Outlet Shopping!

Yesterday was a beautiful yet cool day so we decided to venture out to Birch Run to walk around the Prime Outlet Stores. The goal was to get some exercise in the beautiful outdoors (mission accomplished - the place is huge and we walked everywhere...never moved the car) and try to find both Matt and I some clothes as we've both lost enough weight that are clothes look ridiculous on us now. (Thanks, Weight Watchers!)

Of course, we stopped in many stores including some of the children's outlets to look for winter coats/accessories for the boys. When we got home and started sorting out the loot, Matt put the new winter hat on Joseph, and Jacob just started laughing at him. I wanted to capture it on video but it was too dark in the room to capture it well so I took a couple photos...

Joseph showing off his new look

To try to be fair, we put a hat on Jacob too and Joseph just started laughing at him. It's so funny to see how they react to each other.

Jacob in his new hat (still laughing at Joseph)

Loving the Camera!

These two little characters love the camera! I'm always trying to sneak up on them to take pictures or video when they are doing something cute, but as soon as they see the camera...it's show time.

Here's Jacob with his big laughing smile (plus drool, of course)...

And Joseph...always trying to climb (everything, everywhere)...


And the boys playing under their jumperoo until they see the camera (Joe hamming it up)...

Baby Gates....

Well, the boys have gotten so fast and into EVERYTHING, that we've quarantined about 1/3 of the living room for their "safe" play area. They actually love playing in the area most of the time, but if both Matt and I are in the kitchen on the other side of the baby gate, this is often the sad sight that we see...

By the way, did you hear Joseph repeating his favorite word? (mama mama mama) Music to my ears!

And of course, there is the occassional "fight" by the baby gate...

Can you believe it - 8 months old???

Yes, our "little" baby boys turned 8 months old yesterday! Time seems to have flown by and they are just growing up so quickly.

Right now, the boys are eating a lot of real food. They've had bananas, strawberries, advocados, squash, potatoes and pretty much anything we have laying around that can be cooked or cut up small! They are pretty good at feeding themselves with fingers and have begun to use a spoon. They can't quite get the food on the spoon themselves, but if I put food on the spoon that they are holding, they know how to get it in the mouth!

The big thing they keep working on is standing up. They like to grab anything near them to leverage for standing. Joseph likes to pull himself to a standing position on his crib and on the gate we had to put up in the living room. Jacob likes to use anything - preferable the closest person to him!

Here's a brief sample of all the photos we took yesterday:

Jacob "hitting" the books again!

Joseph - as happy as ever!

Daddy with Jacob (left) and Joseph (right)

Joseph patiently waiting while Jacob crawls over him to the piano!

Jacob playing the guitar!

Joseph driving the car!

And if you want to see all the photos taken yesterday, you can find them on my flickr website:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trulytam/sets/72157602077795882/

Weekend in Port Austin

Matt booked a great surprise weekend in Port Austin (on Lake Huron) for our wedding anniversary. We had a great time. The boys got to play on the beach. We all went for long walks in this quaint little town. I beat Matt in putt putt golf and we saw some beautiful sunsets.

Here's Matt in the boys just after a swim in the pool.

Here's the cottage where we stayed.

One of the beautiful sunsets....

Joseph on the beach....

Jacob on the beach (after deciding to taste the sand - face first)...

Both boys fast asleep after playing in the sand and water...

If you want to see all the photos from the weekend, click on my flickr link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/trulytam/sets/72157601842371122/

On the Move

Joseph has been really on the move lately and he is getting quick! Just today Joseph and Jacob were sitting on the blanket playing together so cute that I decided to grab the camera to take a quick photo. When I turned around, Joseph was almost directly behind me....so I captured this video.

Of course, as you can see by the photo below, he was not after me but was heading for the books!

And here's Jacob happily sitting where Joseph left him!

Our Favorite Toys

Here are a couple quick photos of the boys with their favorite toys....

They love sitting together playing with the Sesame Street gang.

And they very favorite toys are the piano and guitar. They are still learning to share!!

New Milestone reached!!!

The boys have been doing really well sitting, but today Jacob did something very cool.

Jacob was napping in the playpen while Matt, Joseph and I were hanging out in the kitchen. We heard that he was awake and when I peaked in the living room, there he was sitting up! I turned to Matt to ask if he sat him up when I wasn't looking when we both realized he knows how to get up on his own.

Later in the day, he repeated his new smooth move twice to get himself from on his back or tummy to a sitting position! Boy, are they growing up quickly!

Please Play With Me

Here Joseph is trying to to play with Jacob, but Jacob has caught sight of Mama with the video camera and is ignoring his brother.

Growing up so fast!

It's amazing how quickly these boys are developing. They are sitting up very well, pseudo-crawling, and rolling wherever they want to get what they want.

Here's a couple of quick photos:

Jacob and Joseph helping Matt with laundry!

Jacob and Joseph wearing their 12month pajamas!!!! Aren't they cute in these long johns?

Yes - they're six months old!

Sorry to all the regular viewers who keep checking but find no updates!!! It has been another whole month + since I've posted and the boys are already 6 months old. The weight gain has slowed down in the last month. Jacob is approx 19 lbs and Joseph is approx 20.5 lbs. Yes, their still huge!

We went to Minnesota for the first two weeks of July to visit Matt's family. Had a great time visiting everyone. If I figure out how, I have some video from the trip that would be great to share. Of course, I did not capture on video all the wildlife I saw from the cows I almost hit to deer, skunk, turkeys, sand cranes, and a black bear!

We just had some photos taken again at Sears since the boys are 6 months old, here is a preview....

Jacob in the tub

Joseph in the tub

Jacob (left) and Joseph (right)

Jacob (left) and Joseph (right)

Jacob (left) and Joseph (right)

Jacob (left) and Joseph (right)

Hope to post again sooner!!!

Our Big Beautiful Babies are 5 months old!

Okay, I know that I'm posting very infrequently (averaging once a month) - how horrible. So that means that the boys are already 5 months old. We weighed them and Joseph is 19 pounds and Jacob is 18 pounds. Yikes! They are so much fun now. They love to laugh and play and both have fun personalities. They are already eating baby cereal and baby food!

Here's some photos of Joseph and Jacob from the last couple days.....

Joseph (left) & Jacob (right)

Joseph, Matt & Jacob (left to right)

Above is Joseph. Even though they both have been sleeping through the night very well. Joseph loves to move to the edge of the crib & stick his legs & arms out (already trying to escape). When he gets stuck, he wakes up screaming. We remove him from the edge, he goes back to sleep, & within a short time, he rolls back to the edge like the picture shows. Chubby little legs don't fit so well between the slats. We now have a crib bumper to keep Joseph "in"!

Above: Joseph

Above: Jacob

Changes at the Strom Household

May was definitely a time for change in our household and things have been busy, busy, busy (hence why no postings recently). I went back to work on May 1st and Matt became the stay-at-home dad.

How’s it going? I am very busy at work with several activities that I have needed to jump into but I’m really enjoying the time at work. I still miss the babies and probably call home too often for Matt’s liking because I want to know how the babies are doing. Matt is doing an outstanding job. I think the first week was a bit tiring but he has got the boys on a great schedule for naps, feedings, playtime, etc. They absolutely love their daddy!

Here are some highlights from the past month....

Daddy taught us to read!!!!

Above: Jacob reading

Above: Joseph reading

The boys are just growing up so quickly. They jabber constantly and they love when anyone talks to them. They are getting very strong. Joseph rolls over easily from front to back and will sometimes roll from back to front. Jacob will rollover from front to back with encouragement. Matt works with them everyday on holding their head and body up and rolling over.

Big Boys Jacob (left) and Joseph (right)

We love each other!!!!

Jacob (left) and Joseph (right)


We got a new glider for the nursery...
Joseph (left) and Jacob (right)


And had a great visit with Uncle Ethan and Aunt Joan from Seattle!

We took the boys into the Sears portrait studio and I ordered way too many photos because Joseph and Jacob did such a good job and looked so handsome. Here’s a sneak peak of some of the photos taken…

The Strom Family

Jacob and Joseph (token naked photos)

They also had their 4 month doctor’s checkup. Joseph is now 16 lbs 13 oz and is 24 1/2 inches long. Believe it or not, Joseph is in the 90% percentile for a full-term singleton baby. Jacob is 15 lbs 10 oz and is 23 3/4 inches long. Jacob is in th 75% percentile.

We are very blessed to have very healthy and as you can see growing babies!!!!!

Google Earth - Satellite Pictures of Our House

Okay. Everyone probably already knows about this, but I think this is very cool. First, we are always looking at TWC (The Weather Channel) online to check out the doppler in our area. And they now have the doppler shown as an overlay over satellite photos of the earth. Very cool. So as I was zooming in to take a look at our State and City, my mouse scroll function got a bit crazy and next thing I know I'm look at a satellite shot of our street and Lake. Of course, I had to see how far I could zoom in and next thing you know I'm looking in the backyard inside the fence. Now the weather channel's satellite shot kept giving me errors saying that the doppler doesn't not work with the zoom so close. So Matt told me about Google Earth.

After a couple quick downloads, here's some shots of our little lake (Eagle Lake)....
And here's our house with the only fenced yard in the neighborhood...

Kind of fun, now I'm going to check some of your houses! Ha ha!

Back Home & Three Months Old

After Matt received word of his layoff at the end of March, we decided to take another spur-of-the-moment trip to Minnesota to see Grandpa and Grandama since I'll be going back to work May 1st.

So here's a few things that have been going on... Here's Joseph (left) and Jacob (right) all dressed up. See how big they are getting - those 0 to 3 month clothing is getting a bit small!

Here's Joseph (left) and Jacob (right) hanging out in the hotel during our trip.

Dad with the boys on the deck at home. Jacob (left) and Joseph (right) wanted to watch Daddy working in the yard.

The following picture was taken just a little big ago as the boys are 3 months old today! They just received these blankets in the mail today from Marcia in Shreveport --Thanks!!

And as you may notice, they have a new favorite activity at home. The good 'ol "kick and play."

So now that I'm finally posting these photos on line, the boys were supposed to be doing some "tummy time" next to me. As you can see, Jacob is already asleep and Joseph is relaxing and watching Mom.

Here's a close-up of Jacob...

and Joseph...