Uncle Karl Marries Aunt Cindi

Uncle Karl's big day finally arrived and here I am in my tuxedo. I really didn't like wearing it and complained about the collar being too tight, so Daddy did his best to find a balance between keeping it looking nice and giving me some breathing room. Despite my cheesy grin, have you ever seen a more handsome boy? I think not!


The official family portrait. Wow, we clean up nice!


The rehearsal last night went pretty well. I got to meet the two flower girls and let me tell ya, they were little hotties! Today however, I was fine until we arrived at the ceremony site. I got a little grumpy because of what was expected of me in my role as ring bearer and I spent some time on my own trying to prepare myself. Catching this smile before the ceremony was pure luck!


A nice grandfather/grandson moment. I still don't want to do this though!

OK, I admit it, I threw a little fit when it came time for us to walk down the aisle. Thank goodness Daddy stepped in and shared the responsibility with me! (He's probably the oldest and biggest ring bearer ever!) See, I wasn't kidding about Noelle and Emma, was I? But wait, as pretty as they are, check out the bride...

Beautiful Aunt Cindi with her mom, Nancy.

The ceremony. I believe this moment was a pause in the action when a loud airplane flew overhead!

It's official, yaaaaaayyyyyyyyy!

Unfortunately from here on out, our camera was dead. It seems I got a little snap-happy while I was distracting myself from the stress of the day, and none of those pictures are even worth posting! I had a great time at the reception and even became the star of the show for a moment or two, but who's surprised about that? I really enjoyed dancing with Noelle and I especially liked the chicken dance! Oh, and the cake, I liked that too. All in all, the day turned out to be pretty cool but I hope it'll be a while before I'm asked to be a ring bearer again!

CONGRATULATIONS KARL & CINDI!

Brookfield Zoo

It's wedding time! We arrived in Chicago early enough on the day of the rehearsal to hit the Brookfield Zoo! What a fun afternoon!

Check out these polar bears! They are mother and son but they are the same size, so I wonder how you can tell them apart? The baby had a ton of fun splashing around with the toys in the pool!

We saw a dolphin show that was really neat. They are so darn cute! In the bottom of the picture you can see the splash from one that did a trick!

A quote from one of my favorite books: "I know a Rhino, we like to take tea, I have two sugars, and rhino has three."

I've never seen a real elephant before! Wow, they really are big!

And here's proof!


We went back to the zoo the next day because cousins arrived and we wanted to hang out! Here I am with Fabian and Julien. Our daddies are the real cousins and they live in New York so this is the first time we met!

We couldn't resist this shot - Joey, right where a Joey should be! Hahahahahahaha!

By far, the coolest thing at the zoo...Stingray Bay!

Here I am looking into the pool of stingrays with Mommy and Grandpa Chip.

The barbs had been removed so it was safe to touch the stingrays, but my short little arms had a hard time reaching down far enough. Good thing Grandpa Chip could help me out! They are very soft and very slimey, but I liked it!

Some stingrays were small, and some were BIG like this one!

Enjoying the fun with Daddy!

Josiah's Half-Birthday Party

My best friend Josiah’s birthday is in December, but thats a pretty difficult a time to get people to come to a party so his folks decided to start having HALF birthday parties in June. To celebrate, we all went to the local fire station for a tour! First we listened to Fireman Mark tell all about the special clothes and equipment they have to wear.


Next we got to see the big trucks! Fireman Dan told us all about all the equipment on the truck and how they use it, and then showed us where they all sit when they are driving to a fire.


The best part was when we got to climb up into the truck! As you can see, I’m only a little excited to do this. It was a cool party!

Kung Fu Panda

During my birthday party yesterday, some storms started rolling in. In fact, we had to hold some of the people at the house until they passed because we didn't want them out on the road! Then two hours after everyone left, the power went out. Here we are 24 hours later killing time in an air conditioned theater, but the only kid-friendly movie showing was Kung Fu Panda. It really wasn't all that good but it served the purpose. This ended up being a pretty cool day though because we got to also have McDonalds for lunch and pizza for dinner!

The Dog Days of Summer

Woo hoo, the day of my birthday party is finally here! In honor of Jools and the dominating effect she has had on our lives these last few months, we decided to have a dog-themed party. On the menu was of course, hot dogs and puppy chow (the chex mix variety, not Purina)! Mommy also found some Scooby Doo bone-shaped graham crackers which I loved, and she even made these cool cupcakes that kinda look like Jools!

It was a relatively small party compared to some of my past parties. All of the local family came but Grandpa Chip was the only Chicagoan who was able to make it. Everyone else was either busy preparing for the wedding or was tired from all the togetherness we've been having!

Josiah was the only one of my friends that we invited. That's because he and I caused enough noise for a whole housefull! This picture is blurry because we were having a stomping contest...and yes, it was more important than opening presents at that moment!

Another special friend that came was Loni. She used to be Grandma Elaine's neighbor and she knew Mommy all while she was growing up. They hadn't seen her in many years and she looked fantastic!

Wow, look at the super cool electric train set that Great-Grandpa DL sent!!! But wait...whatcha doing there Josiah?

Um, maybe this isn't what you are supposed to do with a baseball mitt and ball. I'd better tell the folks to get me to another Cubs game, and fast!

This is Pete - The Repeat Parrot. Boy, am I gonna have fun with this toy!

What an awesome guitar! And what an awesome birthday! Thank you everyone!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!

Woo hoo, I'm FOUR years old now! Though when I woke up this morning, I told Mommy that I still wanted to be 3 1/2. Gotta love those all-important fractions! And what a nice boy I am...my stuffed animals got cold during the night so I kept them warm by putting them in my shirt!

We had a pretty normal day since my party is next weekend, but we made brownies to celebrate and I got a few gifts from the folks...this cool bike being the best of them! I had to be decked out in a helmet, elbow pads, and knee pads to ride safely but I'm ok with that!

My yearly check-up revealed that I am now 3'7" (95th percentile) and weigh 41.4lbs (90th percentile). I had to get FOUR shots this time too, not fun at all!