Miles V's birthday and other fun times

Well, as usual it's been too long since we've blogged. But such is life with two active boys! I wanted to share a few things that we have been up to in the last few weeks.

Miles V turned 3!!!

Yes, it is true our sweet, loving, smart first born is now a big three year old! As the days pass and he grows more and more, I am constantly amazed at how very blessed we are. He is an angel. I'm sure every parent feels this way about their kids... but I never understood it until recently. A few facts about Miles--- he knows all of his letters by sight and all of the sounds they makes. He can count to 20... He loves loves loves to read books and he can 'read' you a book after you've read it to him just once or twice. He is very good at riding his tricycle and loves to do this whenever he can. He loves playing games, and consistenly beats mom at Cootie and Hi-Ho-Cheery-o. He currently knows four Bible verses by heart (and has even taught some of them to mom!). One of his favorite things to do is go swimming on Friday nights. He LOVES when his daddy comes home! He loves playing with his little brother, and is very excited to meet his new little baby! There are so many more things to say about him but he will probably be up from his nap soon so I better move on :)

For his birthday we bought him a fishtank. He and Max have an abundance of toys and we thought that a fish tank would be fun, and also teach him responsibility. Well, through no fault of his own Larry, Goofy, and Nemo have all gone to fishy heaven in just two weeks. But now we have another batch of fish to love--welcome home Daisy, Goofy (2) and Mickey. We hope you fair better than your previous tank mates.

We also took him to Chuck-E-Cheese for his birthday. He and Max had a blast with their cousins... but perhaps Papa and Daddy had the most fun? That's a hard call! After Chuck-E-Cheese we headed to Great-Grandma Jean's for cake and ice cream. Miles V and Uncle Greg were both celebrating their birthdays... and you can see from the pictures the determination that Miles had in blowing out his candles. Please disregard the spit on the cake... :)



Good morning, Birthday Boy!






Notice the concentration:


My buddy and I:


Happy Birthday, sweet Miles. You make daddy and I soooo proud... we stay up at night and talk about the amazing things you and your brother do each day. We love you so much!

Playgroup
I've been taking the boys to storytime for about a year and a half, and they love it, and I love it! I've met some sweet moms there---Amber,her son Samson, and baby Mae and Melissa, her daughter Felina and baby #2 due in April. We've recently we've started getting the kids together on Thursday mornings to let them play and run off some energy. Miles LOVES it, and he even got to hold 8 week old baby Mae last week, which he talked about for the rest of the day. Looks like hes ready for his baby, don't you think?!



Anyway, I had to share one of my proudest 'mommy' moments. Last week the kids wanted to take a lap around the acre-wide park, and so we walked. And walked. This is a little tedious b/c Max is slow, but the kids love it. When we got back to the park, a sea of kids from the nearby daycare was playing. Our kiddos ran off to play some more and it was almost hard to spot them there were so many others playing. Amber and I were chatting, and I had one eye on Miles across the park at the slides with Samson, and one on Max who was just walking around. You know kids love other little kids, and so all of a sudden Max was surrounded by older kids talking to him, and holding hands. Next time I looked over there, Miles had booked it across the entire park and had Max in a bear hug and was talking to the kids. Then he released Max and went back to play with Samson. A few minutes later we had to make a trip to the potty, so I asked him what he was doing with Max. He said: "I was protecting him, mama. I told them my name was Miles and his name was Max and he was my little brother." OMG, I about lost it. I will NEVER forget that moment, and I'm so thankful once again for that sweet angel's heart!

Zoo Time:

Some weekends we go to church on Saturday night and sometimes we go on Sunday morning. This weekend we went Saturday night, so we decided to get some more use out of our Biopark pass and take the kids to the zoo Sunday morning. We had the place to ourselves, but unfortunately it was a little cold. Apparently big monkeys don't come out until it is at least 40 degrees. But it was a fun trip for the four of us, and the kids LOVE it (Miles and I do too!). Here are a few pics from that trip


Peacocks:



I want a hippopotamus for Christmas...


We were all pretty excited that this hippo decided to go swimming!



Of course no zoo trip is complete without a stop to feed the ducks!



There you have it. Hope you enjoyed our little update!

Pinetop Trip

This past weekend we made the journey with Miles' parents to the White Mountains in Arizona to get together with our sister, brother-in-law, and nephew. Amber, Charlie and James live in Tucson, and this small ski-resort town was halfway for both of us. We made it in 3.5 hours which is a very manageable car ride for the kiddos (and mommy!) especially if we leave at their naptime.

Amber's co-worker owns a big cabin there that she rents out. It was a blast from the past with the 70s decor, but the cabin was wonderful. It had plenty of room for us all (3 bedrooms and a giant loft), large kitchen/dining area and big living room for us all to spread out.

We got there later than anticipated Thursday after a slight car problem (luckily noticed before we left!). We had dinner and put the kids to bed. It really was a vacation too, because they had cable!!! Haha.

Miles and I slept in the loft and Max and Miles slept in the same room. It was a blessing to have a door for them! Friday, Miles, Amber, Charlie & Janet got up early and headed out to Sunrise Ski Hill to enjoy some of the warm temps but snow-covered mountain. I had all three boys on Friday until about 2, and it was a blast. I couldn't help picturing that being my life in just a few short months... :). The boys and I did make a trip to the ski hill to have lunch with everyone and try Miles V out on his skis. He is only 3 (almost), so he didn't do very well. But he did try and that is the important thing!



Thursday night we had burgers and fries (more like over-cooked bone like things-stupid electric oven) :). The boys had fun playing together... for the most part everyone shared and we all sat there just watching them play and laughing at all the cute things they do! After they went to bed the grownups (Papa had joined us earlier that day after speaking at a work thing Friday morning) played a few rousing rounds of the game "Apples to Apples." We had a blast, and as always created great memories (with your FACE!) haha had to be there.

Here are some pics for our wonderful time playing around the fire:





Saturday everyone debated going skiing again, but in the end we all wanted to be together, so we just hung out and relaxed. We took the kiddos to play in the snow outside the cabin, and even mommy and daddy enjoyed some fun on the tire swing :0). In the afternoon we took a long walk and then got ready after being lazy all day! Saturday night we went out to eat and celebrated Amber's birthday. We came home and ate cake, and Miles V even got to open his (early) birthday present from his Aunt and Uncle.

Here are some pics playing outside in the snow and on the tire swing:














Sunday morning we woke up to beautiful snow, and by the time we left around 11 we had probably gotten 3 inches or so! It was so beautiful, and the best part was that we didn't have to drive through any snow on the way home once we got out of Pinetop.

Thank you, Amber & Charlie for arranging this trip. We had a BLAST and hope we can do it again soon!

NYE 2011

Wow, three posts in a week, that is a new record, and its not even my New Year's Resolution!

It is amazing how different NYE looks now, two (almost 3) kids into our married life, vs. what it looked like when we were dating/first married and living in Chicago. Don't get me wrong, the 'party' scene has never really been for us. But when we were young and living in Chicago, both working, etc, we went out to Benihana for dinner, stayed up super late and slept in until noon the next day...

This year, we based our dinner plans on where we had gift cards to, and Chili's it was. But that is great, we love Chili's. Just in the last few weeks my mom got bunk beds at her house, so she offered to let the boys have a sleepover on NYE so we could have a night alone (thanks mom!). Miles and I dropped the boys off and headed off to dinner around 6. The service at Chili's was kinda slow, but it was also FABULOUS. Miles V is getting super talkative (and his brother isn't exactly silent either), so our nightly dinners at home tend to be a lot of chatter with our three year old. Which is great, but Miles and I really enjoyed our two hours of adult conversation Saturday night. We could just sit there. Although I did go through about a box of Kleenex that night (what a fun date I am!), we didn't have to get up to get more milk, or to take anyone potty, or to get our own drinks which we forgot in all the hustle. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner together.

Earlier in the week we had invited our good friends, Chris & Anntonette Franklin, to come over after dinner. We had plans to play games and just hang out. This worked out BEAUTIFULLY! Saturday morning our dogs decided to get into some sort of fight while we were at the grocery store, so it turned out to be a good thing we were home most of the night. Kramer ended up with a bunch of stitches, a drain port, antibiotics and pain pills. Not to mention we had to keep the dogs apart for a few days to make sure they didn't attempt to kill each other again.

With the Franklins we played 'SceneIt', Mario Kart and Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. We had some snacks and dessert, and toasted with sparkling grape juice at midnight. Yes, I said midnight. We made it all the way, and even then some after. I think for Miles and I it was knowing that we wouldn't have a little Max and Miles ready to play at 7:30 am that gave us the energy to stay up.

Overall, we had a fabulous 2011 New Year's Eve. We are very much looking forward to what 2012 brings, most importantly, of course, our new little guy (or girl) in June! This year also bring plans for Miles V to start pre-school, as well as other fun things we have planned.

Thanks for sharing our NYE 2011, below are a few pics from the evening!

Please pardon my sick, puffy eyes in all of these pictures!

My hubby and I:



Pretty darn excited about the dessert!



We were pretty into Mario Brothers!!! What a blast!



Our sweet friends. We love you guys!


Happy New Year! I look horrible in this pic, thats what happens when your eyes water all night.

"I don't know!'

Max is now 17 months old, and he talks almost as much as his big brother! It is so funny to hear all the new words and phrases he is learning. "I-Oh-Know" is our current favorite. Hope you enjoy it too!!