Sunday, October 31, 2010

Trick-or-Treat



The kids had a great time trick-or-treating and man did they get a ton of candy! Kaylee dressed up as Barbie Thumbelina. Kianna dressed up different everyday this weekend. She ended up as Princess Cinderella tonight and Trace was a dalmatian. Trace had fun walking around the neighborhood carrying his bucket. He especially liked grabbing the candy out of the bowls and saying "chay chew" (AKA: thank you). He looked adorable walking around out there. The girls had a great time too. This was the first year they were really into trick-or-treating, especially Kaylee. She didn't want to stop. What a fun weekend!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Pumpkins





This year we decided to try painting pumpkins instead of the usual carving of pumpkins. It was really fun. Kaylee decided she wanted to do a little of both so Daddy helped her carve a pumpkin too. Fun times!

Barnyard Bash






Our church hosted an event called The Barnyard Bash on Saturday. It was another fun event complete with candy, games, food, hayride, animals to pet, and horseback rides. The kids were all excited to ride on the horses. In fact, Trace may have been the most excited to ride the "neigh neigh". What a fun time. Notice Kianna went as Spidergirl today, whereas last night she dressed up as Tinkerbell. Just wait until you see what she dresses up as for Halloween...

Friday, October 29, 2010

Fall Festival



The Centre sponsored an event called The Fall Festival. It had a couple bouncy houses setup, lots of crafts, candy, games, and they showed the movie "How to Train a Dragon". It was a great event and the kids had a fun time!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Trace is 21 months old



Trace has learned a lot over the past 3 months and seems to be adding new words to his vocabulary daily. He will attempt to say most any word when asked. Some of his most recent words are "Ta" for Trace, "tuh" for truck, "moo" for moon, "ki" for kick, "ea" for eat, "boo" for peek-a-boo, "buh" for book, "bah" for blocks and ball, baby, Wii, and "tt" for t.v.. I'm sure there are many more, but those are the ones that come to mind. Trace is learning to walk up/down stairs vs crawling down them. However, I still encourage the latter as the former makes me nervous! Trace has learned to jump and can actually get both feet off the ground at the same time. Our neighbors just gave us their trampoline and he loves jumping on it!

Trace has learned how to take our finger and drag us where he wants us to go. It is pretty cute. Most of the time it is to get us to play blocks with him. He can build his own little towers now, but he really likes it when we let him knock our big towers down. Trace has recently discovered Legos and seems to enjoy playing with them too. Trace still loves balls. He can actually throw, catch and kick a ball. I'm amazed at how well he catches and kicks for being as little as he is! Trace really enjoys pushing things around the house. He especially likes running behind his larger cars/trucks while pushing them along the ground.

I continue to be amazed at all these "boy" things that have just come so naturally. However, in the past couple of months, Trace has developed a fascination with trucks, buses, and planes. I was getting frustrated with him because while driving around he would constantly be saying "Mum, Mum, Mum, Mum, etc.,". I would ask him what he wanted and he would just continue saying my name over and over again. It made driving around town a bit obnoxious. It took me about a week and I finally realized that when he was saying "Mum" it was because he saw a big semi-truck and wanted to show me what it was. Once I finally discovered what he was trying to tell me he just smiled and pointed at the trucks. That was one mystery I was happy to solve!

Another thing that Trace enjoys is going on walks. He likes to drive his little car while we push him around the block. However, he also likes to do the walking himself and often makes quite a commotion attempting to convince us to let him out of his car or whatever is restraining him. Unfortunately, this has made taking him shopping quite a challenge and not a pleasant experience, as he is constantly wanting out of the cart. That is if I was able to get him to sit in the cart in the first place. I didn't realize that boys started to hate shopping at such an early age! I told him I want a new shopping partner, but my options are a little limited during the day...

Trace continues to work on going pee pee in the potty. There have been days where he has gone up to 3x and other days where he hasn't gone at all. I think he mostly enjoys sitting on his potty because he gets to read books. His favorite book is one that has a bunch of pictures of animals in it. He loves it when I say the animal sounds and when I get to the bee at the end of the book and start buzzing and tickling him. He has a great husky little voice and loves to laugh. He has learned how to blow "farts" on our skin, which is pretty silly. He also is a great dancer! He has his own signature move, where he puts one shoulder up in the air and moves around in circles with a little swagger. He has quite the personality and is such a source of joy for us!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Langfald's Visit







We spent another fun weekend with visitors. This time with Trevor's sister, Sam, Mike and Bryker. On Friday, we gave them a tour of The Centre/LCS, went for a hike at a nearby park, and swam in the pool. On Saturday, we went to the Hands On Children's Museum in Ann Arbor. What a fun place! It is filled with tons of things kids love with some of the highlights being making crafts, sitting in an ambulance, building with foam blocks, and playing with water. It was our first time there and we will definitely be returning. The museum was followed up with some yummy pizza, bubble tea (not Sam's favorite), and a girls trip to Ikea. Our evenings were spent playing Settlers of Catan. Life doesn't get much better than that! On Sunday, we went to church, took a trip to the park, sent the boys to a movie, and relaxed. Fun times!

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Issa's Visit








We had a great jam packed weekend with our good friends, The Issa's. On Friday, we had fun showing them around The Centre/LCS and swimming in the pool. Boy are we getting to be pros at giving tours! The adults had a night out attending the Matthew West concert. While the kids had fun playing Wii and jumping on our new trampoline. On Saturday, the adults took off for a full day of tailgating and watching the Iowa vs Michigan football game at The Big House, which we won. Yea! We had a fun time with lots of great memories. By the end of the weekend Trace was walking around the house with a Wii remote saying "Wii"? I think I know what they were doing while we were gone...

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Trip to Iowa




The trip was motivated by Trevor's need to go to an Iowa home football game at Kinnick stadium. You thought I was joking about him being sad about no longer having season tickets, nope! Trevor already had his trip planned when the kids and I decided to tag along. Originally, the kids and I were going to stay in Michigan so the girls wouldn't miss two days of school. However, as the time approached we decided they are young enough that missing two days of school isn't a big deal. Ironically, Kaylee was sad about having to miss two days of school. That is until I told her I would ask her teacher if she could give us the paperwork she would be missing. I hope her enthusiasm for school continues!

We got into Cedar Rapids late Thursday evening and had a whirlwind tour. On Friday, Trevor had breakfast and lunch plans with friends from Rockwell and even stopped by Rockwell to visit his old coworkers that afternoon. I had a fun time on Friday taking my Grandma Carie to Kalona for the day. It is an amish community not far from Cedar Rapids. We have gone there the past few years and have fun walking around the shops and eating some yummy pastries. The kids had some special time with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Wayne while I was gone. Friday evening, we all met Grandma Becki, Grandpa Bob, Aunt Sam and Bryker at Chuck-E-Cheese for some fun times.

On Saturday, Trevor went to the Iowa vs Penn State game and had fun tailgating with friends. He was able to enjoy the big win even more in person! The stadium looked awesome as the crowd was dressed in black and gold according to where they were seated. The result was a striped look, which was pretty impressive from my view on T.V. While Trevor was at the game, the kids and I spent the morning with Grandma Jacque. She made us a really nice meal, which is a big deal, because she doesn't cook much. We felt pretty special! Saturday afternoon, we headed to Manchester, IA with Grandma Sue and Grandpa Wayne to celebrate my niece and nephew's birthdays at my brother, Dave's house. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins.

On Sunday, we had fun going to church and catching up with our friends. We had lunch at Grandma Becki and Grandpa Bob's house. After lunch, Grandma Becki took the girls to a movie, which they all enjoyed. While they were gone I went and watched part of my nephew, Matthew's soccer game. We ended the evening with dinner at my sister, Stacie's house. Unfortunately, our evening ended up being a bit more eventful than planned when my Grandma Carie collapsed while she was mid-conversation with my nephew. After she came to, she began complaining of chest pain, so we had to call 911. She was held overnight for tests and released the next day with her symptoms being caused by her irregular heart beat and congestive heart failure. It was a scary way to end the weekend, but made me even more glad to have come back "home" with Trevor and thankful to have spent such a nice day with her on Friday!