he's thirty something

monday was matt's birthday. this has been a pretty big week for matt at work so we had a small celebration that night where we enjoyed a nice family dinner outside on the patio complete with an oreo cookie ice cream pie for dessert. mmmmm. the kids enjoyed giving dad a "happy birthday dad" balloon. (it included minimal fighting - i was surprised. ha!) after matt finished a big three hour presentation to the big bosses at work on wednesday we enjoyed a nice, relaxing dinner out.

we were a little discriminated against b/c we had kids - they sat us behind a wall in the back. (i really don't blame them though. i'm sure most of the people in there were in town on business dinners or something - none with kids.) the kids were great though! we just fed them bread the whole time. if you haven't done it, it's okay to feed your kids only bread for dinner, oh and ice cream too.

the kids thought it was the craziest thing to see money in the fountain. i told them they couldn't take the coins out, so they simply moved them to the second tier. it was great entertainment!

happy birthday, sweet husband! i love you!!!

today i am

it's the ages of my kids. it'll never happen again.





i'm not making any promises of a new post today, but it'll come soon. i have lots to share.

rad + mdd

one of my favorite times of the day is when matson and i go in to wake reese up in the mornings. we get on her bed, matson gives her hugs and then plays around and i get lots of wonderful reesey snuggles. it just doesn't get better than that. more silly faces...



since i have a picture of the two of them here and i haven't posted their recent stats i'll do so now.



reese is tall for a three year old. she's 38.5" (80%!) and she weighs 32.5 lbs (50%). she's at the top of the 3T clothing measurements, so probably 4T for her now {and she JUST turned 3!} at least in the shirts anyway. she has the tiniest waist and hips, so not sure about 4T shorts/pants. anyway...she didn't so much like her shot - i felt terrible. i didn't want to "prep" her before hand just in case she didn't have to get one {i might not have gotten her IN the doctor's office!}, so when we got there and found out she DID have to get one i started talking to her about it. she didn't want one just as much as i didn't want her to get one. so basically the nurse and i laid her down on the table and without much warning held her down and the nurse stuck her right leg. :( it was terrible terrible terrible!!! i don't think it hurt her too much, but it just shocked the heck out of her.



matson did a little better at the doctor's office, but was so restless. he was ALL OVER the room while we were waiting and waiting and waiting. {i'm not a fan of doctor's offices for this reason! i think i got spoiled to the promptness of the private clinic we went to in budapest.} he reports in at 21 lbs 14 oz (30%), 30 1/8" long (55%) and for records sake his head is 18 1/4" round. i'm convinced after this stomach bug though that he's lost a pound or two and has grown in length. he just seems lighter and longer after all the sleep he's had! he didn't take the shots much better than reese although he didn't know it was coming. he unfortunately had THREE and to me it seemed like the nurse took for.e.ver! the poor guy screamed his head off! and it took him a while to calm down. reese liked talking about matson's three shots. i think she was proud of him because she told everybody about it, but nobody about hers.



on another note:


i, or really i should say christie has been redecorating the kids room. i've just more or less been approving the changes. we have a little more to go before i can post before and after pics, but i think it will be worth the wait. it looks great so far! you can get a tiny sneak peek at the crazy wall color in the above picture. they used to be brown. i can't wait to show you the rest in a few weeks!

happy birthday, matson!

wow! we can't believe our matson baby has turned one year old.

he's hardly a baby anymore. :( but, i'm taking a stance. he's not a toddler until he starts walking. he will remain my baby until then. :)

{this is still one of my most favorite shots of my baby boy.}

at one year old he's into climbing, balls, balloons, climbing, splashing, laughing, climbing, banging, crawling, opening cabinets, climbing, waving, spilling, throwing, and climbing. you can obviously tell what he does the most. and he's good at getting down too. i didn't teach him how to get down feet first, he just started doing it at the baby pool one day. grandma, did you teach him that? he does it to get off everything. it's great. poor guy, on his first birthday he got his first busted lip, but not from falling. he dropped a toy on his face during a diaper change. :( he says hi, bye and dad and waves at the appropriate times.




he goes to the doc on tuesday, so i'll be sure to report back on his stats.





happy birthday, my baby boy! i want to eat you!

THE birthday party

more about the party.

i say THE birthday party because it was for BOTH of our kids since they are only seven days apart {and two years}. {reese's is june 21 and matson's is june 28.} i think i can get away with just one party while they are young, but not so sure when they are older. only time will tell. i made all the decorations {and food}, so i'll share some pics of those too.

reese really wanted a PINK birthday cake, so she got one. i totally botched the first one by trying to take it out of the pan to early :( so we had to run back to the store the day before and get two more boxes, just in case i messed up again. {the less-stress-boxed-cake-mix is totally the way to go!} after reese blew out her three candles she blew out matson's one.
i couldn't very well give matson pink cake for his first birthday, so he got white cupcakes with sprinkles on the top.
he LOVED it. so much so that when reese walked by him with a cupcake he grunted in frustration because he wanted it!


yummy healthy banana-blueberry muffins in wilton silicone baking cups {apparently a new concept to several at the party}. i use them all the time because they are so festive and fun. we have the pink and purple triangle ones too. i'll post the muffin recipe soon - they are delicious.
we had four older kids {ages 2 and 3} and four little ones {ages 4 months to 17 months} at the party. matson was oblivious to "his" friends, but reese loved her friends. the older ones made party hats which were fun, but didn't hold up very well. they were a one time thing anyway. it was a fun activity to get things started. we also sang some songs, ate cake and opened presents. here's the cake eating scene. matson got to join the big kids.

gram + papa got matson this cute little riding car. i think it was the biggest hit amongst all the kids.

don't forget the party favors! these things were a big hit. i don't even know the name of these things, but have been playing with them since i can remember. does anyone know what they are called? do they have a formal name? reese hadn't seen them before, but she got the hang of it real quick.
matson L-O-V-E-S balloons. you should hear the grunting when he sees them! doesn't his face say it all!?



reese's big present was a new bike! dad and papa took her out on her first try. she's learning how to use the peddles. we practice on the back patio.


gram + papa had a great time with the kids...



i had to include a family picture during the june 2009 birthday week.



happy birthday, my reesey boo and matson buddy.

happy birthday, reese!

our baby girl turned three years old today.

we had a fun birthday party! more later...

birthday + father's day

today was a special day at the dowiak household. matt is the best dad to our two beautiful children, one of which was celebrating her birthday today. so, matson and i


took the birthday girl and dad out for ice cream.
i wanted to go to amy's ice cream because of the old fashioned photo booth there, but wouldn't you know it was out of order. :( the delicious ice cream made up for it though!


happy father's day, matt!

happy birthday, reese!

matson david

this is our new little guy. we are so thrilled to have a son! he is precious! i think he looks all boy in this picture...

so far at 27 hours old all he does is sleep and poop and sometimes eats. we are really working on the eating thing - he is just so sleepy. he has peed in the pediatrician's face and all over himself when i changed his diaper for the first time. reality check: boys ARE different from girls. :) i have a little practicing to do.



swaddling is one of the most beautiful things! it's magic really.



now if i could just get him to open his mouth this wide when it's time to eat, we'd really be in business!

it's a boy!

matson david dowiak was born on Saturday, June 28 at 14:34 central european time. he weighed in at 3.83 kilos (8 lb 7 oz) and is 52 cm long (20.5"). a big boy!

a few more b-day pics

sunday evening we had our small family birthday where reese got to open gifts from mom+dad. we gave her wooden fruit + veggies, bread, birthday cake and utensils to go with her cute kitchen. she has already spent many hours playing with her kitchen, cutting up fruit and bread, making yummy meals and feeding us and her bears.



we love the toys we gave her and are glad she's enjoying them, BUT what were we thinking giving her stuff with so many small pieces?! i guess it's inevitable to enter the world of toys with small parts, but golly, i can't believe we are there! thankfully though we have a little while longer before the really tiny pieces.

"happy to you!"

"reese, how old are you going to be on your birthday?"



"happy two years old!"



we had a wonderful birthday party for reese at our home with a few of our friends and reese's friends. she'll tell you that her friends are stevie-abi (two kids, but said as one word, of course), scarlett and dani. she was all excited to have a party and have her friends over, but poor thing, was still sleeping when the party started, so she woke up a bit confused about what was going on in her home. once she got comfortable, she had a great time running around with her friends, helping herself to chips, cheese dip and salsa, eating a birthday cupcake, opening presents and playing with new toys.




reese, that's right! happy two years old to you! it is amazing how much you have grown in the last year - from barely walking to running, jumping and dancing, from simple, little words to sentences and concepts including colors and numbers, from small giggles to loud squeaks and squeals. you now feed yourself, buckle your booster seat and stroller, remind us there is cake and ice cream to be eaten, show us the boats, trams, cars and "green mans" to cross the street, help us open doors and locks, ask us to pray with you and you give us the best hugs + kisses, which we'll take any day!! reese, you brighten our days and give us so much joy.


we love you!


mom + dad



two year stats: 12 kilo (26 lbs) and 87.6 cm (34.5 inches)