The Pieper Picnic

I love days like today!

Beautiful weather, great company and lots of fun!

Today was our annual "Pieper Picnic."

It's a Sunday in July to celebrate my Grandpa and Grandma's Birthdays.

It's the first one since my Grandma passed away and I think the whole family felt a small missing piece today, but we also felt her presence.

Today is my Grandpa Pieper's 90th Birthday!!!

He is such a great man and has taught us all so much.

He does not like to have his picture taken, but he made a few exceptions for me today.

Grandpa and his cake

Grandpa, Kate, Brooklyn and Ava

Aunt Kathy and Grandpa

Today we also celebrated my Great-Aunt Sally's Birthday.  She turns 80 this year.  She is my Grandma Pieper's sister.  Sally is married to Clem, who is my Grandpa's brother.  Because of the closeness of the 2 families, they joined us today for our Pieper Picnic.  They brought with some interesting games.  One of them was...

Human Foosball!

I've never seen that before and was thoroughly entertained!

We also had most of my Grandpa and Grandma's siblings join us!  What better reason for a family reunion than some birthdays...especially on such a gorgeous day!  We got lucky!

There were also a ton of babies around.  So many that I felt a need to label mine :)

Here are a few of the other little ones...

Evan

Brooklyn and Wyatt

Travis

Tony and Brooklyn

And finally some random pictures from today...

Michael and Auntie Kathy

The chefs - Dad and Tony

Michael chillin in his new sunglasses

Great-Aunt Sally with her newest great-grandson

Thanks to my sister for taking an impromtu family pic of us!

Thanks to everyone for a great day!

Oh, hey!

Did you also know that today is Parent's Day?!?!?

Happy Parent's Day to all the parents and parent's-to-be out there!

Bar-B-Q Days Parade

I was slacking a little with taking pics today at the parade. 

Let's face it.  It was just too hot!!!

Thanks to Dawn for letting us hang out in front of the salon and watch the parade.  The shade was a lifesaver!

Before:  The excitement of it all was too tiring!

Gettin ready to watch!

Papa and Michael

This girly had no fear of anything along the parade route!

The matching sisters thrilled with what they've gathered!

Thank goodness for icees!

Parade's over, kiddos are hot and tired.

See ya next year!

5 months and some firsts!

I know I say it in every post about his age, but I really can't believe that my baby is 5 months old!  In a way it seems like he's always been here and we have a hard time thinking about what life was like before Michael came along...except the whole sleep thing! :)  At the same time, he's growing and changing so fast!

First of all here are some pics of Rob with the little man...

This past month had a lot of developmental changes for him.  A lot of those changes have happened very recently!

He had his first day in his exersaucer.

Harley looks less than thrilled.

We have tried and retried cereal multiple times.  After that first few days, I thought we were on a roll.  Then Michael decided to be picky and clamp his gums shut whenever I tried to sneak in a mouthful.  After a few days of this, I held off for a little over a week and now we are trying it again.  It seems to be going a little better.  He keeps his mouth open for a few bites and that's about it.  Hopefully those few bites will help him sleep better.  He's been getting up every couple hours or so and requesting to spend some one-on-one time with his parents. 

We also started putting him in his crib.  Thursday was his first night in the crib and it lasted for all of one hour.  He also didn't want to sleep in his cradle.  I was so desperate for sleep by that point, that I slept with him in the recliner.  Sue me.  He's in the crib again right now, and I hope tonight goes better than last night!

Today he had his first day sitting (somewhat) by himself.  I was close by and probably had my hands on him more than they were off, but they were off long enough for some pics!



Harley got a little ticked when I told him "off" the blanket.

We got out our fun "month" stickers tonight for his monthly picture update.  This kid knows when mom wants to get a smiley picture and he's not being so cooperative.  At least he's not crying!

We are all headed off to bed to prepare for the big Bar-B-Q Days parade tomorrow.

Check back then for more pictures!



Night all!

First 4th of July!

Today was Michael's First 4th of July.

Unfortunately we didn't do anything too terribly exciting today.  We hung out at home as a family and did a little grilling.  See?  Nothing too exciting, but it was nice.

We did the"big" celebrating last night.  My sister Katherine, her husband Tony and baby Brooklyn had our whole family over (except for Andy) for supper, lawn games and a dip in the brand-new kiddy pool for the kiddos.

Papa, Nana and the kidlets

 

Our Chef

Brooklyn and Wyatt

Jayde

Ava

I've come to the conclusion that Michael likes being outside, even though it's hot, but likes being in the shade a lot better.  Looks like he takes after Papa...hanging out in the shade.

The 2 Michael's

Papa, Nana and Michael

Thanks for the fun night, Tony, Katherine and Brooklyn!

On the way home we got to see a few fireworks shows in different communities.  If we're still awake by 10pm tonight, we just might watch some shows from our own backyard.

Happy 4th!

Have a Happy 4th and thanks to all those who are serving or who have served in order for us to celebrate this day of freedom!

First Trip to the Pool!!!

I know I'm crazy and should probably have my head examined, but today I took Michael to the pool for the first time.  My sisters were all planning a trip and I didn't want to miss out, so off we went!  I knew it was going to be hot, but I wasn't expecting another day with a heat index of 105.  Can't we have some nice, middle-of-the-road weather days???

No worries though, we were in the shade for the most part and he was slathered with tons of 50 spf sunscreen.  I know sunscreen is not "recommended" for a 4 1/2 month old, but neither is sunburn.

He didn't not like the water, but he didn't seem too thrilled with it either.  I was just happy that he was content with being outside in this heat.

I also kept him well-hydrated and we weren't outside for more than an hour and a half.  See, I'm really not a bad mom!!!

We had a a bath, bottle and a good, long nap when we got home.  That outside air sure was tiring for my little guy!

Here are some pics of our day at the pool with my sisters and their kiddos!  (By the way, I did ask my sisters in these pics if they were okay with me posting their pics in their bathing suits.  They both said yes :)  I'm not that cruel!)

Michael and Mommy chilling in the pool!

Kate and Brooklyn

Dee and Wyatt

Miss Jayde.  She carried that water bottle around a lot!  Super cute!!!

Michael's first dip in the pool!

The Bumbo.  He liked looking at the water!

Worn out!

But still has a smile to show off!

Miss Brooklyn...she hated the water at first, then I look over and she's standing under the sprayers...voluntarily!!!  What a kid!

Happy Summer!  Stay Cool!

Cereal!!!

It's been a while since I've posted an update and we've had a few fun things going on around here lately.

First, we've started Mr. Michael on rice cereal!  He started waking up in the middle of the night, which he had not done the past few weeks.  Not that I don't love to see that smiling face at 3am, but I am also a huge fan of sleep!  His pediatrician also said we could start him on cereal at any time.

His first day of cereal was this past Tuesday, June 28th.  He slightly enjoyed the first few bites until he realized it wasn't his bottle.  He then starting pitching a fit until he got the bottle back.  Not such a great try.  The past few nights have gone a little better until the full success story of tonight!  He had his bottle first, let go of a few good burps and ate all of his cereal!!!  It took a little convincing, but he eventually got it all down the hatch...and so far it's staying down!  Yay!

The set up

The first bite

Not so sure!

Gagging :(

I had to drop the camera to get to him, therefore the blurry pic

Success!!!

Speaking of staying down, he has been spitting up alot more lately.  That normally is not a big deal due to his reflux,  but he has also been screaming when he does it, so we had to increase his doseage of Prilosec.  So far, so good!  The doctor wants us to give it a week, but even after a couple days, we're already noticing an improvement.

We're also trying to not swaddle him a night.  I've had too many scares lately where I wake up to him squirming in the cradle and he has his face covered with the wings of the sleeper!  The problem with that is, at some point during the night, he usually wakes himself up with having his arms out.  I know he can't be swaddled forever, but it'll be a while before he's fully done with it.

Don't worry, the monkey was moved after theis picture was taken (it's his pacifier).

Here are a few other "four month" pics that didn't get added last time.  Enjoy!!!

Really, Mom???

I love those little feet!

I caught a smile!