Too Much Birthday!

Has anyone ever read this book? It was one of my favoites when I was little and we got to see it played out in real life yesturday at Hunter's Birthday.


I don't know what caused it. Was it the sleepover at Grandpa and Grandma's the night before? Was it 13 people in our house at one time? Was it eating his food too fast so he could get to the presents? Was it the Car's themed balloons? Was in the table full of gifts? Was it the pink eye that still has not gone away?
Who knows but what ever it was it happened. Midway through present opening he got a stomach. After the presents were open he hid under the table, refused a bit of his Car's themed cake and then came the crocodile tears. It was all too much birthday for him. Maybe next year we wont have a big party or maybe next year will be different all together.
Here are some picture pre-melt down:

Nice Face

Now a silly one!

Now that cake is some nice Mommy and Daddy team work.

Yes that is a train toy box! John made it for him!!

Happy Happy Birthday To You!

March 2008


March 2009 - 1st Birthday!



March 2010- Two Years Old!




March 2011 - Three Years Old!

Hunter Bryan-

You have filled our lives with such love and joy! We are continually amazed at all you do and say. Right now you gearing up for preschool next fall and working on your word recognition. I brought in the mail the other day and you floored me by pointed at a huggies flyer and telling me that it said Potty Dance! Your other favorite word to point out is hot. You successfully learned this one from your many Hot Wheels cars. You have a quest for knowledge and are constantly asking us to read you the words. Your mind is going to take you to great places.
Looking back at how far you have come we are so so grateful to our mighty God. You no longer need a nebulizer everyday and you can run and play just like any other kiddo! You still are allergic to milk but it doesn't slow you down one bit!
You also are an amazing big brother! I cherish the times you to lay on the floor and play together. When your brother is starting to get upset you are just the guy to give him a pipe and make a monkey face to make him smile! We look forward to watching your friendship grow!
Your love for God has also grown! You look forward to Sunday school with Ms. Beth every week and you soak up every once she has to give you. You are learning to pray like a big boy too. You still ind comfort in the little repetitive prayers but you have learned that a prayer is more like a conversation. You pray about silly things your pray about serious things and you always end your bed time prayer in I love you, Good Night, Amen. It fills our hearts with such joy to see you developing a personal relationship with God. We hope you know that God will always be there for you in the hard times and the good times.
We love you so so much Hunter Bryan and can not wait to see what this year has in store for you!
Love-
Mommy and Daddy!

Double Trouble

Hunter
March 2008


Preston
February 2011

Flashback Friday

Hunter's First Bath March 2008

Preston's First Bath December 2010

Christmas Tree 2009

Christmas Tree 2010


We have been having so much fun looking back at Hunter's baby pictures and comparing them to Preston. Its amazing Hunter was once that little!

Jingles Bells Jingle Bells

Jingle all the way! We have started listing to Christmas music in our house and Jingle Bells is Hunter's favorite. With all this Christmas music our thoughts have turned to other Christmas preparations. Ha who am I kidding I have been thinking about it since July! This weekend we price shopped Christmas lights and then we started to about Christmas cards. I love photo cards and with a new little one of course that is the only way to go. I turned to Shutterfly to help me out on this one. They have great products and some of my favorite Christmas cards that we received last year came from them.

So far this is my favorite card and I think its the one we will choose. You can choose your favorite here. I love that this is a 5x7 card, so it will leave a little room for us to write a little note. Did you notice the quote in the corner, only one of my favorite songs! Plus there is room for plenty of pictures of the boys and maybe room for Ginger too!

I'm also doing a Christmas Card exchange with my March Mama's group and since we talk everyday I don't necessarily need to send them a card with a note so I will probably just choose a flat photo card. This is my favorite but follow the link to find your own!

While I was browsing the Shutterfly site, which really you should stop and do, I found some wall calendars! I love making calendars for the Grandparents and they love to watch Hunter grow throughout the months.
If your still in limbo about your Christmas cards or if your a last minute planner and haven't even thought about it I highly suggest you take a look at Shutterfly's Christmas and Holiday
Card collections.

P.S. Check this out if your a blogger

Life with Little Boys

I can only imagine how much more fun this will be with 2!

A- "A Friend Loves at all Times"

We have started to prep Hunter for Preschool. Follow the steps of many of my fabulous mommy friends, we chose to use The Letter of Week Curriculum. I debated many time just coming up with my curriculum after all its what I went to school for, but I have so little time left after working all day that I decided its best just to use this and add my own touches! We had lots of fun this week and no I don't expect him to grasp everything but we are making him aware of little things around him and having fun while we do it! Having this curriculum basically gives me a place to start when I am think about what fun things we will do this week.

Week 1

Theme: Cow

Vocabulary Word: Calf

Letter: A

Number: 1

Shape: Square

Color: Blue

Verse: "A Friend Loves at all Times" Proverbs 17:17

September's Bible Story: Samson

We started Monday off with a bang! We made some science happen in the kitchen by making sugar cookies. Hunter loves mixing it all together and watching each ingredient disappear and meld into something else. After the dough was made we rolled it out like "play dough" and used cookie cutters to make squares, 1's and A's. Then we painted them blue! I have to say this was my favorite part I had never painted cookies before. Plus painting works on the fine motor skills. Here are some pictures of our fun...

Unfortunately the camera on my phone broke and Dad was away with camera. So I wont be able to show you the rest of our fun. We played the farm animal file folder game many times and also had some fun with some lacing cards in the shape of an A, a 1, and a square. All of our lace up cards were blue, although Hunter still sometimes thought they were green which means go don't you know! We did more painting this time of cows on paper. On Wednesday we had out little friend Craven over and we really tried hard to practice "a friend loves at all times" but its hard when he is chewing on your choo choo's. As some of you know Hunter loves peanut butter sandwiches and he likes them cut into shapes even more so of course this week his peanut butter sandwich looked like a 1, an A, and a square. Friday I had the day off and we went to the critter barn to get a close up of a cow and a calf! While we were there Hunter got to milk a goat!! He thought it was terrific! "Mom i squeeze like this and milk comes out!" Makes me a little nervous about what he is going to think of me breastfeeding his brother. We only touched a little on Samson so far we know he is strong and has long hair. This is the story he will be working on with Ms. Beth at church and I would prefer to reinforce what he is learning there each weekend then pounce too much information on him. Dad came home Saturday about 5 mins before I was going to take him to class so we let him hang out with Dad and Samson will have to continue next week. We have one more cow craft to do yet and that is to glue black and white squares into the shape of a cow. Hopefully we can squeeze that in tonight before we are onto the Jungle and week number 2!

21 Weeks

Not much bigger but maybe a little shaping. I can fell Preston moving all the time! (Yes it is a boy!!!!) I have tried to get Hunter to feel it but he wont hold still long enough. Ginger did get kicked in the head though. She looked back at me like what in the world and then proceeded to give my belly doggie kisses.

I'm starting my research on different birthing methods. Last time I didn't really know what to expect and we just went with the flow this time we would like a little more control and hopefully more home time instead of sitting at the hospital bored out of my mind. But who knows Preston could decide to give me completely different experience anyway.

Closet Fun!

My dad is helping us install closet doors for Hunter's room. I really thought this project would take a day at most but boy was I wrong. Turns out the floor in Hunter's room is out of level by an inch or more. Thank you builder! Plus the closet door opening was framed and inch smaller then your standard door. So we had lots or cutting and trimming and adjusting to do to make it workout. All in all it was a fun project (not so sure my dad thinks that) and Hunter had a lot of fun being Handy Manny. His favorite part was painting! I am so glad I stripped him down, he managed to get paint everywhere on both himself, my dad, and the dog!

Where does the time go?

July 4th 2009

July 4th 2010

I can't believe how much he has grown in a year!! Just think next year there will be two!

16 Weeks and counting

Sorry it's so blurry, my mirror doesn't like the flash and my camera can't work with out it. I have been feeling much better this week and I fell I can finally say I am over the morning sickness thing. I only threw up once this week but that was after going dumpster diving for a 100 dollar gift card that my hubby missed in his stack of mail. Well worth it if you ask me! Its a gift card to Lowe's so I plan to buy Hunter's closet doors with it so he can get settled into his big boy room. His new bedding is getting delivered today! I can't wait! This is what we got him ...

courtesy of Grandpa and Grandma Holkeboer. Thank you! His room is all cleared out and waiting for the finishing touches I am really hoping I can meet my July 1 deadline. Not that the world would end if I didn't.

We have been rocked by some pretty nice storms lately, even at tornado warning at 1 in the morning which is pretty rare for Michigan. An no dad I didn't die when you didn't answer your phone at 1:00 am, I managed to get in the basement on my own. Although your encouragement would have been nice cause if you haven't noticed in the past 24 years storms terrify me!! Also some folk were lucky enough to feel the earthquake that shook in Canada yesterday which is another very rare occurrence in Michigan. I didn't get to feel but I was at work so probably something to do with the massive cement wall behind me to support the cantilever or just the awesome construction of Lamar Construction.

Cottage Fun!

We have been lucky enough to enjoy a few nice weekends at my Grandparents cottage so far this summer and we have enjoyed every minute of it! Hunter loves loves loves being with Grandpa and Grandma Holkeboer and to be able to spend the night with them is almost too much excitement for him! When I was around 10 or so my grandpa built a loft bedroom for me at the cottage. Hunter thinks this room is the great thing ever. He loves being able to climb the latter and he must tell everyone that he gets to sleep way up high!

Memorial Day weekend he got to do some blue gill fishing with Grandpa Abby, Uncle Mike, and Daddy. Hunter's spiderman fishing pole proved to catch the most fish time and time again!

And of course my parents and grandparents are Detroit Tigers fans so the weekends would not be complete with out a little baseball.

I think they are discussing who to splash next!