Girl's Night

Of course, I could not post without there being a few photos of Ivan. So, here he is before I left, attempting to put the blinds cord up his nose???
This one is just cute!!!! I have to admit, I kind of liked it that he cried when I left!

Saturday night, I went out for a much needed girl's night. Leaving Ivan behind has been a constant struggle for me over the past 20 months (can you believe my baby is 20 months?) but I am glad that I sucked it up and and went out this weekend! I tend to find an excuse to stay home with him when I have plans to go out. However, I had a great time and hope to do it again soon. Thanks for taking care of Ivan so I could go out with the girls, Mike and thank you ladies for a wonderful night! We will do it again soon!

Sweet Cheeks

Today, we were so happy to finally meet Jeff and Stacey's little boy Jackson. Mom, dad and baby all seem to be doing well. A little tired, but as you can see, they are so happy to finally be holding their little boy! I think I could have stuck around and held him all day, but Jackson got hungry and we got kicked out ;) Check out the cheeks on this little guy-they are so cute!

Can you guess what Ivan's favorite food is???

Slide

Lately, Ivan has been standing by the back door every evening saying "slide" He can see his slide from the back door and constantly wants to go outside and play on it. So, we decided to take him outside and try out our new camera lens that we received just in time for Mike to take to the camera class that Auntie M taught. The pictures aren't so great, but the subject matter sure is! Please note the photos were all taken before Mike took Mel's class :) We are hopeful that we will get better at this as we practice and receive critiques/comments from Mel. On another note, I sure am glad we opted out of buying Ivan an expensive play set this year. He has the most fun just running all around the yard. We are constantly chasing him from the front to the back over and over. I can't wait until we can have a fence!

Bicycle Days

Last year, Mike and I headed to Shelby for Bicycle Days. We had so much fun, that we decided to make this an annual trip. So, on Friday, we headed to Shelby for our fun filled weekend! We started our trip off with dinner and drinks with Grandma at Outback-it was very Yummy! As usual, Ivan had lots to say to everyone that walked by while we were at the restaurant. We started Saturday off by going to visit Grandpa Bob and then we headed to see Gramps as his new home. This was the first time we were able to visit both Grandpa Bob and Gramps in their new homes. Ivan had lots of fun running up and down the halls while we were visiting Gramps-we had a hard time keeping up! We then headed to the parade, had lots of yummy vendor food (including a funnel cake) and finished the night off with fireworks. Ivan loved the parade and the fireworks for the second week in a row. He is going to start thinking that we get to do this every weekend! Of course we had lot so fun with Grandma as well. I think Ivan misses her already! We need more weekends like this :)

Independence Day

Having a snack and getting ready for the parade.

Watching the end of the parade. Is that it???

Having a snack at home before we head out to the
fireworks with Uncle Marc, Aunt Kristen and cousin
Mallory.

Waving his flag as he prepares for the fireworks.
Cousin Owen would be so proud!

Watching the fireworks-you can see by the look

on his face that he absolutely loved every second

of it!

Another trip to the zoo

This photo was too cute to pass up!

Last Friday we went to the zoo with Uncle Marc, Aunt Kristen, Aunt Kelly and Cousin Mallory. We all had so much fun watching the monkeys as well as Ivan's reaction to all of the animals. Monkeys, of course, were his absolute favorite! Maybe we will eventually show him a few of the other animals.