Birthday dinner

For my birthday my family took me out to dinner. To Chipotle, one my favorite places! The kids love it almost as much as I do. They were having a great time and putting on a show. It was nice because it wasn't super busy there so the kids could be a little louder than normal. :) Here is a little bit of what they were doing.......

A Birthday!

If you can believe it, Zoe turned 2 this past Monday! I can hardly believe it! she is now older than Toby was when we moved out to PA and talks so much and is just a little mom! It has been fun to see who she has become in these past 2 years. The one thing that never changed from day 1 is her adoration for her big brother! anything he likes, she likes. Anything he does, she wants to do. She is so excited to see him when we pick him up from school, when she wakes up from her nap, and if he is sad she is sad too! They have a very cute relationship, now don't get me wrong they totally fight - but what brother and sister who really love each other doesn't, right?! :) Here are some pictures to see how much she has grown in the past 2 years.

The day Zoe was born January 31, 2009. She weighed 9lbs 2oz. The nurses called her a "solid" little girl!

They way most people remember her. Her hair just stood up straight! We could never get it down, it was just Zoe's look! It was fun then but when I look back at pictures, it looked so crazy!

Zoe is 1!!

Zoe with her favorite brother ever!

Zoe is 2 and such a little princess!

Fall Fest

This past Saturday was Fall Fest here at Geneva and it happened to be in our parking lot. So right our in our 'front yard'. The kids LOVED it! :) Toby was out all day running around with all the people that were here. We got a couple pictures to capture it.

Toby and Zoe. Both smiling, both looking towards the camera - can't get any better than that!!

Toby got his face painted for the first time. He loved it. He turned into Spiderman.

Toby with his new buddy 'Strawhead'

The wagon that Zoe loved riding in and giving her baby rides in.

And I really wanted Zoe to wear pigtails but the only way she would keep them in was to put them in Toby's hair too. So here they are! My pigtail babies!!

A little bit more...

Our friend Erin took some amazing pictures of Toby the other day and I LOVE them!! I just wanted to share them with you. Beware, Toby looks pretty old!! :)

And Toby is....

Yes, the cake is right. There is a 4 on it! Toby is 4! Where does the time go?! We had a great time celebrating. Toby wanted Buzz Lightyear and Mario on a cake and this is what he got. Pretty nice huh?! I can't take credit for it....all I did was ask the right person to make it for me! :)

Here are a few pics from his party.

This is true. One day you will see this little boy on a cereal box!

Got to do one of his favorite things..... golf!! They kept score and even though Toby lost he was only 1 stroke behind my dad! Toby is a good golfer! :)

Water bumper boats!! This was so fun! Even Brian had a blast on them! It was so hot out that it felt awesome to get wet!

Kristie, Simone and Gavin were in the opposing boat getting Toby and Brian wet! There were lots of squeals and laughing!!

A little bit of flying!

Zoe was even trying to play some of the arcade games! I don't think she knows that you don't usually get to climb in them! :)

We had so much fun and Toby enjoyed everything we did with him! Here's to another fun year with Toby!

Tobys hair cut

Toby had been telling us that he wanted to grow his hair out. Which we were ok with because he looked pretty sweet with long hair! :) Here is what he looked like....

Well we left him for a week at my parents house. It was hot. My mom said that he wanted to get a hair cut when he was there. So she took him to get a hair cut. Goodbye sweet long blonde hair. Goodbye young Toby. Here he is with his new due and his cousin Xavier.

Still a cute little guy!

Easter Break

Over Easter break we went to binghamton NY with my parents. My dad had to go there for work and we just all tagged along. While in the pool at the hotel Toby jumped off the side and hit my mom in the eye with is chin. This is the result of that!

The kids had a hard time with all the driving! My mom did a great job in the back with them trying to keep them occupied. This is Zoe with crayons in her toes! This got her mind off the fact that she was in the car for a while!

It was my birthday too. Yes that is a 2-9 on the cake. Lets not talk about that.

Here is Easter! I LOVED their Easter outfits! They looked so cute in them!

Not a good thing....

I need to become a morning person. I have gone through a period where I did a great job being a good morning person. That has long passed. I hate mornings. I always have. Just ask my parents! Now I need to change this.

This morning Toby was eating breakfast and I was feeding Zoe her breakfast when all of a sudden Toby showed me a picture of a lady. He told me he wanted her to be his mommy. He wants his daddy and that lady to be his mom. WOW! That is just not what I wanted to hear! Maybe I shouldn't be so grumpy in the mornings, or maybe I should just stay in bed like Brian until I am awake and happy. I guess getting up with the kids isn't good enough, they want you to be happy like them.

I have lots of work to do to get there. And need lots of prayer to get there.

This was NOT a good way to start my day but here goes.......

new tricks

Indiana Grandpa showed Toby how he gargles the last time we were visiting. Well Toby tried to do this and got it pretty fast! He loves his new trick!!

Now this is an old trick, just perfected now! Some of you may remember Zoe's crawl. I called it the gimpy crawl, my dad called it the handicapped crawl. (I feel like both aren't really the most encouraging things!! ha ha!) Well yesterday she was crawling and I had to do a double take because she was crawling NORMAL!! take a look.

Unca Josh here you go

Unca Josh, this is for you! Hope we can see you soon and you can see her in person! (sorry for the wobbly camera shot!)

And Zoe is....

WALKING!!! She doesn't always do it but this morning she has been doing it more and more and going further! I think it's happening!

Zoe is 1

Well it has happened. Zoe had her birthday! A year ago we welcomed little Zoe into the world and into our family. She has grown so much over the past year and she loves her big brother Toby a lot! She wants to do anything and everything he does. As some of you know she was blessed with crazy hair that always brought attention wherever we were, everyone loved it! unfortunately, it is now lying down, but she is still as cute as ever! She has been walking around using furniture and along walls for quite awhile now, but she hasn't walked along yet. We are very excited to see what this next year of her life brings as she continues to grow and learn.

Here are some of her 1 year pictures:

Here are some pictures from her birthday party:

Happy Birthday Zoe! We love you and are so glad you are apart of our family!

melts my heart

I was washing the dishes this morning and heard Zoe squealing and laughing. I stopped to see what was going on. Toby was 'getting' her like I do sometimes! I love when they play together!! This melts my heart!

She's coming to you soon mom & dad:)

Words that describe

crawling. talking. growling. destroys. funny. precious. smily. chunky. lovable. squeezable. interested. curious.

I love getting my Zoe time in every day! It's rare to get her to myself with out anyone else around. I love when I get to give her my full attention!

Thank you Taylor for taking this amazing picture of her! I absolutely love it!

I can't wait to see who she continues to become!

Bath time

Toby. Zoe.

Lets see, it's been a while since I updated you on what is happening with Toby and Zoe. So lets start now,

Toby. He is a character! He loves to laugh and make people laugh. He is HUGE into playing any kind of sport or anything on the Wii! Right now he is struggling with listening to us! Maybe it's because he hangs out with college kids all day that don't have parents telling them things they can and cannot do or maybe it's because he is 3. All we know is that it is tiring and makes for some rough days! He always wants to sleep in mommy and daddy's bed. The other day he wasn't wanting to take a nap and I had to focus on getting Zoe to sleep, this is how I found him ! :)

I guess he was tired!! ha ha!! He has been using the big boy potty for a while now and wearing underwear (when he is awake) regularly. The other morning he decided to wear them on his head!! what a goof!

You can actually have a full blown conversation with him! I don't have to translate for other people anymore! We will be in the school cafeteria and he will just be wondering the tables (well usually its running) and will talk to who ever is around!!

Over all Toby has been growing up so fast and we are trying to love every minute of it!! Some days are more of a challenge than others but he is a great boy who is loving life!!

Next on to Zoe. She is 9 months already! How is that possible? She has 5 teeth and last time I weighed her was 24 pounds! She CRAWLS!! Toby never crawled so it's very strange to have a baby that crawls. However she still loves to walk. Walk with holding your hands, walk along the couch and around the ottoman. Needless to say she is everywhere!! She loves to be on the move!

She sings and talks all the time. It is wonderful! For Halloween she dressed up as one of her favorite people of all time..... TOBY!

We didn't do anything really for Halloween, we opened up our building for the kids in the neighborhood. Toby would have rather played in some of the guys rooms so he didn't even dress up as anything! Zoe has been struggling with sleeping. Well getting to sleep and staying asleep during the day. Some naps it would take 30 -45 mins for her to fall asleep and then she would only sleep for about 25 - 30 mins!! Not worth all the crying!! We thought we had moved past this but it is still happening..... I guess we will wait and see if maybe its another tooth coming in.

She is discovering things all the time!! I love seeing her face as she studies something. She found pumpkins last night at a harvest party we were at. She had to be touching them at all times when she was by them. It was funny! And yes she still has her famous hair that sticks up!! :)

I love seeing the 2 of them interact together! Zoe LOVES Toby and could watch him all day long! He can get her to laugh so easily! I wonder if she will like to play with dolls or girly things, right now all she wants are cars and balls!! :)

We feel very blessed to have 2 wonderful children in our lives and can't wait to see them grow up (not to mention grow 'out' of the things they are dealing with right now!!) But this is our life right now and we love it!

RIP Daddy fish

On my way to bed tonight I noticed Daddy fish laying on the bottom of the bowl. It has happened. He died. The bad thing is I just gave him new water tonight so I feel I am to blame for his sudden death. I do feel horrible.

Now we have the death talk with Toby in the morning....

Daddy fish: 10/10/09 - 10/19/09

yup he is just laying on the bottom.