First thing in the morning, before breakfast or his party, still in p.j.'s, Jesson had to go outside and saw something with the chainsaw he got from Auntie Cari and Uncle Darrell. 

During the Scooby Doo Mystery Party, the kids did lots of activities while they collected their clues to figure out who had hidden the birthday presents. First we decorated sun hats and they seemed to enjoyed that.

They played pin the bone on Scooby to get their next clue. 

Here's a picture of the Mystery Machine Birthday Cake I decorated. The icing bled a little as it thawed but it still tasted good.

They ate ice cream cake after we sang and Jesson blew out his candles.

The kids took turns hitting the Nemo pinata to no avail. Daddy got up and tried but Nemo was all taped up tight and broke off of his hanger so Daddy resorted to the pocket knife. The kids didn't seem to mind, they got their candies anyway.

Jesson opened his presents while Erika supervised to make sure he got it right. She's so cute! 

When it was all over, they played in the pool and Jesson's new sprinkler until supper was ready. He and Payten were having fun chasing each other too.

The boys have really enjoyed their pool time since the heat arrived. Jesson gets a kick out of Conor's gasp when he splashes him and Conor starts kicking his feet like crazy when he gets splashed. There's no need to pour water on either of them to get them cooled off, that's for sure. 

Our baby was using a fork for his spaghetti the other night (sniff, sniff). As long as I'd fill the fork with food and leave it in his bowl, he'd pick it up and shovel the food in. He did very well. 

He's quite proud of his ability to stand in the pool and even the bathtub! This stance looks like he's trying to flex his pecks or something! What a character! 

Jesson is just getting too big! He's growing taller and hardly fits any of his pants and he's developing socially as well. He spent a morning at the highschool with our Grade 8 neighbor Brandon for a take-a-kid-to-school day. Brandon was in charge of Jesson for the morning and fed him snacks, etc. Jesson had so much fun he didn't want to come home. He's decided that he'll just go straight to that school and skip the K-6 thing all together. He really enjoys his little friends now too. We had a craft day recently with his friend Erika and her sister Lauren and the kids had a blast. They play well for the most part but they are both the oldest at home and they are really close in age so a few scraps are inevitable. It's great to see him developing into a little man but it feels like time is flying so fast that he'll be grown in the blink of an eye. Jesson turns 3 next weekend as he's looking forward to his birthday and also going to see the movie Cars in the theatre where he'll have his own popcorn! He's so excited he can hardly contain himself. I'm sure we'll take lots of shots of that to share as well.

Conor is doing very well. Despite my worries that he was becoming a Mommy suck, he spent a couple of days at day care while I painted without any major crying fits. He actually enjoys time there, playing with the other babies and out of reach of his rough and tumble big brother. He's growing fast and catching on to his brothers antics quickly. Yelling matches seem to be the flavor of the week. He eats like a horse making it tough to find enough baby friendly foods to keep a variety on hand, but he's not really picky. He can crawl as fast as I walk and routinely lets go of the furniture and stands there but hasn't taken steps alone yet. I'm sure it won't be long. He'll be walking by his birthday I think.  

"Baby Blue Eyes", as Grandma Nicholetts has dubbed him, is growing so fast. He has 6 teeth now, once again popping new ones during a trip to the lake. Unfortunately he also developed the stomach flu during our trip but he's on the mend now after passing it along to his brother and then his Dad.

Our little Conor. He's still cruising the furniture, keeps himself busy exploring, and has begun to "bug" his big brother by wanting to play with whatever he's playing with. This is only the beginning of many years of "Mom, he's bugging me!" being yelled from wherever they play. 

On one very windy morning at the lake last weekend, Jesson flew a kite for the first time. He was a little upset at first because he thought his kite was floating away like a helium balloon, but once I explained and let him fly it, he liked the idea. Even when it hit the ground, he held on and flew it himself once I threw it back up.  

Jesson's First Fishing Adventure! Last weekend Daddy and Jesson picked out Jesson's first fishing rod in preparation for May long weekend. At Grandma & Grandpa's cabin he tried it out for the first time and had a blast. During one outing Jesson caught a fish (with help, of course) and Daddy got skunked. Jesson felt pretty proud of himself. He's got a little practicing to do when it comes to casting and reeling but he enjoys trolling. He's shaping up to be an excellent fishing buddy for Daddy for years to come. 

He's a BIG BOY now!! Jesson has graduated to big boy gotch almost full time now, only wearing pull-ups for naps and at night. He's doing really well with the potty, we're so proud of him. He has started to realize that Conor likes to play with him. Although he's still quite rough and we have to remind him every 10 minutes not to jump on his brother, they are getting along quite well lately. Jesson LOVES to be outside! We can hardly wait to get the house ready for sale and start the camping season in the trailer. Jesson's going to have a blast this year. We hope to fish a bit too. It should be an interesting summer.

There's No Stoppin' Him Now!! In the last day or so Conor has begun to pull up at the couch and at the coffee table and is now taking steps to "cruise" along both. He feels awfully confident too because he'll let go of the table and stand with his arms in the air, Evil Knievel's going to get a lump on his noggin soon. Nevertheless he's thrilled with his new talents, so much so that he doesn't want to be in his highchair for very long and would rather not nap either. There are places to go and things to do, Mom! Oh, and he also says "Mama" as well. I guess it's my turn, Jesson said "Dada" for months.

Conor's becoming his own little person so quickly. He takes in his brother's antics like a sponge so I'm sure we'll see them re-enacted some day soon. He's almost got crawling mastered although it looks more like a military belly crawl of some sort most of the time. He's a happy baby and loves to laugh and giggle at almost anything. He's starting to retaliate against Jesson whenever he gets the chance. He reaches out and pulls Jesson's hair whenever he gets close enough and has scratched him a couple of times now, but Jesson doesn't deserve that at all ;-)!! He's a joy to have around and we love to watch him develop into his own little person.