50th Anniversary Weekend

This past weekend we were fortunate enough to be able to celebrate Little Grandma and Grandpa's 50th Wedding Anniversary with them along with family and friends. It was a full family weekend complete with quality time with Grandma and Grandpa who flew in from North Dakota, a little street football, LOTS of good food and laughs. It was a blessing to be able to celebrate two people who capture what a great marriage is all about. Flo and I are fortunate enough to have them as role models for us. Happy 50th!

Wearing a mask he made at Aunt Bissy's house.

Little maestro playing with Grandma.

Playing at the anniversary dinner...

Reading books with Uncle Kenny.

The boys' game of street football.

A big group of people posing at the party.

Nature Walk

I decided that our days for playing outside without snow pants in the near future are numbered so we loaded up all the kids with my sisters and headed to Camp Carroll today to go on a nature walk with the kids. They had a blast playing on the toys and then going on our little hike...collecting pine cones, flowers and sticks and looking for bears, moose, horses and I think bugs. They were funny, making up stories about where they lived and decided that they were sleeping but they wanted to go find them and poke them with sticks to wake them up. I told them next time. The mini-hike worked though - a solid 3 hour nap later and a kid who is already asleep in bed was the proof in the pudding.

I am thinking we might have to do a few more of those!

First day of October so Coops is officially 10 months old today and I am just bewildered that my little baby all of a sudden has decided to brave the world of walking and has been taking one and two steps between objects that he is holding onto. We are going to have a walker on our hands in no time!

This was a log "that a beaver chewed on" that we decided to take a little break on...

We all took turns holding Mr. Tug boat on the hike (which was the real workout!)

The classic sun in the eyes picture.

Summer is over when you sport the fake ugg boots and vest due to the balmy 57 degree high today!

"Dare Devil Maddie" showing "I'll try anything Jack" a new slide maneuver.

Walking, Running...mom is tired!

Cooper is doing so well walking with his toy walker that I know it is only a matter of weeks before he figures out he doesn't need it anymore. Meanwhile the boys woke up with bells on this morning after a night of teething (not again!) and as you can see were ready to play and run but I seem to be the only one who is getting tired!

Naked Time

We had a pretty busy week playing with some of our good friends and cousins and visiting a couple of times with Little Grandma and Grandpa now that they are back in town but mostly hung around the house and played while I cleaned and got some projects finished...and apparently had lots of naked time. I don't know if its just a boy thing or just our kids but they seem to like the clothes off better than on as of late!
They were going on a trip somewhere...Jack kept waving to me and saying "bye bye mama". guess coops didn't need clothes for their warm weather destination.

This was middle of the day...

Just had to post a too cute picture of bedtime reading. They are so cute!

And yet the diapers are so close...

Naked football (full tackle on the carpet) he almost lost his left nipple to the carpet burn right after this!

I don't know what game we were playing at this time but definitely having fun!

Mutton Bustin!

We have a 2 year old who is obsessed with mutton bustin!

We saw the show last year at the fair and he was terrified, then we saw it last night at the fair and he ran home, threw on his football helmet and started to practice on our golden retriever! (For those of you who don't know what mutton bustin is: its like bull riding for 2-6 year old...only on sheep).

He talked about it nonstop so I took him back to the fair today with his cousins with our free passes and signed him up. Austin fared better than Jack did - but expected for a 4 year old. They both did super great for their first time and if they want to do it again next year I think they will do even better. I think I was more nervous than he was...he was doing a dance to the music beforehand, and trying to climb in the cage as Austin was getting on his sheep! Cooper and Charlotte were just excited to be at the fair eating Hawaiian ices and corn dogs and taking in all the excitement.

I was so proud of my usually super cautious little boy! Watch the video of the 2 of them getting ready for the big ride....

Hugging brother right before he got on his sheep...

Dancing around in his "bootball" gear.

The kids having a great time visiting the animals...

The Llama barn was a big hit!

Big Boy Bunk Bed

After months of talking about it and weeks after ordering it...today we put together Jack's big boy bunk bed. It was a momentous day filled with more than enough excitement for Jack and lots of hard word for both Flo and myself. Flo and I both commented that we have never seen him this excited about something.

He has been looking forward to this for some time now. He was our little helper with sanding, staining and cutting the boards for the bed as well! Tonight is the first night and after a talk about staying in bed and a slight threat about the looming baby bed that can be brought back at any moment, it is quiet in his room for now.

We are rewarding ourselves for the hard labor with a little ice cream and relaxation. I can't believe my little one is growing up so fast. It makes me both sad and proud that he is such a good hearted little boy who is so happy and such a pleasure to be around for us. It seems like these past couple of months he has just started to really grow up in little small ways that we notice and all of a sudden its a big way like the bed.

Super Duper grin right before lights out...

Just finished our 4 man job of putting it together and he climbed right in.

Helping Daddy with the hard work today.

playing on the mattresses in our living room for the past 2 days (who needs toys?)

bees, bubbles and the blues

A special shout out to Uncle John who is in Qatar right now and I just added on the blog list... Stay safe, we miss you and are praying for you!

It happened today at our house.

In a parents life, it happens sooner or later to everyone...in our case later. Today our son repeated something that we (or I) said and now we are forced to be more conscientious about what and how we say things as we have a play back who is 3 feet tall. It wouldn't be so bad but of all things to pick as a first thing to say... I was tossing dog bones to our two dogs and Ellie our little one was just sitting there not going after any of them and letting Lucy get them all. (I think she was holding out for something better) but I said "Ellie are you Dumb? There is nothing else." And then we heard about 20 times "Mommy, Ellie Dumb?" "Daddy, Ellie Dumb?"

I think Flo was both proud that he repeated and mortified at what it was. Good job Mommy.

Today was a pretty boring day for the most part...for the past two days I have been sorting through the boys clothes to see what sort of building blocks we have for the fall and winter and turns out my suspicions about having moose for children were correct. 5 hours later and about 4 outfits left and I am prepping myself for some bargain shopping in the near future before the cold weather hits.

The boys were great through the tub and dresser raiding. They managed to amuse themselves with a hamper for a good hour and played "boo" their favorite game on and off for at least another one. And who could complain when the day starts off with some blues singing from Jack over breakfast and ends with some bike, wagon and car washing with Daddy? The only big downer on the day was that Jack got stung on the leg by a bee before lunch. But, I do have to say after the tears stopped the first thing out of this mouth was "ice mommy". He is a tough kid.

The huge monthly cereal sale is tomorrow and I will bribe, distract and sing my way through it if it means that I have 2 happy kids and a grocery cart full of cereal for the month and then we are off to the park to play after 2 days in doors.

I LOVE MY KIDS.

Jack taking the wagon through the Florence car wash. He is growing up toooo fast!

Amusing themselves while Mommy works...

Eating his favorite like a champ - corn on the cob.

Singing some songs he learned in Sunday School for me!