kiley discovers ranch

I had a little time to myself with Kiley on Friday while Jaxon was golfing with Scott. So, I thought I would teach her to enjoy one of my favorite things.

Ranch dressing.

While I'm almost certain she's had it at daycare as a dipping sauce, I like to think first times for things ALWAYS occur at our house. So, even though she dug right in like a pro, I choose to believe she had her first Ranch Dressing experience with me.

She really seemed to enjoy it.

Oh Kiley, if only you knew you'd be embarking on a lifelong love of dips...

years from now...

**Years from now, we'll remember...

the days that didn't turn out as planned but were perfect just the same...

the times when we put aside our important things to do, to just play or listen...

The great big thankful grins on little faces that give us back more than words could ever say...

the proud tears in our eyes when we watched our children go out and accomplish things that we never could have done...

Years from now, what we'll remember most are all the unexpected moments when we have been touched by love.

Happy web-belated mother's day to all the moms out there, especially mine. You are the best.

(**Yes, this is a catch-up post because I've been too busy to share all the cuteness in these photos and I decided to just plageurize my mother's day card. More real posts to come!)

thankful

I love this time of year. Time for family get togethers. Time spent with friends. Shopping with Christmas music in the background and snow in the air. It's so beautiful out. People seem downright jolly (so far). And I am constantly reminded of how much we have to be thankful for. A new thing I've been doing with Jaxon, when I remember, is to reflect on the day before putting him to bed. We read our books and then I ask him, 'What was your favorite part of today?'. Tonight, I thought the answer to that would have been, the cookie you gave me for dessert, or that daddy took us to the zoo. But it was 'playing with you mommy.' Now, maybe he was just trying to butter me up and get a few extra minutes out of me before bedtime. But it felt pretty nice. He asked what my favorite part was, and I said 'hearing you say that'. Well, that got him laughing because he didn't quite get it. So, then I asked what his least favorite part of the day was. His answer, without thinking: 'vegetables'. Ah, we have some work to do my child. And all the 'books' say to have your children help you prepare food and then they will eat it. Especially things like vegetables. But. Clearly that isn't the case with young Jaxon. He helped make mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and wouldn't touch either of them. He's going to make a great Norwegian someday though. I even bought Jaxon and Kiley some special Thanksgiving shirts to commemorate the day. Jaxon's was dirty by 10 am. And we had barely had breakfast. Glad it wasn't white!

We had Scott's family over for Turkey dinner. Here's Grandma Wa getting an early appetizer from Jaxon.

And Kiley getting a few laughs in after dinner.

Her new favorite friend is the dinasaur puppet. Well, if eating horns means you're friends.

On Friday night, we decided Kiley had been smacking her lips at us all day Thursday and we felt bad she wasn't able to partake in the food festivities. So, we gave her a first taste of rice cereal. Honestly, I thought the whole kid thing would get easier after having one. But either my memory is shot, or I was so studious with Jaxon and read everything there was to know about babies (and then immediately blocked it out when he became a toddler). It's like cramming for a test.

Let's feed her some rice cereal. Well, how much do we give her? I don't know, look at the box. Is she suppsed to get it after or before her bottle? No clue. How much should we give her? No clue. Let's just see if she knows what to do when the spoon hits her mouth.

Does that look right? I dunno. Seems like she likes it. Sure. Let's give her some more. I'll read the book tonight and figure out what the he** we're doing. Her doctors' appointment isn't for another week so I have time to figure it out and make it sound like we know what we're doing. Maybe download a babycenter app or something.

Ah yes, we have a lot to be thankful for. Not for vegetables. But definately a lot.

gobble gobble!

I love Thanksgiving. We get to walk around and pretend to gobble like turkeys, and then we actually eat the turkeys! We also get to spend lots of good quality time with our families, watch movies, and get ready for the holiday season. We had an awesome time in West Fargo this past weekend with my grandma and grandpa Walker and my cousin Zoe and uncle Cory. There were some other family there too, like that great aunt deb who is so fun to tickle and play with, and that scary guy Rudy who could make me laugh and then cry in the matter of minutes. We had a great time! Here's some pictures to prove it:

No, I'm not that cute, am I? Really? No! Okay, yes I am.

Mom and dad keep thinking if I help prepare the meal that has vegetables in it, that I'll eat it (some parenting book probably told them that). Now, I'm not sure what this stuff is, but there was no way I was going to try it. Mommy sure seemed to like it though. Something about green beans and french fried onions. Yech!

I love my cousin Zoe. She lets me read to her and tell her all sorts of stories! It's funny listening to her try to read Yum Yum Dim Sum though, because she can't quite pronounce the Chinese words like I can.

Here we are bellied up to the table, having some jello pudding shots. Yum Yum.

And here's the fam. Can't wait to see you all again this weekend for my birthday paaaarty!!! It's my birthday. Time to party. Yeah, It's my birthday. Gonna party. Woo woo!

burlap sacks, skyrides, and small farm animals

Ah yes. The Great Minnesota Get-Together.



We came, we saw, we left and took a four hour nap. It was a quick trip to the fair, only three hours, but we saw lots of neat stuff. Here's a few photos from our day.

Here's me touching a pig that was born yesterday. Mom keeps reading me a book that has pigs snortling and I try to snort. She thinks it's pretty funny 'cuz I got a long way to go before I can snort.

Here I am having a staring contest with a sheep. I think I am winning. He's getting distracted by the cow being born in the center ring.

Here we are flying over the fair in the skyride. I guess I don't have my mom's fear of heights!

That's dad, taking me down the big yellow slide on a burlap sack. This was the funnest part of the fair. For dad. He kept asking mom if he could go again.

For those of you wondering what we ate, we had a breakfast burrito (so mom could get her free coffee), corn on the cob, fried green tomatoes and corn fritters (mom's favorite, yech!) and dad had a pronto pup (yum!). Dad feels like there was so much more waiting to be eaten, and he's still a little upset about it, but hopefully he'll get over it soon.

And that was our day at the State Fair.