This Weekend

We had a great weekend, the weather was great! I hope we're moving into summer weather now! Callie went to her first birthday party - a princess parth for Hannah's 3rd birthday. The boys stayed home and chilled out for a couple hours. Actually, Gustav decided to take a 3 1/2 hour nap that day proving to Daddy that I am wrong about the children not napping long enough! That always happens on the weekends!

Onto other news - actually front page news... Only in Roanoke Virginia would I be front page news! Yes, you are looking at the 'star' of Roanoke here. Unfortunately, it was a piece about how I need to drink lots of alcohol in order to cope with my children! Ok, that was a joke, but Andrea and I both made the front page of the Roanoke Times this Saturday. Andrea got a cute picture of her and David at a MOMS club playgroup and I got a picture of me with some friends at Mom's night out. Check out the story and pictures at http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/65864

If you click on 'See more photos of MOMS club members at group events' you can see the pictures that got into the paper. Photo 1 of Andrea with David was at the top of the paper and Photo 4 of me with Christy and Kelly was right below it. Too funny!!

I bought some papers as a momento:) Oh, and since Roanoke is so small, EVERYBODY saw the picture and people come up to me and say "oh, I saw you in the paper!"

Well that's all for now!

Horsing around with 'princess' Daddy!

Callie showing off her flexibility! Did I mention that she can do a perfect somersault and has been able to for a while?

Just playing! His new trick is dancing! When you say 'dance!' and bob your head back and forth he'll do the same! It's so cute!

Callie in her party dress after Hannah's birthday party. Hannah had a princess party and they all decorated crowns. Callie's decoration came off of her crown.

Picture Re-post

I don't know what happened to most of the pictures the last time I posted, so I re-posted the ones that didn't work! Enjoy!

The other sweetest picture ever :)

The sweetest picture ever!

Gustav peeking out of his sweatshirt hood

talking to Daddy on the phone

Climbing the giant dirt mound

Playing with Strawberry Shortcake bubbles in the bath!

Cliff Notes

I haven't blogged in a while so I'm going to write Cliff notes this morning (that means it will probably be really long.)

Gustav has the most news to tell. As of last night, he is officially weaned to a bottle. He actually seems to like the formula and the bottle and can hold it by himself sometimes. I was using the Nuby cup, but I think it was too overwhelming for him so a few days ago I tried a bottle and he drank it all up! He currently drinks 3 bottles a day of formula and one of juice, but I'm not sure exctly what he's supposed to have so I'm going to call his doctor just to make sure. His other news is that he can now crawl FOREWARD! Yeah Gustav!! It takes a lot of effort and concentration (because forward is just not as easy as backwards :)) but he's determined! He also picked up a cheerio and put it in his mouth all by himself this morning. My sweet little boy is growing up!!

Callie is becoming a little girl more and more each day. She is getting better at pronouncing words that she used to say incorrectly. He favorite friends right now are Kayla and Chloe (Michelle's girls) and Hannah (Andrea's daughter). Every morning when we get in the car she asks to play with "Kaya Co-e" or "Hee-a." Other than that, her major milestones are drinking from a regular cup during dinner and her new favorite lunch is a turkey sandwich on wheat breat with mayo, mustard, cheese and a bread and butter pickle! I figured out that one when I left my sandwich too close to her grubby little fingers and she swiped it from my plate!

News at our house: We have two giant dirt mounds in our front lawn waiting to be moved to our side yard. We are making a flat area in the back/side of our house for the kids to play on. The only problem is the bobcat has been broken so the builder hasnt moved the dirt yet. Every morning I say a prayer when I leave the house that the dirt will be moved when I get home. For some reason God wants me to look at dirt for a while longer:)

Gustav playing with a blade of grass. He got over his fear of sitting in the grass and he's getting really good with his coordination :)

Holding yet another birthday present from an adoring fan. Notice the 'camera smile' got a little better - at least she doesn't close her eyes anymore!

A few new tricks...

Gustav has a new trick and a new word. You can see his trick in the picture below (I think it's below, but you never know.) It's really cute and he can balance there for a while. I also mentioned in my last post that he can go from laying to sitting. Well, we now call him the groundhog because he will roll around for a while then sit up, look around, then get down and roll somewhere else and pop up again. It's really cute! His new word is 'Ga,' he just says it in one syllable, just like that 'ga'. He is also still the master at crawling backwards. Whenever I put him on the floor, I have to look for all the baby hazards BEHIND him. Oh, and his newest accomplishment (this might be more my accomplishment) is that he is taking formula from a cup twice a day!! At the rate I'm going he should be weaned in 2 1/2 weeks! I've substituted formula in place of his lunch and 3:00 snack nursing times. I took away the 3:00 first and did that for an entire week. This week I took away the 11:00 nursing and he now has formula with his lunch! I found the BEST cup for this. It's called a Nuby and it's spillproof without having one of those annoying plugs that gets lost or falls out all the time. I LOVE it and I'm going to target this morning to pick up a bunch more!

Callie had her two year check up last Tuesday. She is now 50th percentile for height, 30th for weight and they didn't measure her huge noggin this time. She did so great that the doctor kept saying 'this is such a great visit!' over and over. At one point, the doctor gave her a page full of stickers and she put them all over him! She also got a lot of compliments on her speech and motor skills (he obviously didn't watch her walk :) We call her the walking disaster. She constantly walks into things and falls for no apparent reason. Anyway, she let the nurse take her without me (another compliment) to weigh her. While she was out there I hear her down the hall saying "Pie-cake sticker" (ie. strawberry shortcake sticker) so I went out there to tell them what she was saying and all the nurses were hovered around her - what a ham she is! She then had ALL the nurses frantically looking in their sticker stashes for strawberry shortcake stickers.

I guess that's all the news here! I have to get going because I have errands to run!

Aren't they the cutest?

My two kids!

Glamour girl - showing off her nightgown (this was Ellie's, JoEllen!), purse, flip phone, earrings and necklace. Oh, and check out the slippers :)

Callie posing in her car!

Gustav's new trick - pushing up on his hands and feet!

He's also learning to pick up cheerios! He just doesn't know what to do with them after he picks them up!

Fish face!! He makes this face a lot!

He went from laying to sitting like this just a minute ago!

Little Ta-ta

Gustav sure is growing! He is playing in his playpen and he was rolling around and crawling backwards (his favorite move) - having a grand old time. Then I just walked past and looked in and he was sitting up!! He went from laying to sitting all by himself! I snapped a pic and will post it in a minute. I also should mention that he is a pro at getting anywhere he wants (which is why he's in the playpen a lot!) by rolling, crawling backwards, scooting - basically any which way! Just had to post his newest accomplishment!

Our trip to Chicago and Callie's 2nd Birthday!

Callie is officially 2! She got the longest birthday celebration known to man. We celebrated here at home the weekend before so Gus could be there and then I went to Chicago with the kids for her real birthday! I can't remember if I mentioned that Gus went to Florida to fish with Dave while I took the kids to Chicago to see my parents. Anyway, I think I can sum up Callie's birthday with this story: After no sleep and a long night of cake and presents, Callie finally settled down to sleep. I went downstairs and heard something over the monitor from her room. I turned it up really loud and we all heard Callie singing "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you!" while she fell asleep on her birthday. Thank you Nonna for giving her the best 2nd birthday ever!

We had a fun time in Chicago. I don't have much time to type, so I'll try to write more later, but you can see a lot through the pictures!

Hee hee hee!

La de da! Taking a bath!

Cutie taking a bath in Nonna's sink!

Aunt Barb and Callie (Gustav was taking a nap and I forgot to get a picture of him with Aunt Barb:( ) I am so bad at that! Mrs. Palmer also came to see the kids and I didn't get any pictures with her either!!

Don't they look like they are fed up with eachother? :)

Ok, I think this was the best picture! Beth, if you have a better one send it! We went to Brookfield Zoo with my friend Beth and her 2 kids Nathan and Emily. We had a great time and Callie liked riding in Beth's wagon with Emily! Gustav was an angel - too bad you can only see his little face peeking out of the stroller!

Nonna and Gustav!

Callie and Grammy Ida!

Buddha Fairy! Ok, there are a lot of funny pictures of this! She got a really cool dress up kit and I thought it came with a leotard so I told her to take her clothes off. Then we realized there was no leotard so this is what happened - a buddha fairy!

Hmmmm... I think I like cake!

Got it!

Trying to get a Care Bear off of her cake!

Yeah!!! Callie is 2!!

Blowing out the candle!

All the attendees (besides Aunt Barb who got there later) at Callie's 2nd birthday party!! From left to right: Sarah, Maddox, Nonna, Matt, Nonno, Callie and Grammy! Oh, and notice the balloons and plates!

Grammy Ida was there too! Callie is wearing another new outfit and Gustav is trying to get at his cool new book. Matt and Sarah - he LOVES that book! We've read it every day since we got home and he loves to touch all the furry dogs!

Nonna and Gustav! Gustav got some presents too - check out his new outfit!

Opening (and wearing) presents!! Callie got so many presents that she opened them in 2 stages. This is the before dinner stage!

Gustav got to meet Uncle Matt for the first time!!

Nonna bought Callie a huge easter basket! It was her first one because we didn't get her one here (we celebrated her birthday on Easter). It had so many cool toys! And of course lots of candy that Gus and I are still eating :)