The Adventures of Dylan (...and the rest of us!)

Wednesday Weekly Recep - Cancun Preview

2012-02-01T23:59:00.000-06:00

Many more pics and stories after I get the pictures from Grandma Toni.

2012-01-25T16:21:00.002-06:00

Tough time around here for me...luckily I have this cute face (when he's not saying no to me ;) to remind me about the good things in life. And we head to Cancun tomorrow with Grandma Toni and Aunt NiNi for some much needed time away!

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Let's All Go to the Zoo!!

2012-01-18T22:09:00.017-06:00

What do you do when it's over 60 degrees and you have the day off work for MLK Jr. Day? You head to the zoo!! We had an absolute blast and all enjoyed being able to see the animals and spend so much time outside!!

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Need a Ride?!?

2012-01-11T20:49:00.002-06:00

Many more pictures to come, but for now here are a few of one of the favorite Christmas toys - a plasma car from Aunt NiNi and Chris. And for those of you wondering, it does work for adults as well!!

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Happy New Year!!

2012-01-04T09:17:00.002-06:00

From the 3 cutest kiddos that I've ever seen :) And no, it's not lost on me that D is the one sporting the tiara while Ella is wearing the top hat!

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

2011-12-21T23:26:00.001-06:00

We've been really enjoying the holiday season this year! Dylan has really been interested in all thing Christmas! He loves Christmas lights (especially the multicolored ones) and tells me every day how close we are to Christmas. He loves our Christmas tree and insists that the lights are always on.

Decorating the Christmas tree!

Ella, Dylan and Maggie all stayed at my parent's house Saturday night!! The Lichtenberger siblings went bowling for my birthday! The bad news is I was horrible at bowling...the good news is, we had a lot of fun :)

Morning hugs :)

Making me birthday pancakes!

I've talked to a number of parents who have all told me that age 3 has been much harder than 2. In fact, last week at music class the teacher told me that her son started getting difficult around 2 years and 9 months (for those of you keeping track, D's age right now!). So, Dylan had still been sleeping in his crib, but had definitely been pushing the limits in terms of asking me to come back into the room. He figured out that if he asked for another hug or told me he had to go to the bathroom that I would respond. So, last week, I decided to let him "cry it out"...well he decided that was not a good idea and climbed out of his crib! Once he figured that out, there was no keeping him in his crib. On Sunday, I took the front off of D's crib and converted it into a "big boy bed". Unfortunately, Dylan decided on Sunday night that he did NOT want a big boy bed and wanted the crib back. So, he very quickly figured out that he could get out of bed and come find me. So, after many of these "parenting opportunities", on Tuesday we made Dylan a sticker chart. If he does a good job getting ready for bed and going to sleep he gets a sticker. After 5 stickers he gets a prize from the prize bin (supplied by the $1 store at Target). After 10 stickers, D gets a date with me to his choice destination (indoor pool, bounce house, etc). The reward didn't work the first few nights, but D went down perfectly tonight! So, hopefully we'll figure out this sleeping in a big boy bed quickly!!!

Very excited about his sticker chart!!

Last night, we headed to Bass Pro Shop to see Santa with the Morris family. We also got to see Stump, Jody and Kylie which was awesome!! The line was super long (I know, shocking that 5 days before Christmas, the line would be long for Santa!) so we actually didn't get to talk to Santa. We decided to go back today so we could see Santa. Of course, once we got to the front of the line, the kiddos decided they wanted NOTHING to do with sitting on Santa's lap. Here's a pic from last night...where we just got to hang out in Santa's play land. I will post those pics when I get them from Andrea.

Checking out the elves with Aunt Andrea!

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Coach Dylan

2011-12-14T06:32:00.006-06:00

Halloween weekend (see, I told you I was behind on pictures), D and I attended the annual soccer tournament that Felicia helps coordinate. The weather was great and we had a great time watching the soccer and getting to run around the field! I definitely see some soccer playing in D's future...and maybe even some coaching :)

I promise you this picture isn't posed at all! D stood on the sidelines with Felicia and yelled go at the girls...it was super cute :) However, the coordinating outfits were intentional!!

D and Jessica :)

Two coaches :)

Practicing his skills :)

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Christmas Partying in Chicago!

2011-12-07T23:18:00.001-06:00

We went to Chicago this past weekend for Toni and Karl's Christmas party and some all around family fun :) As always, we had an amazing time!!

D absolutely loves flying! Before the trip, if he can see the pilots, he tells them to, "Do an awesome job!" Afterwards, he likes to go into the cockpit and sing to the pilots, "good job pilots". I will get it on video and post it at some point. Anyway, the pilot after our flight to Chicago thought D was so cute that he asked if D wanted to sit in the pilot's seat. D loved it, and of course I scrambled to get out my camera. I started to take a picture and the pilot asked if I wanted to sit in the chair as well...which was obviously a big yes!! It was great...although, D now thinks that he should get to sit in the pilot seat on every flight and doesn't really understand why he isn't allowed to fly the plane!

D looks a bit scared, but actually loved sitting in the cockpit!

On Saturday morning, D woke up a bit on the early side. Nicki decided it was the perfect time to make cookies for the Christmas party!

Taking the sprinkles very seriously!

Richard and Rhonda came over for breakfast on Saturday morning. We had a good time hanging out.

After breakfast and some bridesmaid dress shopping, we met Erin out for lunch. It's always great to see Erin and D absolutely loves hanging out with her!

D absolutely loves trains. Nicki came up with a great plan to take the train to Grandma's house. D loved it!!

Saturday night, we had Toni and Karl's Christmas party. We had a great time seeing so many of Toni and Karl's friends!

Yes, D and I are in coordinating argyle sweaters...I actually brought a few different sweaters to wear, but D picked this one so we would match :)

D's favorite...the koala hug. He loves to hang on with no hands :)

Fun with Alyssa, Dennis and Beth!

D likes to be in the middle of hugs...I ask him if he's the cheeseburger, but he usually tells me he's the pickle!

On Sunday morning, Nicki, Chris and I helped wrap 59 presents for the homeless shelter where Grandma Toni volunteers. If you remember, we've purchased and wrapped the presents for the past few years. Unfortunately, this weekend was too busy to do the shopping, but I'm very happy that I got to help wrap to contribute to the process.

Grandma Toni took D to the park for a while. When they got back, D wanted to help wrap! I love the expression on his face in this picture...I can just see him saying, "it's kind of hard, mama!"

Nicki with the finished products :)

I know I'm still way behind on a lot of posts...so I'm going to catch up with some picture marathons, hopefully this weekend!! So check back soon!!

Wednesday Weekly Review - Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-30T15:00:00.003-06:00

Still no catch up this week...we went to Florida for Thanksgiving for a family reunion for my dad's side of the family. Every member of the family was there...the first time we'd ever all been together. Had a great time at the beach, swimming and hanging out with cousins. D and I are both in withdrawal and I foresee many trips, all over the country, in our future. Hope you all had a great holiday!!

The whole gang! And yes, we are all wearing matching family reunion t-shirts with our family tree on them! My mom/sister coordinated/designed and they came out great!

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Fun with NiNi and Chris

2011-11-16T15:53:00.000-06:00

I'm actually home with a sick kiddo right now! D has a stomach virus and has been a bit miserable the last couple of days. We went to the doctor this morning and they confirmed that it's just a stomach virus going around, and hopefully he'll be better soon!

As I mentioned last week, from the road, NiNi and Chris took care of Dylan the Monday/Tuesday morning while I was in Michigan. They had a GREAT time together!! And I love it because Nicki sends me picture mails every few hours, so it's almost like I'm there!! Here's the photo diary of their day :)

Park fun :)

Jumping Jack's (a bounce house place)

Lunch at Chick-Fil-A!

Dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings!

having the time of their lives!

Friday Fun Day - Happy Vet's Day!!!!

2011-11-11T09:40:00.004-06:00

A very Happy Vet's Day to all of you out there who make this country great. And a special Happy Vet's Day to Papa!! Once again, thanks for everything you do for us!

And for any of you out there that are/know a former or active duty military, take them to Applebee's today for a free meal!

Here's a pic of Papa and D enjoying their free Applebee's meal last year. And yes, I can hardly believe how different D looks in just a year!

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Green Eggs and Ham!!

2011-11-09T00:01:00.000-06:00

Greetings from Michigan!! That's right, I'm up in MI for our annual budget trips. Luckily D has been in great hands between Nicki, Chris and Papa! Nicki and Chris came for the weekend, so I got to hang out with them as well. We got some wedding stuff done and had a great time. On Saturday night, Ella stayed the night! D has really been into Green Eggs and Ham so we decided we should give it a whirl!!

Green Eggs and Ham (or bacon in this case!)

D has a super strong sense of smell...he likes to smell everything before eating it! Notice the skeptical look on Ella's face :)

After he tried it, D said, "I like it!" Just like Sam I Am in the book!!!

Ella tried them as well...although, she didn't love them!

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Happy Halloween!!!!

2011-11-02T20:57:00.002-05:00

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Penguin Preview

2011-10-26T23:59:00.000-05:00

Budget season = CRAZINESS

So, I'll leave you with this...a preview of the cutest penguin you've ever seen, taken with my "old-school" phone at D's daycare party tonight. Much much more, later :)

Wednesday Weekly Recap - Iowa City Preview!!

2011-10-19T15:41:00.004-05:00

We went to Iowa City this past weekend and cheered Iowa on to victory (sorry Wildcats, but it's about time we beat you!!) We had a great time and I have lots of great pics!! But, I'm going to be a slacker blogger again this week, and just post the ones that others have already posted out there...much more later! We don't have anything big going on this weekend, so am hoping I can spend some time catching up! But for now, here are a couple of cute pics!

We drove with the Morris girls to Ankeny on the way to Iowa City...Andrea and I didn't think it was possible, but all 3 kiddos did sleep at the same time for about an hour!

I-O-W-A!!!!!!!!!!!

McDonald's big breakfast on the way home on Sunday morning...D probably ate over half of it!! And as you can see, was quite excited :)

Wednesdays Weekly Review - What day is it?!?

2011-10-13T10:40:00.005-05:00

So, I'm late...which for those of you who know me very well can't find extremely surprising. In fact, it's pretty impressive that this is the first Wednesday I've missed thus far. We are officially in the crazy budget time of year at work, and on Monday I relearned the lesson that water and cell phones do not mix...I had just gotten to D's daycare and turned around to ask him something. Apparently, all the stars were aligned (or not, actually) and my phone fell out of my pocket and into my glass of water. I didn't even realize it until D asked, "why is your phone in the cup, mama?" I tried the whole dry it out in a bag of rice, but it still won't turn on. It's amazing how dependent I've become on my phone, especially for a camera (probably over half the pics I post here, I take with my phone and then e-mail myself)! I'm using a back up phone (circa 2008) for now, so at least I can have contact with people again :) So anyway, long story short, no long blog update this week! But here's a pic from Worlds of Fun, and I promise to do better next week!

Friday Fun Day: Going to the Chapel and...

2011-10-07T15:38:00.007-05:00

Nicki and Chris are getting married!!!!

That's right, in case you haven't heard Nicki and Chris are engaged. We couldn't be happier for them both, and we are so excited to have Uncle Chris as an official member of the family :) As Andrea put it, "as you know, with the Harsch family comes the Morris/Lichtenberger families...welcome to our fun and crazy world!!" Chris has been a big part of our lives for the past years, and we can't wait to continue on this adventure with him onboard!

Wednesdays Weekly Review - Happy 2 1/2 Birthday!!!

2011-10-05T23:30:00.001-05:00

Happy 2 1/2 year birthday, Dylan!!! I can't believe how old Dylan is getting!! He seems so much more like a little man than a toddler these days. And any lingering baby qualities are long gone. He continues to be such a joy to be around. His doctor's appointment went great! He weighed in at a hefty 29 pounds (40th percentile up from 35th at 2 years) and is 36 1/2 inches tall (60th percentile, up from 30th at 2 years). Dr. Kate was very impressed with how verbal he is and how great he's doing. So, here's a little Top 10 things about D at 2 1/2 years:

10. D is still such a sweet kiddo! He loves giving hugs (especially koala hugs where he wraps his arms/legs around you and you let go).

9. His favorite question right now is, 'why, mama?' One of these days, I'm going to track all of the questions I get in one day and will put them in a post.

8. D continues to climb anything and everything he can. I'm pretty sure that the entire world is a jungle gym through his eyes. He also will jump off of anything and everything! It leads to some nerve racking moments for mama, but at least a lot of the time, he'll look at me and ask before jumping.

7. Dylan loves being outside doing pretty much anything. He has gotten to be pretty fast at running; I can no longer just walk to keep up with him.

6. D loves singing songs and music! We go to a music class once a week and have a great time together! D's current favorite song is a combo b/t raindrops keep fallin' on my head and raindrops on roses. He knows the words to a ton of songs, and if he doesn't think you are listening, you can catch him singing anything from Baa Baa Black Sheep, to Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

5. Dylan continues to be very verbal and has gotten so good at speaking in full sentences. It's crazy to me that we have real conversations and just how much he knows/understands! The other day, he was telling me a story about daycare...he was telling me about getting mulch in his shoes but I couldn't understand him. Finally, he looked at me and said, 'you know, mama, wood chips'. I was SO impressed that he was able to figure out a way to communicate something to me when I couldn't understand him.

4. D still loves ALL things sports. He wants to watch them on TV (always requesting golf) and constantly wants to be doing something sports related. We still play a ton of golf, soccer, baseball and basketball. It's fun to watch him grow and develop and I'm excited to see what sports he stays passionate about!

3. D is potty trained!!! I've mentioned before that he was doing a great job sitting on the potty. Well a month or so ago, he started fighting everything about sitting on the toilet. From what I've heard, it's a really bad idea to push them if they are fighting the potty, so I pretty much backed off. Well, two weeks ago, a mom was dropping her daughter off at Dylan's daycare. She was in the process of potty training and her mom brought in M&Ms and told her that she could have one every time she used the potty. D, being the shy kiddo that he is, asked her if he could have M&Ms if he used the potty and she told him yes. Apparently, that's all the motivation he needed...he has been using the potty and wearing underwear ever since. He's had 2 accidents, but other than that has been perfect. His teachers at daycare said it's the easiest potty training they have ever seen! And, he's already showing his leadership skills...apparently, D has been convincing the other kids that they should potty train for M&Ms as well :)

2. Dylan continues to be loved by so many! We have so many friends and families that help make our lives amazing and we are so grateful! D asks to go to Ella's house on a daily basis and I love that Ella, D and Maggie are like siblings. He loves traveling to Chicago and seeing everybody there and loves hanging out with all of our friends in KC. We are so blessed to have so many friends and family all over the country that continue to watch D grow up and love and support us.

1. D continues to be such an overwhelming source of joy in my life. He makes me smile all of the time! He is the best thing that has ever happened in my life, and I somehow manage to love him more every day!!

Okay, here are a few pics from Tuesday. I took the morning off and D and I enjoyed the amazing weather and headed to the park!

I will climb anything!

D insisted on bringing a football to the doctor's office. He had a great time, throwing it against the wall and trying to catch it. He even made Dr. Kate play catch with him :)

When Dr. Kate walked in the room, he looked at her, smiled and told her that he was doing an awesome job and asked if he could have a sucker, please. It was super cute :)

Lunch at Panera...eating some delicious mac n cheese!

Okay, and I'm not one of those crazy peeps who think that her kiddo is going to be a superstar sports athlete...although feel free to reserve your Harsch jersey now! But, I think it is pretty impressive for a 2 and 1/2 year old to be able to hit a pitch with a bat...and even more impressive that we got it on video :)

Coming soon...Worlds of Fun and an amazing weekend in Chicago :)

Friday Fun Day: Life Catch Up...

2011-09-28T22:03:00.015-05:00

Here's a catch up on fun things we've done over the past few weekends. A couple of weeks ago, we attended the Lenexa Spinach Festival. You may recall from last year, that Lenexa is the spinach capital of the world (whatever that means). Anyway, the festival is at a park right by our house and they do a ton of fun (& free) stuff for kiddos. We had a great time!!

Craft time!

Home Depot crafts...D made a tool box and Ella made a pencil holder!

After the Spin Fest, we headed to the Morris house to watch the Iowa game. Unfortunately, the Hawks lost (I'm still bitter), but Beth and Collin joined us and we had a great time!

Touchdown!

On Sunday, we went to the Sayers house for some Chiefs football. It was great getting to hang out and see everybody!

After naps, Kris, Matt, Grant, D and I headed to their neighborhood ice cream social. As you can see, D was a big fan!!

The following weekend, we celebrated Namma's birthday. My grandfather (my mom's mom) and Aunt Bobbie (my mom's sister) came to town. They did a "nursing home" tour of Iowa and then came to spend a few nights in KC. It was great getting to see them!

Pile up on Ella quickly turned into pile up on Aunt Bobbie :)

One last random pic from the park a few weeks ago...D fed the geese his animal crackers and goldfish crackers. I was okay with it, until the geese started coming out of the water towards us!

Coming soon...D and Ella's first trip to Worlds of Fun!!!!

Wednesdays Weekly Review - Happy Birthday, Papa!!!!

2011-09-28T09:33:00.006-05:00

I am saving my long post for Friday this week...but for now: Happy Birthday, Papa!!!! You are such an incredibly important and amazing part of our lives. I love watching you and Dylan together (and, of course, Ella and Maggie as well!). You come up with fun and exciting things for all of them: cheese on a stick, trips to the driving range, etc. Thank you for being such a huge part of all of our lives day in and day out. And just as important, thanks for continuing to be the best dad a girl could ask for. I wouldn't be where I am today without you and I certainly couldn't have survived the last 3 years. We love you!!

And now...a video tribute :) And yes, D is still quite the ham these days!!

Friday - Fun Day: Watching Golf with Papa!!

2011-09-23T17:03:00.001-05:00

Wordless Wednesdays - These Are a Few of My Favorite Things!

2011-09-21T21:49:00.003-05:00

Cupcakes!

The library on a rainy day!

Construction trucks!!

All things sports!!

Hanging with Vicki!

Nachos and hot dogs!!

Bump, set, spike it, Leah!! (the cheer D and I did for my coworker's daughter, Leah!)

Suckers!

Playing at the Morris house and swinging, high, high, high!!!

Coming soon (still)...The Spinach Fest and Great Grandpa and the "original" Aunt Bobbie come to town!

Friday - Fun Day: Date Night with Mama

2011-09-16T09:25:00.008-05:00

Dinner at Panera, followed by the park...what could be better?!?

Dylan was flapping his sleeves like a birdie...it looked a bit like Phoebe from friends!

And in a make your heart melt moment, as I was tucking Dylan in for bed, he looked up and said to me, "Mama, another date night again, soon?"

Wednesdays Weekly Review - Chicago is My Kind of Town!!!

2011-09-14T23:56:00.004-05:00

So you may have noticed that I decided to can the "wordless" part of my Wednesday updates. Considering, I think I've never been able to post without lots of stories (insert your talks too much joke here), I've decided to give up trying completely. However, to put some additional posts up, I think I am going to add a little thing I'm going to call Friday - Fun Day which will be a picture or two of Dylan and maybe a fun fact or two about what he's currently doing...so all of you Wednesday regulars, feel free to check back more often or at least scroll down and check out the Friday posts :)

And now on to Chicago...we all headed to Chicago over Labor Day weekend for the annual Memorial Cubs game for Zach. It's a tradition that really means a lot to me and I really appreciate all of those who continue to attend each year. Grandma Toni and Grandpa Karl were nice enough to host Dylan, me and the entire Morris clan in their new house! It was amazing getting to have so much room to spread out and their new house is great!! In fact, D has been asking about going back pretty much constantly since we left!

Here's the photo-recap of the weekend with a few highlights:

Having fun at the airport :)

Playing pool at the restaurant after dinner down the street from Grandma and Grandpa's!

On Saturday morning, Nicki, Toni, Andrea and the kiddos met Erin at a local Children's museum. The museum was absolutely wonderful!! It had activities for kids of all ages and was super nice! The kiddos loved hanging out in all the different rooms...with the highlights being the water room, the baby hospital and the music room.

Future doctors!?!

The cute thing about this picture is that D walked up to the instrument and said, kind of like Carolyn (Erin's sister that plays the violin).

At the Potbelly's :)

For those of you who are confused, that is indeed Kylie Stump in the picture! The Stump family was in Chicago for a wedding and they met up with us at the children's museum :) And yes, that is an awesome pink backpack that Matt is rocking!

A fun tradition with Erin! In fact, I threw D up in the air the other day and he looked at me and said, "like Erin, mama?" It was so cute!

Grandma (Great) Pat also stayed at Toni and Karl's. It was nice getting to spend so much time with her! And she very sweetly brought all 3 kiddos coloring books and crayons!

Aunt Nicki bought all the kiddos (and herself) new Northface jackets. They look so cute!

Playing in the backyard!

Saturday night Toni and Karl hosted dinner for everybody at her house. The food was great and we had a blast!

Later on Saturday, after we put the kiddos to bed, Andrea and I met Lars, Erin and Carrie Mac out for a few drinks. Lars' birthday is Labor Day weekend and we've made it a tradition to go out in Chicago to celebrate!

On Sunday, we headed down to Wrigleyville for the Cubs game. One of Nicki's friends once again very graciously opened up his house to us so that the kiddos could take naps. While the kiddos napped, the rest of us met up with the group in Wrigleyville. After a few beverages, we headed to the game.

It was Lily's first Cubs game! She is even cuter in person than in pictures and it was so great getting to spend so much time with Bryan and Laura!

Eating my hot dog :)

A traditional sunglasses pic with my dad :)

Moms gone wild :)

After the game, we headed to Giordano's for some pizza.

Goodbye hugs at the airport!

I can't thank Toni, Karl and Nicki enough for their hospitality (this weekend and always) while we were in Chicago. They think of every detail big or small to make the trip as easy and smooth as possible for us. They rearrange their schedules to accommodate us and make coming to Chicago seamless. We love getting to spend so much quality time with all of them and it's so nice that Chicago is truly a home away from home! We can't wait to visit again soon!!

Sprinklers at the Morris household!

Eating like puppies at a picnic in the Morris backyard!

Ella sleeping on the new Southpaw pillowcase that Carrie Mac gave her. She loves it!

Coming soon...Spinach Festival fun :)

Wordless Wednesdays - Cubs Game Preview!!

2011-09-07T22:57:00.002-05:00

We went to Chicago this past weekend for the annual memorial game for Zach. We had a great time with family and friends...I have a million pictures to post but too much work to do tonight, so check back tomorrow night!

Wordless Wednesdays - Life is a Zoo!!

2011-08-31T21:43:00.004-05:00

Every week, I wonder what I'm going to blog about...then somehow I end up with a hundred new pictures and a ton of stories!! Dylan continues to be so much fun! He sings constantly (often combining songs in his own way) and loves doing pretty much anything outside. He definitely can be challenging when he doesn't get his way, but for the most part we have a blast together! He is turning into such a little man in front of my eyes and continues to bring all of us around him so much happiness!

My coworkers and I had a golf tourney last Friday...since I haven't played very much, my dad and I took Dylan to the driving range. My parents gave Dylan a set of real golf clubs for his birthday, but this was the first trip to the range. Dylan LOVED golfing, although he didn't quite get that he had to use his indoor voice when he was outside. He actually was able to swing the club fairly well :)

We went out to dinner with Kris, Grant, Beth, Collin and Lars last week! We had a great time, but it was a bit chaotic, so I didn't get a very good picture...

On Saturday, we headed to Deanna Rose. D and I haven't been in a while and we enjoyed all of our favorites! We also enjoyed watching Ella ride the pony for the first time (she's ridden it before, but not while I'm there).

It was safety day at Deanna, so they had fire trucks, ambulances and all sorts of fun activities in the parking lot.

D discovering strawberry milk :)

In the Children's Mercy ambulance Dylan rode in on his birthday! It was also air conditioned and showing movies so it was a hit with everybody!

Ella spent the night and as always, we had so much fun! The only downside is that Dylan thinks Ella should stay EVERY night at our house :)

Playing in my bed in the morning!

Pancakes!

Sunday morning, we headed to the zoo! We decided to hit up the Africa section of the zoo so we could see some of the same animals as Aunt NiNi and Chris on their safari! The zoo recently opened a sky tram that takes you over Africa. It is a GREAT way to get to see all of the animals!

That night after dinner, Papa bought mini ice cream cones for the kiddos...it didn't take them long to figure out how much they liked them!

D picked out this collared shirt earlier this week and told me he needed to get his picture taken. He and Papa matched, so I thought a picture was in order :)

Practicing golf in the front yard :)

Wordless Wednesdays - Corn Dogs, Spin Art and Slides, Oh My!!

2011-08-24T23:14:00.002-05:00

We headed back to Des Moines this weekend for some Iowa State Fair fun!! On Friday, we headed straight to the Turner household. Sarah joined us there and Dylan had so much fun playing with Quentin. They are so cute together and its so neat watching them grow up together!

This might be my favorite :)

On Saturday morning, literally the first thing D said when he woke up at my parent's house was, "pool balls!?!" So, of course we had to go play them immediately.

After some fun pool ball action, we headed to the Iowa State Fair. We met the Turner family there and amazingly arrived at about the same time (albeit a few minutes late...). Dylan loved the fair. His absolutely favorite thing was a corn dog on a stick, followed closely by spin art and the big yellow slide! He was a bit overwhelmed by the animals but we had a great time!

They had a bunch of little cows all over the fair to celebrate the 100 year anniversary...we got a few pics of D and Q riding them! It was the only kind of cow Dylan wanted to get remotely close to!

Don't Jo and I look cute :)

The famous butter cow!!!

D always takes the time to stop and smell the flowers!

Spin art fun!!

Jeremy was the first to introduce D to the corn dogs. It took Dylan a minute to figure out how to eat them, but he was soon hooked!

The big yellow slide has always been one of my favorites! We showed it to D and he decided he wanted to try it out. I thought he was going to be a bit intimidated at the top, but he loved it! I think he would have gone down it a million times if we let him. (random thought: We have called it the big yellow slide for as long as I can remember...however, while we were there this time, I realized it's 1/2 green and 1/2 yellow. I found it kind of amusing, but it will always be the big yellow slide!)

Jo's impressive photography while we were sliding!

Petting the baby piglet :)

He's got the hang of this corn dog thing!

Of course...anything D sees must be jumped off!

After lunch, we took the kiddos home for naps. Namma got back from her Alaska cruise and headed back up to Iowa to take in some more fair fun! JoAnne and Quentin met us there once again! We took in all the highlights with Namma and of course ate some more delicious fair food!

Yellow slide, take two!

The fair had this little farmer's area. Each kiddo planted seeds, harvested their vegetables and then eventually sold their produce for some money. At the end was a store that had everything from bananas to twinkies and each child could use their money to buy an item. It's a really great idea and Dylan and Q really enjoyed it!

On Sunday morning, D and I headed out to Waukee for some fun with the Winter family. Since we had seen them all so recently, Dylan was especially excited to play with all the kiddos again. We had a great time at the local park, and I loved getting to see Amy again!!

Monkey see...monkey do!

Wordless Wednesdays - Busy Busy Busy!!!

2011-08-17T20:47:00.000-05:00

D and I continue to be busy, busy, busy! I've always been that way...apparently it's the only way I know how to be!

Last Thursday, we met the Morris and Stump families and Lars and Josh at a Funky Mama concert. For you locals with kiddos, Funky Mama puts on great concerts (often free) and the kiddos all love her. It was great fun watching the kiddos dance around and sing the songs they knew (we've been to quite a few concerts!).

Singing the song where you stick out your tongue :)

Popcorn!!

During a break, Kylie and D played in the fountains...Lars decided to encourage by giving D a "shower". He was completely soaked by the end!

One of my fave pics of Kylie dancing!

This past weekend, D and I headed to Chicago for some fun with friends and family. Nicki's b-day is this coming Saturday, so we went to celebrate a week early. As always, Toni, Karl, Nicki and Chris were great hosts and we had a blast!! In fact, D has been asking about going back to Grandma's house every day. Lucky for him, we are heading back in a few weeks for the annual memorial baseball game for Zach.

D was an angel, as usual, on the plane :)

Park fun!!

Pancake time! And Nicki's very impressive Mickey Mouse pancake!

Erin came to play and couldn't resist throwing D up in the air!

On Saturday night, we went to the White Sox game with a bunch of Nicki's friends for a birthday celebration. Unfortunately, it rained and rained and rained, but we still had a great time! And for those of you who are wondering, I am sporting a Southpaw shirt not a White Sox shirt!!

Erin brought boat cheese...as you can see D remembered how much he loved it from the lake!!

We still had a great time, even in the rain!!

I had been pumping D up for meeting Southpaw for a few weeks...unfortunately; with the rain delay it was well past his bedtime by the time we got to see Southpaw. D was pretty tired and was actually terrified of Southpaw...I felt so badly, he was visibly shaking. However, amazing little guy that he is, he still managed to "smile" for the picture!

D went home with Grandma, while I stayed at the game. After the game we had a b-day party for Nicki at her apartment. We had a great time and the girls dominated the guys in flippy cup! The next morning, we went over to check out Toni and Karl's new place. It is absolutely great!! Brad, Heather and Conall came over as well, and it was great getting to spend some quality time with all of them! Conall is getting so big and has so much personality! And of course, he is as cute as ever!!

We continued the birthday celebration for Nicki on Sunday. Back in February, D and I decided that his b-day present "thing" was to get balloons (he bought 3 for Ella for her 3rd b-day and 1 for Maggie's 1st). Nicki told me she expected 29 balloons this year...well with the help of Grandma Toni, D and I got her the 29 balloons. I think she was very surprised and D and I were thrilled!!

That's a lot of balloons!!

Conall is SO cute!!

Because of the timing, D didn't take a nap on Sunday. He was still a bit worn out from being up late at the baseball game the night before. I was a bit worried that he might be more difficult on the plane because he was so tired. Luckily (and I know I shouldn't be surprised), he was a doll! He actually fell asleep on me before take off and I had to wake him after landing. We had a great trip to Chicago and are super excited we have so many planned for this fall!! This week we head to Iowa for the State Fair :)

Wordless Wednesdys - A Picture Bonanza!!

2011-08-10T21:06:00.000-05:00

Nothing too spectacular this weekend...just hung out and enjoyed ourselves in KC! So here are some pics from the last week as well as some professional pics we got taken a few months ago (we got Grandma Toni a present with them, so I couldn't share them right away!).

The Morris fam went to the lake for a week so their dog, Momo(formally Kozmo), came and lived with us. D absolutely loved having him around :) I think mostly because between the 2 of them, they convinced me to go on walks every night even if it was 100 degrees (and for you non-locals, I'm not exaggerating!!).

Kisses for Momo :)

My kiddo, the daredevil...everything should be climbed and jumped off :) One of these days, we're going to end up with a broken arm!

On Monday, we went to get haircuts...Maggie got her first haircut and did great!!!

And what do you need after every haircut...a trip to Chick-Fil-A followed by lots of playtime on the slides!

Here are the pics that we got taken a few months back. I think they turned out great!!! There were over a hundred pics, these are just a few of my faves :)

Wordless Wednesdays - I'm a Warrior!!!!!

2011-08-03T14:18:00.001-05:00

We had another jam packed action weekend!! On Saturday morning, I volunteered at an Applebee's for a pancake breakfast to raise money for Make a Wish. Dylan came to eat breakfast with my parents and had a great time. After volunteering, we headed over to the Sayers' house for some quality time with Matt, Kristen and Baby Grant. Grant is over 2 months old already and I can't believe how big he is getting! He is so cute and has changed so much already! It's hard for me to even remember D being that small!!

Matt decided that D was the perfect excuse for afternoon ice cream :) Here Kris is helping him get sprinkles!

And now for the subject line...this past weekend two of my coworkers and I (along with 15,000 of our closest friends) decided to participate in the action/adventure race called the Warrior Dash (www.warriordash.com). The race was held on both Saturday and Sunday and consisted of a 5K with 12 obstacles along the way. The obstacles ranged from cargo nets to jumping over fire and the final favorite, the mud pit. We had a BLAST doing the race although the 100+ degree temperatures were not ideal (somebody needs to tell the people at the Warrior Dash that scheduling a race the last weekend in July in Kansas is not a good idea!). My friends and I dressed in coordinating outfits (there were some great costumes out there) and we had a GREAT time at the race. I'd recommend it to anybody out there who is interested in a fun race :)

This is probably more pics than you care to see (especially since D isn't in any of them...he stayed home b/c it was WAY too hot for him to be there), but we had such a blast I thought I would share!

wearing our "free" viking helmets before the race...we ditched them before we ran!

(tracy, bobbie, vicki)

yes the fire was real...and hot...and scared me a bit :)

we didn't get any action shots in the mud pit...well because the camera was covered in mud. but here's what we looked like afterwards!!

Check out the guy in blue standing above everybody...he had a huge hose and was rinsing everybody off after the race. Needless to say, it took a few showers and lots of scrubbing to get completely clean!

Enjoying a well deserved beer after the race :)

Wordless Wednesdays - Iowa Time

2011-07-27T15:02:00.006-05:00

We headed to Iowa this past weekend for the annual Father/Daughter golf tourney that my dad and I play in. We played pretty well despite it raining on us the entire time! When it was a lighter sprinkle, it was actually quite pleasant...unfortunately it was often raining so hard that it was hard to even see. On number 18, we actually had to move the ball on the green b/c a river had formed from all the water. But we had a good time :) My mom took Dylan to the Des Moines zoo while we played golf. They had a great time.

On Saturday night, JoAnne, Jeremy, Quentin and Sarah came over to hang out. The kiddos had a great time playing together and we had a great time catching up. It was so fun!!

Sunday morning, D and I headed out to the Winter household. It was so nice to get to see Amy, Kelly and their 3 adorable kiddos! Karson and Aubrey seem so old compared to Dylan and getting to hold Libby was great.

Overall, it was a great trip to Des Moines. We plan to head back there in a few weeks for the Iowa State Fair...I'm very excited, I think Dylan will be very into it this year! He loves looking at cows and all sort of animals :)

D and the giraffes

on a "safari"

D "helping" Quentin open his b-day presents and showing him how to use them!

two cuties!!

D showing JoAnne how to play angry birds :)

Future golfer??

Karson, Aubrey and Dylan having a blast!

Scooter time!

Libby is SO cute!!!

D has 3 favorite things to do at my parent's house in DSM. Play with their Nordic Track, play on the piano and the number 1 by a landslide...playing with pool balls. For a kiddo with a 2 minute attention span usually, he'll play with pool balls for hours. He loves rolling them into the pockets, retrieving all of them and then doing it again. It was awfully cute!!

Wordless Wednesdays - Table Rock Lake!!

2011-07-20T10:45:00.008-05:00

Dylan, Lars and I headed to Table Rock Lake this weekend to see Erin and the whole VanDeVelde clan!! I have a million great pics that Erin took (aka the paparazzi!), but haven't had a chance to upload them yet. I will do so tonight, but didn't want to keep anybody waiting, so for now here are the few I took on my cell phone. A HUGE thanks to the VDV's for making us feel so welcome and opening their home to us again. It's honestly one of my top highlights every summer and I am so very appreciative!!

Fun in the pool :)

Reliving our New Orleans trips with Hurricanes :) Believe it or not, they still taste good even when made with 9 year old mix :)

Enjoying some boat cheese!!

A tired little pumpkin on the drive home :)

Wordless Wednesdays - Aunt NiNi and Chris are here hooray!!

2011-07-13T22:25:00.000-05:00

Aunt NiNi and Chris came to visit us this past weekend. We had a great time hanging out with them, as always!! We spent a few hours at my parent's neighborhood pool on Saturday morning and the grown ups had just as much fun as the kiddos going off of the diving boards! Saturday night, we went to the Royals game to celebrate Uncle Billy's birthday. Sunday, we spent the day hanging out and playing...mostly inside because of the crazy heat we've been having! We had so much fun and absolutely love it when Nicki and Chris come to see us!!

Yes, I know I said Royals, but D insists on wearing his Cubs shirt all the time!! I'm okay with having another die hard Cubs fan on my hands :)

Doing some yard work with Aunt NiNi :)

Checking out the neighbor's puppy with Chris :)

Wordless(ful) Wednesdays - Hanging in the LBC!

2011-07-06T15:01:00.027-05:00

updated with a super cute donut picture :)

We spent the 4th of July weekend in Long Beach, California at a family reunion for my mom's side of the family. We had a GREAT time at the pool, the beach and the aquarium. But even more importantly, we had SO much fun hanging out with so many cousins, kiddos, all of my mom's brothers and sisters and my grandfather. The hotel we were at had an awesome fenced in patio to eat on, and the kids had a blast running around it at breakfast and dinner every day. It was great for the parents as well, because we could let the kiddos run around without worrying about them while we got to catch up! Dylan and I shared a 2-story suite with the Morris fam. We were a little worried about sleeping when we found out there weren't any doors, but the kiddos all did great!! We already miss everybody so much...in fact at dinner last night, Dylan was asking for our cousin, Juliana!

So cute on the plane ride out!!

We went to the Long Beach aquarium one morning. The aquarium was great and the kids loved getting to pet the sharks and see all the fish!

Here I am in the lorikeet display. This nice woman let me hold some of her bird food and soon I had a million birds on me. The kiddos (and I) were a little freaked out, but it was fun. It reminded me a lot of Zach Venice when he LOVED letting all the birds land on him!

Not the best pic, but my favorite, the tang fish!

We had a great time at the beach both days!! The kiddos loved the "never-ending sandbox". D liked putting his feet in the water, but got a little overwhelmed if he got too deep in the water and the waves pulled him towards the ocean. My cousins Brian and Laura and their 3 kiddos brought along tons of sand toys, and everybody had a great time playing!!

Maggie's first time in the ocean!!!

She loved the sand!! And even decided to try burying her head in it :)

Saturday night, my mom, brother, and cousins Natalie and Laura went grunion hunting. Grunion are these little sardine like fish that over the summer months mate along the coast of California. The girl fish come up with the high tide and bury their eggs in the sand and then the boy fish come up on the next wave and fertilize them. Nobody really eats the grunion, but they are fun to try to catch and release. We went a few years ago and there were a million grunion and Zach loved catching them. Unfortunately, this year the grunion were not as plentiful! We saw a few from a distance and then one up close. I tried to catch it, but realized at the last second that I had my phone and camera in my pocket and I fell trying to avoid them getting wet. Of course, I pretty much ended up soaked anyway! It was a good time and we enjoyed ourselves, even though it was a bit disappointing.

A picture of the elusive (this time) grunion...

On Sunday morning Papa took Dylan and Ella to Krispy Kreme for donuts! As you can see, they love donuts and had a great special outing with papa!!

Beach Day 2 - My cousins on my dad's side and their kiddos (Mike, Liz, Hannah and Lauren) drove up from San Diego to go to the beach with us on Sunday. It was great adding them to the mix and we had a blast once again. My cousin Laura, a marine biologist, taught us how to find sand crabs and the adults had a great time finding them. (except for my brother, who for some reason could not find one!)

Everybody decided it was a good idea to bury me and turn me into a mermaid :)

Hanging with the San Diego cousins. And a very impressive picture of 5 kiddos all looking at the camera!

D slept on an air mattress at the foot of my bed. He did a great job! On Sunday night when I came home, I had a momentary panic attack because I couldn't see him. (Andrea and Morris were in the room, so I knew it couldn't be anything too bad, but it scared me.) Finally, my eyes adjusted to the light and I saw him completely under the bed except for his head! I had to actually pick up the air mattress to get him out :)

All the great grandkids (that made the trip to CA) on the breakfast patio!

D crashed on the plane ride home! It was extra nice, because I got some sleep as well!

Happy 4th of July!!!

Wordless Wednesdays - So Big!!!

2011-06-29T12:10:00.003-05:00

Dylan amazes me every day at how big and old he is becoming!! It's hard to even put into words, but anybody who spends time with him can see it. He is having complete conversations, understands everything (which makes it even more frustrating when he ignores me!) and wants to do everything by himself. He continues to be such a joy to be around!!! I'm loving this stage, but have pangs every once in a while for the baby stage we have left!

Here are a couple of his new "big boy" things:

On Friday, I got off work early and Dylan and I went to WalMart to buy him big boy underwear. He has been sitting on the potty fairly consistently (I would say about 50% of the time). He's also waking up from naps and nighttime with dry diapers some of the time. He was VERY excited about his underwear and my mom put him in them Saturday morning (I was at corporate challenge tug of war). By the time I got home, he was in his 3rd pair due to accidents...we went to the library and as I was about to take him to the bathroom he had another accident on my lap. Not sure he's quite ready, and I'm definitely not ready to do a full on boot camp training. But I would guess we'll be trained within the next few months.

D is officially too big for a pack-n-play. We are going to California this weekend and are taking an air mattress so we practiced having him sleep on one this weekend at my parents house. He did a great job and looked so cute!!

On Sunday, we went to my parent's neighborhood pool. The place was pretty much empty and we had a GREAT time!! D was SO adventurous!! He could swim by kicking his legs and holding on to the noodle without much assistance. There are two diving boards (a low one and a high one) and after watching me jump off of them, of course my little daredevil wanted to jump off them as well. I told him he was too little for the diving board, but he could jump off the side. After we both got comfortable with that (okay, so mostly it was me that needed to get comfortable), I let him climb up on the racing platform and jump off of those. He was in HEAVEN!! He loved jumping into the water and preferred it when I let him go all the way underwater on the jump. We had so much fun and it makes me so happy how much he likes the water!!

On Sunday evening, we went to my friend Felicia's parent's house to help celebrate Felicia's birthday. They live right off a golf course, so after dinner we had a fun time looking for lost golf balls. D loved finding them.

Ready for cake!!

Helping Felicia open presents!

Just a cute random picture from last night! D continues to love all things sports/balls related. And he's sporting his new adorable puma outfit from Grandma!

Wordless Wednesdays - Grandma and Grandpa Visit!!

2011-06-22T23:24:00.001-05:00

Grandma Toni and Grandpa Karl came to visit last weekend! We had an absolutely wonderful time!! D really loved having Grandma and Grandpa in his environment and showing off for them! We also had a great time showing them the awesome new swing set. Friday night, we went out for dinner. Saturday we met my mom and the Morris clan at the zoo. Saturday night, we celebrated Toni's birthday and on Sunday we did lots of playing. It was a great trip and we can't wait for them to come back soon!!!

Concentrating on coloring the Father's Day card for Grandpa Karl!

Playing on the new swing set with Grandma and Grandpa :)

D really wanted pink, purple and blue cupcakes. I asked him multiple times and he told me every time he wanted those colors. Grandma Toni's favorite cupcakes are red velvet, so we had red velvet cupcakes and used food coloring for the icing. They were great :)

We had a great time at the zoo!! We saw a sea lion show complete with baby sea lions that was great. We also rode on camels...D was a little unsure but once he saw Ella and Andrea riding together he decided he needed to do it too! He was a little nervous on the camel but had a great time!

Helping Grandma blow out her birthday candle! The cupcakes were delicious :)

One of my new favorite pictures!! Ella and Maggie both wore their Cubs shirt on Sunday in honor of Grandma Toni and Grandpa Karl. Of course once Dylan saw that, he decided he needed to wear his as well. And through some small miracle, we got all three kiddos looking at the camera and smiling (and by miracle, I mean Andrea throwing a stuffed animal around trying to make them laugh!).

Wordless Wednesdays - Happy Birthday Grandma!!!!

2011-06-15T08:30:00.000-05:00

We hope you have a great birthday and can't wait to see you this weekend!!!!

D is very proud of this video!! And he thought it was SO funny that he was calling Grandma, "Miss Grandma". He kept laughing about it for minutes after! Pretty cute!! Sorry for the "sideways" video...I took it the right way on my phone and for some reason when it uploaded to you-tube it flipped it. I did some research and couldn't figure out a way to switch it...he's still cute, though, even sideways!!

Wordless Wednesdays - Better Late than Never :)

2011-06-08T23:06:00.001-05:00

Sorry for late nature of this post! Life and work has continued to be super busy!! D continues to be as fun and cute as ever! I need to get some videos up soon of him singing...his current faves are the "ABCs" and "Itsy Bitsy Spider"! We had another fun filled weekend. On Saturday, we went to a picnic at D's daycare and brought Andrea, Ella and Maggie with us. It was a great time and Ella and D loved jumping in the bounce house. It was in the high 90's all weekend, so we used the pool at the Morris house and then headed to the big pool on Sunday. We had a great time :)

In other very exciting news, on Tuesday, the swing set that Grandma Toni and Grandpa Karl got Dylan for Christmas arrived and got assembled. D is SO excited and didn't want to go to bed last night, but I finally assured him that the swing set would still be there in the morning. This morning when he woke up, he said his standard, "mama, mama". Then when I went into his room, he said, "swing set?!?" It was super cute! I'm sure we will spend MANY MANY countless hours of great fun playing on the swing set!! Thanks so much to Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Tonight, we had dinner over at Beth and Josh's house. It was the first time the "3 Musketeers" had all been together. Here are a couple of pics!! It's crazy to see how different they are. Dylan - 26 months, Collin (Beth and Josh's kiddo) - almost 7 months, Grant (Kristen and Matt's kiddo) - 2 weeks. Dylan absolutely loves Collin and Grant! We talk about both of them on a daily basis! It's so fun seeing them together and it'll be great to watch their friendship develop over the years!!

Wordless Wednesdays - Vegas Baby (a cell phone pic recap)!!!

2011-06-01T10:21:00.011-05:00

What 2 year old hasn't been to Vegas 3 times? The answer to that question is not Dylan...that's right; we spent another Memorial Day in Las Vegas. We had a mini-family reunion with my parents, brother, grandpa (D's great grandpa), Nicki, Chris, Grandma Toni and Great Grandma Pat). We had a great trip and D continues to be an awesome traveler! I have a few more great pics on my camera but forgot to bring it to work today! So, here's what I captured on my phone :)

Fun with Papa at his pool tourney!

Nicki and I with the Australian Elvises at Cirque de Soleil - Elvis (and no they were not part of the show!)

Chris corrupting Dylan...the funny thing is that the first time Zach and I went to Vegas, we went out to dinner with my grandfather at the Japanese steak house right across from Cleopatra's barge. My grandfather jumped up and touched Cleopatra for good luck...I thought it was hilarious, Zach turned bright red. So, D is living on a tradition. And every time we walked past the boat after that, D would look up, point and yell, "boobs"!! Keeping it classy :)

Throwing pennies into the fountain with Aunt NiNi (a new fave!)

Pool time with Namma!!

In a great mood on the plane ride home!!

Wordless Wednesdays - Random Happenings

2011-05-25T15:20:00.008-05:00

We continue to stay very busy here in Lenexa, KS. For those of you who have been watching the crazy weather from the last couple of days, we are all a-ok here. Did have to spend a couple of hours this morning at work in a tornado evacuation, but luckily nobody has been hurt!

It's corporate challenge season again and I'm once again playing in a ton of sports! We took home a slightly disappointing bronze in volleyball a few weeks ago (we won gold last year) but defended our gold medals successfully in softball this past weekend. D continues to love coming to all of the events and it's awfully cute to hear him yell, "Go Mama!!" Ella has also come to a number of events and I love having my own little cheerleading section!

D's hair had been getting awfully long and shaggy (although, I really like it long), but we decided yesterday it was time for a haircut. We have figured out that it goes MUCH more smoothly when we go with Cousin Ella and get to watch her get her haircut first. D did a great job yesterday and had no tears!

Last night, we attended the Westridge Middle School awards night. Zach taught at Westridge and they now give out an award in his name to a student and teacher each year. They narrowed down the student nominees to the top 4 and then I read all of the submissions and picked the winner. Of course, it was very hard to be there for all of us. But as my brother put it, "Obviously it's sad, but it's also nice to hear people who worked with Zach talk about him and how they miss him." D came to the beginning of the awards and then Papa took him home so he could get to bed at a decent time. We are going to attend their staff breakfast on Friday, so hopefully we'll get some good pics from that.

Wordless Wednesdays - We Love Uncle Morris!!!

2011-05-18T21:47:00.006-05:00

Dylan and Uncle Morris have a great relationship!! He is one of Dylan's favorite people and they are so cute to watch together!!! Whether it be doing yard work, or D's favorite Uncle Morris throwing him up in the air, they always have a great time together!!

Wordless Wednesdays - Happy Mother's Day!!

2011-05-11T12:20:00.000-05:00

Hope all the moms and the moms to be out there had great Mother's Day!! We had a nice weekend...my mom, sister and I golfed on Saturday and grilled out at the Morris house Saturday night. Sunday, we hit up the zoo and then had dinner at Craig Street (my parents house). I have some great pics on my camera from the zoo, and will add them to this post tonight, but wanted to get it up sooner!!

Andrea doing her celebratory cartwheel after getting a par...we actually both got pars on the same hole!!!

Dylan eating my free "moms" ice cream cone that the zoo gave to all mothers!

Tired little pumpkin on the way home from the zoo!

Dylan and me with the beautiful flowers he gave me for Mother's Day (with the help of Felicia!!)

Wordless Wednesdays - Busy Busy Busy!!

2011-05-04T09:35:00.005-05:00

We are all enjoying spring and the arrival of some warmer weather! We had another great weekend. Andrea, Will, my mom and I all participated in a 5K on Saturday morning. Andrea and I ran while Will and my mom walked the course. It was a perfect day and we had a blast! Afterward, my mom and I took Ella and Dylan to Deanna Rose. It was a lot of walking, and we were a bit sore after, but we had a great time!

Sunday, we had a good time picking out flowers and planting them in our front yard :) D, of course, picked out pink flowers and he is very excited about them!

D has also officially transitioned into the 2-3 year old room at daycare. It's been a tough transition, although I knew it would be. They had been letting him go play in the new room for a few hours a day leading up to Monday and it hadn't been going well. D (and I) are very attached to his old teacher, Mrs. Amanda, and D didn't like having to leave her. Monday was pretty horrible from a drop-off perspective. D bawled hysterically and kept asking for Mrs. Amanda. Thankfully, he calmed down fairly quickly after I left (I called to make sure, hard to leave him when he's like that) and each day has gotten a bit better. I'm guessing by next week, drop-offs will once again be smooth!

This is actually a picture from the park on Friday...I wanted to show how much of a monkey D continues to be! He now loves finding bars he can reach and swinging from them. He has amazing upper body strength!!

Deanna Rose fun!!!!

Planting flowers with Namma!!

Wordless Wednesdays - Happy Easter!!!

2011-04-27T20:09:00.003-05:00

Sorry for how late this post is!! Same story different day with work getting in the way!! I also am well aware that I am still woefully behind in terms of catch up posts from November forward and am getting more behind by the day! (we just do too many super fun things, and I want to write about all of them!)

Here are a few pics from this past Easter weekend. I'll post more later but wanted to get these up. Erin came in from Chicago to surprise Kristen at her baby shower and we had a great weekend! I think she has a new appreciation for how exhausting a 2 year old is after chasing him around for 4 days, and we miss her already! In fact, D has been asking about her daily!!

Dying Easter eggs!

3 swings...3 kiddos :)

This is the day after Easter...Beth made D an adorable bunny cookie and as you can see D was very excited to gobble it up!!

Wordless Wednesdays - Daycare Week!

2011-04-20T11:03:00.003-05:00

Last week was "Week of the Young Child" at D's daycare. We had fun participating in all the events!!

Monday: Hat day...no I didn't send him to school in a pink hat, he was wearing one of his friend's hats! I sent him in the awesome Royals hat!

Tuesday: Bounce House Day!! D actually was willing to get in the bounce house this year! He was still a bit hesitant but had fun.

Wednesday: Crazy Hair Day!!

Thursday: Pajama Day and eat breakfast at daycare day! We had fun eating our bagels and bananas at daycare :)
I also went in after lunch on Thursday and read D's class his favorite book "Where the Wild Things Are". It was lots of fun and the kiddos were all very excited I was there. If you ever need a self-esteem boost, go hang out with a bunch of 1-2 year olds. I felt kind of like a rock star!! I was a little worried D would be upset when I left, but he went over to his cot and lay down and said "bye bye mama". It was a great experience!

Wordless Wednesdays - Parents as Teachers

2011-04-13T14:44:00.004-05:00

D and I participate in a local program through the school districts called Parents as Teachers. Starting when you kiddo is born, they come to your house every 6-8 weeks and provide milestones, good toys/games/books to play with and in general answer any questions you might have. This is especially useful when you are in-between doctor appointments and have questions that don't warrant a call to the doctor, but you'd like to get answered. And of course, it's always nice to hear how advanced your kiddo is in terms of milestones :) Our PAT person, Jennifer, has become a good friend and Dylan absolutely loves her!! Another great thing with PAT is they have cool events that you can attend. This past weekend we went on a tour of a fire station. D loved the trucks but was a bit scared when the firefighter put on all of this gear. Last night we went to a "Taste of Toddlerhood" event where we met up with Kylie and Jody Stump and did some "cooking". It's a great program, and for any of you Kansans with little ones, I highly recommend looking into it!!

Not related to PAT, its crazy hair day at D's daycare today. Check out the spiked action I sent him to school with :) I actually think it's pretty cute!!

Finally, for those of you who didn't believe me about having multiple posts last week, check out the Wordless Wednesdays from last week about all the trips D and I have taken in 2 short years! It's one of my new faves!

Wordless Wednesdays - Oh! the Places You'll Go

2011-04-06T21:25:00.009-05:00

Today is your day. You're off to Great Places! You're Off and away! Dr. Seuss Zach and I have always loved travelling (even though sometimes it's a bit stressful...maybe a little more for Zach than me!) Obviously, once you start travelling with kiddos life becomes a bit more complicated! But once I realized what a great little traveler D is; it has been easy for the most part!! I think we have adequately taken advantage of the fact that kids under 2 get to fly free...as of D's second birthday, we have taken 16 trips that involved airplanes (we've taken a number of other trips to Iowa, Illinois and the lake as well, but just wanted to count trips on planes). For those of you who don't want to do the math, that's more than 1 trip every 2 months...no wonder I'm so tired. 9 of the 16 trips have been to Chicago and want to give a huge thanks once again to Toni, Karl and Nicki for making coming to Chicago as easy as possible! It really is a home away from home and we are very appreciative!! Here's a recap with a few pics from each of the trips! I can't believe how much D has grown and how fun it is to take him places because he's so interested in his surroundings. We might slow down our travel a little now that we have to buy another ticket, but have trips to Vegas, California and a few to Chicago already planned for the summer. Here's to many more fun adventures!! 1. D's first trip to Chicago (of course!) For the first annual memorial game for Zach.

2. California for a great time with family!!

3. Chicago again...for Carrie Mac's wedding!!

4. Buenos Aires, Argentina to visit Aunt Nicki and D's first stamp in a passport!!

5. Chicago again...guess who's a year old? D is going to think that every birthday deserves a multi-city celebration!

6. Las Vegas...what 1 year old hasn't been to Vegas!? Cheering on Papa at the pool tourney and having a blast at the pool!

7. Chicago for Aunt Nicki's graduation!

8. Chicago for Remy and Dave's wedding!

9. Chicago for the 2nd annual memorial Cubs game!

10. Phoenix, Arizona for Terra's wedding and some family time!

11. Chicago for the Iowa vs. Northwestern game and some Bears football!

12. Chicago to check out Aunt Nicki's new apartment! And to play in the snow :)

13. Las Vegas, Baby!! A second family reunion in Vegas!

14. El Dorado, Puerto Rico...a great trip to paradise!!

15. Colorado...a trip to snowy mountain! Next year, skiing??

16. Chicago...Happy 2nd birthday, D! I can't wait for many many more trips with you!!

Sorry for how late I got this post up...stayed up last night working on it, but didn't quite get it done! Also, for those of you accustomed to only looking on Wednesdays, there are a few birthday posts below!

More Happy Birthday...and a Montly Picture Finale!!

2011-04-04T16:19:00.002-05:00

Here are a few more pics of D from his b-day this weekend (many more to come and a detailed birthday festivities post, but like getting these up quickly!). We had a great weekend and Nicki and Chris came in from Chicago to continue the celebration! We took D's final official month picture on his new bike! I promise there will still be lots of cute pics, but I think I'm going to drop the monthly thing now...just couldn't keep topping each month's ideas! More coming soon...

Can you tell these kiddos like cupcakes??!!??

Happy Birthday, Dylan!!!!

2011-03-31T14:52:00.009-05:00

I can't believe Dylan's 2 years old already!! I'll post a lot more pictures and videos over the next few days, but wanted to get some fun pics up from today. D had his 2 year doctor's appointment this morning, so I took the morning off so we could play beforehand. D had a GREAT time playing on his new bike that Papa and I put together last night and did not want to leave this morning! The doctor's appointment went great. D was perfectly happy throughout the whole appointment (except for the 2 shots). If you remember, he was quite hysterical at his 18 month appointment, so this was a great change! He had fun playing with chalk (and banging the erasers) beforehand and was great in the exam room. He talked a ton around Dr. Kate (she commented multiple times how advanced he was in terms of communication and was very impressed he was jumping around. I gave Ella the credit for his talking, rightfully so!!). He weighed in at 27 pounds (35th percentile) and was 34 inches tall (30th percentile). He actually didn't stand up very straight, so I'm guessing he's a bit taller. And Dr. Kate said based on how he's fluctuated around the 50th percentile and his genes, she expects him to be tall :) After the doctor's appointment, we met Papa at McDonalds for lunch. We brought cupcakes to daycare, so all in all it'll be a great b-day and we're excited for some family fun this weekend :)

D was in a great mood when he woke up this morning! It helped that he slept in until 8:30 :)

Check out my new bike!! Thanks Beth, Dennis and Alyssa!!!

Looking awfully pitiful after 2 shots...yes those are tear stains on his shirt!

Luckily, the nurse thought ahead and had the sucker with her...so this was a few seconds later, over the shots and now just excited about his multi-color sucker!

Lunch and some playtime at McDonalds before daycare :)

Not So Wordless Wednesdays - Catch Up Time - the October Episode!!!

2011-03-30T15:35:00.001-05:00

Okay, I am finally starting to catch up with the LONG overdue blog posts that sometimes keep me up at night (okay, I'm being a bit dramatic on that one, but it has been really bothering me). I thought, what better way to catch up than lots of pictures and the Top 10 events from the month. My goal is to get November and December done over the next 2 weeks as well and then I've been doing a pretty good job of posting new stuff on Wednesdays, so I will be all caught up!! Here goes nothing...(please note, ranking is based on order of occurrence and does not in any way shape or form rank friends/family/etc.!)

#10 D's first road trip to Iowa City!! We had an awesome time getting to see my family from the east coast and hanging with lots of college friends!

#9 We went to Phoenix to see family, friends and for Terra Tham's wedding. We had a great time and the cousins loved hanging out together in the pool!!

#8 Grandma Toni came to visit!! D and I always have a great time with Toni and I think he especially likes getting to show off his toys and stuff to her in KC.

#7 Beth's baby shower...yes Baby Collin made his debut in November (look forward to some pics), but we had a great time throwing a shower for her and D loves talking about Baby Collin all the time!!

#6 Chris and Nicki come to visit!! We had a great time the whole weekend! We spent lots of times at Deanna Rose exploring the pumpkin patch, going for a hay ride and playing on the slides in addition to seeing all the animals. Chris has very quickly become part of the fam and we all love it when he comes to town to visit! He is great with all the kiddos and Ella and Dylan's face always light up when we talk about him.

#5 We also went to a Chiefs game that was lots of fun (some of us maybe even had too much fun)!!

#4 Halloween at D's daycare :) D had 2 costumes this year, an awesome Bam Bam costume made by Jody Stump as well as a monkey. D loved saying Bam Bam and we had fun at the daycare party!

#3 Carving pumpkins at Aunt Andrea's house! D was much more interested in playing the harmonica, but the pumpkins turned out pretty well!

#2 Trick or Treating at Applebee's. Applebee's has trick or treating every year for all the little kiddos. It's always a ton of fun, and D definitely got the concept of candy this year :) You can see some awesome pics of Kylie (Pebbles) and Dylan (Bam Bam) together. Ella was also the most adorable penguin you ever saw and loved waddling around!

#1 Trick or Treating - Andrea and I took D (this time as a monkey) and Ella out to a few houses for trick or treating. Ella was great at saying trick or treating and thank you. D was good at the thank yous and also tried to give candy back to everybody (which I think is very good sharing). We hit up a few houses in the Morris neighborhood and had a great time! I can't wait until next year when Maggie (who was the cutest cow ever!) joins in the mix!!

Okay, so that's October in a nutshell :) For those of you keeping track, D turns 2 years old tomorrow. I can't believe how quickly how time has gone by. We had an amazing time in Chicago this past weekend with a great party hosted by Nicki and Chris with lots of friends and family. I have a few fun posts planned around D's birthday and a look back on the last 2 years, so check back more than just Wednesdays. For now, here's a pic of Nicki, Dylan and me in Chicago...please note the awesome ball themed cupcakes Nicki and I made! Might be my new all time favorite "creative project" I've been able to pull off!!