Birthday weekend

It's official....my little boy is now 2. People are asking more and more now when the second one is coming....ha ha...with my little monster, it won't be for a few more years, I'd like to enjoy more time with him first, it's gone by waaaayy too fast.

For his birthday party, Auntie Kim got him a sprinkler, which he got to use on Thursday night because it was so nice out. Needless to say...he LOVED it. He also got a chance to play in his new pool, after Grammy's kitties at his other one.

For his actual birthday on Friday, we decided to bring him strawberry picking, since he loves fruit so much and we really wanted some strawberries. Unfortunately it was the first day of picking, and the strawberries were still pretty small. He still had a great time and it was a beautiful day.


We then went out to lunch and Jack got to buy a birthday present with some money he got from his party. He decided he wanted a train, and since I didn't want to spend an arm and a leg on Thomas stuff, we got the Fisher Price train set....which he approved of and has played with quite a bit since we got it.

That night we went up to camp to visit with some family and celebrate more of his birthday. He was such a well behaved little man. He got to play with another little boy named Dylan and he got to ride on Noah's John Deere tractor...

After some dinner, cake and singing of songs, Jack wanted to walk around a little bit and then asked to watch tv before bed. So I brought him into Aunt Debbie's camper to see if someone was on so we could cuddle and relax before bed. Well, don't you know it but he walks away and runs right for the camper door to look out at everyone and the door wasn't latched. Needless to say, my kid fell about three feet down, face first onto a wooden deck. Did I ever feel like the worst mom in the world. I was two seconds behind him but obviously not close enough to stop him. This is what he now looks like....
Besides the obvious bumps and bruises on his head and nose, he came out of the fall with no other issues. We are very lucky. We of course called the doctor, motitored him over night (he even got to sleep in our bed, which we never do, because I was so worried about his breathing) but he woke up the next morning as happy as could be. What a trooper.

Being the bad mother I am, the next day I left early to go to Shannon's bridal shower with Erika and then spend the night at Aimee's house for a girls night. A much needed girls night at that. I had an absolutely wonderful time at Aimee's and even got to meet her geese....
And then got to watch Erika chase them off....
ha ha! What a great night, thanks girls!

The next day I was an even worse mother and didn't see my little boy until about 5 at night. Mark and I played softball in the morning and then went to watch Transformers with Keith and Erika. Don't listen to the bad reviews....that was an awesome movie! After the movie we made our way up to Norma and Larry's camp to pick up Jack and to see everyone at camp. Jack was again a wonderful little boy (mainly because he was outside all day) and he even played well with Ryan. Which if you know my child, you know he can be a little rough with other kid, but this time he was awesome. It helps that he and Ryan are only a few months apart and at the same energy level. At one point on the boat, Ryan took Jack to the ground and then hip checked him...so he kinda got a taste of his own medicine. Not that I want my kid to be taken down, but he can be so rough sometimes that it's okay if another child does the same thing back to him....anyway, I digress.

So here are some pictures from a beautiful evening on the boat with Ryan and his family.



All in all it was a very memorable weekend for us. Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

Relay and Birthday party...

As I'm sure most of you knew, the Relay for Life was this past weekend, so needless to say, I am still recovering. Setup this year started on Wednesday, so Grammy and Gramps were at the Fairgrounds from Wednesday night to Saturday morning. They had an even longer weekend than we did. Mark was pretty busy himself, helping each night of the week and dedicating himself all day Friday and until cleanup was done on Saturday. I don't know how any of them do it without sleep. I took two little 'naps' that night because I knew I wouldn't make it to Saturday afternoon to drive Mark and myself home.

It was of course, an awesome night. Hundreds of people showed up and it was probably the most memorable Relay to date in my opinion. The committee did an awesome job showcasing survivors this year and really making the event all about them.

Beginning of the survivor lap with the releasing of the doves....
Oh yeah, and my goofball sister....ha ha!

I am happy to say that Meme Brown was there once again as a three time survivor, and my wonderful friend Aimee's father also came. I'm so glad they were both able to make it.

Meme in the trolly during the Survivor lap:
Mr. Baker and his balloon....he looked so happy =)
It was such a great night, and although I'm exhausted, it was all worth it. To see more beautiful pictures of the Relay, check out Jason and Vanessa's blog at GreerCicarelli. They took some amazingly beautiful pictures....as always.

So after a crazy Friday night and sleepless Saturday, we had Jack's second birthday party on Sunday. I know, it was a crazy idea seeing as it was just after the Relay and it was Father's Day, but Justin was also up for the weekend and he missed Jack's first birthday, so we had to have the party on that day for him. We didn't want anything crazy for his second birthday though, just some close friends and family to help us celebrate. We got just that. Some wonderful people joined us for his party and we couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Jack's birthday cake....made by Mel of course!
Mark being attacked by Kerrigan, Kasey and Jack
Jack and Kasey going after the glove and baseball from James and Avis....
CAKE!!

Of course I have more pictures, but blogger is being a pain in the butt, so check out my facebook account later in the week for the rest of the pictures.

Also a big CONGRATS to Danielle and Ray! Baby Taylor was born on Thursday June 18th around 6pm. It is a beautiful baby boy who they named Lucas (which was one of my name choices so of course I LOVE the name!) He is healthy, as is mom and from what I hear everyone is doing well. Congrats you guys!!

Isn't he adorable?!?!?!

Pictures are up!

I have to make this kinda quick because we are heading out for a birthday party and going to Eat Dessert First at the Hospital but I wanted to let everyone know that Jack's two year pictures are up! Jason and Vanessa did a FABULOUS job! Click on the picture to see them:

Potty, pictures and party

Okay, so the potty thing in the title, is not quite as exciting as you may think it would be, but I still have to share. Mark and I decided to try potty training Jack this summer. We are by no means expecting it to happen because we aren't going to push it until he's fully ready and we don't want to stress ourselves out, but he has been telling us when he poops (sometimes) and notices when he pees (again, just sometimes) so we'll give it a try this summer.

Well, the other day Jack had a horrible diaper rash. I won't go into details but his two year molars are coming in and it's HORRIBLE when he teethes. So I had his diaper off for a while and his potty out. I sat him on the potty and bribed him with candy to go pee in the potty, not on the floor. He stayed on the potty for a while and really wanted the candy...so what does he do...pee! We made a huge deal out of it and gave him the candy. He then proceeded to sit back down and pee again five minutes later. That kid really wanted candy. He pointed to the pee and then asked for candy. Crazy kid. I think once we actually try to potty train it won't be so bad...he may take to it quickly if we bribe him. I figure I'll give it a shot and really focus on it more when I am done work, we'll see how it goes.

As for the pictures, I actually don't have any to post, but we had some family pictures done by Jason and Vanessa, Greer and Cicarelli, and as always they did an amazing job! They got so many shots of Jack and he did so good for them. He for some reason, did not want to stop throwing rocks in the water though, so we got more than a few pictures of him throwing rocks. There was also an incident with Jack throwing a rock at the water and it accidentally hit Jason while he was trying to get a picture of him. I just hope they still want to take his pictures of him after that! Take a look at their blog to see just some of the pictures they took. If anyone is looking for a photographer, I HIGHLY recommend them...they are wonderful to work with and take amazing pictures!

Now on to the party....as most of you know, Jack turns the big TWO at the end of the month. We have already been experiencing first hand what the "two" stage is all about, but we'd like all of you to join us for a birthday party to celebrate this wonderful year. His party will be on June 20th at noon. We'll be having hamburgers and hot dogs, volleyball, and of course cake! Uncle Justin will actually be joining us this year, which is the main reason we are having it on Father's Day, so he can be with us. I made the invites myself on photoshop, which I'm pretty proud of:

Hopefully you can make it! Enjoy your week everyone and enjoy the beautiful weather!