The Shooks: 2014

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Julia's Birthday

On Saturday, we had a little birthday party for Julia. It was small, just our family and a co-worker of Eric's and her daughter, but it was a fun night. We had pizza and cake and the kids had fun playing.

Julia with her birthday cake at her birthday party

Julia blowing out her candles :)

Julia opening presents on Saturday

She got a few cards in the mail and she opened them today (Tuesday) on her actual birthday. She was pretty happy about her My Little Pony card from Grandma Steffen

We saved a few presents for Julia to open today too. She definitely understood opening presents and the boys were excited to see what she was getting.

We had leftover cake and some ice cream after dinner tonight and Julia got to blow out her candles again today. She is pretty good at blowing candles out. The kids had fun playing with her new toys and Julia was happy to take her new baby to bed.

It is hard to believe Julia is already 2- so much has happened in those two years. She is a happy, energetic, 2-year-old. She loves babies and feeding them, wrapping them up, and taking them for walks in her stroller. She loves playing with her brothers (even when that mostly means driving them crazy). She really wants to sit in a big girl chair and use a big girl cup, but seems to make a big enough mess every time we try that she doesn't get to do it for awhile. She likes to do everything on her own (or "self" as she likes to say). She likes to give hugs and kisses. She always has a smile and keeps us on our toes. Happy 2nd birthday Julia Marie!!

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Saturday Fun

My pictures are out of order, but I'll tell you about our day in order. :) We started out our Saturday morning with some cinnamon rolls. Then we went to a building event at Lowe's. The boys each built a dragon with Eric's help while Julia and I wandered Lowe's. Next stop was Tallmadge (a local town) for a touch-a-truck event. The kids all had fun there. They got to climb in and out of lots of trucks. Julia was very happy to get to run along with the boys and climb all around. After touch-a-truck was Toys R Us for a Lego event. We didn't take any pictures here, but the boys each got a bag of Legos and were instructed to be "Master Builders." Anyone who hasn't seen the Lego Movie may not be familiar, but no worries, it comes out on DVD Tuesday so you can watch it soon :) We also walked around the store and looked at lego sets and trains. Julia loved the baby aisle. Next stop was home for some late lunch and naps for the 2 little ones. Oliver played more legos during their naps. Once everyone was awake, we headed outside to play for awhile. After a quick supper, we headed back outside. The kids all had bomb pops- Julia had to be topless for hers- white shirts and bomb pops don't mix well. They had a lot of fun playing outside. The boys have 2 ropes that they like to tie and run through things to make booby traps- those ropes have provided hours of entertainment. Julia is just happy to be along with the boys. Happy Saturday!

Oliver in his Lowe's gear

Oliver getting thrown by Eric

Eric hanging outside

Julia enjoying her bomb pop

Oliver in the air again

Pre-bomb pop Julia- fully clothed :)

The boys and one of their ropes

Mommy & Julia

Julia driving a big pickup

The kids and Eric in a SWAT truck

While at touch-a-truck, they had a helicopter land. You can see from the little girl's hair that it definitely got windy. The kids thought it was cool, but the line to go in was crazy long so we just looked from around it.

Parker driving a truck

Julia riding the school bus

Oliver driving the school bus

Eric and the boys at Lowe's

Parker flying his dragon

Oliver reading a Lego book before breakfast

Parker and his cinnamon roll

Julia and her cinnamon roll

Parker getting his turn getting thrown in the air

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Sledding Fun

Interrupting my Christmas catch-up to post about current events.
On Saturday, we took the kids sledding. There is a hill across the street from our house that is good for sledding. It is technically a park (really it only has the hill, 2 benches, a parking lot, and a porta-potty)- but it was good for sledding :)

We were a little worried as we walked over because a bunch of the snow had melted and we were hoping we didn't have some very disappointed kids. Oliver ran to the other side of the hill and said there was snow! The kids loved it! We were the only ones there, which was nice with the kids' ages. Oliver is hoping we get to go again this weekend- we are supposed to get 6-10 inches of snow tonight so maybe we will!

Julia hung out in her sled most of the time. As you can see, the side of the hill we walked up was pretty snow-less.

This was the hill we went sledding down (and then walked back up) It was a fast hill- the snow had been packed down by sledders all day.

A happy boy

He had fallen off his sled on the way down. Luckily, he laughed about it each time it happened.

Parker enjoying the snow. He really did have a lot of fun even though it looks questionable in this picture.

Eric took Julia down on a big sled one time- she loved it! He said she laughed the whole way down.

Attempting to walk in all of her snow stuff

Another slip off of the sled

When walking back home, Parker found all of the mud puddles. I figured he was already muddy, snowy, and wet so I even encouraged him to play in the puddles.