Kaleb's Birthday Party

We had a great time on Sunday at Kaleb's 3rd birthday party. Many of our family and friends were there helping us celebrate his birth. My favorite part was the look on his face when we all sang "Happy Birthday" to him. He wasn't quite sure what to do. So here are some pictures from his party and some cute ones of him last night!


Kaleb not sure what to do as we are singing to him!



All the kids digging for buried treasure.


Ian also enjoyed his pirate cookie.


Yesterday on his actual birthday we went to Cold Stone in Canal Park and got some ice cream. Kaleb fell asleep on the way down there so we went and parked by the water to go throw rocks and to eat. Well he wouldn't wake up to see "the big water" so we just ate in the car. Ian wasn't one to be left out so we gave him a little cup and let him go to town. As you can see by the pics he thoroughly enjoyed his dessert.

Happy Birthday Kaleb!

Well exactly 3 years ago at 4:07pm my little man Kaleb was born. It is such a happy and sad feeling all rolled into one when I think of him getting so old. In one vein I want him to get older and experience all kinds of new things and in the other vein I want to keep him within arms reach forever. I never want him to experience a broken heart or sadness of any kind but I want him (and Ian) to have all the joy in the world. Everyone tells me that each age is special and that it only gets better although watching him engrossed in Curious George on the floor in front of me; I'm not sure how it could!

I always like to celebrate a little on each of my children's birthday because honestly without me there would be no them! So here's to me...it's my "birth"day too!




He still needs his mommy!

Our Weekend Celebration!

We had a great weekend (although lots of travelling.) We went to St. Peter to celebrate Gavin's 1st Communion yesterday.
I am in awe at how old he seems and yet still so little. I think I will always see him as the little boy I met a little over 6 years ago and got a little teary watching him partake in something so sacred to our family and religion. He was so grown-up and confident and we are all so proud of him. I know that my boys will look up to him and I can't wait for them to be the best of friends!


Gavin reading one of the petitions!


Gavin sitting with Mom and Dad


Kaleb running back from giving some money to the church!


Gavin and his Godfather Uncle Jakey!


The Dobosenski Clan



Garek








There were other family here to support Gavin but I didn't have pics of them! Sorry about the weird configuration of the pictures. Blogger is so confusing sometimes!

I am still alive!

We have been rotating sickness in our family and after this last round of antibiotics (Kaleb) we hopefully will be done. (Although Jake did inform me this morning that he has a sore throat but he bounces back quicker than anyone I know.) It all started with stuffy noses around the beginning if April and both boys were leaking like crazy. We brought Ian in for his 15 month Dr appointment and was told that he had a "crazy bad" ear infection. My Dr. said that he hardly gives out antibiotics anymore (Ian is the first child of mine to have them so far) so I knew it must be pretty bad if he was prescribing them. So he was to take the awesome pink antibiotics for 10 days. When we reached the 9th day Kaleb started coughing and vomiting snot quite profusely. My sister and I noticed that is lymph nodes in his neck were super huge and so I made an appointment for the next day. After some kicking and screaming and promises of suckers we were told that Kaleb has pneumonia in his left lung and bronchitis. He was prescribed a higher dose of the wonderful pink antibiotics. So 2 times in a 2 week span our family practitioner has prescribed antibiotics to our family. I have no sick pictures to share with you although you'd never guess that either of them are sick because they are both running around like crazy little banshees!

A funny thing.....

When I made my 101 in 1,001 list near the last couple I struggled with finding things to add to my list. It was pretty difficult (as most of us who have made them found out.) After was all said and posted I find myself coming up with tons more that I could have added to my original list. So now I write them on my paper copy of the list (so I have it to look at and remind myself.) So I now have started my "In addition to my 101 list..." It will be on the bottom of my original list. So lets see how I do!

Loving my new table.....

On the 22nd of March our new table was delivered.(#60 on my 101 list!) We were so excited because we had a huge Easter dinner at our house the next day. We have been looking (and saving little bits of money) for awhile for the perfect table. The one we liked was at JC Penney's but shipping was the same price as one of the chairs and I am cheap. Well Slumberland came out with an ad and this was one of the tables that was on sale. Also if you spent a certain amount $200 was taken off (which was the cost of a couple of our chairs.) We were able to get the table and 6 chairs with delivery and set-up for cheaper than we expected! My favorite part is that the seat cushions are memory foam and very comfortable. As you can see by the picture it fills up the room very nicely. I am very pleased with our purchase and can't wait to have people over for another dinner!
Yippee!!

My boys

A couple of weeks ago we went to help my sister Amanda find some glasses at our mall. My cousin Taryn was on Ian duty and she wanted to try some glasses on him and Kaleb. So here are the pictures of my sweet (studious!!??) boys! I just can't get over how cute they are!

Devils vs Wild

Well as most of you know I was the fortunate recipient of Devils hockey tickets for my birthday on March 3rd. I was pretty excited and the game was better than I imagined! To top it all off we tied and went into overtime (BONUS!!) and then to a shoot-out (DOUBLE BONUS!!) I could not have asked for a better game. The very best part it being able to see my favorite player Martin Brodeur start and beat the Minnesota Wild. My husband was pretty chapped that his team didn't win but I was pretty sure we were there to celebrate my birthday and it wouldn't be complete without a Devils win! Well I am going to post some pictures for all to see and enjoy! I would also like to thank my husband for the gift as well as Andee and Bryan for helping as well!!


The score board.



A common hockey fight on the big screen!



My favorite Goalie!



Here he is again!



Oh...I think he is looking for me!



Rolston shoots and scores.




The Devils celebrating victory!



Me and my wonderful husband, Jake



Andee and I

Another one....

I marked another thing off my 101 list this morning. We painted our fireplace last night and it looks awesome. Kaleb was pretty mad that when he got home from Papa's it was already done. His exact words were "I can paint because I am a big boy and big boys can paint." Oh well, I am sure when he is older (teens) he will rather die than help us paint. Maybe I should take advantage of it now!
We went from a terra cotta color to a red called "blaze." We still have to paint one of the dining room walls the same color but wanted it dry before Easter and honestly at midnight I was not in the mood to start the priming process all over again!

Here are the before and after!

This is when my sister owned the house


I love this color!

My 101 in 1,001

Well Gigi and I posted our lists this morning and according to our calculations we should have it completed by December 3rd, 2010. It seems like a ways away but I'm sure we will be pretty busy completing our tasks!

Enjoy reading and I strongly encourage everyone to make a list. I feel it will keep me focused on what I need to do that I keep saying I am going to do but still haven't done! Make sense?

All my thanks to Jenny Balow for bringing this to our attention!

www.jodys101.blogspot.com

Happy Birthday to me......!

Well this morning started off great! I was awakened by the laughter of two boys in their room playing in Ian's crib. Kaleb had climbed in there and they were wrestling in the blankets. Jake came home (from his 2nd job~the paper route) and we all went downstairs to watch "Handy Manny", "The Doodlebops" and other great morning cartoons while we ate bananas for breakfast! Next I opened my card from the boys and my present-a weekly magazine that keeps me updated on all the celebrity gossip. Next was Jake's present. He is a great gift-giver. He always knows what I want (as I am a great hint dropper) so I always know that I am going to be happy. First I opened my card and inside was a piece of paper that had a picture of a New Jersey Devil's jersey. Something I have always wanted was a PINK New Jersey Devils jersey so I could wear it proudly when I watch them play in person or on TV. Well next he said "Well I thought you might want a jersey so that you could wear it while using these....." and pulled out 2 tickets to the game. AHHHHHHHHHHHH! Just had to put that in there because that is how I felt. I wanted to scream and do the "dupa dance" (the dance that Kaleb does when he is happy...which involves shaking his booty!) But instead I started to cry. I love my husband and he made me cry even more telling me all that went into the surprise. We are meeting Andee, Bryan, Dave and Jenny for dinner and then we are all going to the game. He talked to my parents and they have the boys overnight. His mom and sister are doing the paper route and he talked to my employers who gave me that next day off. On top of all that my favorite Richfield, MN in-laws (Andee and Bryan) are planning to have Friday off so that we can spend some time with them! Man I am the luckiest gal in the world. I could not ask for more. Well it's off to bed now with sweet dreams of my devils!

As I predicted...

As I predicted in my blog about cleaning my office I would become more efficient scrapping and such. Well I have been scrapbooking every night for a couple of hours turning out 4-5 pages a night. My goal is to be caught up by the end of the summer so I can start on the pictures I still need to print. (Halloween until now) Don't get me wrong I love my digital cameras but with film I always had pictures to hold and look at. With the digital I tend to "dump" them on the computer and only print them when I want to scrapbook. So my goal is to be better at that and print more pictures to keep up to date. Wish me luck...at this point it is a huge undertaking!

Well I did it...sort of!

I finally cleaned my office/craft room. I spent one night cleaning (2 am) and today after my long nap (my little ones infected me with a sore throat) I organized. My main purpose was to clean the entire room and have a well-functioning office but after much thought I really only need to get to the computer and be able to efficiently scrap! So here are the pictures to prove a job well done.
I would like to add that my corner has a little inspiration from my favorite "Outsider" Gigi! I added a TV and a IPod dock/DVD player so that I can watch movies while I scrap! It was a phenomenal idea and I can't scrap without it now! Hopefully I'll get more motivated and organize the toy corner....and maybe not!
The before picture!
The after picture!

Scrapbooking

Besides my family nothing gets me more excited that scrapbooking. I love organizing everything I own, buying new things to use and spending time with people who like to scrap also. So last night and today I went through all the pictures I have to scrap and came to the conclusion that I have to start my goal of scrapping every day. But this means that I actually need to organize the room where I do this which was ravaged during "Hurricane Kaleb-Ian" this past week. The room of which I speak is the office, toy storage and scrap/craft room. Right now you have to hop, skip, jump and sometimes leap over items that are lying on the floor....you can't even see the rug that is down there. So I have attached a picture to give me some motivation (because of embarrassment) to clean it tonight and tomorrow! I will post the results as soon as they are available!

Valentine's Day 2008

This year Jake and I decided that from now on Valentine's day is a family holiday and we will stay in and make dinner...just us. So this year we made our favorite pasta and garlic bread and had special apple juice. It was so nice to be together when no one is working and we can be silly. So here are some pics of the night, we hope you enjoy. Happy Belated Valentine's Day to all of you!


Cute Kaleb. He didn't think I noticed all the bread he was "accidentally" dropping on the floor!




Ian being a ham as usual!


Kaleb and his daddy.


Our Family!

Return of the Blog Slacker!

Well here I am again updating my blog after a short hiatus!
This weekend Jake's out of town siblings made it home to visit. We spent Saturday night eating and playing an awesome game called Quelf. I introduced them to this game and I think everyone would agree with me when I say that I think it was one of the best times we have spent together while playing games! I have some great pics from the game that I will share with you all!


Matt contemplating is card!!


Katrina giving us a "show!"


Bryan looking for a stapler.


Gavin with his aluminum foil glove for the whole game!


Mark making an oragami animal singing like a mad scientist.


Jake singing and dancing while Katrina does the chicken dance.


Gigi laughing at Jody's reaction to her car. "Sing Happy Birthday to the Prime Minister of Quelf in your best Marilyn Monroe impersonation!"

On Monday (yesterday) we went to the depot for family day (normally the admission is $10 for adults and we got in for $2...a mighty fine savings if you ask me!) Anyway the boys has a blast and Kaleb walked around like he needed to take everything in before we yanked him back home. Ian loved the little carts they had because he could walk around unassisted. (He can walk and secretly when he thinks we aren't looking I have seen the child walk...sneaky, sneaky!!)


Kaleb using the back-hoe at the Children's Musuem.


Ian ramming all the cars in his way!


My boys sitting in the most colorful chair that I have ever seen!

Life is Crazy!

My bosses have changed to another real estate company so my work life has been crazy. We have to change everything over to Prodigy Real Estate from Weichert formerly RE/MAX. (It is a mess.) What a pain; but it will be a great move for them this year and hopefully if they make their goal they are planning on leasing me a car (which makes me want to work even harder.) So with that I am working from home (on crazy cold days), from our cramped office and my car! It's been so stressful but I had a welcomed break when we went to AZ. So on top of all that I still need to include some pics of that trip for all to see. Jake took so many that I am having a hard time picking my faves but I will include some tonight.

My boys are great. Ian is still not wanting to walk. Secretly I know he can (he has taken steps) but is waiting for the right time to impress us all! Crawling is faster and with an older brother probably safer. Who knows when Hurricane Kaleb will rush by and knock you over! Kaleb is so awesome. He is such an excited little boy and has so much going on in his head. He loves crocodiles and pirates (courtesy of Peter Pan) and I always get to be Wendy, Daddy is Peter Pan and Kaleb is Captain Hook. Ian gets a bum deal and gets to be Swiper Fox (courtesy of Dora) because he comes by and steals all Kaleb's toys! What an imagination!! I am slowly picking up my scrapping and stamping. Hopefully I can get my goal going of a page a day! So far I tend to do a lot of organizing and not a lot of actual scrapping.

For Lent I am refraining from buying any scrapbooking stuff because I have a ton that I already need to use. I feel that it will help me be more aware of what I have and get going on what I need to do.

Well I must return to work leave you readers with some snapshots of my life. ENJOY!

Kaleb

Here is a random pic of my sweet boy Kaleb. I seem to have blogged about Ian a lot lately so here is Kaleb's moment to shine. I will blog about our awesome trip to Arizona and include some pics we took as soon as I get the chance.

New Year Resolutions...

Well I hate New Year Resolutions because I feel like I never fully complete them. One of mine in the past has been to lose 40lbs of chocolate, marshmallow and creamy Carmel and I haven't been successful but maybe this is my year. Another one has to record a CD of me singing my favorite songs because I have close friends and family ask me to do one for them. Maybe this is my year for that too! I always say I am going to start school and finish what I started. I want to teach children so maybe this is my year! We'll see what happens. I always have ambition in January and February and it fades by March. I need someone to be on my tail at all times but people like that cost money!! WISH ME LUCK!

Our New Year!

With the new year upon us I thought I would blog about what we are planning for 2008. Please be sure to read the whole blog (no skimming) as it is pretty interactive.

Well on January 9th we are leaving (along with 9 other family members) on a trip to visit my dad's brother Tom in Arizona. Kaleb is pretty excited to ride on a plane although I'm sure he doesn't know that it requires mostly sitting. (Any tips from parents who have traveled with small children?)

In February we are celebrating Jake's dad Mark and Andrea, Jake's sister's birthday. (I'm not sure on all that punctuation!!) Mark and Dianne will celebrate their 7th (Jake did the calculations!) anniversary on Feb 29th. Happy Valentine's Day and Groundhogs Day!

In March we have my 27th birthday as well as "niece" Cadence's, my sister Amanda's, and our nephew Garek's birthday to celebrate. A couple of times that month also we will be thinking of 2 special NC boys on their birthdays! Most importantly we are celebrating Easter and reflecting on what that personally means to us. On March 14th I will be in my living room watching the greatest Hockey team to ever play, in my opinion, against the MN Wild. The New Jersey Devils are going to be in my home state, Yippee!! Maybe 2009 or 2010 will be my year to see them, LIVE!

In April we have a lack of birthdays so maybe it will be a welcomed break! We will celebrate our 4th anniversary this month and another big event of April will be nephew Gavin's 1st Communion!

In May we start off the month celebrating Kaleb's 3rd birthday and then my mom Maryjo's on the 23rd.

June is my dad, Gary's birthday as well as Jake's golden birthday. We are photographing a wedding for Jake's co-worker this month in the cities.

In July we will celebrate Jake's mom, Dianne as well as his sister Katrina's birthday. Happy 4th of July! We have a wedding that I am singing at this month.

In August we will celebrate Jake's brother Matt and nephew Gavin's birthday. My parents will celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary this month also.

In September my brother Dave turns 24 on the 6th and Andrea and Bryan celebrate their 2nd year married! Happy Back to School!

In October my best friend Anne turns 28 on the 5th.

In November besides Thanksgiving and shopping on the biggest shopping day of the year (which will be the 11th annual for me) we have a tentative New York trip scheduled.

December brings Ian's birthday on the 10th, brother in law Bryan's bday on the 13th, our friend Stoke's bday on the 15th, Matt and Gigi's 10th anniversary on the 19th, Christmas and all it's glory, Gigi's bday on the 30th and "nephew" Liam's bday on the 31st as well as New Years Eve. We are also debating between a Christmas or a New Years party for 2008 and can't decide. (What are your suggestions?)

That is 2008 month by month. According to this we have many birthdays to celebrate and probably others I am forgetting. If I have forgotten you and you are slightly offended or even extremely offended drop me an email and I will add you to my growing list. We would like to add spending time as well as visiting with family and friends and other big celebrations that we might have this year so send us your reminder and we'll add that too!!

Enjoy your New Year I know I will!!