A quick update

I don't have any new bump pictures to put up. sorry.  working on that.  trust me, it's still there and still getting bigger.  I don't even have any kid pictures to put up.  Wanna know why?  We moved!  (and I can't find the camera)  Yep, we moved ........ again.  A month ago we received a call from the guy who owns our house (ya know, the "I promise to rent my house for a LONG time and as long as I have good renters I will continue renting" guy) saying he was moving back to Sioux Falls aaaaand ............... back into his house.  Well, isn't that nice.  'Cause ya know the thing I wanted to do most this summer was pack up everything I own while being 7 months pregnant and move it somewhere else ... oh, and with a toddler.

But after going through all the steps of greiving (crying, anger - I really wanted to throw rocks at someone, more crying, denial, anger again, more crying, finally acceptance) we realized that we're not really in control of our lives anyway and somehow (somehow) this must be God's plan.  So we collected boxes, packed most of our stuff into them and moved.  The nice thing about moving (if there can be a nice thing) is that each time we move we get rid of more junk.   But this time we actually had valuable junk and sold it on Craigslist, giving us a little stash of cash :)  I'll take an extra few hundreds dollars, thank you.

So the move on Saturday actually went really well.  We have awesome friends who gave of their time, trucks and backs to move our very heavy furniture into our new house.  (Note to self: invest in inflatable furniture.)  Then a few more friends came by in the afternoon along with our new neighbor girl and helped us unpack.  So by the end of the day, I'd say over half of our stuff was out of boxes and put away where it belongs (sort of).  That was a really good feeling.  And every night this week has been unpacking, re-organizing and cleaning (don't even get me started on how very un-clean this place was).  Soon we will be settled.  Soon this will feel like home.  And hopefully (hopefully) we'll be in this place for a long time.  Well, at least longer than 10 months.

Par-ty! Par-ty! Par-ty!

Today was Brooks' 2nd birthday party - making it official that my 'baby' really IS two years old!!  We had a wonderful time and were blessed by the many friends who came and celebrated with us.  We had a sports themed party, complete with footballs, basketballs, soccerballs and lots of cake!!

Jeff & Joanie aka
"Cole Daddy and Cole Mommy"

Laura & Jessie

Lewis and Friend Ella!

Brooks enjoying his cheeseburger!  Yum.

and his cupcake!!

Not quite as messy as last year :)

Then of course there were presents to be opened!

What a fantastic day celebrating our special little boy!!

Happy Birfday Brooks!!

Wow!  I can't believe my little boy is two years old already.  TWO YEARS!  How did that happen?  I seriously can remember the day of his birth so vividly - it doesn't seem like that long ago.  And Chris noted that as parents you view birthdays totally differently.  Instead of anticipating cake and presents (well, we do that to) we find ourselves reminiscing about that special day two years ago.  The day that we became parents.
..................................

Ok, enough of that mushy stuff.  On to the celebrations!!!!!

Last night after Brooks went to bed, Chris and I (ok ok, mostly Chris) blew up over 50 balloons and filled his room with them!  The result??

One slightly stunned, but overall VERY happy birthday boy!

(and p.s. please totally disregard his completely mismatched jammies.  He insisted on wearing his new "moose" jammies, but it's a set with long pants and a long shirt.  So we compromised and let him wear the pants and just grabbed the first t-shirt from his drawer.  I promise my kid matches most of the time.  This would not be one of those time.)

Then we had pancakes for breakfast - a special treat compared to his usual banana.

Then after Drew and Cole arrived, we packed our things and headed for the zoo.  This kid seriously LOVES  the zoo.  Our zoo membership was the best money spent this year!  And since we've already been so. many. times. the  trips seems to all blur together.  But this time we did something different.  Today we fed the goats!!

And much to my suprise, Brooks wasn't scared at all.

He especially loved that he was able to feed the baby goat!  Well, that is before the mama goat shoved him out of the way so she could get food.  Nice job, mama.

All 3 boys at the zoo!

After the zoo, we had a picnic lunch in the park and Daddy joined us.  And of course we made time for the swings!

The afternoon brought on a much needed nap and rest time for everyone followed by supper at what seems to be becoming a tradition for us ..... Dairy Queen. The menu consisted of a cheeseburger and fries (mostly fries) ...

... ice cream ....

... and a belly ache. 

Yep, after barely touching that huge sundae, Brooks starting crying and saying "belly hurt".  Obviously he's not used to eating a meal of just french fries and ice cream (that's a good thing).  So needless to say, we skipped our planned trip to the park and headed home. 

After a Tums and a diaper change, we were good to go.  That and there was a whole pile of presents that were waiting to be opened. I didn't take any photos of the present opening, but we do have a video.  I'll see if I can figure out how to load that onto here.

Overall, it was a really fun day!  Two year old birthdays are way more fun that twenty-something birthdays.  Saturday is Brooks' party and I can't wait!

Sprinkler Fun

Yesterday was a beatiful, sunny and HOT day!  So we got on our swimsuits, packed the towels and snacks and headed to McKennan pool.  We arrived ready to swim ............... just as they were closing for their dinner break :(  Bummer.  So we opted for Plan B.

The Sprinkler!!!

Like with all new things, my son was quite hesitant at first.

This was as close as he got to the sprinkler.  Not a very good way to cool off.

So Dad turned the water down a bit.

Okay, a lot!

Well ...... that's not so intimidating.

I love summer!  After Brooks went to bed, Chris and I started a little campfire and just enjoyed the beautiful evening.  This is what life is about, folks.