Boys....less one!

I always seem to take a lot more pics of the girls so I thought I'd post some pics of the boys I took a couple weeks ago! Jackson and John are still great friends even though Johnny's been much more busy these days. Following in his big bros footsteps at this age Johnny is into cars, trucks and balls! They are also the SWEETEST little boys! I always thought girls would be sweeter (sugar and spice and everything nice, right??) for us it's the boys!
Jackson is Mr Popular these days....with the ladies! We were at the museum the other day and on the make believe stage there were a whole bunch of girls dressed as Princesses that Ava was trying to befriend. They quickly zeroed in on Jack and before I knew it all the girls were chasing him! He loved it, Ava didn't!! Can you say Ferris Bueller!!!! LOL!!

Johnny! All I have to say is that his wife is going to hate it when I move in with them!!

Halloween 2010

Lil Pumpkin Alexa!

Kangaroo Johnny!

Daniel Larusso a.ka...Jackson!

The Witch!! She was suppose to be Belle but it was too itchy!!



The whole gang! The twins only made it about 30 mins but Jack and Ava had a blast!

Jacks class posing for a group shot after parade...

This is a video Poppy shot at Jackson's Halloween parade. His whole class went trick or treating at the church. Ava of course wanted to be part of it all! Jack was trick or treating with his friends Joshua and Michael! Jack was "The Karate Kid"! He is obsessed with karate and his new nickname in school is "Karate Jack"!

Happy Birthday John & Alexa

John & Alexa's "Big Top" Birthday Party!! The sweets table below, filled with cupcakes, cotton candy and treats galore!! This party took me 6wks to plan but they're worth it! It was a bit colder than I would've liked but it seemed to bother us adults more than the kids! I hope you enjoy the pics, it was priceless for me to see in person the happiness on all the kids faces! I now have to start on Ava's ballet bday party!! :)

Face Painting! What would a Circus Party be without face painting?!?!

There was a bouncer to entertain the kids along with a face painter and juggling clown! They had so much fun! In fact, there's no pics of cousin Zoe because I don't think she left the bouncer!!

Birthday Girl, Alexa! She's taking 4-5 steps at a time but not yet "walking"! She is sure to be running by her adjusted bday (nov 17th)!!

The Birthday Boy, Johnny and Jackson in the bouncer!

The Clown juggling (my sisters boyfriend Mark)


This was so much fun and he was great! Jack is now obsessed with juggling! He did after all juggle Jack!

Cousin MacKenzie after her face painting! So Pretty!

Grace with her flower painting! So photogenic!

Cousin Julia w/Ava after their face painting! Friends Forever!! :)

Ava trying on the clown wig

The award for best pick for face painting goes to......JACKSON!!

Jack's first "best" friend from Lincoln park, Luke!

Cousin Mike with Lexi

Good friend Henry from playgroup

Good friend Miller. Henry's little bro :)

Uncle Patrick and cousin Ryan

Cousin Elisa and Lilly

Great friends and neighbors...Emma, Grace, Timmy, Caroline and of course Jackson!

Melissa and Mark (a.k.a the juggling clown!)

"Snack" Jack

I wanted to post this before I forgot! Jack's teacher pulled me aside again and said "I know I've told you before that Jack was really sweet but he's sooo sweet it makes me want to cry"! She then told me that a girl in his class was crying the other day and he went and got her a glass of water and then sat with her until she stopped...sweet! She also said that he's a perfectionist! He apparently gets really upset if he doesn't get something right and she said he gets nervous and his lip quivers if he even thinks he's diappointing her! She said she's working on that with him because she doesn't want him to feel that way! Although, she told me that it was very typical of the first born! Lastly, (i thought this was hilarious) she said he does not like that there are 2 Jacks in the class. I guess the other Jack gets in trouble so when she would reprimand the other Jack our Jack would get upset. So, they nick named him "snack" Jack! I asked her WHY, the kid never eats!! Well, I guess at school he does! She said he's very particular about where and who he eats his snack with everyday!! I love hearing these stories, and I knew he was a "pleaser" but didn't know to what extent!! Ha, Ha, Ha!!

Johnny: Asthma :((

It's been an interesting day...Johnny had an asthma attack today! Very Scary! He was showing signs of a bad cold yesterday but when he woke up this morning I could tell something was wrong. He couldn't stay up for longer than an hour and kept collapsing in my arms if he would try to sit up! At about 8:30am it got worse, he was having a really hard time breathing and then threw up 2x!! When I called the doc the nurse got on the phone and said she could hear him weezing to bring him in asap! Luckily when we got there the doc monitored his stats and they were good so we didn't have to go to the hospital!! This is the second time in 2 months that something like this happened (last time nothing in comparison) so he officially diagnosed him with asthma! So, not only does he look exactly like a Steele he now has our health issues! Well, atleast my sister and dad!

Don't let the smile fool you most of the time he's ripping this away from his face screaming! He has to have this breathing treatment every 2-3hrs the next 2 days. We have a follow up appt with the doc tommorow when we'll talk more about the asthma. I have noticed since the last episode that he seems to get short of breathe even after crawling a lot so he said he may put him on something that would prevent asthma attacks?? I'll keep everyone posted! I wish he didn't have this but I know it could be a lot worse!!

Ava's first day at The Academy!

Ava's first day of school Sept. 14th (also Jeff's b-day)! She was in a great mood and seemed ready to go! When Jack got his backpack last year she got this one and wears it every day to drop Jack off at school! She finally gets to wear it to "HER" school!!

Mommm let's go, enough pics already!!

The Academy where Ava will go this year and then on to Ascension next year! This is a Montessori preschool for the Arts and I've been really impressed with the school thus far and have heard nothing but great things from alumni! There are 3 rooms that they rotate through; the first room she does ballet/music for 30mins, next room, physical fitness for 30 mins (love that they do this) and then the last hour is more of a typical preschool day (abc's colors etc...)

She helped pick out her name tag. She can recognize the letter "A" but not her full name yet. At this point I was starting to hear other kids screaming and crying! It's hard for a 2yr old to be seperated from their mom/dad at this age. I think it really helped that Ava has seen Jack go to school for awhile now.

She did Great! She put on her ballet shoes all by herself, hopped over the teacher helping the other kids and jumped right into the circle with the other 2 kids!! My BIG GIRL!!!

It's hard to let go!!

It's hard to let go....I bet you were thinking it was me that was having a hard time seeing Jack go to school! Nope, it was Ava!! Jack had his first day of Pre-K 4 on Thursday and while I had a couple tears last year this year I had a big smile as he went off with all of his new friends (lots more boys this year) and his new teacher! Ava, however, did not share my enthusiasm! Her best friend and partner in crime was leaving her every day but Wednesday even if it's only for 3hrs!

Today when we dropped Jack off at school 2 boys (twins) came running up to him yelling "Hi Jack" and just before they got to him Ava darted in front of them shoving one to the side and stepped in front of Jack! When one of the boys said "Hey that wasn't nice" she stuck out her tongue as if to say THAT WAS THE POINT!! I then pulled Ava aside and asked her to let Jack play with his new friends! After a couple more minutes Jack was surrounded by the rest of the boys in his class wanting to play with him and the twin boys! Yes, Ava was once in the middle of all the action. Just before Mrs Cantafio arrived to greet the kids I heard one of the boys ask Jack if he wanted to come over for a playdate soon! It looks like this is going to be a great year for Jack!! Miss Ava starts her own adventures at a different school Sept. 14th. I'm guessing she'll do just fine!!

Baby Model!!

Everytime I see him do this is it cracks me up! He does it OFTEN!! I was so glad to have finally captured it on film. I was taking those pics of Alexa walking when I saw him doing this. I guess he felt his sister was showing him up!!

Too little to walk???

We got our walker back from Patrick and Laurie since Ryan is officially walking now and Alexa wasted no time checking it out! She played with it at first but as soon as she pulled herself up and realized what it could do or more importantly saw where it could take her she was off!! These pics can't even explain how funny it is to see her doing this! She's sooo tiny to be walking!! She looks like a 4 month old cruisin around!

Gang of Pirates!

Jack and Ava escape in the front room daily to play pirates. They use the couch as their ship and the coffee table as the plank! Yes, Ava is usually the one made to walk the plank and she happily jumps from the table into a sea of couch cushions! On this particular day John and Alexa had made their way in to be part of the action!

New House

Well here it is! Everyone's been asking me to take a picture of the new house so while at mimi and poppy's house last weekend I finally took one! I felt like an idiot so I stood across the street and took the pic! I'll post some more when we move October 1st! :) Everyone is more than welcome to come visit in person!

Shhhh, it's a secret (for now)

We thought it would be fun to share the exciting news with our blog followers, since you're all close family anyway! It's a BOY!! We weren't going to find out but you know Jeff and I....just couldn't do it! So, for now it's a secret but who knows everyone may know in another week or two!! I wish we were better at this stuff! In another month we'll know what we're getting eachother for xmas!

My first thought when she told me it was a boy was excitement, then surprised that I'm 5 for 5 and lastly Oh NO, My poor little Johnny! How will he ever share his mommy!! Ha, Ha!!

Also, most importantly everything looked great with the little guy (thinking Joey)! I'm so excited and happy to share the exciting news!

Solberg Cousin Fun!

The summer is coming to an end and the kids had so much fun with all of their cousins! Jack and Ava have gotten to know Mike, Joe, Dan and Elise a lot more this summer and are OBSESSED with them! They want to name the new baby Mike or Joe if it's a boy and of course Elise if it's a girl! The kids are so good with all of our kids and they always give me a break when we all get together! We went to Lake Geneva a couple times this year where they went on boat rides, fished and Mike and Joe helped Jack get over his fear of deep water (kinda)!

We also saw Julia and Lilly this summer and the kids had fun at park dates and an end of summer bbq.

We see Miss Zoe and cousin Ryan 2-3x a week but sadly have no pics to share! I'll have to remember this next summer! Ava and Zoe did ballet together this summer and are probably going to do it this fall together. The kids have a lot of fun together and have done just about everything together!

I can't wait for next summer so John and Alexa can join in on the fun! :)