Birthday party for two

We had a family birthday party for Jacob and Nolan this past weekend and for the first time in birthday party history, everyone was able to make it. It was a grand day.

Lots of food.....

The boys were spoiled as usual......

Jacob is more calm - doesn't show as much emotion, likes to play it cool.....where as Nolan.........he is so expressive....check out some of his faces!

Family is so awesome....

Jacob wanted a sports cake....

Nolan wanted Typhlosion (his favorite Pokemon right now)

Nolan said he wants to stay three forever though… hopefully we can get him to change his mind before April 12th. ;)

We had another pinata.....it was a hard one to break.

I remembered to get pictures of the birthday boys with everyone....

At the end of the night the boys were a little crazy from the day and wanted to each take a picture of the rest of us being silly (Lucas was sleeping)....

It was a fabulous day all around. Thank you everyone.

Couple of random things:

Here is an updated head shot of the boys....

Jacob went to a birthday party after school today (and has 3 more to come within the next 2 weeks….crazy for only preschool). Snuggling in bed tonight he whispers to me…. "Mommy, you know what….when I won musical chairs at the party today, ….Ruthie gave me a big hug.”

He had that embarrassed, happy smile on his face if you know what I’m talking about at all. It was a look that made me think….TROUBLE. :) Especially since she makes it known that she likes him….and he doesn’t seem to have any problems with that.

14 months

ur 14 month old...

loves the book Elmo is So Big...and from that has learned how to do the following three things:

1. Loves to play peek a boo. He'll put his hands up on his face....and keep looking through his fingers. It's so funny. He giggles though

2. He puts his hands in the air and does "so big".

3. He waves and says "bye bye"

He bounces or his version of "dancing" when he hears music or kicks his feet in the car to the music.

He is still obsessed with the remote. He also loves the Wii remote and holds it in his hand likes he's racing (just like his big brothers) a car. He catches on to things they do way too quickly. In fact, today he caught on to how to stand on the Wii fit balance board (picture below) because the boys were playing that. Lucas would go right up to them and try to push them off it so he could stand on it. The big boys would just laugh.

He is very demanding....with lots of...."uhs", and pointing, and hands up to try and tell us what he wants.

He eats like a horse. I cannot believe how much he puts into that little body. He likes almost everything too.

He still climbs up things and on things like he's a monkey. He's so proud of himself when he pulls himself up on the couch to sit by someone.

He brings so much joy to the family (well, obviously all the boys do), but it's so fun for all of us to play with him, watch him grow, and just enjoy life with him. It's really neat to see the older boys interact with him.

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On a side note...

We had the family birthday party for Jacob and Nolan on Saturday. I will post tonight but have quite a few pictures to sort through.

We had an eventful week.

Jacob got his stitches out. It looks good. Again, was such a trooper. You could tell it hurt a little becuase he would flinch and his eyes watered, but he was trying to be so tough. I had the other three boys with watching.

Just as the nurse was going out to get treats for Jacob and of course his brothers, Lucas threw up all over me, himself, the chairs, and the floor. I got him to the garbage for a little bit of it.

(To back up a little bit: I went home with him on Thursday because he got sick at daycare, but he seemed fine all day. No throwing up or icky diapers. We took him back to daycare on Friday, and when I picked the boys up she told me that he still had something because he had a few really explosive and icky diapers). We headed to get Jacob's stitches out after this.

The nurse was amazing....very calm, not grossed out at all, we put my coat and Lucas's coat in a garbage bag, she gave me a blanket to cover him up with.....it was a very interesting situation.

We got home....changed clothes, gave Lucas a bath, and I rocked him to sleep. He slept the rest of the evening until Saturday morning. He slowly came around at the party and was much better by Sunday.

I also gave Jacob and Nolan their first "home" haircut, while Matt and Connor went to the Huskies basketball section finals game (Go Huskies - they made it to state!). I asked for a haircutting set for Christmas and finally got enough guts to do it. I know lots of people do this already. I've been wanting to learn how to do this for awhile now. As you can imagine, 3 hair cuts - not to mention 4 when Matt is in the mix, and eventually will be 5 with Lucas - can cost a lot when you keep their hair short and they need it like every 6-8 weeks. Their hair grows crazy fast. I definitely can use some practice and improvement, but for the first time they turned out not too shabby. It's kind of fun!

Connor decided to give up a few things for Lent this year, all on his own. He chose to give up the Wii and candy. I could not believe it. What a grown up thing to do, I told him that's more than many adults would do. He even gets excited about and wants to come help me a the soup suppers we do on Wednesday nights. Connor, I am so impressed and proud of the young man you are. I worry once in awhile that you are too grown up, but then am reassured when I see you get goofy and silly like a first grader should. I am relieved! ;)

Have a great week everyone.

Luck o’ the Irish to you!

Happy St. Patrick’s day!

You know…. I kind of am wishing those darn pesky little leprechauns never decided to make a visit to our house…..because now they have to make a visit EVERY year. ;)

They were just as pesky as always….broke through our trap….

Connor made some nifty stairs to help them get to the ladder…

The living room was completely messed up…..

The toilet water was green again as well.

We had a very green dinner … Green Grilled Cheese, Green Lettuce Salad, Green Peas and Carrots, Green Milk, and Green Pudding. The boys weren’t too sure about it at first….but then after trying it decided it tasted enough like it usually does that they could eat it. ;)

CHEERS!!

Happy 5th Birthday Jakeyman!

Boy do we love you!!!

Last sleep as a 4 year old…..sweet dreams buddy.

Walking through the birthday streamers as a 5 year old.

After church we went to a yummy breakfast with some relatives….

We were up late the night before and had such a busy day that the “guys” of the house needed a nap to regain some energy for the rest of the celebrating…..

In case we forgot……he’s 5!

Birthday brotherly love…..

Jacob chose to go bowling for his day (actually later changed his mind to Chuck E. Cheese, but it was too last for that). Grandma and Grandpa were able to join us.

The birthday boy……

Jacob's favorites right now:

Color: blue

Number: 10

Sport: baseball

Game: Mousetrap

Book: Piggie Pie

Show: Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Pokemon

Song: Baby by Justin Bieber, Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars

Wii game: Sonic Racing

Food: Pizza and Corndogs

Drink: White milk

Hobby: Legoes

Animal: Alligator (??? ;))

Candy: Ring pop, Gum, and Whoppers (what he used to call coconuts)

Friends: Thomas, Noah, Caleb, Ruthie

Connor says: I like playing Pokemon with you. You are silly and we get silly together. You are good at playing baseball.

Nolan says: I like to play Wii with you and games with you. I like sharing a room with you. You are nice.

Dear Jacob,

We love you so much. I can't believe how much you have grown up into a little young man. ;) No more little boy with chubby cheeks. You are doing so well in preschool and we are so proud of what your teacher has shared with us. I love that you have made some great friends and they are all so excited to see you (well, the whole girls having a crush on you already worries me a little bit at this young age! ;) ).

You are so shy and quiet when new people and new things come around (maybe even a little anxiety)issue, but boy does that change once you are familar and comfortable. You are ALL BOY. You are loud, busy, competitive, love playing sports and running, the whole burping and farting thing..... (at least you say excuse me...but then smile about it!). At the same time....you ALWAYS want to snuggle at night and read a book, you are so good with Lucas, you share with and look out for your brothers (in fact when you got your stitches in last week you asked to get a sucker and sticker for each of your brothers also....who does that after they just had their head sewn together?!)

You are full of questions right now, and want to learn. It is so fun watching you come into your own. Keep up the great work buddy....we love you so! Happy 5th birthday!

Jacob’s first birthday party

Jacob had 3 friends over today for a little birthday get together, and with Nolan and Connor there were 6 boys total. I’m really hoping for awhile yet that the boys will be OK with and let their brothers join in on the party. Connor has always been so great about Nolan and Jacob doing some of the stuff at his parties. I really want to instill that in them. Nothing is more important than brothers. We try to give the birthday boy and his friends a little of “alone” time also, but think it’s fun for the brothers to get involved….plus, I know that will get more difficult to control as they get older. ;) Maybe not so much with Jacob and Nolan because they are so close in age. Connor was quite the party coordinator today though…I’m thinking about hiring him out. ;) He was in his glory with the boys wanting him to help them, he helped organize the activities, even had Matt buy some metals to give out as awards for the games, etc…

They ate…….ALOT!

Jacob wanted a sports theme….

So they played many different sports. A little basketball….

Football throw…..

Air hockey…….

Even bowling (no pictures…I was busy cooking then) ….

The biggest hit though was the piñata……

These 4 boys are so cute together….they are pretty inseparable in school apparently.

We felt about as “spent” as the piñata by the end of the afternoon though.

It was a fun day! Most important, Jacob had a blast and it was so neat to see him interact with his friends. More celebrating tomorrow….the actual birthday.

There is always that first…..

and in our case I’m assuming not the last.

I’m actually surprised and happy (sad as that sounds) that this is our first….with having 4 boys and all in 7 years).

Corner of foot board leg……

...meet Jacob’s forehead.

Yes….we had our first set of stitches put in Thursday night. I was just about to call the boys to come sit for dinner and I hear Jacob screaming and crying and Matt saying “Oh gosh Jacob…I’m so sorry buddy…..oh Jacob…..”, and then see him carrying Jacob with his hand over his eye with blood everywhere. He puts him on the counter….and I take a look. He had a gash right above his left eyebrow. The boys of the house (yes, all 5 of them…biggest included) were playing around getting maybe a “little” crazy, but not out of the ordinary for our house and Jacob ended up hitting the corner of the bed foot board.

I calmly cleaned him up, by now Jacob was a little calmer too, (kept asking if it was going to hurt going to the doctor’s though) and we headed out the door to Urgent Care. We got there and were told it was a 45 minute wait, but they would talk to a nurse to see what they could do. After a couple minutes of waiting the nurse came and got us. Unfortunately, we weren’t actually able to be seen because protocol is to stay in order of first come first serve (which I totally understand), but she wanted to take a look to see what she could do to help out with the wait. She gave us a new ice pack and band aid and we went back out to sit down. Jacob was a ROCKSTAR trooper. We sat out there and read books and played I Spy….until we were finally called back. The doctor took a look and said it was too deep (cut through right to the skull), too close to the eyebrow, and too jagged of a cut to just use the glue and he would have to have stitches. He also opted to use the topical numbing stuff instead of a shot (THANK YOU!), however we then had to wait another 25 minutes for that to settle in. SO….we read some more books and played some more I Spy while I put pressure on the cotton ball and gauze (wish they could have given us that to do while we waited out in the waiting room). As you can see Jacob was in good spirits though…..

All in all he had 4 stitches put in with glue put on the ends of the cut. Jacob said it only hurt “a little bit when he was sewing my cut”. It was way past bedtime by the time we got home, in fact we were there passed closing time and Jacob hadn’t eaten yet. We got home to a quiet house of sleeping boys and found cards from Nolan and Connor waiting for Jacob. He ate Mac n Cheese while he took his bath and went right to bed.

I was so impressed with how you handled it all Jacob. Way to go bud!

Celebrating an expecting friend and some special “old” men…

Saturday morning I headed up to the cities to a baby shower for my good friend Shelly. She and her husband are expecting a girl in April. I cannot wait. Shelly has ALWAYS ALWAYS been there for me, even though we don’t get to see each other often enough. She is one of the most upbeat and positive people I know. She is going to be such a great mom. I can’t wait to meet the sweet girl.

Sunday we went out to dinner to celebrate dad’s birthday and my grandpa Skala’s 88th birthday. Here’s grandma keeping the kids entertained while we wait…. naming the 7 dwarfs in Snow White.

Hmmm…Grandpa, what did you get?

Dad (my grandpa) and son (my dad)…a.k.a…the old men…or birthday boys!

Lucas playing Peek A Boo with Natey and Diane (no…I do not normally have my children wearing sweater vests with nothing under them….and in the winter…..he happened to have a major diaper blow out through TWO shirts and I didn’t have another one).

Happy Ash Wednesday. Lent begins today….