Josh's 5th Birthday!

For Josh's 5th Birthday, we decided to have it out of the house since he wanted all his classmates to come. With a 3 month old I wasn't ready to entertain, so I jumped at the chance.

We decided to have it at Monkey Bizness. It is one of those places where they have a huge room with 4 big bouncy moonwalk things and you slide, jump, and climb until you pass out. It was tons of fun and no clean up!


Jake climbs the rock wall. He didn't make it all the way up, but he was proud to announce he went farther than he ever has before!



Josh's classmate Holly climbs to the top of the bouncy rock wall.




Kiki and Owen come down the slide in the bounce house.





Josh and classmate Luke take a pic in front of one of the bounce houses.

Josh comes down the super huge slide.

Justin, Jake and Jake's friend Colter have a spirited boxing match with oversized gloves.

Auntie Kiki, Mommy, Jill, and Auntie Courtney take a break from the fun.

Josh's birthday cakes. We had to find someone to make them as they were a very special request. If you want her name, call. They were yummy!

The fam gets a pic with the cake.

Josh shows off his new Indiana Jones LEGO set from Aunt Judy. Won't daddy have a fun weekend putting that together!

Random Cuteness

Josh receiving a Happy Birthday call from Auntie Michelle in Switzerland. Yes, he is sitting in the middle of the street. He was laying down for a while, too.



Auntie Courtney poses with all her nieces and nephews. She likes visiting and then getting to go home in peace.



Auntie Kiki plays street hockey with Owen in PJs, Josh as Buzz Lightyear and Jake as normal.




Josh and Jill watch TV.

Monster Jam!

Justin took the boys to Monster Jam (twice) this year. Yay for fun dad stuff! Here are some pics he snapped of the boys enjoying their outing.



Josh waves his checkered flag and cheers for Maximum Destruction!



Jake waits for his favorite truck, Grave Digger, to compete.



Max D

Another family favorite, El Toro Loco. He usually ends up broken and missing his horns at the end of the night. Now you know why he is a family favorite!

More Basketball

Basketball Update

Jake's team had their 4th game this weekend. Unfortunately, they did not win, again, so they are winless on the year, but they have improved immeasurably since the season started.

Jake made his 1st point of the year this weekend. He was very proud and excited and was even given a special recognition by his coach. Though, in my opinion he is unsurpassed at defense. His player never touches the ball. The 2 pics below will demonstrate how he "blankets" his man on defense. The poor kid can hardly move.

Jake hoping to catch a pass from a teammate.

More Jill Smiles and a frown

Here are some super sweet pics of Jill including a great smile Grandeb got the other night!


Jill doing her best Jake pouty lip!





Jill moments earlier giving her biggest smile yet to Courtney and Anthony.




Jill visits with Sunny.

Jill just being sweet while at Grandeb's during mom's sewing class.

Pinewood Derby Day

Today was the big Pack 525 Pinewood Derby day!

Jake and Josh are excited to see the races.

Jake and his friends relax waiting for the next race.

Jake and his buds get ready to watch the races.



The cars are lined up to go. Guess which one is Jake's! (Hint - he loves LEGOs and refuses to build a 'race car' like everyone else because it is too plain!)




And after mom had just hoped to not finish last (isn't that what all moms hope for?), Jake came away with 4th place! He won several races and had an excellent showing. Yes, mom and dad are trying to figure out what made that darn clunky thing so darn fast so we can replicate it for next year!

Jill on the boppy for Tummy Time

Jill and Mom

Okay, so there aren't hardly any pics of me on the blog (for good reason) so I decided to put this one up of me and Jill getting ready for her bath. She loves being in the big tub and floating so I get in with her almost every night. It is fun for both of us.

Jake entertaining Jill

Jake took some time out of his busy LEGO building schedule to entertain Jill. I don't know, does she look interested or scared?

Jill Smiles - Good ones!

Here are some smiles I got the other day! Finally. I like the first one because it is so funny looking. The second is just sweet.

Adorable Jilly-bean!

I know it is my kid so I am not impartial, but I just think she is the cutest. Here she is all dressed up for church in a dress lent to us by our friend from church, Becky.

Oh, and Jake has decided we will call her Jilly Bean, hence the title of the post.

Basketball!

Jake had his 3rd ever Basketball game this morning. His team almost won.

Jake is really starting to get the hang of the game and seems to be enjoying his time on the court.

Cub Scout Jake

I wanted to post this picture of Jake the Wolf Cub because I think it is so darn cute!

Justin took the boys to the Houston Aeros hockey game tonight for Cub Scout night and Jake got all dressed up. A fun time was had by all!

Jill Smiles

I won't pretend I caught her first smile on camera, but here is a smile. She is doing bigger and happier ones these days, but it is darn hard to get, so here is a little one from her.

Day Off

Since the boys had Milk Day (Jake's reading of MLK) off from school, we decided to spend the morning at Bendwood Park on the nice new playground equipment. Here Jake rides Owen's scooter.





Josh and Owen stroll around the park with Kiki on the scooter. Not pictured are GrandDeb and Courtney and Jill. Sorry, don't know why I didn't snap a pic of them.

New Addition

After taking Jake out to the bus and getting the newspaper this morning and finding yet another 2 (!) new piles of dog poop in my yard, I decided I was done sitting by and hoping for results. I pulled out the old 1-800-Got-Junk sign (I knew it would be useful for something!) and made a sign of my own.

It says, Please do not let your dog poop in my yard again. I have young children who play here. (and are tired of stepping in it)

We'll see if I get results. Most likely that result will be 6 to 10 piles of dog poop in my yard tomorrow, but here's to hoping for the best!

Josh's Class Takes a Field Trip

Josh's Pre-K class had a field trip to Xploration Station, an extension of the Houston Museum of Natural Science at the Woodlands Mall. It was pretty cool. Definitely worth a trip out if are looking to do something fun.

A dad of a classmate, who is a professional photographer, came along and snapped some pics.





Josh and his pals listening intently and awaiting their chance to pet an insect. They "petted" hissing cockroaches, frogs, toads and snakes.




Josh playing the role of archaeologist in the Xploration Excavation area.

All dressed up

This adorable outfit was lent to us by our friend Becky. To be honest I wasn't so hot on the bonnet until I put it on her and man is it cute!






Jake never wants to be too far away from Jill. He insisted on taking a picture with her this morning.

2 Months Old!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I updated the blog. Now that the older 2 have gone back to school I finally have some free time. It also helps that Jill is sleeping 7 to 8 hours at night so Mommy isn't so pooped all the time anymore. I heart sleep!


Jill had her 2 month checkup today. She is doing great and growing like crazy. She is 24 1/2 inches long (off the charts) and 12 lbs even (80th percentile).

Now, to compare, at the same age, Jake was 26 inches and 14 lbs 14 oz, and Josh was 24 1/2 inches and 14 lbs 4 oz. Very interesting!

Here the boys spend some time with Jill just hanging out. Now that she is 2 months old she is actually staying awake (for a little bit anyway) and even smiling.





And no photo session is complete without goofy pics! Jill looks like she is just putting up with it all. And she does. But she loves her big brothers.