Disney 2011

I know I am haven't blogged in many many months and I am very far behind, but I suppose that it's better late than never! Right?

We went to Disney over Thanksgiving with the whole fam! My dad's 70th Birthday was in early December. Instead of hosting a big party we thought we would keep it low key and take the entire family to Disney for a week to spend quality time together and to celebrate this momentous and joyous occasion. 

To be honest, I was initially very hesitant at first to travel for an entire week to the Disney parks with a 14 month old but I did my best to keep Jonah on schedule as much as possible and it worked out great.I packed all of his favorite(s); his favorite blanket, baby foods, snacks, sippy cups and more. I wanted him to feel at home even when he wasn't.  I also tried to keep him on his schedule (as much as possible). For example, he typically naps 2 times a day and while at the parks I would strap him into his stroller, recline his seat back, pull down his shade for privacy and keep him moving and before you knew it he was out like a light. The rest of the family went to shows and rides while he slept and I typically found a bench to park my pregnant butt on or an air conditioned shop to browse. It also helped that we stayed in a private home (5 bedroom, 5 bath home) and not at a hotel and we had the ability to use our kitchen, come and go when we pleased and just took it easy on days we wanted to. 

Stella had a blast! The last time she was at Disney she was only 5 and this time I could tell that she loved it and enjoyed it so much more. She was taller this time and could ride all of the rides and I am positive it will be a trip that she will forever remember!

It was a extremely joyous occasion....not only did we celebrate dad's 70th Birthday but Thanksgiving too and it allowed us to remember what we cherish and what we are thankful for as well. 

Here's to more trips to Disney and more fun family vacations! I have uploaded our Disney pictures below...

Click here to view these pictures larger

YES we're having baby #3

I know I have been terrible about blogging lately but I've had a lot on my plate to say the least! Well let's see after Jonah's First Birthday Extravaganza I received some news.....I AM PREGNANT! 

hmmmm....where do I even begin...let's see...well I went to the OB for my yearly visit and boy was it a visit that I will forever remember. When I heard the news that I was pregnant I was flooded with so many emotions. First and foremost I was shocked, then I was numb, then I began to cry and then I was elated and to be quite honest for several days I was on an emotional roller coaster and I simply did not  know what to do or think. Was this for real? Really? After all of the infertility treatments that I had to endure over the years to even have a family and resulted in our 2 little miracles, Stella & Jonah. How  was this possible? How could this happen (I know exactly how it happened), but how was this possible without the help of modern medicine as we used in the past.

So utter and complete shock is the best way to describe the emotions that we were feeling when we heard the news!  We waited several days for the blood work confirmation before we shared the news with our families. And when we broke the news to Stella that she was going to be a big sister again, she was so excited. Her only request was that this baby too be a boy! What can I say, she adores her baby brother.

Whats so ironic is that several months ago I was taking Stella somewhere and I was driving Todd's car (a Nissan Rogue) and Stella was sitting in the back seat and said "mommy if we ever have another baby we will need a bigger car." To which, I replied "Stella we're not having anymore babies" and she responded to me "mommy you don't know that because God only knows that. Teta always says that God has a plan for all of us." I didn't think much of that exchange at the time but thought it was cute that she wanted another sibling and could somewhat comprehend that in our faith only God knows what is ultimate plan is for us. When I think back to that conversation now,  I get goosebumps! 

Introducing Baby Langley (12 weeks old in this pic)...

With that said....Baby Langley #3 is due on May 7th, 2012. We are utterly excited and delighted to meet this new Langley and to grow our family by 2 more feet!

Jonah's First Birthday

Although Jonah's Birthday party was nearly 1 month ago I haven't found a free moment until now to look through the 200+ photos that were taken at his party! Of course I had my party planning hat on many months before the party. Initially, all I knew is that I wanted to do a whale themed party, then the next thing you knew it snowballed into whale EVERYTHING! I was on a mission to try to implement whales into everything possible.I figured that I only have a short period of time before Jonah has a say, to carry out the whale theme so I better make the most of it! 

My friend, Tracy, from Lexis designed Jonah's invite and she did a phenomenal job (she's also the one that designed Jonah's birth announcement)! All I told her was that I wanted a whale themed invitation and that incorporated a specific saying and Jonah's picture and this is what she came up with. She is an amazing designer and if you ever need an invite or card created she's definitely the gal for the job (see her shop on Etsy). 

So after the invitation was designed and created I continued to plan, plan, plan! I got on every website from ETSY to Zazzle and tried to get as many whale ideas as possible....

 




I ordered this personalized birthday banner from Etsy!

I also got some great ideas from Etsy...including this 12 month photo timeline. It was a lot of fun to make and brought back a lot of memories looking through the pictures to find pictures from every month of Jonah's first year! Oh and the blue buckets on the table were what the kids used to collect their pinata loot.

I also got the idea for these centerpiece ideas from Etsy. Let's just say that I was a good loyal Michael's and Hobby Lobby customer this past month. 

Of course in keeping with the whale theme, we had to have a whale cake of course. I ordered Jonah's cake from Ashley's Pastry Shop in Oakwood. Over the years, Ashley's has made some of the most beautiful cakes for some of our momentous occasions, including graduations, showers, birthdays and our wedding. They are definitely my go to bakery for any special occasion! 

Jonah's desert table was filled with anything and everything imaginable. Of course there was cake, but there was also whale cookies compliments of Ashley's of course (ugh I can't tell you how hard it was to find a whale cookie cutter), cake pops, and blue candy galore! I bought any and all blue candy that I could get my hands on...

Here are some of the adorable whale cookies and Jonah's smash cupcake...it was so cute too!

Cake pops, blue gum balls, pixie sticks, m&m's ....

This was the picture on top of Jonah's whale cookie display...

 I found these adorable blue buckets for the drink table at The Christmas Tree Shop (another one of my favorite shops). I love going there because you never know what you're gonna find when you go in there. I had a tub of Capri-Suns (for the kiddo's), a tub of bottled water and a tub of soda and the tiny tub in front was the ice bucket. It's also the same bucket that we used for Jonah's first year pics.

Momma and her baby boy!

Teta and Jonah!

The kids table was bumping...they had crayons and water color paints to keep them occupied.....

oh and did I mention that Uncle Mikey was face painting too.... He was a hit at the party. The kids enjoyed getting their faces painted.

 Stella got a whale painted on her face!




oh and Stella also wore her personalized whale shirt (thank you Etsy, again!)....

Jonah and his buddy Ryker had a blast playing together at the party.

 Notice Jonah's personalized whale shirt (yup another Etsy purchase)...

And it was finally time to sing and have birthday cake! 

Jonah loved being sung too and sitting near his cake. I was afraid at one point that he would dive right into it!

Time to get Jonah NAKED and let him at his smash cake! We stripped Jonah down to his diaper  and put him in his high chair and he was ready to go. At first he put a finger or two in the icing. He just didn't know what to do....

 Until he finally got some of the icing in his mouth...

And he got more and more into his cake....He absolutely loved it and by the end he had icing in his hair, his ear and God knows where else. 

Finally it was time to tear into the whale pinata! It was actually it was a pull string pinata and the kids loved it. We lined them up youngest to oldest and passed out their favor buckets too collect their loot in. 

Up first was the birthday boy of course. Jonah very much liked pulling the string!

Time for presents.... Jonah got very spoiled and received a lot of great presents. 

Initially, Jonah didn't know what to do with the wrapping paper but when we began to tear off a corner or two he got the hang of it really quick...

Here is Jonah riding on one of the 6 ride on toys her received!

And Jonah riding on the blue whale his sister Stella bought him!





I had a blast planning Jonah's First Birthday Party and well it was a lot of fun! Jonah definitely had a great time. It's impossible to believe that Jonah is one already! We are so blessed to be surrounded by so many wonderful friends and family to share with us these very special and momentous occasions and we look for many more wonderful celebrations to come!

Jonah is ONE!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY JONAH!

Well its official, Jonah is one years old today! Where has the time gone? Impossible to fathom that it was just 1 year ago that Jonah made his grand enterance into this world (see D-Day post). September 17th was just like any other day except that night when I went to bed because I wasn't feeling 100%. I had a pain on my left side and chaulked it up to pulling a muscle climbing into bed. The imense pain I awoke to on Saturday September 18th around 3:30 am, clued me in that this was no ordinary pain. And so it was off to the hospital we went...roughly 3 hours later at 6:23 am Jonah graced us with his presence (and boy did he make his presence known). So here we are 1 year later and my little man no longer looks like this:

but now looks like this:

The past month as been full of many many happenings.... Jonah tried lots of new foods...banana's, chicken nuggets, hamburger, apple juice, shredded cheese, spaghetti, diced pears and diced peaches to just name a few. Oh and most importantly whole milk! Yes we've officially been free of baby formula for 2 weeks now. Once the formula canister ran out it was time to get some milk from a plastic jug! WOW can't tell you how nice it is to spend $3 for 1 gallon of milk versus $25 for a can of formula. 

Jonah is much much more mobile these days. He can take anywhere from 5-10 steps without holding on to anything. He's also getting much much faster. He cruises around the furniture at lightening fast speed. He still stumbles and wobbles quite a bit...looks more like someone who has indulged in a few too many beers but it's still quite cute nonetheless. 

. 

Jonah is also much more curious and intuitive these days. Don't get me wrong, he still loves to stand on everything he can get his hands on (that must be a boy thing) but he also likes to look over and discover what this button or knob will do. He also loves to mimic what you say. Stella and I were singing some top 40 hit lyrics that goes like this "la-la-la" and Jonah decided to sing along and he too chimed in and began singing "la-la-la." 

Jonah and Stella's bond continues to grow each and every day! She simply adores him and he adores her. If she leaves the room, he yells "tella, tella, tella!" Jonah loves to walk to Stella and if she is lying on the floor, he will crawl all over her and play tackle her. It's an unique and amazing sibling bond that can never be replicated. Jonah has also added a few more words to his vocabulary this past month... "te-ta" and "sis" and if he wants something he will point at it and speak gibberish.

My little man has grown way too fast! This past year has gone by in a flash. I can hardly believe that our 7lb miracle is now a 25+lb monkey!

Happy Birthday Jonah! Mommy, Daddy & Stella love you very much and wish you many more blessed birthdays! 

Jonah's one year photos contained in this blog post were taken by Katie Allietta at Little Captured Moments Photography!

Jonah- month 11

OH MY GOD- I can hardly believe that Jonah is 11 months old and just 1 month away from being 1 years old! I'm already in party planning mode....check out next months blog to see Jonah's First Birthday Party. I assure you it will be a "Whale of a Time!"

Ok back to the task at hand...so Jonah crossed a lot of milestones this month! First and foremost he his much more mobile and on the move! He is cruising around the furniture and just about to walk. He's taken a few steps without holding onto anything (of course it happened while I was at work and I missed it).

Jonah is very much still very much in discovery mode. He's constantly on little missions and I am always amazed as to what he finds. Whether its little speckles of paper on the carpet, a magazine from under the couch, a toy that went missing months ago or even the dog toys from the dog bin. He especially loves the laundry basket as you can see from his picture. Frankly, he doesn't care if there is clothes in it because he will pull out every piece of folded clothing so that he can hop in.

Jonah has also mastered going up the stairs. We have a gate at the top of the stairs but the way our staircase is built it's impossible to put a gate at the bottom of the stairs so we are forced to always try to distract him from going up.





Jonah is teething like crazy. He's been fussy, feverish and booger-ish for the past few weeks and what do you know, there are 2 new little adorable shinny white teeth in his mouth for a total of 6 now. Thus Advil, Tylenol and Ora-gel have been a staple at our house as of late.

My little man is growing up so fast! It's hard to believe that last year at this time I was on bed rest with just one month to go until Jonah  would make his entrance into the world. I remember it like it was yesterday, that's why its so hard to believe that he is nearly 1 years old! My last day at work was August 16th, 2010. I was at maximum capacity, my back hurt, my sciatica was out of control and I was sweating like a pig. I wasn't sure I could even get any bigger and whats worse was I was so swollen and it was so so HOT out so it felt unbearable. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Look at my little miracle...

I am constantly amazed by how fast Jonah is growing. Not only is he growing in size (by the way, he's 25+ pounds now)  but how fast he's learning and how much he actually comprehends. Of course he's into everything, but I've noticed that if I say "Jonah, no no no" he will mimic it back to me and it sounds like "na, na, na!" When I get him out of bed in the morning he waves at his crib as if to say "bye-bye crib, I'm outta here!" When Stella is not in the room or he can't see her, he yells "tella, tella." It's also amazing to see how similar he is to Stella too when she was a baby. For example now that he's cruising around the furniture, when he has to poop, he hides behind the couch or our brown leather chair (I can't say I blame him because who doesn't want or need a little privacy while going #2). It's truly amazing to see a child's cognitive skills and motor skills develop.





Jonah made his first trip to Kings Island this past month. He made several trips in my belly last summer while I was pregnant. He did great! We kept him hydrated and he enjoyed riding in his stroller and took it all in. Todd and I took turns staying with him while one of us rode on the rides with Stella. It was a great family outing and we look forward to many more trips the remainder of this season. Kings Island is only 20 minutes from the house and has so much to do for all ages. Their kiddies section is called Planet Snoopy and Stella and Jonah love it.





While we were at Kings Island we noticed that all of the KI staff and characters were in pink. It's all part of the Susan G. Komen search for the cure. Since Todd's grandmother, Mamoose, recently won her battle with breast cancer, we thought it would be great for the kids to get their picture taken with this very special Snoopy! We love you Mamoose!




Jonah loves to be outside. Whether it's on the swing or just hanging outside on the deck with us. Although the past few weeks have been so so HOT and unbearable with the heat index well into the 100's, the past week has been just perfect. We've been enjoying our evenings outside and the kids love it. On this night Jonah insisted on helping mommy with a little gardening so he held onto his little rake.





Jonah has officially stopped taking his night tine rice cereal bottle. Believe me it wasn't my choice! One day he just stopped taking it. I tried for several days and he would just push it away. I suppose his taste buds are finally developing and he's decided he doesn't like the taste of it (I can't say that I am surprised because it smells awful). He is still eating stage 2 baby food (four jars a day; 2 for lunch and 2 for dinner) and only takes 3 formula bottles a day. This past month he's tried a lot more table food. He loves his baby yogurt, ice cream, mac & cheese, Oreo cookies, Ritz crackers, orzo, hamburger, cheese and chicken. He loves to try new foods and I love to watch his expressions and his excitement. I will be so very excited once we finish this last can of formula to go out and buy him a gallon of milk!

This past month we used our very first babysitter EVER! When I say babysitter, I mean someone that is not immediate family. We are very blessed to have our families love so close to us and they have always watched the kids for us when we've needed help. But this past month, my cousin Linda got married and well all of our family was attending the wedding so Leah (who might as well me my sister's adopted Asian sister) volunteered to watch Jo-Jo for us. She and Jonah did great and as you can see from the photo below, they had a great time together!

This past month, we got our first ever visit from our new niece and nephew, Lucy and Gabriel (they were born on June 25th and are almost 4 weeks old in this pic). Stella is a great  big cousin and loves to hold them. This is our first pic of all 4 grand babies in 1 picture together. What you don't see is that I am actually sitting on the floor right under Jonah spotting him and making sure that he doesn't reach over and poke one of the babies- Tyler did a fantastic job in making sure I didn't appear in the pic.

Jonah does great when we are at church. Typically one of us will sit in church with Stella and the other sits in the baby room (sound proof room that looks into the church) with Jonah. In this picture Jonah (aka mini Shenouda) is with his friend Father Angelous. 

Just this past weekend Jonah had a play date with his new BFF and buddy, Ryker. Ryker is 8 weeks younger than Jonah and they got along great. It's so fun to watch kids at this age interact with each other. They shared everything from pacifiers, sippy cups and Cheerios with each other. Now I just need to convince Lauren (Ryker's momma) to move to Springboro so that the boys will be in school together. I can only begin to imagine the mischief and trouble that these two would get into, I mean look at those "innocent" faces!

 How could you possibly resist these little heart-breakers?

We had a very busy month and the official count down has begun and we get ready for Jonah's first birthday! It's so hard to believe that it's nearly been 1 year and that my little baby boy is becoming a little man and growing so up so fast. We love him so much and he's blessed our family!