Happy Birthday Brian! And Jonas is 9 months old!

We celebrated Brian's birthday on Thursday. He's 30 years young! I made a german chocolate cake (no not from scratch, I know my mom's disappointed) but it came out SOOOO much better than Brian's birthday cake last year.
Quick recap: birthday cake last year

Birthday cake this year:

Much better!

We didn't make Brian suffer with a blazing cake of 30 candles, just put a 3 on there plus ten candles in the shape of a 0. Here he is blowing it out:

And it was HIS suggestion to hold up the numbers (like I have Jonas do for his month shots). So here's the birthday MAN!

He also got spoiled. We had steak dinner at home (I guess not totally spoiled- he had to pick it up from the store on his way home from work and then cooked it himself:) How's that for a special birthday dinner! This is because my plan was Outback but the gift card I ordered didn't come in. What you know it comes in the day after! zoit!) Also, he got a Kindle so he's having fun with that.

In all the birthday excitement, I didn't take Jonas' 9 month shots THAT day but here are his from a day later. Yes, he's in his pjs. It was a lazy day.

I love this picture; it's like he's saying"What? What did I do?"

And this one is great, too. He looks like he is trying to hold up 9 fingers.

But this one takes the cake!

Facts about Jonas: He is still around 22 lbs, 26.5 in. He LOVES to jump out of your lap and grab your hands so you can walk him around. Just yesterday I got him to take a few steps with me holding only one hand so maybe soon! He's actively clapping. He can push a little ride-along toy around pretty well. And it was funny the other day, he was blowing raspberries nonstop as I was walking him around. He makes sounds like "ha", "e", "a" and "g". And I LOVE listening to him laugh. He sucks in air for a high-pitched squeal!

I was trying to get Jonas to hold the 9 up to his face but he wasn't cooperating so Sydney said it was her turn and she was more than happy to pose for me in her goofy little way.

Love to all!

sick, blah, blah, blah

So this past week Sydney and Jonas have been sick. It started really on Wed. They both have sore throats. And if it wasn't for Sydney's ability to talk and say "mouth" as well as hold her hand to her mouth, we wouldn't have known what it was. It started out as just a fever on Wed. and now they don't have fevers but Sydney is really cranky (off and on). A few sleepless nights in there, too. fun!

But here are some photos of the fun things we have been up to lately.

Third of July (so technically, this family photo was taken the day before the 4th, but we dressed patriotically for church and decided to take a family photo).

Aunt Dawn was in town with her kids so Sydney went swimming almost every day. It was really fun having them here! We had a great meal on the 4th with Dad cooking some awesome hamburgers.

OH! And Brian got an acceptance letter for a permanent position at Schlumberger! Yeah! So, we've started the process of looking for a place of our own. Maybe a house? to buy? We'll see!

I trimmed Sydney's hair in the back because all the frizz was really annoying me. I just took off about an inch or two. I think it looks tamer now!

Jonas is cruising and can even push this little push-along toy we have (I have a video but it's HUGE and I can't find our Windows Movie Maker on our computer- I know we had it!) but he's doing well! 9 months this week!

Sleeping angels

And some for fun:

Sydney's favorite song (for now) is "Down by the Station". Our version goes through the song twice at a moderate speed and then speeds up for the second half of the song and she loves to start running back and forth in her room when it gets to this part. Yes, our little GIRL loves TRAINS. It's fine by me, even if I don't enjoy watching Thomas the Engine with her.