Zoo morning with dad

This morning I had my weekly weights, measures & baby heartbeat check- nothing new, measuring right on & baby's heart beat is great! He will probably be late just like his brothers!

Since Mike took the morning off to watch the boys, we decided to go to the zoo afterwards. It was the first time I was able to attempt to get some animal pictures with my camera because I had help with the kiddos. Luckly, there were some playful animals out despite the heat! The highlights of this trip were the tigers playing in the water, the mama giraffe taking care of her newly born calf (born mid June, so it is less than a month old!), & and the close roaming elephants! This trip was the first time that Kyle really tuned into the animals, he loves looking at toy animals and his favorite books usually have animals in them... I think seeing them in real life finally clicked for him!

Tantrum?!

At first glance at this picture and given Kyle's age of 15m, you would think he is throwing a tantrum... But look closer (click on the image to enlarge) and you will see that he is actually having a belly laugh session! He is our tactile baby and loves to be tickled and touched by soft objects, especially on his head! We will find him rolling in the grass, just to feel the tickles of the grass below him! We noticed this for the first time when he just a few months old as we laid him on the grass to see what he thought of it. He LOVES walking around with his soft blanket held to his ear and he has the cutest chuckle if you run your fingers through his hair or drive a toy train up his neck!

Summer Fun in the backyard

Our evenings are usually spent in the backyard as the kids entertain us with their play. It is funny how once you have kids, the best entertainment out there is watching kids understand the world around them and just exploring though 'play'! Lately we have been setting the blow up pools out for them to cool off and burn energy... They sleep so much better after a good splashing session in the water! Joshua likes to jump off the side of the bigger pool and make the 'biggest splash ever' while Kyle stands in the baby pool watching Josh and just moves his body up and down as though he is doing the same thing.

Tee Ball for 3 year olds

We recently enrolled Joshua in a Tee Ball program for 3 year olds put on by the local YMCA. Last month he completed the soccer program and had fun with that, so we continued with tee ball, being that dad is such a baseball fan. He was very excited to get a ball cap just for enrolling. This morning was his second 'practice' and it is a riot to see all the 3 year olds attempt the skills to 'play baseball'. We were proud of of our little Joshie as he threw the ball, caught grounders & hit the ball off a tee (click on the pictures to enlarge)... But, I think his favorite part of the practice was chasing the coach and playing the 'run to daddy to scare and tackle him' game! Kyle had a good time running around the grass field with his new squeaky shoes (it was before we learned how to unplug the squeakers!) & got a lot of curious looks as he squeaked along.

Squeaky Shoes!

So today I was thrilled that I finally found some cute leather shoes for Kyle whose feet are hard to find shoes for because he has such skinny ankles! All of Joshua's old sandals catered to his chubby piggies and don't stay on Kyle's at all. These were a bargain find at a garage sale for only $1.00 and they looked nearly new... I tried them on him and they fit perfectly! We set him on the ground to see how he walked in them and out squealed what sounded like a squeaky dog toy! He took another step and the same thing happened! All of a sudden out came Kyle's pout face followed by a pathetic run(squeak, squeak, squeak) to mommy. At a closer look at his new shoes, I found built-in air plugs that deliberately created a squeak with every step! As much as he already does not like shoes, he fell to the floor to get them off ASAP.

I later found out that the air plugs came out and the squeak was gone I think he likes his new shoes now!

Lets hear it for the BOYS!

With baby #3 almost here, I figure I better use some of my nesting energy on trying to keep a blog! This is my first attempt at posting a picture to the weekly contest for I Heart Faces (http://www.iheartfaces.blogspot.com/). I chose this picture because this is my rough and tumble, dirt eating 14mon old and it shows his 'all boy' side to playing and exploring! He may of thought his first taste of dirt was awful (as the picture shows), but do you think that has stopped him from eating dirt regularly? Of course not! Be sure to check out the link above to look at all the fabulous entries for this week.

First Attempt and Catch Up

Alright... so many of you have kept me updated with you lives via Blogs, so I have taken the plunge to put my family's story out there! It has been busy times with us this year and lots of changes have taken place in our lives... I would have to say that most of them have been for the better! Our biggest life change this year has been the birth of Kyle. What a sweet boy he has been, calm & very inquisitive! Josh has made many, many life changing milestones as he is venturing into the 'big boy' stage... he became a BIG brother, sleeps in a BIG BOY bed in his new BIG BOY room, started BIG BOY preschool & wears BIG BOY underwear. If you tell him anything about being little, he will admitly tell you that his is a BIG BOY! Mike turned 30 this year and has hit a point in his life where he wants to really get serious about finding a career that he can enjoy for the rest of his life. As of today, he got his final grade back from his final test for his final class that he needed for his BA in Business and Communications! We are all very excited for him because we know how much time and effort he has put into it over that last 10+ years of working and going to school! Along the way he has become quite the student and perfectionist when it came to his studies. He closed his mortgage business down at the end of the summer after almost being open for 5 years! It was a hard decision for him, but in the end the stress of it all is gone and he can put his efforts into finding what he enjoys and spending time with the family. I have spent my first full year as a stay at home mom and am loving it! I have met a great network of other moms and we have almost daily activities/playgroups, which is great for Josh and mom! We had a very unexpected suprise a few weeks when we found out that we are pregnant AGAIN! I am around 9-10weeks prego right now, which should make the baby due sometime around the end of June or beginning of July. We are shocked, but very excited... we seem to like to make our lives as craZy as possible! I will post some recent pics soon!