect so we like to spend as much time as we can at the beach and pool.  Now that Jack can wear sunscreen I feel more comfortable taking him out.

A BIG thank you to our friends and family who celebrated EJ's birthday with us--both near and far!  He had a great birthday and is so blessed to have wonderful people in his life!

A Spidey Birthday!

We celebrated EJ's 5th Birthday with a Spiderman Party!

We see lots of birthday parties with bouncy houses at our park so when we talked about options for his birthday (Sea World, Legoland, Disney, etc) he chose a bouncy house park party.  We invited our family and all his friends from preschool and kindegarten.  

After playing at the park and bouncing for over an hour it was time to sing "Happy Birthday."  We had pull apart cupcakes.  It looks like a cake from the top but they are cupcakes below.  It made serving a cinch.   I also got red velvet cupcakes for the adults in case they didn't want their teeth stained red by Spiderman frosting!

Eric got all the kids to line up for cupcakes.   It's amazing how well kids listen when sugar is involved!

Here he is eating his cupcake with Lyla. 

EJ opened his presents with lots of "oohs and ahhs" from the partygoers.

Each guest got a spiderman box with candy, a book of mazes and some small toys.  EJ put all of the party boxes together and all I had to do was help close them.  Here he is after giving Aiden his; he was so proud!  I was so impressed with all the effort EJ made to help with his party.  We put a list together on the white board in his room and he got to mark things off as we accomplished them.  He always knew what was on the agenda each day as the party got closer.

My friend Sandy came to hold Jack during the party. She really has the touch as Jack slept through the whole party!  It was such a relief for me to not have to worry about him.

A BIG

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to my sweet son! 

He's an awesome kid and I love him to pieces!

Colorado Visit

My mom threw an open house for friends to meet Baby Jack. It was a fun afternoon reconnecting with family friends.  She did an amazing job on the desserts and they were a hit. Guests also left with boxes of Cracker Jacks in celebration of our little guest of honor.  He was a real trooper getting passed around all day with only a few rest breaks.

Here's my friend Katy as she was leaving the party.  We will be celebrating her new little one this fall. 

Here's EJ with Katy's son, Bobby.  We will be passing the Big Brother t-shirt onto him in a few months when his little sister arrives!

We got to spend some good time with Tricia on our visit.  Here we are at the Pancake house for our breakfast tradition. 

I got to see some high school friends.  We got to spend time with Danni and her kids and a fun ladies night on her mom's deck (I didn't get pictures, unfortunately).  These are the daughters of my friend Amy, who I haven't seen in over five years.  We met at a really fun splash park. It was so fun to reconnect and meet her kiddos. 

EJ loved the ropes course at the splash park. 

Here's my friend Jenny.  We met at CSU as freshmen.  It was great to see her and her family!

Tricia and I threw a 50th birthday party for Craig.  It was great seeing our friends and meeting his friends from work.  Here we are as the festivities got started and yes, I had my baby in a bar.  Thankfully, he slept in the sling I was wearing most of the night. 

EJ found his Spiderman costume and he was so excited.  I'm not sure Jack was as excited.  In fact, he was probably a little "freaked" out.  EJ also found his little Lightening McQueen suitcase that we left there last summer.  He pulled the suitcase around with him everywhere so he wouldn't forget to bring it back home with him.  It was really sweet.



Colorado Family Visit in July

 We went to Colorado in July!  It's Jack's first trip on an airplane.  I was so worried that he was going to be a "mess" but he did great and EJ was an awesome traveler too.  He was so helpful and even held his little brother while I was getting us settled.  We were so excited to get to Colorado as it had been a year since we had been there.  That's the longest I have ever been away.

We made a trip to the mountains with my parents.  It was so fun to feel this crisp, cool mountain air. Here are the guys looking for rocks to throw in the river. 

 Mom and EJ ventured out to the rapids.  They also put their feet in the frigid water.  We put Jack's toes in too but he wasn't too fond of the cold water.

 Daddy and Jack in the mountains.

 My parents loved having the boys around and did a lot of fun things with them including daily trips to the park, bowling, frozen yogurt trips, games, mario racetrack racing, playing endless Wii games, and playing pirate and digging up treasures in the backyard. 

We also got to see some of Eric's family while we were there.  Here we are with Uncle Brian.  He really likes living in Colorado and his company is doing well.  He gave EJ a Spiderman backpack for his birthday and it was a big hit.



4 Months!

 I'm a little late posting Jack's 4 month picture because we've been so busy this summer.   You can see his facial expressions are expanding and he is using his hands to reach for toys and my hair.   His cheeks are as big as ever and his thighs have triple rolls!  I'm happy to report his demeanor is improving; he has a darling laugh and loves to smile. 

Jack is growing so fast.  He's in the 95th percentile for height & weight.  He's a hefty 17 lbs which makes carrying him in his infant car seat quite a workout. Here he is getting weighed at his 4 month appointment.  Look at those meaty thighs!

Speaking of thighs...check these out. Triple rolls!!

EJ loves to kiss Jack and Jack loves to reach for EJ's face.  We had to set a limit to the kissing.  EJ can kiss Jack 5 times and then he has to back away for a bit.  We love how affectionate he can be but it gets overwhelming for Jack.  Likewise, EJ isn't allowed to touch Jack's face and usually when he is in a room alone with Jack I catch him touching his face. Sometimes it's gentle and sometimes it's not so we may have to introduce consequences if he continues to disobey us.  Other than that, he's a fantastic big brother.