Happy Birthday Kris!

Happy Birthday to Daddy! Ryan and I made him a cake, which was Ryan's favorite part of the birthday. As you can see, we never feed him.

Sorry to everyone who commented that I haven't updated this in a while. I'm a little busy keeping up with two kids during these snow days and starting on Facebook. Yes, we've had about a foot of snow and Ryan has been out of school all week. It sure makes for a long day - at least he still takes a nap. It would be different if Ryan would play by himself, but even if he does, he wants to tell me about it or whine for me to play with him during most of it! I sure hope its better by next week. At least Ryan has gotten to play outside. And second, yes - I finally broke down and joined Facebook and now I've been looking up people and reading what everyone's been up to. It's addicting.

So what have we been up to? We have had sickies here. Ryan got sick two weeks ago. Of course, Kris was going to California for the week. So I called for reinforcements and my mom and sister drove down to help me. Ryan was out of school all week, not because he didn't feel well - mostly because he was so tired and wouldn't get a nap if he went to school. By Friday, he still wasn't 100% and I broke down and took him to the doctors. He had an ear infections and possible strep. Then this past weekend, Emma not only had two teeth coming in, but also got sick. Monday, I took her to the doctors, which we were scheduled to do on Thursday for her 9 month appointment. She had a double ear infection and possible pink eye. Well the eyes cleared up in two days, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't pink eye. And both the teeth came in. She's feeling much better now.

Besides that we've been going to the gym and playing. We get reimbursed for our gym membership if we go 12 times a month. We joined last January and never made it one month. Our best month was in March! Can you believe it? I was 8 months pregnant - but I really needed that break from Ryan. So this month, I've been trying hard to make it, plus lose the 3 lbs I gained over Christmas.

Yesterday, to abate the winter boredom, I let the kids finger paint (and then take a bath!). I NEVER let Ryan do this when he was as little as Emma just because I didn't want to clean up the mess, but I've become more lenient in my parenting. She enjoyed it for a few minutes and then started to rip the paper and try to suck on the washcloth I was using to wipe her off! Ryan just wanted more and more paint. I wasn't sure his picture would ever dry - but it did finally. I think they enjoyed the bath a lot more though!

Happy New Year!

Ok - so I haven't updated this in a while. I have a total of 6 posts today so that I could break up all the info and pictures that happened over the last two weeks. So please scroll down and start this from the Pre-Christmas post, and you'll be all up to date.

We spent our New Years Eve and 5th wedding anniversary with our friends Jeff and Shannon and their kids, Mason and Jackson. Mason is Ryan's age and Jackson is 6 months older than Emma. We had them over for pizza and New Years at 9pm. We actually meant to have it at 8, but we were too busy. We watched football and enjoyed the boys playing. We had our champagne, while the boys had sparkling cider (which neither liked). They blew their horns and wore hats. Overall, they both thought it was exciting because we talked about it as if it were. But there was no other indication to them to be excited! Oh well. We had a lot of fun. After that, I fell asleep on the couch at 11 and woke up just as the New Year rang in. What a night!

Christmas - part 4

Wow. 4 posts to cover Christmas.

We came home from all the Zebrowski festivities on the 28th. We got home around 7 with a pizza in hand. Santa had come to our house too. We tried to convince Ryan to let up open the gifts in the morning, which he had at first agreed to. But then he saw the gifts and decided otherwise. We had told the post office to deliver all our held mail the previous day so we had 4 packages sitting at home waiting to be opened also. Once again we were up way past bedtime opening presents. Ryan had really gotten the rhythm of opening gifts down pat and just wanted to open. Unfortunately, it was opening without really caring what it was, just wanting to open. He did the like bath boats that Emma got for him and Emma has enjoyed the rubber duck that Ryan got for her (he had the santa shop at school).

After that, we also received gifts from Kris's mom in the mail, which Ryan enjoyed opening everyones! She had sent 3 packages stuffed with books and clothes which were all loved. She had also gotten us a great shelf from Ikea (which Kris and Ryan drove up to pick up on the 30th) to hold the numerous toys in the basement. I think the favorite gift of Kris and Ryan was the Penn State face stickers she sent that they wore for 2 days in prep of the game.

Christmas - part 3

The day after Christmas is my dad's birthday. We took him out to dinner to this small diner near their house that he enjoys. During dinner my dad and Ryan cracked each other up with sayings and hand motions that accompanied. The first is them saying 'hmmm' in a thinking tone. The second is them saying 'oh, no' - which has been a Ryan favorite ever since. The third was a new one that night saying 'holy, moly'. They are also famous for 'no way, jose' and 'oh, man'. Then of course, is Emma just enjoying the day.

On the 27th, we attended the going away party for Aaron Stone. I've known Aaron, well probably since he was born. His dad, Tom, was a friend of my dads from high school. And his wife, Sally, is my mom's best friend. So we consider them our Aunt and Uncle and the boys, our cousins. Aaron is the youngest of three. Adam is my age and lives in Baltimore with his wife, Jenny, who is expecting their first baby next May. Nick is a few years younger than us (I want to say 3) and lives in Boston with his wife, Kathy. And then Aaron, is another few years younger than Nick and graduated from MSU a year ago. He was living in Boston for the last year working out there before he decided to enter officers training for the Marines. This is the first person in a while that I've know who has entered the military of any kind (the other being my cousin, Derek). Overall, I'm very proud of him for signing up at a time like this and I hope for the best.

But back to his party. We brought the kids who were a hit. There were other little girls there who let Ryan play ring around the rosie and balloons with them. The dinner was great, but the highlight of the evening (as always is with the Stone family) was the entertainment. Everyone was asked to tell a joke or do some kind of entertainment. Because of the kids, we were asked to keep it in line with the audience and to be funny. If not, a whip cream pie in the face was the punishment. Uncle Tom was the first to get it and Kris was the second! My mom even got up and told the joke that the boys had prepared for her since she had flat out refused to do it before that time. Ryan brought his camera and spent some of his time taking pictures of the dark lights and the floor. At least it kept him busy. The night ended with us going home early. When Ryan got sick before Christmas he managed to give it to Kris, who had it on the 22nd. My mom came down with it on the 23rd and my dad on the 24th. And I got it on the 27th. Luckily it was another 12 hour bug that you get over pretty quickly! Besides that it was such a great night.

Christmas - part 2

We got my parents a Wii for Christmas. As anyone who has it knows, the sports that comes with the Wii is pretty fun. Ryan especially liked the bowling. While, he couldn't do it himself because his hands just weren't big enough to go around the controller, he thought he was doing a great job. Here is a video of him bowling. Listen carefully, because him making a wooshing sound is one of the best parts of it.

Christmas 2008 - part 1

We spent Christmas this year at the Zebrowski's. We decided that we are done with doing both families over the holiday season. While we have the time to visit both, we no longer have the stamina or the patience with our children. Ryan is a great traveller, always has been, but Emma is not and she longs for her bed at home.

We travelled to my parents on the 20th. This was going to be an unusally long visit due to two reasons. First was my sister, Robin, had bought tickets for the Lions game on the 21st for Kris, my dad, myself and Robin to go. It was birthday presents for all of us. While the game wasn't a big thrill, because it was a pretty boring losing (0-15 at the time) game and season - it was nice to go to our first NFL game. We had fun seeing Ford Field and even walking in the freezing Michigan air. The second reason was our 'psuedo' cousin, Aaron is leaving for the Marines and his parents (my parent's best friends) were throwing a going away party on th 27th (more on that in a later post).

So we had a lot of time to relax and spend with my family. We shopped and ran errands and all the rest before settling down for the Christmas activities. First on the agenda is celebrating with the Zebrowski's at Aunt Dawn's house. This is the most rambuncious time because of the 15 kids under the age of 11. There's screaming and tearing and most of all searching for your own presents before it's time to open. Reminds me of when I was young. Santa even visits and while Ryan was the only kid who wouldn't sit on his lap at least he didnt cry. All the kids had a great time. Emma spent her time eating wrapping paper while everyone else opened her presents, eventually taking a little nap on Daddy. Ryan spent his time playing with the boys guitar hero guitar, opening gifts and eating all the treats that Uncle Phil would give him (which was a lot - see picture). The kids got so many great toys and presents.

After that, we took the kids home and put them down for naps, while we went to church. Then we headed to Grandma's house to celebrate with the Knolls. As always, the games there were good and we all came home with some goodies.

Christmas morning, was spent eating donuts and opening so many gifts our heads were spinning. There were too many to wait for everyone to have a turn so we just opened as we could! Unfortunately, some of the pictures from the early morning came out poorly because of the camera being on a bad setting. But you can see all the pictures from our time away at our Snapfish link. We spent the day playing with our toys and helping with a great dinner that we shared with the Stones. Overall, it was such a wonderful Christmas and we were so happy to be able to spend it with some of our family.

Pre-Christmas

This is the third of three posts today covering our Christmas time. Prior to Christmas, Kris and I took the kids to the Cincinnati Museum. Kris had never been there before (he hasn't really been to any kid places around here) and I had just recently discovered (ha ha) that there are other museums besides the children's on at the center. So two Saturday's before Christmas we ventured there. It is rare that we don't have something to do, so we really enjoyed ourselves - although Kris did have to leave early to attend a training session for a Lego competition he is participating in.

We first took the kids to the Natural History museum. Ryan and Kris had fun looking at the body parts area and flossing extra large teeth. We looked through the area that takes Cincinnati through different time periods. Ryan got to play lincoln logs and play in the outhouse (I would never recommend him 'playing' in the one at the farm!). We played for a while at the large sandbox there until Ryan dumped sand over Emma's head. That was the end of that. We saw the dinosaurs and life size area of animals that used to live in the area (some extinct). Yes, that is a picture of Ryan with a wolf. We then went into the special area where they had Clifford the Big Red Dog event going. Ryan got to play mailman and delivered mail and bones to Clifford. They even had a life size Clifford, which was huge. After Kris left, I put Emma in the carrier on my back and we headed to the holiday train section. Ryan loved pushing the buttons to make the trains go and was just thrilled with the large train sections, sitting and waiting for the trains to go by. But his favorite part was getting to ride the train himself, which he did twice and would have all afternoon. All the while, Emma slept on my back, looking pretty comfy!

The week after this was pretty busy with finishing our Christmas shopping, packing and such. Tuesday, the 18th, Ryan's school was early dismissed due to the snow storm coming through, and they did it early enough that Ryan didn't have school at all. He enjoyed himself playing at home. But then Wednesday came, he got on the bus and a half hour later, I was called to pick him up from school because he was sick. On Thursday, the 4 preschool classes were having a presention on Christmas in other countries and my mom was driving down to see it. Unfortunately, that was in vain. Ryan seemed better by Thursday morning but then got sick again. So we ended up missing it. By Friday, he was better and we all headed to Michigan. There was a snow storm coming down there, but that didn't stop us. And by the time we made it there, it had stopped but the roads were pretty bad. It took us 7 hours, for a trip that if you drive straight through takes 4.5 hours.