Cake, cousins... and a little Sumo wrestling

We traveled to Wisconsin this past weekend to celebrate the wedding of Mike's cousin Amber and her husband Rusty. We had a great time with the family and got to get a few pics of the three newest members of the family.

Isaiah (born August 21, 2009), William (born May 5, 2009), and Ezekiel (born August 12, 2009)


Lindsay (Mike's cousin) and her son, Isaiah





At the celebration, Amber and Rusty had a bounce house and Sumo wrestling contests for the family to enjoy. Here are a few pics of the kids in the bounce house...



Of course, Mike and I had to get into the Sumo suits and throw our weight around a little to battle it out. He won every time, in part because I was laughing so hard I couldn't concentrate on developing a strategy to win. :) That, and he has a few pounds on me. Enjoy!

Happy 5th Anniversary!!

Mike and I celebrated five years of marriage on August 20th. We were able to go out together and have a relaxing dinner at The Melting Pot while Aunt Jackie and Uncle Neil babysat. It was awesome to get to spend some time together just the two of us and reflect on five wonderful years together. Mike was recently going through some paperwork and found his highlighted copy of our vows that we made to each other...
"In the presence of our Lord and Savior, our family and our dearest friends, I (Michael Thomas) promise to take you (Kristen Leigh) in faith, honesty and love to be my wedded wife (husband); to share with you God's plan for our lives together united in Christ. With God's strength, I promise to forever be your faithful partner in life, loving you without reservation. I promise to support you through sorrow and joy, caring for you through sickness and health, encouraging you to achieve all your goals and growing with you in mind and spirit. I submit myself to you as your husband (wife), keeping a household focused on the grace and love we have received from our Heavenly Father. I give myself to you on this blessed day, asking that you be no other than yourself, loving what I know of you, trusting what I do not yet know, in all the ways that life may find us."
I look forward to many more exciting and joyous years together! (I love you!)

Three months old!

Will holding hands with Sydney Steiner (born three days apart!)




Aunt Jackie and Will

I feel like I constantly repeat myself... but I just can't believe how fast the time seems to go! He is three months old and we are loving every bit of him. Will smiles a ton and laughs mostly at any movement that you do while holding him. He is holding his head up well and has finally lost most of the "rat tail" that he had from birth. :) Will is constantly trying to sit up (he will have some serious abdominal muscles for all the work that he has put into to trying to sit up himself) and really loves all the walks that we take after dinner... he just can't seem to get enough of being outside. We have traveled to Wisconsin once over the last month, and look forward to getting back there again in September for Mike's ten year class reunion (Has it really been 10 YEARS!!???) Going back to work has been a good change... I am really liking working part-time and feel like it is a good thing to be back. I feel like I appreciate my time home more and treasure the moments we get to have as a family. Our babysitter is awesome and we feel so blessed to have her watching Will when I need to sleep... Will seems to like going there and we look forward to having the kids as playmates as they grow up together.

Our other boy

Not too sure if he wants to look...

Just for fun!

A new view...

We put Will in his seat for the first time today... he has been trying to sit up constantly, and is holding his head up really well, so we decided to try it. He likes seeing the world from a new viewpoint!

12 weeks already!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone! Will is growing too quickly, and getting more interactive every day. He has started to laugh whenever we bounce him up and down and smiles a ton! He has slept through the night now for about 3-4 weeks, and we are working on figuring out some type of a routine for the day time. He LOVES trying to sit up, and will try to take your fingers to pull himself up every chance he gets! I return back to work this week, which is going to be an adjustment for everyone... I was telling Mike today that I feel like I am busy already without work! :) Although I'm sure I will have a hard time going back to work, I am so thankful that I have been able to have this time with my little man and have enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom. Here are a few pics from the last few weeks...

Wildwood Crest, NJ (July 24-July 31)

Will and I took a vacation with the Hoogstra family in Wildwood Crest, New Jersey. I grew up going down the shore every summer, and was thrilled to spend some time with my extended family and introduce Will to his great grandparents, great aunts and uncles and cousins. We drove through the night there and back with the help of Aunt Jackie, and was able to spend about five days with the whole family. I put Will's feet in the Atlantic Ocean and we hung out on the beach with the family under the canopy. We had a great time in New Jersey, but we were happy to come back home to see Mike! Here are a few pics from vacation...

Will's other mother

There is one little Gruennert who LOVES to hold her baby cousin Will! Hadassah is always eager to hold Will and refers to him as William Wallace (a shout out to the movie Braveheart). She does a great job, and will be a big help to my sis-in-law when their fourth arrives very soon!
(p.s. HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY SWEET GIRL!!)

Go BREWERS Go!

Being that his father is a HUGE Brewers fan, we had to make a trip to the stadium while we were in Wisconsin to show Will around. I know Mike looks forward to bringing him to a game in all his Brewers attire!

Our growing little man

I can't believe that Will is nine weeks old! He had his two month check up today which included his first set of immunizations... he screamed for a few minutes after the shots, but has been pretty sleepy ever since. He measured in at 12 pounds 9 ounces and 23.5 inches long (75th percentile for both). Last night he slept through the night for the first time in awhile... from 9:30pm till 6am this morning. What an awesome night!
We have spent the last two weeks visiting with family. My parents flew out to Michigan for a long weekend, and then we went out to Wisconsin for the week over the 4th of July. It was awesome to spend time with the families and it makes us really appreciate the time that we get to spend together!
A few more milestones... Will laughed for the first time (in his sleep) on Saturday morning. Mike and I both were able to catch it... what an cutie! He is smiling a lot more and seems to be the happiest right in the morning. With the recent death of Michael Jackson, I have been singing a few of his songs (because they are on EVERYWHERE right now) and he really seems to get a kick out of the songs... or my attempts at singing, but either way it's worth the smiles. He has found his hands and is starting to grasp for things. He is enjoying his activity mat more and will actually pull at a few of the toys hanging above his head. Will freaked me out the other day by almost fully sitting up in his carrier...he looked like he was going to choke himself on the straps by how he was pulling up.
I can't believe how fast the time has gone already, but I have felt so blessed to be able to have this time with Will. I will return back to work the first week of August part-time, with the plan being for me to work 2 12-hour night shifts per week. We have found someone to watch Will on the mornings after my shifts for a few hours so that I can get some sleep. She seems to be a perfect fit for us, and we hope that William will adjust well. She has a little girl of her own (a playmate for WIll), and her house is seconds from Mike's work, so it should be an easy transition in the mornings for Mike.
I have added a few pics from our last few weeks... (excuse the pics of the naked baby... we had a stretch of VERY hot weather in Michigan).

Happy Father's Day!

Happy first Father's day to an awesome and loving daddy! It has been such a blessing to witness the love between a father and his son... here's a few pics of my two favorite men.

A good effort

Our attempt at a group picture of the Gruennert cousins... just waiting for Ezekiel's arrival to make the picture complete!

Our big boy!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone... Will is already six weeks old! He is becoming more interactive everyday, and really starting to respond to Mike and I. Sleeping at night is going well, although the napping during the days seems sporadic at best. He is starting to smile more and he is getting stronger and more squirmy! We had him sleep in the crib in his room for the first time last thursday (he had been in a bassinet next to our bed up until this point), and I think I had a harder time with than anyone else. :) We made our first trip to Wisconsin last weekend, and survived the trip with the help of Aunt Megan and her skills with the pacifier. Here are a few pics from the last two weeks... enjoy all the muscles (a.k.a. rolls)!

Just for fun (5 weeks old!)

Glorious sleep

What a fabulous night! Will had his first full night of sleep, going down around 10:30pm and waking up around 6:30 this morning. I, on the other hand, was awake at 4 waiting for him to wake up... and checking to make sure he was breathing about every 15 minutes after that! Still, the delight in the full night of sleep makes up for the ridiculous "mommy worry" that I have developed.

My two favorite men

Mike and Will getting a few more minutes of sleep before church this morning!

Love always

We are learning more and more about out little boy as he is adjusting to this new world! He loves being swaddled at night (I LOVE the SwaddleMe from Babies R Us!), hates getting his diaper changed, is sleeping about 3-4 hours at a time at night, and we are loving his rolls around his arms and legs as they are getting more and more pronounced. Will is eating really well, and keeps us busy with all the diaper changes. We went to the doctor on Friday (May 29th), and he is up to 9.4 lbs and had grown about one inch... about 60th percentile for his weight and 50th percentile for height. We were visited by the grandpa and grandma Gruennert and the whole clan over Memorial Day weekend, and enjoyed getting to introduce Will to his cousins! Mike and I have such an unexplainable and awesome sense of love for this little man, and can't wait to see more and more of his personality as he continues to grow. Here are a few pics from the last two weeks!