Jeremy blew up his 1st balloon!

Amelia is thinking, "this looks nothing like the balloons mommy blows up"!

Sleep Over with Cece

Cece came over last night for a sleep over and it went really well.  It was good practice for Ryan and I to have 3 kids!  Here are pictures of dinner time, bath time, relaxing after bath and story time with Ryan.  Cece cried a little for her mom at bedtime but both Jeremy and her went to bed after a little Einstein to mellow them out.  Neither one of them napped yesterday so they were past the point of tired.  One wake up call at 1:30 am (cece wanted milk and I was warned by Courtney so I already had the milk by my bed), potty run at 2:05 am for cece (we just heard the doors closing) and 6:30 a.m. giggling but they didn't call for us until 7 a.m!  They were both tired this morning but we walked to coffee, got some yummy treats and played in the playroom until Courtney came to pick her up!  Fun time!

Night night!!!!

Cousin Fun

The Stockham cousins came over to our house today and they had lots of fun!!!!!  Here are a couple pics..one of them playing (g-rated) and one of the aftermath! :)  

Oma's House

Auntie Courtney, Georgie, Cece and Teddy are in town for a couple weeks so we've been spending LOTS of time with them at Oma's house!  Amelia's new favorite thing...climb in the water fountain.  Jeremy also loves to play in the water fountain so I caught a picture of them playing together in the water!

Fire Girl

Amelia loves to play with Jeremy's toys while he's at school!  She LOVED his fire hat!

So cute!

Jeremy's preschool had their graduation for 5 boys moving on to kinder next year!  They wore black and all the other kids wore blue caps!  Jeremy had to shake the teacher's hand and get a big CONGRATS for being such a big boy this year.  He sat through the whole thing and behaved (well, until he asked me if I had a treat in the car for him during the ceremony) really well.  I know, they're 3 and shouldn't really be graduating but I think it's an excuse for the parents to eat cookies and hang out!  

Scary Larry

We had our 3D/4D ultrasound and everything went well!  A little scary looking but cute because it's ours!  We watched in 4D (live video) as the baby jumped and moved around with the hiccups!  It was pretty surreal!  We heard the heart beat and watched as it was measured, nudged and pushed to get in certain positions!  The sonographer's quotes were, "this baby is not cooperating" and "you've got a mover"!  Ryan and I looked at each other and chuckled!  Doesn't look like we have a mellow one on our hands for #3 either!  Oh yeah, the thing that looks like a penis is NOT a penis! :)

OCD

Ryan had to unload the beer and Jeremy wanted to help!  Ryan showed him how to turn the bottles so the label was facing outward....scary or cute, not sure?!?!?!  Anyway, he was very proud of his final outcome.  And yes, Jeremy did them himself!

Mardi Gras Beads

She loves to eat them!

Baby Meinhardt #3

For those of you who don't know, Baby Meinhardt #3 will be arriving mid-December with jingle bells in hand!  I had my 12 week appt today and all went well!  The little guy/girl was moving all over the place and put his/her hands up in his/her face!  No, we will not find out the sex so you will have to wait until December 18 (most likely the date of the c-section) to know if our house will be more girls than boys or boys than girls!  Here is a picture of the ultrasound!  If you don't know how to read these, the baby is at the top and the baby's head is on the left side with the body to the right.  The little white dots to the sides are the hands.  If you can't see it, well, not sure what to tell you.  I will be back at the doctor July 15 so I will let you know how things are going then! 

Jeremy's Last Day at Emerson

Today was Jeremy's last class at Emerson!  It made me so sad to think of how much he's grown since he started!  And how I've grown as a mom!  I explained to him on the way to school that next year, he will be at his big boy school 3 days a week instead of 2 and that he will not have Teacher Kathy as a teacher anymore.  I told him that it's Amelia's turn to go to Teacher Kathy so she can become a big girl like he has become a big boy.  He then asked, "am I going to stay at home with a sitter like Amelia does"?  Nope, he will be at Johnny's when Amelia goes to school. Anyway, it was a cute class and each child had to cross a little bridge to receive their certificate of merit!  Here are some pictures from today!

The playground

Eating snack at the only spot he sat in this year!  Right next to his best bud Emily!

Walking across the bridge!

Waiting for everyone to take their turn!

Listening to Teacher Kathy's last words of wisdom!

ALL done!  So proud of you Jbird!  We will miss Teacher Kathy a lot but we're excited that Amelia will start with her in the Fall.  Well, hopefully the lottery treats us well and Amelia gets into the class!  To another great year of fun with Teacher Kathy at Emerson!

Another new window...that makes 8 done and 3 little ones to go!

Amelia lost interest in helping her dad so she took to her mardi gras beads (hope she doesn't get those one day for showing her goods) and opening and closing her favorite cabinet!

Jeremy lost motivation to help as well so he decided "hide and seek" would be a perfect game!  Maybe I should have told him that hiding behind a window doesn't work :)

All hands on deck to help!  Or, play with the wood!  He's ALL boy as you can see in this picture!

Amelia was quite the helper when the window project first started!  She followed her dad everywhere and I think Ryan loved every second of it!  Now all that's left to do is paint IT ALL!

My 1st REAL swim lesson

I went to my friend's house today for my 1st real swim lesson.  I've gone to the YMCA for group lessons but now it's time for the real deal!  My teacher's name is Mark and he is really good with kids!  I tried all sorts of new things to get used to the water.

I had to practice floating (ears under water) to get used to the way it feels when your balance is off.  Mark said it looked like I had been electrocuted because I was so stiff.  I'm not sure why my mouth is open like this but I can only guess it was to breathe because I thought I was going under!  

Here I am playing with Jessie's toys waiting for Mark!

He threw me in a cannon ball (I really liked that) and he showed me how to climb out of the pool with no help!  Such a big boy!  

I had to use my arms to get me all the way around the pool edge until I got to the stairs and could get out on my own.  Just in case I fall in while mom and dad are busy!  

I had to blow bubbles and then go under water to get a toy on the steps in the shallow end.  He then put it on the next step and then the next until I went all the way to the bottom with him to get it.  Shallow end of course but still, I DID IT!  Here I am going under on the 2nd step!

I only asked for mom a few times!  Mom said she was VERY proud when I was done.  I will let you know how next week goes and maybe mom will take a video that time!  

My new chair!!!!!

Thank you Oma, Opa & Grandmommy!  I love it!!!!!

Heading home today!

We're getting some last minute playtime and quality time with the family before we head home tonight!  We've had lots of fun and I know Jeremy will miss Beck when we get home.  We tried to take some pictures of them with Mary/Grandmommy and it was quite a scene!  Amelia and Jeremy were not cooperating! Shocker!

Bath Time

New Bikini

I wasn't happy for this picture but I loved swimming in the pool for the first time!  I think I might be a water girl!  Surfing maybe?!?!?!  Oh yeah, I  am going to work on toning up my legs! :)

Chicago Bean

We're in Chicago and having lots of fun!  We took the kids to a swim park with kid pools, slides, sand play area and diving boards!  Yesterday we took the kids to downtown Chicago on the train and Jeremy didn't take his eyes off the track and outside the whole time.  We visited the Field Museum and then went to "the bean"!  It's a large kidney bean they built to beautify downtown Chicago!  The big boys, Ryan and Jeremy, are taking the little boys to a movie today!  It will be Jbirds first time!  We'll let you know how it goes!  The girls will stay back and RELAX!