random events

My dear friend Laura from college is going to have a baby! It was so fun at her shower to get together with the girls. It had been a long time since I had seen them all. Laura is due mid November and we are so excited for her little bambino to get here! She is the sweetest person and will make a fantastic mommy.

This little baby has a new hobby...and thankfully it doesn't involve her thumb!

The Wednesday night program started up again at church. AJ and I work with middle and high schoolers. Here AJ is having them play a game with marshmallows. (Sorry Gretchen!)

Here is my little cowboy. He is still talking about his upcoming birthday. I can't believe my baby will be 3 in a month.

I love this picture of my honey. This just sums him up. It doesn't matter what time of day it is, he is always like this.

The race AJ and Rob were training for went well. I know I said it before but they are so fast.

Carly took some great pictures of the kids while we were there. Looks like we will have the winter hats out for good now. Goodbye summer, hello fall.

a day with Aunt Erin

Aunt Erin came to town and we celebrated Pat's birthday. For some reason I don't have a picture of Pat in all her birthday glory! But I do have pictures of a little boy who was spoiled by his aunt. Here he is licking his first icing batter for the cake.

And here is his first apple cider slushy. Yum!

He also relaxed in a hammock while being fanned and eating grapes. Ok so there was no fan or grapes. But he was enjoying himself. Evangeline on the other hand was not. She wasn't so sure about the hammock...

or the fort...

or the fake apple tree.

But she was happy in mommy and daddy's arms.

Ari thinks his daddy is a playground...without a slide.

So sometimes we have to resort to this. And AJ gets a little break on the sidelines.

Visiting the orchard was a lot of fun. But it doesn't beat spending time with Aunt Erin. Thanks for all the fun memories!

fun-filled weekend

For several weeks now Ari has been talking about his upcoming birthday. To say he is excited would be an understatement. Even though he has several weeks until his celebration, he was able to celebrate his friends birthday this past weekend. Since the party, he has requested goody bags for his birthday. You can see how excited he was to receive this at Miss M's party.

Here is AJ and Connie with the girls. It will be fun when they are old enough to run around and play. (They are already growing up too quickly so I don't wish that to come any sooner!)

Here's the birthday girl in all her glory. Ari was right by her side through it all. No really, he was practically sitting on her lap when she was opening presents. Like I said...he's really excited about his birthday. Gretchen and I get a good laugh at their relationship. She is a little bossy and Ari goes with the flow. Earlier in the summer she was over swimming (they were both in the pool freezing) so Ari decided to get out and play in the sprinkler. She told him no he didn't want to do that, he wanted to keep swimming and he stopped right in his tracks said "ok!" and came back to freeze some more in the pool. It was cute. So before we went to her party AJ was asking Ari if he liked to be bossed by Miss M and his response was this "Yes! But not by mommy." I guess it always sounds better when coming from someone other than a parent.

Saturday night was also fun because we got to spend it with Rob and Carly. I think this might be our first group shot. AJ and Rob have been training for an upcoming athletic event for the bank they work at. And let me tell you...they are stinkin' fast. They each can run 200 meters in less than 30 seconds. Yes, I am proud of him as you can see, but I am even more in awe. My body doesn't even recognize what a "sprint" is. It only goes one speed. It's called slow.

I will leave you with some random sayings from Ari.

"Don't take monies out my pocket"- sitting at the dinner table, not even talking about money

"I'm not Ari, I'm Jacob"- in response to me asking him to do something

"I'm a good boy like John the Baptist"

He also likes to pretend he is David with a slingshot and goes around slaying the giant.

hot to cold

We've been to the zoo so many times this year I have lost track. But no matter how often we go it is still just as amusing as it was the first time.

The only difference now is that Ari can tell us what exhibit is coming up next. And sometimes that comes with an impersonation (see photo above).

My dad came along this time and Ari filled him in on everything there was to see.

It was already getting extremely hot so we cut some of the animals out in order to spend some extra time at the splash park.

Ari was so timid to get in he just watched all the other kids play for a good 15 minute before he decided he was ready.

Within 24 hours the weather decided to take a turn for the cold. So we had a few guys over from the youth group and started up the campfire.

I have never been a fan of s'mores...that is until now. These s'mores were so much better because they were made with reese's cups instead of a chocolate bar. Talk about melt-in-your-mouth goodness.

But don't take my word for it.

This little man gave it two thumbs up!

4 months

Went to see the doc the other day. He says I'm a good eater. At 15 1/2 lbs I am in the 95 percentile. If anything comes near my mouth, I am eager to get a little taste.

These hips don't lie. My big brother can get in and out of this Bumbo easier than I can!

He also likes to play with this new toy with me. Mommy already had to adjust the height setting because I am in the 95 percentile for length as well.

She loves putting me in dresses, but sometimes it gets a little out of hand.

As if this outfit wasn't ridiculous enough...mommy had to put the hat on.

Daddy thinks this picture looks like my Aunt Erin's "goober" pictures when she was a babe. Oh hi Aunt Erin! Can't wait to see you soon!

cousin cookout

A few weekends ago we got together with all my cousins on my mom's side. They are so much fun and half of us have toddlers so it is fun to see all of our kids get together and play.

My brother really takes his play time seriously. Can you see him with his daughter?

Here's a closer look.

It's a new game called human croquet. He cracks me up.

I will cherish these special moments all my life.

Apparently she has the most comfortable seat in the house.

All the kiddos together took a surprisingly good picture. It only took about eight attempts.