America the Beautiful!

O beautiful for spacious skies...

Wow our holiday weekend was jam packed with activities, celebrations, cook-outs, parades and lots of fun with family and friends! And of course, no 4th of July celebration is complete without proudly displaying our American flag. This Independence Day celebration ....

Here is mommy's little "fire-cracker" all pooped out from day 1 of our 5 day holiday long weekend.

On Friday July 1st Stella and Sophia's daycare, Kid R Kids, had a 4th of July Parade. Parents were welcome to attend and of course, I was there with camera on hand. How cute are these little patriots?

On Saturday July 2nd we attended the 10th Annual Settlers Walk Bike Parade. Each year, our community (Settlers Walk) holds a bike parade and everyone is encouraged to attend and to decorate their bikes and strollers. There are 2 routes on the parade, a 1 mile and 1/2 mile route. Each route is lead by either a City of Springboro fire truck or a police car. Stella and Todd did the long route and boy did they have fun!

Stella and her decorated bike!

Stella and her soccer buddies at the front of the parade.

 

And they're off......



 Jonah enjoyed the parade from the comfort of his stroller...sipping on some H2O!

Stella riding through the parade.

Here comes daddy!

After the bike parade, the homeowners association hosts a cook out with a DJ, games, prizes and lots of activities for the day! We enjoyed the cookout after the bike parade and hung out at the pool for several hours that day.

Enjoying a red, white and blue popsicle!

This was Jonah's first time up at the pool for the season. Stella and Todd had been at the pool several times already this summer but 4th of July weekend was Jonah's first visit. Needless to say he loved it and loves splashing and of course trying to drink the pool water!

Daddy and his 2 little fish!

Jonah has always loved the water and usually fusses when we take him out of the bath tub at night so it was no surprise that he absolutely loved the pool too. Because my baby is blonde and has fair skin a rash shirt, sunscreen and 50spf hat were all an absolute necessity on this 90+ degree day!

Fun in the pool!

"I'm into everything and like to discover new things!"

Enjoying Cheerios at the pool!

"Aren't I adorable?"

Both Stella and Jonah had so so so so much fun at the pool and both of them acclimate really well when we are out and about. When Jonah gets tired so long as he has a pacifier and a place to crash (like a stroller or mommy's lap) then he is content.  We spent several hours at the pool hanging out with friends and neighbors and it was a lot of fun for both the adults and the kids!

It's tiring being so cute!

No holiday weekend would be complete without a trip to Lake Shawnee! Todd's grandparents have a cottage on the lake and it's a great place for the Langley Clan to congregate and have fun playing in the water, playing with the sand on the beach, riding the jet skis or simply relaxing and watching the boats go by. Lake Shawnee is a private lake located in Jamestown approximately 30 minutes from our home. Because this was our first visit to the lake for the 2011 summer season we headed out a few hours earlier than usual to help get the cottage and the grounds cleaned up. As a young child, Todd spent his summers at Lake Shawnee and he forged so many memories there. It's wonderful that now the next generation can now begin creating their own memories there too. Stella's favorite things to do at the lake are fishing, making sand castles on the beach, jumping off of the dock into the lake and of course swimming with her cousins in the lake.

Daddy and Jonah chilling under the sun tent.

Stella and Uncle Scotty on the jet ski.

Stella and daddy on the jet ski.

Todd sporting Grandad's bald eagle hat circa 1980's.

Jonah enjoying the lake.

Jonah with Nana in the golf cart.

Stella and Todd playing on the tubes in the lake!

No 4th of July weekend would be complete without a cookout and some fireworks of course. On Monday July 4th we went to a cookout at friends house and made it home in time to watch the fireworks in our backyard from our back deck.

Although the 5 day holiday weekend was jam packed with activities and festivities it was a lot of fun and well worth it. A great time was had by all and we created yet more memories that will last us a lifetime.

God Bless America!

Summer Fun!

Stella recently received caterpillars from Gigi (Mikey's mom) and before long we had butterflies! Yes, normally I a buga-phob and I am the one that will stand on a chair if I see a spider or scream for Todd to come kill it but amazingly enough receiving a UPS package full of little caterpillars didn't freak me out!

 

So we come home from work one day and there is a UPS package at our front door filled with 2 containers of caterpillars. We weren't permitted to open the containers as they contained all of the food and nutrients that the caterpillars needed to form their chrysalis. We waited and waited and waited and waited and 2 weeks later once the caterpillars had morphed into their chrysalis they were now ready to be transported into the netting. We placed the sugar water at the bottom of the netting and everyday had to spray the chrysalis with room temperature water from a spray bottle. Then nearly 1 week later, we were able to see the butterfly emerge from the chrysalis.

Not only was this a fun project to do with Stella it was also very educational and she had so much fun doing it. Every morning before she left for school and every day when she got home from school she would check on their progress and report what she found.

Once the butterflies emerged, Stella began naming them all. I am not quite sure how she kept track of who was who because they all looked alike to me! We had 12 butterflies in all and they were very very pretty.

It was a warm Saturday morning and it was the day we were going to release our butterflies into the world. We took the netted butterfly house outside on to our back deck and we began to release them one by one back into nature. It was such a glorious "circle of life" moment and lots of fun at that! Todd unzipped the top of the butterfly house and one by one most of the butterflies began to fly out. We had to coax a few of them out but within a matter of minutes they were all out and free to fly off.

This was a very fun project to do with Stella. She enjoyed it so much and we look forward to doing more and learning lots along the way!

Jonah- month 9

Hard to believe that Jonah is 9 months old now! We just had his nine month check up yesterday and he weighs 24 pounds 2 ounces (80th percentile) and he's 28 inches long (50th percentile). I am happy to say that Jonah has been very very healthy this past month. Not a single ear infection since getting ear tubes last month. It's a miracle surgery and in our case very necessary. Other than being chunky and healthy, lots has changed since last month.....

First and foremost, Jonah is now mobile. Yes, one day he went from rocking on all fours to taking off across the room. He's into EVERYTHING and if you don't keep a close eye on him you will find him sitting in the middle of the kitchen at the dishwasher trying to mess with the dirty dishes or at the dog bowl trying to eat Buckeye's dog food. Needless to say, the entire first floor of our house has been Jonah-proofed (aka baby-proofed). We've covered every outlet, tied up any hid any cords, locked lower cabinets, gated off the top of the stairs.....once he's vertically mobile we will have to address all of the doors, locks, toilets and strapping down some of the bigger items.

Jonah is growing fast and eating non-stop. In fact, if he's not playing, sleeping or on a discovery mission (i.e. getting into everything) Jonah is eating. He is still on Gerber Gentle Plus formula but we are now on stage 2 foods, cereal and snacks. Jonah's favorite foods include: sweet potatoes and chicken (pre-mixed), squash, tutti-fruiti (tropical fruit mixture), mango's, strawberry bananas, some granola cinnamon and raisin concoction made by Gerber. He also loves the veggie puffs. They look like cheesy puffs minus the processed cheese.

Jonah is so big that he is outgrown his pumpkin seat and is now in his rear facing big boy car seat. He loves it. The only down fall is if he falls asleep in the car and we go somewhere he wakes up once we take him out of the seat.

Because Jonah is crawling he is finding new and exciting place to play. When we took his new big boy car seat out of the box, he and Stella played in the box for several hours. He loves "discovering" and finding new things on his own. It's amazing how something so simple as a box can keep him busy for hours on end.

 Jonah also likes to play with the laundry basket. Each week he gets more curious and adventurous with the laundry basket, so much so that this week he pulled out EVERY piece of folded clothes that was in the basket so he could climb in (notice the clothing piled on the floor in the background). He sat in the basket for about an hour and simply loved it as you can see from the expression on his face! I mean, who needs fancy toys when a large empty box and a laundry basket will keep him busy for hours on end.

After playing with the laundry basket for sometime, Jonah figured out how to tip it over so he could crawl out.....and he's off!

Jonah also recently discovered how to pull himself up! Yes everything from the ottoman, the side of the couch or even the side of his toy bin, he's pulling himself up and each day his balance is getting better. I walked into his room this morning and he was standing at his crib chewing on the railing (I'm thankful that Todd lowered his mattress when he began sitting up several months ago). I'm sure before his 10 month blog he will be walking.

On this day it was 92 degrees out and so I stripped Jonah down to his diaper and he played all evening in his bouncer naked! Check out my chuncky monkey!

 

On nice days (that is days when its NOT raining or  that aren't nearly 90+ degrees out) we try to get outside and play as much as possible. On this day we played outside on our swing set and even enjoyed popsicle's. This was Jonah's first popsicle. He loved it although I only let him have a few licks because I didn't want him to get an upset stomach. Needless to say, Jonah LOVED the popsicle!

Seven years ago, for Stella's first birthday, Teta and Gido bought Stella a Rainbow swing set/play system. It's pretty awesome, I must admit and 7 years later Stella still loves it and now Jonah enjoys it too! Jonah loves sitting in the bucket swing and being pushed. In fact when the swing slows down he fusses until you push him a bit higher. Stella certainly loves being a big sister and loves playing with Jonah especially on the swing.

Jonah has learned so much this month that we wanted to document it and capture it on video....ENJOY!

I'm learning to use the camera we bought before Jonah was born. I am not an artist by any means but I am beginning to experiment and use other functions and setting on the camera other than auto.  Here are a few shots that I took.

Jonah was drooling quite a bit this month! I am happy to report that in early June he cut his top 2 teeth (at the same time). It was pretty predictable really. One morning he woke up congested and snotty and a tad fussy and later that evening when he was laying on his back and I was changing him, there were these 2 beautiful little white teeth looking at me! Auntie Sissy is dying to feed him a steak and my moms famous grape leaves!

Its so hard to believe that my little man is already 9 months old. His first birthday will be here before you know it (which reminds me, I must get my party planning hat on and start making arrangements and preparing). It's amazing to see Jonah's personality begin to develop. He's learning and discovering something new everyday whether its clapping his hands, waving goodbye, calling Buckeye our dog "da" or signing "more" when he wants more food. I cant tell you how blessed I am to be the mother of 2 pretty spectacular kids and being able to live and share each of these moments with them!