Josie and the Rugrats

Yeah, turns out a newborn baby really kills any time you have to blog. But, now is as good of time as any to get things back in action. When we last left off was Jeremy's birthday. Well, turns out the next big thing was another birthday.

The story really starts on Tuesday of that week when Tania went in for a regular appointment. We found that baby wasn't as big as the doctors would have liked. They monitored Tania and the baby for two days but by Friday they determined that 3 days was enough: the baby's time had come. 4 weeks early we started the process.

Josephine Grace Willmann was born at 12:50am on Oct. 16th. She was 5 lbs 4 ozs and was otherwise a champ. Although she was a premie, she passed every test they were worried about. She didn't require any additional time in the hospital and by Monday we were on our way home.

The boys did great with Josie. Jeremy was very interested in the new baby, since it was his first experience with a new sibling in the house. Craig was business as usual with the new baby, after all he had been here before. But he has been nothing but loving towards Josie. They have never been jealous or upset at the attention she needs, and that has been a blessing. On to the pictures!

Josie only a couple of hours old.



Mom gets to say hi to her new baby.



As mentioned Jeremy was very interested in his new sister. Not pictured: Craig who was very interested in the hospital bed.



Dad gets a turn.



Here we are ready to go. Josie is in the Willmann-take-home-outfit that both Craig and Jeremy (and Ricky and Maureen and Grandpa) went home in.



Here is Princess Josie!

Jeremy's 2nd birthday party

As always, it is hard to believe that Jeremy turned 2 last month. We threw him a family party and we all had a great time. We even managed to mostly save the yard this time (unlike Fathers Day.)

Craig and Jeremy are ready for the backyard pool party to begin!



Momma made Jeremy a huge chocolate cake and the rest of us had cupcakes. Jeremy was nice enough to share with Craig and his cousin Micah.



I'm fairly certain at this point he had no interest in eating that cake anymore. But it looks like they enjoyed it, look how much they ate!



Opening presents is a huge hit when you have lots of young children in a attendance. Here is Mom doing a great job of entertaining the crowds and Jeremy.



Finally, here is a youtube clip of Happy Birthday to Jeremy. He was so close to blowing out the candles, but got shy at the last moment. I think brother eventually blew out the candles, and we just went with it. A memorable day all the way around.

Summa time

See what had happened was I had a problem with google and it wouldn't let me log on and (insert other lame excuse here) so I just wanted to say (insert lame apology here). Now that I have a new laptop I should be able to keep on the blogging horse a little better. Of course, I haven't blogged about the summer yet, so here we go!

A large chunk of the summer involved the World Cup one way or another. This is Craig, Jeremy and daddy as they prepared to go to Grandma Willmann's for the USA/Algeria game. When Donovan finally put the goal in the net I ran around the house and the boys followed. And we looked good doing it.



Early in the summer we made our way to Fulton, MO to see our friends the Cernekas. Here are Craig and Noah on the swing. It went as smoothly as it appears!



We took Tania's parents to the Bank of America Pavilion for their Fathers/Mothers day gift. It happened to be the crazy game where the Diamond Backs made two errors in the 9th inning to allow the Cardinals to win. Very exciting none the less. Notice that Tania is wearing her "future fan" shirt.



Jeremy eating a smore. I'm certain this ended with a mess, but he sure did enjoy eating it!



We have also renovated a bathroom and we threw Jeremy a birthday party. Still can't believe he is 2. Anyways, hopefully the next blog is in a couple weeks, not months.

Spring was in the air.

Hmmm....seems I'm a couple months behind on the old blog. Let's see where we left off. Ah yes, Easter!

Here is Craig in his special Easter outfit before we headed out for Church.



Jeremy in his Easter sweater before we looked for Easter eggs.



Jeremy wasn't so interested in hunting for Easter Eggs so he just played T-ball most of the morning. Craig had a great time looking for eggs at a leisurely pace.



We skip ahead to later in the day where we saw all the Mantia cousins. The trampoline was a huge hit. No matter how bad this landing might seem, Craig had a blast.



Craig climbing, like every boy does.



Jeremy loved the trampoline too, but we loved what the trampoline did to his hair so much more.

Snow.

I finally got to downloading more pictures, and alas at the beginning of Spring I must flashback to the Winter! It took us a long time to get into the snow despite the fact it was snowing every other week. Mostly we wanted a sunny day in the 20's or 30's (not cloudy, windy and zero degrees). So we didn't get out until February. It was a great time because a) the boys were super ready to play outside and b) due to many circumstances it was Jeremy's first time in the snow!

Here are the boys at the bottom of our small hill in our back yard. They opted for the "drag our butts down the hill" strategy. Not nearly as fun as the "roll down the hill" way but whatever works!



Craig wanted to swing. If he doesn't look happy, it's because he isn't. Shortly after this he decided to take his gloves off. Before we could get them back on his hands were so cold Tania had to take him inside and warm them up. (That's the gentle way of saying it, there was much crying involved.)



Jeremy and Craig both ready to swing. Jeremy would have his meals served in that swing if we'd let him.



After Craig went in Jeremy and I played some football. Meaning I would try to kick the ball and Jeremy would retrieve it for me.



Overall Jeremy took to the snow really well. I had to convince him to come inside before he noticed how cold it was! It just didn't bother him! On the other hand, the cold REALLY bothers Craig. Next winter I'll show him the majesty of a "snow ball fight" in hopes of getting him over his "snow is cold" phase.

I really like using "quotations" this blog. Anyways, next blog should have some Easter pics. Happy Easter to you all!

Christmas and January

We had a fantastic Christmas this year. Our schedule was very busy, but we absolutely loved every family gathering we attended!

First stop we opened presents at Grandma and Grandpa Willmann's on Christmas Eve. Craig is quite accomplished at opening presents and was ready to go.



Here is Jeremy opening a soft bowling set. Both the boys absolutely love this bowling set and for the most part can take turns playing.



This pic was taken at home Christmas morning. It's a toy vacuum cleaner that is meant for Jeremy, but obviously Craig was excited too.



Craig got a stuffed Curious George. It was one of those gifts where he didn't even notice he had more gifts to open afterward. That good!



Now we move on to Nana and Papa Mantia's house on Christmas Day. Here is Jeremy eating a cookie with his bib on his back like a cape. He wore it that way for much longer than I expected.



Here are the boys opening more presents with Mom.



Moving into post-Christmas pictures, Craig and Jeremy helped celebrate their cousin's birthday at the Transportation Museum. It was a little cold to walk around outside. (And Craig likes to eat snow regardless of its cleanliness) But they had a blast inside. Here is Craig playing with a train set.



Jeremy and his cousin playing at the Puppet Show.



Here the boys are playing with the kitchen they have set up. Apparently it takes hard work to find just the right fake plate. And it appears they enjoyed the fake cupcakes!

Re-living the Christmas hype

So I failed to blog for a couple months now, which means you get to re-live the Christmas season with us! As I was putting the pics together I realized I had enough for more than one blog. So here are pictures from the weeks before Christmas.



Here are Craig and Jeremy having lunch at the mall. Jeremy can eat Craig under the table. He likes to stuff as much as possible into his mouth and then when he (eventually) swallows he stuffs it again!



This is Jeremy riding the bouncing Zebra. Craig likes to try to ride it with him, but clearly that thing isn't built for two little ones to ride it at once.



Yes, that's Craig getting a high-five From Santa while playing Foosball. We went to a Christmas Party that featured Santa! Well, Craig (and Jeremy) were so focused on playing with games downstairs that they refused to come upstairs for pictures. So Santa came down to Craig! It was really awesome, Craig was glad to have a playing partner.



This was our best family picture with Santa.



Next up we went to bake Christmas cookies with Grandma Willmann. Jeremy and Craig took their task seriously.



Jeremy had a good time!



This is Craig and Grandma adding ingredients. They did a great job and the cookies were yummy!

Next time I will get through the Christmas pictures. I promise to blog again before March!