Tuesday, October 9, 2012

GIRLS being GIRLS

 Lauren and Nora are going to be great friends!  We LOVE having them close by so we can visit A LOT!

Lauren is my little helper, she loves to "babysit" and help hold Nora.  Now that Nora is a little bigger and doesn't like to be held, Lauren plays kitchen with her, jumps on the trampoline, and follows her around outside.  VERY SWEET AND HELPFUL.

These are a couple of picture from this summer!

 Visiting just before 4th of July.  Matching in Red, White and Blue

 Swimming at the beach.  Lauren wanted to hold Nora, with a little help.

 Playing in the sand together
TWINNERS!

Noah's Ark

 Our Annual Trip to Noah's Ark (AUG 18th) was pretty mellow this year.  Just Grandma and Papa, Our family of 4 and Melissa and Liam were able to join us.  It was all about the kids (Papa and Dan ran off to do some real rides) but we managed to get Jack on a couple of big kid rides too!

 The bumper boats
 Taking a Snooze- SUPER CUTE!

 The Log Ride: You can't see him, but in our row (2nd from the back) was me, JACK, Dan, and Papa Russ.  This is the classic up the big hill and down the huge hill ride.  Jack was pretty excited to go, but once we were going up he just asked to go down.  Our only response, "We'll go down in just a minute."  At the bottom, he was pretty close to tears but we just told him how proud we were that he was so brave, and they he gave himself a thumbs up and said "I DID IT!"  We asked him if he wanted to go again, and the answer was no. 

 Lunch break and hanging out.

After lunch, Jack really enjoyed the family tube rides and even went on the "Dark Night" which is a family ride inside a dark black tube.  We saw lots of stars! (little holes that let the littlest bit of sunlight in, it kept him happy.)

And Nora loved the swing.  That was the highlight of her day.

Nauvoo VACATION

AUGUST 3-5  While Dan was away in Seattle (for a friend's wedding) The kids and I took a trip to Nauvoo with my parents, Manda and Baby Easton.  I love going to Nauvoo- we love the temple (where Dan and I were married) and we've been there so many times that we've seen it all.  That way I don't feel stressed to go see everything- we just do what we want to, relax, and enjoy being together.

We saw the pageant (Nora and i walked most of it, she was so tired and hot so sadly we missed most of it) and our good friends the Larsen's.  
 Manda treated us to custard.  The kids loved the late night treat!
 The kids took a ride in a handcart, with Papa Russ. 

We got these tasty treats at the Fudge Factory!  The kids loved them, and I managed to sneak a couple bites of Nora's. 


Our standard picture in front of the temple before we headed home.
 And Jack wanting to go into the temple- sorry, you're too young.  When you're 12!  (And he always responds with "I don't want to be bigger!") 
 Not to forget- we saw the temple late at night with the lights on it, I got to go for a run all by myself, my dad, Manda and I ran together (that was super fun!) and we saw our friend Cami Larsen perform in the pageant and a little theater/production on the side.  It was fabulous- all of it!

We sure love going to Nauvoo. We missed our Dad, but I am sure he will make the trip with us next year!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

The Big 3-0

Dan had a birthday!  Shout HOORAY!

He turned 30- he's been dreading it for a while now.  WHY?  30 is great!  It's just like 29, or 28, or any age, but I guess everything for sports goes downhill from here on out.  ok, ok...

So- we decided to REALLY celebrate!

Dan flew in from Seattle on his birthday night.  We were going to go get him from the airport, but Jack wanted to hide and say surprise!  So we got him a different ride home and we were ready for him!  Birthday cake, ice cream, presents, and one happy boy to be hiding under a blanket and ready to jump out when it was time!


 We also had a party with some of our friends to celebrate.  Just your usual backyard barbeque PLUS brownies and ice cream, the bounce house, and good friends to enjoy it all with!






Monday, August 13, 2012

Let's go fly a kite

Jack woke up and wanted to fly a kite.  We have never taken him to fly a kite, so the idea was kind of random.  Knowing only one kite flier, we called Papa Russ to see if he was up for it.  
The weather was perfect for kite flying, and Papa had a special Buzz Lightyear kite just for Jack!
Nora wanted to be part of the action

 But settled for a snack
Jack loved it!  Every time we drive past the park where we played he says "that's the park for flying kites."  Sometimes I am glad i give into his random requests.  It was really fun to watch him experience this and figure it out little by little. 

Minnesota Vacation

 We took a weekend trip to go visit Manda, Ben, and Baby Easton.  They were in Minnesota this summer for an internship, and with only a 5 1/2 hour drive we knew we would have to go!  (Going along for the ride with Grandma & Papa made it a no brainer.)

We had a great time!  The boys went to a Twins game, we swam at the pool, played at Manda's house, Dan & Ben went frisbee golfing, and we all went to the Mall of America-ate lunch at the Rainforest Cafe.  Our family stayed at a hotel, so we enjoyed a five star continental breakfast every morning which was AWESOME!  Not so awesome, the flu Nora and Dan had the week before spread to Jack and we had a barfing kid in a hotel room.  Added bonus: I didn't have to do any of the bedding/towels that got a little dirty.  (really, we were very lucky.)

Thank you for the awesome weekend Manda & Ben!  We loved visiting you and are hoping you end up in the midwest after graduation!  



Jack's cardboard box house we made at Manda's house.
Nora loved Baby Easton (with supervision!)

Heading into Mall of America
The Jumpers


Swimming with Papa Russ
Easton loved the water
The Bostons

The Lego Store
Papa Russ with Easton & Nora
Jack and Auntie Manda



Monday, July 16, 2012

4th of July

the back row of spectators
 We had a very relaxing 4th of July, and the kids LOVED it!  We decided to go to the Greendale Parade (even though it was like one million degrees!) and we got tons of candy thrown at us.  Jack liked all of the old cars and fire trucks/police cars/police motorcycles.  Nora was really into eating the tootsie rolls as they came, and loved sitting on the curb just like her big brother. 

After the parade, we took naps and grilled out with Grandma & Papa Russ, and Dan's friend Grant and Emily.  It was GREAT!


Jack with his candy cup and green water bottle-he was ready!

how cute- pigtails and all!

 HOT HOT HOT

We brought out our speedy wagon (complete with flames) for the event!  The kids loved riding together!

Check out his treats!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Big Brother Jack

Jack Jack, Big brother, big boy jack, homer, whatever you call him (depending on the day) he is a pretty awesome kid and has really turned on the charm.  He is very sweet, and seems to know just how to get his way.   My favorite new thing he does is asks me at bedtime (potty & brush teeth time) if he can watch a mommy & daddy show and play on papa's ipad.  It is so sweet, and it never hurts to ask even if the answer is always no.

He is into all kinds of characters- he has moved on from just McQueen, Woody, Buzz, to Spiderman, Batman, and he LOVES the chipmunks movies. 

We are enjoying a little learning time together in the mornings.  We play Candy Land, fun letter games(in fun ways of course) and his favorite thing to do together is draw mazes and color pictures, each of us taking turns. 

He is into racecars, trucks, tractors, trains, etc.  He has a new book all about the different vehicles and he tests me.  He also loves to tell me all about the time we saw the car transporter on vacation with the new cars, or the skidsteer that was across the street, or you name it-he's got a story for it!

Every morning he wakes up and asks for marshmallow- big, giant marshmallows.  We bought some of the HUGE marshmallows and he didn't care for them- so only the big ones.  Every time we go to Aldi he says we need a new bag of big marshmallows and I usually say OK.  Guess how many bags of big marshmallows we have in our pantry/food storage. 

Jack does pretty good hanging with his big friends.  I feel like we are in the stage where he wants to do things that big kids do, but he is not quite tall, coordinated, or smart enough to make it happen safely.  I took him swimming and he went under the rope into the next pool area without me seeing him (the place for lessons) and I looked everywhere for him, starting to panic a little, and he was hanging with the swim teacher playing with her toys.  I apologized to the nice teacher and she just said she was more worried about him finding his mom-she didn't mind.  That was very nice of her.  :) 

Yes- he is still wearing his McQueen hat.  Any suggestions on how to get rid of it?  (I don't know if I'm ready, but soon enough we will have to.  It is getting close to not fitting anymore!)

He likes to call the shots- "Dad and me will go to the game, and mom- you will stay home with Nora." or "Just me and mom will go to the park, and daddy you will take Nora."  Or whatever it is.  He doesn't seem to mind when we don't do it his way though. 

He still loves to fly helicopters, visit papa's shop, and play outside. He loves to have friends come over, and is very interested in what we are going to do next.   He keeps me thinking ahead and planning something exciting for him to keep him motivated to do the not so fun stuff- like take a nap, get dressed, clean up, whatever it might be. 

That's our Jack!  we just seem to be on the same page these days which makes life a lot of fun!




Buzz Lightyear PJs
He loves his baseball clothes
Our new geotrax mom got from "work" (rummage sales)
Climbing- he tells me he is trying to be like Spiderman
He loves papa's FJ Cruiser