Matt's Big 3-0

I don't know how I did it, but I did. I threw Matt a SURPRISE birthday party and he didn't find out until we shouted, "Surprise!" as he walked in the house!! Here's how it all went:
Matt doesn't get many weekends off, but he requested his birthday weekend off, so I started to plan the party when I found out about it. That day, we hung around the house, went for lunch and then Dan & Judy took us out to dinner. After dinner we went to the Festival of Lights in Hamburg. We got to go on a reindeer drawn carriage ride...which was cold, but fun! All the while, Cindy and Jeff were back at our house getting decorations up, setting up the house for the party and greeting people as they came over. If it weren't for Cindy and Jeff, the party would not have been as great as it was! It definitely wouldn't have been a secret!!
So, on our way home from the Festival of Lights, I kept texting Jeff & Cindy to let them know where we were and our ETA (estimated time of arrival). Judy looked nervous all the way home, but the rest of us kept our cool. When we got to our house, the entire street had cars parked on it and Matt said, "Whoa. Look at all the cars. I wonder what they're doing here." To that I answered, "I guess somebody must be having a party." And he dropped it at that. We parked in the driveway and Matt took Jack into the house as we all followed him. When Matt got to the top of the stairs, everyone inside yelled, "SURPRISE" and started singing happy birthday to him. Charlene Bryant got it all on video, which she posted on facebook if anyone is interested in seeing it. Matt seemed surprised!
Then, after we settled in and started to visit with people, we got a new visitor: President Ronald Reagan...back from the dead!!! He looked pretty good for being dead too! It turns out it was Dale McKerrow playing a joke on Matt. (I knew all along, because Dale called me the day before to see what I thought of the idea.) Matt had no idea who it was because Dale did such a good job acting like Ronald. It was great!!!
After a while, Matt had to open some gifts. He got some great things...chocolates, the movie Lonesome Dove, and the coup de gras (sp?) .... his signed Magglio Ordonez baseball from Jeff & Cindy.

Overall it was a great time! There were almost 50 people there, so it was a bit packed, but fun. We even got to meet Char's parents for the first time!!! They stayed with us that night too, and then we all went out to lunch the next day after meeting. I think Matt really had a good weekend off. And so did Jack & I.

All bundled up.
Matt & Jack on the reindeer drawn carriage.

Matt & Jack inside one of the buildings
after seeing the lights.

Matt meeting Ronald Reagan....

and then meeting the man behind the mask.
Silly Dale!

the "Big Gift"

Not so big after all, but I think Matt likes it.
What do you think?!

The past month and then some...

So, in the past month, we've had a lot of fun. Here's some of what happened:

Emma and Jack got to visit with each other when Mike,
Julie and Emma stopped by on their way back from
Ben & Molly's wedding on November 1st. Jack and Emma
really had fun...and they even stayed up past their bedtimes!

Here's Jack bracing for Daddy's driving.
He already knows what a crazy driver his Daddy is!!

Jack has become aware of himself in the
mirror and loves to kiss himself.
I'm not sure if I should be concerned that he
wants to kiss another boy, but it's cute none the less!

Matt, Sara, Don, Matt & I went to the Monday night football game.
It was fun...except for the whole loss thing. Wide right...again!
I think the sports teams in this town are cursed or something!!!
This was Don's first NFL game. How depressing to have it be this one :( Sorry Don!

Jack and I visited Daddy at work (school).
In the background is Matt's Daddy board.
His students made it for him last year when Jack
was born and Matt keeps adding pictures to it.
It's quite a piece of art!!
Jack broke part of his toy!
As you can see, he's just as shocked as I was!!

Jack has learned how to pull himself up on things, like his gate.

He also can climb on his gate. I call him my little monkey!!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at my mom's house.
Jack's great gramma Koziel got this bib for him
to commemorate the occasion. Of course, this is the
only picture of it clean...he's such a messy eater!
Oh, and he loves pickle juice now too!!

Grampa Kryman got to play with Jack a little bit about a week ago.
Grampa hasn't seen Jack in a while,
so they were both very excited to see each other.

Here's Jack getting into a box of toys.
Notice how the bottom two shelves are cleared of
books...he loved to pull them off and eat the covers!

Jack with some of the toys he found in the box.
He was actually kneeling here. How cool!!

The above picture is Jack in his tub on December 5th. Below is him in his tub in July. Wow...has he grown a lot since the summer!!!

In the past month Jack has also figured out how to crawl (for real this time). He scoots from one room to the next with lightening speed! I'm so glad I put the gates up a while ago :)
Jack has also been the adventurous one with the foods he's eating too! He loves every flavor of baby food except peas. We've even tried Guava, Mango, Blueberries & Apples, Bananas & Strawberries... he loves them all!!
But recently, he's been eating table food too! He's tried (and loves) cheerios, clementines, dill pickles, vanilla ice cream, crackers, and Beechnut strawberry banana puffed rice. Hopefully the trend continues and he's up for any food I feed him...unlike his Daddy!! :-)

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I'll get more pictures and info up around Christmas (while Matt's on break!)

Halloween Fun

Here are some pictures from Halloween Eve - the local fire department to which my dad and brother in law belong had a little parade through the village and then a party in the hall afterwards. There was even a costume contest in which Jack won a prize as Clifford the big red dog. Kinsley was a peanut and also won a prize!! For Halloween, Matt and I took Jack around to the grandparents' houses and then around the block for the neighbors to see. He was Tigger...incase you couldn't tell!! We had a lot of fun. Halloween is probably my favorite holiday!