Jakey's First Birthday

Jacob turned 1 today! I can't believe how fast this past year has gone.  Jacob continues to smile and laugh all the time, crawls and cruises everywhere and loves to talk (just 3 words :-)).  He can say dada and momma, and babi which means bottle.  The other day he was able to stand by himself for a whole minute then plopped on his bottom.  He loves to walk and stand, and will find his way on whatever he can climb up. He's got 6 little teeth and bites everything!  This little boy brings us such joy we are so blessed God placed him in our care :-)

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Yesterday we celebrated the birth of our Savior by throwing him a birthday party :-)  I've been wanting to teach Elijah what to true meaning of Christmas is, but how do you really teach a 2 year old that? So I got a great idea from a friend to throw Jesus a birthday.  The week before we were able to talk about what kind of gift we should give Jesus and at first Elijah said a toy (specifically a T-rex and stegasaurus) but the more we were able to talk and explain what makes Jesus happy we were able to write down a prayer and wrapped it up for the party.  I made a felt board nativity scene and we played pin the star over the manger.  Then we read the Christmas story, sang Happy Birthday to Jesus and opened his gifts.  I'm not sure how much the boys really got it, but if anything I had some great talks with Elijah before bed.  Ever since the party, Elijah has been saying "I love Jesus and Santa!"



Reading the Christmas story

Our nativity scene



Singing Happy Birthday!

Opening Jesus's gifts

This is what happens when I let Elijah use the sprinkles







The Treehouse

This past week we went a place called The Treehouse in a neighboring town with some friends.  It's basically an inside playground all cushioned with slides, tunnels, a basketball court and lots of baby friendly places to hang out.  They even have a cafe with real food (and healthy too!) and tons of leather couches and tables for people to eat and just relax.  Elijah and Jacob both loved it. It's nice to have a place where the kids can play and run since it's getting pretty cold and snowy outside. We got a groupon to it so we will definitely be back for more!

Jacob was all smiles, he loved crawling around everywhere

Henry and Elijah, tired after playing tag

basketball/soccer/dodgeball

Thanksgiving

My parents came out to visit for Thanksgiving and we had so much fun.  Elijah and Jacob were so excited to see their Noni and Grandpa.  We had a great visit and got to show them our life in Ann Arbor.  We went out to breakfast and went to the Farmer's Market and The Hands-on Museum on Wednesday, then Thanksgiving we braved the cold and went to the park for a little while, then back home to cook!

It was so cold Elijah had to borrow Noni's scarf

 This was the first Thanksgiving meal I've ever prepared all by myself at our home.  We actually ate when I planned and I think it turned out pretty good.  The boys and I had made a Thanksgiving tree (thanks for the idea Kristi!) where we got to write down what we were thankful for and then shared them before we ate.  It was fun getting to hear what everyone was thankful for. 

our Thanksgiving Tree

On Friday we did do some shopping, but went after all the crowds died down.  Then we walked down the street to the park and played before it was nap time.

It was a great visit and I'm so grateful that my parents came to visit and see where we are living.  We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we are so grateful for all our friends and family.

Leaves!

This past weekend Elijah and I spent the afternoon raking the leaves from our front lawn. Let's just say all the leaves in the neighborhood like our lawn the most. We filled up almost 10 leaf bags! Elijah had fun destroying the piles that mommy had made, but he had so much fun with his little rake and even helped me sweep up the sidewalk too.

We just had our first snow fall yesterday which was really exciting! We were on our way out of the house to celebrate a friends birthday, when we discovered it was snowing! We weren't quite dressed for it, but it didn't stick, just fun to look at. It's crazy to think that we live in a place where we will be getting snow outside our front door, I still can't get used to it :-)

Halloween Fun

We missed our annual halloween chili night with the Miller's this year:-(, but found some fun things to do.  Ann Arbor has an annual Halloween festival downtown where the shops hand out candy and kids can come by during the day to trick or treat.  It was really fun, they even had a photographer who snapped pictures of the kids for free and put them up on the ann arbor website.  It was quite a turnout, lots of cute kids in costumes. 

The library had a craft time with donuts and cider so we went to that in the afternoon and Elijah made a Q-tip skeleton man with a cotton ball nose :-) 


We then ventured out in the evening for some trick or treating in a near by neighborhood (a professor gave kevin a tip about this neighborhood) and it was quite an event! They close down the street and there are hundreds of kids walking around door to door( I can't imagine how much candy those people pass out!).  Elijah had fun and was pretty tired when we got home.  It was an eventful day, with lots of candy :-)



It looks like snow, but it's not.  It was actually not too cold!

Feeling Crafty

I have been wanting to decorate the boys rooms, but since money is tight, it's hard to come up with ways without spending too much money.  Today we were walking through Michaels and and I saw some blank canvases, 2 for 10 bucks (plus I had a coupon, so really 7 bucks)! So I got them and decided to make a photo collage for each of their rooms.  I already had a bunch of fabric and ribbons, so I didn't need to buy anything but the canvas.  I think they turned out pretty good, and the best part was that I finished them both while they were taking their naps!

This one is for Elijah's room

This one is for Jacob's room

Trick or Treat!

The kids were so excited this year they couldn't wait till Halloween to try on their costumes.  Elijah decided he wanted to be Spiderman( he was also Lightning McQueen for a little while too) and Jacob following in his brother's footsteps decided (or his mom did) that he would be a spider too( and no the bib is not part of the costume. Our little one still likes to spit up everywhere!)  The law school put on a little halloween event where people could come and decorate pumpkins and get their face painted and enjoy donuts, cider and other tasty treats.  He got his face painted (a spider of course), and decorated a pumpkin he picked out. 





The other weekend we went out with some friends to the bowling alley.  Elijah had never been and was super excited.  They put up bumpers and had a ramp so the kids didn't have to actually try and roll the ball all the way down.  I must say I was a little rusty, not having bowled in about 12 years, so it was nice we got to use the bumpers too :-) 

Mommy and Daddy so proud of Elijah's bowling skills.

Date Night

On Thursday was our first official date night for Kevin and I.  One of Kevin's classmates watched our boys for the evening and we got to enjoy a night out on the town.  We went to the Jolly Pumpkin Brewery for dinner.  Then stopped by Starbucks for hot drinks.  It was so relaxing and I didn't worry about the boys too much :-)  Elijah had a really good time and Jacob did great too.  I think this was our first evening out together without kids since July!

 I got a basil limeade, which was really good.                Kevin got a beer sampler.

Today we went to Chelsea.  It's a cute little town, home of Jiffy brand mixes.  We got to tour the Chelsea Teddy Bear Factory and Museum.  The boys got to pick a souvenir. Then we went to Timbertown down the street, had lunch and the boys got to play.  Overall a fun day!

Apple Picking

This past weekend we got to go apple picking at Wasems Farm.  It was really cold, but super fun.  It was a huge orchard and even though it looks like we were the only ones there, there was a bunch of people picking apples.  We got mostly Jonathan and Golden Delicious varieties, Elijah helped some but found one he wanted to eat and was too busy to pick the rest.  We got a 1/2 bushel, which I didn't realize is ALOT of apples! 

Elijah and Henry had a lot of fun, but the real suprise of the afternoon was not the apples, but the Donuts!  They make them fresh right at the farm. They had pumkin, blueberry, cherry, apple and then all kinds of different glazes maple, cinnamon, vanilla and chocolate.  They were SO good, I got a half dozen to take home.

So family update, Kevin is keeping busy with school, and finding all of his classes really interesting.  He went to his first U of M game against Minnesota last weekend while we went apple picking and got to enjoy the chaos of game day in Ann Arbor.  Jacob is army crawling, and loves to stand up, he would much rather stand than do anything. Elijah loves making Jacob laugh and does so quite often. 

Farmers' Market

So even though it has been raining, we decided to brave the weather and head downtown to the Farmers Market and Hands On Museum. We got lucky and it didn't rain on us. We picked up some molasses cookies, which I had never had before, but they are delicious!

We met a really nice couple a few weeks ago, Samantha and Alex and their son Henry. Alex and Kevin go to school together, so Samantha and I plan a lot of playdates! Elijah and Henry get along really well. We are planning on going apple picking this Friday!

This past weekend we had our first ever Block Party with our neighbors. It was really fun and we got to meet a lot of really nice people. We even got the history of this curious black and white cat that always comes and sits on our porch and stares at Sam and Wally. We just thought he was really friendly, but turns out that the people before us fed him...so I guess he is just hungry. We know his name now, Scarfachio :-)

We've been trying to go to all the parks around our house, there are just so many, it's great! This one in particular Elijah loved because they have lots of soccer fields, a playground and a "jungle" which is just a bunch a trails and paths he can run around in.

Like Father, Like Son...