Some things never change!

I pulled the camera out yesterday and John Paul was reaching for me as I was taking his picture. The pictures reminded me of some when he was about 7 months old. Look how similar the pose is!

He is changing so much especially in his vocabulary. He has put a few words together like "Daddy's hat" and "apple juice." He is also amazing me by the fact that he is recognizing letters. And the ones he gets confused you can kind of see the resemblance (A and upside-down V; E and F). His favorite one to say is "L". Pretty cute!


Look how chunky round he was!!! I don't think those are bulging biceps anyway.

He was a very excitable baby, for sure!!

Ethan vs. the Water glass

I wish I could have taken the video from a different angle, but I think you will get the gist of how excited he was!

More pictures!

I wanted to get pictures for John Paul's 2nd birthday and for Ethan's 6 months, and everyone cooperated that I even got pictures of them together! Woohoo!!
Isn't his outfit cute! Thanks Grandma!!
And those precious eyes.....just sparkling!

I wanted to get a cute picture of Ethan and his stuffed puppy, but all he did was flop the dog around! He looks pretty excited though!

Just Because...

...Matt and Andi volunteered to watch Ethan and John Paul so Matt and I decided to have a date night. And if you are going to have a date night and you don't get date nights, but every few YEARS, why not make it a memorable date night, right?

There is our justification for eating at the Melting Pot in Seattle. It was great! We experienced fondue for the first time on our honeymoon in Myrtle Beach, SC. And ever since then, we have always wanted to go back and just never took the time (nor justified the cash!) to do so. And finally the chance came...

Here is the wonderful finale of Marshmallow Creme, Chocolate Dream dessert fondue and all of the wonderful goodies to dip into it.

I was trying to find a picture from the restaurant when we were in South Carolina, but I guess that will have to be posted later, when I find it!

Da Boys

The first video is of Ethan, who just can't decide to laugh or to cry! The second is JP trying to say his ABCs.

Choose Life!

Playtime!

The boys both like playing with this bucket of Mega Blocks that someone gave us. Or at least, playing consists of John Paul dumping them near Ethan and Ethan chewing on them!
The bucket on the head is a favorite too. Although a particularly cute, almost two-year-old landed himself in time out for continually putting the bucket on his brother's head. Once is cute, twice is annoying, and three times is time out!!

My snotty-nosed, EE! Another cold is upon us!

Such a Good Big Brother!

We caught John Paul reading a book to Ethan, and if you wait until the end of the video, we caught Matt making some comment when he didn't know that the camera was rolling. Way to go. Way to go.

Family Pictures

On Christmas day, we were able to snap a picture of the WHOLE family (Even Grandma, who just turned 93!) Again, it was wonderful to be together!

And, as tradition, we had to have a funny picture as well!

Fun with Aunts and Uncles!

We were home to celebrate Elaine's 22nd birthday. Great party, Laindro! And we are going back in February to celebrate Elaine and Brian's wedding.
John Paul pours out his heart to Aunt Anne.

Aunt Colleen loved all of the quality time with the babies!
I guess Uncle Chris is into giving shoulder rubs. Jacob looks a little tense.
More fun times!!

Fun with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandpa made ice cream for New Year's. John Paul gave his approval!

Great-grandma also had a lot of fun with the boys.

First Bites

First Christmas

Since this was Ethan and cousin Jacob's first Christmas we got a few photos by the tree after Christmas Eve Mass. Jake is about 5 weeks younger than Ethan and about the same size!

All was going well...
Then Jake decided the party is over!!

North Dakota Cold

I have a lot of pictures to catch everyone up on! Finally, we are all over the illnesses and I can get back to the business of blogging! Keep checking back!

John Paul and his cousin, Stephen, enjoyed some sledding.

Had to stop and pick up the kitten along the way.
Taking deep breaths of this farm fresh air. Or maybe he is wondering what that tingling feeling is inside his nose. Oh wait, that would be the feeling of your nose hairs freezing. That's what happens when it is -10 degrees outside.


And check out JP's rosy cheeks after a fun time outside!

John Paul and the kitten

Opening gifts

John Paul loved all of his gifts and insisted on playing with each one before opening another.

Ethan had a little different concept of opening his Christmas presents!

Family pictures

We had a family picture taken before Christmas and, boy, was it an ordeal! They turned out considering John Paul wasn't really cooperative and Ethan was unpredictable. We tried to get one of just the boys but that didn't work at all. We'll just wait until Ethan can sit on his own.

the longest day EVER!!!

Let me start first by saying we had a wonderful time with our family in North Dakota. I have many great pictures to post soon. And it is good to be home but let me tell you of our adventures.

First, we were stricken with illness while we were gone. On the day after Christmas, Matt went to the doctor because of a terrible cough and found out he had pneumonia. Then on New Years Eve, we went back because his cough had not improved and JP was miserable. Matt was put on two more antibiotics and John Paul had a double ear infection.

Ethan was VERY congested on New Years Day so I took him to the Urgent Care the next day to have him checked out. Well, he tested positive for RSV. So now, Matt and John Paul are just finishing their antibiotics and Ethan just started one in addition to nebulizer treatments every 4 hours.

So we were supposed to fly home on January 3. Because of mechanical issues, it was delayed out of Grand Fords, ND until the morning of January 4 at 9:30 am. We get there in plenty of time only to have it delayed again until 12:15 pm. We make it to Minneapolis to catch our connection with about an hour to spare. Ok, get the kids diapered; eat some lunch; nebulize Ethan; let John Paul run around a little.

Well, maybe he ran around a little too much because as they were calling for the pre-boards on our flight, JP threw up all over me--we are talking two major heaves of Chocolate milk and stuff! There are a ton of people waiting to board this completely full plane and he just spewed. So quickly change JP's clothes, and fortunately I brought an extra t-shirt (more out of anticipation of Ethan loosing it as he had many times since being sick.) So I ducked down behind an open counter and emerge with a clean bright orange shirt on. We get in line, board, and sit about 2 rows from the back for the 3.5 hour, full flight which meant we had to hold Ethan and JP the whole time. And no, John Paul did not fall asleep that trip.

We make it back to Seattle where it is snowing like crazy!! We decided to take the ferry back to cut down on the interstate driving. Fortunately the ferry was about 10 minutes late because we were 5 minutes late getting there. Then after we made it to Belfair, stopped at Safeway and picked up some milk and bread, and started up the hill to our house. Matt decides that we have to put the snow chains on to make it up the hill. Back to Safeway to put on the chains.

Finally we make it home at 10:30 last night! It is good to be home!