Mom's 50th Surprise Party!

Lincoln and Crew-bff's!
Mom opening all her presents!
She got such nice gifts!

The boys-finally realizing one another...so cute!

Dad passing the "50" hat off to mom!

Kendra and mom

The birthday diva blowing out her candles

My little man crawling everywhere!

The two princesses!

Everyone hanging out!

Eating great food

SURPRISE!!!

Mom...in shock!

Justin and Kendra...waiting for Grandma to arrive

Uncle Greg, Aunt Lori, and Aunt Carin

Mingling before hand

All the yummy food

Decor

Decor

Food

The Maxine cake..mom loves Maxine so we decided to have a yummy chocolate and raspberry cake made that had a big bra and said "Desila is 50-show her some support!" It tasted just as good as it looked!

Last weekend my dad, sister, and I threw my mom a surprise 50th birthday party. We invited family and friends to help celebrate her special day. We had it catered from Fazzoli's and had a beautiful and tasty cake made by a friend. Mom was surprised and loved every minute of it! We even watched a video that my Aunt Rhonda made of her from when she was little to now. It was a very special night to celebrate our special mom. We love you very much mom/ Grandma!!!

9 months old!

Crew is 9 months old today!!! Can you believe it? We can't! It seems like just yesterday I was giving birth to him! He is growing so much everyday. We take him to the MD Thursday, so we will update his stats then.

We have started him on several new foods: Gerber puffs, yogurt, juice, and some table food such as french toast. He is a great eater! He has adjusted well to the different textures.

His new thing is that he likes to flip to his belly in the bathtub and completely submerge his head under the water. He thinks that this is hilarious and laughs even harder when mommy screams because I think he is going to drown. After trying every trick in the book from putting soap in the water to using my motherly voice~I have given up. He now sits in the bathtub in his bumbo chair and I pour the water on him with a cup. Therefore, he can't flip and swallow 10 gallons of water, even though he was enjoying it. I guess the good thing that comes out of this is that we know he is not afraid of water!

He has ALL FOUR teeth now!!! Two top ones and two bottom ones. The top ones were a toughie to pop through, but they finally did. We brush his teeth daily now (he loves this, especially at daycare after lunch when all the kids watch him get his brushed!)

He is still army crawling everywhere! We have been working on walking though. One of his other new things is to shake his head no-no. With him getting into everything we are constantly having to say no. I am not sure if this is where he picked up on this or if he got it from somewhere else. Whenever you ask him a question he shakes his head no. "Do you want to take a bath?" No-no. "Do you want to go to bed?" No-no. Yesterday he was eating fresh fruit and was throwing it on the floor. I told him no-no and explained that we don't throw our food on the floor. Then, I gave him more. He looked at me, grinned, shook his head no-no and then threw the fruit on the floor again. I couldn't help but laugh! He is also still babbling/talking quite a bit. He says mama, dada, baba, and bye bye...along with waving.

We can't believe he will be one soon. I never realized it when people would tell me how quickly kids grow. The time has already gone so fast. I just don't want him to grow up...I want my baby that loves to be held and snuggle with me all time ;) These are recent pictures (taken from my phone) of him eating and playing in the bath.

Indy

Last weekend was so much fun! I took the day off on Friday. My mom, sister, the boys, and I all went to Indianapolis for the weekend. Thursday night we stayed at my aunt's house and visited with her. On Friday, we met up with my sister's best friend, Michelle, whose baby is due in a month. We shopped all day and found lots of great deals! Friday night we met up with my bff Lisa, who I haven't seen in almost a year!!! She hadn't met Crew yet so we were so excited to spend time with her. Crew and I stayed at her house Friday and hungout with her husband, puppy, and her. It was so great to see her again and catch up! Saturday was Michelle's shower. Above are pictures from the weekend both at Lisa and Michelle's house. We had SO MUCH FUN visiting with everyone and road-tripping with Grandma, Aunt Amber, and bff Lincoln!

Oh the many faces he makes....

Crew is getting such a personality! He has so many faces now! One minute he will be laughing and the next minute he is on to something else...We love how funny he has become. I was playing with him in his room the other day and in just seconds he went from laughing, to talking, to waving bye bye, to crying. How can you not smile at his little pouty face? ;) It is just too cute! He totally does the lip curl and all! We are so in love with him!!!

All dolled up!

Last year my mom and I started the tradition of riding the train into Chicago over Christmas break. We shop all day and have lunch. This year we ate at the Cheesecake Factory..yum! It is so fun to get away and spend the entire day together! While we were there we of course had to go to Baby Gap, my favorite children's store. My mom bought the boys these two outfits there. Seriously, how cute are they in their plaid shirts, argyle cardigans, stylish jeans, and UGG boots? We just love to dress them up! I think they are both more stylish then their parents! ;)

Drew and Elysia came to visit!

Over break Matt and I were able to visit with lots of friends we haven't seen in awhile. Drew and his girlfriend, Elysia, flew in from CA and we were able to have them over for dinner. They were excited to meet Crew since they have only seen pictures. We had delicious steaks that Drew bought at a local market. We had a great time visiting!

New Year's with the family!

Lincoln hanging out
The kids playing in the new toy room

The boys hanging out in the basement
The family eating dinner

Matt making some margaritas :)

The boys riding on Lincoln's new riding toy

Lincoln crawling everywhere!!!

Mom, with Crew waving bye-bye

Uncle Matt and Kendra

We had such a relaxing New Year's Eve this year. It was so nice to lay low and hang out with the people we love so much. After the day in Chicago, I met Matt and Crew at my sister's new house. They moved in two days before Christmas, so it has been a little bit stressful. There house is so gorgeous! I will post more pictures soon once they get settled. It was a great night! We laid around, ate dinner, played with the kids, and played board games. It was so fun!

Growing so fast...

How big does Crew look in this picture?!?!? It is so sad that he has already out-grown out of all his baby clothes and I am now shopping in the 18month+ clothing!!! :( Crew turned 8 months on Christmas. He is developing wonderfully! He has his two bottom teeth and the two top ones are at the skin breaking through as we speak. He can say mama, dada, baba, and bye-bye (he loves to wave along with saying it!). He is army crawling EVERYWHERE!!! HE LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to be on his belly in the bath and pretend to swim from one end of the bathtub to the other. I even allowed him to put his face first down in the tub, thinking that would teach him the lesson to not put his face in the water, but that plan backfired. He thought it was hilarious! Now he tries to put his face down...oh well, at least we know he won't be scared of water! He is still sleeping from about 7pm-7am. He takes about two 2hr naps throughout the day also. He is totally into all of his new toys he got for Christmas. Over break I was able to make homemade baby food and he has been loving it!!! We have also started him on some table foods. He is such a great eater! We can't believe he will be one in less than four months...where does the time go?!?!?

Christmas Daycare Party!

As most of you know, Crew attends daycare every week. His sitter, Alicia, is wonderful!!! We love her! She is so good with the kids! We cannot believe the things Crew has learned from going to daycare...he talks so much and loves to interact with other children. We are very thankful that we have found such a great sitter. The picture above is a little late, but they are from the Halloween party at daycare. Crew loves all of his friends there~how cute are they all in their costumes?!?! I love it!!! The towel, caroller, shovel, and book are gifts that we received from Alicia for Christmas. The towel is a Christmas tree with Crew's fingerprints as the branches. Alicia then hand stitched buttons as the ornaments. She is so crafty! He received so many nice Christmas gifts at daycare and had a great time at the party!