Happy Birthday Sherry!!

Hope you have the most wonderful birthday!

We are looking forward to coming to Jackson to celebrate your special day with you!

Sending you lots of love, hugs, kisses, and baby kicks-

Rob, Stephanie, Isaac, and Baby

Swing batter batter!!

Crafty Critters!

Isaac and I just finished making Play Doh and thought we would share pictures of our magnificent creation! This is the first project that we have done where Isaac did most of the work (notice the flour on his upper lip!) and didn't stress me out!

Happy 4th Birthday Kylie!

Happy Birthday 4th Birthday Kylie!

This weekend we celebrated Kylie's 4th Birthday! She is such a little princess - we really enjoyed spending time with her!

On Saturday we spent the day Downtown GR at the Hispanic Festival and WLAV's Chili Cookoff. It was perfect weather for chili, let me tell ya! Rob had his fill of chili, although we had just chowed down on tacos and a caramel apple - yum! The Chili Cookoff was also hosted by Wild Boar Harley Davidson, so Isaac really enjoyed looking at all of the bikes on display. Leave it to him to embarrass me though, because we just so happened to be standing next to a Harley rep when he says, "Where are the Yamahas?" The rep laughed and we booked it out of the tent!
We stopped by the Grand Rapids Public Library to look at their display of Monroe Ave. It was really interesting to see how Grand Rapids has changed, yet maintained its look over the past 100+ years! I could have stayed in the library all day, as I am a library junkie (thanks mom!!), but we decided to continue on our way...
Later on, we met up with John and Sherry at the Festival and chatted with Uncle Ben for a while (he was manning the beer tent). We were on our way to Beaners when we passed Four Friends coffee shop and I suggested that we fill up on java there. I love supporting the local coffee shops! While we all enjoyed our javas, mine being decaf of course, I spotted Apples to Apples on the shelf of games! We laughed pretty hard (luckily nobody shot coffee out of their noses - ouch!) and had a wonderful time! We mentioned that we had purchased the CSI game and John and Sherry decided to come over to the apartment to continue our fun in gaming! After chowing down some Papa John's Spinach Alfredo Deluxe pizza, we started to play CSI and found out that it would be way too time consuming. Bummer. John and Sherry took off around 10:30 and we woke Isaac up from his nap shortly after. I was extremely tired from all of the walking and fresh air, so I went to bed and left the boys to watch Jetix!

14 weeks and forever to go...

We had a dr's appt. today and were able to hear the baby's heartbeat! At first Dr. Pete couldn't find it and I got really nervous. It was beating at a whopping 155 bpm!!! Not bad for only being 3.5 inches long - WOW!! I really don't have any inklings as to the sex, but Isaac's heartbeat was always in the 150's - so maybe we will be blessed with two little monkeys :o)
Rob was really excited to hear it, I think it was reassuring to both of us to hear! It seems so real now!
I keep having dreams that when the baby comes, we are completely prepared... except for diapers! I end up using t-shirts and bandannas to get us through - weird, huh? Maybe it's because we are planning on using cloth and I haven't yet decided on a method that will work best for us. Yes, I said method. Cloth diapering is nothing like it used to be! So far I have made a diaper using old t-shirts and crocheted a "soaker" with a really ugly wool yarn. Without the baby in front of us, it's hard to determine which brand on diaper covers and what sizes will work best. I am hoping that this baby grows at a slower rate than Isaac, but that's not up to me!!
I also woke up in a panic a couple of nights ago because I couldn't figure out how to rearrange our bedroom so that the cradle would fit. It took me a bit to remember that our lease is up in December and we won't even be living here...
Have a most enjoyable weekend - we plan on heading downtown GR for the Mexican festival and the Chili Cookoff. On Sunday we will be at Kylie's house celebrating her 4th birthday!

Camping at PJ Hoffmaster

Our home away from home!

The next few pictures are from Friday afternoon - it was unbelievably windy! The waves were 5-10 feet and there was some crazy guy trying to enjoy the surf?! It felt like we were in a sandstorm, so our trip was short-lived...


On Saturday, the weather was much more enjoyable. However, the biting flies put a damper on our day... If it's not one thing, it's another?! I was able to take a few awesome photos of my boys, though!!

The Sportsmen for Youth club was at PJ Hoffmaster State Park on Saturday and we decided to venture over there to see what kind of fun was to be had...

Isaac scaling the "rock wall" like Spiderman

Petting some stuffed animals - I chose to stay out of this exhibit and observe from a distance while the boys enjoyed the animals. Isaac did jump a few times...

Practicing to be a firefighter - wow!Shooting a real gun - they shot 2/4 targets!

We have movement!

I am in week 12 this week and I have been feeling sporadic movement since Friday. I can't believe that this is the last week of my first trimester!!
I can't wait to start feeling the baby more pronounced. Sometimes I feel selfish and guilty because I know that Rob is anxious to feel movement, but it's really nice to have this one thing all to myself for a couple of weeks! I am plus 4.5 inches around the belly now -it's starting to look pretty obvious! Wearing maternity clothing really adds to the effect :o)

Labor Day

Night Swimming

Boat Ride
Tubing with Kylie
Tubing with Isaac
We spent the whole Labor Day weekend and Camp Lake and it was beautiful! Sherry had Kylie for the entire weekend and we really enjoyed spending time with her.

We let the kids sleep together on Friday night but the stayed up talking about what they were dreaming about! It was quite an advanced conversation for a couple of 3-year olds!

We finally separated them and they went right to sleep. I did enjoy reading stories to them before bedtime, I think they enjoyed it as well.

We all got plenty of sun (and food) all weekend - I wish it could be like that every weekend!

Isaac's camera adventures

Cousin Gina
Uncle Ben
Grandpa John
Aunt Jenny
Isaac had a ton of fun taking pictures of everyone! Thank goodness for digital cameras and the delete button :o)

Birthday Fun

8 feet of birthday balloon funness! Isaac and Kylie at Trini's (downtown Sparta)
Goofy kids
My cream puff birthday dessert
Blowing out the candles in my new outfit
Rob, Chay, Amelia, Uncle Ben
Grandpa John, Super Grandma Sherry, and Granny
Granny, Uncle Ben, Amelia, Gina
What a wonderful 26th birthday! It all started on Monday, the 27th and ended on Sunday, the 2nd of September!

On Monday my Mom made her yummalicious tacos for dinner and we were able to share a few moments with Joe before he left. We also had a Baskin Robbins cake, which we used to sing Happy Birthday to everyone who was there. I figured that since we won't all be together again for birthdays for the rest of the year, I would share my cake! We started with me, Mom (because we were in South Carolina for her birthday and didn't properly celebrate), then Dad, Jon and Joe, Rob, and Isaac just for fun!

On the 30th, Jon took me out for lunch at Bennigans and to AJ's to play putt-putt (I lost by one stroke on the last hole). My Grandma Spencer, who never remembers my birthday, called and I talked to Uncle Bobby as well, and Grandpa sang for me! When I was on my way to lunch, my father-in-law called me, which was an awesome surprise. Around 3:38, my mom called to make me cry, because I officially turned 26 at 3:31pm and she was reminiscing! When Rob got home that night, he surprised me with the balloons and then we went to XO Asian Cuisine, downtown Grand Rapids. It was delicious and fun (but next time we will get a sitter for Isaac)! My dad also called me that night and my mother-in-law posted a blog wishing me a very happy birthday!

It doesn't end there! On Friday, we went to Trini's for dinner with Sherry, John, Grandpa Ben, Granny, Amelia, and Kylie. I love going there!

On Saturday morning I made my moms wake up super early (8:30) so that we could spend a good part of the day shopping. We gave our day a kick-start by stopping at Beaners and then headed over to CenterPoint mall. We started at TJ Maxx where I found an adorable pair of shoes and a couple of purses. We then headed over to Old Navy where I found a cute winter coat, then off to Nordstrom Rack where I found another pair of shoes, Reef sandals (for me and Isaac so that we can be "top-of-the-line" like Rob), and an outfit!

I have never had so much luck shopping - I usually HATE shopping because nothing ever fits right and I get sooooo frustrated. However, it must have been my day, because not only did I find everything that I was looking for, but 2 of the stores were playing Barenaked Ladies while we were shopping :o)

Sherry and I dropped my mom off at home and headed back to Granny's house. I was surprised to find a birthday celebration planned for me! We had a yummy dinner and dessert, and enjoyed spending time together!

On Sunday, Aaron and Katie came to pick up Kylie and gave me a gorgeous necklace from Alexa's Angels. It was unexpected, but very much appreciated!

Thanks everyone for making my birthday so very special!!!!