Big Girl Eating!

Macie tried cereal for the first time last night, and she loved it!!

Big brother showed Macie that he can eat "big boy food!"

Summer Fun!

Play Date
On Wednesday we made the trip up to Clear Lake to hang out with Theresa, Isaac, and Lily. It was very fun! As you can see, I and L's mom is an expert bubble blower which kept the kids entertained for quite some time. Macie was more than happy to hang out and watch the action from her car seat. The big kids had fun playing in the pool, the sand box, watching Blues Clues, and playing with cars and trucks.

Thanks for having us over!!


Girls' Night Out
On Tuesday night, mom and Macie had a girls' night out with Theresa and Carrie. We went to the Luther Park Musical in Chetek after having a nice dinner out. Although it was VERY hot and humid, Macie did well, and fell asleep in her stroller during the musical. It was fun to catch up with some old friends there.

4 Month Check up
Here is Macie enjoying her toes and having some tummy time. She and mommy went to the Dr. today for her 4 month check up and he assured us that she doing great! Yay!

She's a big kiddo - at 25 inches (80th percentile) and 16 lbs 10 oz (95th percentile). The Dr. Gave us a go-ahead to start with rice cereal, so we headed to Target to buy some after the appt. We'll see what she thinks of it!
Rainy Day
Yesterday morning was very rainy, so I decided to set up Ethan's tent in the living room for a fun place for him to read. He sat and enjoyed his books appropriately for about 15 minutes - then the tent became a climbing apparatus and car track.

Later that day, Ethan found a big mud puddle and mom conceded to allow him to take off his shoes and socks and enjoy it! We had quite a dirty little 2 -year old at bedtime last night!

Weekend Fun!

Camping at Lake Holcombe!
The weekend started off with a fun trip up to the lake with the whole family, plus Grandma Mary, Aunt Jenny, Aunt Michelle, Victor, Oliver, and Ben. We had a great time eating, playing, and riding the pontoon. Both of the kids loved the boat!

I always wanted a daughter so we could wear matching outfits :) I'm totally kidding - this just happened by chance :)
Happy Father's Day, Daddy!
Today we celebrated Father's Day by just hanging out together as a family. We went for a walk to the park this morning, and played at home in the afternoon. Here we are out to eat at one of daddy's favorite restaurants, Pizza Del Re.
Macie's first Father's Day. (Daddy is a bit sunburned due to the fact that he played a gig outside yesterday with the sun shining directly on his face for 4 hours!)
4 Months Old Today!
Our little peanut is 4 months old and continues to be the sunshine of our lives!
Some things we LOVE about our "Sweetie Bug"

• She is sleeping through the night!!! Yay! She had done this briefly when I went back to work, then stopped, and now has started again. Let's hope she sticks with it this time around.
• She loves to talk! She makes lots of fun sounds, and it seems like she's trying to communicate with us - so fun!
• She is so dang happy! She's just peaceful, content, and smiley *(most of the time!)*
• She and big brother are buddies! She tolerates his abrupt movements pretty well, and loves to get kisses from him!
• She loves to read! Her favorite book is one with pictures of babies in it and she absolutely loves listening to it and looking at the pictures.

Getaway . . .

Mom and dad had a relaxing getaway at the Chequamegon Hotel in Ashland, WI to celebrate our 4th anniversary (8 years together!). The hotel is right on Lake Superior, so our room had a pretty view. It was great to catch up and have time all to ourselves. However, it soon became apparent that the only things on our minds were our kiddos. Trav couldn't go 3 minutes without imitating something funny that he had recently heard Ethan say.
When I returned to Grandma's house to pick up the kiddos, I found a hot, sweaty, filthy dirty little boy who looked like he had grown about a foot since I last saw him!

Ethan had a blast at Grandma's house playing with his cousins - he especially enjoyed the sandbox as you can clearly see from the picture below. Judging by the amount of sand he seemingly consumed over the past couple days, I'm thinking we're going to have some interesting diaper changes tomorrow! (Macie, our little angel, was in the middle of her 4-hour nap when I came to get them - when she awoke she had a big smile for mama - Awww . . .)
When we got home, Ethan enjoyed reading his new "digger" book and excitedly repeated, "New Book! New Book!" (This was, obviously, after a very long bath!)

Macie's Baptism!

Yesterday was a wonderful day celebrating Macie Kate's baptism. She looked gorgeous in a dress that Great Grandma Betty made for her.
Being so beautiful is exhausting.
Here is daddy's side of the family (Jason, Shelley, Andrew and Camryn) - They are Ethan's Godparents.
and here are mom, Macie and her two Godmothers, Kyra and Theresa.


Macie's Grandma and Aunts Jenny and Michelle
Of course Ethan had to give Macie lots of kisses on her special day.
We did, unfortunately, have one little snafu in the day . . . .
Our basement had flooded. But, our reliable Reddi Rooter guy came to the rescue - thank goodness.

It was beautiful weather, so many of our guests enjoyed lunch outside in the sunshine. Ethan had a blast playing with his friends and cousins, and Macie was really good all day.

We are soooo blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives, and especially such wonderful people supporting our kids.

More of Ethan's Antics

This morning Grandma Mary stopped over to hang up Ethan's new curtains and pictures in his big boy room. While mom and Grandma were busy in his room, Ethan was entertaining himself quietly in the bathroom- too quietly . . . enough to know something was up. So I went into the bathroom to find toothpaste everywhere. Ethan had put the tube on the floor (which mom had carelessly left on the sink without a cover - lesson learned - ) and had stepped on it. There were huge globs of toothpaste on the floor, which had then been stepped in. Ethan showed me his foot and whimpered, "wash." I finally got everything cleaned up - at least our bathroom now smells minty fresh!

Hooray for Summer!

Macie is now appreciating the toys on the exersaucer.

I've been having a great couple days home with the kiddos. A few highlights:

• Macie has been so good and happy! However, she is the drooliest baby I have ever seen. We go through about 4 bibs a day in pure drool, not to mention some spit-up incidences as well.
  
• We got the swing back from the kids' daycare where it had been since I returned to school. Thank goodness! Macie takes great naps in it!
• Ethan has been hilarious lately! He is so fun and spirited! His speech continues to improve, and he has been imitating us a lot - he also picked up on cousin Victor's favorite expression, "No Way!" So Ethan will say, "No Way! Victor, Victor, Victor!"
• Today we got out the art supplies which we just haven't had much time for lately. Ethan loved doing the finger paints, color wonder paints, and markers. Unfortunately, however, I had to bring him grocery shopping (well, he went to the Festival Foods Tot Spot) with blue finger paint in his hair and purple marker on his lips.
• Yesterday my friend Carrie spent the morning with us and Ethan was in rare form. First he had the most humongous diaper I have ever changed - then while I was disposing of the diaper and he was diaper-less he peed on the floor. After I told him what he had done, he ran around yelling, "pee, pee, pee!" and laughing hysterically. Ahh . . . never a dull moment.

Awesome!

Ethan picked up two new words this weekend - "Awesome!" and "No!" Obviously we much prefer to hear the word, "awesome." This morning I presented him with breakfast (banana bread, apples, and yogurt) and he exclaimed, "Awesome Num-nums!" It's nice to feel appreciated for my culinary efforts. (well, I can't take all the credit - Grandma actually made the banana bread ;)

Road Trip!

Macie, Ethan, mom and Grandma Mary took a road trip this weekend to the Milwaukee area. Cousin Orion was having a birthday party, so we thought we'd take the opportunity to drive down for a visit. Great Grandma Betty and Great Grandpa Bob loved spending time with the kids!
Cousin Becky met Macie for the first time.
Ethan spent the entire birthday party upstairs playing with Orion's cars - can you blame him? He has about a million of them!

Aunt Carol and Uncle Bob had fun playing with Macie.
We ended up spending the night and Grandma and Grandpa's house. Cousin Lizzy came over for a visit this morning to meet Macie for the first time.
Ethan had a blast playing with her! He was running around so much, he worked up a sweat!
Grandma always makes us laugh! She is so much fun!
4 generations of "Gonwa" women!
On the way home, we stopped at Madison to visit Uncle Luke. We got some yummy sandwiches and ate at a park where Ethan had a blast. Here is Uncle Luke feeding Macie.
When we got home, we found that daddy had set up Ethan's official "Big Boy Bed!" He loves it!

Happy Birthday, Grandma Mary!

We all got together to celebrate Grandma's Birthday! It was a great party, with . . .

family,
balloons,
and cake!
Good thing Grandma had her boys to help blow out the candles!
The new swing set at Grandma and Grandpa's house . . .
Ethan LOVES "driving" Grandpa's tractor and wearing Oliver's helmet!

So sweet.

You may have noticed Ethan's bright red cheeks in the pictures from tonight. It turns out he was pretty sick - poor guy! We knew he had a fever, but didn't know how sick he was until we got home, daddy lifted him out of the van, and all the party food came up all over daddy and Ethan. Ethan just whimpered and kept saying, "wash." Hopefully he'll sleep through the night and be fine in the morning. We'll see.