It's Party Time

Two weekends ago we were in Chicago for a wedding. Our roommate from college, Jenn got hitched on my Birthday. Way to go Jenn. She met Pat a few years ago and we've gotten to meet him at a couple of OSU football tailgates. It was a great wedding and they did so many nice things to celebrate my bithday. I got my very own cake and a birthday present. Super cool of them to share their special day. And Tom and I got to spend the entire time catching up with out friend Steve and his girlfriend Debbie. We hadn't seen Steve since we saw him in San Fransisco in 2006! That was when he moved out there. So it was great to get to sit together and get caught up. And this marked the first time Tommy stayed overnight not with a family member. He woks Chastity up once which is once more than normal so I feel a little bad for her luck but I had a lot of fun so I won't feel that bad. _ Last weekend we had the volleyball crowd over for some start of summer fun. We grilled out and had the ard games going. And we set up a volleyball net for those really hard core players. The party was extra special because Julie was home for a bit from St. Jude so she got to see everybody and relax for an evening. _ This weekend was totally action packed. On Friday we went to the Cherry Festival with Amanda, Trent, & Amy and the twins. We got there a little early and Tommy enjoyed a turn in the petting zoo. Pretty sure his favorite thing was actually their water dishes but whatever. When we went in I was holding his hand and the cup of feed we got. I was doing OK too until he got scared and wanted to be picked up. Then the killer goat smelled the fear and came in to finish us off. He really wanted that feed so he climbed right on up my front side and was reaching for the cup that I now had fully extended up high. But he has also learned the trait of persistence, because no matter what I tried to do to get him off of me he wasn't budging without that grain. So I had to either give up the food or drop my son. I gave up the food. It was the most fun watching the people and especially the women who kept screaming when the animals went after the grain.

_

Too Scared to Walk Around

Love Gentle Pointy Horns Must Be Interesting...Tommy & the Goat Are Listening

This Water Is AWESOME

Brayden & Ashlyn

Tommy, Brayden, & Ashlyn Chilling

Fireworks

Yesterday we had a cookout at Trent and Amy's and John. Lindsey, & Mark came over too. After eating, the girls took the kids to the park while the guys did some landscaping. We had a great time on the swings and on the slide.

Frontways, Backways, It Don't Matter Wheeeeeeee! Ashlyn, Brayden, & Tommy

I Can Drive

Aarrr...Where is Me Buried Treasure

_

Mother's Day 2009 - Scene 3

We saw bison, elk, wolves, foxes, squirrels, eagles, bears, cougars, and more. Plus they have a petting farm where we fed sheep and goats. And just like the nightmares from my childhood, there was a little girl at the chicken coop screaming her head off because one of the chickens attacked her. They are scary little buggars.

Family Portrait

More Petting Zoo Please

Got To Carry Him Away From the Goats

Climbed Up On the Bench Himself

Bison From this Vantage Point

Mother's Day 2009 - Scene 2

Tommy just has to have a blanky now. It all started when he moved up a room in daycare and all the other kids must have been into it. I got this whole series of him lugging it all over.

Mother's Day 2009 - Scene 1

For Mother's Day we got to go to brunch and then to the park. The first present though was very early when T3 slept all the way to 9:00am! Unprecedented. This running around all day long thing must be working good at tiring him out. You won't hear me argue. But then I got my wrapped up present...a bouquet of flowers and a huge serving platter that Tom and Tommy made a pottery store. It has Tommy's handprints in the middle of it. Perfect.

Everybody Helping Me Open the Presents

We had planned to go to Granite City for brunch and their website siad they opened at 10am. So we rolled in about 10:04 and the line was outside the door and down the sidewalk halfway. I was pretty disappointed but I am not going to wait for brunch anywhere for that long. So we got back on the road and racked our brains for a backup. I had heard an advertisement on the radio for a champagne brunch at a hotel but I couldn't remember where the hotel was. Then we drove by it. We went in walked right up to the host and we got seated without any wait. They had a full breakfast spread, lunch spread, prime rib, and dessert table. Worked out great. And they were doing a raffle drawing each hour. Just so happens when Tom was up paying he got his raffle slip in the box just in time, so it was on top, and they pulled it out. We won a free night stay. They have an indoor pool, so we'll just save it for a crappy weather day this summer and then just head there to hang out at the inside pool. Things always manage to work themselves out.

Dessert is the Best Part

Nice 'Stache

Then we headed out to Wildlife Prairie Park and we couldn't have asked for a better day. It was sunny but not too hot and the park was full but not overcrowded. We walked around for a few hours and checked out all of the animals. The next couple of entries show our adventure.

Checking out the Bison

I LOVE Eagles

Hangin' at the Beach with Daddy

Tommy was sick for 3 days so I had to stay home with him because Tom had a big project going on at work. So in order to try and catch up a little bit, Tom took Tommy to the volleyball courts so I could go in to work for a little bit. Tommy sat and watched while Daddy played a whole game like such a good little guy. There were these two pictures from the morning...I couldn't decide which was cuter.

So sorry

We've been running around like crazy for 6 months now and I haven't posted a single thing. After all the gentle reminders, not-so-gentle reminders, and outright demands of get some pictures of your kid posted, I've finally sat down and sifted through 6 months of photos. The next few entries are by month and I've tried to highlight a little bit of what was going on for us each month.

_

So my sincerest apologies for falling behind and I hope you all enjoy catching up on our lives.

Easter Stop #2 - 2009

Even though it was the middle of tax season, we were able to stop for a night to see Grammy & Grampa L. Right away we had to head down and see Grampa's tractor in his new barn. I think it is still a little too big to operate. Then we went for a walk around the lake...dogs in the lake, people not. They love it so darn much. Back up at the house, we played with Gramma with her toys she got out. And managed to get in some piano banging too. We headed home after that but stopped to see G Gramma L before-hand. She had chocolates and Tommy got to pick some out...he went right for the peanut butter eggs.

Grampa's Tractor

T3 is Checking Out That Ginormous Barn

Playing School House with Grammy

Future Mozart

Playing My "Drum" for G Gramma

Easter Stop 1 - 2009

We headed back to Ohio for the Easter Holiday. On Easter Eve, we did the first basket. Tommy got into the Easter egg "hunting" thing after he figured out there was food in them. The "hunting" was pretty difficult since they were laid out at the edge of the room in a nice, easy to see circle. We put out some carrots on Easter Eve for the Easter Bunny too and he ate them all up. Then in the morning the Easter bunny brought another basket via Gramma S. The Easter bunny is super nice. For lunch we headed over to G Gramma S to see the rest of the fam. And the Easter Bunny had gone and left another Easter basket with more snacks and stuff.

Easter Eggs #1

How Do You Get These Things Open???

Tommy, Clayton, & Jimmy with G Gramma's Baskets The Whole Clan

Tommy's Easter Outfit

April 2009

Aside from Easter, which I will get to next, Easter brought about two very important things. First Tommy finally ate and enjoyed some shellfish. Whew! We've tried shrimp quite a few times and the crab with moderate success, but I was starting to think this boy did not inherit Tom's or my ability to put away pound after pound of that sweet stuff. So finally we got him downing it like there was no tomorrow at a friend's crawfish boil. He ate it as fast as Tom or I could get the darn things peeled. Probably around 30 of them. And they were Cajun style and he didn't bat an eye at that either. So look out Kobayashi!

Lookin' Cuter Than Those Crawfish Hillbilly Golf Anyone?

I Ate a LOT of Crawfish

The second big thing to happen was we got the main part of Tommy's playset up. I figured we'd get him a swing, a slide, and a sandbox kind of deal...but neither of us quite knows how to buy small. So we ended up with quite the fortress in the back yard. A baby swing, a regular swing, a hammock swing, a trapeze, a rock wall, monkey bars, slide, sand box, and fort. And the best part is we thought we could put it together ourselves. The pros do it in four hours says the salesman. But the boy loves to swing and is really getting into the slide too. He even started climbing up the ladder by himself although I am not quite ready for him to do that.

Swinging ROCKS!

March 2009

March brought the thoughts of spring and the Home Show. We went this year without a project really in mind. But fortunately something always comes to me and we will probably be breaking ground on a new patio shortly. The funnest part of the show was the big play area that was set up off to the side. He didn't spend a lot of time at it since he decided to be shy right then, but Tom showed him how to put the blocks on top of each other. Next year he'll be throwing them in the aisles and running over everyone else's piles. I'll take shy for now.

Blocks at the Home Show

We had another Crabfest. I've lost track at this point but I think it is number 6. I won this one full out by a 1/2 pound. The crabs were "full size" so the boys ran out of excuses. Afterwards a little cleanup and book reading was in order. He can recognize the duck every time in this book.

Bathtub Readin'

Tommy got his second haircut. Apparently a little more traumatic than the first one but once he had his cookie everything got all better. Thank goodness they stock cookies. It was getting to that "business in the front, party in the back" point so its a good thing we got it chopped.

Haircut Drama

And of course with March comes springtime fun. Tommy absolutely loves trampolining. He stands at the back door and points to get let out to the yard. And then he stands beside the trampoline until somebody lifts him up. Dunkin and Gracie have certainly taught him persistence. Which brings us to the point that Gracie has been waiting for a younger sibling forever. And finally she gets one that can wing the ball for her. Granted it might not be in the direction she wanted or the direction he intended, but Tommy loves to throw the ball for Gracie. He even chases her around and tries to get it out of her mouth. There are plenty of adults that have never succeeded at that trick but he has managed it a few times. Of course she just chases after him until she gets it back noe way or another.

Trampoline Funnin' CATCH!

February 2009

February started out with a SuperBowl party. We just about had everything cleaned up and ready to host when I got this deja-vu experience. Somebody got into the cupboard again...and this time decided he had a hankerin' for some spaghetti. But how can you get mad.

Spaghetti is Sooooooo Good

Tom went to Vail for some snowboarding but I had to work. So as a result, Tommy headed back to Ohio and hung out with Grammy & Grampa L right in the middle of tax season. (Grampa L is a CPA). But even with all the busy-ness, everyone had a good time.

We did manage to get some more snow sledding in before the snow was done. This time went a lot smoother and Tommy stayed on the sled while Tom pulled him around...most of the time.

Doggy Toys Work Just as Good

Oops!

Tommy is really into drawing, coloring, or just general paper fun. So Tom got out our camping table to go with his OSU folding chair. And it works great for snack time too without getting the huge high chair out. However life is never quite as simple as sitting in a chair at a table, is it?

Snack Time

Now What!?!?!?!