Welcome Judd Bradley Malter!

Judd Bradley Malter was born on October 7, 2008 at 3:06 p.m. He weighed 9 lbs. and 3 oz. and was 20 1/2 in. long.

Judd has a head full of dark hair and appears to have brown eyes. He is such a good baby and seems to be settling in our home.

John Ross is not sure what to think about his new little brother. Sharing mom and dad's attention is something that he's not used to, so we're definitely adjusting!

Happy 2nd Birthday, John Ross!

With the impending birth of a sibling, we decided that we should celebrate John Ross' second birthday a little early this year. On Saturday, September 13th, we turned our backyard into the "Malter Fairgrounds" for a County Fair themed birthday party. Almost all of John Ross' aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents came in for the event. And even a few of John Ross' friends were able to join the fun.

Aunt Daphne set up a table for face paintings, Daddy blew up a bounce house for the children to jump in and Mommy took photos of the party goers' faces poking through a fair backdrop. Later Aunt Bec helped Mommy serve up some yummy fair food that included corn dogs, nachos, jumbo pretzels, popcorn, cupcakes, snow cones and cotton candy. As John Ross likes to say, "num, num"! We're still not sure who had a sugar crash first - the kids or the adults!

Happy Birthday, John Ross! We love you so much.

Baby Malter - 2 Weeks to Go!

Cortney had a final ultrasound on September 11th and everything looked wonderful. Based on the technician's calculations, the baby is already weighing in at 7 lbs. 14 oz. With at least two more weeks to go, we may have another chunky monkey on our hands! During the ultrasound I was trying to keep John Ross entertained from my lying position on the table. I kept pointing to the screen and asked him what he saw... he replied "giraffe". I don't think that is likely, but will be a cute story to tell his little brother or sister one day. Stay tuned...

Is this heaven? No, it's Iowa.

We finally checked off our last item on our list of "Things to do in Iowa" today. We visited the movie site of "Field of Dreams" in Dyersville, Iowa. It's been almost 20 years since the movie was filmed and yet the ball field and house looked very much the same. We were quite surprised to see how many people were there as well. People visit from everywhere and while the location does not allow organized ball games, they do encourage you to grab your glove and bat and play a little all-American baseball.

John Ross enjoyed running around the bases - not to mention standing on them. We think a baseman position is definitely in his future. He also enjoyed running to the outfield to play in the corn.

We didn't run into Shoeless Joe Jackson, but had a great time visiting the Field of Dreams!

Swimmer Boy

John Ross has been a little fish this summer! We visited the Lake of the Ozarks in June and he enjoyed bobbing in the water while wearing his new life jacket.

In July Mommy and John Ross enrolled in a toddler swimming class. John Ross did so good and even got his certificate of completion that we proudly have hanging on the refrigerator door. Towards the end of the week, the children had the opportunity to ride down the water slide with an adult, which thankfully Daddy stepped in to help with. As you can see, John Ross thought that was a blast. We had trouble getting him back into the regular swimming pool!

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

To celebrate Kyle's 30th birthday, we took a trip to Boston in May. We had never visited Massachusetts and we felt it was a great time to go, especially since some of our good friends (and John Ross' godparents), Matt and Chris Mahn, live there. We took in as much of the city as we could during our extended weekend, but the highlight for Kyle was seeing the KC Royals play at Fenway. It was a historic night with the Red Sox pitching a no-hitter (not so fun for Royals fans) and it was John Ross' first major league baseball game. He thoroughly enjoyed his first box of Cracker Jacks. As he would say, "num, num"! It was great fun spending time with the Mahns and John Ross made some new friends with their dogs, Ranger and E-Dog. Thanks to Matt and Chris for a wonderful visit!

He's Walking!

John Ross has been walking almost a month now! He decided to really commit to his new skill while Mom and Dad were out of town. He was staying at Nana and Papa Miller's house while we were in Dallas for the Cotton Bowl and decided it was time to strut his stuff. Of course, we're excited about his new independence, although walking means BIG trouble for us and his four-legged siblings. We're ALL on the move these days.

John Ross is busy exploring new things such as... what happens to a cell phone when it's dropped in the dog's water bowl? what does finger paint taste like? why does Annie run away when I pull her tail? We're learning a lot that's for sure. Lesson from this week - no paint allowed during Dad's day off. Mom came home to a toddler Smurf (see photo).