Celebrating AJ's First Birthday

We celebrated AJ's birthday early. Nana and Papa were in town so we took advantage and had a party. I think Jason was more of the star of the show than AJ; but AJ delivered once it came to cake time!

From AJ First Birthday

We had an inflatable slide that all the older kids played on while the babes hung onto their mommies.

LINK TO ALL THE PHOTOS HERE

Ahh! Growing too fast!!!

Both of 'em are growing too fast for me to keep up!

Jason started riding a two wheel bike, no training wheels. He's been at it for about a year now, but he's finally at that "not causing mommy a heart-attack every five seconds" stage. I will get some photos up soon!

AJ is also growing... although physically not quite a quickly as the dr.s would like. He had his first adjustment from Dr. Pam last week, we will see how that works out for him. I have to say, he took to adjustments, the same way Jason did... as soon as Dr. P started he was like a little blissed out jelly belly! He just layed in my lap without a care in the world.

Latest pics of the boys:

A good day for a hike

I Love a Long Weekend!

Jason's school was off on Tuesday, so we headed to Brays for the long weekend.

Nana is a little worried about AJ missing his 6 month milestones, so she set up Nana's Boot Camp. He was working on rolling over and sitting up:

Pre Boot Camp snuggle

Save the drama for your mama kid

The cognitive skills stress test

From AJ six months

Meanwhile, Jason washed his bike, and helped out on the Shooting Clays course:


He feels the bike washing requires the assistance of Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs:

Growing Kids

Things have been funny around here lately! Jason was driving his Jeep at Nana and Papa's and after doing something new and nifty in the Jeep he said to Papa "I'm going to show the ladies" meaning Nana and Mommy. He's been very vocal about "ladies" and "men" lately. If he and his daddy do something without me, he says it is "for men only".

AJ did his part and started cracking up (as much as a 5 mnth old can) after he rolled from his side to his back.

Jason driving "for the ladies"

From New Year's Day 2009 Brays

AJ in his usual riding position:

From New Year's Day 2009 Brays

View all the New Years Eve/Day photos here

Christmas Morning Rocks!

We actually were able to sleep in today... AJ didn't wake up until 6:30 am and Jason came running in our room at about 7:00 am...

Mommy! Daddy! Santa came!!!

He had run all the way downstairs (in the dark by himself, pretty scary for a four year old) to check out the scene before coming into our room. We all headed downstairs and the mayhem commenced. Jason wanted to eat the cookie that Santa left behind and I made him wait to ask again until I had the video camera out. ha ha

Video to be posted soon. Here are the photos!



If you can't see the slideshow, click here.

Xmas Cookies!

Jason was excited to have McKenzie and her mommy and sister to our house today to make Xmas cookies. I think the kids ate more of the decorating candy than they put on the cookies!

From Xmas Cookies with McK

Here is the photographic evidence. Thanks for taking the photos Andrea!

December has been a busy month

The boys have been busy this month, and by the boys I mean all of them!

Jason built a farmhouse of graham cracker and icing and cereal in school:

From December 2008

AJ has started eating solid food. Here is his first foray into rice cereal:

From December 2008

Alex has a new car!:

From December 2008

Things are exciting!

Here is a slide show of all the photos.


If you cannot view the slideshow, click here

Jason's 4th Birthday

Jason's 4th Birthday was great, not only did he get to fly with his Uncle Craig, he was able to spend the day with his Nana and Papa, who took him to the arcade where he amazed one and all with his wild skee ball pitch. Then Nana hosted a wonderful birthday dinner with Nana made yummy Lasagna!!

Everyone from the Gomulka side of the family was there to celebrate and I even gave in to Jason's request for a Chocolate cake with Chocolate icing! A big Thank You to everyone for making it such a great Birthday for Jason.

Jason's Birthday PA

High Flying Birthday!

Jason got the coolest opportunity on his 4th birthday, a chance to go flying with his Uncle Craig. I, of course, took the opportunity to tag along!

From Jason's Birthday Flight

Craig picked us up at Rock Airport north of Pittsburgh. We flew south, along the Allegheny River towards Pittsburgh. As we got close to the city we were able to listen in to air traffic control at Pittsburgh International Airport. We cruised over the the city, to the point, turned around and headed back north. Along the way Craig let Jason "fly" the plane. It was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. Full slideshow of the pictures available here.

Thanks Craig! Jason loved it!

Jason's Birthday Flight

It's getting cold in GA

We went for a windy hike up Stone Mountain yesterday! It's always nice to be in cold weather, but I think we went a little overboard bundling up AJ. Those are his feet sticking out from under Alex's jacket!

From Cold Weather Stn Mtn

Another big event yesterday was Jason's first movie theater experience. They are showing a scaled down, 4D version of "the Polar Express" at Stone Mountain.

From Cold Weather Stn Mtn

Jason was so cute, he was enthralled for the entire movie. There are some tense moments in the movie and afterward we asked Jason if he was scared, he said, "no, I was brave!". When I asked him which part was his favorite he said, "all of the parts!" The 4D just means that it is a 3D movie and then they add special theater effects, such as cold water spraying out at you when the train scrapes across the ice, or snow falling from the ceiling during the snow fall scenes. Pretty cool, I just hope Jason isn't disappointed with the next movie he sees.

As the weather gets colder, Jason is getting excited for his birthday and going up to Pittsburgh for Thanksgiving!

AJ had a big day yesterday too, technically he sat through his first movie, or slept as the case may be, and he had his first storytime with Daddy!

From AJ 13 weeks

Halloween 2008

Jason did a great job fighting fires! He had a lot of fun this year and did a great job with his "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you". He was very excited about Halloween this year, he's been counting down the days since probably about 2 weeks ago. It could be the candy :-D AJ was a trooper and chilled out in the baby bjorn! Thanks to Beth and Wes for hosting the Halloween Pre-Party, that was a huge lifesaver this year! Thanks to Deborah and Ray for the adorable "pumpkin" outfit for AJ, he loves the rattles in the pumpkin shoes! I think Jason was a little jealous of the pumpkin shoes. AJ was crying fairly hard in his car seat while we were heading out the door. Jason said "it's okay AJ, it's me, I'm just dressed as a fireman, there is no reason to be scared!" and then "I really like those pumpkin shoes, they are pretty cool." It was so cute, because his tone of voice was the same as the one adopted by the fire fighters that did the "fire safety" presentation at his school. Very soothing and yet authoritative.

Here are the pics!

AJ and Jason ready for action!

Jason and Peyton are ready to hit the neighborhood!

The whole crew: Matt - Skeleton, Peyton - PowerRanger, Reece - Monkey, Jason - Fireman

From Halloween 2008

AJ is 10 weeks old!

AJ is doing really well, he handled his two month check up with as much grace as can be expected! The shots, all three of them (gulp!), went over without too much fuss! He is now a whopping 10 lbs 14 oz and 22 inches "tall". He is about 4 lbs less than Jason was at the same age, as evidenced by the photos below. He is sleeping as well as one can expect a 2.5 month old to sleep. He's been an excellent hiking companion and loves being in the baby bjorn (thank goodness!). He is also very happy, he smiles all the time and I swear he laughs at us. He gets a crooked smile, which just cracks me up!

AJ 10 weeks

Jason 10 weeks

From AJ 9 weeks

AJ says "well, at least I have hair big brother."

Jason likes being a big brother

More recent photos of everyone available here.

Jason's Kitchen

We spent a little quality time in the kitchen today making Lasagna! Always a good time, Jason was a big help!

From Cooking with Jason

To view all of the pictures click: Cooking with Jason

Stone Mountain

We went to Stone Mountain over the weekend and Jason loved it! We rode the Swiss Tram to the top of the mountain, took the train around the mountain and threw "fruit" in the Great Barn. AJ luckily slept and ate through the entire day :-D

From Stone Mountain

Baby Brother Is Here!!

Jason's baby brother, A.J. was born on August 10th at 3:32 pm. The entire story can be found at mom's tri-blog.

Braves day at school - Anti-Braves day at home!

As part of the summer program, Jason's school is having fun Theme Days. Last Friday was "wear your Braves shirt to school" Now, we've been in this fair city for going on 8 years now, but I will never, NEVER be a Braves fan. I can trace this hatred back all the way to the initial days of the "tomahawk chop", arguably the worst fan invention. So when the day came, we sent Jason to school in his SOX shirt!!! Thanks for the shirt Uncle Tom, and thanks to Alex for being from New England, so it is socially acceptable to adopt the Red Sox as my baseball team. (And Mom, don't be sad it isn't a Pirates shirt, we sport the black and gold for every other sport!)

Happy Mother's Day

We were down in Panama City Beach for Gulf Coast Triathlon on Mother's Day. After a day of cheering for the racers, my boys were beat!



Gulf Coast is a great race, but it takes the zing out of mother's day :-D Last year I was still too tired from the race to enjoy the day. This year things were just too busy. I'm thinking of making a mother's day (observed) for the Poon household - one week after actual mother's day! ha! ha!

A big Happy Mother's Day to My Mom and all of those other supermoms out there that I have the distinct pleasure of calling friends!

San Diego Wild Animal Park

We took a day at the Wild Animal park! It was amazing, much better than any other Zoo or Animal Park I've been too! It was spring time, so the weather was mild and all the animals were out in their glory, plus many of the animals had new babies!



Photos here!

It's a Wedding!!

We've been in California for the past week! It was uncle Tom and Aunt Cathy's wedding! Jason was the ring bearer and I was the mommy who was very nervous about how the trip down the aisle would go!!

The wedding went off without a hitch! Jason did his freak out at the rehearsal, and was a perfect gentleman for the wedding, I wouldn't have had it any other way!

We had a great week spending time with family and friends, here are the photos!

The Happy Couple


Uncle Tom and Jason


the Bride and Groom and their Parents


at the reception and Jason is still smiling! Whew! BTW - that's future baby poon at 19 weeks along

Tom and Cathy had to work the week after their wedding, so they were nice enough to spend time with us after the wedding! They took us to Travel Town the day after the wedding, Jason was in heaven! Travel Town is full of old trains!


Travel Town!!!

and what is a trip to the west coast, without a little beach time! Jason is wearing a rubber glove to keep the sand out of his cast!


We even had time to get a picture of our Cars Movie fan under a Rt. 66 sign!! Go lightening McQueen!



Link to all the pictures!