Smile

Guess who is smiling?!? Yes our little Landon is giving us all kinds of smiles these days...and I love it! =)

As you can see, Landon isn't the only one smiling around here. Alaina is full of smiles too. Here she happens to be smiling about her artwork and my reaction to her saying "Oh my lanta, Mom look at my artwork.....oh my laina.....oooh my gramma!" Haha. I have no idea where she comes up with some of these things. She recently started saying "oh my lanta" and for some reason, today, she decided to fill in "laina" or "gramma" in place of "lanta". Gotta love that ornery smile!

As if I don't have enough to smile amount, this sleeping beauty below gave me even one more reason to smile today....he slept through the night!!! I'm not expecting a repeat any time soon, but I was very excited and grateful to have 7 straight hours of sleep last night! =) Thank you Landon!

And now that I have posted twice in one week...I hope you all are smiling too!

Smiling is infectious,
You can catch it like the flu.
Someone smiled at me today,
And I started smiling too.
~Author Unknown

Ahh...it's been a while...huh? Haha. I, for some reason, have such a hard time finding time to blog...BUT...I am going to try this again. I know that someday it will be so nice to look back on and to have documentation of all the fun and crazy things going on in our lives! So, wish me luck! My maternity leave is almost over and I will be returning to work soon so hopefully I can find a few minutes here and there to keep the blog updated weekly! We have been SO blessed and I am just trying to enjoy every last minute with my babies =).

Anyway so here is our newest family member, Landon! I can't believe that he is 6 weeks old already! Seriously the time goes WAY to fast! I truly believe that second children grow up even faster than first...or it seems like that anyway!

Alaina is such a good big sister and is completely smitten by her baby brother! Which I love! She is such a big helper and will do anything.. if it is for Landon. We'll see how long this lasts =)!

Happy Wednesday everyone!

Hello! I am back for my monthly update! I honestly don't know where the time goes! So, once again I will leave you with one LONG post...to make up for the month long lack of posting! Hopefully, I can get back to my weekly posts one of these days! Anyway, here are the highlights of our month...

1. Meeting Lauren Paige Rouse!!! She was such a little angel! We felt so blessed to have spent part of Lauren's first days at home with her! The little princess is getting so big...we can't wait to see her again! Way to go Jamie and Kyle...she is such a cutie!!!
2. Having fun, modeling Monica's sunglasses, at the Fareway Picnic. Lots of people, food and fun!

3. Watching little miss Mia for a few days while her mommy and daddy went on vacation. We had SOOOO much fun with this little cutie (as you can see)! She was unbelievably good for us! I don't know who had more fun with Mia....Andy & I...or... Alaina?!?
4. Celebrating Alaina's 2nd Birthday!!!! Even though Alaina was feeling a little under the weather, we still had a great time celebrating a special day! Grandma and Grandpa came to visit on Alaina's birthday (and took her out for Happy Joe's pizza and ice cream). Plus, we had cake and "Pin the Tail on Swiper" on Sunday with Alaina's Aunt Kim and Uncle Tim. I'll try to post more pictures of all the birthday fun later!

5. Finishing my little project: Alaina's big girl bed! Here are the before and after pictures. Thankfully, Alaina is very proud of her big girl bed :-)!



6. Cheering on the Vikings. Football season has arrived, and to Andy's pleasure, Alaina has become his little cheerleader.

Hello! Does one BIG post make up for my lack of posts this past month?!? I hope so! We have been keeping so busy, enjoying the rest of summer - I haven't taken the time to blog. So, here are some highlights from the month!

We took advantage of our local library's museum pass, and took Alaina to the Children's Museum. We had so much fun! The featured exhibit was the Blue Man's Group exhibit from the Boston Children's Museum. The exhibit brought together science and art with the fun of music. Alaina has always liked music so, she definitely enjoyed making music here as well! We will have to go back again soon!

Learning about sound waves...

Speaking of learning...Alaina also learned a little something about patience this summer as she planted some flower seeds (as well as tomato seeds) and waited for them to grow. Her great grandparents sent the flower seeds to her around Valentines Day and they bloomed this past month. Andy and I grew tomatoes for the first time (in a topsy-turvy and 5 gallon buckets) and Alaina helped plant, water, and pick those as well! It's been a lot of fun and a great learning experience...for us all!

Oh..and we got the opportunity to see a Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus at the I-Wireless Center as well! It was quite an experience! Alaina's favorite entertainers were the horses and the stuntmen on the horses - we must have been too amused with Alaina's excitement to get any good pictures of them! Haha. Here are a few other pictures we did manage to take though.

The swinging acrobats were definitely another one of Alaina's favorites. I can only imagine what was going through her little mind as she watched this! She was quite impressed!

And most recently, I finally made salsa with some of the tomatoes we grew, watered, and picked! Yum...there is nothing like fresh salsa! Wish you all were here to enjoy it with me =).

Family Fun

Happy Wednesday! Once again, my post is going to be short and sweet (with lots of photos). We've been keeping super busy enjoying our summer. This past weekend some of my family came for a fun-filled visit! Alaina had a blast playing with her cousins, and I enjoyed catching up with everyone! Unfortunately, Andy had to work a lot over the weekend - but he was sure to enjoy the time he did have! I posted a few pictures of the kids enjoying Little Bear Park as well as pictures from family fun night.




Last night, our community hosted a family fun night at the park with lots of great food, games and entertainment. I think our favorite was definitely the petting zoo. The bunnies were SOOO cute (Alaina wasn't the only one wanting to take one home). My least favorite was the DNR with their snakes! There were also demonstations with the police dog, animals from the humane society, jumping houses, inflatable obstacle courses, little train rides, music, snow cones, ice cream cones, malts, games and more! Family fun was definitely had by all.

A few words on "Wordless Wednesday"

A night out bowling for Andy's birthday (and lots of fun) - $9 First corn on the cob - $0.40

Stretching with daddy and

a lil spontaneity . . . priceless

4th of July Fun

I can't believe that the fourth of July has already came and gone! With the long weekend we decided to go 'back home' for an over due visit!
It was so nice to see our family! Everyone kept saying that they could not believe how much Alaina had changed. I thought..yah I know. But I didn't realize just how much she had changed until I accidentally came across this picture from last July. It is truly amazing how much our children change in just one year!

Alaina had so much fun playing with her cousins, hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa, and simply exploring!
There was so much to see and do! Alaina's aunt Barb even whipped out some festive confetti works. I don't know exactly how it worked...but i know that the kids absolutely loved it and it made a HUGE mess!

Alaina and I helped Bapa clean up a whole lot of confetti off the driveway! We got to see some old friends from Manchester, the fireworks over the lake, our nieces and nephew's modeling talents as well as lots of family fun! It was a great weekend. We definitely can't wait so long between visits! Thanks to our families for all the fun and hospitality!