More pictures of the birthday boy

Your crazy lady!

Oh god I think im gonna explode!

Hey where did it all go?

One year down, 20 more to go!

Hey Kobe heard you need a hand. Give me a call.

Well our big boy Shamus is finally 1 year old. He is walking, he is exploring and he is eating chocolate cake. Thanks Mom and Mel for putting a quick party together. We had a great time. Its been a great year with Shamus. We bought a house, we got new cars, we even got a new pet. Yes this year has been amazing. Cant wait for the next.They wait, Roman with spoon in hand.

Summer, Summer, Summer time

A couple of weeks ago I ( john ) took Roman and Marissa to the park while Shamus went to the doctor with his mom. Roman and Marissa were excellent, they played, chased butterflies, went on the swings and generally explored. They were able to run and run and run. Mainly because no matter how far they get im only a few seconds from hunting them down like a cheetah on the fields of Africa. Yes they both tried to run and get away but to no avail. Enjoy the pictures.Bruce Jenner who?"Thank you Cleveland, good night!"

Fun in the sun

Okay so i leave Tuesday morning for more ARMY training, that meant we lived it up this weekend. We bought pools for the kids, we watched a great MMA fight Sunday night. I was off Monday so we enjoyed the sun. We played in the pools we splashed, we even wrestled. Yeah Roman has some skills that might lead to a fighting career.
Shamus didnt like the water at first but he got used to it. After the boys took their nap the water in his smaller pool had warmed up so he enjoyed himself. Hope things are okay while im gone.

Happy Memorial Day!

For Memorial Day we did what every other American does, we grilled out. The weather was perfect. We invited Dustin and Chelle and Richie and Jolene and we had a blast to say the least. Marissa and Roman played in the sprinkler during the day while Shamus stayed as far away from it as possible. John made some rum burgers, bacon wrapped shrimp, corn on the cob, baked beans and hot dogs for the kids. The food was incredible, John did great as always (he even remembered the egg in the hamburger meat haha). After putting the kids to bed we sat under the carport and drank and laughed into the wee hours of the night. The day was a ton of fun. Thank you to Dustin, Chelle, Richie and Jolene for coming over making Memorial Day a good one. Here are some pictures of the days events. Enjoy!

One great weekend!

Okay so this weekend has been off and on crappy and great. The weather has given us troubles but has allowed us to have some great family fun. Friday night Jessica and I got tickets from Mel and Joe, Thanks, and we went to the Reds game. They beat Cleveland and the best part was Mel and Joe watched Roman and Shamus. YES you read that right Mel and Joe watch both of our boys as well as their daughter Greta. NO they werent drunk, we didnt bribe them. I guess they wanted a test of their parenting skills. They survived but looked very tired. I give them gold stars. The boys were alive and well and nothing was broken, or at least they didnt tell us anything was broken.
We met Dustin and Shelly at the game and had a beer with them before making the trek to our seats. The seats were kinda nosebleed but we loved them. No kids and fun. We made the most of it. Stadium beer, hot dogs, pretzels, and even ball park peanuts. Yeah this is gonna be my last game before Iraq so we lived it up. The game was great, Freel you rock, the next Pete. The Reds won. I even got a free grilling apron.

Then Saturday came. It looked like rain all day but because god loves a grillin man, the rain held off. Dustin and Shelly came over for some handpacked large mouth burgers and real hand cut steak fries. I personally made the burgers, 3 shots of rum, A1, and Worstcher sauce. That makes that perfect taste. We had fresh lettuce, tomatoes, even sandwhich cut pickles. Yes it was great. The food was great but the play time after the food was just as much fun. Roman loves to run and wrestle. I had a fun time rolling down the hill with him and chasing him all over. Even Shamus got out in the yard.

When the Cat's Away....

This is just ONE of the things that happens when Roman is left for even the smallest amounts of time. He draws on Sha's head in PERMANENT MARKER! Yes, he decided to use his brother's head as a canvas this afternoon while I was making lunch. I left the kitchen for maybe 2 minutes to answer a call and when I came back I found that he had gotten ahold of a permanent marker (I THOUGHT we had thrown them all out, guess we missed one) and drawn all over the kitchen and Sha's head. Thank God for Mr Clean Magic Eraser sponges to get the marker off the kitchen, but what about Sha's head??? That, I guess, will just have to fade away. Poor Shamus doesn't stand much of a chance with Roman around. One of these days Roman will get what's coming to him.