8th Wedding Anniversary, Mesker Park Zoo, and Fall Football,

Happy 8th Anniversary to Ryan and I!  Tuesday Sept. 30 was the big day, and we celebrated that day by having lunch together at Biaggi's.  Tomorrow we are having a date and driving to Pattis' Settlement in Grand Rapids, KY.  This is a fabulous restaurant, and I have only been there one time when I was about 15.  Ryan has never been, so I thought it would be nice to go somewhere different.  It is about two hours away, but well worth the drive.  Here is the link to the website.  www.pattis-settlement.com.  They are famous for their bread in a clay pot, pork chops, and pies!  I can already taste the yummy goodness!!!

We decided to head to the local West Side Mesker Park Zoo last Sunday and had a really nice time.  The kids were great, and Jaycee even crashed for a nap in the stroller for about 30 min.  The new exhibit Amazonia is pretty cool, but they increased the price to get in to cover the cost of that one.  It was $24.50 for 2 adults and 1 child.  I guess that is about the same price as it would of been for a movie, and we had 2 hours of fun at the zoo.  Here are some of the pictures from our trip. 

Broderick has joined the Castle Youth Football League (CYFL) and is playing flag football.  He is on the Vikings team which is purple and is number 44.  He started off really hating it, but is now starting to come around and listen more to the coach which means he gets to play the positions he wants to like quarterback and running back.  Ryan decided to Assistant coach, which I am not sure was a good idea, since Broderick thinks he doesn't have to listen since Dad is there.  Here are some of the pictures I was able to take while wrestling Jaycee at one of the games.  The season ends on 10/25/08 where they have some big playoff game or something.   So far he has played two years of T-Ball, 3 years of Swim lessons, including one year of the Newburgh Sea Creatures Swim Clinic and now this 1 year of flag football.  I will have to say that his favorite is definitely the swimming, and I think he is pretty good for his age.  Second choice would be football, and then the T-ball.  But above all of these his favorite activities include playing Playstation 2 games, and Nintnedo Wii games.  His favorites being the Lego Star Wars on PS2 and the bowling and Tennis on the Wii.  

Well, that is about all that is going on with us right now.  Just staying super busy, and I am looking forward to some of the colder months when things start to slow down, because I feel like I really need a break!  

Take care friends,

Heather 

Ms. Jaycee McKenna a.k.a spit up queen!

I must say for all that know my daughter, you know she has a bit of a spit up problem.  Well, on August 30th, we were all going to a wedding.  I bought the kids new outfits to go and not thinking I did not buy a 'back-up' outfit for Jaycee.  I know she spits up on everything I ever put on her and I should of known better, but I didn't.  You see the wedding was at 7pm, so she normally eats at 5:30 or 6:00 every evening, and I knew I wanted to feed her before we left the house, so I fed her at 5:30 and I dressed her in her outfit before I fed her.  I thought I would be safe doing it that way, because if I would of fed her first and then immediately tried to change her into the wedding outfit I knew she would puke because I would of been jostling her to much, so I took my chances and dressed her before I fed her.  Let's just say that she was getting more and more inpatient with how long it was taking me to heat her baby food and heat her bottle while she screamed her head off in the high chair.  Literally she was only sitting in the chair for about 2 minutes, but you would of thought I had left her there for a half an hour.  In that short amount of time, she screamed louder and harder, until she started coughing, then choking, then puking all over her outfit and the floor and the high chair...  Needless to say, she wore something else to the wedding, and by the time the night was over, she had spit up on the new outfit no less than 4 times and twice on my white shirt that I wore.  It was a lovely pukey evening...  I will be so glad when these spitting up/reflux days are over.  I can't wait until I can dress her in cute outfits without the stinky bib and a burp cloth attached at her side.  Two days before the actual wedding on an evening when she wasn't so pukey, I tried the entire outfit on her and took a few pictures, so her is the outfit that she never wore to the wedding.  She loved the shoes I bought her, I think she was just trying to figure out what the heck I had put on her feet, since I don't ever put her in shoes.  I love her so much, but she is rotten already!!!

Flash back to some younger days of Broderick.

It is really hard to believe that my little man is growing up so quickly and is now in the 1st grade.  Here are some of my favorite pictures of him as a younger, blonder, little man...

Updated pictures

Hey all couple of you that read my blog. I am so behind of my posts it is not even funny. I seem to never have time to post anything, read my emails, sit and watch a show on TV, take a bath, or do anything for me anymore. Things are so busy all of the time. Does anyone else ever feel this way? I feel like I need to sleep for about a week or two just to get caught up and then maybe I will feel like me again, but then again maybe not. I keep thinking that things will slow down and get easier, but I am still waiting...

I just had these pictures of Jaycee and Broderick developed. I had pictures back from March that I had taken and had not devolped. See how far behind I am? Anyway, I want to share some of my favorites with you.

Take Care and hopefully this weekend I will post some more from Broderick's first day of first grade.

Big blue eyes.

Here are some pictures I took of Jaycee and Broderick recently.  My little girl is growing so fast.  I can't believe that she is already 6 months old.  Before you know it, she will be 1, and then starting pre-school.  Broderick is starting 1st grade this year, and it seems like just yesterday that he was Jaycee's age.  Broderick is out of town right now with his grandparents.  They took a trip to Louisville, to visit his Aunt Erika, and then they went to an aquarium in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He called me on his way back from the aquarium and told me about all of the fun he had.  He said he even got to pet a shark.  He is having a lot of fun on this mini vacation, but I sure do miss him.  He will be home tomorrow!  

Baby food firsts

I am on a roll today with the blog postings.  I wanted to share some of the pictures we took of Jaycee trying baby food for the first time.  She is eating Butternut squash.  She really is liking her baby food, but it is not agreeing with her system, so for the time being we are cutting it way down.  We are going to continue to give her her baby cereal and mix it with some fruit, but she was spitting up so bad with the veggies, that we want to cut it way down since she still has such a bad reflux problem.  We took Jaycee for her 4 month check up on May 12, 2008.  She weighed 15 2.5 lbs. (85% percentile) and is 24 in. (50% percentile) long.  To compare this to Broderick, he was also 15 lbs. at 4 months and he was 25 1/2 in. long.  She is growing so fast.  She has gained 10 lbs. since birth and grown 6 inches.    

Boys will be Boys...

April 27, 2008: 

I really wanted to share these pictures because it is very rare that I see my son get dirty and I was so tickled when I found out he had painted his face and was playing army guys.  I was getting ready to leave out of town this day for work and I went outside to load up my car and saw his face, and he ran and hid behind the bushes.  I told him to come here for a minute and he hesitated because he thought he would be in trouble for sure.   Little did he know, I was thrilled inside because he was finally letting go and playing and just being a kid and getting dirty!

May 17, 2008:

First major bike wreck.  Broderick has been riding his bike for 2 years without training wheels, and he had his first major wreck since he began riding.  It was right before I was getting ready to leave for our Bunko group, and he ran in the house screaming and holding his chin.  He had blood all over his face, so at first we really didn't know how serious his injuries were.  He ended up with a really swollen and bruised chin, scrapes on his nose, chin and wrists, a busted and swollen lip, and a really big bruise on his knee.  It has only been a week, but he has healed up suprisingly well.