Beach Baby

One afternoon Jacoby and I went to the beach with just the two of us. I brought my big camera to mess with the settings and was able to catch some of these pictures of Jacoby while I was messing with it. I love them!

I love my baby so much! He is precious in every way. He is getting so big and I cannot believe that he was 19 months old in these pictures- where did the time go!! He talks non stop and says funny things like nasdeee for nasty, boofull for beautiful, mowe for meow, stitter for spider, right baack for I'll be right back as he points at you and runs away. He is amazing!

He can count to ten with a little bit of help but you will hear him counting to 7 without a beat as he plays with his toys. When he gets down he claps for himself and cheers.

He loves to sing wheels on the bus, itsy bitsey spider, 5 little ducks and 4 song. He not only knows the words and the actions but he also has the melody down. It could be the cutest thing ever but my favorite is when he sings and makes his own songs up. He gets all in to it and plays his guitar or dances and squishes his nose all up. It is hysterical!

I love to hear the pitter patter of his little feet running up and down the hall and his giggle makes me smile every time. He loves to wrestle with his Daddy and he has the best belly laugh when they do. He asks to cuttle with me and loves to sit on my lap, play with my hair and nuzzle in. I love these moments and still get them all the time! He is such a cuddler and a mama's boy and I love it!

He loves to give kisses and says mmaaaww when he does. When he falls down he wants you to kiss it better again and again and again and even after a few days he still wants you to every time he notices his oh-eeee.

He is growing up so fast and I am doing my best to make it slow down and remember these moments.

Cincinnati, Ohio

The last weekend of June, we drove to Cincinnati for Joe and Annie's wedding. I was a little nervous about the drive so we bar rowed Steph's DVD player to see if Jacoby would watch a few videos. He doesn't watch TV and I cannot get him interested in it but we thought it was worth a shot and boy am I glad that we did. Jacoby only slept 20 minutes going and we had 5 more hours to kill. He enjoyed watching the DVD's and we sang lots and lots of songs.

As soon as we got in to town we went straight to the Reds game.

I am so glad that we went! It is a beautiful stadium right along the river.

It is similar to Petco that you can walk around the entire thing and there is lots to do besides watch the game. Which came in handy because we had a little boy with us that after 5 hours in the car he was ready to run!!

and run he did! He loved the misters and watching them "hit ball". We were so glad to add another stadium to our list. Two this year, we are on a pretty good streak.

The reason for the trip was the wedding of Joe and Annie. We have known them pretty much since moving to Chicago but Joe and Jarod went to grad school together and have gotten very close. Joe was the first person to meet Jacoby besides us and Annie is about the only babysitter I trust in Chicago.

There wedding was beautiful but so stinkin hot!! It was like 100 and with humidity- that's a little warm!

My poor little boy gets all red faced when he has been outside and gets all sweaty. We hung out in the shade and by the big fans to try and keep him cool.

Love this pic of Joe and Annie during their toasts. His brother did an amazing job- one of the best toasts I have ever heard.

Jacoby's favorite part was the dessert. He loves sweets and especially cupcakes!

So stinkin cute I can hardly stand myself!

Joe and Jarod

They had their wedding at this beautiful golf course in an old mansion. They had this huge swing in the front and we had so much fun playing on it.

We played on here forever and watched the hundreds of fireflies too. It was such a beautiful night.

The next morning we got up and got back on the road- here are the boys ready to go!

While we were in Ohio we also had traditional Cincinnati Chili, which is very different but very good and hit the largest grocery store in America where we scored lots of great stuff that we eat over in Europe when we are there because the grocery store was divided in to countries. We spent 2 1/2 hours in there and we could have spent more time. We were so excited to see some of our favorites and we also picked up lots of new organic stuff we had never seen before.

Jacoby did great on the ride home even though he wasn't in to the DVD player at all on the way home- seriously!! Why can he not like TV just a little bit? Just for car rides and flights? Is that too much to ask? I guess so!

All Boy!

This is a typical day for us at the park. Jacoby's motto is get as dirty as possible! He is all boy! He loves to play in the sand, make mud piles, jumps in the puddles and dump water down the front of him. Our day is not complete without a few outfit changes. I love how much he likes to explore his little world and I try my hardest to let him explore as much as possible. I love how his eyes light up when he figures out something new and I love to watch him absorb the world around him. If we could all be like children our world would be a completely different place. To have so much wonder and amazement and to stop and appreciate the small things like the bug walking across the sidewalk- he doesn't miss a thing and it forces me to stop and watch too. I love to see this world through his eyes! It is an amazing thing!!

Father's Day

Jacoby is so lucky to have this amazing man to be his Daddy! His Daddy loves him so much and they are so excited to see each other every day when Jarod gets home it melts my heart. As soon as Jacoby hears the door, he starts yelling "woo-hoo" as he races to the back door as fast as his little legs can carry him and dives in to his Daddy's arms with a huge hug and kiss. Then he wants to me to join in for a family hug.

Lately I think Jacoby is starting to look more and more like his Daddy and I think they have very similar personalities as well. It would make me a happy girl if this little boy grew up to be just like his Daddy because he truly is the most amazing human being that I know.

He is so patient and kind. He is my best friend and can always make me laugh. I am so thankful for him every day but lately I have been struggling and Jarod has been my rock. He gives such great advice and is the best sounding board. He puts Jacoby and I first no matter what and it is so nice and reassuring to know that he has my back.

I have known for quite a while that you could put us any where in the world and as long as I have them I would be fine but it has been just lately that I realized not only would I be fine but I am happy as long as I am with them!

I love my little family and they mean the world to me and I am so glad that we got to celebrate Father's Day to show Jarod just how much we love him. We made it a weekend affair with brunch, long walks, bike rides, dinner and a picnic down by the lake.

Happy Father's Day to my best friend and Jacoby's best buddy- we love you so much!

Our MBA Grad

On June 13, Jarod graduated from the DePaul MBA program with distinction and we were so excited!!!It seems like just yesterday when he broke the news to me that he wanted to go back to school when I wanted to have a baby.

3 years later, I have what I wanted and Jarod has what he wanted! JK! He had actually been toying with it for a while and when we made the big move from San Diego to Chicago we were very excited that 3 of the best MBA programs in the country were here and even more excited when Wrigley said they would pay for it so he took the plunge and here we are.

The last three years have gone by so quickly but it also feels like it took forever. This little munkin wasn't even around when we started and we had just moved in our house. Man, time sure does fly.

Jacoby and I are so proud of him and we are so excited to have him around more! We don't even know what to do with ourselves having him home for dinner every night and not having to do homework all weekend.

Jim, Mary and Collin made the trip to Chicago to be here for the graduation. We were happy to have them here to help us celebrate.

Jacoby thought that Jarod's gown was pretty cool and really liked to play with his hat. I love this picture of Jarod playing with Jacoby.

The little brother who is not so little any more!

I love this man more than I can even say!

and these boys are so wonderful!

Jarod walking up on stage for his big moment!

on the jumbo tron.

Walking back to his seat at All Sate Arena

The graduation started right during our usual nap time and I was a little nervous how I was going to keep an 18 month old entertained at a 3 1/2 hour graduation but Jacoby was great! Here he is telling his daddy to say cheese and taking pictures of him. He also ate his lunch on my lap then fell asleep in my arms for over an hour of it. He is such a good baby!

Mary took Jacoby down to see Daddy after the ceremony. He was so excited to see him up close after a few hours of having to look at him from a distance and not being able to get down to him. My favorite picture of the day as well! After the ceremony it started raining really hard so we ran to the car and met up at Joan's house for Geoffrey's graduation party (Jarod's cousin).

Jarod's grandma Estelle was in town for Geoffrey's graduation so it worked out well for celebration as well.

I love this picture of Jacoby and his Great Grandma Leinen. She is an amazing lady and is hilarious! She keeps me laughing every time I see her with her one liners and her quick wit. We are always excited when we get to spend time with her.

The whole gang.

We are so proud of Jarod and what he was able to accomplish with his schooling. It's an exciting time in our life and we are just enjoying it so much!

Strawberry Picking

In June, we packed up the car and headed to Indiana to go and pick strawberries! We had so much fun! We were about a week late for picking so we really had to dig for them which meant that we got really dirty but it was fun. Jacoby had a lot of fun picking them but pretty soon he got bored with that and started just dumping the already picked strawberries out of the buckets. That wasn't very much fun for mommy so daddy took Jacoby to go and drive Ruby (our car and yes he calls it that!!). After he drove for a while he soon discovered that the strawberries were edible and from them on he was happy as a clam picking strawberries and putting the entire thing in his mouth.

We brought our strawberries home, which by the way are so much better freshly picked than the ones that you get at the store, and made yummy jam, froze some and ate strawberries for the next few days like crazy!

Reading with Grandpa J

Jacoby sure did enjoy having his Grandma and Grandpa J and Collin here. Who wouldn't enjoy all the attention he gets! He is also spoiled rotten from them and gets lots of new toys and clothes. Thanks guys for coming out for the big graduation!