Tommy...a look back at the past year

Tommy has grown so much in the past year! It is AMAZING that last year we were just coming home from the hospital with a newborn...now he is running after his brother! It is so great to watch Tommy's personality emerge! and what a personality he has! I love that our two boys are similar...yet so different! They both LOVE ball and playing farm~and what is really neat is how they play together! Tommy loves Ben so much- he wants to play what he is playing, do what he is doing, I love watching them play together! Enjoy the photo montage of Tommy's first year!!

Ben... a quick update on our smartypants

Ben turned 3 in November and is REALLY liking being a big brother to Tommy. He loves to play with him and show him what to do...now that Tommy has started imitating him it just gets better and better! It is crazy how much Ben has grown- and what a little boy he is! He loves any type of sport...more so if Jonny and Cody play (Jonny=uncle and Cody is a friend) Currently he enjoys Jonny-Basketball and Jonny-Football. (Its just not a sport unless its named after someone!) His imagination is wild as well! For a while we have played that he is Jonny, Mommy is Grandma and Daddy is Grandpa...lately though he has expanded his play to Mommy is Becky, Daddy is Joe and he is Kiria (their dog...) He will also pretend to be any dog...typically his name is Sparky (we didn't give him that name). His "dog" persona is so funny because he needs to play catch and will lick you and has the need to eat on the floor. (WE DO NOT ALLOW him to eat on the floor...PRETEND :-) He also enjoys spending time with his imaginary friend "Alex" Don't get too worried- he knows that Mommy and Daddy can't see Alex..but 'they' play "a-nastics" together (lay out the blankets...do summersaults....its pretty cute! Ben has also started to really enjoy doing schoolwork and learning to read- we are working on fun worksheets and tracing his name...he does pretty good!! as for the reading- he has a couple favorite books that he "reads" We are pretty proud of him :-) Enjoy the pictures!!!

Gramma Anne, Grampa Steve and Uncle Pete come for a visit

Valentine's weekend, we got a special visit from Gramma Anne, Grampa Steve and Uncle Pete (and Squirt)! We had so much fun!! Gramma and Grampa stayed at a hotel that had a SUPER pool....with a waterslide the perfect size for Ben! We had so much fun watching him go down the slide over and over and over and over again! Tommy enjoyed swimming too!

Grampa and Daddy started fixing our railing...little boys can no longer decide to go downstairs by fitting through the spindles!

Gramma and Grampa gave each of the boys their very own tool boxes...just like Grampa! So many treasures will go in there! For mommy and daddy, we got a brand new outside bench made by Grampa! (Notice the Minnesota and Wisconsin?!) It is so nice and fits perfectly in front of our house!! This is where mommy will be getting a tan this summer!!

Tommy Turns One!!

What a perfect start for a Blog... Tommy's first birthday!! We had so much fun! Ben was pretty excited, he talked about Tommy's birthday for about a week before! He even got his piggybank out and wanted to buy him a special present! So we went out one night and Ben brought his money and picked out a special present just from him! Of course he picked something that Mommy and Daddy would never DREAM of picking!!! You know the big bins of large balls that every kid wants but you never see anyone buying? That's right! Tommy is now the proud owner of one of those! Thank you Ben!! So many fun people came to Tommy's party...Grandma Cathy, Grandpa Steve, Uncle Jonny, Aunt Carrie and Nora, Aunt Becky, Uncle Joe and Kyria (all the way from Fon Du Lac, WI), Katie, Nate and Carson, Sara, Justin and Dillon, and Pat and Heather! It was a houseful!! Tommy even had a professionally made cake...made by Deb (Joe's mom) and decorated by Uncle Joe himself!! It was a super cute octopus cake! Awesome!! I just added a bunch of pictures!! Enjoy!!!! There are also more pictures at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=82273&id=523830671&l=6a916