4 months

Hannah is now 4 months old and has developed quite the personality. She is smiling a majority of the time. She loves to sit up and watch her brother and sister play. She has started batting and talking to toys when you put them in front of her. She is fascinated by people eating already. She doesn't like to be left alone. She goes down for naps great. Whenever she is fussy she loves to bounce on Mommy's exercise ball and this usually quiets her down within seconds. She absolutely adores her big brother who has the same feelings towards her. Liah and her are also forming quite the bond now that Hannah is older and Liah thinks she's more fun. She weighed 13.6 lbs at her four month check up and is in the 35th percentile. She also had her first two shots, DTaP and Polio, and did great with them.

Blake's 7 Year Check Up

So Blake finally had his 7 year check up. It went well. He is 46 lbs and 3' 11". This puts him at 15th percentile for weight and 17th percentile height. He also had to get a DTaP shot which he barely flinched for. Later he admitted he was being brave for his two sisters and it did hurt a little. When we had our accident 4 months ago we found out on an MRI that Blake has a vertebrae that didn't quite form completely and has fused together with others. His Dr.'s recommendation was no contact sports and we should go see a specialist for a second opinion if he would ever want to participate in a contact sport. Blake is already asking to go to the specialist since included in the list was hockey which he wanted to start in the winter.

Lazy Summer Afternoons

Blake is upstairs taking an afternoon snooze while Liah has fallen asleep on the living room floor cuddled in her blankie. The baby is being quiet for the moment. All I can hear is the distant sound of Josh mowing the yard. A sound that when outside is so loud but inside seems so peaceful to me as it hums. Lord, Please let these lazy summer afternoons last forever.

It's a Great day for Tennis

The kids have really enjoyed their tennis lessons. This may be the sport that they stick with for the long haul.

Liah sitting and waiting for the next turn to run.

Doesn't this look like a tennis pro in the making?:)

Blake has caught on very quickly and both kids are excited to go out this weekend and buy their own rackets so we can play as a family. Josh and I would play tennis all the time when we were dating and first married and since we've had kids it hasn't worked to well. I'm so excited to have the kids join us now.

Oh The Memories......

So last night we went to a Silver Hawks game. It was Mishawaka Schools night so we got free tickets which was great since we didn't feel bad leaving half way through the game. The kids had a great time. I would also like to point out Liah's pink baseball glove. I think this is the only picture I got of her with it. This was Blake's birthday gift to her and she absolutely loves it.
Blake was really into watching the game and could of easily stayed for the whole thing. Thankfully he was very understanding when the girls had enough and it was time to go.
I think Hannah spent the whole time gazing at her beloved brother sitting next to her.
Josh and I were married and had our reception at Union Station across the street from the cove. This is where we took pictures after the ceremony.
Here is Liah and Daddy walking by Union Station. Unfortunately Union Station is now a bunch of offices. Hopefully one day they will again hold events there. It is such a beautiful building.

Not The Day I Had Planned

So yesterday both Liah and I were feeling under the weather. I got absolutely nothing accomplished. I don't know if it was a bug or if I was just plain run down. Around noon Liah was taking a nap and I felt like I had an ounce of energy so I ran down to switch laundry and try to get the kitchen cleaned up. Hannah of course started to cry as soon as I started working and I told Blake that she was going to have to cry for a few minutes until I was done. About ten minutes later I realized that it was very quiet so i ran upstairs to see if Hannah had fallen back asleep and this is what I found.
Blake is such a great helper. He definitely made yesterday much easier along with Josh who ran to get some pizzas for dinner so I didn't have to cook.

The Weekly Tradition

So Josh wants to make a weekly trip to the beach and this week was the "First Weekly Ostrom Family Beach Trip". Josh and I would go to the beach all the time when we were dating and it was always a lot of fun. It is still a lot of fun but there is definitely more planning and more stuff to go along these days. This week we took a picnic dinner and ate on the beach so on top of all the beach gear we were also lugging the picnic basket and cooler.......in one trip. The kids had a great time.


Blake enjoyed continuing to dig in the huge hole that was left by some earlier beach goers.

Liah and Blake both have gotten over there fear of going to deep with waves and at one point Liah was up to her neck. Mommy about had a heart attack from shore. Next week we will definitely be packing the floaties.

Hannah started out rather fussy but then relaxed and had a great time.

These are kind of dark pictures but they are adorable.
Hannah had her first experience in the water. The water was cold but she loved it.
I think we are definitely going to need to get a shop vac. The sand in the van is going to be knee deep by the end of the summer.

Sipocz 4th of July Party

The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. This is one of the reasons Josh and I were married on the July 4th weekend. The Coves awesome fireworks show lit up the limo as we drove away as newlyweds. Another tradition has always been the Sipocz 4th of July party. Now we normally celebrate it a couple of weeks late now but we always still celebrate it. We had a cook out and then headed out for fireworks. Yes we did start before it was technically dark so we wouldn't have the kids out past midnight. It was still almost 11pm before we carried our sleeping and exhausted babies into their bedrooms.

Here is Hannah all dressed in her pajamas ready for the fireworks. I think she stayed awake for about the first 2 minutes of the show. She is smiling at Great Grandma.
Liah said she wanted a sisters picture so here it is. I can't believe I took one where they're both looking at the camera.
Doesn't Amy and Kyle look so excited about the upcoming Fireworks Extravaganza?
The kids got to do sparklers while we waited for it to get just a little darker out. I was so proud of Liah that she held her own all by herself. Fireworks is one thing that Liah isn't very fond of as you will see shortly.
Here's Blake with his sparkler. He looks all grown up to me in this picture.
Bob not missing up a chance to play with fire. I didn't post the pic where Bob lit as many sparklers as he could hold or all the guys setting off firecrackers in the trash can. Boys will be boys.
Here is Liah's seat right next to Great Grandma to watch the fireworks. This is where she started................................................................................................................................................
...........and this is where she ended up. Sitting in the van with daddy and Hannah. And yes she still felt the need to cover her ears.

It was a great celebration and we all had a lot of fun.....and yes in usual Sipocz fashion we planned the dates for Thanksgiving and Christmas. You can never plan to far in advance.

A Fun Day After a Stressful Week

So for this past week we've been going back and forth on when to purchase a new mini van. Our van has been terrific but it's getting to a point where it is needing work not to mention has lots of miles. So since we were in the car accident a couple of months ago we've been talking about this. We decided that we definitely wanted a Honda Odyssey but the problem was we couldn't find any good deals around here so we headed to Chicago. This last week has been filled with talking to dealers, getting loan preapproval, and on top of everything our van had to have the back two tires replaced just so we could make it home from the church on Tuesday. Special thanks to Noah Martin who noticed our tire going flat---again. The dealer that we were hopefully buying from didn't take trade ins which meant Josh and I would have to drive home in separate vehicles. So we crammed all the kids into the cavalier and headed on our mission

I think we are at Maximum capacity here. The kids were great but towards the end of our trip there we were definitely missing the space of the minivan. The minivan looked great so we bought it and then headed to do some shopping. We went to IKEA where we first had a very late lunch. The kids loved watching the movie Robots while we ate.

We bought just a couple of storage containers and then headed for Woodfield Mall for a special surprise for the kids. They were so good through all of the boring stuff that goes with buying a new vehicle I thought they deserved it.
The surprise was a trip to Rainforest Cafe for our special dessert that they would normally just get at Disney. They were very excited.
The favorite Volcano. I forgot to get a pic with the sparkler on top. This a great family treat to share. We still can't eat a whole one.

Hannah loved looking at all the fishies swimming by.
So did Blake and Liah. Liah still doesn't like when the thunder storm comes through but thankfully that only lasts a minute.
This was the aquarium favorite this trip and the kids loved trying to follow the eel around.
There was also a balloon guy who made them a snake and a flower to take home.
We then headed home with Josh and the kids in the new van and me in the car all by myself. I had a very quiet drive home. I'm not sure if Josh can say the same. It was a great day.

Liah's First Tomato

Liah was so excited to pick her first tomato from the garden. She also enjoyed eating it.
This is more of an action shot. I'm not quite sure what look she was going for here.

First Swim

So on Sunday we went to Uncle Greg's house to go swimming and Hannah had her first swim. She absolutely loved it and actually was so relaxed she started falling asleep. Blake also made great progress on swimming without any floaties. It was a great day of rest and relaxation.

Proverbs 31 wife in the Making

Liah loves tending to the garden. She decided she wanted to try to plant corn. Now I don't think corn is going to grow well in a container but I couldn't say no. I was going to go out and help her but obviously Grandma Ostrom has taught her well and she knew exactly how to plant the seeds and then she had to water them.

A Relaxing 9th Anniversary and Home Improvement Stores

So Josh and I celebrated our 9th Anniversary. Now normally our anniversary is a time when Josh and I head out by ourselves for a couple of days on a short vacation. I plan the odd years and Josh plans the even. Because Hannah is not quite ready to be left at Grandma and Grandpa's house she joined us this year. We did get to have dinner while she stayed behind but then picked her up while the other two stayed the night to be spoiled rotten and to consume more sugar than they have in the past 2 months. That's what grandparents are for isn't it?! We are already looking forward to the big 10 and will be taking a great trip to celebrate. Since it's Josh's year I'm not quite sure where we will be going. My three choices were1.) to go out East from New York to Maine, 2.)Venice, or 3.)maybe Israel even though we both want to take the kids here. Josh really wants to spend the week in a hut in the ocean in Tahiti. We'll see where we end up.

Now for some reason we decided to not only look at new mini vans but also try to agree on the next phase of remodeling. So we headed to basically every home improvement store in the area. Now did I mention this is the third time we've done this in the last month to try to narrow things down. So needless to say it wasn't the most exciting anniversary but we did get a couple things accomplished. It's always nice to have some time to ourselves and a chance to sleep in and relax at home.