Lutheran NICU Party

Finally getting around to catching up on posts...

We got home a week ago, but came home to a few issues after being gone for two weeks (things like Artie's car with a totally flat tire). Then everyone got a nice summer cold! Well, I have held off a bit, for now. So this post goes back to Aug. 7th when we had Spencer's first NICU party (he gets invited to two because he was at two different hospitals during his stay). This was also the day we headed down to Cincy. So we hit up Spencer's NICU party at the zoo and then headed home to pick up our stuff and the dog plus make sure the house was spotless so we could have an open house while we were gone. It was a long day!

Daddy and Spencer watching Avery jump in the bounce house. Next year, Spencer will be big enough to join in more of the fun!

The highlight for Avery at these parties:)

Daddy even took Spencer down this year!

Petting a hedgehog.

Spencer's first pony ride!! He loved it:) Doesn't he look like a pro?!

Feeding the giraffe.

This girl cannot pass a drum or anything that looks like a drum without beating on it!!

This is Safari Sam from Build-A-Bear:) Spencer won him at the party! There was only one door prize for a boy and one for a girl and while we were in Cincy we got the call that Spencer won the boy prize!! We couldn't believe it, out of ALL the kids there (and this is a huge hospital so there are a lot!). I'm thinking Spencer is going to be lucky for life!!

After a long day at the NICU party, this is how Avery fell asleep on the three hour trip to Cincinnati:)

And, here is a video of Spencer walking! This is from 2 weeks ago so he's walking almost completely with no crawling anymore:)

Gone Fishin'

...well not exactly.

We've had a crazy start to the month of August. We've been down in Cincinnati for the past week and won't be heading home for another week. I have been volunteering at the tennis tournament that's held down here. Aside from a bad case of heat exhaustion from the 120+ degree weather (with heat index) I was in for 7 straight hours a few days last week, the live tennis has been incredible. I'll spare you all of the boring details that probably only interest someone as crazy about tennis as I am-let's just say James Blake ran into me with his tennis bag, I was inches from Maria Sharapova and was on the Tennis Channel and ESPN 2 hanging out behind the booth-I'm in heaven. Anyway, I went to do a quick post and realized I left my camera charger (the same cord that uploads pics) at home in my rush to clean and get out of the house last weekend. So...I will have to post pictures from Spencer's NICU reunion from one of the hospitals and others from our trip when we get back. I also wanted to take a quick second, even though I can't upload pics or video yet, to share with everyone that Spencer is now officially a walking machine!! We've been staying with Artie's dad and I guess since the kids don't have their toys or usual space to roam around, he decided to use his abundance of "free" time to finally get up and moving on 2 feet:) He's the cutest darn thing and I'll say Avery cheers him on just as much as the rest of us and it's so darn cute!!

So, hope everyone is having a good start to August. Sadly, I'm on a not-so-great broadband card Artie snatched from work and I can't get blog pages to load (not even my own) so I'll be checking in with everyone and getting pictures up when we get home next weekend!

Welcome Home, Soldier

We arrived at Fort Wayne International Airport today to pick up someone special.

Grandpa and Avery couldn't sit still and kept checking the board to see where the flight was.
Our first glimpse of Jake! (it was through glass, hence the glare)
Chatting and waiting for luggage...
Luggage is loaded in the car and ready to go!

Jake graduated yesterday from his AIT training in Georgia. He was given hometown recruiting for being at the top of his class-which for his family means 2 extra weeks at home! He gets to be around for a whole month! Works out well considering Artie, the kids and I are leaving Saturday to head to Cincinnati for 2 weeks so I can work at the tennis tournament down there-I'm so glad I'm not missing his whole leave. I'm so excited to have him home for more than just a quick weekend! I don't know how we're going to get through a whole year with him away??!! My little brother has come so far and grown up so much since joining the Army, I couldn't be a prouder sister:)!

Beatin' the Heat

We've just been trying to keep cool around here, as I'm sure most everyone else is. I do not like these high temps with all of the humidity, but sine we've barely gotten any rain, we went weeks without mowing our yard!

Here's what we've been up to:

Domer sunbathing!

Working hard, learning to pedal.

Yep, Spencer learned to drink from a straw the same way Avery did-Starbucks' strawberry lemonade, of course!

We got the kids this cute little set and since it was too hot to enjoy it outside, we used it inside for awhile:)

A little computer wars after bath time.

Avery found a unique place to keep her Dora sticker safe!

Avery taking charge at the train table when cousin Garrett got to come over and play with the kids for a bit.

We've been heading to the pool on Fridays to beat the heat. Spencer usually falls asleep for awhile!

This girl adores the pool. Such a happy princess in the water AND out getting ready for a snack.

Grandma with the two kiddos.

Mommy and Avery during one of the pool's rest periods.

Snack time! Enjoying some baked cheetos. Might I add that Spencer climbed up to the table by himself!

We were at Jefferson Pointe (our outdoor mall) this weekend and discovered they were having a mini carnival. Spencer, sadly, was too little to ride the rides so he waited patiently while Avery rode:)

Riding the mini "ferris-go-round," as Avery calls it:)

The airplane ride...Artie and I melted standing in the 100 degree heat watching her, but it was worth it for free rides and one happy little girl!

This weekend we also took in our first TinCaps (Fort Wayne's minor league baseball) game. Artie got tickets from work from someone so we decided that it would be a good time to take the kids and see how they would do. I'm happy to say they did pretty well. The new stadium is incredible. Unfortunately, a storm was rolling in with some crazy lightening so we only stayed for an hour, but it was fun. Avery was yelling to the players "you can do it!" and "focus!". She was quite the motivator:)

Daddy and Spencer. As long as I had snacks for Spence to munch on, he was good!

Downtown Fort Wayne from our seats-pathetic, really. The stadium is really nice, though, and the games are packed!

Hope everyone has been finding fun ways to beat the heat!

And a congratulations to Jake who finished his classes last week for AIT! He's currently on field training for a week and then he graduates and heads home for a few weeks before heading to Korea for a year. He received a follow-on assignment for after Korea that will put him at Fort Dix in New Jersey for at least two years! So proud of my little brother:)

Spencer's 1 Year Pictures...Finally!

We finally got Spencer's 1 year pictures taken this morning...he'll be 14 months in a few days:) He got his haircut last week, so we decided to take the opportunity to do it this weekend. He did pretty well and I think we got some good ones. I just can't believe how fast my kids are growing. Spencer still won't stand on his own and prefers crawling over even attempting to walk (except when he's on his walker-which is rarely and only if we put him on it). I'm enjoying the fact that he's taking his time, but part of me is kind of hoping that he starts doing this stuff soon! It would be much easier to do a lot of things if he could just walk a bit on his own, plus, he's getting pretty darn heavy to lug everywhere! We had a few pictures of the kids taken together and Miss Avery had one pose to herself, but other than that, this was all about Spencer:)

Brother and sister...I think Spencer is going to pass Avery in size pretty soon!

A little kiss from his big sister:) The best part is she loves him this much at home too!

Such a big girl!

I just love this scrunchy nose.

Scrunchy nose again:)

He saw his blanket and started signing for it and whining so we let him have one pose with his beloved possession:)

This picture gives me flash-forwards of what it will be like with school pictures, he looks like such a big boy here!

Probably one of our favorites! He looks so darn good in hats:)

Had to sneak some ND in these pictures somewhere. LOL!! He looks pretty serious here and the funny thing is, he was babbling away while looking at the book.

They had some bells they were using to get him to smile and he was signing to the lady that he wanted them:)

We really enjoyed this experience a lot more than the last-if you remember the horror we had with doing both of their pictures just before Christmas last year! They are both growing so fast and it's nice to capture these moments. When we brought the pictures home today and started switching out the old pictures (from when Spencer was 6 months and Avery had just turned 2) Artie and I couldn't believe how much they had changed in such a short time!! Kids grow fast, I guess that's just the reality of it:)

I will end this post with a BIG congratulations to Beth and Dave who welcomed their son, David III, yesterday! Mom and baby are doing great and hopefully they'll share pictures with us soon:)!!

Kate's Kart Update

I know a few of my blog followers used the code I provided on here back in June to have a portion of their purchase from Barnes and Noble go towards the Kate's Kart organization...

Thanks to you and all the others that used that code on your B&N purchase, Kate's Kart received $650! That's pretty amazing considering the small portion percentage from each order that went to KK! By the way, Kate's Kart is spreading as more and more hospitals are getting word of the wonderful gift they provide children. A hospital as far away as Cleveland has even shown interest in getting a cart! I'm just completely taken by what a mom's love for her child can do for others. What an inspiration:)

Thanks Everyone!

4th of July Weekend

We were very busy this weekend, but had lots of fun. My brother came home on leave Friday for the holiday and we got to go running together, play tennis and enjoy conversation, just the two of us, at Starbucks. It was so great to get to spend so much time with him in the two days he was home:) Sunday, we had a cookout at our house so family could come over and see Jacob since we're unsure if he will be coming home before leaving for South Korea next month after he graduates AIT. Good thing we had so much going on to keep me busy since the Wimbledon finals were such a letdown after a great two weeks!

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

The kiddos being silly together. Spencer has gotten so good at climbing on/in things. He's also giving high fives and blowing/giving kisses:)

You all know I've been doing Spencer's haircutting...but, Saturday, Artie went to get his haircut and we decided to have Spencer's professionally done since we are about to get his 1 year pictures taken (finally).
He did so great-much better than when I cut it:)
To celebrate Spencer's 1 year anniversary from being released from the NICU (Friday, July 2nd) we got some cake...the kids love the ice cream and cake cakes from Baskin Robbins!

4th of July Cookout

Jake and his girlfriend, Natalie. Since Jake's away all the time we don't get to spend much time with his girlfriend so it was nice to get to sit around and talk to her this weekend:)
My mom doing a little posing with Jake and Natalie.
Then it was Avery's turn-this girl loves her Uncle Jake...and her "friend" Natalie, as Avery thinks of her!
Two of my favorite guys...sadly, Spencer slept for most of this cookout-darn teething-so I don't have pictures of him with anyone:(
And finally, my dad and Jake. I wasn't very good about getting pictures this weekend since I was doing more chatting!
I snapped this one of the kids before bath time on the 4th. Avery was attempting to hug her brother even though it looks more like a choke hold...and the look she has on her face is because she had a huge cut on the roof of her mouth from a sharp piece of chex mix!! I think Spencer is going to outgrow his sister really soon if he continues to grow like he is! We had someone ask us at Target today if they were the same age!!

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!