The Rubles

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T07:23:00.002-06:00

Wishing you a happy day!

Jojo desperately wanted to eat his cookie, and even got it up to his mouth.

He got sweet potatoes and rice cereal instead.

But he didn't seem to mind!

Ruble Reunion

2012-02-08T20:51:00.005-06:00

We spent the last weekend in January at the annual Ruble family reunion in Columbus. This year there were 30+ people at the Embassy Suites, spending a weekend catching up, eating, and playing Bohemian hockey. We've only been once since we've had kids, so it was a little different to have to keep an eye on the boys rather than just worrying about ourselves (then again, isn't that life in general these days?!). But, we had plenty of help--no shortage of volunteers to hold Jojo, and girl cousins to run TJ ragged through the hotel. Fun times! Oh, and did I mention that Ed won the family tournament? Yes!

Aunt Alli gets smiles from Josiah. This kid went from person to person all weekend and didn't bat an eyelash. It was great.

I caught Thomas helping himself to some cake.

And then asked him to do it again so I could take a picture. :)

Ed's cousin Dana is getting married in May. Since so many of the women in the family were there, an impromptu shower was held. It started with a scavenger hunt (complete with rhyming clues!) all through the Embassy Suites. At each clue's destination, we were met by Rich and Patrick, aka the cabana boys, aka a cousin and cousin's husband, with shots for doing after Irish toasts. Your choice of Mudslides or Pina Colada. The scavenger hunt ended at the presents--not a bad treasure!

Dana, the bride, and her mom, Aunt Donna. Plus cake.

Ed playing his cousin Mike in the Bohemian hockey final game. For the uninitiated, Bohemian Hockey is comprised of round rubber floor protectors (like what you put under furniture) being tossed at the wooden boards you see in the picture. Rules similar to cornhole. I always get bounced in the first round. This year, somehow, I got a bye to the second round and promptly got bounced there.

Ed accepts the trophy from his dad Tom, last year's winner. Now Tom, Jack (brother-in-law) and Ed have all won. That's all the Tom Ruble men except Micah. Micah--the challenge is on!

TJ takes his turn at Bohemian hockey. He preferred to stand about 2 feet away and whip the pucks in. Dangerous but effective!

Did I mention there is a lot of food at these reunions? Everyone brings something. It's crock pot heaven. Although in the last couple years, the salad bar (above) has appeared. I didn't even get a photo of the meat table, or the snack table. We may be there for 2 days, but no one goes hungry.

Grandma and Jojo

TJ and his ladies. Ed's cousins kids (Keira, Adrianna, and Kylie) are all a bit older than TJ. Happily for us, they loved playing with him and played/watched him all weekend. I think I went several hours at a time without seeing him. They ran laps around the various floors of the Embassy Suites (great set-up!) and investigated all the empty conference rooms. Girls, you were awesome and TJ had a blast!

How convenient that there was a Skyline Chili on the way out of town. Thomas is inhaling the massive amounts of shredded cheese on his coney dog. A big improvement from our last Skyline visit when he refused to eat. We were about to disown him, but now we'll keep him.

Silliness and Wiggles/Giggles

2012-02-01T17:11:00.000-06:00

A quick video of each boy!

Yep, that's our kid.

TJ got Alphie for Christmas. They are best buds--TJ plays with him all the time, and he's gotten really good at the games/lessons Alphie offers. Alphie has all kinds of super-clever encouraging phrases ("That's Alph-tastic," "Destination Coordinates: Head of the Class," "Genius," etc.). They do wonders for a kid's self esteem, and it never gets annoying...
Anyway, Thomas has taken to repeating Alphie's phrases in random situations. In the video above, he is saying, "I'm a learning machine," which appears to completely contradict his actions.

This second video is much sweeter.

Check out Jojo's wiggles and giggles. He is a perpetual ball of motion--his arms and legs are constantly going like that. And the giggles...we can't get enough!

Mom and Dad come to Kalamazoo

2012-01-27T06:55:00.000-06:00

Mom and Dad came to visit us in Kalamazoo this past weekend. The snow delayed the start of their trip but it sure was nice for sledding and skiing a bit on Saturday and Sunday! They also got to see the brewery, visit Eccentric Cafe, babysit while went out on a date night (!) and house hunting, and take the boys to Air Zoo, a very cool museum/activity center.

The boys fly a helicopter

Plane ride! Dad's legs didn't fit real well.

Riding a rocket ship

Baby overalls...I love it!

The boys standing on Buppa

Naptime!

Skiing in our backyard

Sledding--not much of a hill, so TJ got a ride around the yard from Buppa instead.

A much-needed haircut!

I just loved his expression here.

Deflating the blow-up bed. Mom and Dad got to sleep in TJ's room on this mattress and Jojo slept in with us.

Weekend in Williamstown

2012-01-20T21:36:00.002-06:00

Thanks to a great Southwest airlines deal, we spend a long weekend in Massachusetts at Jack and Mary Beth's house. They've been building it for the past two or so years and we hadn't seen it yet, and it's always great for the boys to have some extra cousin time and us to have some extra grown-up time! A snowstorm shortened our trip by one day, but we were thrilled there was snow in Williamstown when we arrived--it meant we could ski and sled!

All 7 of the kids. What's amazing is that they're all pretty much looking at the camera!

Their house--beautiful inside and out!

Look at those big blue eyes! Aidan is crawling all over the place--a sneak peek at what we'll be getting from Jojo in the next couple of months.

Thomas fell asleep early the night that Lauren took a bath, so he and Josiah took a bath together instead. They both seemed to really like it, so we'll have to start doing it. MB has this great little mesh "chair" which supported Jojo.

Baby interaction above and below

On Saturday we went to the nearby ski hill. The three older kids ski each week and compete in cross country races. Here's Jakin coming down the home stretch. All three did really well in their age groups. Fun to watch!

Lauren and Thomas both tried skiing for the first time. I think we have two future skiers on our hands!

The kids played dress up--here, they're pirates, but at one point (sadly, no picture), Annie was "Princess Anne" and TJ was "Prince Thomas." That does help explain why last week TJ came down the steps wearing a towel like a skirt and saying "I'm a princess." Not sure he caught the slight difference between the words!

There was also A LOT of rough housing/rumpusing. Right up Thomas' alley. The bigger boys were great with him, and tolerated him covering the floor of their room with all of their train stuff.

We went sledding in the backyard on Saturday and on Monday. There's a great little hill that was perfect for kids of all ages. I joined in the sledding on Monday. It was awesome! I haven't gone sledding in quite a while.

The little kids sledding

TJ with a shovel/sled. This was his first time really sledding and he LOVED it. Couldn't get enough. So happy we live where there's snow now so that we can do this all winter. (In fact, I bought a sled today!)

Thomas and Lauren liked getting rides back up the hill. The whole experience was such a novelty to him that even if he didn't go down the hill on the sled, he'd just run down the hill to be with everyone at the bottom (and likely to get a ride up!).

Jakin and Corban wrestled their way down the hill.

I became the sled (on top of a very skinny plastic sled) for the two little kids. They thought this was fantastic. I did too, to be honest!

This might be my favorite picture of the whole weekend. Every chance Lauren got, she'd ask, "Can I hold Jo SI ah?"

Like mother, like...son?

2012-01-18T15:45:00.001-06:00

This photo goes in the "show to TJ's future girlfriends" file. After I finished pumping on Friday, I took the milk down to the refrigerator. When I came back up to the room, this is what I found.

For those unfamiliar with pumps, this is a picture of Thomas trying to connect the pump tube to his nipple. He had the machine turned on and everything. Just missing a few key parts, both mechanical and anatomical. I guess he's seen me do this a few times and it just seemed like a good idea to try!

Josiah at 5 months

2012-01-18T08:09:00.002-06:00

Jojo is 5 months old--when did that happen?! We went to the doctor last week and he's now 16 lb. 2 oz. and his height hasn't changed. He's rolling over, starting to sit up (with pillow padding!), and eating rice cereal. He is a smiley little kid, and he loves his big brother, which is cute to see.

Third time's the charm: We tried rice cereal again this weekend and he likes it! Of course he wants to help with the spoon, but he happily gobbles up whatever goes into his mouth.

Look at that big boy sitting. He's still wobbly but is getting sturdier every day.

Random pics

2012-01-12T23:02:00.001-06:00

Some random early January pics...

Daddy and Josiah hanging out

Saturday morning treats! I took the boys for donuts (no ulterior motive there) while Ed went in to work last weekend. Thomas methodically strips the donut of frosting and filling before eating the actual donut.

That's a happy boy!

In a box in his box fort. The only problem is that it's a box sitting on top of two layers of empty boxes. How much can cardboard and air hold?

Posting this picture to show Jojo's hair. It has been "sprouting" lately and is now probably 1/2" long.

So cute!

Look what TJ has learned to do--something that makes every parent proud. I blame a certain blinking cup he used over the holidays. When he does it, he says, "I see two mamas! I see two daddies!"

The Day After...

2012-01-12T22:56:00.000-06:00

We spent a night at the Cook house on our journey home from NC. Ed reads all three kids a story. I think they held still for about half of it.

You know you're getting old when you're napping the day AFTER New Year's Day, and it has nothing to do with how late you stayed up on NYE.

The Ripstick

2012-01-11T13:39:00.001-06:00

You may have noticed that there are rarely pictures of me doing unflattering things on this blog. It may be because it's more fun to just feature the boys, who are cuter, or because I don't do unflattering things, or perhaps because I'm the one doing the blogging...you decide. :)

This experience below was just too good to not share, so here I am!

Jakin and Corban are both really into ripsticking (I'm assuming that's a verb...showing my age and lack of coolness here.) It's the new skateboard--but with only one wheel front and back, it's a lot more tippy. I never really skateboarded, but I can wakeboard and snowboard, so I decided that I'd try out their ripsticks while we were in NC. If only there was a video...

I had a really hard time keeping my balance. And gaining momentum. And doing those two things simultaneously. Waving my arms around like crazy felt like it helped, but I'm not sure it did. I still fell off pretty much every 2 feet or so.

A little bit of balance...

Anyone who knows me well knows that I stick my tongue out to help balance myself. Water skiing, wakeboarding, sometimes even just walking while carrying heavy bags. I couldn't even do that here because I was afraid I'd bit it off when I bit the dust! Maybe that's why I couldn't balance?

Toward the end of my attempts, I realized that I was doing it backwards to how I wakeboard. I switched front feet, hoping for instant improvement. There wasn't much. I think my best ride was about 6 feet long with a slight turn at the end. I may have to try again in Massachusetts this weekend when we visit the Millers. I'm determined to master this! And then maybe I'll ask for one for my birthday next year. I could be the cool mom who ripsticks! :) Or not.

It's only a still photo, but look how smoothly Jakin and Corban ride. They look so comfortable, and they can do it for hours. I want to be like them!

Ruble Christmas 2011

2012-01-08T22:08:00.001-06:00

We spent 4 days in North Carolina at Ed's parents' house around the New Year's holiday. We flew in from Michigan, Mary, Jack and the kids drove from Massachusetts, and Alli and Micah drove from Kentucky. It's quite the gathering--a packed house, lots of food, even more noise, and so much fun!

Some stats from the visit:

*8 adults

*7 kids (thank goodness we still outnumber them!)

*1 dog

* 7 gallons of milk, 4 dozen eggs, 5 loaves of bread, 8 dozen Christmas cookies (okay, these number may be exaggerated, but not by much!)

Tom and Alice and their 7 grandkids.

Aidan trying to get into one of his presents--he's 7 months old and kept trying to pull himself up. Look at those big blue eyes. Such a cutie!

Alli and Josiah

The babies outside. We had a few days in the 60s, which was great for playing outside.

Aidan and Josiah. They're about 10 weeks apart in age and much closer in size then Thomas and Lauren were!

Playtime! Jojo really tries to sit, but he's nowhere near as sturdy as Aidan yet. Overalls make it easy to keep him upright!

Grandma and Grandpa with the boys

The tree and stocking set-up from Christmas morning, before the kids were allowed to come up from the basement. Peaceful, isn't it? That didn't last long.

Making dumplings for paprikash, our traditional Christmas eve dinner. Usually I'm the third, but Micah started in my place while I was busy doing something--feeding the baby, I think.

Grandpa took the big boys out fishing. They caught a tree branch, but sadly, no fish. Great day to be on the lake, though!

These three were not happy to be left behind. Even though you only see their backs, they look so forlorn, don't they?

Both Annie and Lauren loved to hold the babies. Lauren was constantly asking to hold Jojo, which was great. She's much more gentle than Thomas--no need to worry about random whacks to the head or eye poking.

Just too cute not to post!

Ed is a jungle gym. The kids loved it!

I think this is a great picture. Jakin is 10 now. That was a fast 10 years, and I'm speaking as an aunt! I bet MB feels it was even faster.

Annie got a sewing kit that makes a stuffed teddy for her and for her American Girl doll. She and Alice worked on it together and had just about finished the smaller bear before we left. As you can imagine, I'm always happy to have another sewer in the family!

The start of the stocking hand-out. Still relatively calm. Not sure we have a picture of all the discarded wrapping paper/new toy chaos!

Everyone got a kick out of Jojo's swaddle. Sure, he looks constricted and funny, but it puts him to sleep and keeps him sleeping pretty well because his arms can't flail.

Grandpa and the big little kids

A time-honored tradition...Tom reads "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to all the kids. The couch is getting crowded!

That was alot of pictures, but it feels like there was so much we did that didn't get photographed--a bonfire, tons of legos, more running around outside, lots of family meals...etc. There also aren't a ton of pictures of the bigger kids, including Thomas--in large part because they were never holding still, whereas the babies were. But photographed or not, we all had a great time!

Christmas Carols

2012-01-07T21:59:00.000-06:00

By the time January rolls around, everyone is sick of hearing the same holiday songs over and over and over again. So acknowledging that, I apologize for putting up videos of TJ singing Rudolph and Jingle Bells. I didn't put up the entire Rudolph song. He kept getting distracted, both by the rest of us adding in the extras ("ho ho ho!" "Like Monopoly!" "like a lightbulb"), and just by the general goings-on in the house. It's less cute to hear us prompting him, so I cut it off before he starts to fade. Jingle Bells, on the other hand, there's not stopping that!
He appears to be less tone deaf than me, so that's a good thing. You'll appreciate his exuberance and expressiveness as he sings. And yes, he sang both of these songs over and over and over and over and over... You get the picture.

Swenson Christmas 2011

2012-01-04T20:59:00.000-06:00

Just a warning...Christmas = lots of pictures!

We started out the holiday week in Milwaukee and then finished it in North Carolina, with plenty of travel adventures throughout.

First, the Milwaukee Christmas with the Swensons:

Santa took time out from a very busy Christmas Eve schedule to visit the house. He and Thomas talked about if he'd been a good boy. TJ was much more comfortable with Santa this year than last!

The boys and Santa

Santa asked Grandma if she had been good as well!

We spent Christmas Eve with my grandma and my aunt and uncle.

Our best family picture from the holiday. Maybe next year we'll strive to all be looking at the camera!

The boys in their Christmas outfits. When I saw Josiah's outfit in the store, especially the hat, I couldn't resist! He has the perfect shaped head for it! :)

Ed continued his dad's tradition of reading "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" to the boys. TJ stayed up late, and we took them to the 11 pm Christmas Eve service at church. Thomas was wired. He may have had a few cookies all day long. Let's just say it's good that we knew the people sitting behind us! At one point, Thomas was "hugging" me and Jenn around our necks, essentially holding us in headlocks. It looked loving, sort of, but we were stuck. And the lit candles we all held at the end while singing Silent Night? He liked those a little too much. He did finally crash on the way home.

Okay, so the hat may be a little over the top, but it's so darn cute!!!

This picture was taken after the fact because we didn't get around to taking one of all the "kids" Christmas morning. thomas had just woken up from a nap and it was right before Jenn and Pat were leaving, so we're not all at our best!

The boys opening their stockings (made by mom) Christmas morning. Thomas was a bit overwhelmed by everything and after doing a few laps of the family room, headed back to his bed for a bit. After he collected himself, he came out, opened his stocking, and promptly took Brewster (a train from the Chuggington tv show) downstairs to the train track. We didn't see him again for another 45 minutes. Quietest Christmas morning with a 2.5 year old ever!

Wearing the stockings!

Jojo got this great gift from Jenn and Pat--it's basically a mobile exersaucer that folds up like a camp chair. Considering we don't currently have our exersaucer, nor room for it in our house, it will get alot of use--portable + collapsable is good!

Ed and Pat continued their tradition of making presents. They both outdid themselves this year. Pat made Ed a wooden 12-pack carrying case, decorated with Bell's Beer labels. Ed made Pat (using my sewing machine!) a Wisconsin-themed brova brova (man skirt to the general public).

TJ in his Packer helmet!

Doesn't the table look pretty?

Christmas afternoon the Rhyans came over to (watch the Packer game, of course!) and celebrate the holiday. My aunt Karen started a tradition years ago of buying poppers for each plate. You can see them in the table setting picture in the next picture up. The poppers have tissue paper crowns and, this year, magic tricks in them. We had fun trying to perform the magic tricks, as well as follow the directions that clearly had been changed into English by some inept translation program, as they made no sense!

Josiah riding on Buppa's shoulders

Mom and I took the boys to a Christmas display at a downtown Milwaukee bank.

Thomas kept returning to visit "Bambi."

Hello, Mr. Giraffe!

This scene was full of moving animals and parts--a very busy Santa's village!

Did you get to the end? That was a lot of pictures! Ruble Christmas to come, hopefully this weekend.
Blogger was giving me problems tonight--I couldn't rearrange the pictures as easily as I wanted, and some of the text came through as underlined. I have no idea why, but very frustrating!

To get you in the holiday spirit...

2011-12-23T16:33:00.002-06:00

I've been playing the Trans-Siberian Orchestra holiday CD all afternoon. Ed just caught this scene on a cell phone video, so the quality isn't great, but I couldn't resist sharing it anyway.

The boy has moves! What kind of moves, I'm not sure, but he seemed to feel (and I agree) that this was dancing music.

A week of random pics

2011-12-23T08:03:00.002-06:00

Clearing my camera out before Christmas...

Ed built Thomas a box house in the basement. Here I'm looking in the "back door" as TJ relaxes in the house.

The house from the front. The front door is the tunnel.

My boys in their camo dino shirts.

The gingerbread house got thrown out this morning...note all the empty holes on the frosting and the lack of shingles on the roof!

TJ is a huge fan of the headlamp with his new box house.

Me and Jojo

Jojo has a newfound love for hanging upside down.

Thomas has recently started taking pictures with my camera when he can get his hands on it. Here are two of his best. :)

My cousin Andrea lives about an hour from us. She and her son Vince were in Kalamazoo and stopped by to see us. Vince is a couple months younger than Thomas. They had fun playing Thomas the Train together and crawling through the tunnel. Vince is a little shy and smaller than Thomas, so TJ kept calling him "yittle fella." By the end of the night, they seemed on the way to being good playmates and TJ started calling him Vince instead. We hope to play again soon!

Rollin'

2011-12-19T12:03:00.000-06:00

Here's one of Jojo's rolls caught on video. How nice is it to have your own personal cheerleader as well?! And, for those who often notice that Thomas has on a shirt and not pants, we've changed it up a bit here--pants but no shirt! (Courtesy of a massive spill at dinner that rendered the bib useless.)

TJ does like to "help" Josiah roll over, which as usual for him, is not always a gentle maneuver. You'll see an example at the end of the video.

Gingerbread houses

2011-12-17T07:28:00.000-06:00

Kathy came to visit recently and we satisfied our craftiness by making gingerbread houses. The official line is that we were doing it for Thomas, but...(to be fair, he had a ball!). We used to make these all the time when I was a kid--bowls and bowls of candy, a lot of frosting, and milk carton houses galore. Because of our smaller circumstances this year (and only 1 kid making a house), I went the kit route. Which would have been great, except that I didn't pull the box out early enough to see that the house needed to be assembled in advance so it could harden and be stable enough for little hands to add candy. Oops! One quick phone call later, Kathy arrived with candy reinforcements (yay!), graham crackers and milk cartons. She took home two full Nalgene bottles--one of skim milk and one of eggnog. We were left with a full glass of heavy whipping cream, so we'll be having Kilimanjaro as a special dessert treat this weekend--yum! Without further ado, here are the houses.

Finished houses

Just getting started, and below, TJ at work.

Kathy's finished house, complete with aesthetic touches (no surprise, from an interior designer!).

TJ's finished house (I helped a little). Note the following details:

1. There's a doorknob made out of a red hot. This is T's second favorite part of the whole house, and he keeps pointing it out.

2. The two indicated gumdrops are shinier than the rest. That's because they were in TJ's mouth before going on the roof.

3. He loaded the walkway with candy. It isn't all stuck into frosting, so it's easier for him to pick off and eat.

4. Hard to see, but this is only half a peep snowman. The other half was eaten. As was a majority of the candy available for making the houses. He just.couldn't.stop. No matter what we said.

5. Also hard to see, but this is a truck drawn out of frosting, at T's request. This is his favorite part.

By the way, TJ doesn't like anything mint or peppermint flavored. He calls it "spicy" and promptly rejects it. He did, however, eat a red hot without complaint. Yeah, I don't understand either.

The house has been relocated to one of two places: either in the microwave or on top of the fridge. Anywhere else, and TJ uses a stool to access it and picks candy off. The gingerbread house does not currently look like the one you see here--it's missing many candy bits.

4 months!

2011-12-15T19:46:00.000-06:00

Our little Jojo is 4 months old! He's full of smiles, especially if you smile at him; he is happiest when he's receiving undivided attention, or at least grabbing your finger, he has started to roll over (as of this past weekend), and he's building these delightful little chubba chub rolls.

Look mom! I'm 4 months old!

All smiles

Easily bigger than his bear

This is the position we see Jojo in most often these days--any time we lay him on his back, he rolls halfway, and often all the way, over. He started out rolling stomach to back first, but now won't do that one and will only roll back to stomach (which I think is the harder one). And look at that delicious chubbiness! Even with these extra rolls, he's still thinner than Thomas was, which is why I think he rolled sooner. Thomas just couldn't move all that weight around!

We tried rice cereal last night. It was a big fat fail. He doesn't have the swallowing concept down yet; it all came right back out. We'll wait a few weeks and then try again.

St. Nick and visiting Santa

2011-12-14T20:47:00.000-06:00

I grew up with the tradition of St. Nick visiting our house on December 6, and we're continuing that tradition. St. Nick filled a stocking for the boys together.

I took ONE picture of the boys with the stocking. It practically turned out better than any of the 100-some photos we took for the Christmas card! They're sitting up straight, both looking, mostly smiling...

The stocking was filled with some candy, a Matchbox dump truck, a slinky, and some of those jelly window decorations (thank you, Target dollar aisle!). Everything was a big hit, but Thomas tried to eat the jelly decorations and then ripped them into tiny pieces. Why?!?!
Jojo got this cute reindeer hat and some bibs and bowls for starting rice cereal.

Thomas and Santa in 2010. Not a fan.

A different story in 2011. He and Santa are buds!

Jojo didn't mind Santa either. I imagine that might change next year!

The whole family sits with Santa.

We went to Santa's Workshop in downtown Kalamazoo. The event was sponsored by a local organization and included animatronic elves, which fascinated Thomas (see below), Santa, an opportunity to write a letter to Santa, and crafts. I think this may be the most crafting Ed has done since he was in elementary school. I was impressed!

Dump trucks in the manger

2011-12-13T21:52:00.000-06:00

Our nativity scene is pretty child-friendly. It's rubbery plastic (or plastic-y rubber) and can be played with, thrown, etc. without any damage. Apparently Thomas has decided that the nativity, which has all the key characters plus a few animals, was missing some important things.

First he invited some of his construction equipment to the party. Backhoes by the stable? Of course.

Then yesterday I found this scene. All the characters had been moved out of the stable. The dump truck had been neatly parallel parked in place, and is filled with the sheep, baby Jesus and his bed, and a pink needlepointed cradle that holds a plastic baby (made by my Grandma). I didn't try asking for an explanation. Can't wait to see who joins in the fun tomorrow...

The doorknob saga and other stories

2011-12-12T21:29:00.000-06:00

Thomas recently locked himself in our bedroom. It was actually unintentional--the knob was locked, and he went into the room and shut the door while I was changing Josiah's diaper. I spent about 10 minutes trying to talk him through unlocking the door, but no dice. He happened to be wearing big boy underpants that day, and between him telling me through the door that he needed to go potty, and me wanting to get him out before he got upset and/or found my computer, I decided to break in. When he wasn't trying to unlock the door, TJ played Ed's guitar (and dropped a pick and several quarters into it!). Thanks to a channel lock pliers, I was able to wrench off the door knob and free him. Now to get a new doorknob without a lock...

The photo didn't turn out great, but if you look closely you can see how I abused the cuff to get the knob off. Thank goodness for cheap doorknobs!

Happily, this is where Jojo hung out, passed out, while I was trying to free Thomas. Much easier than if I was dealing with a fussy baby and a locked-in kid.

This has nothing to do with the locked door, but this is what Thomas did to his football. Apparently we don't feed him enough? Because he likes to eat Nerf.

Snow & Greg's visit

2011-12-11T21:23:00.001-06:00

We returned from the long weekend in Wisconsin with a tagalong: Greg from Australia. He's a friend of ours from when Ed lived there, and he visits us every couple of years when he's in the U.S. He was in and sang at our wedding in 2005, and then visited again in 2009. This visit was a bit different--first of all, we now have 2 kids and can't go bar-hopping quite as easily, and second of all, we're currently living in a fairly small place. The plan was for Greg to sleep on the blow-up air mattress in TJ's room, but he opted for (or just passed out in) the recliner in the family room instead. And some on some nights, the loveseat, where his legs hung off from the thigh down. Fortunately, Greg is very easy going, so he didn't mind. He also worked in my office/bedroom with me during the day. And then he and Ed drank beer for fun.

Here they are, drinking beer. They were supposed to go out to the bars this night, but it was a bit to snowy. And our loveseat (under Ed) is missing the slipcover because it was peed on. And no, not by Ed or Greg...by Thomas.

Greg is a great guitar player and singer. He let Thomas strum while he changed the notes and sang.

TJ playing in our first snow of the year. I taught him about snow angels, we made a snowman, and then, most interesting to him, we made snowballs. He loved it!

Some Jojo cuteness

2011-12-08T08:00:00.000-06:00

Jenn borrowed a "good" camera from work and took some adorable shots of Josiah this weekend. Here are a few. Check out all that happy chubba-chub!

Haircuts in Madison

2011-12-07T21:55:00.000-06:00

Thomas has two uncles (plus a dad and a godfather) who give haircuts. Since his hair grows awfully quickly, we take advantage of these skills frequently. Over the weekend in Madison, Pat cut Thomas' hair, and then trimmed the bottom of Dad's, and then Ed cut Pat's. Sadly, Ed paid for his haircut, which looks pretty similar to Pat's and TJ's, the day before.

Josiah's baptism

2011-12-06T21:42:00.000-06:00

To cap off a busy weekend, we had Josiah baptized the Sunday after Thanksgiving at Fox Point Lutheran Church in Milwaukee.

Josiah wore a baptismal gown that has been in Ed's family for about 70 years, worn by Jojo's great aunts, grandma, daddy, aunts, and several cousins, to name a few. Aidan wore it most recently, back in August.

I love this photo!

Pastor Bill baptizing Josiah

Thomas decided to help, so he scooped water onto Jojo's head as well.

An extra blessing!

Our family of four

With Grammy and Buppa

Family in attendance

Kelly and Dustin, the godparents

With our newly baptized son

Pastor Bill and Josiah. Pastor Bill married us and then baptized Thomas, so it was wonderful to continue this link with him.

Note the blurry streak off to the left--that would be my Uncle Mark, racing up to stop Thomas from trying to tip over the lit candles behind us. Happily, he made it in time!

Thomas tries to stop Abbey from walking down the aisle. I imagine Dustin appreciated this!

Additional weekend pics

2011-12-05T15:45:00.000-06:00

We had a packed Thanksgiving weekend--spent the actual holiday in Plymouth at my aunt and uncle's house, took the ill-fated Christmas card photos, went to Madison Friday night and stayed at Jenn and Pat's, attended the UW-Penn State football game on Saturday while Mom and Dad babysat the kids (thanks!), and finally, had Josiah baptized on Sunday at church (more pics on that in its own post).

We need a vacation from our four-day break!

Dad and Jojo, sleeping off their Thanksgiving turkey

Both mine and Niki's birthdays are right before Thanksgiving. She turned 18 and I turned...29. Or something like that. We celebrated by putting candles on the pumpkin torte (and btw, pumpkin torte is better than pumpkin pie any day of the week--yum!)

It's become a tradition to play our own football game on Thanksgiving. This year we played on the local high school football field, which was cool. Thomas even got into the action, being the pre-center and hiking to the actual center. We played kids against the grown-ups, and the way the numbers fell, I was on the kids' team and Ed was on the grown-ups' team! The kids won, which was mostly thanks to having an awesome ringer--Niki's boyfriend Eric is a varsity football player. For fun, we kicked field goals at the end.

The four of us at the game. It drizzled most of the game, but we had our waterproof gear on.

This picture on the top is a bit blasphemous--poor TJ seems to have his loyalties confused! Much better in the lower photo where Uncle Pat has his own helmet on and TJ's sporting the green and gold.

Jojo, meet Jojo (Pat's youngest brother)

Christmas Card Outtakes

2011-12-03T21:58:00.001-06:00

We spent some time trying to take a posed Christmas card picture over the weekend. It was not easy, and that's only with two kids! Every time Thomas finally started to cooperate, Josiah started crying. Every time Josiah was happy and looking at the camera, Thomas was either running off or saying "cheeeeeese" while looking anywhere but at the camera.

One outfit change, three days, and four backdrops later, we have about 80 outtakes (we were using two cameras for maximum opportunities since attention spans were short) and a couple useable pictures.

I don't think I need to say much more--the photos tell the story!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

2011-11-28T20:17:00.001-06:00

Life's been a little busy but I still wanted to put up a quick (belated) Thanksgiving post. We have much to be thankful for this year, starting with these two cuties!

This group of pictures foreshadows our attempts at taking a Christmas card picture (more on that--including plenty of blooper shots--at a later point in time). This is the "best" one we have in their turkey gear--they're both looking at the camera and mostly sitting upright.

Josiah's looking good...Thomas is not.

I have a feeling that over the next year or two we're going to have a lot of these "nervous" photos of Jojo. He looks concerned about what Thomas might be planning to do next...

More nervous eyes. Not sure what Thomas is doing.

A little pre-Thanksgiving fun...

2011-11-22T20:35:00.001-06:00

Jojo is big and sturdy enough to sit in the bumbo--yay! I love kids in bumbos--they're so cute!

Having two boys, I didn't think there'd be much opportunity for dress-up, which I loved as a kid. It may have only been hats, but the scene that plays out below proved me wrong. I brought TJ's fleece hat over to join the party because he was being a little aggressive putting the not-so -soft plastic fireman hat on Jojo's head. Happily, little J didn't seem to mind this game, even when his eyes were covered.

Laughing yet?

As a bonus, please enjoy the video below. A genuine Jojo smile, with an unexpected twist at the end.

Please note that no babies were harmed in the making of this video. Jojo is still young enough that he's as flexible as Gumby. He didn't even cry.

Birthday Fun

2011-11-22T07:50:00.001-06:00

We celebrated my birthday Sunday and Monday. On Sunday, Thomas helped me make a cake. It got just a little messy...

Scraping the bowl

"Yicking" (licking) the bowl...the best part!

Helping me blow out the candles

Kathy came to visit on Sunday and brought this enormous sausage coil. We popped it in the smoker, along with a turkey breast, and had twice baked potatoes and cornbread stuffing for a little Thanksgiving preview. Delicious!

Our pre-Thanksgiving feast!

Mama and her boys

T's new favorite way to be wrapped up after a bath, and then Ed added the turban.

Daddy and Jojo watching football

And a little video of Thomas singing me "Happy Birthday"

Some smiles

2011-11-20T21:55:00.001-06:00

Josiah gives us these huge smiles--ones that start small and quickly spread across his entire face. They're great, and they're contagious. You can't help but smile back. The one exception to these smiles is when I pull out either the still or the video camera. Then he's super serious. I've gotten a couple good smile photos (and too many rejects to count!), but the huge growing grin has been elusive when I've tried to catch it on video. Here's a little montage of Josiah smiles/faces, but I'm still hoping to catch him at his best.

Oh, and your other reward, besides seeing Josiah's cute little face, for watching the entire 1 minute and 4 seconds of this video? Hearing Ed sing "My Little Buttercup" during the last 10 seconds or so. It's probably good that he doesn't read the blog often...I'm not sure he'd be thrilled to know his performance was up for the world to see! :)

Last weekend

2011-11-20T21:42:00.001-06:00

We took the boys to a nearby park last weekend. Jojo slept in the stroller the whole time, but TJ played on the jungle gym and ran around.

This is our most frequent view of Thomas lately--he's always running, and he's usually running away from us!

Daddy and TJ

Some other people (see them in the background?) came prepared for the ducks and geese--with plenty of bread. They were nice enough to share. Thomas practiced his awesome throwing skills as he tossed bread chunks to his feathered friends.

I bought a desk for (eventually my office, but for now...) our bedroom. TJ was all about helping daddy put it together while I made dinner. It came with far too many pieces, and a few of them were damaged, so the desk adventure included a trip back to the store for some undamaged parts. Happily it's now assembled, and I've enjoyed working at the desk rather than on the bed! Pictures of the desk and the rest of our place to follow at some point (as soon as I take them).

Jojo signals "touchdown" during the Monday night Packer game.

Josiah is 3 months!

2011-11-15T19:54:00.001-06:00

That's right, little J is 3 months old! When did that happen? He has lived in 3 different houses in 3 different states and traveled to Texas already--quite a busy kid!

Three month stats: 14 lb; 24-3/4" long

Quite a contrast from Thomas, who was 16 lb 13 oz at three months old!

Josiah has chub rolls, but he's definitely more averaged sized than TJ was.

He shares these contagious whole-face grins with us--so fun to watch his face light up. He's also started grabbing at things, like hair, shirts, toys, though it's still rather hit or miss. His favorite thing to put in his mouth is his wet, slobbery fist.

Of course, TJ had to get in the picture action as well!

Potty Training Postponed

2011-11-14T08:06:00.001-06:00

After some apparent signs of readiness recently, we decided to make a big push toward potty training this past weekend. Here's how Saturday went:
7:30: put on undies (pair #1)
8:45: made T try to pee before we left to run errands
8:50: peed while standing at the front door watching for Ed to come back from the car; changed into pair #2
9:00: dropped laundry off at laundromat (including the recently peed-in undies and pants)
10:30: While I was feeding Jojo, Ed had Thomas try to go; nothing happened. Ed left to pick up the clean laundry.
10:35: TJ looks at me and says "I made peepee." He turns around, and I see the double whammy. That load in his pants meant that it wasn't only pee... Time for another load of laundry! Changed into pair #3
11:30: I took Thomas into the bathroom to try. No dice. I walked across the hall to the kitchen to heat up lunch. Thomas continued to play in the bathroom.
11:35: "Mommy, peepee on the floor!" Changed into diapers.

The morning's total: 3 pairs of underwear, 1 peepee on the potty, 3 accidents, including 1 mother lode.

Consensus: He's not ready. We're going to wait a couple weeks before trying again.

Our kid ate broccoli!

2011-11-14T07:59:00.001-06:00

TJ is fairly anti-vegetable. If it's green, he's particularly suspicious of it. He'll eat carrot sticks and peapods if offered with dip (white ketchup), but that's pretty much it. And even then, half the time he chews the carrot for 20 minutes and then spits out a mouthful of carrot mush. Gross.

However, in the past week or so, we've been able to slightly expanded his horizons. First, he ate a mushroom, which he called "mushmeat." Then, he ate broccoli from our ham-broccoli roll-up dinner. He ate everything on his plate and then asked for more broccoli. I couldn't believe my ears...

Yes, Mom, I really do like it.

So we moved on to cauliflower (this light green stuff is Romanesco). He willingly tried it, but then spit it out. We'll keep trying...

Thomas really likes snuggling with Jojo.

A picnic lunch on our patio last weekend

Photo crazy

2011-11-11T07:00:00.000-06:00

I pulled out the "good" camera this weekend to try to capture some shots of Josiah. There aren't as many of Thomas for two reasons--first, he's not changing as rapidly as little J, and second, he's entered that phase where when you ask him to smile for the camera he either puts on a dopey, squinty-eyed grin or says "cheese" while looking away. Not a great photo subject right now! But this little guy cooperated nicely! It was too hard to narrow it down to just a few, so there are lots.

These two are my favorite. Look at those big blue eyes and that sweet, innocent expression!

Brotherly love!

Look at those chubba chubba thighs! And yes, he's still looking like a red head.

These next four are like a flip book of smiling and falling over.

Josiah is looking at Thomas like he's concerned about what might happen next. I think this is an expression we'll see often over the next few years...

Life in Kalamazoo

2011-11-09T07:00:00.000-06:00

We've now had a week together as a family in Kalamazoo, and we're getting settled into our temporary townhouse. We're mostly unpacked and we're getting into daily routines.

Here are some pictures from week 1.

Jo-Jo passed out, with arm extended

Bathtime for Josiah. Thomas likes that there's enough countertop space for him to help!

We went to a nearby farmer's market Saturday morning. So many people liked TJ's hat!

Josiah all tucked in for the farmer's market. Check out his cute hat!

Great variety of veggies and even fruit to buy! Ed also found the sausage stand. I bought butternut squash and made soup, and also bought some romanesco cauliflower just because it looks cool.

Thomas loved all the small pumpkins.

Toga towel time. He ran until he tripped, and then got up, got rewrapped and ran until he tripped again. Repeat.

Ed's first trip (ever, I think!) through the tunnel.

It's tough to be the little brother...

2011-11-05T22:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-30T22:23:00.000-05:00

We did a little Halloween celebrating early because Halloween weekend will be very busy (I'm in Houston for a quilt show and Ed is in St. Louis, retrieving more of our stuff.) Thomas will get to trick or treat on Monday--wish I could be there to see it!

Two little tigers. TJ's costume was one my mom made
for Jenn some 28 years ago.

Great Grandma Millie and two little tigers. Thomas ran around the assisted living
facility roaring at the residents, which they loved (except for the one lady
who had been dozing!).

TJ's favorite part of visiting Grandma Millie--riding her cart.

Big tiger roars. He's so darn cute in this outfit!

Pearl Lake weekend

2011-10-28T22:18:00.002-05:00

We spent our last weekend in Wisconsin at Pearl Lake, closing up for the year. We had two sunny but cool days to put the pontoon boat away, take out the pier, watch Niki's sectional cross country race (she's running in the state meet next!), and watch football. Josiah enjoyed his first trip up to the lake. Actually, he may not have noticed...he's pretty laid back so he eats, sleeps, and poops anywhere.

Final pontoon ride of the season...driving with Buppa

Watching out the back of the boat--how TJ spent most of
the final pontoon ride of the season (except for when he was driving)

Final tally in the garage: 2 speedboats, 2 pontoon boats, 1 model A,
1 riding lawnmower, 1 or 2 jet skis...a tight fit and definitely not all ours!
Note the decorative balls still hanging from Jenn and Pat's wedding--a nice touch!

Jenn directs the backing in job of the pontoon while Thomas "steers"
in his Halloween costume.

Pat uses brute force to turn the pontoon boat toward the garage opening.

So glad I didn't have to help with this! Dad and Pat taking out the
pier on a chilly late October afternoon. Brrr...

Jenn and I were tasked to remove the cement blocks supporting the pier
at the water's edge. We found a family of frogs hibernating--probably 6 of them
stacked on top each other in the holes of the cement blocks, each as big as a fist.

Thomas, Gwenny, Abby and Josiah: the great grandkids

Mom and dad with their grandsons

The guys watching football. Jo-Jo looks comfy, doesn't he?!

Cookies & Smiles

2011-10-21T22:17:00.001-05:00

Thomas and Grammy made pumpkin cut-out cookies this week. Check out his apron--it's one that Mom made for me and Jenn when we were little! It took a little convincing for him to wear it, but considering how well floured he was by the end, it was a good choice.

Spreading flour out before rolling the dough

Rolling the dough. TJ loves using the rolling pin, in conjunction with his new favorite phrase:
"I do it myself!"

Some of the finished product!

Enjoying the fruits of his labor...one of five, yes five cookies he had that day. (Two unfrosted and three frosted. The boy is smart--he spread out his asking among the three of us, which is how he ended up with five!)

And the day would not be complete without some sweet Jo-Jo smiles. He's getting pretty generous with these grins, especially when he first wakes up in the morning. We like it!

He's got a smile and a mini Heisman pose going on here...

We love daddy!

2011-10-19T09:50:00.000-05:00

Ed came over from Kalamazoo to spend the weekend with us. We watched football, relaxed, ate, napped, and just chilled out with the boys.

They both look happy to see him!

Relaxing on daddy's leg

Shoulder ride during our afternoon walk

2 months!

2011-10-17T09:48:00.000-05:00

It's hard to believe that Josiah is already 2 months old, especially with all of the changes that have happened since he was born! He's starting to smile and talk a little--amazing how gratifying a cute little baby smile is, especially first thing in the morning.

His unofficial 2-month stats:

13 lb. 2 oz. (courtesy of the mail scale at Olympus)

23.5" long (courtesy of a ruler on the kitchen counter)

Almost smile close-up

Hey mom, I'm 2 months old!

Measuring up to my bear. And also looking a bit like I'm about to take off to the left!

Here's a smile!

Pumpkin farm

2011-10-16T21:43:00.003-05:00

We took advantage of the gorgeous Indian summer weather by taking the boys to a pumpkin patch last weekend. Lots of kids, lots of Packer and Brewer shirts, and LOTS of pumpkins.

The boys sitting amongst the pumpkins. Thomas kept letting go of Josiah, who almost kept landing headfirst on a pumpkin! Spotters directly off camera prevented any head injuries.

Farmer TJ!

Feeding the goats

TJ and his pumpkin. We picked a smaller one out for Josiah, too.

Earning our keep

2011-10-14T09:00:00.000-05:00

Mom and Dad are in the middle of a landscaping project right now, so the boys and I decided to pitch in on Sunday and to help earn our keep for this extended stay in Milwaukee.

Lugging rocks

Jo-Jo wants to help with the digging.

Raking dirt

Filling the wheelbarrow

Transporting the dirt; figure that Thomas adds an extra 30 lbs to the wheelbarrow...ouch!

The "before" picture: the old deck has been replaced with a patio, and our
job is to fill in dirt along the sides, create a rock retaining wall, and then plant.

Temporary retaining wall in place; rocks ready to be moved into place.

The finished landscaping: looking good!

Mini NU reunion

2011-10-14T07:29:00.000-05:00

The boys and I met Ed in Chicago for the weekend. We stayed at our second home-away-from-home, the Cooks' house, and then visited with the Simms family, in from Colorado for the marathon. Our own little Northwestern reunion with some of our favorite NU grads!

Thomas and Abbey in her car again

Hanging with the Simms family...
two sets of former college roommates now have four little boys!

Thomas and Zack playing near the leaf pile

The boys getting underdogs on the swings in the park

My boys back at home, watching football. So cute!

Lots to cheer for

2011-10-13T09:19:00.000-05:00

We've been super busy on the weekends...with so many good games (baseball and football!), it seems all we do lately is change clothes to support the current team of the moment.

Three little Wildcats in training! Too bad the NU games have been painful so far.

Two little Brewer fans. Please keep winning, Brew Crew!

Three Packer fans!

2011-10-12T21:39:00.001-05:00

Life in Milwaukee

2011-10-12T21:12:00.001-05:00

As the move progresses, we're the boys and I are spending a little time in Milwaukee. Grammy and Buppa are enjoying having the boys around, and I'm grateful for the help!

Lots of fun things to do here, especially with the beautiful Indian summer weather we've been having! Here are some random pics so far.

An open house at Mequon's fire department. Check out TJ driving the fire truck!

In the firemen's lockers

Look at our little chubba chubba!

Grandma Millie meets little J.

So the undies are still very much a novelty rather than an every day occurrence, but they're so cute!

Wide awake!

Love this sleeping position!

Smiles and Morning Calisthenics

2011-10-11T10:15:00.001-05:00

Here's a little Josiah action--stretching and smiling. There is a cute smile to see in the first 10 seconds. After that, it's probably a video only the grandparents will watch, because, let's face it--he's 2 months old and doesn't do a whole lot yet!

Our baseball prodigy

2011-10-06T21:46:00.001-05:00

In honor of the playoffs: We may have a future Major Leaguer on our hands! :) (Okay, so a lot can happen in the next 16 years, but check out his swing!)

Couch flipping: The final episode

2011-10-06T21:44:00.003-05:00

Couch flipping has progressed past the simple somersault into a flying flip. Add in an air mattress behind the couch, and the flips go both ways!

More goodbyes

2011-10-04T22:20:00.001-05:00

A few more pics of friends and the kids as we say goodbye to St. Louis...

Josiah and his new teddy

Saying goodbye to the Beightols--Eating chicken nuggets and cheese with Ethan

Thomas and Courtney--she's been babysitting T since he was 8 weeks old!

TJ sharing his car book with Josiah

TJ and Uncle Tucker

Our family in front of our house

Goodbye, Lake Mattoon

2011-10-03T08:27:00.001-05:00

We recently packed up everything at the lake and closed up for the season (and forever, really, since we'll be moving). Sad to think about, but we had a great time hanging out with the Cooks and with Jenn and Pat, who came down for a little end of summer fun.

Our group, which has grown from just the four of us four
years ago to seven now!

Woo hoo! I got out for my first ski of the season. Had two fantastic runs
with smooth water. And boy was I feeling it the next day!

Ed cleaned out his closet and shared some of his A-B stuff with Pat and Tucker.
They proceeded to put everything on, a good look!

Abbey checks out Josiah. I think she's happy not to be TJ's smallest
wrestling buddy anymore.

We walked over to check out the property, using all types of baby
carrying devices. And carrying an ax. Because you always need an ax.

See? You always need an ax because you never know
when you'll have the chance to throw one at a tree!
We were going to stay until someone got the ax to stick
in the tree, but we might still be there.

The Cook family...on Kelly and Dustin's 6th anniversary

Ed showing TJ how to pee on a tree.

Love the sunset view! Lake Mattoon, we'll miss you!

Jenn, aunt extraordinaire, entertains all three kids at once.

TJ and Jo-Jo wearing their "big brother" and "little brother" shirts,
which Jenn and Pat got them. Jenn and I had similar outfits when
we were small (except ours were pink!).

When Thomas didn't want to wear his big boy underwear, Jenn suggested
a different use for them.

Josiah wanted in on the fun.

It's nice to know we're not too old to use noodles for a little non-swimming fun...

Snuggle time!

Thomas takes Abbey's temperature. Nice to know he's concerned about her wellbeing!

The whole group...our last dinner at the lake.

Daily dose of cuteness

2011-09-28T09:00:00.000-05:00

How is this for cute? Little Jo-Jo was practicing tummy time, propped up on a pillow.

Then he got so tired, he fell asleep, still propped up.

Saying goodbye...

2011-09-27T21:14:00.000-05:00

We've been trying to see all our friends to say goodbye before we leave St. Louis.

Hard to believe that these little kids may not remember knowing each other!

We'll definitely have to come back and visit often.

Cooper, Josiah, Molly, and Thomas

We were friends with Matt and Mo in NJ and then all moved here to St. Louis.

Thomas plays trains with Tobin, our former next door neighbor. These two are fun to watch together--they're so similar in terms of interests, behavior, and general 2-year-old-ness.

Meramec Caverns

2011-09-26T21:04:00.004-05:00

There's nothing like an imminent move to accelerate the crossing off of items on a to-do list...that being said, in addition to getting the house ready to sell and closing up everything here, we wanted to visit a local attraction that we hadn't gotten to in the last four years. We took our first family of four field trip to Meramec Caverns. It was worth the trip! Check out the stalactites and stalagmites below. Amazing!

Family photo!

Josiah napped through the whole visit.

Thomas was enthralled. And also the loudest person on our tour. But he did a great job, partly walking, and partly on Ed's shoulders.

2011-09-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

We had an impromptu play group at our house this weekend. Our friend Devon, who now lives in Janesville, WI, was in town visiting. She hadn't met any of the babies in the photo below except for Thomas, so we got together. All three of the other girls worked at A-B together. The older two boys had fun playing, and we all had fun passing around the babies.

from left: Carrie holding Ethan (22 months), Devon holding Carrie's younger boy, Jacob (5 months), Maureen and her son Kieran (8 weeks), me with the Josiah (5 weeks) and TJ (2.5 years). All boys, can you believe it?

Thomas shared fruit snacks with Ethan. He kept hugging "Efan" (when not pushing him down) and the two ran around giggling and chasing each other. So cute to see!

Fun Friday

2011-09-18T20:44:00.000-05:00

We had a busy, fun-filled Friday--a morning at the zoo and then the balloon glow Friday night! I'm trying to live it up with fun activities before my maternity leave ends...

Check out the headdresses on these birds!

Love our free zoo!

Karen Hamlin was TJ's buddy at the zoo, while
I carried Josiah. It's so much easier to go places
with an extra set of hands, and great to have time
to catch up as we visited all the animals.

Thomas befriends a seal (or otter, or something?).

Friday night our family went to the balloon glow in Forest Park. There were probably 30 balloons blown up, and every time a horn sounded, they all lit up. We took a picnic dinner and enjoyed the site. Thomas liked the balloons, the people watching, the buses and bikes we saw, and the cheese from our picnic!

Josiah came along for the ride and slept the whole time,
all bundled up.

I took Thomas near the balloons for a close-up view.
This picture perfectly describes his feeling about being
so near the balloons--the flames roar when they light up
the balloons, and he was not sure about that at all.
He clung to me and said, "let's go back to daddy." :)

Goofy kid kept showing us his belly, even though
it was chilly outside!

Check out TJ's big boy bed!
He loves it and we love the extra storage space underneath!

Pure Michigan

2011-09-17T21:24:00.002-05:00

If you live in the Midwest (particularly Wisconsin or Illinois), you're probably familiar with the "Pure Michigan" ad campaign. Even though my heart belongs to my home state of Wisconsin, I find these ads to be incredibly compelling. (Check out the link below if you don't know what I'm talking about...video of ad from michigan.org).

http://www.michigan.org/Topics/Pure-Michigan-Ads/Default.aspx?q=2245

If you're wondering why I'm pushing Michigan, it's because "Yes, there really IS a Kalamazoo." (Another ad campaign for, you guessed it, the town of Kalamazoo. T-shirts, mugs and bumper stickers available. Seriously.)

And...we are moving there! Ed has accepted a job with Bell's Brewery (yep, he'll still be making beer!) in Kalamazoo. We're still working out a lot of moving logistics, but sometime this fall, our family of four will become residents of Michigan. While we'll miss all our friends in St. Louis, we are VERY excited for this (big) change and looking forward to all it has to offer. We'll keep you posted...

One month old!

2011-09-17T20:23:00.001-05:00

It's hard to believe Josiah is one month old! Here are his one-month stats:

10 lb. 9 oz. (up from 7 lb. 7 oz. at birth)

22.25" (up from 20.25" at birth)

At the moment, he's growing at about the same rate as Thomas did,

though he's about a pound behind his big brother at the same age.

Wearing the outfit Ed wore home from the hospital--I almost waited too long to take this picture--it just fits!

A week's worth of photos

2011-09-15T17:51:00.001-05:00

Just chillin'

Enjoying Gino's East pizzas courtesy of Jen and Cliff.
Brings back fond memories of Chicago. Yum!

Check out that deliciousness!

And speaking of delicious...we received this turtle cheesecake
from Ed's work. Double yum!!!

Our neighbors Rikki (above) and Barry (below) take turns
holding a snoozing Josiah

Cooler weather meant that we could have a fire
in the backyard. So nice!

Rusty and Melanie practice for their own new arrival (coming in
January) by holding Josiah while we enjoy the nice night and fire.

TJ helps daddy finish the installation of the metal balusters upstairs.

Best buds: TJ, Josiah and Abbey.
Until J came around, Abbey always seemed so tiny to us.
Now she seems like such a big girl!

TJ really liked Abbey's birthday present. He wanted to take
Josiah for a ride in the attached trailer.
(for photo purposes only!)

Brotherly love!

Six years ago today...

2011-09-10T13:47:00.000-05:00

...Ed and I got married! Two kids and several moves later, we're still enjoying the ride. We've been blessed with a wonderful life--two sweet little boys, wonderful family and friends, and days that are never boring, to say the least. We're so looking forward to the next six years and beyond!

Packer fans and more

2011-09-10T07:04:00.001-05:00

Ready for the first game of the season! Go Pack!

Reading with daddy

Thomas was VERY helpful while Ed was reinstalling the handrail on the back staircase. I can't wait until he's old enough to be sent to fetch tools from the basement, as that's still my job right now!

Morning snuggles on the couch!

So relaxed...

Grandma and Grandpa come to visit

2011-09-08T10:34:00.000-05:00

Tom and Alice came to visit for a long weekend over Labor Day. They soaked up lots of snuggle time with baby Josiah and lots of play time with Thomas! We had a great weekend hanging out, despite the 100 degree temperatures that mandated inside fun!

Hello, Grandma!

Hi Grandpa!

Josiah's first time out at a restaurant--PW Pizza with Grandma, Grandpa, Katie and Tucker

Our table was by a mirror and Thomas was being a ham--making faces into it for our enjoyment.

Moving bread pieces in the dump truck when dinner got too long

Watching construction with Grandma

Josiah is not yet interested in construction like TJ is...he napped during our walk!

Thomas likes to sit on the arms/back of the couch, meowing like a cat. It also gives him a good vantage point for seeing Josiah.

Cuddled up for a nap

Alice, Thomas, Josiah and I went to the Magic House for some TJ fun.

Check out this cool bubble maker!

Josiah and I watch Thomas playing with the magnets.

Magical floating balls!

TJ was enthralled by the trains. He and two other boys his age egged each other on, shrieking in excitement every time the train went by.

Tea party with Grandma

Four Ruble men/boys

Grandma and Grandpa with their grandsons

Tickets to the gun show...

2011-09-05T22:29:00.001-05:00

Thomas is at a stage where he repeats EVERYTHING. This weekend, Grandpa taught him "okey dokey" and "phony baloney," which I should really get on video because it's awfully cute. Tonight during dinner, Ed had him saying "tickets to the gun show" and then showing his muscles (or lack of!). Hee hee!

Cutest. Picture. Ever.*

2011-09-03T21:28:00.000-05:00

*Of a 2.5-year-old and a 3-week-old...it's not easy to get them both looking at the camera and "smiling"!

Two more videos

2011-08-30T19:00:00.001-05:00

A video for each boy...

Thomas in his favorite playground

Josiah showing off his strong neck skills (and wide open eyes/funny faces!)

2 weeks!

2011-08-29T21:26:00.001-05:00

These two weeks have flown by! And check out the belly--someone's starting to fill out a bit!

TJ has been asking (well, demanding, really) to hold Josiah more and more.

Daddy and his boys

Big stretch during a diaper change

Two videos

2011-08-28T09:38:00.002-05:00

Here's some sweet brother interaction:

And...Thomas recently received some pretty neat books about construction and other vehicles. He loves to page through them, naming the pictures on each page. It's impressive how many he knows! But when he gets one wrong, he doesn't like to be corrected.

The Many Adventures of Thomas

2011-08-25T22:32:00.009-05:00

So in addition to spending the last 10 days or so adjusting to having another little person in the house to share the spotlight with, Thomas has also had ALOT of fun, both in the house and around town. Who knew being a big brother would be so much fun?!

Check out his (and our) adventures!

Batting practice in the backyard

Super Thomas makes an appearance!

Golf practice

Playing construction

This may not fall under the category of "fun," but another buzz cut! TJ desperately needed one. He's sitting in his swing for it.

Fun at the playground. This is a seat that spins...makes me sick, but he loved it!

In the fountain at the playground

At Ted Drewes for ice cream--Josiah's first trip!

There's some construction going on in our neighborhood, which means lots of great excavators, skid steers and dump trucks to see--a little boy's heaven! Most mornings, Thomas and either Grammy or Buppa walked over to watch for an hour or so. TJ could have watched all day.

This is the cement pipe at the construction site--where he retreated to when it started to rain. Smart kid.

An up close and personal view of the work going on

One morning, Ed took Thomas to the Magic House--a sort of children's museum/play place in St. Louis. They had a great time! Here's TJ in the train area. He is completely obsessed with anything construction or train related right now, so again, he was in heaven.

Having a tea party with himself. Notice his blue juice cup--I guess he was "pouring" juice into the tea cups.

Ed said he couldn't get him off this fire truck.

Giant legos!

One day Grammy and Buppa took TJ to the train museum. So much to see! This is the little train he got to ride. There was also a tram to get to one part of the museum--Thomas got to sit next to the driver and announce "All aboard!" into the microphone.

The schoolbus train--T's favorite

Driving a train

These trains are really huge, especially to a 2-year-old!

Last but not least, Grammy and Buppa with their two grandsons

Video of Thomas meeting Josiah

2011-08-24T20:00:00.002-05:00

While maybe not the most exciting video ever, I thought it was cute to see T's reaction when he met his little brother at the hospital.

Who does Josiah look like?

2011-08-24T12:22:00.003-05:00

It's time to play the game...who does Josiah look like? Check out the pictures below, but I think this one looks like me!

newborn Lisa

newborn Josiah

newborn Ed

newborn Thomas--a little mini Ed as a baby!

Big Boy Bed!

2011-08-22T19:33:00.002-05:00

We got Thomas a big boy bed this weekend, complete with super-cool Lightning McQueen sheets. He was thrilled with his new bed and his sheets in particular, and we thought it would be a quick transition. (Josiah is sleeping in a pack and play in our room for now, so there's no rush, but T is quickly getting too big for the crib bed.)

After stories and prayers at bedtime, Thomas said, "I sleep in other bed."

And he did. Oh well...

He did nap today in the big boy bed, so we'll see what tonight brings!

Some cute pics

2011-08-22T19:21:00.004-05:00

Wide awake and hanging out!

The brothers together. T likes to tell us "he's awake!" when he sees Josiah open his eyes. He really likes to bounce him (and try to catapult him) out of the bouncy seat as well--we watch vigilantly so that Josiah doesn't go flying!

Here's our cute boy!

Thomas (and his bear, pictured here in the swing in the background) spends a lot of time in the bouncy seat. He's heavy enough that his butt touches the ground. I'm thinking the bouncy seat isn't going to be bouncy much longer!

Josiah at 1 week, chunking up nicely

Pictures from Wed/Thurs

2011-08-18T21:08:00.002-05:00

Just continuing to enjoy the munchkins! Ed took Thomas to see Cars 2 yesterday in the movie theater. Apparently after about 20 minutes, T looked at Ed and said "I want to go home." Ed, smart dad that he is, whipped out the bag of M&Ms and they made it through the whole movie. It sounds like the M&Ms may have been more of a hit than the movie. :)

Every morning, Grammy and Thomas have been walking a couple blocks to a construction site and watching the excavators, skid steers, bulldozers, etc. (T can name them all).

Josiah is continuing to eat and sleep like a champ. He's very laid back. We could definitely get used to this!
Hanging out on the deck while Thomas and Grammy played basketball and baseball.

Watching the cable guy installing service next door.

Lunch on the deck with not just one, but two juice cups--double fisting it! This is the good life.

Josiah napping on Grammy

We had J's first sponge bath tonight. He was NOT a fan. At the moment, he doesn't seem to like being naked or getting wet. He screamed more during this bath than he did immediately after being born! The extended arm in the photo above is not a sign of relaxed enjoyment--rather, frantic unhappiness. He didn't like lotion, either, but calmed down to his mellow self once he was in jammies and eating again.

More pics

2011-08-17T07:00:00.001-05:00

We arrived home from the hospital Monday afternoon and are happily settling in at home.

Check out the skinny little chicken legs!

First car ride--wearing the same outfit Thomas came home from the hospital in.

T holding little J for the first time (with close supervision!)

Talking with Grammy

We were trying to get a picture with Josiah's eyes open. We got one, but it barely looks like our kid! He is so cute with his big blue eyes open, though.

After tumbling class tonight, Ed took Thomas to Ted Drewes for some daddy time and some ice cream. The caption of the texted picture I got was, "Look, Mommy, Daddy lets me eat ice cream all by myself." What a mess! But it looks like Thomas REALLY enjoyed it. :)

Josiah - Day 2

2011-08-15T08:00:00.001-05:00

Here's a few pictures from day 2...Josiah is looking a little less freshly delivered. His eyes are dark blue (and open a bit more frequently!), and his peach fuzz hair seems to be dark blond. After some of the photos yesterday where he looked huge, this shot with Ed's hands gives a little better perspective.

This is a close-up from his birth day--you can really see the bruising on the bridge of his nose and around his mouth, especially when you compare it to the picture above, where most of that has dissipated!

Wide awake with daddy

More head kisses from Thomas

A view of the chicken legs!

Thomas in the big brother role (+ first visitors!)

2011-08-14T09:00:00.002-05:00

Thomas arrived Saturday afternoon very excited to meet his little brother. (And singing "happy birthday" since he and Ed arrived at the same time as mom and dad, who came with gifts!)

So far, TJ has been pretty gentle with little J, though he wants to touch his eyes and kiss his head as much as possible. It's very sweet to watch!

In this picture, one of many outtakes while trying to successfully get a good picture of the 4 of us, TJ is telling little J to "look at Grammy" (who was holding the camera), since that's what we'd been telling him. He also later offered Josiah a bite of his pizza. :)

One of many head kisses

Love this look of wonder!

Grammy and Boppa had a long trip--we called them at 6 am to tell them a baby was on the way. They left the cottage, headed back to Milwaukee to pick up stuff from the house, and then headed to St. Louis (not the most direct route!). They were thrilled to meet grandson #2 while also having a few more days to play with and spoil grandson #1. We are thrilled they could get here so quickly and that they're two more pairs of hands to help with the transition from one spirited child to one spirited child plus one fragile newborn!

And also, a special thanks to our friends Rusty and Melanie, who came over at 4 am to be with Thomas while we headed to the hospital!

Introducing...

2011-08-13T22:19:00.003-05:00

Josiah Edward Ruble

Welcomed with love

born 8/13/11

7:21 am

7 lbs. 7 oz.

20-1/4" long

All sacked out on his first day. This is how he spent most of the day. Hopefully it's how he'll spend most of the first night as well!

About 2 hours old. He looks huge here, partly I think because of the angle of the photo. He's actually a half pound smaller than Thomas when he was born. He had a rushed entry into the world and is a little bruised and bloodshot, but that's fading already.

Me and Josiah after we're both rested up a bit

Ed and Josiah, again after some rest!

Our new little family of 4. T is quite enamored with him...

more pics to follow showing them together.

Last pregnant picture...4:30 am

I woke up with contractions at 1 am, we arrived at the hospital around 5 am, my water broke at 7:15 am and he flew out (as in the doctor had to move fast to catch him!) at 7:21 am. Whew!

Productive Week

2011-08-11T08:27:00.004-05:00

Thomas spent a week with Grammy and Boppa in Milwaukee/at Pearl Lake, and Ed and I used the week to get alot of things done around the house and have some grown-up meals out to eat. We'd decided to do some rearranging of rooms in the house because with #2 coming, baby gear/toys were threatening to overtake the house! The result? A much more kid-friendly layout downstairs and a cozy hangout for us upstairs.

Here are some before and after pics:

family room, before

Playroom, after--so much more room for playing!

My office, before

The not-so-pretty cleaning and sorting process in my office

The upstairs den, after. This may be our new favorite place in the house--so cozy for watching tv and hanging out at night.

(My office is temporarily in my studio and will be going up into the mini 3rd floor/attic after maternity leave.)

T's room...moved the crib to a different wall to make room for a big-boy bed that we'll be getting soon. We also have most of the baby stuff washed and ready!

We also celebrated Ed's 34th birthday (with apple pie, of course)!

Mom brought Thomas back on Monday and then stayed a few days to help with organizing and sorting--we (really she) made wonderful progress! Thanks mom! And thanks mom and dad for entertaining Thomas for the week--I know he had a great time! :)

Last weekend at the lake (for a bit)

2011-08-05T09:05:00.004-05:00

Matt and Di came down from Chicago to enjoy our last weekend at the lake, pre-baby. So glad they could come, especially on a weekend when the Cooks were here too, since that hasn't worked out the last two years. It was another HOT weekend (what else is new?) with alot of time spent in the water.

Matt was Thomas' unofficial playground and rumpus-er for the weekend. He (Matt) slept on the blow-up mattress in the main room, and T would wake him up and immediately start jumping on him. Matt also got his workout in with some Thomas ups (shown above) and kindly helping Ed pull weeds at the property.

Don't these two look like they're up to no good here? They were actually playing nicely!

Me and Di on our sunset cruise

An unplanned swim during the evening boat ride = nakey swim! Watch out for the strap wedgie...

Last picture of the six of us...next time we're together there will be one more.

And the last supper. Tons of smoked pork loin, corn, and homemade mac & cheese, plus key lime pie for dessert. Yum!

Ed relaxing at his newly cleared (and sandy) beach at the property! Thomas headed back to Chicago with Dustin, Kelly and Abbey (to rendezvous with mom and dad and spend a week in Milwaukee!), so Ed and I took a swim at the new beach before heading back to St. Louis for a productive and peaceful week on our own.

There's a baby coming to live at the house...

2011-07-30T14:36:00.001-05:00

We've been trying to prepare Thomas for the baby's arrival, but beyond zerberts and kisses to my belly, we figured most of it was going over his head. Now we're starting to think otherwise.

The other day I encountered the scene above. He wanted to put a diaper on the "baby" bear.

So I helped him. He's also started telling me (and other people): "There's a baby coming to live at our house..." I think we're on the right track!

Kathy comes to the lake

2011-07-28T07:25:00.001-05:00

All three of us had a great time with Kathy this weekend. The warm (okay, ridiculously hot) weather of late meant that the water temperature was a balmy 92. I've taken cooler baths than that! But it was still cooler than the air, so we spent plenty of time just floating and relaxing.

Wearing sunglasses on the boat

A Sunday morning ski for Kathy

Thomas really got into swimming this weekend. He swam back and forth between the three of us without anyone holding onto him, and he willingly floated on his back and even kicked to swim while on his back! Still not a fan of putting his head under though.

Keeping cool in the lake

When Thomas wasn't in the water, he was in the cooler. Frequently demanding "Close it up!" (hence the frown on his face in the picture above--I delayed in closing it up while taking the photo!) When it's closed, you need to knock on the side of the cooler, and then he'll kick it open with his feet.

Ed rented a skid steer to move some earth at the property. T, of course, loved it. He is an expert on different construction vehicles and frequently corrects me when I name them wrong. We went to visit daddy and watch him work.

Sitting with daddy on the skid steer

Family pics

2011-07-26T21:56:00.001-05:00

My friend Kathy came to Mattoon this weekend and I recruited her to take some family maternity shots...sort of a last opportunity to capture our family of three. She did a fantastic job! Here are my favorites...

Gorgeous Blooms

2011-07-25T21:43:00.002-05:00

So after the crazy heat and lack of rain of the past week, it seems like cheating to post these photos...all were taken before that started, back when it was just normal hot rather than pushing triple digits every day. And full disclosure: my pots of flowers on the front steps are fried. It was inevitable. The back garden, where these pics are from, still looks pretty good, but not quite as lush as it did here.

Gorgeous double orange lilies

Pink hydrangea

Black-eyes Susans

Ed and Thomas went to the grocery store one night while I was at yoga. As if that wasn't a gift enough itself, they also bought me flowers--stargazer lilies and sunflowers. I supplemented both with some blooms from our garden for two fabulous bouquets. Thanks, boys!

A Taste of What's to Come

2011-07-24T21:37:00.002-05:00

Our friends Carrie and Justin came over for dinner, bringing 20-month-old Ethan and 3-month-old Jacob. We love watching the two older boys play, and since they've had Jacob, we've been watching how things work to give us an idea of what life with two is like. As we expected, it's a little busier and more hectic!

This was the best we could do for a "moms and kids" picture.

A kids' table for dinner...a first at our house. We all loved it--the adults because dinner was a bit quieter, and the kids because they got to sit at a table their size, and without being strapped into seats. Can't wait to do this many times again in the future!

Jacob the chunker, posing with a pita (for the photo only--he's still a milk-only baby!).

35 week belly - yikes!

2011-07-18T21:34:00.001-05:00

Took another belly shot last night (just about 35 weeks) and then compared it to the first time around...I think it's bigger and lower this time around!

baby #2

with Thomas