Chicago, Kansas, Maryland!!!!

Jake & I have been wanting to go to Kansas for a very long time, especially me, since I haven't seen my family in 12 years. Well we finally decided to go! We figured we should go now while we have the money & the opportunity. We are leaving on August 15th to go to Chicago for a day to see my Aunt Cathy & her family, I'm very excited!!!! It's going to take about 15 hours to get there. & then we leave the next day for Kansas, which is about another 15 hours. We're leaving Kansas on the 27th, & arriving back to New York on the 28th. & on the 30th we leave for Maryland, & return on September 2nd. We're going to be VERY busy, but I'm SO excited. In Kansas I hope to spend lots of time just spending time with the family & getting to know everyone again. I also hope to go school shopping with my cousin Jessica. When I go back to school no one will have the same clothes as me!
Anyway, I'm counting down the days,

16 days till Chicago,
18 days till Kansas
31 days till Maryland.



I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!

Happy Birthday Anthony Daniel!

I'm a little late but Anthony had his first birthday on Monday! His first party was on Sunday & it went pretty well. We had my family there & a few close friends. He got SO many gifts! My English teacher also stopped by to drop off a gift & say hello, but he couldn't stay more then 5 minutes. I was really glad he came though! On Anthony's actual birthday we took him to a park & then out to Denny's for his first real meal, he had macaroni & cheese & mashed potatoes. He loved them!!! We are also having 2 more birthday parties this weekend for Jake's family. By then I think I'll be all partied out till next year! I also have NO idea what we're going to do with all the presents! he got so many just from me & Jake & his first party. Anthony loved the cake so much he cried when I said no more. He ate an entire cupcake & still wanted more!


Anthonys cars cake

sitting in his new chair on his birthday

playing with his new bath toys on his bday



at the park for his bday

Pictures

We got Anthony's pictures done a few weeks ago & got them back yesterday. I'm very pleased with how they turned out. A great photographer, Unique did them. Unique is an awesome guy, he came to Jake's to do the pictures because he feels the kids would do better taking the pictures if they're in an environment their familiar with. & he's very patient! He stayed at Jake's house for 3 1/2 hours and took over 500 pictures!! of course we didn't get all 500. he gave us a few 8x10 & a few 5x7 & then he gave us a disc with about 35 or so pictures on it that he edited & stuff. I'm so amazed at his work! Here are some pictures:

I Love them!! Hope you do too!

Been busy..

I haven't been on in about 2 weeks. I've been pretty busy with the 4Th of July weekend & trying to plan 3 birthday parties for Anthony! We're having one party for my family (mom, dad, step parents, brothers, sister, & sister in laws) one for Jake's Dads side of the family, & one for Jake's Moms side of the family, which friends are also invited to because his moms side is so small. We have to do separate ones for Jake's family because his parents are in the middle of getting divorced & his dads side won't have anything to do with his mom, or family. so we're having 3! I'm very excited but stressed too. I want Anthony to have the PERFECT 1st birthday, even though he'll never remember, he only turns one once. I want to spoil him so bad & buy him EVERYTHING but Jake says not allot if I want to go to Kansas this August. So I guess I can't argue!! We're doing the Cars theme from the movie "cars" that came out last year. I'm so excited!!!

Anthony & Jake on the 4Th of July

Anthony & Jake watching the fireworks

Me & Anthony also just got sick yesterday. My stomach has really been bothering me & we took Anthony to the doctors this morning & he has a cold & eye infection. I feel so bad, he sounds terrible & his left eye is so nasty looking! He's still the same old happy Anthony though, always making the best out of everything! that is the thing I love most about him, he's so good natured & always happy no matter what. That's one thing I hope stays with him as he grows older. Everybody notices it & loves that about him.



Anthonys eye infection

Still happy!

Oh yeah! I just remembered, I was told by a friend the other day that I "spoil" Anthony too much. Me & this...... "friend" went out to eat the other day with a few friends for the other friends graduation & this "friend" also has a baby that is 13 days younger than Anthony. I've never been happy with her parenting since she's been pregnant. She doesn't make the smartest, or best decisions & some of the things she does really bothers me, but I try to ignore them & keep my mouth shut. Well while out to eat the other day I bought Anthony a bowl of apple sauce & she bought her son a bowl of ice cream! keep in mind he's only 10 months old! I guess a little ice cream won't hurt, but she tried to tell me I'm crazy for still feeding Anthony formula! her doctor told her "as long as her son is eating meat (which as long as he has teeth he can eat ..?!?!?!) then he can be on whole milk" well I personally think she's absolutely NUTS! Anthony eats baby food, & yes he is still on formula (until he is a year old, says the doctor) but i don't think at 11months he needs to be eating meat & whole milk!! well anyway, in the middle of dinner she looks at me feeding Anthony apple sauce, & scraping the salt off the saltine crackers & said "Lexie you spoil him too much" I was a little shocked at first, & asked how. She told me that when he gets older I'm going to have a really hard time with Anthony because I spoil him too much she told me that when we go to the store he's going to throw a fit because he wants something & I'm going to give in. "I spoil him wayy too much" well this just set me off, I politely smiled & said, I don't think you can spoil a baby. & left it at that. mean while, I'm screaming at her in my head. Maybe it's not a big deal, but for somebody who feeds her son ice cream for dinner & hasn't had her child on formula since 9 or 10 months old, to tell me I spoil my son really ticked me off!
But I guess I'd rather people say I spoil my son then have people say I'm a bad mom.

Anyway, Anthony is really trying to get down the stairs, I suppose I'll go "spoil" him & make sure he doesn't fall down them!!