My oh My have we grown...

Some days it is hard to remember he was so small, so i have to get out there photos the few there are of the "tiny days" and think wow how we have grown. At 4 months he weighed in at 23.5 pounds and is 27.5 inches tall.

I must admit it is hard to hold him some days and other days I find myself looking at other people's babies and wondering how fun it must be to still dress them in baby clothes (did I mention he wears 3t shirts!), or still use a baby car seat (he is now in his big boy Britax Marathon), or maybe be able to carry him with one arm (and not rip it out of the socket).

Then I think wow am I just the luckiest mom to have 2 perfectly wonderful kids and we love them just the way they are!

KID, YOU'LL MOVE MOUNTAINS!

HaPPy 4th Birthday ISaBelLA...And Many MoRe!

Oh the places we did go,
So we went to the great Wolf Lodge and celebrated in style the biggest, best, bestest Birthday Bash for our Big Girl Isabella.

She had so much fun playing and splish splashing in the great water parks, she also loves
the game room where she would win tickets to exchange for a prize.

Isabella and daddy spent many hours playing Magiquest an interactive adventure game with a wand and whimsical tasks that take you throughout the hotel and earning gold points and ruins so that you and your magic wand can take out a fire breathing dragon.

They also took some time out to have some father daughter tee time.

And with mommy we spent time in the Spa doing relaxing girl things..oh yeah and threw in a bit of shopping and ice cream too!

Knock Knock....

Who's there it's Willey Woof and a plate of warm cookies!

We came home after a long weekend of fun in the sun to prepare for the home style backyard birthday bash with our favorite friends and family.
What a great afternoon we had a pinata filled with candy, a Mickey mouse ice cream cake, goody bags filled with toys and candy, the bounce house and best of all the kids got to make your own ice cream sundae. lots of fun we had and Isabella was a star!

This last weekend we were supposed to go up north to a family reunion & a birthday party near east Lansing.....
we'll we had to cancel out and retreat. Henry poor man got a bad diaper rash that required a lot of love and no traveling. We have stumbled on to Penaten a German diaper creme (thanks to my sister) and switched to cloth diapers (bum genius & happy heinys).
They worked like magic, today i tried to put him in a conventional disposable and in hours his heiny was red as can be and irritated.

So we hung around the house and spent some much needed family time together and had a blast playing with the kids, we even took Isabella fishing in Dexter to the fish farm. What a fun time she had with daddy!

Next weekend we are hoping to get to the swim club and spend a nice day together as a family and maybe have a picnic.

I will post the photos soon!

Sparks will fly this 4th of July

Isabella's big Birthday Bash is In those planning phases.....

All her birthday wishes are in a large bucket at Learning Express Toy store in Ann Arbor!

They are the best, a huge selection of the zoo playmobile toys, webkinz and a few great odds and ends she had to have.

Friday we went to the store and they gave her a big bucket and put her name on it and then the store owner said Bella go pick out all the toys you want and put them in here so people know what you really want...she was a nut!

He made her first stop in the webkinz area, then went to the big puppets she really liked those too, then she made a stop over at the playmobile stuff then one last swoop around the store and her bucket was FULL! I wish i broght a camera for this event it was so cool, watching her in a frenzy.

They gave us cool card to put in the invitations that way even if people can't make it they can call the store and tell them what they want to spend and they will pull something from the bucket wrap it up (for free) then call us to pick it up...easy as that.

Bella is really excited we are off to the Great Wolf Lodge next Friday for 4 days, then she has her party with family and friends on the 6th. Then on the 7th her real birthday we are taking cupcakes topped with gummy worms and a pinata stuffed full to school, how fun is that?

We are so proud of her and what she has accomplished this year, what a great year it was...

She has night time trained herself, was self taught on the dressing herself and overall been a great big sister to her little brother.

Here is to a happy 4th and many more Bella Bella Cinderella!

Happy Fathers Day To you!

Happy father day to you, happy father day to you, happy father day dear daddy happy fathers day to you! Here's to you my wonderful husband, happy 4th fathers day and many more!

Gooey gets a weigh in

Gooey and Mommy had to go to the doctors, it seems the constant strain and excessive pulling on my shoulder has once again damaged my rotator cuff and we will need surgery.

So this lead us to wonder just how big is gooey... and are we over feeding him, is this really ok?

The answer is Gooey is absolutely perfect in every way.! He has had a tendency to eat shorter more frequent feedings.

The doctor was able to explain to us that there is 2 parts to breast milk and the 1st part is more of the carbohydrates and the 2nd part is the fattier half.

That meaning a baby that feeds longer will get the fatty parts as well as the carbohydrates and be full and content for a longer stretch of time. Henry was not getting as much of the hind milk and there was the problem...sorta like if you eat a high carb meal like rice and Chinese food....you are starving but a short time latter.

So with a few good tips and tricks we were satisfied to know that this is normal, he is just fine and no he was not over eating.

But here is how he is growing:
(he is off the charts percentage wise for his age)

His head measured at 17 1/4
His Height was 26"

and weight......20.5 lbs.

Grow Gooey Grow

So Isabella has named her brother Gooey for now.
His favorite chatter is ah goo and gooo gooo gooo...so gooey it is.
His favorite place to sneak in a nap is sisters bed... Isabella was not to happy to see this
but here he is....

Here are some photos from after his bath last week and relaxing on the couch...

On the greener side of life, here is our oregano, lavender and chive patch outside the kids window.

We are eating a salad dinner every night now. My mother in law recently got us the Oxo salad spinner and it is great, and key to this meal. After we wash and spin out organic baby greens, we fill our bowls with fresh grown herbs and loads of colorful organic veggies then a meat. We cook all the meats Monday night and refrigerate them for the week for quick meals. This has been great!!! Some of our meat choices have been chicken, shrimp, salmon and sirloin.

Our favorite salad dressing recipe:

6 Tablespoons Organic olive oil , 3 Tablespoons Balsamic Vinegar, 1 teaspoon organic Dijon Mustard and 1 crushed clove of fresh garlic. Stir and enjoy!

Mom's favorite all purpose cleaner has been made cheap and easy...

Mix in an empty glass cleaner bottle 1 part white vinegar and 3 parts water and clean away....

Scrub a Dub Dub there is a sparkle in our tub!!

Mommies favorite tub cleaner is baking soda and water holy cow it sparkles!!! Now we don't gag and have to hold our breath like when i used to spray bleach cleaners and conventional tub and tile sprays. 3 cheers for good old baking soda!

We will keep trying new ideas and always welcome yours.

That is all for now hope you enjoyed the new photos of the big guy!

Matt and Heather Plus 2

What to do what to do.....

Will they have just one more.....

It is your turn to vote, yup that's right a readers poll.

Cast your votes now. however you know us we have a big Disney trip (Henry's 1st Birthday of Course) in the planning phases so no kiddos just yet....!

* we have new photos to post soon too and no we did not forget about our green tips and healthy eating plan we are in the testing phases in our home we will post all of this and more fun stuff too really soon.