Baby shower fun!

Mother's day weekend, we headed up to the UP for a baby shower for Tracy. We got to Aaron's parents' house late, but even though the boys really hadn't napped much that day they still wanted to play for a little bit in the basement. (Micah has a mind like a steel trap and remembers EVERYTHING about the toys in Grandma and PaPa's basement!) By the time we were getting them ready for bed, Uncle Eric and Auntie Tracy showed up with Emma, so we had to start over with getting the kids settled down for bed after saying hello to them. :) But, eventually everyone settled in for the night and did fairly well as far as sleeping goes.

The shower was on Saturday morning, at their church, and Debbie (Grandma) and her friends did a GREAT job decorating and planning the event!

Cute owl centerpieces ~

Fruit stroller ~

The guests of honor (Eric was a brave man to be there with all those women!) ~

Look at all that loot! Bono is one blessed baby! :)

Eric's "Diaper Changing Kit" gift ~

A little better shot of the baby bump :)

After the shower, Aaron and I battled with Micah to take a nap... he never did sleep, but we managed to get him to lay down and watch Curious George quietly for a little while, so I'll call that a draw. :) And after "rest time" (whatever that was), we got together with the Smith/Strietzel clan for dinner. The kids had had a fun time playing together with Aaron and Bill while the ladies were at the shower, and we decided to extend the fun into the evening. :)

Hard at work in the Smith's yard ~


Sitting by the campfire ~

And before we left on Sunday, we stripped the boys down to their diapers (I didn't think to bring any swim stuff... I didn't realize it was going to be as warm as it was!), and let them play in the sprinkler and kiddie pool. Aaron's parents had just gotten some new playground equipment, and Grandma had the great idea to put the pool at the bottom of the slide... what a hoot! :)

Playing in the sprinkler ~


Chasing Emma with the water sprayer (she was such a good sport!) ~


Splashing in the pool ~



Sliding into the pool ~

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. We came home a bit more sleep deprived than usual for a weekend, but it was totally worth it. :) Thanks, Klingenmaier family and friends, for a great weekend!

More sunny day perks :)

For the sake of keeping those of you who actually read our blog interested, (since that last one was kind of long) I decided to save a few things for a separate post. :) The boys have discovered frozen yogurt... and by "frozen yogurt", I mean actual frozen yogurt. I found these empty push pop containers at Dominicks and Ikea and we put vanilla yogurt into them and froze them. The boys LOVE them! (Caleb especially!) :) Looks like we've got a keeper for those hot summer days!

It's pretty much impossible to keep the boys clean for any length of time period, but when yogurt pops are involved... just get the bathtub ready!

"What?"

"Hey! I wasn't done with that!"

"If you don't want yours... I DO!"

"Mmmm..."

We keep telling Micah, "it won't be long before Caleb is bigger than you and then you'd better watch out," but he's taking full advantage of his size advantage right now. (and keeping Caleb plenty entertained in the process) Here, the boys were playing with a piece of rope my dad had out for hanging a swing in the back yard. Caleb was amused at first, but then decided he'd had enough. :)

**NO children were harmed in the making of this film**

I also had to share a few cute pictures of my "future conductors" with Pops... love these guys!

Fun in the sun

We have had some BEAUTIFUL weather here lately! There were a few days where it seemed like we had completely skipped spring and gone straight into summer! It was even warm enough to get our kiddie pool out earlier this month! We've been taking full advantage of the nice days... playing outside, going for walks, and just enjoying God's amazing creation.

At the park ~

In addition to fun in the sun, we (well... the boys) have also had some fun in the MUD!

Fun in their pool :)

Of course, with beautiful spring weather come thunderstorms, and we got a few pictures of some interesting clouds outside our house one night before getting hit with a doozie! :) (these clouds kind of reminded me of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow"... if you've seen it, you should know what I mean)



We've had fun with friends...

Here's Micah and his gymnastics buddy, Shai, at the Kohl Children's Museum ~

If I had any clue about Photoshop, I would have cropped these two pictures to make one where both Micah and Jeremy are looking at the camera. Oh well. :)

...and been able to enjoy the newest member of the family a bit... (ok, a LOT! The massive amount of pictures are for you, Auntie Lisa) :)

Aaron and Eliza ~

Caleb wasn't too sure about Eliza at first...

...but he thinks she's pretty cute :)

Sweet little gassy smile ~

The boys, checking out their newest cousin...and her car seat (to be honest, I'm not sure which they were more interested in) :)

Relaxing after a diaper change ~

All ready to go home (she looks like she's thinking, "maybe if I appear uninterested, she'll stop taking my picture..." Sorry, kid, you'd better get used to it!) :)

Beautiful mommy & baby ~

Caleb was all about his cousin until Daddy showed up with ice cream! :)

Our boys have also discovered how much fun it is to bang the lids to our pots and pans together. **WARNING ~ you might want to turn your volume down before hitting play!**

Micah has also discovered his new favorite place to read! Believe it or not, he got in there all by himself. :)

He even got Nee Nee to read him a story in the tunnel! :)

I love how you can see Micah's feet on one side of the tunnel, and Nee Nee and Caleb on the other :)

It has been a beautiful spring so far, and we are looking forward to many more nice days to come! :)

Welcome, little one!

We welcomed the newest member to the Thomson family early this morning... Eliza Jean was born at 2:43 a.m. (I think), and is 19 1/2 inches long, and 7 lbs. 4 oz. Aaron and I got to meet her this afternoon, and she is precious! Congratulations, Jim and Julie! Eliza is beautiful and we are so blessed to have her in the family! Love you all!!!

**sorry for the blurriness... no flash to be sensitive to baby's eyes.

Eliza Jean Thomson ~

Proud mommy (who makes giving birth look easy! I couldn't believe how GREAT Julie looked so soon after giving birth! I'm officially jealous!) ;)

Soothing her sweet baby girl ~ you're a natural, Julie!

Proud auntie and daddy (I still can't believe my baby brother has a baby!!) :)

It's going to be fun watching Eliza grow up... I wonder how long it will be before she's making goofy faces for the camera like her daddy! :)

I can definitely see Jim in Eliza... but maybe that's just because he's making the same face she is :)

It IS possible for Jim to smile for the camera... he just can't know you're snapping a picture! ;) Julie ~ you're such a good sport!

We didn't visit with the new parents for too long... they had already had a lot of visitors, and we could tell they needed some down time. But we're looking forward to many more, and longer, visits with the Thomson family! And, I'm sure, there will be more pictures to post soon. :)

Walking!!

Caleb is now 10 months, one week, and one day old, and while his preferred mode of personal transportation is still crawling, he is starting to take more and more steps from one place to another. He's been cruising along the furniture for a while now, to get where he wants to go, but just in the last few days has been letting go and trying it on his own more.

I managed to get a brief video of a few steps this morning... sorry about the spit up at the end. :)

It won't be long before both of my boys will be running circles around me, while I stand there with a dazed look on my face wondering where the time went! Can't wait! :)