Jake Turns 2!

Our little Jake turned 2 this past Sunday, July 27! We love him so much. He is adorable, mischievious, quiet (mostly), loving, and easy going. He knows that he is 2, but now he likes to say he's "two HALF!" Little stinker - already trying to grow up too quickly. God gave us such a precious little boy!

We had a party with our family to celebrate. Jake woke up after his nap, and we brought him downstairs to his party - I think all the balloons, people, presents, etc, kind of overwhelmed him because he was pretty quiet...He perked up and enjoyed his day though. Here are some highlights...

The cake! Jake's Great Grandpa (age 87!) was a baker and makes all of our family's birthday cakes. Isn't it cute? We are so blessed to have such special cakes at each of our special occasions!

Here's Jake with his Great Grandparents...

Opening gifts - we made the mistake of letting Jake open his gift from Claudia first - two little "launchable" motorcycles. He would hardly let go of them long enough to open anything else! But here's a cute moment with Daddy...

Claudia also enjoyed all of the presents and had some difficulty letting Jake play with them first!

Nana cheered her up...

We ate a good dinner all together - Ed's parents, my parents, Great Grandpa and Grandma Kastelin, and Uncle Steve and Aunt Meghan were all able to celebrate with us. We sure missed Aunt Katie (on call in Grand Rapids) and Aunt Jane, Uncle Jong, and new cousin Kelly (who live in D.C.) - wish you were here!

Jake loved his new Harley Davidson scooter!

Jake's 2-year-old Photo Shoot

Just wanted to post a few quick pics from Jake's 2-year-old portrait session. My cousin, June, from June Kuiper Photography - you HAVE to check out her website at junekuiper.com - is fabulous as you can see from the pics below. Jake did a pretty good job getting his pics taken that day, though it was tough to get his thumb out of his mouth!!! But June was at our house for a whole morning, so she was able to capture a variety of moods! There's also a couple pics of Jake and Claudia together below - now THAT was a challenge. Getting a good pic of 2 kids under 4! But she did it!


Anyway, isn't he a little peach? I just love those cheeks. I can't believe he is going to be 2. It has gone even faster with him than with Claudia! He is such a little BOY now. He LOVES motorcycles, candy, and pop (hmmm....sound like any other boys in our family?) and is naughty, naughty, naughty! But I like to say where Claudia is naughty in a way that makes me want to pull my hair out, Jacob is naughty in a way that just cracks me up. He is just such a little stinker and loves to test the limits. But he is so fun! And he has even become a bit of a cuddle-bug in the last 6 months! Something I've never really had! AND, he usually prefers Mommy! This year has been great with our little Jacob Eddie.

Michigan's Adventure

We decided to brave Michigan's Adventure on July 4th and it turned out to be a great decision! The lines weren't bad at all and we had a great day! Our family of 4 went w/ my parents, Katie, and her boyfriend, Steve Swistak. Plenty of help with the kids, though we all enjoyed watching them so much, we really stayed together most of the day anyway!