time flies

sheesh...is it already the end of august? this month has gone by so fast! what have we been up to? EVERYTHING! We have been so busy! At the end of July we had a visit from Mark's family (mom, dad, sister, niece, and nephew). We had a good visit with them and it was nice to see our new baby nephew as he is at that stage where they are a different person each time you see them. He is a cutie! Ignoring mark in his ugly shirt-here is a shot of all the kids together!

Baby Trevor looks like such a little peanut compared to Avery! The next weekend we headed over to Cleveland for a Bachelorette party for a good friend, a family reunion, and a trip to Geauga Lake! I told you we were busy! It was my first night away from Avery b/c we spent the night in a resort for the party. It was a nice time, but I had to convince myself NOT to think about how much I missed the kiddos! I found out the next morning that they both did just fine and although Avery was happy to see me, she did great all night long with a bottle-what a relief! The family reunion was also a HUGE success! It was a nice cool day and we got to spend some time with the whole gang. Oh and of course eat all the yummy food! Xander played the kids games and did so well (considering he was the youngest) it was so cute to see him listening to directions and cheering on his team! Listening intently and holding hands with his team members :)

Walking backwards with cousin Madison :) Not too long after this the ball dropped and xander celebrated by running about 50 yards out into the field!

Here he is showing off his "loot" for winning a game!
Avery had a great time visiting too-here she is with Aunt Shanon, helping to Pop the bubbles Chloe is blowing! FUN stuff! On Sunday, we headed out to Geagua Lake with Uncle Wick, Aunt Melissa and xander's cousin Laurel. It was a PERFECT day for an amusement park and a good time was had by all!

Here is Snoopy...Xander wasn't sure enough to take his picture with him...just wanted to look at him from afar! :)

Here they are on the Log ride-xander didn't mind the hill or anything but got kind of irritated that he got wet, apparently he wasn't expecting it!

Here they are after the ride! You can see Laurel is appalled that we made her go on such a ride :)

Next, they rode a few calmer ones

Check out his shades (this is a record for how long Xander wore his sunglasses!)

Avery did so well just chilling in the stroller and even took a nice nap back there! What a good girl!

I don't know if you can see it here, but Xander climbed up on Mark's back while climbing the rope. Mark carried him all the way to the top and then Xander got off and exclaimed "We did it Daddy!" It was the cutest!

shooting the rockets!!

Lovin' the monster trucks!!

His very first "rollercoaster" it was big, too! he hid his head the whole time :)

Mommy riding the choo-choo with some random guy who couldn't fit in the car ahead of us with his kids. Those things definitely aren't built for those over 5ft tall. OUCH!

Then the next weekend was Xander's 3rd Birthday and we had a little pool party for him at the Y. He thought it was great fun and I think all the kids enjoyed the pool! Plus, he got a Thomas the train cake which thrilled him to no end. His gifts included a Spiderman big wheels, spiderman card game and backpack, a thomas movie, a REAL fishtank!, a thomas train set and suitcase, and lots more goodies like clothes etc. He was so cute and this is the first birthday I haven't cried during. His party was on Saturday but his real day was on Monday and since we were on vacation, we stayed up really late until his actual birth time and then gave him HUGE hugs and kisses and told him the story of his birth (minus all the gory details) he thought it was amazing that he came from my belly and that Daddy wrapped him in a blanky and took him to the rocking chair and rocked him while he cried (b/c he was happy of course) and told baby xander how much we loved him! He loves to hear that story and I can't believe that he is old enough to appreciate it already! Here are some shots from the party!

Xander and Ethan after full bellies!

A few of the kiddos

waiting for the swimming break to be over

Avery LOVED the cake icing! She looks pretty guilty here! :)

ANyway, as you can see it was a good time, there are a million more pictures but this post is taking me a year to get up. So, here are just a few more random shots and then it will probably take another month for me to update again!