At the Zoo

First time on the carousel, lots of fun for the boys, still makes Mommy want to throw up!
We can do the petting zoo when Daddy comes with us!! Thankfully, Andrew still doesn't want to touch anything. There is still plenty of handwashing after!!!

The rock was close enough to the gorilla for Andy!

Our Boys!!

Andrew & Matthew are doing great, and we're really enjoying the summer. We're trying to do as much as possible with our super hot days! We've been having "pool Fridays" with our friends, and Andy is really taking to the pool. We're also trying to get to the zoo when the temperature is agreeable (less than 80 at 8am).

Hard to believe, but Andrew will be 2 in less than a month. He is starting to say some things to us, but is remaining relatively stubborn on that front. He of course is familiar with the word "NO". We have been amazed at how many times we say that word not necessarily meaning "not to do something". He also has his first friend. Fireman, a 2.5 inch plastic little people toy that came with his firestation. He offers him food & drink, and asks if fireman is tired or has gone to the bathroom. We didn't think too much of it, until fireman got lost at the Cincinnati zoo. After a week of siren noises, asking where is fireman, and even trying to replace fireman with a Diego, we gave in and went to Toys R Us to buy a new fire station (the only place that fireman could be found)! We did buy the replacement package, and are planning to contact the company to see if we can buy extra firemen from them??

And our little Mattie is getting so big! He is almost 7 months old, and just a pretty cool kid. He is pretty laid back and go with the flow. Matt is starting to show some interest in Andrew's toys, so the sharing concept has started, Andy isn't really buying it. Matt is close to sitting up by himself, and really considering crawling. It's a lot of fun to get out all of the baby things again, and to see Matthew using everything, hard to believe that it will all get put away in a few months to save for friends or a garage sale! Matthew will be getting baptized next month, and we're looking forward to a fun weekend with our families!

4th of July weekend

The fam at the Northville 4th of July parade. Andy was a little preoccupied!
Shelling peas with Grandma & Grandpa

First time in a sandbox, not real crazy about that grainy stuff!

I'll just work on that from out here!

The infamous clown hat. This is Brian's childhood toy, and the inspiration behind our newly purchased Buzz Lightyear sprinkler. The clown hat goes up with water pressure and gets a good spray going. Andrew was a little hesitant at first, but once he figured it out he didn't want the fun to stop!

Road-Trip

This was our last meal stop on the way home, and we couldn't take anymore fast food. Unfortunately, the boys were getting very restless, we were only about 3 hours from home. Anyway, Brian must have been restless too, he requested Cracker Barrel for lunch, and he hates Cracker Barrel (b/c of the store)!! The food was a great change, and the porch was the perfect place for Andy to run around. And, Brian even bought himself a little treat of gummy bears from the store (maybe we'll be able to eat there in the future).

Thank God for Monkey Joe's in Lexington!!! This was Andy's first real bounce house experience, it was just what we needed after 6+ hours in the car!!

Playing at a rest stop, it was in the mid 70's in Ohio, so nice!!

We recently drove to MI for the 4th of July weekend. We turned a 12 hour drive into a 2 day trip, and tried to find some fun things to do along the way. Brian found a great book with things to do with kids along I-75. It gave some funny suggestions, and we made our own notes. I see this book being used a lot in the years to come. The boys did really well, the first day was a little crazy, just figuring things out. But, by the last day on our way home, we became that family playing at the rest stop!

Funny story, we did find a way to stop at the Cincinnati zoo on the way home. Very cool! The only problem was we went to the zoo in the late afternoon as we watched the car thermometer climb into the low/mid 90's. We had a fabulous time even though we were all totally sweaty and smelly. Andrew enjoyed downing the water/gatorade, while we tried to find any animals that weren't sleeping and trying to stay cool. We did buy one of those cheesy entrance photos that I know will help us remember how funny that trip was!

Uh-Oh

Never good when you hear "uh-oh" from the back seat! We pulled into Sam's, and I turned around to find this. Not sure if I forgot to buckle or if he learned how to un-buckle. Needless to say, it hasn't happened since, knock on wood!!!

Matthew is hungry!

So, feeding Matthew is nothing like feeding Andrew. Everyone seemed surprised that at 5 months, Matt still wasn't eating baby food. We were in no hurry to go back down that path. Turns out we were wrong, he loved it, even plain rice cereal that most babies spit right out. We've been through most of the fruits and veggies and he likes them all, table food here we come!
Give it to me!!

Of course, big brother wasn't going to miss a feeding! He liked it too, gross!

First Big-Boy Haircut

A little product never hurts!

This haircut thing ain't so bad.

This was Andrew's first haircut at an actual snip-its, and the stylist was awesome. She did a whole haircut in the time span of one lollipop. We expected a squirmy meltdown, he wasn't even concerned with a stranger spraying him with water and using clippers. Bribery is key!!