Cars party

Last night we had some family and friends over to celebrate Bens 3rd birthday. The weather was amazing, the food was great, the cake was beautiful, everyone was incredibly generous. I don't think we could have asked for a better night.

Ben got his first bike from Gram and Pap:
He got a picnic table from Momo and Papa:
Shannon got him a ball playland that he's been sitting in all afternoon!Ben patiently waiting for everyone to stop singing so he can blow out the candles on his cars cake:For more than a month, Ben has been asking for party hats. We went everywhere looking for Cars hats and found anything but hats. We finally found the last pack at a store in Strongsville. Ben wore his hat for a total of 5 seconds and then wanted nothing to do with it.Ben got an easel from mom and dad:Brotherly love:Ben also got some clothes, a game, Mickey Mouse place setting, a cd, art supplies, a toy plane.....I could go on for a while. We're so glad everyone could come. Thank you for taking care of our big boy!More pics on Flickr.

You've come a long way baby!

Today is my babys 3rd birthday. I don't understand how he can be three years old. We just brought him home from the hospital like last month. I'm so excited to see him grow into such an amazing little man, but I miss my baby that would cuddle with me all day, every day. Maybe he'll humor me a little today...probably not!

August 2006

August 2007August 2008
August 2009

Long overdue thank you

Most of you know that Ben was born in respiratory distress and had to be transferred to Fairview Hospital NICU because Southwest Hospital wasn't equipped to give him the level of care he needed. He spent 9 days in the NICU. I wouldn't wish that experience on anyone, but if you have to go through it, I can't compliment Fairview enough. They have a state of the art facility with amazingly dedicated nurses. I loved one nurse in particular, Amy. She answered all of our questions, explained every machine, procedure and test result. She went out of her way to give us extra time to hold him (we weren't allowed to hold him for several days unless they were changing his bedding). I was always relieved when we got to the hospital and saw that she was working. It wasn't until a couple days after Ben was released that I realized Amys husband was detective Jonathan "A.J." Schroeder. He was killed on August 31, 2006 in the line of duty. 2 days after Ben was born, Amy lost her husband and somehow kept going to work every day to take care of Ben and our family. She was always positive, professional, reassuring, caring, comforting etc etc. I wouldn't have guessed she was going through such a traumatic experience. We never thanked her, until today. I think about her every now and then, but more so around Bens birthday. We didn't get to see her tonight, but were able to drop off a card and letter to finally express our thanks and apologize for her loss and the delay. We are so grateful to Amy and to Fairviews NICU. I'm sure they'll understand when I say we don't ever want to go back.

Countdown

Ben has been counting down the days until his birthday. Not only do we have a count down going, but he reminds us constantly that he wants to blow out candles and wear a birthday hat. This is a typical conversation that we've had at least 10 times a day for the last two weeks!

Wanna go for a drive?

I had a dentist appointment the other night so we all headed up to the mall. While I was getting a cleaning, the boys were off having fun in the play area. Sam loved the cars as much as Ben does. He was getting excited all over again just looking at the pictures.

Hanging out with some friends:

Party day

Yesterday was filled with lots of family. After church, my mom and I headed to a bridal shower. My cousin, Chris is getting married in October to Shannon. We spent the afternoon eating and checking out all the fun gifts. After the shower, my mom and step dad headed to our house to celebrate my moms birthday which was last week. Jon made a great meal and Ben was nice enough to help blow out candles and open presents. He got in lots of practice so he should be ready to go for his birthday.

Of course I don't have my camera

We were getting ready to go for a walk this morning. I got my phone, sunglasses and picked up the camera. Then I thought that it would just be one more thing to carry if I brought my camera. We are making a couple stops, but I probably wont need my camera. So I put it down. I should have known better.
We had a decent storm last night and part of a huge tree came down around the corner from us. I didn't think it was that windy, but it must of been. The tree was huge and half of it split off towards the bottom. As some crews were parking, probably to start cleaning it up, I thought, "that would have been a cool picture."
Next, we headed to aunt Prastis house. Today is Aaron and Prastis 5 year anniversary. Happy anniversary guys. We dropped off a card and Ben and Emma played for a few minutes. They are just too cute when they are together. It would have been nice to get a picture of the two of them running around the yard or sitting in a chair together while staring at a doorbell that doesn't work.
Finally, we headed to the Calaways. The kids played in the yard and Ben actually rode a tricycle (for the first time). He still needs a little bit of practice, but he moved him self forward in almost a straight line for several feet. Then Tate got on his tricycle and offered rides. Ben hopped on the back of it, put his arms around Tate and they were off. It was so stinkin' cute and I missed the picture! I'm going to have to attach the thing to my hip so I never forget it again.

I did manage to bring the camera to play group yesterday. Unfortunately, I was so busy trying to keep it away from Sam that I forgot to take a lot of pictures. I did manage to get Ben away from the see saw long enough to smile. Here is baby Aelyn:

Back to reality...sort of

Jon is back to work this week. It was so nice having him home for a week. I think spending quality time with dad helped Ben tremendously. We ended his vacation with a relaxing day at home. I'm sure we spent part of the day watching Cars (Bens new favorite movie) and dad made sure he and Ben had some water time.
Pap came up on Saturday and Jon was back to work on the back porch. The top needed to be replaced so they took care of that. It looks great and we no longer have porch dust falling into our basement!!! All thats left is to paint. You can't really see the top of the back porch in this picture, but you can see the step that Jon finished last week on the deck. Nancy, enjoy the picture. Now, let my husband get back to work!

Ben and I headed out for a hair cut Saturday while dad and pap were working. He was looking a little girly again. We went from one extreme to another.
Sunday was our churchs monthly picnic in the park. Sam and I skipped it to get in some exercise, but Ben and dad had a great time with friends.
Gram picked up Ben, Emma and Ty yesterday morning and headed to the zoo then to Mamaws. We talked to an exhausted boy last night. It doesn't sound like they sat down once. Sam is thoroughly enjoying some quiet and harassment free time. Don't tell Ben he's been playing with all his toys.

Hanging out with daddy

Jon is on vacation this week and we have been having fun non stop. After a trip to the Market on Monday, we headed to the mall for some popcorn that Jon loves and Ben managed to con him into a train ride.

Jon finished the step for the deck Monday night. It looks amazing and has already been getting a ton of use.

Tuesday we headed to gram and paps house for the day. We went out for lunch, played with bubbles, watered everything and Ben helped cook dinner for us.

We went to the zoo on Wednesday. Usually Ben really only cares about seeing one or two different animals each time we go. This time, Ben wanted to see pretty much everything. Every time we would stop to see an animal he would say, "lets go see more animals." He was especially interested in giraffes and turtles. We still couldn't find the zebras. It looked like they were doing some construction in their area so we're not sure where they went.
This morning was play group at the beach. I think Bens favorite part was throwing rocks in the water with daddy.
Sam got a little bit of sun block in his hair!

We finished the day with a cook out with some friends. We are stuffed and exhausted. We're looking forward to a quiet day at home tomorrow.

Prasti, this one is just for you:

Bath time

Ben and Sam took a bath together tonight. Here is some of the fun:

Outdoor living

We have a deck! While I helped a little, Jon did 99% of the work and he did an amazing job. We had dinner outside for the first time last night on our new deck and new table (thanks mom and Tony). We spent most of the morning outside and loved every minute of it. We're looking forward to the rest of the summer so we can have plenty of play time. We still have some work to do on it. We're putting on a step, painting the back porch, landscaping and we'll have to stain it in a month or two. It's still a work in progress, but we're loving it!
Ben and Sam playing Peek a Boo and entertaining each other:
Sam woke up from his nap first the other day and was feeling pretty excited to be playing with Bens toys with him not around!