Mini Family Vacation

This has been a very fun weekend for our little family! On Friday night we went to Wisconsin Dells and spent the night at the Wilderness Lodge. It is a big hotel that includes two big indoor waterparks that are free for guests.

We got to the Dells about 4:30 or so Friday afternoon and got checked in and went right to the pools. They are very family oriented pools with a large area in both water parks where the pools are only about 6 inches deep and have slides and toys for kids. Nathan was in heaven just playing and squirting us and having fun. We took him down a few of the big slides but he said they were too scary. So, we swam for about an hour and a half (Jack was included in this-he loves the water and was happy the entire hour and a half) and then we went out for dinner at a pizza buffet. After dinner we came back and swam in the other waterpark pools until about 9:30 (this time Jack just slept on the side while me and Josh took turns in the pool with Nathan).

In our hotel room after all the swimming we all got settled into bed (we were exhausted from all of our swimming). Nathan was sleeping on a queen size bed alone and I was worried he would fall off but Josh assured me that he would be fine. Within 5 minutes of going to bed I heard a thump and sure enough, little Nathan was on the floor. So I made him a nice bed out of couch cushions on the floor and he slept fine. :)

We got up in the morning, had breakfast and were to the pools by about 9:15 and swam and swam and swam until about 2:00. By that time Nathan did not want to leave but was having a major crisis because he was hungry and tired. He had played most of the day in the wave pool and didn't ever want to get out. He wasn't interested in slides or any of the toys, he just wanted to play in the wave pool. Nathan was so sad to leave our vacation he said but we assured him we will do it again sometime. It was a ton of fun! Just Nathan's excitement when we got to the hotel, before we ever started swimming or anything was enough to make it all worthwhile. It was a great time for our family! (Most of our pictures didn't come out very well except one of Jack which I will post here. There is a pic that didn't turn out of Jack going to down a waterslide with mom though. Brave baby!)

Happy Halloween!

Well, the Halloween festivities have begun! This week so far we have been to two Halloween parties and have one more party tomorrow and trick or treating tomorrow night. Nathan's Halloween pumpkin is already almost filled to the top with candy so he really doesn't need to trick or treat tomorrow night, but I want him to get to experience it at least for a while anyway! He is less than impressed with his costume though.

Last night was our church trunk or treat. We all dressed up. Nathan as Elmo for about 5 minutes before he was taking the costume off, Jack as Jack in the box for probably even less time than Nathan but at least long enough to get a couple of cute pictures. Josh was dressed as Darth Maul complete with face painted by some extremely talented makeup artist (I'll let you guess who that is) and I was a headless woman holding her own head. We had a lot of fun.

This whole week and month have been fun. I was determined to make the most of the beautiful month of October and feel like we really have. We have been to pumpkin patches, made carmel apples, carved "smoooooky pumpkins," been to Halloween parties and the only thing left is to make my Halloween pumpkin shaped sugar cookies and that is on the agenda for tonight!

A funny thing (completely un-Halloween related) happened last night. We put Nathan to bed and I went in to check on him a few hours later before I went to bed only to find him naked from the waist down! Apparently his diaper was hurting him so he decided to remove it! Suprisingly he wasn't laying in a puddle-we got lucky there! I hope he doesn't make a habit of that!

Jack's newest thing is to roll from his back to his tummy and then to get mad because he really doesn't like tummy time but doesn't know how to roll from tummy to back yet. So, we roll him back over onto his back and within a few seconds he is back on his tummy again! I guess pretty soon he will learn to roll both ways and will be able to solve the problem himself!

Well, happy Halloween!

Enjoying October

October is one of my very favorite months and I have been determined this year to make the most of it. We have had a lot of fun enjoying fall and I am sad that October will soon be over!

I didn't write for several weeks so there are quite a few fun things we did that never got recorded. One of the best things we did this month was our trip to the Eugter's Farm Fall Festival last Saturday. It was kind of a brisk and windy day but it was sunny so we drove about 20 minutes into the country to a little farm that has a big pumpkin patch and other fun things to do this time of year. We rode on a tractor to a pumpkin patch (we didn't get any pumpkins though because we already have so many). Then we walked through a corn maze. A corn maze is the perfect activity for a two year old because we were able to give Nathan complete control of the decisions and let him guide us through the maze! He felt so powerful and in charge. We also went to a scary silo and a haunted house. Turns out the haunted house was a little too haunted and we had to turn around immediately and come out. Nathan still talks about the monster in the spoooooooooky house who we assure him is a nice monster. Anyway, it was a really fun day.

We also went to two other pumpkin patches. One is the patch we go to every year and take pictures in the same spot. This is a fun tradition because we can see how our family is changing year after year (I attached the picture of me with the two boys-we can't get a full family one because there is never anyone around to take a pic of all of us). The other pumpkin patch was with our playgroup. This week Nathan, Jack and I also went for a leaf collecting walk. We found leaves that were green, brown, yellow, orange, red and purple. Then we glued them all to a paper plate to make a wreath. That was fun!

Just to make sure this blog doesn't make my life sound to peachy, let's just say Nathan has definitely been two this week. Picking up a whole roll of unrolled toilet paper 80 times can really test a mother's patience. Especially when he dumps that whole roll of unrolled paper into the toilet! Today I reflected on how unglamorus a mother's job is when dealing with potty issues but I will skip those details.

Jack learned to roll from his back to his tummy this week. The funny thing is that he doesn't know how to gor from tummy to back and really doesn't like to be on his tummy, so once he rolls over he gets kind of mad!

This week we have two Halloween parties (one with playgroup and then the church Trunk or Treat). I am so excited for Halloween with Nathan this year. I think he is going to have so much fun. Nathan is dressing up as Elmo and Jack is going to be Jack in the box. It should be a fun week!

Fall is here!

A funny thing has happened this year as fall has hit. I realized that for two of the past three falls I have been sick with morning sickness and haven't really enjoyed fall all that much. So, now as the leaves start changing and the weather starts to get that nip, I am having flashbacks to feeling sick all day everyday and I don't like it! I have to move past that because usually I love fall.

The other thing about fall that I always think about is the first year that me and Josh were married. On Saturday afternoons that fall my favorite thing to do was to sit and watch a BYU football game (that was their good year) while working on a project like painting a halloween decoration. I thought to myself as I was thinking about this "man that would be nice to have the time to do something like that and sit by myself in peace on a Saturday afternoon and not have a million other things to be doing or kids to take care of" but then I thought "man I sure am glad to be at the stage of life I am in now instead." Having my two little cuties, one big cutie and a successful at home business is crazy but pure heaven as well!

This has been a really fun week. Nathan got to go to a birthday party last week (accompanied by mom and Jack of course) and that was fun for him. This week we have been doing some halloween projects and having lots of fun! We made candy corn magnets for him to give to some of his friends and yesterday we made ghosts out of twinkies covered in white chocolate chips. On Monday we also went to a petting farm where Nathan was completely uninterested in the animals but loved the huge sandbox that was filled with dump trucks and digger trucks.

One other fun thing this week-last night at dinner Nathan had Jack in stitches. All he was doing was shaking his head back and forth but Jack thought it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. Jack has only laughed like that twice when he wasn't being tickled and both times it has been for Nathan. He just loves his big brother!

Well, off to do more of the little things that I drive myself crazy and keep myself happy with! Goodbye!

Last week of summer

Well, summer ended this week in more ways than one. The calendar says it is over but out here in Wisconsin Mother Nature says it is over too. I don't mind too much since I love the fall, but the thought that winter and snow are coming keeps me from getting too excited about the changing seasons. Right now though it is a cool, rainy day-something I love! I wouldn't mind some of this kind of weather for a while as long as we get a few sunny days thrown in there as well.

Since I have known that summer was rapidly coming to a close, we tried to spend the week making the most of it. Monday we had a playgroup to go to. It is a new playgroup with a woman I met at the library and then a bunch of her neighbors. I wanted to join it so that I could expand my circle of friends beyond just the friends I have at church. We have been doing the playgroup for two weeks now and it has been fun! I have already had the opportunity to talk about my religion and beliefs with a few of them as well which was really neat plus they are really nice women and I am always happy to make new friends.

I also had two mothering firsts this week. The first one was taking Nathan to the bathroom in a public place for the first time. He really isn't potty trained yet but he does do his poopies in the potty these days (makes my life much happier to have less dirty diapers to change!) so when we were out one day he announced to me that he needed to go potty. Off we went. I will spare the details but it was quite an experience! The second mothering first may be hard to believe. I took Nathan to the McDonalds play area for the first time this week! He has been with other people but I personally had never taken him. I was always afraid he would crawl up in that big tube and not come out and when I was 9 months pregnant I really didn't want to go in after him. It was tons of fun. Nathan played very happily plus he ate his whole happy meal. Jack slept in his car seat next to me and I was happy-I just wished I had brought a book!

Other things we did this week included going to Barnes and Noble to play at the train tables, our church playgroup at the park, buying Nathan new shoes, a shopping spree to Old Navy where I spent way more than I had planned on things I wasn't even looking for, a rare evening in which we were all home for at least a few hours in the evening, two trips to friend's houses where Nathan played with buddies, a couple of his buddies coming to our house to play, dinner at the Olive Garden and of course plenty of two year old tantrums. :) Life with a two year old and a 4 month old is fun and exhausting. I love it!

Jack just keeps getting bigger and cuter (if that is possible). He is laying by me right now just staring out the window, one of his favorite things to do. Nathan has started saying to him "What's the ploblem kid?" whenever he cries. Don't know where he learned that! :) Nathan also has started saying his own prayers. This morning while I was saying my morning prayer he knelt down by me and said his too-thanking Heavenly Father for dump trucks and bulldozers.

Well, life is good as always and we are looking forward to another week packed full of fun and all sorts of other stuff! :)

A blog about two cute kids!

Well, I got an email from a friend the other day and at the bottom of it was a link to a blog that she keeps about what is going on in her life as a mother of two kids. It was a lot of fun to read and I realized that this might be a great way for me to record fun things that me, Josh, Nathan and Jack are doing and keep family and friends up to date on our two cute boys easily!

So, here is my blog! Never done a blog before. I plan to try to post here about once a week and record things that we have done during the week, cute things the boys have said or done, and anything else that is going on in our lives. So hold on tight cause me and these boys don't like to sit still and we lead a busy life!

Yesterday was Quarry Quest up in Neenah (where Josh's parents live). Quarry Quest is basically a day full of all of Nathan's wildest dreams coming true right before his very eyes. The big quarry is filled with construction trucks of all kinds and the kids get to see them up close and even ride on them! Nathan got to drive a bulldozer and work the controls on a digger truck (excavator) while an actual worker sat on the seat with him. Nathan had a look on his face that told the world that he was serious about this-he wasn't here just for fun like the other kids, he had work to do! He told us "I need to dig." He had his hands on the steering wheel to drive that bulldozer, worked the arm of the digger truck and then we all got to take a ride in the back of a dump truck (this part included Jack which was a little scary because it was a very bumpy ride and we felt like we might be thrown off). We got pictures of Nathan on the trucks and he got a video of big trucks as a souvenir. It was a ton of fun!

Jack is becoming more and more interactive everyday. He loves to lay on the floor with me face to face and have me tickle him and he giggles and squeals. Nathan is determined that Jack should roll over, so he flips him onto his belly and tells him "turn around." Jack doesn't usually do it yet, but with Nathan as a coach he will probably be doing it soon. Jack just adores Nathan which is good because Nathan won't leave him alone. He is constantly undressing him so he can give him a zerbet or tickling him and pushing him in the baby swing.

Well, we have a busy week ahead with trips to the zoo and parks and all sorts of fun things so I will update again later!