Happy 8 Month Birthday!

Our little man is now 8 months old! In the past month, his big accomplishment is the 2 bottom teeth. You can kinda see them in a couple of pictures below. No teeth on the top quite yet though. He's also eating up a storm! He likes everything that he's tried so far...a bunch of baby foods, gerber puffs, and big people food like bananas, strawberries, mashed potatoes and green beans. I don't think it will be long before he's mobile. He's able to get his belly off the floor but hasn't quite mastered moving those legs and arms. Brandon is discovering all the toys we have around the house, some of which Ryan wishes he wouldn't discover.....like all those trains! :) Here's some recent pictures of Mr. Brandon.

Our First Visit to DPCM!

Can't believe that Ryan is almost 4 and we just made our first visit to the DuPage Children's Museum! It was soo much fun, not sure why we waited so long!

Ryan crawling through the triangle of mirrors.....

Mom & Ryan trying to create a HUGE bubble!

Blowing more bubbles! I think they have super-powered bubble formula, because the bubbles were awesome!

Dad & Ryan working on a project inside the Moser Construction house.


Proper safety precaution in the contruction zone. These goggles were cracking me up! They were suctioned to his face....so funny!

There were lots of things to build at DPCM. We spent a lot of time in this area....the track was magnetic and you could move it around and create different paths.

Brandon had fun too!...in the Young Explorers area.

Yea!! This is so much fun.....AND I'm just a happy kid, no matter where we go.

And after 4 hours, we were all exhausted!

Arrrggggh! Dontre's Pirate Party

Arrrggggh! All of Dontre's Mateys gathered at the Jolly Roger to celebrate his 4th birthday.

There were plenty of pirate games....Feed the Shark Bean Bag Toss, Pin the Fin on the Shark and Treasure Hunt.

And then they feasted on lots of pirate grub....gold nugget cheese, orange/jello pirate ships, fruit swords, shark crackers, pirate mix, pirate cupcakes & ice cream scoops.

Great job to Dontre's First Mates for planning a great party!

Jason's Ten (I mean ELEVEN!) Year Service Award

Ok, so I'm really late with this, but better than never.....Last March Jason celebrated his 10th year with the City of Naperville...9-1-1 at the PD. And actually his 11th year just sailed by too, which is what reminded me to post this.

The Deputy Chief in charge of the Communications Division visited Jason on his actual anniversary last year and thanked him for his service. And in December, the City awarded certificates at an annual Service Award gathering.

Jason's friend Josh also celebrated his 10th year last year, except his anniversary is in August!

Is the City lucky to have Jason, or are we lucky to have the City? I think both are true!

Happy Birthday Ayden & Ryleigh!

We celebrated Ayden's 4th & Ryleigh's 2nd birthdays last Saturday at Monkey Joes. 18 kids and 2 hours of fun....

Birthday Boy & Girl on the MJs throne! Ryleigh wasn't quite sure about that big purple monkey...

Declan goes dooowwwn the slide while Ryan supervises (Declan's Dad, Dan, is one of Mike's good friends and also works with me at Allant)

Birthday girl eatin' some pizza!

And Jackson munching on pizza...

Matt was on the move (always!)

And the birthday boy on the move....bounce, Bounce, BOUNCE!!

Brandon took a little snooze....Jason claimed he wasn't snoozing. We're not quite sure about these leather recliners that they have at the front of the place, strategically placed around a flat screen TV. Do people not supervise their kids??

We told Ryan & Abby 3 times it was time to go....finally we found them here!

Lucas kept his Dad busy!!....he showed no fear.

Crop 'Til You Drop

Just returned from my 3rd scrapbook weekend. Friday night until 1:30 a.m., Saturday until 2 a.m. & Sunday until 3 p.m.....all at the DoubleTree in Downers Grove. It's become one of my favorite hobbies. I don't scrap very fast, so I'll never hope to make pages for all my pictures. So I pick my favorites and make pages for those.

Here's my partners for the weekend -- Jessica Mazza and her friend, Julie. Jess' friend Angie usually goes with us too, but she wasn't able to go this time.

And here's us with all of our STUFF! Taken from my workstation. You can see all the other ladies hard at work in the background.

Here's my favorite page that I made for Ryan...Day Out With Thomas from Aug. (Geesh! - I need to work on my macro photography)

But my big project for the weekend was Brandon's first 2 years book. Here's one of my favorite pages....

And another......

I left the hotel Sunday afternoon and went to pick-up the boys at John & Cathy's. Ryan greeted me at the door by saying, "Look Mom, I made you a scrapbook page!" And here it is...notice the Thomas & Friends stickers. He was sooo proud. (AND SO WAS I!!)

When we got home, I gave him my left over Day Out w/ Thomas pictures, paper & stickers and he went to work on another scrapbook page. He's definitely my kid!

Hard at work lining up the tracks on the train paper......

Hey Mother Nature.....

.....see these flowers?? We want to see them too. Spring can come anytime now.

New Year's Eve AND Abby & Ryan's Makeovers

On New Year's Eve, we gathered at Doug & Angie's for their annual kid-friendly party. Julie, Logan & Hunter were here from Florida and celebrated with us!

THE funniest thing from the evening was this sight.........

Abby & Ryan disappeared into the living room and re-appeared wearing this gear. Abby announced that she & Ryan had had makeovers. Being the girlie girl that she is, she was soo excited and rambled on about the makeovers. When Angie asked Ryan if he liked playing makeover, he responded in a very small voice, "no..." So the fact that he's smiling in this picture is a little misleading because I don't think he was very comfortable.

It was soooo cute!!!

This is a little out-of-order from the other entries, but better late than never!