Thursday, July 31, 2008

Duluth

Wow, what a few crazy days of chaos. We were only gone for 2.5 days, but our car was filled to the brim. There were 14 adults and 4 kids (3 of them not pictured below) - a lot of people to keep together, but it worked. Here are some highlight pictures and click HERE for more.












Wednesday, July 30, 2008

card club - from last week

July card club was last Thusday - the night before we left for Duluth. Duluth pictures coming soon. For now, here are the cards I made for card club. I used my Cuttlebug to emboss the front. Zander helped me a bit and he said, "Hey mom, these look like cards from Target." I rubbed ink over the embossed front. Then I layered the stamped elephant on the front. For the inside message, I stamped once with a corresponding colored ink and then stamped another gray image to create a shadow. A cute and easy baby card!

Monday, July 21, 2008

Duluth - 4 days and counting....

We're staying at a really cool water park hotel called Edgewater Resort & Waterpark. We (actually my brother-in-law) landed on this by default - it was the only hotel available for our big group. I'm actually really excited about it, though! I think the kids will have a blast at the waterpark. I'm not looking forward to wearing a swimsuit, however. I just went out and bought one today. It's not the greatest, but it will have to do.

bag frenzy


A few weeks ago, I got in a bag frenzy! I made Mindi a bag for her birthday - the multi colored one. I also made Kim and Jen "diaper bags" from the same fabric - one pinks and one blues/greens. They turned out so cute, I almost didn't give them away! I found the fabric at a new place called Blue Bamboo in Plymouth. Their specialty is batik fabrics, but they have a ton of other stuff including these charm square packs. I now have an urge to get my own nice sewing machine. I have my mom's old sewing machine from her teenage years. It works for occasional sewing - and for use on scrapbook pages and cards. Maybe for my birthday just over a month away :)



Sunday, July 20, 2008

Three time's a charm!

The birthday party went off as scheduled for the third time last weekend. Believe it or not, Zander came down with a cold about 3 days before the party. I was holding my breath until the minute the party started!

Nothing too exciting to report. The weather was nice, but windy. The kids were able to play outside, which was good.




Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Kid update



Mason

Mason is doing and saying so many new things each day. He's growing up WAY too fast!


Earlier this week, he put 3 words together. He likes putting our names with an object. Last week, he went around pointing at our chairs saying, "momma chair", "Zander chair", "Daddy chair" and "Mase chair" (he calls himself Mase :) ) . But this week he added "right here" - which is technically 4 words total, but his "right here" comes out more like one word - "ri-here". He will also say "Momma night-night sleep". I just can't believe how his vocabulary has grown. I really think that he learns so much from Zander.

Mason is still doing great in the food department. He'll eat just about everything. The other day, Mana gave him a dill pickle potato chip and he ate it. The kid also loves barbecue sauce (and loves saying barbecue - so cute!) and A1 steak sauce. Crazy! He does great with utensils - messy, but I don't care. He insists on using a fork and spoon all by himself. And for drinks, he still uses a sippy cups, but loves drinking from a straw too. I don't remember Zander grasping the straw concept until well into 2-3 years old. Again, I think Mason sees the rest of us doing "big people" things and wants to be just like us.


Zander

Today, a neighbor's house (4 houses down) started on fire. All that's left is the framing and the garage. We still don't know the cause. Mana was at home working as it was burning - it burned for many hours as many firefighters were working on it. Anyhow, when I brought the kids home from Liz's, we took a family walk to go see the house. Zander was fascinated by the devastation. So tonight, we practiced fire safety with him. We quizzed him about what to do if there's a fire. We also asked him to show us how to unlock the front door and deck door. He did great!

Zander loves anything involving the hose outside. He and Mana often flood the sandbox. Zander enjoys watering all the plants - and even the stuff that doesn't need to be watered. The other day, I observed him "watering" the new pea gravel path. When I asked him what he was doing, he replied, "Mom, I'm making the path nice and shiny!"

Friday, July 11, 2008

best brother


Tonight we had some big storms roll through. No tornado warnings, but severe t-storms. I got a little freaked out after looking outside and seeing a green sky - and Mana was at a wedding. So, I decided to take the kids downstairs - which meant waking up Mason. He was still kind of groggy wondering why I woke him up. While I was getting Mason out of his room, Zander had grabbed 5 of Mason's favorite stuffed animals - all by himself. When we got downstairs, Zander asked Mason if he wanted each of the 5 animals. I got a little teary eyed. All by himself, Zander thought about how Mason might be scared and grabbed some comfort things for him. What a thoughtful little boy. Zander definitely gets the "best brother" award for the day - and probably week!

Monday, July 7, 2008

4th of July

We spent the 4th of July afternoon at Eric & Mindi's. The weather was perfect for some pool fun. Later that night, we watched fireworks over White Bear Lake - as we have done the last 10+ years.

Below are some pictures from the day. Click HERE for more photos.







Saturday, July 5, 2008

Little stinker

Mason is definitely our little stinker. He's *so* busy, always getting into something. We can't turn our backs or he manages to climb onto something - like these photos of him climbing up onto Mana's desk in his office. When he gets caught, we get a "stare down" look that is so cute. He also likes climbing onto the kitchen counter or trying to dive into the kitchen sink when it's filled with dirty dishes - which is usually often. Mason has earned the nickname "Trouble". Zander always says, "here comes trouble!"

So, what else is new with "trouble".... He *finally* broke 2 of his 1st year molars at about 15.5 months. He has been so crabby for the last 1-2 months, so hopefully this explains it. He would even say "teeth" and put his fingers in his mouth. Who knew?! Aside from being a stinker and cranky with teeth coming in, Mason has really made progress with his vocabulary. He has been putting two words together like crazy lately. It's so cute because you can tell that he's putting a lot of concenration into everything he says. Usually his two word statements include one of our names plus another word. For instance: Daddy nose, Zander bye-bye, Mama up. He has also learned the proper use of the word 'no' - thanks Zander! Mason even says "No" as he's doing something naughty.