pics of joe and sam

here's joey and baby sam at their first meeting!...also had a visit at jessica's house ....babies babies everywhere!

Congrats to Joey and Anne!!!

Well, back from an awesome celebration with Joey and Anne!..Married last weekend in Colorado!...We had a great time and Anna was the most perfect flower girl you could imagine with all of her cousins. A great vacation too...we went early and stayed a few days with Aunt Benni...

Also had a chance to meet up with Erin and meet baby sam!!.., as well as a visit with Jenny in Omaha...great to see the kids growing up!...They are gettin big so fast!

Happy little guy!

anna dancing the day away!

we're kind of stage parents...

cam and his caterpillar

camden found this guy at the winery..

more pics!

a few more...

More fun at the Lake!

pictures from our trip to the lake...

Forth of July at the Lake

This year at Lake Ida was bittersweet...we returned to say goodbye to Grandpa as he passed away last Wednesday. It seems fitting that his funeral would bring us all together agian for a weekdend at the lake for the Forth of July, a tradition that has filled us all with so many great memories throughout the years. "Bumpie" was a great man and will be dearly missed but he has left us all with many stories and wonderful memories and his legacy will no doubt live on with many more summers at Lake Ida... a few photos of him with Anna when we visited 2 yrs ago... they both made each other smile that year ;)

Our little butterfly

Went to MaryLou's work party this last week and Anna got her face painted...she had it done once before and I was thinking "yeah right, she will never sit still for this, but she sat there like a champ...she gets so serious, it is hysterical to watch her...concentrating so hard to sit still with her eyes closed...and then they show her her face in the mirror and she doesn't quite react right away, just really investigates and studies it and then gets a big smile and jumps off the seat to show everyone...priceless...she is constantly cracking me up!!!..Oh and you may notice a little scratch on her nose...don't call cps... I swear, the other night we were sitting up and out of nowhere we hear a loud band and she starts screaming...poor little thing fell out of bed!...she's been in there since Jan. but this is the first time she's had any problems..well all of her stuffed animals take up most of the bed so that could be part of the problem!..

Love that pic of Anna and little Yogi... they both have such funny expressions on!... it's rare that anna will ever look and smile at the camera!

Joey rolled over for the first time yesterday!..Front to back and it was kind of like he fell over, but he did it 3 or 4 times, so we can count it!...He's still super sweet and loves to be held...Grandma Marylou baby sat last friday and she had him giving up big "belly laughs" for the first time!

Summer's here!

Okay.. so it looks like we can officially call it... winter is dead and we are heading into the summer... although it looks like we are skipping spring again this year, 60 degrees and rainy yesterday and 90's all weekend!... Although this is what I was looking for!..These are the days that I appreciate being at home w/ the kids...we got Anna a water table for the backyard and put the pool up as well!...Here's Joey Mesmerized by his new mobile above his bed...

it buys me a few moments to get things done!...

Wish us all luck this weekend!... Jake is off for a much needed vacation with the guys!.. He's going fishing in MO. for the weekend with some buddies, hopefully he'll come back Sunday with a string of fresh catches for us and maybe a bit of a tan ;)

Updating!!!

Okay... been awhile since I updated!...

So little Joey is trucking along nicely!... He continues to grow and is changing everyday...much more interactive and is starting to giggle which is fun. He was baptised last week and everything went well... i would post a photo but in my rush getting ready I neglected to charge the battery in my camera!...Ugh, there goes my mother of the year award!...We had a fun celebration afterwards...and I did manage to get a good pic of him "talking" with Grandma!

We all took a trip to Bethies house in Souixfalls last weekend... It was funny because when we were packing the only thing anna wanted to take was her balloons!...It was quite entertaining to watch her try to catch the helium ones in her suitcase

Anna and I have been going to a local gymnastics place on fridays for open gym time...she has a blast and gets to jump on trampolines and release some energy! We also went to see Anna's two favorite cartoons Shaggy and Scooby, she was so excited and sang them the entire theme song, I think they were impressed...she did it all for a scooby snack!

We had a big event with Anna as well!.. Yesterday she traded in 3 binkies at the store for a new and improved Andyboy!!! We've named him "buddyboy".. Can you believe the deal!!.. she really did it, never thought I would see the day. We brought in the binkies to the store and she handed them right over without a fight. We had a small setback at night when Anna decided she didn't want buddyboy anymore she wanted her binkie back but Jake calmed her down and she slept peacefully through the night!

I started working again at Firethorn Friday nights...good way for me to get out of the house for some adult time 1 day a week and I think it's good for Jake to have a little hands on time with the baby!

We're off to DesMoines this weekend for Memorial day.. should be fun as Joey and Annie will be in town... we plan on breaking in that new deck of theirs with a summer bbq!

Another Big Baby!

So back to the doctor today for Little Joe's 8 week checkup... he weighed in at 13 lbs 11 oz!!!... I was shocked ... 95% for weight and 75% for height... even bigger than anna was...but I guess that will happen when you don't skip any meals through the night ;)

Here's a pic of anna in a new hat that Jenni and Dan got for her...Jake is so proud! (She made us put that band aid on her face!)... and "the boys" hanging out... Jake was reading to him from the latest Cabellas magazine... getting ready to put the house up on the market again...fingers crossed but we should be up and running by Saturday!

Should we call Art Bell??

A sign appeared to me in the tator tots at lunch today... after all the deliberating over Joeys name... I think I have a received a message that I made the correct decision.. .How funny is this!!!... I got these tator tots shaped in letters hoping for an addition to annas limited food vocabulary(she is a very picky eater!!)... so I randomly poured them on the tray... dished them out and ate...(only me, she rejected them)... as I was cleaning up I noticed what was left...clear as day... so the J is upside down..but these are the four that are left!!...It's no Mother Mary in a pancake but i'm calling Art...

little puppy...

just a cute pic I thought i would share...Joey is getting so big!!!

First smile!

So I think we can officially mark down Joeys first smile!... Joey, Anna and I went to grandma Muffins house this last week and we were able to get a few smiles out of him...very exciting to see him start to interact and become more alert... he's growing so fast and at his last dr. appt. weighed in at 9 lbs!!! The doc. was impressed with his growth saying they typically like to see babies gain 9 oz. from birth weight..the typical over acheiver, he gained 2 lbs!

We had fun in Desmoines seeing the completed renovations at grandma and grandpas and got to introduce "Baby Joey" to Grandma boots, Joey "the original" and aunt Laurie and aunt Jackie who repeatedly referred to him as being perfect....Anna also found a new best friend and someone who could keep up with her wild play in aunt Jackie!

Also adding a picture of Anna and Avery dressed up as the sweetest little ballerinas... they always seem to end up dressed like this when they come over to play!... a little girls outfit is not complete without a tutu! I think they're in love!

chubby baby!!!!

Just looking through some videos and found some fun ones to post... First is Anna in the bath at Amys house...took this when I went up to Colorado Springs for a few weeks when she was on bed rest.. I think Anna is around 5 months, can you believe those thighs!!!!... I couldn't believe it when I saw them...I don't remember her being so chubby!...I guess when it happens so gradually you dont notice, but she's slimmed down since so it's okay to laugh about it now!... and a little video of Niah... Anna seems to be going through a dramatic stage at the moment b/c she is obsessed with watching videos of her and Niah and is constantly telling us "I'm not Anna, I'm Niah!"... she then refers to various stuffed animals as rowie and cooper!

Benni came to Lincoln last Friday to meet Joey and see the girls...although she made an admission that she is secretly partial to the little boys... in fact we had to check her bags on her way out to make sure she wasn't harboring one little boy Buss...We had a pizza party and some wine of course and Benni impressed us all with her photography skills... I think we need to commission her to come back this summer to take portraits of the children!...it was fun, my only complaint is we only had a few hours...next time!

getting settled...

Home for over a week now and things are starting to settle down... Grandma left yesterday...her help was key and we will miss her!!!...Anna is showing a little more interest in her new baby brother...even holding him for our "photo shoot"... this only took 3 suckers!!... So far little Joe is the perfect baby...although I hear the problems usually develop around week 3 so we'll keep our fingers crossed!

We're Home!!!

We're all home and getting used to life as a family of four!...Well I guess we are getting quite a bit of help from Grandma Muffin who has come to stay for awhile... thank goodness for Grandmas!... We're not sure what we would do without her...she even got Anna all dressed up for our arrival (jewelry compliments of Aunt Abby).. Baby Joey is doing great and is now weighing in at 6 lbs 10 ozs.... his doctor was very impressed with his 4 oz gain in just 2 days... he's taking after his big sis!