A bit more of party fun...

Emily loving her cake!

The family celebrating Emily!

Emily loved her balloons! She walked around the room laughing and smiling as the flew behind her!

After we had cake and Emily was getting ready to open her presents we announced to our family and friends that we are expecting again in September! I think there was alot of shock, but ultimatly excitement! Mick and I went thru alot of shock when we found out as well, so we expected some from our family. In fact, I called Mick and was pretty much speechless when I took the test last week...still am in a bit of shock here!

Happy Birthday Emily!

So hard to believe that Emily is a year old now! We had her party at FRC this afternoon and we had a wonderful time!

A friend of mine made the cake for us, and I have to say I. LOVE. IT!!!

Singing Happy Birthday to the little birthday princess!

Emily tasting her cake as big brother looks on!

Restaurant 360

So dinner on the 18th floor of our hotel was incredible! The views were breath-taking. In talking to our waitress, we learned that it takes about 90 minutes to do the full rotation. We were there for about 75 minutes, so we did not miss much. Luke thought it was so cool to realize that we were actually moving during dinner. The new football stadium looked pretty neat, from a girl that gives a hoot about sports. The cathedral was beautiful as were the open hillsides. At one point we were looking at a really neat building, and when we read the description, we learned that it was a multi-million dollar building of condos. The most expensive condo was 3 floors! It also had a guest house in it. Sorry, I can not remember the details, but when dining with a 3 year old and 1 year old you have to pay very close attention to them ;0) After dinner, we ordered dessert, 2 types of cheesecake that we shared. It was so good and Luke loved that his was drizzled with a green syrup (since green is his favorite color, he thought it was pretty cool!) We headed back to our room after dinner and got the kids ready for bed and we started packing up to get ready for the drive home on Wednesday. As we were looking at our navigator, we realized that it was only going to be a 5 hour drive home, rather than the 8 we were thinking...so that was nice news to hear! Since we were not having to go thru Columbus on the way home it saved us a ton of time!

After a delicious breakfast the next morning, we loaded up the van and hit the road. It was exciting to head back home, but at the same time we were sad that vacation was over. We made it back home by 2:30 on Wednesday afternoon, which was great! Mick went back to work on Thursday, so it was nice to have some down time before "real life" started up again. Sargent was so excited to see us, he jumped in the van as we were unpacking it and he refused to get out...it was as if he was saying "no way are you guys leaving me again!" Too funny. So now, we are unpacked and pretty much caught up on laundry, I think I have 1 load left this morning.

Tomorrow is Emily's 1st Birthday party at the rec center! We are super excited!! Well except for Luke,who has decided he does not want to go, because it is pink, and he does not like pink....I told him his cousins would be there and he would get to play with his friends and have cake, and he was still pretty sure he did not want to go....I think it is cute, but I am sure it will get old fast if his attitude does not change by tomorrow. Today, we are off to the mall to get the birthday girl a new dress for her party! I think it will be a fun shopping trip! I will post pics from her party as soon as I can, until then, have a great weekend!

Vacation Pics!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jessica.dobra/VacationFeb2009##

Here is the link to our vacation pictures! Enjoy- obviously there are a ton, as I uploaded them to the album, but have not weeded thru the bad ones yet...sorry, but laundry and cleaning and cooking are priorities again ;0( The worst part of vacation is coming home....

The aquarium was amazing on Tuesday! Luke and Emily both had an incredible time! Luke was able to touch sea stars, giant snails and a horseshoe crab! He also got to pet sharks! The one shark he touched was a guitar shark, so of course, he thought that was pretty neat! I am not sure what the other kind was that we were able to pet, but it was pretty good size and a bit scary having my little man stick his arm into a tank of sharks! But, he thought it rocked, and that is what matters! The octopus was pretty neat to see up close, as were the stink ray and giant sea turtles. This aquarium was really a neat place! There are a few pics of the kids playing in the "Frog Bog" a big froggy playground. Luke and Emily also thought that feeding the birds was pretty neat, tho Luke was too nervous to hold the cup of nectar...I had a hard time deciding if I should take pictures or video, as there was no way I could do both holding Emily, so the majority of the action stuff is on the video camera- sorry, but you can get an idea of the places we saw by checking out the pictures. The shark tunnel was pretty neat, Mick and I both had to slow Luke down, as he just wanted to run right thru it, but we were mesmerized. Also, we got to see one of the aquarium workers in their snorkel gear feeding the fish and cleaning the shark tunnel, talk about a stressful job! Seriously, I have NEVER seen a shark this close before, they are HUGE! And these were small compared to the description on the some of the walls! Kinda makes you a bit afraid to swim in the ocean anytime soon, hopefully that feeling goes away before we head to Texas this Fall.

After the aquarium, we headed to McDonald's for lunch and then back to the hotel for nap time and swimming before we went up to the 18th floor for dinner in the revolving restaurant. It was a really nice restaurant, but I will tell you more about that next time I post, as it is now bath time for Luke and Emily is pretty cranky.....gotta love being home. ;0)

Creation Museum

Well yesterday we spent the first half of the day at the Creation Museum. Luke loved the dinosaurs and the Noah's Ark exhibit. The petting zoo was really neat too. Their camel, Gomer, was super friendly and kept giving Luke kisses...it was really cute! The dinosaur animatronics were so life like, it was incredible. The designer of the exhibits used to be a creator for Universal Studios, so that gives you an idea of how cool this place was! Luke's favorite part was the Garden of Eden with the good guy dinosaurs. After the fall of man, the dinosaurs were a bit scary, but hey, so is everything else in life. The walk thru Bible history was very interesting and Luke loved all of the hands on learning centers for the kids. My favorite part was checking out Noah's Ark, we were able to walk thru part of the Ark and see what it would have been like. Luke participated in the "Little Dinosaur Read Along" after lunch and we checked out the petting zoo before heading to the museum store to check out some things. Mick found some neat DVD's, I got a book and Luke got a new book, a bouncy ball and sunglasses. Emily was not too fond of anything, so maybe she will like something at the aquarium today.

After we left the museum we stopped off at the GAP, Banana Republic, and Old Navy outlet store. Mick stayed in the van with the sleeping babies and let me go in and shop by myself for an hour! I left with a new pair of jeans and 7 tops for me and only spent $25.00!! AWESOME!!

We came back to the hotel afterwards and relaxed for a bit before heading downstairs for dinner. Mick took Luke swimming while I put Emily to bed and then everyone showered and got ready for an early bedtime, as we were all tired and cranky. Once the kids fell asleep tho, Mick and I were able to find our favorite TV show that we usually watch on Monday nights, 24, so we watched our show and crashed.

This morning we slept in a bit until 7ish and got up and dressed and ready for the day. We just got back from breakfast and are getting ready to head to the Newport Aquarium for the day. We are pretty excited, they do a penguin parade every morning and they choose a visitor to lead it, so cross your fingers that Luke is choosen!! Also, it sounds like they have a ton of interactive areas including petting the sharks and feeding the birds. Hope everyone back home is having a nice week...see you all Thursday!!

Penrod's Rock!

A huge thanks to Matt and Jenny Penrod (and Jonathan, Allison and Elaina!) for hosting the Dobra's this weekend for the first half of our vacation! We had an amazing time and it was so nice to just relax with great friends. We arrived Friday afternoon about 4:30 and Ma stopped for pizza on his way home from work. After dinner Jenny and I went out for pedi's and mani's...it was just like old times! We had a great time just catching up and hanging out! Friday night when we returned, we put the kids to bed and the adults just hung out watching a movie. Luke and Jonathan wanted to sleep together, but when 10:00 rolled around and they were both still jumping on the beds we decided to separate the big boys. They both crashed within minutes of being put in separate rooms and everyone slept great!

Saturday morning we got up and meet Matt's parents and the kids cousins for breakfast about 8:00. There was a local restaurant doing a church fundraiser for the high school kids mission trip later this year. Breakfast was great, and the kids all did really well. We left breakfast and went back to the Penrod's and let the kids play for a bit before everyone crashed for a nice, long 3 hour nap! When the kids got up, we headed to one of the local malls for Mick's birthday dinner. The Penrod's treated everyone to dinner and dessert at The Cheesecake Factory. It was oh, so good! You should see the looks we get tho, when we walk in asking for a table for 9, 7 seats and 2 highchairs. Everyone was very accommodating tho and the kids did a excellent job, especially for being so wound up and excited from the busy weekend! We let Mick choose the cheesecake flavor and his pick was Vanilla Bean, and it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!! The waitress, was going to bring it out, but realized it was frozen solid, so we opted to just take it home and eat it later that night. During dinner, the baby girls really enjoyed the mac and cheese and the older 3 loved the chicken fingers and french fries...who woulda thought? LOL We actually received a compliment on how well behaved the kids all were from a person sitting behind us...gotta say, that makes a mommy's heart swell! We headed home and the kids played games and went to bed about 8. Matt headed upstairs to bed after having 2 slices of cheesecake, saying he was not feeling well....hummmmm, I wonder why???? Jen, Mick and myself hung out and watched a movie before calling it a night.

Sunday morning was typical, getting ready for church...well as typical as can be when you have a house full. LOL...Actually it went really smooth and we even made it to church 10 minutes early! The kids all had a great time in the kids classrooms and the adults enjoyed some Sunday morning worship time. We went to lunch at a sub shop after church before hitting the road.

We arrived at our hotel about 3:20 yesterday afternoon, and it is awesome! The view of Cincinnati at night is spectacular! Luke and Em, both love looking out the balcony window over the city. We are on the 13th floor, so of course the elevator rides are exciting! We grabbed dinner in the restaurant downstairs last night and then headed back to the room to get ready for swimming. Luke loved it and was jumping into the pool for daddy to catch him, but Emily was not too sure about the water. She cried a bit at first, but warmed up to it about 20 minutes later. Both kids had a great time splashing and having fun, and burning some energy. We came back to our room and everyone showered and out in jammies and we all snuggled in the king size bed and watched a movie before putting the kids to sleep. Luke loves the size of the bed, he told us that it is huge bed for karate kicks! LOL.....

Well, I am off to jump in the shower before we head to breakfast and then to the Creation Museum for the day. I am going to try and talk Mick into stopping at the Old Navy, GAP, and Banana Republic outlet on the way home...fingers crossed....oh and we forgot to bring the adaptor for the camera, so we can not upload pics until we return....sorry!!

I should be packing....

but have decided to play around on the computer instead....plus if I go into the kids rooms, I am sure it will wake them up with me rummaging around looking for cute outfits and such......But, I am doing laundry for the trip, so that counts as something right? We got Luke his first pair of "big-boy" shoes today, they tie, no Velcro here anymore...it will be interesting to see how long it takes me to decide that Velcro is a wonderful thing. LOL. I also picked him up some lacing cards to work on in the van tomorrow since we have about a 7 hour drive. He seems excited for them right now, but I am sure the novelty of them will wear off tomorrow before we get to Bloomington! ;0)

I hope you all have a wonderful week and I will post some pics when we get back, until then, miss me, but not too much! ;0)

Not much new going on....

but I did want to tell you to check out my sister-in-laws blog. Heather has updated it with all kinds of stories and pictures and info about the new baby Jacob (Happy 1 week birthday little buddy!!) There is a link to it on the right side of here. Jacob is sooooooo adorable and last night when we took a meal to them Emily snuggled up on him like she does with her baby doll, it was pretty cute. Heather posted a pic of it, it looks like Emily is trying to eat her new cousin! Too funny.

Did you hear on the news about the lady that is only going to 1,500 this year for groceries and such? I think it is pretty awesome sounding. She said she is only using 125/month for groceries for this entire year. Now, she started her stockpile last summer, and it is pretty large. I can totally see how she does it, I mean I bought 8 boxes of taco shells yesterday at Schnucks for .50 cents a box (rain check from then went 10 for 10 and I had a coupon for each one). I am wondering about medications tho....I am on 3 different pills a day and Mick is 1 a day too.....that is where our budget gets thrown off. We spend $60.00 a month on those....I should look into getting the 3 month supply next time I stop in to pick them up....

POOP ATTACK

My day has been long. I was up with Emily at 3ish....I let her cry for a bit, hoping and praying that she would go back to sleep....no such luck. I got up and fed her a bottle and she passed back out, but I was not so lucky. I tossed and turned and listened to my hubby snore for about an hour and a half before I finally decided to get up about 4:45 this morning. I read for a bit and got showered before the hubby woke up, the kids of course, slept in until about 7:15 this morning (little stinkers!) I was getting ready Emily for her bath and she was playing in her room, having some nakie time while Luke and I were getting the bath water ready. He wanted a blue bath with bubbles today, so we added food coloring and Mr. Bubble. I went to get Emily and she was sitting in poo!! Not a little poo, alot of poo! It was on her feet, her legs, her tummy, her back, her hands and arms (thank goodness not her face!!!) So I have to carry her from her room and put her in the tub and rinse her off as quick as I can and drain the tub, so we can start over again with bath time. The toys that were in the tub are now in the washer along with the bathmat, towels and poopy washcloth! YUCK! Poor Emily was pretty confused as was Luke..."Mommy- why Emily poop on her carpet and not in her diaper?" Well honey, mommy was giving her some nakie time, looks like I learned my lesson!

Over-due

So, my last post almost a week ago! Ooops! Here is the run down of our life right now: Baby Jacob Michael Dobra was born on Wednesday evening around 7pm. He was 8lbs 13oz and 20.5 inches long. He is super cute and has A TON of dark hair! We went to visit Gabe and Heather again last night and to bring them a few things. They look tired and worn out, but are living on love right now...I told them they would get used to sleepless nights and that it does get easier! Boy- I forgot how bad those first 6 weeks SUCK!!!!

I have been following my SIL's Marci's blog, it is super cute and you should totally check it out. I need to steal her design tho, as mine is so plain compared to hers! Yes- Marci- I am jealous of your blog! ;0)

Friday night the kids stayed at my moms house so Mick and I could celebrate V-day early. Dinner at Alexander's was awesome and so nice. We tried to go see a movie after dinner, but it took us an hour to get from Alexander's to The Rave, so we missed the time spot we had wanted and did not want for the next show time....oh well, maybe next time.

We leave Friday for our trip to Ohio, and we are soooooo excited! We are spending a few days with our friends The Penrod's and then headed to Cincinnati for 3 days to check out the aquarium and Creation Museum. My sis is staying here with the dog, so I am sure he will be super spoiled by her and Mat. He always seems soooo happy to see her, but us not so much. Oh well, guess she must be a pretty cool aunt ;) HAHAHA!

A new addition.....

We have some exciting news on the Dobra side of the family! It sounds like my sister-in-law will be induced this evening and hopefully welcoming a healthy baby boy named Jacob into the world! Praise God! What an awesome beginning for their little family. I will post pics when we get some, but here's to Gabe and Heather and little Jacob....Congratulations!!!!! For those of you keeping count this little guy will be grand-baby #9 for Mick's parents. Yes- we keep Kathy pretty busy with all these little ones running around! ;0)

This weeks grocery sales!!!

I had a blast at Kroger this morning! I got 2 packages of TP and 2 bottles of Dial hand soap for less than $1.00!!!! The TP was free with coupons and the hand soap was on sale for .88 cents and I used two .35 cent coupons to each doubled to .70 cents! Meaning I paid .18 cents for each bottle of hand soap!

We also went to Schnucks and I purchased 51 items and my original total was $40.40. After coupons I spent $16.82!!! For $16.00 I got 20 jars of baby food, 10 boxes of pizza rolls, 2 cans of Progresso soup, 4 boxes of Betty Crocker instant potatoes, 2 bags frozen veggies, and 13 cans of Pillsbury crescent rolls! Good thing I can freeze the rolls! LOL

Schnucks has the 10 for 10 deal going on right now and since they double coupons I was able to get the pizza rolls for .30 cents a box! The potatoes were .50 cents a box, the veggies and soup were free with coupons, the rolls were .30 cents a roll and the baby food was on sale 10 for 4.50, but I had two 1.00 off coupons making them 10 for 3.50!