Potty Training!

You will have to forgive me for the small break in blogging. This past week we have begun the potty training adventure with Jack. I must say that the first day and a half I thought I was going to scream! I am not the most patient person in the world so it has kind of been frustrating these past couple of days. But I do have to give the little guy some credit, he has only had one accident in two days--not bad! You may be thinking that I am a little slow with the potty training thing since Jack is already 3 but we figured with Macie joining the family that was a big enough change for Jack and wanted to wait until he had adjusted. He still hasn't quite adjusted but we figured we would go for it anyway--wish us luck. We are taking any and all suggestions for potty training a boy---PLEASE HELP!!

As for Macie she is getting more and more fun every day. Every time she wakes up and I go to get her she gives me the biggest, gummy smile--I love it! I don't know why it is that little people without teeth are so cute and old people with no teeth just aren't. Anyway...it's just so fun to have such a happy baby.

Check out the cutie with the wild hair!

3 Months!

Ok so I know that I am a few days late on this but I guess that it is better late than never. So on April 17th Macie hit the big 3 month mark! She is getting to be so much fun. She has started to giggle and I love it! I try to get her to giggle all the time because I think it is so cute. She is such a social baby, always talking and making sure that we are talking back. Plus she is sleeping through the night on a regular basis, what a great baby I have!

This week has been much better than last. I had to take Jack to the doctor on Tuesday for his 3 year check up. He definitely takes after Ryan, tall and skinny - Lucky! But unfortunately Jack also had some nasty ear infections - yuck! I guess that is why he had been acting so funny and sick. Hopefully this round of antibiotics will take care of them. He is already acting a whole lot better - thank goodness.

Ryan's schedule this week was so nice. On Wednesday he was home by 10 AM! So we took advantage of him being home and the good weather and took our first trip of the year to the Zoo. It was so nice! It was Macie's first time to the Zoo and she pretty much slept the whole time, oh well she will have other opportunities to see the animals. Check out the lions - they are beautiful! I think this was the first time that we actually saw them awake.

The weather has been so nice lately. We have loved being able to play outside a lot. We got Jack a bat and some balls for his birthday and are now trying to teach him to use them for baseball not golf. I'm sure that he will eventually pick up on it but for now I guess he will use the bat as a very large golf club. Jack really loves it when Ryan is home and can play balls with him - I love my boys!

I love this picture of Jack and Mimi. They are so cute when they play together even though Mimi is all about princesses and Jack is much more into balls and trains.

3 Years Old!

On April 11, 2005 Jack Ryan Slater joined our family. He arrived 4 weeks early with plenty of drama. It's crazy that it has been three years already. As I think back to that day it is hard not to tear up -it was a very scary and an emotional day. We came very close to losing our sweet little miracle boy. We have been very blessed and he has been full of life ever since.

So celebrating Jack's birthday this year was a little different. Ryan was out of town and Jack was sick but we made the most of it. It was actually a nice day here in Toledo. We were able to go out and let Jack try out his new tricycle -thanks Thompson's he loves it! Jack decided that he wanted pizza for his birthday dinner which made it quite a bit easier for me. With Ryan being out of town we were planning on doing most of the celebrating on Sunday when he returned but unfortunately Jack was still sick. We kept things pretty low key and Jack still got his "choo choo" cake. I was pretty impressed with my cake idea - simple but yummy. The cake basically was made out of ice cream sandwiches, cool whip and oreos - not quite as impressive as Cristen's cake decorating abilities but I am still learning. All in all Jack had a great 3rd birthday and we feel immensely blessed to have him as part of our family. We love him so much and he brings us so much joy!

A Much Needed Break

I know that it has been forever since our last post and a lot has happened since then so here we go. To leave Toledo for California for spring break - can't get much better than that...but the week before we were supposed to be going to Disneyland Macie gave us a scare. Our sweet little Macie was having problems breathing and had a really nasty cough and congestion. We had to take her to the doctor twice in a week. She was diagnosed with bronchiolitis and we were sent home with a nebulizer. We were afraid that we would need to cancel our trip that we had been looking forward to for months and months. But our prayers were answered and she made big improvements and decided that some warm, fresh California air would do us all some good. It was such a nice change of scenery. We took off on Saturday the day after Ryan's big test. We had a long layover in Salt Lake City and were lucky to spend some time with some of my family and were spoiled with some good old Cafe' Rio.

Thanks Cristen and kids, Mel and Reno - it was fun to finally see Marli, and Cory for coming to see us at the airport. It was fun to see you guys. We finally made it to California and spent four wonderful days with the whole Slater family. Jack had been looking forward to going to Disneyland and seeing Mickey for months and it was finally here! Our first day in Cali we spent at the beach. It was pretty cool and windy but don't you worry our white Toledo skin still managed to get some sun. We spent two days at Disneyland and hit the two most important things for Jack--seeing Mickey and riding the train. His face totally lit up when we walked into Mickey's house and saw Mickey. It really was like a dream come true for him, I don't think that we will ever forget it. We are going to have so many great memories from this trip - thank you Slater's (and Shipp's) for making the effort to be there!!

We love Disneyland!!!