We Like to Teach Them Early

We need all the help we can get when cleaning the house:

Drew will get his vacuum as soon as he starts walking. We will then start teaching Isla how to sweep and mop the floors.

Pumpkin Patch

This weekend we made what is becoming our annual visit to Linder Farms or the pumpkin pack as Isla calls it. This year Isla got to go with her BFF Payton Bordner, which was a big deal. So big that this was all we heard the week before we went - Mommy when can I go to the pumpkin pack with Payton? Mommy I'm going to the pumpkin pack with Payton. Mommy I want to go to the pumpkin pack with Payton. I couldn't tell who was more excited when the day finally came, me or her.

These two crack me up. The are so stinkin' cute together:

We decided to first go on the swings - Isla's favorite!

Then it was off to the petting zoo and the pony ride. Isla picked out the biggest pony to ride:

These two like to hold hands where ever they go:

The last photo I got was of Isla and Payton in the bouncy house:

A couple minutes after this photo Isla bumped heads with another bouncer and lost it. I was able to calm her down, but then her and Payton stepped in mud as we were walking to the next attraction and she lost it again and never recovered. We quickly got her some food and then had to leave, without even getting any pumpkins! I think we are going to make a quick trip back there later this week just to get the pumpkins. Luckily GiGi is visiting us so she gets to come with us!

Not so relaxing weekend . . .

Our family went up to Sun Valley this past weekend to have a nice, relaxing, beautiful fall weekend. Well the weekend was all of that but relaxing. Poor Drew had an ear infection that only got worse with the increase in altitude. Needless to say we didn't sleep. at. all. I was hoping to go hiking, but instead had to forgo it in favor of coming home early and fulfilling the prescription we had from the doctor at home (if only I hadn't taken it out of my purse before we left!). Ryan got to go fishing though. And BSU and the Huskies won, so I guess the weekend wasn't too bad.

I didn't get too many pictures from this weekend. With the lack of sleep and no camera, can you blame me?

Isla was a dream child this weekend (thank goodness!). She was so happy visiting with Grandma and Papa Randy. Here she is watering the plants for Grandma:

I should have known Drew wasn't feeling 100% when I took this picture:

Poor buddy. I am happy to report that he is almost 100% now and almost back to his happy, smiley self. Hopefully we won't have a repeat of this weekend when we go back for Thanksgiving and Christmas!

The Camera Bites the Dust

I'm not sure if you have noticed the poor quality of my blog photos or not lately, but our camera has been dying a slow death these past couple months and it finally kicked the bucket this weekend. It gave us a good ride considering we received it as a wedding gift six years ago.

I was able to capture a couple pictures this past weekend before the camera died though. This weekend started very early - 4:30 am to be exact. I think Drew is coming down with an ear infection so he was up early on Saturday morning. Drew doesn't know how to be quiet in the morning so he promptly woke up his sister at about 6:00 am. Hard to be mad at a face like this though:

I was able to capture one last sibling photo - notice how wide eyed these two are and it isn't even light out yet:

Fun times! We did get some good long naps from these two later in the day though and to top it off Aunt Anna came down to hang out with us for the rest of the weekend. But of course I didn't get any pictures of this. Hopefully we get our new camera soon - until then Ryan's iPhone will have to suffice.

The rest of the weekend . . .

As if celebrating both of our kids birthdays wasn't enough, Ryan and I had a wedding to go to on Saturday night as well. Since we rarely get to dress up we jumped at an opportunity for a family photo -I think this is our official first family photo:

Didn't turn out that bad. Ryan and I also got a couple shot in:

When we got married I don't think Ryan fully understood how classy of a lady I really am, and yes, that is a PBR tall boy:

Ryan and I had so much fun at the wedding (congrats to Steve and April Zabel!). You can see more pictures from the night here.

On Sunday Isla practiced riding her new bike:

And perfected her baseball swing - this girl can really hit the ball (I have a video of it, but I can't figure out how to rotate it?)! Taking after her Mom I guess:

Drew was a little under the weather, but still had smiles for us (in his new Elmo pjs):

It was a whirlwind weekend, but so much fun celebrating birthdays and weddings! Thanks to our entire family who came down to celebrate with us and babysit for us - we couldn't have done any of this without you!

Isla turns 3!

On to the next big celebration of the weekend - Isla's 3rd birthday! Isla actually turned 3 on Monday, September 19th, but we decided to celebrate her birthday too on Saturday. We just had the family in town, but we also invited Payton Bordner over so Isla had a friend to play with as well.

These two are best buddies:

Payton helped Isla open all of her gifts:

Including her new bike:

Next it was on to the cupcakes (after Isla bawled while we sang her happy birthday - she takes

after her Mom and Dad and does not like to be the center of attention):

Isla had so much fun celebrating her birthday with her family and her best buddy, but I think her favorite part was the cupcakes.

Miss Isla you fill our lives with joy and like to keep us on our toes. Right now you love to play with your babies (and love to discipline them as well - "you be done" is her favorite thing to say - and a video post of this is in the works), swing on your swing, go for bike rides, watch Dora the Explorer and your favorite word right now is because (it is your answer to everything). Happy Birthday to our not so little girl!

Drew turns 1!

We had an action packed weekend this past weekend with two birthdays to celebrate and each equally important. First off was our Mr. Drew man - he turned one on Saturday! He decided to reach a couple milestones during his birthday week. He finally decided to start crawling instead of rolling and army crawling everywhere and he said not just his first word, but his first two words: hi and more. We didn't go all out with a big party, but we did make sure that all of his favorite people were here (Papa, GiGi, Grandma, Papa Randy, Aunt Anna, Leo and Belle).

He started off his special day with a ride on the horsey:

Then he opened his presents:

He really liked his card from Papa & Gigi (it played a song):

Next it was time to dig into his cupcake (and he did not disappoint):

This guy celebrated with the best of them this weekend - we went to his one year check-up today and found out he has pink eye and a double ear infection. Poor buddy, we thought something might be up since he was fighting his sleep, but I didn't expect a double ear infection. I also sort of had a hunch that Drew's weight gain had leveled off, but was shocked to learn that he only weighs 22 lbs 4 oz (I didn't get the exact percentile, but I think it was somewhere between 40 and 50)! This may seem like a lot to other people, but for our babies, it's small. We are used to 90th percentile weight! Isla weighed about two pounds more than this when she turned one. Ryan is already putting Drew on a high fat diet to bulk him up again . . . just kidding. We love him just the way he is! Besides the pink eye and double ear infection, he is a healthy, happy baby.

I can't believe my baby is one! Things he enjoys right now are throwing anything he gets his hands on, banging his toys together to make the loudest sound possible, clapping his hands, and laughing at his sister. He loves music and when he hears anyone sing, good or bad, he will stop whatever he is doing and listen. Happy Birthday to my sweet little boy.