Warning: This is a long one....

Ok, Ok.... I take 1 month off the blog and I get people harassing me!? Jeez! Well, you asked for it, so here it is in all its LONG glory. This will catch you up from June and July. Enjoy!!

We start back at JUNE 26th... JT's birthday morning.
Here he is, 3 years old!! SOOO BIG!


JT gave a present to Sam too. His first Optimus Prime. What nice brothers? :)
Best part about birthday mornings... CAKE FOR BREAKFAST!!



Ya-Ya came over too...
and brought more cake!!


We had a good day. After all the sugar, we took both of the boys to see the new Transformers movie. JT fell asleep (more like crashed after the sugar high). Then we went to feed the ducks and have dinner. We enjoyed the day together. :)

Here is JT and Sam helping Poppy mow his lawn.


We got one night out with our friends. We wish we could have spent more time together... but we enjoyed our dinner and drinks.
The guys...
some things never change.
This is MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) also known as, Rocky Training. The boys went with their cousins to Rocky train. They had a great time.

The boys and Uncle Fred.

Fourth of July...
Carly does not like getting her picture taken, but with Aunts like us... she has no choice! :)



The boys enjoying the pool with their big cousin Cosie.




Sisters.
JT with Poppy and Grandpa.

The kids playing badmiton without a net, but they had fun anyway!!




I'm guessing JT is tired?
Duck, Duck, Goose... yea, we are bringin it back!

At the end of the night, we didnt do fireworks (the kids passed out as soon as they got in the car) but they had fun with glow necklaces and bracelets and tons of tattoos. It took weeks to get them off!


Aunt Trixie came up while we were in town. We got into a bit of trouble for discussing Daisy's weight. Here are a few pictures of her.

Sam had been wanting to go mini-golfing, so YaYa treated the boys and Cosie to a fun afternoon.


Somewhere along the lines, JT decided it was more fun to sit on the hole accessories rather than play golf. :)

Love this pic.
JULY 11th... Sam and JT's combined ROCKY birthday party. This is what everyone saw when they walked in. We decided to go with Red, White and Blue because Rocky does where those shorts and the boys also like Apollo Creed.
Matt got this cardboard cut out for Hayden a few years back. He let us borrow him for the party.
Rocky favors. All the kids got Rocky CD's, candy, punch balls, and knock em sock em finger puppets
Matt superimposed Sam and JT's face on a Rocky picture.
The Rocky cake I didnt make :)
The boys taking a picture with Rock.

The party has begun. It rained all day, but around 3 the sun came out and the party started at 5, so it was perfect! They ate and swam.
IT was a bit cold for my Arizona boys...
Finally, Carly let me take a picture of her! :) She looks nice when she smiles for the camera!




Rocky Training. This was my favorite part!! After dinner all the kids went through stations of Rocky training while Rocky music played. The stations were Under the Rope Punching with Dad, Push Ups and Sit Ups with Uncle Fred, Jumping Rope led by Poppy, and Finishing it off with Bruises given by Anita. The best part was that we had boys and girls ranging from 3 to 16 and they all had a great time. Just look at the pictures. Thanks everyone!!

Under the rope punching... Sam, JT and Cole

Jump Rope - Carly and Avery
Bruises. Colton and Kenna
Jump Rope - Sam, JT and Cole

Under the Rope Punching with Cosie, Jake and Hayden
Push up/Sit ups with Colton, and Anthony. The best part about this station was Uncle Fred calling out insults!!

Dad demonstrating proper technique

Even Uncle Tom got into it when the girls were whimping out at the push ups and sit ups!
Bruises for Sam, JT and Cole



The girls mixed it up a little and danced through the rope punch station. This is a video...press play.

This was funny too... Uncle Fred said Push ups and JT laid on his back then he got up for the push ups and well, the video shows it best...

Here is the video... press play

Colton and Anthony jumping rope

Look how ready they are to fight now!


Finally, we had the pinata. But instead of hitting it, they punched it. We used an American Flag hat like the one Apollo Creed wore in Rocky IV.



CANDY!! Look at Hayden! He is in the air!
Before cake we danced to a little Rocky music. JT is getting down here... right after the picture he took a header into the driveway and had scrapes on his head and shoulder. I love that boy!

Cake Time!

Of course we needed 2 - Rocky and Superheroes -

Presents. This is always a crazy time. Especially for a control freak that their mother is!!

The next day. Aunt Lisa got the boys Rocky outfits and JT wore it for 3 days straight. Here he is practicing the next morning. This is my FAVORITE picture. Look at his face!
We went to the Strong Museum with Hayden Anthony, Cole, Uncle Fred, Aunt Nita, Aunt Carol, Grandma, Grandpa and me. That place is pretty cool.

wegmans!

End with the most recent thing we did... I went to the Keith Urban Concert with my girlfriends. It was a lot of fun. I had to post a couple pics.
I had a blast ladies!

Next up... we are waiting for YaYa and Poppy to get here on Monday. Then we will be heading to California and going to Disney for the boys birthday present! We are so excited!! Will post again soon!

Busy, Busy, Busy...Basketball, Rocky Training, Golf and the Zoo!

We have been busy filling our time until we get to see our family in Rochester. The boys have been on the go! I, for one, am exhausted! :)Where do they get their energy?

The first 2 weeks of June Sam had a basketball camp. He is pretty good at basketball.... for a wrestler!

Here is JT watching. He was NOT too happy that he wasn't old enough to join too. He thinks he is the same age as Sam!

The dogs are learning to live with each other...
Of course the boys absolutely love their puppy.

This is the best.
JT sure does look up to his big bro.
They got new basketball jerseys - JT got SHAQ and Sam got Steve Nash. JT was all too happy to show his off!
We have been spending a lot of time in the pool - for obvious reasons! Both boys are little fish in there. Here is Sam with a thumbs up for the camera!
JT is swimming... I mean, really, swimming. He will slide down the slide and swim to us or jump off the diving board and swim to the side. He is amazing.

Rocky Training. For those of you who have not heard, the boys are slightly into the Rocky Movies. We rented the entire Saga from the Library and I have watched more of Rocky than I really care to talk about! JT will go around singing the song. One of their favorite things to do in the pool is Rocky Training. They use the punching bag and lift weights. They even go to the park and run or do the monkey bars. They are too much!

This video is like a solid minute of JT punching the bag. He usually sings the song but he didn't this time. I tried to get him to do it, but he was too focused on punching!

Sam's video punching the bag.

Golf. Daddy took the boys to hit balls and Otis and I tagged along.
I love this shot of JT.

Video of Sam taking a shot. The next Tiger Woods! ;)

The zoo. For some reason, my crazy friends and I thought it would be a good day to hit the zoo because it was only going to be in the high 90s. We got there early and spent a lot of time in the shade and still, I am exhausted! They had fun though.
Friends.
They have a new water feature that is like a cave inside. For the first time in JT's life, he was scared! I felt bad for him. Sam was a great big brother though and kept checking on him and seeing if he would go with him. I love those boys.
We did get him to go down the slide once... if you look closely at his face, it says it all!

That is all for now. Not sure I will be posting again before we leave for NY. I am already behind schedule for getting ready... surprise, surprise!

What we have been up to lately...

We have been pretty busy since the last post. After we said goodbye to Ya-Ya and Poppy we did a few things and then got ready for our visit with Aunt Lisa. This is what we have been up to lately...

We went bowling Memorial Day weekend. The boys have been practicing on Wii bowling, but I think we figured out that Wii bowling and the real thing are entirely different! :)
Video of JT bowling. He just liked making the foul buzzer go off!

Video of Sam bowling...

Even Matt got into it!

On Tuesday we met up with our friends at a splash park... Gotta do something to stay cool in this heat!
On Thursday, Aunt Lisa came for her birthday visit. Of course the boys were VERY excited! We decided to make her a birthday cake to celebrate. It was late when she got in and the boys were asleep, but the next morning, they certainly enjoyed birthday cake for breakfast! You only live once! :)

Here is a video of them singing happy birthday to her. They are such goof balls!

And this goes out to Kenna... we are sorry we didn't get to sing you happy birthday on your actual day. We heard you were upset about it and we hope this makes up for it. Happy Birthday!

We took Aunt Lisa out to dinner for her birthday at KONA Grill. (One of our favorite places here) It is not really a kid place, but the boys had fun coloring and drawing pictures. We really enjoyed ourselves.
Murphy and Otis. They are co-existing here. It is one of the rare times that Otis is not jumping or biting Murphy. Notice, Murphy still has his eye on him because he doesn't trust him! (I can't blame poor Murph!)

Baby Boy # 3.... Of course we don't have any names for him yet. We are not exactly the best at that since both Sam and JT went a whole day in the hospital as Baby Boy Ricci. But here are some of the pictures we got from the ultrasound. :)


This is his little foot.
This might be hard to see.... but the picture says BOY on it. It is showing his ... If you are looking at it the U shape is a bottom view of him and those are his legs and the little thing that is sticking out between the U shape tells us we have a little boy!
Profile picture of the little guy.
Head and Body shot. His head is on the left side and he has his little arm up by his face. When he was moving around we could see all 5 fingers at times. It was really cute.

Halfway there.... 20 more weeks to go!