Saturday

Doug wanted to trim up one of the trees in the front yard. Evelyn really wanted to help. Matthew was napping (usually they nap at the same time, he took a morning nap instead Saturday), so us three got to hang together, which was a rare treat!

At first, Evelyn was more interested in the ladder than helping with the tree (shocker, I know!).

Is this okay, mom?

I did it!

I think she is pretty cute!

She finally got into helping Doug a little bit, just in time for clean up!

Later in the afternoon we headed to a 4th birthday party for the Kroeker twins'. Evelyn was excited to wear a new hand-me-down dress (can I just tell you how much I LOVE having friends with older girls who pass along awesome clothes!).

This is the best she would give me...

"The Cage". This is what my in-laws had when Doug and his siblings were younger. It is an according-like collapsible play yard thing and it ROCKS! We set it up at the party for Matthew. Evelyn enjoyed it just as much as he did I think. Actually, at one point we had 6 kids in there, and only one was a baby! It was a hit with everyone apparently!

Sometimes I take pictures and I don't know how on earth I got such a good shot. This is one of those. LOVE this picture of my sweet babies!

Evelyn's "I just want to play by myself" face. Its a classic!

This one was almost great.. missed Ev's face by a whisker. Bummer! They both had fun at the party and hanging out together. I think it is so sweet how much they really do love each other!

Have you noticed that I am blogging more? I really.. and I mean really want to keep up with this. Getting behind just stresses me out! So check in frequently.. there will be new posts more often.. at least that's my goal!!

Anything can be a toy....

Doug used some of his birthday money to buy something he has wanted for a LONG time... a heavy duty rubber tool cart for his shop. He has been waiting for it to go on sale (it rarely does) but just decided to bite the bullet and get it. He put it together last night with the help of both the kids! Once it was done, it became apparent that it the kids wanted to "play" with it (ok, Evelyn was the one who wanted to play with it.. Matthew was just along for the ride..literally!).

Don't worry, its rated for up to 300lbs!

Both the kids enjoyed the cart rides, but I think we all enjoyed just being together more!

The boy loves to eat...

Despite not having any teeth yet, Matthew certainly enjoys eating anything he can get his hand on.. or in! It has been hard trying to find "solids" he can eat without choking, although he is getting much better at it and pretty much can eat anything soft as long as it is small enough.

He is very tactle and love to feel textures of everything, especially food. He really wants to feed himself so that he can feel what he is putting in his mouth and squish is between his hands and fingers. Needless to say, it can lead to quite the mess. This is what happened when I let him loose with some pasta...

Of course, I would forget to put a bib on during this meal. Oh well.... he enjoyed himself!

He cleans up real nice, tho!!

..And when did my sweet girl get so big? I am trying to ignore the fact that she will be four in a little over 3 months! This is a cute outfit our sweet neighbors got for her (have I mentioned that I call our neighborhood "Mayberry"?). She wanted to model for me!

So thankful for the gift of my babies.....

Last Dance

Evelyn started taking her first ballet class a couple of months ago. She has thoroughly enjoyed it and has learned quite a bit. Last Tuesday was her last class. Usually, just the kids go into the class; the parents have to wait outside while class is taught. But the last class is reserved for anyone to come watch. Evelyn was so excited to have Doug and both sets of grandparents there to cheer her on!

Once again, I didn't do the best job at capturing the day. The lighting was not the best which didn't help. I didn't even get a picture of her with all of us. UGH... oh, well. I just need to work on that. Here are some of the pics I did take:

Ready to start...

Stretching is important....


Looking in the mirror was what most of the girls loved to do!

Free Dancing.. I think this was here favorite part of class every week

Teacher Valerie working with Evelyn. She is a great teacher... all the kids loved her.

Evelyn already misses her class and is a bit sad that she didn't get to go to ballet anymore. I am sure this won't be the last ballet class she takes!

(FYI...I am hoping to get more pics from both grandparents, so maybe there will be better picture on here later!)

Happy Birthday Doug!

If you know my husband, you know that A) that he is wonderful, and B) he is not one to make a big deal about his birthday! Usually we have some family over for a BBQ and Doug usually does most of the cooking. That's just how he is.

Since this year was his 40th birthday, I wanted to do it a bit different. He really didn't want a huge party, just the usual family gig. So I decided that this year, he was NOT going to be doing the cooking. He was to simply enjoy his day with the ones he loves. We had a total of almost 30 people in our backyard (we both have large families). I had some of the food catered and others made things. It was over 90 degrees, but there was a nice breeze in our yard that really kept it quite tolerable.

This fountain was left by the previous owner of our house. I hate it. Doug thinks its funny to keep it around and fire it up on "special occasions". Evelyn thinks it hilarious that he does it and thinks my eye rolling is pretty funny,too. Lovely, isn't it? *sigh*

Me and my sweet girl...

We put the sprinkler out, since it was really hot. The kids LOVED it! It also helped keep the adults cool when the breeze would carry the mist up the hill!

Grandma love!

The birthday boy!

I didn't get many pictures due to playing hostess and having a son who didn't nap all day and wanted to "snack" (you breastfeeding moms know what I mean!) a lot. I need to work on giving my camera to someone else to get pictures.

We did, tho, have such a lovely day. Doug felt thoroughly celebrated and enjoyed his party!

Doug, I love you more than words can say. I am so thankful you were born 40 years ago, and looking forward to spending the next 40 with you!! Happy Birthday, babe!

Oh...wait... I almost forgot about the cards!!

So the party was on Saturday, but his actual birthday was Friday. I sent an email out to friends to send Doug a card for his big day. Since he is not a big party guy, but is loved by many, I thought this would be a fun idea. I hid them as they came in the mail and then surprised him with them on his birthday.

I had Evelyn bring the huge stack of cards out to him. She was so excited!

Doug enjoying the cards, Matthew enjoying eating the envelopes!

Evelyn loved to look at all of them with her daddy.

Ok.. now I am really done. Happy Birthday, sweetie! XO

FINALLY......

Evelyn started "potty training" when she was 18 months old. She just was curious so we got out the little kid seat. She began using it once a day, usually right before bath. We thought maybe this was it.. it would just eventually lead to being fully trained. Well, it did. It just took 2 more years to do it!!!

She still wears pull-ups at night, but we are hoping to break free of that soon, too. We are SO proud of her. It hasn't been easy for her. She LOVES to play and really struggled with having to take "breaks" from playing to relieve herself like a big girl. Since we really didn't want to make it a big battle, we had to just gently prod and be patient, which wasn't easy for us, either!

About three weeks ago, I had to take her to the doctor for something unrelated. Our awesome pediatrician also had a heart to heart with her about going potty on the toilet. She was a bit firmer than we have been (which was great!), and Evelyn really listened. From the moment we left her office, she started talking about "trying harder" to go "big girl peepee". That same day, my sister Michelle came to visit from Idaho. She really got Evelyn even more pumped up about going potty and wearing her fun princess panties. Really, from then on there was no turning back.

She has had only a few accidents since then (like three I think) and is pretty proud of herself, too! She doesn't even need reminders (although we still do) and just goes to the bathroom on her own now. Its so cute.

My baby girl is growing up. I am so proud and thankful to be her mom!!

Early Birthday Present

Doug turns 40 (I know.. he barely looks 20!) next week. I really wanted to do something special for him (besides a party we are having) to celebrate. So I got him something he has wanted to for a while.. a new and much bigger air compressor! Doug's family chipped in to make it possible. It came this week, a bit early, but I wanted to make sure it was here before his actual birthday. He didn't mind at all! ;)

Yes, it is so big, it had to be delivered by a huge truck!

There it is....

The big name in air compressors ....

Someone is pretty happy!

Up into the shop!

Evelyn thinks its pretty cool, too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOUG!

Meatballs!

Do you have friends that you care about dearly but never seem to get to spend a lot of time with them? We do.. our friends the Ruzzi's. Busy kids and busy adults keep us from getting together as much as we would like, but when we do we always have such a fun time. We went over there for a "Christmas in July" dinner. (OK... I know, its August 1st, but we couldn't find a time in July!)

Why "Christmas in July"? Well, it is a Ruzzi Christmas tradition to make Grandma Ruzzi's homemade Meatballs and Sauce. We have had them several times and let me tell you, they are AMAZING! So amazing that Mike and Christine decided to start a tradition of doing them twice a year, and invited us this year to join them. Of course.. we said YES!

It tastes even better than it looks.. and it looks amazing!

Evelyn and Matthew (they have a Matthew as well!) gobbling it all up at the "kids" table! Evelyn loves "Mr. Mike's" meatballs!

I didn't get a lot of pictures, probably because I was either eating or chatting with Mike and Christine!

We are thankful for our friends... and for Grandma Ruzzi's meatballs!