Holy Cow! Alex is 5 years old

How is this even possible that U have a child 5 years of age, much less two children to begin with. I have to admit that Alex was a hard child to have. Not only were there complications in the womb that resulted in a C-section, but he was a lot more fussy than his older brother and prevented me from eating more than a couple of things when I was pregnant in order to not throw up. I wouldn’t trade him for the world though. He has a big temper, but when he wants to love he is the most loving, sweetest child there ever was.

This is one of his first pictures in the hospital. His big brother Jack gave him the little dog, somewhat unwillingly, he thought it was his to keep. I He still looks the same to me now as he did then.

We had just a small party at the house for Alex, but we invited all the people he had on his list: Mom, Dad, Grandma, Uncle Mark, Jack, and Echo the dog.

Admittedly, he got a ton of presents, which is just crazy since they just had Christmas, but what are you going to do? His absolute favorite was the Lego Ninjago fire Temple. He about fell out of his chair when he opened it up.

Jack was super helpful and helped him open all his presents and even put some together for him.

Happy birthday Alex. I will love you always my sweetest little boy.

Jack’s big birthday party

I said there would be a big party later for Jack’s seventh birthday and here are just a few pictures.

The Transformer Cake

Making a wish.

The party animals.

Laser tag!

The birthday boy.

Good times had by all!

This was the second year we have had his party at Kids in Motion and I am not disappointed. It is harder with jack’s birthday because it is in the winter and a lot harder to find things for the kids to do without freezing to death. This is basically an indoor playground and gives the kids plenty of space to run wild. The major plus this year was that they were old enough to enjoy Laser tag, which was they highlight of their day. The plus side for me is that there is practically no clean up for me and no screaming children in my house.

Pinewood Derby Third Place Champion

Jack and his Daddy were super excited when they came out third place winners at this year’s Pinewood Derby for Pack 38. It was especially sweet being as how Jack was the only Tiger Scout to place in the top ten. All their hard work on the car paid off in the end and Jack could hardly contain himself as he ran up to get his trophy when they called his name.

Jack carefully placing his car at the starting position.

Both Jack and Alex waiting for their second run. Alex had to be physically removed after trying to put a Hot Wheels car up to race. He was not happy about that at all.

Jack was on track three. This was his best time and he got this same time twice.

Jack doing his victory run up to get his trophy. They had passed out a bunch of ribbons and his name never got called so he was getting a little down. Then the more names they started calling from tenth place on down the sadder he got. I was keeping track of his times and knew he would probably place but I wasn’t sure where. When they finally called his name you can see the resulting excitement.

The top ten winners. They all got little derby trophies. Jack is so small, but he is also the most excited.

The winner, the trophy, the car and the brother. Super racing day. Alex can’t wait until it is his turn.

Cub Scouts Go-see-it to the Radio Station

Each month Jack’s Cub Scout pack have a go see it activity and a regular activity along with a den meeting. Some times Andy isn’t able to get off work to attend with Jack so I get to go. Usually where I go Alex follows.  This time they went to KISS FM radio station. It wasn’t a very long tour as the radio station is fairly small and a lot of things are behind closed doors because they are on air, but they got to go into the studio where KISS FM broadcasts and talk to one of the DJ’s and ask all kinds of questions.

The kids all had a good time even though it was so short. They all left with a parting gift of a magnetic frame that had the radio stations name plastered all over it.

Happy Birthday Jack

Holy cow, I cannot believe my baby has turned another year older. It seemed like just yesterday I brought him home from the hospital and he was such a tiny perfect thing.

Now he is such a big boy going to school and growing his adult teeth and reading and making friends. Where does the time go?

We had a small birthday party with just Jack, Alex, myself, and his Grandma Ann on his actual birthday. Later this week we will be having a party for him and his friends. Of course, his Daddy went all out and got him the best Lego set ever (though I’m not sure who wanted it more)!

Happy Birthday Jack. You will forever be my little baby Jacko’boy.

Christmas with the Konlocks

I love Christmas time. I love setting up my village and decorating the tree and wrapping gifts for my children. I love all the food that I get to eat and all the photos people post to see. I love how everyone gets into the spirit of Christmas and seem so much nicer to each other.

I love spending time with my family, even though it’s not ALL of my family. I especially love seeing the excitement in my kids as it gets closer and closer. Here are just a few photos to share our Christmas with you.

Grandma Ann got each of the kids a nice set of fancy clothes to wear because Alex had mentioned that he didn’t have any. They both look so cute in them.

Jack had to be bribed into putting his on and took them off immediately once the picture taking was done. Alex on the other hand wore his for two days straight. He would constantly ask everyone if they thought he looked handsome in his his clothes.

On eof Alex’s favorite gifts was the Dragon Happy Napper that turns into a castle pillow for sleeping.

Jack’s very favorite was the remote control helicopter that he has been asking for the past few years. It was broken three times within the first 48 hours.

Alex had a themed Christmas it seemed and that theme was the Thundercats. He loved putting the sword in front of him and saying “give me sight beyond sight.”

Both kids got pop up books that were very intricate and were just fascinated by all the detail and pictures.

I f Alex’s theme was Thundercats then Jack’s theme was Halo. I’m not really sure why he latched onto this particular brand so much, but he was looking for the Halo Lego’s and since he had a ton of other Lego sets we decided that the action figures might be easier to play with as well as keep together.

Of course Alex had to get his present from Santa. Even though Santa has brought him two previous Optimus Prime toys, he had to have the Optimus Prime with the Mech tech weapons. How does he even know this stuff?

More Halo for Jack.

Christmas started out on Christmas Eve and ended late Christmas Day. We had a lot food, family, and fun and we were even able to get a good family photo in with everyone looking very nice.

 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours.

Spelunking our own home

In our never ending effort to create the Home of our dreams from the house that we purchased we sometimes go to extraordinary lengths to achieve our goals. This does not exempt the children who see small things like climbing through the rafters in the basement in order to run cable as a small adventure.

A little perspective of the space that the children climbed through. This is the hole in the ceiling in the basement that leads to crawl space of about twelve inches high.

This is close up of the space they crawled into.

The I beam is on the right and the heating duct is on the left. Alex is small enough that he has plenty of space.

Jack is not much bigger than his brother and even he has plenty of room.

Alex thinks it’s the perfect hiding place, though I am sure they won’t be allowed up there anymore.