The Big 1!

Sorry this post is so delayed, summer has just taken off (and will be gone before we know it) and we have been running since! Maybe once the snow comes I will have more time to write some posts, until then we are having SO much fun being outside, loving the weather and loving every moment of life!

On June 14th Ezekiel James turned the big 1 year old!

And I have to say that it was pretty surreal for me as I was up and getting ready for work all I could think about was a year ago right now I was up getting ready but to go to the hospital instead! And as the day continued to couldn't help from continuously thinking back to what was happening a year ago at that moment. I remembered it like it was yesterday! I was blessed with a beyond amazing labor and delivery and so I can think back on my experience with joy, not just being thankful for the end result! :-P

My baby boy a year ago!

It was so funny, I got done with work shortly before 5:00 and so I was kind of hurrying home because I was sure I could make it by 5:11 pm, which was the time he was born. As I rushed in the door with this idea of holding my baby boy at 5:11 pm just as I did a year ago I find out that he was napping! Darn it, lol! So anti-climatic! So, of course, I let him sleep!

Once he woke we ate supper with Joe, Carrie, Carlie, and Tessa and they were back from Canada and staying at our house until they flew back to Colorado on Monday. Then my parents came over (they were staying with Darek and Steph so there was enough room here for everyone) and we all walked to downtown Chaska to the depot for some ice cream! Ezekiel got his first taste of ice cream thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Bear, and boy did he love it! Then to finish off the night, when we got home Ezekiel got to open a couple special presents from Grandpa & Grandma Bear and Dada, Mama, & Jaxon Bear!!

Then the real party started on Saturday at noon! Ezekiel invited all of his Grandpas, Grandma, Aunt, Uncles, and cousins, and he was blessed by all of their presences at his party! This was so special for us with having Mike's family all of the world at times we don't know if this will ever happen again! It really meant so much to us that Joe & Carrie delayed their plans to travel back to Colorado to be able to be there for Ezekiel's first birthday party even though Carrie's sister had a baby on Ezekiel's birthday this year! And we are so thankful that Jeb and Ellie and also Mike's dad and China left the cabin in Canada early to be able to come to his party. Also we were thankful that Darek, Steph, and Toby held off on leaving for their family vacation by a couple hours so they could be in attendance for Ezekiel's party! And of course a shout out to my parents for coming, but we knew you wouldn't miss it for the world! And that is why we love you guys!

We were also blessed to have so SO many friends join us to celebrate his big day! It was so wonderful to have the same people that were there for us during my pregnancy and all through his first year be there to celebrate!

Ezekiel's party was lion and jungle themed, which was only appropriate since he had just learned to "roar" a couple days before that! It had been raining all morning and so we set up inside, but then the clouds separated and God blessed us with a beyond perfect day! We had a wonderful lunch of hot dogs, chips, assorted salads, veggies,  and a beautiful edible arrangement!

The kids all played in the toy room and outside and had a ton of fun!

Then it was time for the super yummy cake! I had made a banana smash cake with cream cheese frosting for Ezekiel and a wonderful friend of the family made these SUPER cute little cake toppers! They turned out perefect! I just Love them! Thank you Joanna!

Then banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for everyone else!

We all sang happy birthday to him and then Carlie was such a great helper and blew out the candle for Ezekiel!

He didn't get as into the cake as I thought he would, we were a bit surprised. He mostly just played around with the frosting, then ate it, would eat what we fed him and then he just wanted to feed the rest to Jaxon Bear! What loving little brother he is!

and then he just wanted to feed the rest to Jaxon Bear! What loving little brother he is!

The after math...Left overs anyone?!

Right after that Grandma insisted that he have a bath, since he loves bath time so much, into the bathtub he went!

He was starting to run on fumes at this point since he was about 2 hours overdue for his nap, we super quick opened up presents! He was blessed with so many wonderful gifts which we were not expecting at all! We have some wonderful family and friends! After we got the presents opened he thanked everyone for coming and for the wonderful gifts and then he crashed into bed! He was a tired little man, as were we!

Ezekiel and Tess-Boo taking his new wagon out for a test ride!

Thank you to everyone that made the time to come and celebrate our amazing little man! We are SO blessed to have in our lives! All in all it was a wonderful celebration, with wonderful family and friends, for a wonderful little boy!

A long awaited play date!

Last Friday was a day that we have been waiting for almost a year! We had a playdate with the Wind family!  If you remember about a year ago we had them over when Emmett was just a couple weeks old...

A couple weeks after this photo was taken they were packed up and off to Sweden where they had decided to move as Annette is from there and Andy got accepted into school to complete his masters degree. Though we totally understood their reasoning's for moving, we were still totally bummed because we truly treasure their friendship and would of loved to transition into parenthood with them on our side of the pond!

I first met Andy back when I worked for Target, we worked in the same department and would bug him and talk to him quite often because I thought I was going to go crazy sitting in my cube! We ended up bonding over our dogs and then we invited Andy, Annette, and Moby to Jaxon Bear's first birthday party and it was the start of a beautiful friendship! Lots of doggy playdates and doggy sleepovers, we got to witness them getting married, and then the topic of babies slowly started to creep into the conversations (mostly by Annette and I). And we ended up being able to tell each other at the same time that we were both expecting! It was so fun!

Like I said we are bummed that they moved to Sweden, but we are so happy for them because we know it was truly the best thing for their family! Thank goodness for technology because we have been able to see Emmett grow up through their blog and facebook and keep up on all of his milestones! And same for them with Ezekiel! I have a feeling we won't get them back on our side of the pond (other than for vacations) for a long time, which I guess just means that Ezekiel already has his first pen pal or maybe finger paint pal for now! We will just have to go visit them sometime too!

It was pretty much impossible to get a good picture of the boys together since they are both walking, so here is what I got! But what a difference a year makes!

On the move!

Emmett!

Mike showing Emmett Bigsby! I love how he is sitting on his lap!

OH Canada!

We made our way to the Bemis Family Cabin during the second week in June. The cabin is located in Canada, near Aticocin (sp) which is about an 8 hour drive from our house. We were debating on how we wanted to tackle the drive up as we don't really like to dink around and make road trips last longer than they need to but then when you are at the mercy of an almost 1 year old you never know what you are going to get. We ended up deciding to drive through the night in hopes that Ezekiel would just sleep the whole way up and thank God that is exactly what he did! And we rolled the whole way up there, stopped in International Falls to get gas and go through customs and he did wake up during that part but then fell right back alseep! We didn't even have to take him out of his carseat or tend to him at all the entire trip! We arrived at the portage at 5 am. Yes I said portage, the cabin is on an island which is on Grey Trout Lake, which means you can only get there by air or by sea and since we are currently short a sea plane and a pilot/pilot license we went by sea. It was quite buggy but Mike got all our luggage loaded into the boat and we tooled our way across the lake to the island. As we were approaching the island Mike pointed it out to me (as this was my first time to the cabin) and I could tell that he was so excited to have our family there as he has had so many great memories there growing up with his family and he wants to pass on those experiences to our family.

We docked the boat and unloaded our bags and went to check everything out. Mike had called his dad and let him know that we were going to be driving through the night so to expect us early in the morning on Friday but they had left a day early so they never got out message. So Mike's dad was a little spooked by our arrival as the whole island is ours so there is no reason for anyone to be coming to the island or to be coming that close to the island (I don't think I saw another person during our whole trip other than when we went to town to get Mike's fishing license). But all was good when he saw it was us of course! Shortly after Z was getting tired (as he normally doesn't get out of bed until around 9ish) so we put him back down and I took a nap as well. Mike was running on pure adrenaline (as he drove the whole way and hadn't slept since the night before, I got a couple hours of sleep during the drive) and couldn't go to sleep, he was too excited to be there!

Later that day Joe, Carrie, Carlie, Tessa, and Brodie arrived! Which mean the cabin was filling up fast! There are actually 2 cabins on the island, the main cabin, which has running water and a bathroom and everything, but it only has one bedroom and then a set of bunk beds in the living room. Then also the bunk house which is a single room with 4 bunk beds, it does have running water, but no bathroom. We got the bedroom in the main cabin which was so nice of Joe and Carrie and then they set up Tessa's pack and play in the entry way and blanketed it off and they slept in the living room, hey you gotta be creative when you are working with limited space! The rest of the crew slept int he bunk house. We were all very thankful for sound machines during this trip! Without them I don't think our kidos would of been able to sleep much, but with them they slept great!

The next couple of days it ended up being in the high 80s or 90s which we were thankful for because it made being in the lake feel good (which was still a little chilly) but not quite as good when it came to being in a non air condition cabin. Thankfully there was great air flow off of lake into the cabin except...into our room. Which results in an inferno (almost) toddler waking up from his nap looking like this

yep, that's sweat! Needless to say he was drenched! Poor little buddy! So needless to say we tried to do a lot of stuff outside! Mike & Joe went on a few adventures to try to catch some fish. One day they went to walleye bay (i think that is what mike called it) and alls Mike caught was a sucker and the next day they went to sucker creek and I don't think they caught anything, maybe they weren't fishing that time...I can't remember. But when they went they took Jaxon and Brodie with and they just loved being in the woods and not having to be leashed! That was such a nice thing about being on the island, you didn't have to worry about anything with Jaxon because he couldn't go too far because its not like he is going to get in the water and swim away! :-P Jaxon Bear is not much a swimmer, though he is getting better, but if he fell out of the boat we aren't confident that he could stay afloat, so he too has a life jacket that he gets to wear! He gets teased a little bit for his life jacket, but I would rather be safe than sorry!

On Saturday we headed over to Liz Baw Baw beach. It gets its name from when they were growing up they would go to this beach and hang out there and then knee board in that bay and their dog growing up, Lizzy, would run from one end of the beach to the other and it was probably about a 1/2 mile to mile long as they boys with knee board past her and then when she got to the other end she would try to swim out to them. Then she would run back to the other side of the beach and wait to do it again! (so cute!) When we got there we made a fire on the beach and let the kidos play in the water and in the sand, the water was a bit cold so Ezekiel was a little unsure at first, but Tessa and Carlie loved it! As did Brodie of course! We made Jaxon get in the water a little bit which he wasn't too happy about but then Mike ran up and down the beach with him and he loved that!

Ms. Tessa-boo looking so cute!

Carrie & Ms. boo. Carlie & Joe were too busy swimming around to get their pic taken!

That night Jeb & Ellie and Mike's dad and China went out in 2 different boats to do some fishing. Jeb & Ellie returned first with a perfect size walleye for eating which I was really excited about because up to this point in my life I had made the decision that I did not like fish and Mike said that walleye is some of the best fish for eating (in his opinion). So I was really excited to try it, which I did do and it was pretty darn good! I wouldn't beg anyone for it but if it was served I could eat it! So that is a step in the right direction! Shortly after Jeb & Ellie got in we heard a bunch of screaming as Mike's dad & China returned to the island. Mike ran down there to see what the deal was and John had caught a huge trout! I think it was about 32 or 36 inches long! It was huge! They got a lot of pictures with it and hope to get it mounted to put in the cabin some day!

One of the big deals and big traditions up at the cabin (at least to Mike) is to take a sauna bath and then jump into the (rather frigid) lake. They first night I totally chickened out and didn't jump in the lake! To my defense Mike jumped in before me and yelped because it was so shockingly cold to him and in my logical mind if it was that way for him then there was no way I was going to follow! :-P Mike got kind of mad at me becuase this was one of  "the things" that you do at the cabin and he wanted me to experience it, so I promised him I would do it before we left. So Monday night I believe it was, I took a sauna bath again and then ran and jumped into the lake! You have to just jump in and submerge yourself to get the full effect and it literally took my breath away and puts your body in shock mode for a second, I kind of felt like a fainting goat! But it was very refreshing and I am very glad that I did it and got to experience it...and made my wonderful hubby happy too! :-)

Our last day there we decided to do an exursion because it had finally cooled off and it was pretty windy so if we went into a more wooded area the bugs wouldn't be too bad. So Mike, Carrie, Ezekiel, myself, and Brodie and Jaxon took the boat over to the main land to what they call Miller Rock. I didn't get a picture of it from the boat side but it is a large rock that you can either climb up like mountian climbing style or just hike up in a round about way. Obviously with the dogs and Ezekiel we took the round about way. It was only about a 10 or 15 min hike up, Ezekiel was loving the view from the backpack and the pups were loving the adventure! We got to the top looked at the beautiful few

snapped a few pics...

Family Photo, our island is the one right behind me

2/5 family photo!

almost lost Brodie by him going over the edge! Mike paniced a bit because Brodie got so close to the edge and he said I kept you alive this long while you were under our responsibility I am not going to loose you now! Thankfully we kept him on top and decided that we should head back down before it happens again! Little did we know the fun that would be waiting for us at the bottom! :-)

While we were hiking the wind had picked up which mean the waves had also picked up and while we were gone our boat had started to take on water from the large waves splashing into it! As we come up our water logged boat, we are thinking "Awe, crap! But no biggie". So Mike starts to try to bail the water out, well the water is coming in faster than he can bail it out. So then Carrie jumps in and starts helping him and it was kind of funny at first and so I took this picture because it would be fun to have some visual documentation for our excusion which has turned into quite the adventure!

This was when it was still funny!

Well pretty much right after I took this pic things didn't getting any better in fact they started to get worse and fast! To make matters even more fun it was approaching Ezekiel's nap time so he was starting to get crabby and also really wanted to get out of the back pack, so that adds an additional level of stress to the situation. I sat there feeling so useless as I tried to keep Ezekiel from melting down as Mike and Carrie were trying everything that they could think of to get the water out of our boat. It seemed like the more things they tried the stronger the waves got and the more water that ended up in our boat. I finally found a flat spot to set Zeke down in the backpack and went over to try to help and quickly learned that you should use a gallon jug for a bailer rather than just a half gallon because that pretty did nothing in our quest to get back to the island! We did everything that we could think of including yelling and waving out to the island trying to get someones attention in that someone would hear/see us and come rescue us. And Carrie and I tried so hard to help but really did very little, so Mike was pretty much on his own, and boy and I glad that I have a buff husband that works out!

Right about this time I really thought that the boat was going down and we would have to wait for someone to come get us. I knew we would be fine but that it might just be a while until we got back to the cabin, thankfully I had an endless food supply for Ezekiel ;-p Mike was finally able to get the boat pulled up far enough and we got a bunch of the water bailed out and during the process Mike continued to drench me with water and then bust one of the oars. Then Mike had the idea to get in the boat and start it up (which the motor had been under water for some time now, so hopefully it would start, especially because we now only have one oar!) pull the plug and zoom around the lake and let the water drain out. So Mike gets in and is trying to start up the motor, gives it a couple pulls and nothing. I turned my head back to Ezekiel grabbed his hands and we prayed a desperate prayer (come to find out later that Carrie and Mike did the same) and Mike pulled again and it started right up! Praise God! So Mike went zooming around the lake (with his life jacket on) and I look and the nose of the boat is like straight up in the air. So I turn back to Ezekiel and we say another prayer for a hedge of protection over dada! Mike got some water out of the boat and then found a spot around the bay, out of the wind and waves to dock the boat. Carrie and dogs were able to follow him over there but the ground was too rocky, uneven, and close to the water for me to follow with Ezekiel. So then Mike ran through the woods to come back and get us because I actually didn't know where they had gone, so I freaked out a bit mostly because I didn't know if the dogs went with Carrie or stayed with me or went to go find their own fun! Finally Mike came back (and Jaxon Bear) and said that Carrie and Brodie were over there. So we hiked it back over to the boat, got in, and booked it back over to the island. Mike had it wide open and it still was taking us forever to get back because the waves were so big and the wind was so strong! Needless to say it was a fun ride back as I had Ezekiel on my lap and was trying not to fly out of the boat as we hit each wave. Carrie was at the front of the boat and with her teeny tiny self, she was bouncing all over the place and we had the two dogs that were so nervous and just wanted to be held and comforted! But we finally made it back safe and sound and proceeded first to yell at Joe for not hearing us, though he did say he was just about to head out and look for us because we had been gone for almost 3 hours and we had said we would be back in about an hour. Then right after I set out a gallon jug to be cut up and put in the boat for a bailer! It was quite the adventure and now we have a really good story to tell Ezekiel as he grows up about his first time up to Canada!

Sorry this post has gotten so long, I just wanted to include as many details as I could for Ezekiel's scrapbook and to share with Mike's Grandpa and Grandpa on the East Coast who I am sure have been patiently waiting for me to write this! Sorry it took me so long! I hope you enjoyed it! And thank you for providing such a wonderful place for our family to grow and make memories together! I know Mike has treasured the memories he has there more than you can know and I know he is looking forward to making so many more with our family!
Here are a couple more photos to wrap things up!

There is a photo of the boys when they were little on this rock, I need to find it!

Brodie! How we miss him!

Carlie teaching Ezekiel how to walk!

Ezekiel is walking on sunshine!

So I know I have been slacking here and there are a bunch of major things that I haven't posted about that have happened in the last couple of weeks. But I am jumping over all of them to post something SO exciting and will come back to the rest (hopefully) soon!

We officially have a WALKER on our hands! See...

Mike, my dad, and I were sitting in the porch/Ezekiel's play room talking and playing with Ezekiel and we were noticing that when Ezekiel was walking from thing to thing that he would let go and take the last step independently. The he took about 4 steps all on his own, I couldn't even speak when he did it, I was SO excited! So then Mike and I sat across from each other to have him walk back and forth in between us and well you saw in the video how awesome he did at that!

The he crawled over to the gate to go down stairs and just took off into the dining room! We all freaked out! See...

So after that we knew that he really had this walking thing figured out and so we started to test it. See...

And for the rest of the night he has been walking ALL over the house! He will stop turn around and go the other direction, obviously his balance is still a bit shaky at times, but its actually surprising how stable he is! He walked all the way from his playroom back to his bedroom and he was even walking around in the grass in the backyard! So I would consider Ezekiel a full fledged walker! We have been saying that any day he is just going to start doing it and that is exactly what he did! Though we have been talking about him doing that I still thought that he would take few steps on day (which he did do a few weeks back) and then the next day take a few more and then the next a couple more and so on. In my mind I thought we would be eased into this whole walking thing, but not so much at all it was about a 10 minute time frame! It was beyond amazing to be there to see it!

I am such a proud Mama right now, its so hard to explain. But I just have this overwhelming feeling of pride and joy, I feel like he just won the superbowl and was the MVP! lol! I don't know which day I will be prouder! :-p We just can't help ourselves from sending the videos to our family and sharing the exciting moment here on our blog!

It was so fun to be able to witness him walking for the first time, but I think the best part of the evening was that my mom was going to be home about 10 minutes after all of this happened. So I took Ezekiel back to his room and then when she walked in Mike told her that we wanted to show her something and to stand at the end of the hall. So then he called Ezekiel and so he came running out of his bedroom and down the hall towards her (she was obviously not expecting it at all). She was shocked and excited and we all pretty much started crying! It was so special! It's a moment that I will never forget!

Our little man never ceases to amaze me and I never thought I would be this in awe of him! I love being his mama! I am SO blessed!

Our Adventures Up Nort'

We headed 'Up Nort' this weekend with Joe & Carrie and fam and Mike's dad and China also met up with us too. Joe & Carrie rented a cabin for the week and so generously invited us all to come and stay, so we decided to trek it up there for the weekend as a practice run for out big trip to Canada later this week!
We spent time together just hanging out with each other and all our kiddos, grilling out, having a campfire and doing all things 'up nort' style! Carlie was having a blast fishing with her dad and Uncle Mike! She was quite the pro!

Ezekiel got to go on his first pontoon ride and he totally loved it!

He just stood at the front of the boat as we cruised acrossed the lake to the sandy beach area for a little bit of swimming! Which he totally loved as well! The water was kinda chilly but he just loved being in it and walking around in it!

And he got his first opprotunity to play in the sand and, of course, quickly followed by his first taste of sand! :-P

We ended out trip up north by getting some Sammy's Pizza, YUMO! And then heading over to see the Dezelske's! Kelly is Mike's best friend from high school who came to stay with us a couple weeks ago after he did the Tough Mudder race and his parents, Bob & MaryLou, are some of the best people in the world! They are like a second set of parents to Mike and since the first moment I met them they have taken me in and loved me as much as they love Mike and now they did the same with Ezekiel! We spent about and hour with them catching up, it wasn't nearly enough time but it was SO wonderful to be able to see them again! The world would be a much better place if there were more Bob & MaryLou's in it and Kelly's too of course! He is always so good at bringing a smile to your face!

I will leave you with a few random photos from the cabin!

Brodie's (and our) Family Reunion

We had such a whirlwind of a wonderful weekend! Friday afternoon Mike's brother and fam, Joe, Carrie, Carlie, & Tessa, flew in and we had a wonderful evening of catching up and 'ooo'ing over each other's babies that we have been longing to see and of course the long awaited reunion of Brodie with his family!

So we had it all planned that we would have Brodie in the backyard and have my dad take Jaxon out for a walk (so Brodie could have his family all to himself). I had Ezekiel in his swing and my mom and I were hanging out with Brodie and he was a bit upset that he didn't get to go for a walk, but we told him, "Brodie trust us, you will be glad you stayed, there is something so much better in store for you!" Mike opened the back door and I couldn't breathe, the moment that we have been waiting for has come and I just didn't know how Brodie would react. Then Mike stepped through and Brodie ran over of course excited to see him and then Joe stepped through and then Carrie and Carlie right behinde him. Brodie ran over to them and they all knelt down around him and gave him a hug and it almost seemed as if he hugged them back! I forever have this sweet image of their little family hug burned into my memory! Brodie didn't get as spastic excited as a lot of dogs do that you see on these reunion videos on youtube, but it was even better moment because I felt as if he was just at peace being in their arms again! And in that moment a peace also fell over me and my eyes instantly welled up with tears as I was finally able to breathe again!

Carrie started walking over to me to say hi and I finally snapped out of it and moved! lol! We were both all teary eyed and greeted each othe with a big hug and then right behind her was Carlie and she was running to me with open arms (which is the first time that has happened after not getting to see her for a while) so I got down to her level and opened my arms and she jumped right in and I pick her up and gave her a big bear hug! I LOVED IT! Mike said that he got the same greeting from her at the airport, it was the best!

Then Mike grabbed Ezekiel and we introduced him to his Aunt & Uncle and cousin and we hung out in the backyard and caught up and the whole time Carlie was petting Brodie and saying, "I am SO happy to be back with Brodie again!" **melt my heart**

Then Tessa woke up (she was snoozingin the car) so Brodie got to meet his new baby sister and so did we! Little Tessa-boo is SO adorable and Carrie confirmed it too and she thinks her and Zeke look a lot a like too!

Then we headed in so they could get settled and get some dinner started then after dinner they put Tessa down and while they were doing that Carlie was reading to Ezekiel! It was SO cute I loved every second of it!

The next morning I woke up to Joe & Brodie cuddling, fast asleep on the couch! Mike had said that after Joe went to bed Brodie went down to look for him and slept with him down there until it was time for breakfest for the puppies and then they just crashed on the couch after that! **melt my heart again**

We are so happy that Brodie's reunion went SO well! We knew he would remember them, but with his history of sizures at these types of situations we were just praying like crazy that he wouldn't have any problems with it and THANK GOD he was totally fine!