Picture Update for our far away friends and family...

May trip to the Cincinnati Zoo

Indy Air Show June 2009 (Mount Comfort Airport)

A high altitude seat for the Indy Air Show

After Christopher threw an entire box of shredded paper down the stairs...Daddy cleaning up the aftermath...

Hangin' out... waiting for the dog to finish eating, so they can play again.

A walk in the Garden

Today was a beautiful day! Stefanie, Oscar, Christopher and I went to the White River Gardens. We went to the butterfly exhibit. Chris broke the rules... You are not supposed to touch the butterflies... Chris grabbed a hold of one of them before I could stop him. He had it by both wings, so it was completely helpless. I wasn't exactly sure how to get him to let go of it without hurting it worse. He let it go after about 15 seconds. Poor butterfly. It flew away once he let go of it, so hopefully its okay.

We saw lots of beautiful spring flowers in full bloom.

However, the highlight of the day was when the boys found a series of frog shaped fountains. They got completely soaked! It was a good thing that both of the boys had a change of clothes with them.

After the gardens and a meal, we went for a walk in downtown Indianapolis. The boys played on the steps of the war memorial for a little while.

Once back at Matt and Stef's, the boys played outside for awhile. Chris pulled around his little snoopy, and Oscar played with a basketball.

A few ducks and a dog...

Follow me! When Aunt Pam and Uncle Doug came over the other day, Aunt Pam told me that the ducks Chris is pulling were my mother's when she was little. Don't make toys like they used to, huh?

up the steps, down the slide...

This is at our neighbor's house (across the backyard). Chris figured out how to get to the top of the slide and slide down himself. I was really worried that he wasn't going to sit and wuold fall headfirst, so I was ready to jump forward and catch him if needed! He's getting so big and so independent!

Blue Sunday (Happy Easter!)

The camera that I've been using lately (my dad's) has in camera editing that lets you highlight only one color and makes everything else black and white. I have fun with that feature once in awhile... today I chose blue!

Please let me out, Chris!

Profile in motion

Don't worry Sebastian, I'll get us both out of here!

I'll smile this time if you promise to put that camera away!

Chris, What happened to your ball?

So maybe I have a sick sense of humor, but I think its funny when the dog's ears fly back... and also the emphatic way that Chris says, "UH OH!" at the end of the 2nd video. The two videos were taken just seconds apart...

Don't worry, Chris has a brand new giant blue ball.

StairMaster

FINALLY! Grandpa J. taught him how to take the stairs the right way! Chris has become very independent now that he has this new found stair descending ability... I still have to watch and remind him to "go backwards!"

Cool Picture

Mike took this the last time that he on a trip. Mike was on his Dad's plane and Wake Island is in the background.

Toddler

Chris loves to crawl up the stairs, and every night before bed, he gets to! We usually start from the den, crawl through the kitchen, the dining room, living room, and up the stairs. Lately, Chris has been trying to walk more than crawl. He's walking more every day! This was recorded in the evening afer his birthday party. Since we hadn't cleaned up the dining/living room yet, there are a lot more distractions than normal, and it took me awhile to get him up the stairs. There's nothing extremely amusing about this video, but I wanted to show family and friends who don't get to see Chris very often. Have patience, he walks at the end...and its about a 1:15 clip.

Like I said, not extremely amusing, but it is kind of funny when he falls on the pooh bear glow worm and then is surprised by it singing under his tushie.

Sledding!

We finally had all the right conditions to go "sledding!"

Lately its been below zero with even farther below zero windchills...
Before that, there was ice...

and before that, more ice...

Before that, Rain. Rain. Rain.

Today was cold (in the high 20's), but warmer than other recent days with very little wind. We have had a couple snow falls recently. While Mike cleared the driveway this afternoon, I took Chris for a sled ride. He giggled and smiled the whole time! Such a dare devil...

Here's a video of one trip down the driveway!

Chris' First Birthday Party

Chris turned one on Friday the 9th. Mike had to work all that weekend, so we had a small party for Chris on the 17th. All of Mike's family, my dad, and our friends Matt and Angie were able to come. Chris seemed to enjoy his cake, and didn't make too big of a mess. Oh yea...he HATED the hat! I put it on and he seemed to tolerate it. I took it off...and then put it back on again. TEARS!! So the hat stayed off...

Per Aunt Pam's advice, we used chocoalte icing to make sure it would show up in the photos :) I did make the frosting myself and used cream cheese, and about 1/2 the sugar that the original recipe called for. It turned out really yummy!

Since Chris didn't get too messy, the clean-up wasn't too bad. I held him while Mike rinsed him off in the sink.

Mike's mom made Chris a really neat quilt! The actual quilt stitching is airplanes and clouds as well. It should be about the perfect size for his toddler bed when he's ready for one.

Aunt Sandy gave Chris some cute clothes.

Angie and Matt got Chris a Little People Airplane.

We appreciate the gifts and the company and were really glad that everyone who was able to come did!

"Spring" Cleaning

Chris decided to get a head start on spring cleaning this year. We figured that once he started emptying that cabinet, we'd just let him finish since there was a shelf that needed to be put back in anyway.

Playing Catch Up #4--Christmas with the J side

By official Christmas day, we had celebrated Christmas with Laura's mom and Mike's family already. Christmas day was very low-key and relaxing. Laura's dad came over to visit and had dinner with us. We had a small ham and fixins. After dinner, we went to Grandma J's house to have dessert. She was invited to come over and open gifts, but she didn't feel like getting out in the cold weather. Maybe next time!