Welcome baby Oliver!!!  He decided to make his arrival the day after Shalyn's baby shower =]  He was born on June 11 at 10:13 pm.  We are so beyond excited to be an Aunt, Uncle and cousin!!!  Can't wait to meet the little guy in August!

Here we are meeting him over Skype!

Well, I don't know how it happened, but John has somehow talked me into running not one, but TWO half marathons in October!  I guess I can't really complain about that because he is also running two half marathons AND a full marathon.  I think he's a little crazy, but he seems excited, so we'll go with it =]  He started his training program on Monday and I have started my pre-training (because I need to be able to actually run in order to start my program in 4 weeks!)  John has had to become a morning runner in order for us to both get our workouts in.  Only three more months until Alex can ride in a jogging stroller and come out with us! Yay!

Our first race is the Findlay Half Marathon with all of the Reineke Family on October 7!  Next, John will run the Detroit Marathon with Jose on October 21.  Sarah, Alex, and I will be cheering them on for this one (and by cheering on, I mean we will go get breakfast and probably lunch =]).  Then, on October 27, John and I are running the Great Turtle Half Marathon on Mackinac Island.  Whew, that is going to be a crazy October!!

Alex has now entered the phase of "everything that comes near my mouth is going in".  He is constantly chewing on his hands and if you put your hand too close, he grabs it to put in his mouth!  It is pretty amusing.

This morning he laughed for the first time!  We were playing the "Where's Your Nose?" game and he apparently thought it was very funny!  Thank goodness for technology, I was able to catch it on video and send it to John at work!  It's so nice that he doesn't have to miss out on stuff like that =]

Uh oh...does someone enjoy tummy time now??

Weekend trip!

Alex had his 2 month checkup and shots on Thursday.  He is still growing like a weed at 10 lb 5 oz and 22 1/4 inches!  He is in the 25th percentile across the board and the pediatrician was very impressed! He did so well with his shots, too!  He did exercise his lungs for about 5 minutes, but then fell asleep for 3 hours.  It was a rough day, but we made it through!  Now it is as if it never happened =]  Mommy and daddy are getting more sleep now!  He goes to bed around 9:00 every night and sleeps until about 3:00 or 4:00 then goes back to sleep til around 7:30.  We are so thankful!

Happy before the doctor...

Not so impressed after.  He got sweet bandaids though!

Sleepy after his shots =[

 Whew!  Alex and I had our first trip without daddy this weekend.  It was quite the adventure and we missed daddy so much!  We left Friday morning at 8 am to head up to my parent's house and arrived at 12:30.  Alex slept the whole way up there which I was so thankful for!  It made the drive so quick because we didn't have to stop.  Thank you, Alex =]  We were able to relax for a few hours before we got back in the car to head over to Rockford for my best friend, Katie's, bridal shower.  It was so great being able to make the trip out there for that.  I can't believe she is getting married next month!  I am so happy for her and Sean, they are perfect for each other =]  I'm so thankful we were able to stay at Kate's house Friday so we could spend a little more time with her and her family.  It is always a hoot hanging out at the Chrisman house!  Thank you so much to my mom for going out the Rockford with me!  Alex was so happy to spend time with his grandma Cardy=]

We made it to Grandma's house!

Wiped out after the long drive!

On Saturday morning, my mom and I headed back to her house and Alex got to see his Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jose!  We had a great time relaxing and visiting with family.  Sarah is starting to look pregnant, which is so much fun!  Alex is so excited to meet his new cousin =]  Less than 6 months to go!

Alex and I got up suuuuuuper early on Sunday (5:45am) to head down to Mount Vernon for Aunt Shalyn's baby shower.  By this time, Alex was very tired of being in his carseat, so we had to make a  few stops to keep him happy on the drive =] It was so nice when we finally got there.  Aunt Julie and grandma Reineke did an awesome job putting the shower together.  Shalyn looks like she is ready to pop at any moment!  Come on, baby Oliver!  We are so excited to meet you!  Alex got a lot of loving from everyone at the shower, so he was a happy chappy!  Thank you, everyone, for the chance to relax and sneak in a nap =]

It is so great to be back home with daddy =]  He had a busy weekend going to the Tiger's game, doing yard work and fighting 6 foot snakes in our backyard.  Thanks, hunny, for getting rid of that before we came home!  You are the best!  We are looking forward to a nice, relaxing week with minimal driving if possible!

As always, pictures for your enjoyment =]

2 months old!

Alex is two months old today!  I can't even believe it.  Time is flying by!  It is so much fun watching him grow and seeing him reach his milestones!  He smiles all the time and his coos are becoming more and more frequent.  He loves when mommy and daddy sing to him and make silly faces =]

Here are some extra pictures =] I have so many, it feels selfish not to share them. Also, it turns out you CAN fill up an iPhone...who knew?  So I will unload some pictures onto you =]

Some bloopers from our milestone photo shoot =]

Good morning!

I was feeling crafty this morning!  We received a picture from John's parents as a joke that was left on their moving truck from the previous renters.  It was a print of George Washington crossing the Delaware.  As much as I love good ole George, he was not going to be hanging anywhere in our house.  This was perfect because I have been trying to figure out what to do with my old and drab bulletin board.  So, what would be better but to take the print and glass out of the frame, paint it and put my board in.  It turned out great!  Now it looks like a piece of art hanging over my (messy) desk.

A little add on!

Alex received a Blue Spruce from grandma and grandpa Reineke! They planted a Blue Spruce for John when he was young, and now we will carry on the tradition. Every year we will take a picture of Alex with his tree and watch them both grow!

Alex's new tree =]

And now, just a few pictures of Alex from today for fun =]

Not the camera again, mom

Ok, ok, I'll smile!

Tired boy

=]

Beautiful weekend!

Alex slept a full 7 1/2 hours last night!  I couldn't believe it when I woke up at 4:30 and he was still sleeping!  I quickly went back to sleep without making a peep so I didn't wake him.  He woke up at 6:00 and was such a happy little boy =]  He's growing up so fast!  Of course, I'm sure after bragging about this, he will be up every 2 hours tonight!  Oh well, I'll take what I can get!

Still so sleepy after a whole nights sleep!

It was a beautiful weekend here in Oxford!  John's parent's came for a visit and we were able to get some much needed yard work done.  We got all of our mulch laid and it looks 100% better in our yard!

With the house came a lovely jungle patch of English Ivy that needed to go.  Thanks to our friend, Tylere, John and his dad it is now gone and replaced with a lovely new layer of mulch!  Now we just need to get some color going in all of the flowerbeds!  

Our home!

The English Ivy before -- It was killing the trees!

After lots and lots of hard work!

Nap time!  Alex is exhausted from all of the gardening =]

My naptime project for yesterday was finally tackling the twine wrapped bottles I found on Pinterest!  All it took was an hour (or so), 2 empty beer bottles, twine, and a little a lot of hot glue.  I probably went overboard on the glue for the first bottle.  Turns out you really only need to glue about every 2 inches, so the second bottle took about half the time.  You could probably use yarn instead if you wanted a little color! Maybe next time =]  Now, we have a cute little addition to our half bath downstairs.   I would like to get a bigger bottle for in there too, but that’s another days nap project (plus I need a wine bottle)!

My materials

The finished product!

Decorating the bathroom

Really happy with the outcome!

Welcome!

In all honesty, I have been meaning to start this blog since before Alex was born.  Obviously, time has gotten the best of me!  Since we are far from family and friends, I wanted an easy way to keep everybody up to date on the happenings in our little family.  Better late than never =]

I’ll start with April 2012. 

Wow!  What a month for us!   On April 4 we welcomed our first child, a beautiful baby boy. John Alexander Reineke III was born via C-section at 11:43 am.  He was 5 lb, 13 oz and 19 ½ inches long.  We are so in love with everything about him!  He is such a handsome little man and he looks just like his daddy!  He has been such a blessing to us =]

Showing us some personality!

Dad carrying him out of surgery!

Meeting grandpa and grandma Cardy

Meeting grandma Reineke

John I, John II, John III

Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jose

Not too long after the birth of Alex did we buy our first home.  We are so excited to have our own space to spread out and a great big backyard for Alex to play in someday!

May 2012

May flew by in a blur of sleepless nights and getting used to the wonderful life of having a baby.  We have so enjoyed watching Alex grow so far.  Everyday he does something new!

He got to meet his great grandma and grandpa D'Pulos!

1 month already!

Alex started smiling socially and cooing in May!  He's growing so fast =]

We took our first vacation to Grand Haven, MI.  Alex was a champ!

Now here we are already in June!  This month we are so looking forward to the arrival of Alex's cousin, Oliver.  He should be making his appearance in about 2 weeks or so!  We are beyond excited for John's sister, Shalyn and her husband, Uri to have their little boy =]  

Alex is going to become a cousin twice this year!  My sister Sarah and her husband Jose are preparing for the arrival of their little one this December!  I am so grateful all of our children will be so close in age, what fun for them as they grow up together!

The next posts won't be nearly as long!  Thanks for bearing with me =]

Love,

The Reineke Family