farm birthday party

Jonas' second birthday party almost didn't happen. We scheduled it a week after his actual birthday due to David's dad, Ralph, having bilateral knee replacements in the hope that he could attend and even kept the invites to family only. Things got set back for Ralph, sickness invaded our home (including David's mom, David and Asher) and I finished up a week of playing nurse. However, the cake had been made! And, despite Asher having a fever, our family was still willing to risk it for Jonas' sake.
So we bought some balloons that I turned into farm animal heads.

I made a barn cake and with a few of Jonas' favorite barn animals (made of fondant) to go with it.

His favorite was the sheep (or baa baa as he likes to call it).

Both my boys go into their shy mode when the singing of "Happy Birhtday" breaks out.

However, there was no shyness when the cake was passed out to eat.

Asher and Daddy sporting their farm animal visors...and Asher's visor upside down pretty much sums up his entire party experience. Does this boy look sick or what? David and I would take turns sitting in the corner with Asher to keep him away from our guests. (We didn't find out he had strep until the Monday after the party...but I realize we still look like bad parents.)

The Party Guests!




I was so thankful my parents were able to make it down and were a huge help to make this party even happen. We all were pretty worn out and David's mom even came despite not being back to 100% from her sickness. I am thankful for our family's support to help us celebrate Jonas' second birthday and make it such a special evening!!

happy 2nd birthday jonas!

This sweet boy of ours has turned 2! It suddenly feels like we no longer have any babies in our home. Jonas is running around and keeping up with Asher's every move. He lights up the room with his sweet smile and contagious laugh. It has been fun to see his personality come out (even if it includes his individual stubbornness).
We celebrated Jonas' 2nd birthday on his actual birthday, October 4th with just our immediate family (and Nana). David's dad was in the hospital for bilateral knee replacements so Nana has been staying with us for an easy commute to the hospital. We had a simple dinner followed by cupcakes from The Cupcake Collection. Jonas and Asher had strawberry cupcakes. Nana chose chocolate and David and I had marble (vanilla and chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream and cream cheese frosting). They were delicious!! This past weekend we had a small birthday party with our extended family....pictures to come! :)

Taking Steps

I wish that I could say these pictures below are of Jonas' first steps, but they are not. I can say that they were taken around the time just before he took his first step. Yes, on Monday, he stood for a moment and then took one side step. Every day since then, he has taken just one step before he falls back into crawling. But, I can tell with each new trial that we are just moments away from the real deal. Oh, and then will my life get even crazier.
Yes, this is the little one who gets into EVERYTHING and goes EVERYWHERE he should not. As seen below..

She caught me going for the outlet again...but maybe if I look back and smile she won't say "no" this time. :)

I am hoping that I can catch a live shot of the steps one of these days!

Happy First Birthday, Jonas!

It was such a special day when you came into our lives on this day one year ago! My what a year it has been and oh, how you have changed!

You have brought so much joy, laughter and yes, much excitement into our lives and we cannot imagine our lives without you. We look forward to your second year of life. More pictures of the birthday celebration will be on there way soon!

Birthday Celebration

We had a great time celebrating Jonas' first birthday! My mom, step-dad, Bruce and my aunt Candy all traveled down for the party. They came early on Friday so we had a chance to do some fun things before the party. The fall weather hit so we enjoyed time on our porch while they were here.

We also took them to the Farmer's Market (just a street over from our house) to look at all the fall flowers and pumpkins. Bruce and Asher found this monkey's tail squash.

There were rows upon rows of pumpkins in any size, shape and color you can imagine (okay not blue and gold---David was hoping to decorate the front of our house with Notre Dame colored pumpkins!). Jonas had to touch every one his little arm could reach from the stroller.

Here is one of our few family pics.

The birthday party was on Saturday and it was a combined party with our niece, Katie (David's sister, Julie's daughter), who was turning two. Yes, I went into labor at Katie's first birthday. It's so fun that they share the same birthday! Below are the moms with the birthday kids.

Since we had two birthdays, we had two birthday themes and cakes (and yes, I was crazy enough to make both cakes, including an individual cake for Jonas to eat). Jonas' birthday theme was bath time (his favorite thing right now). So here was his cake.

For Katie, we had a Hello Kitty cake.

You can tell it's Jonas' first birthday because he was just looking at us all strangely, while we sang to him and then didn't quite know what to do with the cake in front of him. I had to get him started with eating it.

He quickly got the hang of it and devoured most of it. I was surprised how clean he stayed.

Katie knew just what to do after we sang happy birthday to her. She just leaned right over and blew out the candle like she had had many birthdays before.

Below are all the cousins (minus Skylar) with Nana at the kids' table.

It was such a special day to enjoy with some of my family and David's. Most of David's family were there--Greg, Angie, Elijah, Meadow and Skylar; Steve, Julie, Luke and Katie and Nana--all that is except Pops. We missed you Pops! We look forward to celebrating many more shared birthdays.

Jonas is 8 months!

I can hardly believe that we have had Jonas in our lives for 8 months. Time is truly flying by! His personality is coming out each day. He loves to smile and laugh as he has for the past several months but seems to do it even more with such ease. Older brother Asher is great entertainment and Jonas cannot get enough of him. In fact, Jonas loves when Asher gives him attention...hugs or full body tackles and yes, Jonas can hold his own. He is quite our mover! He is sitting up on his own and rolls all over to get what he wants. I can see crawling in his near future but I am not trying to encourage it. :) He is loving the baby food, enjoying everything he has tried so far. He let's us know what he really likes by squealing, shaking his head from side to side or kicking his legs rapidly while being held. A few of his favorite things right now are dogs (any one he sees, although the bigger the better), water (loves to splash with his hands, feet, his whole body if I would just let him dive in), and anything we will let him put in his mouth. We just love having this little boy in our family.
We had his pictures taken earlier this week by Brooke, an associate photographer with Krista Lee Photography. You can see more shots of our preview here.

6 months and solids

We can't believe that Jonas is 6 months old! He is such a joy to our family. He began eating solids this week and seems to enjoy them.

He is already showing his independence. He kept trying to grab the spoon and the bowl to feed himself. I have started him on rice cereal and plan to make my own baby food for him like I did with Asher. I highly recommend the book Super Baby Food if you are thinking of making baby food. It is a GREAT reference! I'll be updating on his likes and dislikes.