Special Days

The past week or so has been filled with special days for our family. Yesterday, Dave turned 29! We celebrated at his parents house and were excited to have his WHOLE family there. Even Jason and Stacy and the kids, from Michigan, happened to be in KC for the weekend for a wedding, so they came to Newton on Sunday. It was a day full of food, family and LOTS OF KIDS! I made Dave a chocolate cake that looked so good he wanted to pounce on it (see pic below)!Did I say, LOTS OF KIDS??? This was their birthday present to Uncle David...a dog pile!

Mason got to meet cousins, Jeremy and Sydney from Michigan, for the first time! Oh my, he sure is popular with ALL the cousins!
On the 20th of this month, Taylor was 18 months old! WOW! Here she is, all grown up!

And lastly, Mason was 8 weeks old this last week! He is all smiles lately!

And here's just a cute pic or our little blessings!
Special days all around! All except for me. I guess the only special day I get in the near future is the day I go back to work....THURSDAY! Oh my! Part of me is looking forward to finishing out the school year with my class and good friend/teaching partner, Kendall. Especiall so I can get some closure as I prepare to clean out my classroom as I leave for my new job...MOMMY!! The other part of me is dreading a new routine that involves getting out of bed before the sun comes up...not sure how I'm going to do it! I just keep telling myself "it's only for 3 weeks!"

SURPRISE...It's Earth Day!

What does Earth Day, FREE ADMISSION, and thousands of elementary school students all have in common? Well, they were all combined to make the Sedgwick County Zoo quite possibly the busiest place on earth today!

My sister-in-law, Stefanie, and I have been trying to do something once a week with all the kids. This week we decided the zoo sounded great. We originally planned to go tomorrow (Wed.) and at the last minuted decided to go today instead. I pulled into the parking lot first and noticed it looked awfully busy. But since I'm not that familiar with the zoo, I just figured that the crowd was normal on days with such beautiful weather. Stef, on the other hand, knew something ws going on the minute she saw the parking lot and the 50 school buses! It was EARTH DAY!!! And everyone could get into the zoo for free! The funny thing is that this is the 3rd year in a row she has showed up at the zoo on Earth Day....on accident!

So although it was hard to even MOVE, especially pushing a double stroller around, and many times we couldn't see the animals because we were behind a wall of kids, we had a pretty good time! It was a new experience for Taylor (the last time we were at the zoo she was 9mos. old), and she was pretty quiet and just took it all in. She did like the zebras and waved and said bye-bye to them. We saw a giraffe nice and CLOSE up and had fun feeding the animals at the petting zoo. One of the sheep was eating food out of Taylor's tray on her stroller...she wasn't so sure about that! Here are a few of our pictures:

So Happy Earth Day to all! Just steer clear of the zoo in future years!

Our next big purchase!

Hey everyone! We have been searching for the perfect outdoor play equipment for our 2 little ones. Even though they aren't quite ready for it, we have been searching so we could plan and save for the perfect addition to our backyard. It's amazing how many different outdoor play houses/castles there are out there....each having their own plus and minuses. Well, we are pretty sure we have finally found what we want! It's the size we wanted, it has all the attributes we were looking for and we know the kids will get years of play on this. It's called the "Tumble Outpost", not really an intriguing name, but it features a lookout tower, swinging bridge, rock climbing walls and fire pole. It's a 2-story fort with a jailhouse below and a clubhouse on top with a wrap-around ramp to the second story. There's an upper deck and a tube slide off the back. We do have to assemble it on our own, but Dave's pretty sure he can handle that part. But we are most excited to have found such an awesome exploration set for such an awesome price of $122,730!!!! Feel free to bring your families over to play anytime, although there may be a small fee required. Please don't spread the news of our exciting purchase to too many people, we don't want the entire city of Newton, coming to play. We'd like to remain somewhat humble about our new addition to the house.

Yes, we're from Kansas. Yes, we realize who everyone else around us is cheering for tonight. No, we choose not to jump on the bandwagon. And really, it has nothing to do with being K-State fans. Although I guess that a strong dislike for the Jayhawks does come with the purple in our blood. Although if you know Dave, he'll cheer against the Cats if his Sooners are involved. We typically do cheer for Big 12 teams....with the exception of one. And that would be KU. No matter what the circumstances, who the opposing team is, or what is on the line, we choose to remain strong and NOT join in on the Rock Chalk chant. So the main point we are making is that tonight, we are Memphis fans! Right now, Memphis leads by 4. Oh and by the way, we have a good friend from Memphis so it's not like we are cheering for them for no reason. Richard, we're behind you man! Go Tigers!

Catching Up

Man, we've gotten behind on our blog! Here's a continuation of Easter.....

Starting with Taylor and her Easter Basket! Don't laugh at the robe, it's a little small, but she had just gotten out of the bath!Easter egg hunt at Gma and Gpa B'sMason in his cute Easter outfit!

Our FAMILY!!

Playing in the sandbox with cousins...in their Sunday's best!

Taylor and her cousin Paige in their new matching shirts.

Our new stroller....thanks to Dave's sis, we found it for $65!!! Now, if the weather will just cooperate, maybe we can actually use it more.Well, now you're caught up! Life at the Balzer home is going great! Taylor is spoiling me by sleeping in till 8:30 or 9am every morning! Mason is eating and sleeping right on schedule...he wakes us up every 3 1/2 - 4 hours every night, but goes right back to sleep after his belly is full! Although we can't complain, (we know it could be much worse), we are looking forward to those stretches of sleep to get longer and longer. After a month off from jewelry shows, I have a full month of shows that have now started. I have already realized how much I'm going to love these shows in the evenings...after being home all day in sweats and taking care of kids, it's definitely nice to get dressed and get out of the house for a little while! Dave is already loving to be outside working in the yard...and Taylor has been right alongside him! I think she was outside ALL day yesterday...we can't keep her in!

Well, now that you're all caught up, I'll try hard to stay on top of posts! Have a great week!

Happy Easter!

"....He is not here, for he has risen, just as he said..."

Happy Easter to all our friends and family. We hope you have a wonderful Easter Sunday as you celebrate such a blessed event!

We began our Easter festivities this evening with some easter egg dying....a first for Taylor!

We'll post again soon with Taylor and her cute Easter dress and hopefully some easter egg hunt pics with cousins (weather permitting!) Oh yeah, and Mason and his cute outfit too...not sure what that's gonna be yet, but we'll figure it out tomorrow!

A true example of love...

Today we celebrated Aunt Barb and Uncle Jim's 50th wedding anniversary! They thought they were just going out to eat lunch at The Breadbasket with Fran and Jacquie (Dave's parents) but when they got there, we (our family and Dave's sister's family) were there to surprise them!

Aunt Barb said that 50 years ago Jim told her that if she would let him be the boss for the first 50 years, then she could be the boss for the next 50. I guess he didn't think they would make it to 50...so now the fun begins for Aunt Barb!

Happy 50th anniversary Aunt Barb and Uncle Jim! We are so blessed to have you in our lives! Thank you for showing us and our children such a perfect example of love.

2 Weeks Old!!

I'm a few days late, but this past Thursday, Mason was 2 weeks old already...hard to believe! Here he is as a big 2 week older (plus a few other pics just for fun)! He has changed so much since the hospital. At his 2 week dr. visit, they checked his weight to make sure he had gotten back to birth weight and they want him to be gaining an ounce a day. Mason's birth weight was 6lbs. 14oz. and at 2 weeks old he was 8lbs. 5oz. After doing that math, that's 31ounces gained....no, not in 31 days as would be expected...but 14 days!!! So eating is definitely not a problem! He is filling out a lot in the face, and we think he is beginning to look more like Taylor.

Gotta be Impressed!

So I bet lots of you are impressed that I have been keeping up on my blog lately...maybe even quicker than most of you even check it! I'm pretty impressed with myself....seems strange that I keep up with it better now than ever! Here are a few other reasons I'm quite impressed with myself...you can pretend to be impressed too:

1. It's day 1 of being home by myself with Taylor and Mason and I have survived!
2. This morning I even got an hour long nap while they both were sleeping!
3. I made it into the shower before 4pm.
4. I haven't had to call Dave ONE time to tell him how stressed I am...he's called me twice though (I wonder what that means)
5. The house is SOMEWHAT in order!
6. And I even have found time to do this post!

(We'll just see if Dave notices that Taylor is still in her pjs...oh well, I can't do it all in the first day...there'd be nothing left to accomplish in the next days!)

You Decide...

So what do you think...do they look alike or not? Mason(left) is 6 days old in this picture and Taylor is 11 days old. From the second Taylor was born, there was no question that she looked like her daddy...we heard this and STILL hear this from EVERYONE! No one was quite as sure about Mason....some say he looks like Taylor, some say he just looks like Mason, several have said daddy, and maybe ONE person has said mommy! You tell us!!!