The Birthday week

We had a very nice and quiet b-day dinner with Daddy at a local restaurant, just the 4 of us.

We went to a Japanese restaurant and surprisingly Naomi wasn't bothered by the fire at all.

Friday evening we had some friends over to help us celebrate Daddy's b-day. For those of you who don't know, my husband has become an avid bike rider and if he's not at work he's scheming ways to sneak off and go for a bike ride. I really wanted to get him a cake with a bike on it and, of course, the bakery didn't have anything like that. So I got him this tractor cake as a bit of a joke but more so Mikey could play with the tractor and have a keepsake from Daddy's party. Well, I have decided that I'm going to attempt the next cake. That's right... no more store bought cakes. I can surely come up with something equally good if not better than this. Right?

Well, this was my cake I made for Smoochie...

it was yummy but not very kid friendly with espresso cream frosting

Happy 38th Birthday !!!!

He looks pretty freakin' awesome for 38 if I do say so myself. We love ya babe!

Yummy

Nothing will get these kids out of the water faster than cake.

This is great!

Naomi is our little frog. She loves water, she immediately starts kicking just like a frog, so darn cute I tell ya. It's just scary because she has to be watched at all times near water,

there is zero fear!

Unfortunately, Mikey was moving way to fast to catch a photo of him. Literally every photo I have of him is blurry because he was running and I didn't have the camera set right. : (

Mikey has been taking tennis lessons

These kids are so cute, and very talented.

Naomi watching big brother play some tennis

All in all it has been a great week... now we're are off to go to today's tennis lesson.

Happy summer all!

Happy Birthday my love, my hubby and Dad extraordinaire!

Happy Birthday Smoochie, aka Daddy. I (we) love you more than words. I'm pretty sure you know this as you get a daily reminder of this when you walk in the door from work. These kids (and myself) are just so happy when you come home. Actually, when you're not here, there is always something missing. We just aren't complete without you. So, today I am extra thankful for you and I can't help but think back of our time together and just how we got to where we are today. What better way than to take a little photo journey back in time. I usually like to do these in chronological order but, today I want to look back from today to the beginning. These are just a few of the moments that make up our lives. I could have put so many more but I think these definitely convey the essence of us... more YOU. We love you and wish you the Happiest Birthday possible!

Go UW!

You've got to love a man that isn't afraid to wear his daughters hair clip.

Proud Daddy of two!

Meeting his daughter for the first time.

We waited so long and shed so many tears for this baby.

Was she ever worth the wait!

The last picture with Mikey before he had to go home to bed.

Naomi came too late in the night for big brother to wait up.

Yeah! I can ride a bike!

Daddy teaching Mikey how to ride a bike

My hubby loves me... he wanted to put the biggest American flag up in the

neighborhood to show me how much he loves me. I love you too.

Waiting for our daughter.

I just love a man that's not afraid to get dirty.

Lucky for me, neither of them are.

I do believe this was a first for all of us... meeting Pooh!

Finally, taking our son home from the hospital, just 17 days in the NICU!

Father and son.

Always my light. He tried to lighten my spirits in the scariest of days, my water broke 8 wks early and it could have been one of the worst moments of my life. Thanks for not letting it (me) get there. You really are my rock, or I like to think my soft spot... I know if I fall I'll always have a safe place to land if you're near.

Christmas 2006... our last one just the two of us.

Baby Mikey...

Good times, good friends.

The early days

My man.

I love you. We love you! Happy Birthday Smoochie!!!

Visitors!

We have been so lucky around here. We had Babcia and Dzia-Dzia surprise us with an unexpected weekend visit. The kids (and us) really enjoyed getting to see them. Daddy has been working like crazy and it was nice to have a little extra help with the kids. The Grandparents always come armed with gifts (which we keep trying to tell ALL of them it's NOT necessary) which the kids enjoyed. Mikey really enjoys maps and asking where he lives, where Grandpa Mike lives, where Babcia lives, where Grandma Robin lives... well, you get the point. It's beyond amazing watching these kids grow up and their curiosity grow with them. So, this globe was a perfect choice for Mikey.

Peek-a-boo! (still a favorite game with Naomi)

Mikey also enjoyed playing doctor with Babcia and Dzia-Dzia...

who knows maybe he'll follow in Daddy's footsteps.

Cheese!

Grandma Robin came and spent a few days with us as well before she went off to her next job. Mikey enjoyed playing games with her and I enjoyed being able to go for my morning runs knowing the kids were in good hands.

This is a favorite game around here now, another favorite is Jenga and I must say Mikey is really good! The kid has some crazy steady hands.

After the Grandparents left we had our good friends from Madison with their two boys here for 3 days. It was really nice and I can honestly say that even at such a young age these kids are showing signs that they'll be friends for life. I suck though as I didn't get any pictures from their visit. My camera was dead and instead of charging the battery (which I still need to do) I just keep thinking about it. Yeah, I know. I'm going to get on that.

Anyhow, I'm really glad we had company when we did. Naomi came down with a 48 hr fever which made her so lethargic and sad. Just when she was getting better poor Mikey got it. He is starting to look better but still a low grade fever hanging around today. As if that wasn't enough, I woke up with pink eye again yesterday. What the heck!

The joys of being a Mom I guess. ; )