Easter with the Rock Family

Easter Sunday: Part 1 of 2

Now isn't this the cutest group of little men you've ever seen?  I think so at least!  Wally, Colin, and Ryder are growing up and we had the perfect 3 seconds where they all sat still.  Raenay and Grant's back yard is so interesting that I didn't think we'd be able to do it.  Sheer mommy will. This is why I love the "continuous shoot" action on my camera.

I had to include this one even though it's a little blurry because this is such a funny little face.

 Dad and Raenay smiling for the camera!

I took a few family shots for Andy and Kacy.  Now that thier family is growing (due August!) we need to document the stages when we can :)  

 Here's a few more cute pics from the day.  I just thought I'd throw them in for fun!

Visit to Lake Elmo

Last weekend Brian was attending the Minnebar Tech Conference in Mpls, so Wally and I had the whole day Saturday to hang out.  We decided to head over to Lake Elmo and visit my dad and Mary, and it was a wonderful day. Kacy and Andy joined us, and Colin and Wally gave a thorough "kid-testing" to the new house.  They inspected everything from the dishwasher to stairways to bedrooms.  No square inch was unturned.  Here is a cute pic of Colin with one of Marys kitchen wooden spoons.

Those spoons made wonderful golf clubs, and Wally had a blast batting those tennis balls around the dining area.

 Dad spent a good chunk of the day chasing Wally up and down the stairs.  They played a game of peek-a-boo (a current Wally favorite) between the lower and upper staircases.

 We'll be back soon for another visit!

Birthday Video and Follow Up

Are we really almost a month into 2012?  What happened to January?  The weather this month has been so out-of-whack that I feel like true MN winter didn't really hit until about 6 days ago when we finally got a string of sub zero days and some sleety snow.  Yesterday I shoveled the walkway for piano students for the first time this winter.  I remember doing this several times last winter when I was full term, so that must have been December...

So anyway, we had a wonderful celebration a few weeks back for Wally's birthday.  Our little guy is officially a toddler!  Every day he's looking less like a baby and more like a little man. We threw Wally a party at our place with family and neighbors.  I was really surprised how much work it was for me to put together a 2 hour party.  I think it took me half the week to clean, decorate, cook, bake & decorate 2 cakes.  And this will probably be the easiest birthday, I'm sure it only get's more involved from here.  It was completely worth it and I had a great time.  Wally got some wonderful gifts.  Lots of toys, PJ's, books, and a little cash for his savings account at the local bank here in Mound.  I put together a cute little video of "birthday highlights" below (I've never put video into this blog so I'm not sure if this is going to work!)

Our second round of celebrations was a general birthday party for the friends in my Mama group.  That was really fun!  So neat to see these little babies that are all growing up so quickly!  So many developments.  A couple of the boys were already walking, and all were very active eating and babbling and generally taking things away from eachother.  Sippy cups were the favorite, and I think there were about 4 different sets of lips on Wally's glass.  It was the most entertaining afternoon I've had all month.

Here is a pic of our party last weekend paired with pic from our class last year.  We've come a long way Baby!

Amma Mama Birthday Party Jan 2012

Last Class of Amma Mamas in March 2011

Wally's Birthday Part 1

Merry Christmas

Our House during Sunrise on Christmas

It's 7:20am on Christmas morning.  Wally has been up since 4:45 - I'd like to say he is excited for Christmas morning (and this will probably be true in a few years) but unfortunately this is just his regular wake up time.  Which makes me wonder if he is just doing this as a part of his being so young or if he's really wired for a lifetime of being an early riser.  As parents we like to do that don't we?  Slap a label on every behavior as in "oh, Wally's an early riser.  Early to bed, early to awake" when in truth I have no idea what he'll do next week, it's always different!  That's been the fun part of watching him grow up this year to me, all these new discoveries.  It's so exciting to watch him learn how to turn pages in his books, or learn his few signs he's started doing (all done, more, nurse so far!), or start taking a few steps.

Yesterday we hosted Christmas with the Rock family at our place and Wally was taking lots of steps.  I think he was up to 7 in a row at one point.  Everyone was gathered in the living room and he was in the center just walking away!  We had a full house - pretty much everyone was there including Brian's family.  It was really fun to see everyone and I think people had a good time.  All the boys were together - Colin and Ryder were wearing cute Christmas outfits and so active.  Colin took over the toys in the basement.  Ryder loved Hazel - every time she came over to sniff him he would crack this huge smile and giggle.  Grandma and Grandpa Rock made it out too, both wearing thier Micky and Minnie Mouse sweaters.  Lots of great food too!  I totally had this wonderful idea to set up our old church-basement-style table against the back sliding door and put all the food over there.  It worked out really well and kept the kitchen clear for drinks and feeding babies.  I'll have to do that again for other gatherings!

I remember these sweaters from when I was a kid at Christmas!

Playing in the Living Room

The boys escaping the crowds inside

Of course we had to get a few shots of all the boys together.  The room was a riot when Wally kept trying to take Ryders pacifier (which was firmly attached to his shirt by a ribbon) and tried to put it in his mouth.  He couldn't figure out how to get it unattached and in his mouth, but he kept trying anyway.  We had all three sitting by the Xmas tree for pics at one point. It was near impossible to have them all sitting down at the same time, so I have about 25 pictures of them picking on eachother or just a blur of activity....  like this:

Boys together

Girls together

Hey there blue eyes

Mmmmm, I'm always teething. Just look at my row of chompers!

We had just a few minutes for presents.  Grandma and Grandpa got Wally and Colin each a sled, which came with big red bows and a nametag on the front.  Like the Lexus commercials.  We had to strap Colin in because he kept trying to escape.  Wally, on the other hand, reached over, grabbed Colin's bow with one hand and his in the other, and waved them around like a cheerleader. 

Speaking of food, five stars to Dad for making cookies this year!  Very impressive.  Here he is in all his glory:

I doctored this one up, and love the way it turned out!

Dad's cookie spread

The cookie balls in the middle were my favorite

Wreaths with skittles on top