July Birthday Fun!!

When I was a child, I was the only kid I knew with a July birthday!  Apparently, it's a popular month for birthdays now!  We've attended 3 birthday parties in the past 2 weeks!  This post is kinda long because I had to include lots of pics, so I apologize in advance, but trust me...it's worth it! :)

Haley's 5th Birthday

Theme - Pirates

(Haley is the daughter of my cousin, Brent, and his wife, Avadelle) 

My cousin, Scott (Haley's uncle), playing "captain" and reading clues to the scavenger hunt...such a good sport!

After the scavenger hunt, there was a crew of little pirates!  Unfortunately, Ian wasn't too interested in this part.

 Happy Birthday Haley!!

Brayson's 5th & Cambryn's 3rd Birthday

Theme - Mickey & Minnie

(Brayson & Cambryn are the kids of Brittan, my close friend from pharmacy school, and her husband, Brant)

Brittan always goes all out on birthday parties & really does a lot with the theme!  I included tons of pics & STILL didn't post all of the details.  She is definitely the "hostess with the mostess!"

Over 400 suckers in this Mickey!

Jump house in the backyard!

She had a photo booth complete with "dress up" items!  Ian was distracted :)

Brittan and Brant with their kiddos!  Aren't they an adorable family!?!

Group shot!!

The birthday boy and girl!

Waiting "patiently" for cake and ice cream

Brittan, Amanda, and I = Pharm girls for life! :)

 Happy Birthday Brayson & Cambryn!!

Sarah's 2nd Birthday

Theme - Elmo

(Sarah is the daughter of my friend from Enid/Wichita, Mary, and her husband, Jay)

Sarah loves Elmo...Mary said that Ian "introduced" her to this furry little red guy.  Mary did a great job making her little cake!

Yummy cupcakes for the guests with homemade frosting!!  I definitely got this recipe!

The birthday girl listening to "Happy Birthday"

 The little cupcake on the side in the above picture was for me!  Sarah & I share the same birthday, so sweet Mary made me my own special cupcake with a candle.  It was very thoughtful...and delicious!

Yum...one more bite!

Ian is now hooked on cake and ice cream

Jay, Mary, and Sarah

Happy Birthday Sarah!!!

Finally, a pic of Jason and I from my 31st birthday dinner!  We were planning to go to Ted's, but it was super busy (as usual).  Instead, we headed to "The Big Tuna." It was pretty tasty!

It's a.....

Stay Tuned...

Big news is coming this week!  I have my big ultrasound scheduled this week, so if baby cooperates (and he or she BETTER!), then we should know the gender soon!!!  We can't wait!

Happy 21 Months, Ian!

Dear Ian,

I can't believe that we're only 3 months away from your second birthday!  Time has just flown by!  As usual, you have been impressing & entertaining us daily.  The "new" things that you do are happening so frequently, it's really hard to keep up with everything!  I'll do my best to capture some of the favorite details of your age right now.

You talk ALL of the time!  I'm not going to even attempt to write off of the words you can say now because it would take up so much space.  You have been saying quite a few short sentences over the past month....like, "I'm hungry, mama," "All done, mama," "I want to watch Choo-Choo," "Dada's at work," "I want to go outside," and "I want to go swimming."  Those are just some examples, but you're like a little sponge.  It doesn't take you long to pick up words now!  You are able to recite animal sounds by seeing pictures of specific animals, or when we ask you what a certain animal says.  You can count to 10, but sometimes need help remembering "6." :)  You can say, "A, B, C, D," and you know your color words, but like to say that everything is "green."  If that's not right, your next choice is either "blue" or "orange."  I'm pretty sure you're still guessing at those. :)  Within the last week or two, you've started singing more.  You like "Twinkle Twikle" ("Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"), "Dinky" ("Skinamarinky Dinky Do"), and "Happy" ("If You're Happy and You Know It").  It's so sweet to hear you're little voice!

As always, you love your "transportation" toys; however, lately you've moved on from cars to trains.  You're new favorite DVD is "Chuggington," and you've even mastered saying that word!  You would watch the same episodes over and over if we let you!  You also love to play with your little wooden train set from IKEA, and you always come and tell mommy if it's "broken" (i.e. tracks came apart).  You still like to play with your zoo & your cars.  Since it's been hot outside, we've been swimming more.  We got you a plastic pool with a slide for our backyard, and you love to play in the water and send your toy cars down the slide/car ramp.  In May, we enrolled you in your first swimming lessons.  It was the Waterbabies class at the YMCA, and both mommy and daddy got to spend time helping you get used to the water.  You loved it!  You're favorite part was getting to go down the big slide at the end of the class.

You are starting to get picky with your diet, and you're easily distracted at mealtimes.  You don't seem to like cheese as much anymore...or veggies.  You really just like fruit, hot dogs, pizza, and yogurt.  If there's something else you'd rather be doing besides eating, you say, "All done, mama," and set your plate on the table...even if you've only had a few bites.  You will get upset if we make you sit there and eat more, but it's important!  You still love your milk and watered-down juice.  You also get excited if there's cake or ice cream in the area! :)

You're daily routine still involves waking up around 8:30am, nap between 11am and 3pm (sometime), and bedtime around 8:30pm.  Jessica wasn't able to watch you anymore, so now you go to "school" at Discovery Place.  You really seem to like being with the other kids and always have a smile on your face when we pick you up.  Your teacher is good about e-mailing picture collages of the kids and activities, so we really like to see those.

The doctor says you're still tall and thin.  You only lack one set of molars as far as teeth are concerned.  You run around everywhere & have started to attempt little jumps.  You smile a lot, and we all love to see your toothy grin!

One of the most significant things that's happened recently is that you found out you will be a big brother!  Baby #2 is due to arrive on 12/6/12.   When we ask you if you want a boy or a girl, you always say, "boy"; however, if we ask if you want a brother or sister, you say, "sister."  Haha!  I hope you'll be happy with either!  We should find out in 2 weeks.   Mommy and daddy know that you will be a great brother because you are so sweet with other little babies.

Our next big trip will be to Red River in July!  It will be fun to go there for your second year in a row.  We will also be going to the Snodgrass Family Reunion in Dodge City, so daddy and poppa will be able to show off the newest Snodgrass. 

We love you, precious Ian!  We thank God everyday for blessing us with your presence. 

Love,
Mommy and Daddy

New Pool!

Today was the perfect day to try out Ian's new pool!  I thought he would really like the slide, and I was right!  He played in the pool for over an hour!

 

So proud that he did it all by himself!

Taking a snack break

I love that he wants to be like his daddy

Happy Father's Day!!

I am so blessed to have several wonderful father-figures in my life...my dad, stepdad, grandfather, father-in-law, and husband...the father of our son!  Jason took the day off to spend it with Ian and I, so we had a lot of fun family time.  Jason, thank you for being an amazing dad to Ian.  He is so blessed to have you as a father!

Baby #2 Coming!

Ian is going to be a big brother!  Baby #2 is due to arrive in late November!  I am 13 weeks (tomorrow), and finally feeling a little better.  The first trimester has been pretty rough...lots of nausea & sickness.  Thank goodness for Zofran!  This pregnancy is a huge blessing, especially after we dealt with a miscarriage last December.  We continue to pray that things will go well for the remainder of the time & thank God for allowing us to be trusted with another one of His children.  We should find out the gender in early July.  Pretty much everyone has predicted that I'll have another boy...we'll see!!

Zoo Trip

Yesterday, we had a much-needed family day!  We started of with breakfast at the Copper Oven, then headed to the Sedgwick County Zoo.  We hadn't been to the zoo since I was on maternity leave and Ian was about 6 months old.  Now that he's older, he knows a lot of the animals & their sounds, so we figured he'd really enjoy it....we were right!  I didn't get too many pics because we were busy corralling the little guy, but here are a few...

Canadian geese with their babies!  So cute!!

My fav...a peacock!  I was hoping he'd fan out his tail, but no such luck...still beautiful!

Petting the baby goat

He was so cute!  The goat was rubbing up against the fence like a cat!  

We bought a year-long zoo membership, so I'm sure that we'll be back a lot over the next year.  I'll be sure to capture more pics!

Yes, we're still here....

I just realized that it has been a pretty long time since I've posted anything on my blog!  Sorry about that!  We haven't had anything major going on, just been busy with everyday things.  Here are a few recent pics.  Since the weather has been nicer, we have been outside a lot more.  Ian likes to help his daddy with the yard work.  Here is a pic of Ian "mowing" on the deck, with daddy mowing in the background. 

 My mom and stepdad have an old tennis court in their back yard.  The giant concrete slab is good for games...

 ...and wagon rides...

 ...and shooting hoops.

Jason, Ian, and my dad

Easter Weekend 2012

We've really enjoyed Easter Weekend 2012!  Jason's parents came to visit this year, and we've realized that it's kind of become a tradition for us all to get together for Easter!  Jason had to go to work after church on Sunday, so we started the celebration early by having Easter dinner on Saturday night.  Cathy did all of the cooking, and our meal was delicious!  We had honey-glazed ham, roasted regular & sweet potatoes, asparagus, deviled eggs, and hot rolls.  For dessert, I made my mom's banana pudding recipe.  It was all so delicious!!

On Sunday morning, Ian saw that the Easter bunny came to visit.  He received a basket full of Elmo goodies, a boat and plane for the tub (or pool :), bunny ears, and animal cookies!

I decided to get creative, so for breakfast I made mini blueberry muffins, but I tinted them yellow, blue, and pink....kinda festive, I thought. :)

Our little snuggle bunny seemed to like the muffins!  He ate them all!

 

 This year, our church really promoted baptism on Easter Sunday.  There were plans to baptize 13 people...AMEN!!  Two of our close friends, Justan and Shelby Shinkle, both were baptized after heart-felt testimonies.  It was so amazing to see their outward expression of love for Jesus Christ.  What a perfect day to get baptized, too?!

 Here is a quick family pic after church!  This is pretty much the only pic that I snatched of Ian wearing his Easter outfit.  Isn't he a cutie?!

Thanks for a great weekend, Harlan and Cathy!!

Happy 18 Months, Ian!

Dear Ian,

Happy 18 months!  The past year and a half have been amazing for us!  You are doing sooo many new things now, and we are having so much fun watching you & trying to keep up with you!

You have quite the vocabulary now.  The list of words that you can say include: mama, dada, mommy, daddy, nanny, poppy, nana, ga-ma, mimi, night night, bath, bobbies (bubbles), bees (books), lala (Elmo), baba (bottle), wawa (water), ooey (Zoey), Jesca (Jessica), cookie, eat, car, ball, block, vroom, bye bye, hi, uh oh, Heddie, Edie, JayJay, hot, brrrr, choo choo, moo, tractor, roar, dog, doggy, nee (nose), no no, eye, duck, and boat...those are the words I can remember, at least.  You are a little sponge now and can repeat nearly everything we say!  Uh oh...now we have to be careful! :)

You still love cars and everything that's transportation-related.  When we drive home from Jessica's house (your babysitter), you see the train tracks go over the bridge and say, "Choo choo!"  You point at the train with a huge grin on your face.  You like to also play with your Rock-n-Roll Elmo doll, your Fisher Price Little People Zoo with animals, and anything that's not supposed to be a toy (i.e. remote controls, cell phones, hairbrushes, etc).  We recently got a little play gym with a slide down in the basement, and you love to climb up and go down the slide.  You are also great at going up and down the stairs now!  We still have the gates up, just in case you try to get a little too brave. :)

Your favorite foods now are raisins, graham crackers ("cookies"), cereal, turkey hot dogs, cheese, and the fruit pouches that you can squeeze, and peas and carrots (you call them blocks and balls..haha).  You also like to dip your food in sauce.  Sometimes you eat the food, and sometimes you just lick of the sauce...haha!  You've had your first chocolate milk about 3 weeks ago and LOVED it!  We give you a little as a treat every now and then.  Bananas used to be a hit, but you don't seem to care for them as much now.

Your daily routine has changed because now you don't take your morning nap.  You typically take a nap from around noon until 2:30pm or so.  You are a good sleeper, but still have to have your paci.  You roll all over the bed and throw all of your toys and pillows out before you get comfy.  Around 7:45pm, we start our nighttime routine - bath with "bobbies" (bubble bath), baby massage, milk & reading books, then "night night."  You love to pick out your own books now, but will push them away if you don't like the story, or if mommy doesn't read fast enough!

Daddy has been taking a class at WSU on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Shelby and Mary watch you while he's at class.  You love playing with JJ and Sarah.  The other day when we pulled up to Shelby's house, you yelled, "Jay Jay!!"  It was adorable!!  It continues to amaze me how much you grow and learn everyday.

You are tall and thin.  We haven't had your 18 month doctor's appointment yet, but you have been wearing 18 month pants for at least 2 months now.  You have 16 teeth!  The only teeth left are are your last set of molars.  You've had 4 haircuts thus far, and you usually tolerate them well with the assistance of a sucker. :)

For your actual 18-month birthday, we celebrated by going to the Dallas World Aquarium and the Arboretum.  We were on vacation in Dallas, so you got to spend time with with Nanny, Aunt Heddie, Uncle Chuck, and Eden.

We love you, son!!

Love, Mommy and Daddy

Happy St. Patty's Day!!