Jonathan's "Tattoo"

At birth, it showed up on his left arm as light blue spidery vains. We thought nothing of it as it was the same arm his identification bracelet was placed on in the hospital. After a week, it was becoming larger and more raised. Our first trip to the pediatrician's office after he was born revealed it was a hemangioma (malformed blood vessels) We had no clue what that meant, but later realized that little Jonathan was fortunate. It was just a superficial hemangioma...a birthmark...an evolutionary birthmark (meaning it would grow worse before eventually fading and becoming virtually undetectable). For some, these birthmarks can grow to be a large tumor leading to deformation an other developmental problems. They are typically found on the head and face...rarely on the extremities. Jason and I never really notice it anymore...it's become a part of our little guy and over the last couple of years, it continues to slowly fade away. This recent warmer weather, and the short sleeves that come with it, have revealed what is remaining of this birthmark (still continuing to fade away). A child at the park last spring asked Jonathan, "Is that a tatoo or something on your arm?" Jonathan was too young to know what in the world was said or what it meant...but it gave his mom a chuckle. Yeah...a tatoo? Not a burn, or contagious rash or any of the other speculations that people have who see it...it's just a cool tattoo!

Jonathan prior to his first birthday

Jonathan this past Easter

Picture's from today...

I just love all the spring colors...the green's are so vivid and this tree just budded this week. Spring is by far my favorite season.
As long as I would show him the pictures thru the camera's viewfinder after snapping them, he was okay with me taking pictures...but not too many. He was too busy playing afterall. ;)

Mr. Smiling Eyes

I'm still trying to figure all this out (in fact I'm starting to believe I'm spending way too much time in the evenings trying to figure all this out. Laundry is a pilin' up!) Nick is by far the easiest of my four to take pictures of...so easy to solicit a smile out of this little boy and his eyes (courtesy of daddy) are amazing to photograph. Jonathan sees the camera and runs. Katherine...well, Katherine sleeps and pukes. So here's one of the first I'm semi-proud of. It has helped to lessen my frustrations with this whole learning curve...a little anyway.

There is hope!

Today (and really yesterday too) proves that spring is here...and summer is on it's way. We spent lots of time outside both yesterday (after a birthday party in Lee's Summit and a yummy trip to Cheesecake Factory with family) and especially today...it was BEAUTIFUL! There always seem to be tears when we make the boys come inside and today was no exception. Uncle Tommy and Aunt Nataliya came by and picked Jonathan up to take him to Penguin Park with cousin Daniel this morning. After a nap, he was back in action outside while mom and dad worked on the yard (mowing, planting flowers, cleaning the garage & shed, etc.). The neighborhood was FULL with kids and every type of ride-on toy imaginable littered the culd-de-sac. All the little neighborhood girls are smitten with little Nicholas and they keep a close eye on him...claiming to practice their "babysitting" (It was funny to overhear one neighborhood girl (Payton) say to another, "That Nicholas sure is cute, but boy he just won't sit still!"...haha, tell me about it!) Jonathan experienced a few falls and a bloody knee...first time in shorts this season...first of many injuries to come.

Since we moved in this house in July of last year, watching all the spring flowers and spring trees bloom have been a surprise. Here are a few pictures. And some other random ones from today and yesterday.

Little Katherine enjoyed time outside strapped on the front of mommy in the Bjorn.

Little Nickles has learned to high-five!

Jonathan jumping...Am I going to have a trip to the ER again soon?

Washing the dirt off!

Family Photos & A New Adventure...

As mentioned in a previous post, Paula Porter (an old high school friend currently living in TN), made a trek to the Northland when visiting family in the area to take photos of our expanded family. I've always been so impressed with her abilities as a photographer. (You can see our family photos at http://www.porterphotgraphy.net/ (MilesKazmaier 5234) I just think her photography is amazing...simply look at her blog linked on the right hand side and view the wedding shoot she recently completed. I wish I had wedding pics like that! She has graciously agreed to mentor me in tapping the artistic side of myself I've neglected for so long and teach me a little bit about photography. My dear sweet husband has agreed to give in to my whims in allowing me to purchase a new dig. SLR camera and a couple of good lenses (after I sought advice from Paula the expert) It's an art form in itself to sweet talk Jason into giving in to my desires...such a good man he is. Courtesty of my mom, I was also able to get ahold of the latest version of Photoshop CS3 (thanks mom and Jen). I certainly don't intend to make a career out of this as I don't think I could ever have enough talent to do so, but to simply learn to get amazing shots of my three most favorite subjects in the world(my kiddos) will be really fun for me. I plan on taking an introductory photography course with another interested friend this summer but in the meantime, I have been reading books like crazy learning about aperture settings and ISO Speeds, shooting RAW images and tinkering with Photoshop. There's definitely a lot more to it than I first realized....but it's been so enjoyable to learn! Here's one of the very first pics (of Nick) taken with my new toy straight out of the box.

Spring? Nope...

The boys were able to get outside for a bit this afternoon with dad when the sun finally decided to make an appearance for the first time in what seems like days. They helped out with a bit of spring yardwork. It was still cold...and can you believe it? Snow flurries in April? SPRING, WHERE ARE YOU? WE NEED YOU! HURRY! Jason asked Jonathan when he was playing with his yellow car outside if he was going to put gas in it. Jonathan said "NO!" A few minutes later Jason asked, "Jonathan what are you doing?" as Jonathan was throwing debris from the yard in the back of his car. Jonathan replied, "I'm putting grass in my car daddy!"

Growing, Growing, Growing

The latest picture of our littlest baby, Kate. She has been sleeping like a champ lately...typically only waking once to eat and goes right back down shortly after. We are so grateful for this as having three babies under three has been a bit physically and emotionally taxing lately.This makes it easier to get up daily at 5 a.m. for some "mommy time" running with a couple of neighborhood friends.

We attempted a pleasureable trip home to Clinton this past weekend to see Jason's parents and came to the realization that we should just remain home for the next few years! Taken out of their routine and their familiar surroundings, all three kiddos refused to sleep! And there's nothing pleasureable about that! Another good reason to postpone our family vacation to North Carolina this summer by a year. Instead, the cost of the trip will be spent by putting Jason to work by constructing a playset in the backyard for the boys. We have become homebodies...and honestly, that's where we prefer to be at this stage in our lives! Who would have thought? :)