Grandma Olga's 98th Birthday

This past Saturday 2/26, we all gathered together at Pat's home to celebrate Michael's Grandma's 98th Birthday! We all had a wonderful time. We ate lunch, had cake and sat around and chatted and watched Jonathan.
Michael and I both thought it was pretty cool that Jonathan got to celebrate both of his Great-Grandma's Birthdays with them and only a week apart! He is a lucky kid to have such great people in his life! 
Happy Birthday Olga!



Singing Happy Birthday! We had a King Cake. From the left, Michael, Pat, Olga, Jonathan and Anna Marie, and of course, I am taking the picture.




Auntie Rie reading to Jonathan.



Olga giving Jonathan a very colorful blanket she knitted for his new Big Boy room.



4 Generations. Pat, Jonathan, Michael and Olga.




Jonathan having fun with the Mardi Gras beads from the King Cake!




Giving loves to the Birthday Girl.



Amy's Baby Shower

Back in the beginning of January, we had a baby shower for Amy and Will. (I took the pictures, but used Amy's camera, so I just got them, but better late than never right!)
We had so much fun and Amy and Will got all sorts of great gifts!

The diaper cake I made for Amy and Will.



The Sweet's Table!




Scarlet being a good hostess!




Lots and Lots of Presents!



Measure the pregnant lady's belly! A horrible game that should be banned from showers! Ha! But it was fun! This is cousin Sarah seeing if her guess was right...sorry it wasn't, but close!



Lindsay and Amy!



Scarlet, Amy, Tyler and Amber!

Scarlet helping mommy open presents!



Stopping for a quick picture. Such a cutie.



Aunt Holly signing her master piece. She painted this mural on Will's nursery wall. So cool.



The words at the top say: Will want fishing with only minnows in his pail, but that was all he needed, cuz he came back with a whale!




The curtain rod is a fishing pole. Such a beautiful job Holly!



Jonathan's Big Boy Room

Ever since we found out we were having a second child, Michael and I both have been a little on edge about...Where the new baby was going to go? Or where was Jonathan going to go? Or would they share a room? Or would we build on? If we built on would we build a second story or just an extra room on the back? Or would we just move????? A lot a sleepless nights for me.

For those of you who haven't been to our house, we have a lovely 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 2 living, 2 dinning 1972 home. Michael and I both fell in love with this place the second we walked in. We have lived here for 4.5 years. When we moved in we decided to use the biggest of the 2 "kid's" bedrooms to be our office/study. We both have huge desks, we both have our own computers, we turned one wall into our library...etc...so it made sense for us to have the bigger room and keep the smaller room for guests.

When we got pregnant with Jonathan, it was an easy transition to make the guest room the nursery. Even though it was the smaller room, it was closer to our bedroom, which I loved.

After Jonathan was born, as most of you know, our lives were turned upside down. Besides having a new child, we had everything going on with my mom, then my dad, then we had to move everything out of my parents house...well, needless to say the office became the dumping ground for things we didn't know what to do with. And over time, it got ugly. So as you can see, when I got pregnant, I would have much rather left that room alone and added on, then try to figure out what to do with all that stuff...but that is not what we decided after all. Months and months of working on that room, we finally got the whole thing cleaned out this past weekend. It was an awesome feeling. It wasn't just moving stuff out of a room, it was a ripple effect...We moved my office desk into the formal living area, something I really didn't want to do to begin with, but now I really like it! But, we had to reorganize the formal living area first....etc. Then we had to clean out our garage completely. I bought a bunch of 70 quart tubs from Target and started organizing. My belongings have never been more organized. It's just an awesome, awesome feeling. We have had to live with our house in transition for a while, so it is so nice to have the clean feeling back! Yeah!

I knew this day would come, I just didn't want to think about it. We have been lucky, Jonathan is NOT a climber. Almost everyone I talk to is surprised that Jonathan hasn't tried to escape his crib. But no, he loved his crib. Michael and I were scared to make the transition because of that.

When we knew we were almost done with the room a couple of weeks ago, we went furniture shopping! But we didn't have much luck. We didn't really care for what was out there. If we liked the style, then it is was the quality that we didn't like or vice versa. I was disappointed, since I thought this would be the fun easy part! Then a friend told me about this place that has 'factory direct prices', so we gave it a shot. I really liked a set in one of their catalogs, so we ordered it and got a great deal. They just delivered it yesterday, Sunday, Feb 20th.

It arrived during Jonathan's nap, and thankfully, despite all the noise, he stayed asleep. Michael and I were able to quickly make the bed, put down his new rug and make some minor adjustments before he woke up. Once he woke up, we took him in there and told him it was his new room. His first reaction wasn't the best, but it only took a few moments for him to change his tune. Now, he has really only left his room to eat and take a bath! Ha!

He went down in his new bed better than we could have imagined. The only problem was, he didn't sleep immediately. We put him down at 8:00 and I didn't hear him stop moving around until around 11:00! But the good thing was, he stayed in his bed the whole time. We were afraid of him getting out of bed and playing. Even this morning when he woke up, he waited for me to come in, then he asked if he could get down. Ha! That made me smile! I know it won't last long either.

So in summation, the new room seems to be a success! I hope it stays that way once his new little brother moves into his old room. :) Both boy's rooms are still a little in transition with some final touches and pictures to be hung...etc. But he are some pictures of yesterday!

Once he saw the bed, the just wanted to lay down in it! We of course had to go get his friends George, Giraffe, Doggie, (the New since we lost him last week) Coco and new to the bedtime gang, Pete the Cat. On Jonathan's right is "Red Car" from the movie Car's, who was a gift from us as a part of the new room and he loves him! :)

His cool new rug that is a city scape that he can drive his cars around! He and Michael played for hours last night on it!

More playing! The bed is a trundle! Something I had my heart set on. So now, he can have friends spend the night!



Story time. This is when I got choked up. I didn't cry. But it was a lovely memory...our big boy is growing up. 





Showing off his book shelves! These cook shelves were already in there from our office. I am still working on organizing the cubes. I will post pics when I am done with everything and have pics on the wall.



We got 3 new pieces. The bed, which is a trundle, the night stand and the tall dresser. We are very pleased.



Grandma's 81st Birthday Party

To finish out Grandma's trip, we all gathered at Holly and Jim's to celebrate Grandma's 81st Birthday on Friday evening, Feb 18th! It was an honor to be able to celebrate Grandma's Birthday with her, since I don't believe that I ever have. It was also fun to see everyone again, it has been since the beginning of December since the DFW family members had seen each other. We ate a lovely dinner provided by Holly and Jim and some yummy desserts! Our entertainment was all our little men and one little lady.

Jonathan, Owen and Jim



Jim giving the boys a horsey ride.




Leanna and the boys playing




Grandma blowing out the candles, Jonathan eager to help and of course ready to eat the cakes!




Leanna, Michael, Jonathan, Grandma, Will and Waylen.



Me and Grandma



Grandma and Amy




Jonathan and Michael - man Jonathan looks tired! He played really hard that night!




The Group Shot! We are missing Owen, he was sleeping. And we are missing Sarah and Adrian, they were out of town.




Mini Bunt Cakes! Yummy!



Holly and Will

More Fun with Grandma & Kathy - The Dallas Zoo

After our visit with them last week, Grandma and Kathy left and went down to Austin and San Antonio to visit more family. Then they came back to DFW to spend more time with us Dallas folk. So the Monday after they returned, Jonathan and I met up with them at the Dallas Zoo! We had such a fun time and took lots of pictures!
P.S. - there are actually pictures of me in this one AND you get to see my big old belly! :)

Riding the bronze elephant.

He wanted to get on the bigger one!

I wasn't sure what was going on with him there, he kind of seemed scared, but he snapped out of it if he was. I told him that Elephants were his daddy's favorite animal and now when he sees any elephant he says, "That's Daddy's elephant!"

Jonathan and Kathy looking for the animals...I don't think anything ever appeared, but I thought this was a cute shot!



We arrived at the giraffe's! Amazing animals! They were my mom's favorite animal and they are Kathy's favorite too!


The next 16 photo's show Jonathan's first experience feeding a Giraffe! It was a very comical! As you can tell, he fed him great on the first cracker. But on the second cracker, that tongue came out...and kept coming! And then he ended up licking Jonathan's tummy! Jonathan didn't like it so much, but now he thinks it funny! What is also funny about this is the guy in the background laughing! - Fun Fact: Giraffe's tongues are 18" long!



Poor Giraffe, he just wants a cracker! :)



Me feeding him!



Oops, I found out later you aren't supposed to pet them. Oh well.



Jonathan hitching a ride with Grandma again!



A really cool Jeep! The back half is in the Cheetah exhibit!




Not the greatest photo, but you can see the Cheetah, Jonathan and Kathy...kinda.




Then we ate at this zoo cafe where our view was looking at the beautiful lions! Lions are my favorite animal, so I was so happy with our view!



The 4 of us as we finished lunch.

We had to get on them one more time!



He is getting so big! How did that happen?




We rode the monorail through the other half of the zoo, which was pretty cool!




Kathy and Grandma




Jonathan loved it!



Jonathan, Me and Grandma saying good-bye. If you are wondering what Jonathan is doing...he was dancing and pulling up his shirt and pointing at his hip is a dance move. :)

Jonathan, Me and Kathy saying good-bye. :)