Insta-Friday

Only 2 this week that haven't been shared already in other posts - but they are cute ones!

Brothers!

Milo showing Parker all the cool toys!

Christmas 2011

It was a very busy Christmas this year! Out to Syracuse a couple days before for an early Christmas with Doug's dad and a visit to his grandparents. Annual Christmas Eve party at my cousin's house. Presents at  home Christmas morning, followed by more presents and breakfast at my moms, then more presents and dinner at Doug's mom's house.  I'm exhausted all over again just thinking about it!

My boys all dressed up and cute for Christmas Eve.

Yep, these are my parents. They're weird.

The whole cast of characters: Mrs. Claus, Santa, Jingles the Elf, Grandma (who got run over by a reindeer.) Aren't we lucky to get a personal visit from Santa when he's so busy on Christmas Eve?!

Looks like Santa came!

Groggy dudes in matching pjs!

Eating the blue popcorn Santa left in his stocking for breakfast.

Brothers hanging at Grandma's.

Merry Christmas!

Insta-Friday

...better late then never!

First real sticking snow of the season... too bad it didn't last long and a white Christmas is looking like a long shot!

My shopping buddies!

Adorable baby.

The kid's first Pop Tart - love at first bite.  Its all about the healthy eating habits over here!

I should get Parent of the Year award for this purchase.

Fancy bracelet from a friend.  Now I can pretend this makes up for my daily yoga pants wearings!

Ha. Ha ha ha. So much for a cute picture of my handsome guys together.

Baby smiles!

SURPRISE!

This weekend I had a surprise party for Doug's 30th birthday, coming up this week.  His birthday is 2 days before Christmas so he usually gets the shaft with celebrations so I thought a party was definitely in order this year.

It was actually kind of a double surprise since his cousin, who he thought we weren't going to get to see this Christmas season, came up and surprised Doug and then took him out for a man date while I got the house ready.  It pretty much went off without a hitch except for the part where Nick forgot to tell me when they were in the neighborhood, so although we knew they were close the big surprise wasn't quite as in sync as I would have liked.  Oh well!  

Doug said he recognized one of my relatives cars but he thought maybe they were here to see the baby, or maybe just for surprise family birthday cake or something but he wasn't expecting a full blown party with his friends and everything.

This invite inspired the whole Hangover/Vegas theme.

The happy birthday banner and other printables were based on these.

I'm pretty proud of this wreath so I hope Doug likes it alot because its going in his office!

Doug loves a certain carrot cake so I got a plain one and decorated it myself.

This pretty much sums up the ideal Milo eating plan.

Those dice were a huge hit with Milo and when he finally crashed hard he had to take them to bed.  This is what we found when we checked on him later.

Parker partying it up with all his Grandmas.

Santa Time 2011!

You know I love a good Bad Santa Photo and this yet did not disappoint!  Not only was Milo doing his best to escape while shouting "ALL DONE!" but Parker picked the most unfortunate moment to stretch out since he had just woken up. (Or perhaps you could call it fortunate, since it really adds to the crazy factor here!) The only bad part of this picture is that you can't get a good look at their ADORABLE coordinating outfits.

Next year though we will definitely try the big mall because Santa is even worse then last year's dude.  Ridiculous!

One Month Old!

 Dear Parker -

This weekend you turned 1 month old and I literally can not even believe it.  It seems like it has only been days since we came home from the hospital, not weeks! And yet, I can barely remember how things were before you came. You have fit into the family seamlessly.

You are still the most chill baby.  You very rarely cry unless you are trying to tell us you are hungry.  You are also a pretty good sleeper, getting up once or twice a night to eat and usually going back to sleep pretty quick.  We even had a couple days with 5 hour stretches in there!  And really, even when you don't want to go right back to sleep you aren't crying or anything - just wanting to hang out.

You love to swing, especially in the one that goes side to side, and to cuddle and be held.  One thing you don't like very much though is baths.  I have a feeling that will change as you get bigger but right now you could definitely live without them.

Milo still doesn't want to hold you but does love to talk about how cute you are and show you the games he is playing.  I'm sure it won't be long before he has you into Mickey too!

We all love you so much and can't wait to see what next month brings!

Milo's Pirate Party

For Milo's birthday party this year we did a nice low key kids party at Explore and More - the children's museum here.  You got to pick a theme out of a few choices so we went with pirates since Milo is kind of into them right now and they did a great job of executing it.

They supplied cake so I brought some cupcakes just to make sure we'd have enough for the adults to. (And we did, we had way too much in fact!)

Milo was not into being sung to, which is weird because he really liked it the day before when we sang to him at home on his real birthday.  Afterwards we figured out there was a big pirate decoration near the cake that was scaring him a little.

Cake!

 And of course the kids had so much fun playing with all the exhibits.  Milo was running everywhere and only came into the party room for cake or a juice break!

Three Years Old

(Obviously the hat went over just as well as last year!)

(Also, the Christmas cake was entirely his idea, and he loved it.  Apparently he doesn't know yet that he's not supposed to like having a birthday near Christmas!)

Height: 3 ft 3.75" (93%)

Weight: 36 lbs 4 oz (88%)

Dear Milo -

I can not believe you are 3 years old already!  I know I will inevitably say this every birthday, but its true.  This year has flown by and you have grown up so much.  There is no doubt that you have developed your own personality for sure at this point.  When you are happy you are so happy, and when you are mad you are very dramatic about it - 2 extremes really.  You are stubborn as can be, but also the most affectionate and loving kid I know! And I definitely think of you as a kid now.  Its like as soon as we came home from the hospital with your baby brother you were suddenly so huge and grown up to us! You also have your own little sense of humor and, typical to little boys, you think farts are the funniest thing, announcing "I farted!" and laughing hysterically when it happens.

You are so much like your Uncle Tommy lately that Grandma even calls you by his name sometimes.  You are extremely picky about food, have a big temper when you get angry, stick out your tongue when you're concentrating, hate getting your hands dirty, and love video grames and bowling! Its uncanny really.

Your favorite foods continue to be chicken fingers, pizza, pancakes/waffles, pb&j, cereal, and apples. In fact thats all it seems like you eat most of the time!

Your favorite people to hang out with are your cousins Matt and John. You guys can be quite the team of destruction and I wonder what life will be like when you are teenagers together!  You also get so excited to see your Grandpa Sorce - just seeing his truck, or one like it, will make you happy!

You love Thomas the Train, hot wheels type cars, and anything and everything Mickey Mouse.  You know how to get to YouTube on the iPad or a phone and pull up classic Mickeys to watch, which always amazes me.  Also you love to play Wii, or most of the time watch someone else play Wii - especially Wii Sports and Rock Band.

We are still working on potty training, which at this point consists of you sitting on the potty before your bath but nothing has come of it yet.  I'm sure you will figure it out in your own time, like you always do, I just hope its sooner rather than later!

Your speech has improved by leaps and bounds over the last year although you are still very stubborn about actually busting out all your language skills and actually using them.  Any word we tell you though you can say and remember.  Its just getting you to use actual sentences that you continue to work on.  You also have started to call other people, besides me and daddy by their names, especially your cousins Matt and John, and your speech therapist Tracy. You call me Mee-ma and Daddy comes out as Dee-dee usually.  Grandma and Grandpa are Nee-ma and Beem-pa, and of course you use Bella's name all the time.  Occasionally you also call Parker by his name, but usually its "Baby," which I'm sure he'll appreciate as he gets older if that doesn't change!

Speaking of Parker, you still don't want to hold him, and won't give him a kiss, but you do talk to him and like to show him the games you are playing on the phone.  My favorite is when you talk about how cute he is.  "Baby SO CUTE!"

Milo, we love you so much and even when we have our moments of you acting out like a toddler (and oh when you do you don't mess around!),  you continue to amaze us and make our lives the best they can be! We can't imagine our lives otherwise!