to grandmother's house we went...

Fishing opener weekend. Dad went to Canada to have some dedicated fishing time before my little sister comes. He knows he will not get another chance like this, so he packed his bags (the day before of course!), got in his car, and drove in record time to Cedar Lake Camp. We heard from him yesterday that he caught fish for dinner and misses us a lot. I miss him too, a lot.

But, with grandpa gone fishing too, we decided to go visit grandma for the weekend in West Fargo. Of course, we always have fun there! I'll post some more pictures as soon as mom can find the jump drive grandma gave her. I think mom is in the official 'losing it' stage. She even put my shoes on the wrong feet today and didn't notice till I fell down a couple steps cuz I couldn't walk right. And I thought I was just being clumsy! You should see our house too. Two words. Pigstie.

Here's a few photos from mom's camera though. I was helping Grandma and Great Grandma deadhead the flowers. It's supposed to be a secret from Grandpa, but I'm guessing these pictures give it away. Sorry Grandma. I don't know much about secrets yet.

You're sure this is okay grandma? Would grandpa approve?

I gotta clean up this mess and get inside before those bugs get me! Too many bugs.

Looks like a bunch of lettuce to me. Might as well throw it all away.

This is Sunday night. Sometimes 'being difficult' is also 'really cute and funny'.

Mom wanted me to get my jammies on, but I had other things in mind. Like wearing my safari hat with no shirt on and reading Thomas. What's up with that?

Random phrases I said today that made mom laugh her head off:

• Holy buckets!
• What's up with that!
• Oh Man!
• Look at my arms! (wearing short sleeves)
• Look at my legs! (wearing shorts)
• I miss grandma. I'm sad. I need a hug.
• Where's that guy going mommy? (about a woman with short hair at Target)

Another fun weekend...

ideas sometimes lead to...

free Twins tickets!

One casual Sunday morning, Scott and I were reading the newspaper and saw an article about Minnesota Idea Open. It's a thinktank, if you will, for people like you and me. They take all of our ideas, let some experts look at them, and then a bunch of people vote, and someone gets their idea implemented. Okay, that is bare bones version. The first Idea Open centered around Obesity and how to tackle this XXL problem in MINNEsota. So I had a brilliant idea, I submitted it, and found out that of 414 entries, I was selected as one of 20 semi-finalists.

Althought i was not selected as a finalist, I was still quite honored and very excited when I found out they were giving us free Twins tickets.

Last night we got to go to the game, walk around the field beforehand in an Idea Open Parade, and got free concession stand dollars. It was awesome.

And once again, we got matching t-shirts for the family, although as you will see, they ran out of smalls. Here are some photos of our fun night at Target Field.

All the way there, Jaxon was cheering 'Go Twins Go!'. Now he got to do it with a pom-pom ;-)

The dirt for the mound and grass for the field.

Look closely. You can see us on the jumotron! J thought that was pretty surreal.

Jaxon, still trying to find TC the bear and wondering why we can't go on the grass!

smile at the rain

I have an art print I bought in Seattle when the three of us went out there last year. It's a great print of people in colorful rain jackets and umbrellas, and it just says 'Smile at the Rain'. Perfect image for this weekend.

Despite the end to our sunny days and a weekend of rain, we had lots of smiles these last few days. Sometimes it's nice to be forced indoors and come up with rainy day activities. It slows us down a little from the constant activity in our lives, and it gives us time to reflect on the fresh, new air that remains after the showers end.

Here's a look at our smiles this weekend:

Saturday, we had quite the morning. We went to several golf stores looking for new clubs for Scott, since he had just sold his that morning. Seems to be an annual thing (Back to my last post). But, we were troopers and it was sort of a fun 'treasure hunt' if you will. In the process we bought Jaxon some new play doh tools. Boy did he have fun.

I think we spent nearly two hours playing play doh. Two hours doing anything is a miracle in itself. We had lots of fun making 'pasta' and 'snakes' and 'horsies'.

We even made some 'Jaxons'! They're actually smiley face imprints, but you try telling him that!

Then after dinner, Jaxon decided he would really start hamming it up. What better way to work off your dinner than to turn you truck book into a ball, throw it around the kitchen, chase it, and say 'Oh man!' everytime just to make your parents laugh. He really is a potato head.

Sunday, despite the rain, we made it out to the March for Babies event and did a four mile walk at Boom Island. Jaxon and I got matching t-shirts, something he was really excited about ;-) We had fun together and later took a three hour nap. And that was glorious.

All in all, a great weekend. Don't forget to take time to smile at the rain. It is a beautiful thing.

stupid is as stupid does.

Yesterday, as we were going about our business, getting ready to leave the house for something, Jaxon started saying 'stupid'.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Oh boy. I thought I had at least another year before he started picking up things from the kids at daycare (it's always someone else's kid that teaches them those things right?).

When I asked him to stop and threatened a time out if he didn't (I know, another parenting faux paux- but I would have carried through on it!), he began saying 'stup' just to show me that he wasn't actually saying the full word so I couldn't technically give him a time out.

Lord, do we have our work cut out for us. This kid is too smart. I asked him where he learned that word, and he said 'daddy' and something about it just came out of his mouth, like he couldn't control where it came from or something.

Now, of course, we would never use poor language around Jaxon, so this had to be a fib he was telling. I'll still blame the daycare kids. Sorry guys. But I will start watching what I say around him a little more closely, now that I know he's paying attention.

Anyway... we did more than lecture Jaxon on the word stupid this weekend. We also watched him clean daddy's golf balls and clubs for him. Stupid golf. If it isn't fantasy football season, it is ice fishing season, and when the ice melts it is golf season. It never ends. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The Easter Bunny

The past few weeks, people have been talking about this elusive 'Easter Bunny'. Mom has been reading me books about him and the kids at daycare talk about him like he is Santa or something. I haven't been too sure, because there doesn't seem to be any concrete evidence that he exists. Until yesterday.

I was minding my own business, napping in my room, when I woke up suddenly. Daddy and mommy came in and said that somebody, or rather Somebunny, had been at the house and had left a trail outside my room leading to a basket full of stuff. Well, that piqued my interest just a little bit. So I took a gander and found little bunny tracks on our floor! They were pink and small and outlined with a Sharpie marker. Ah-ha! I thought. I've got you now Mister Easter Bunny.

And so, I followed the tracks...

And I found your little treasure you left me.

And yes, I ate the candy you left inside the little eggs. I decided from then on, anytime someone tells me about a mythological character related to a holiday, it must be good and I must believe!


Earlier that day...

Mom and I discovered the art of dying Easter eggs. If the little metal thing that holds your eggs doesn't work...

Just dip it in...
And then put stickers on the eggs, cuz that makes them way more attractive.

Later that day...

I went outside to discover that the Easter bunny is even cooler than I thought. He hid eggs all over the yard and I just so happened to have this great little blue basket to put them in. Each one had candy in it too. How did I get so lucky?

And yes, of course my daddy had to go on his own Easter hunt, but all he found was a snake! No thank you!

Hope you all had as good of an Easter as we did and may the Easter bunny visit you often!

movies in the car + junk food + swimming = iowa

Well, Northern Iowa accomplished more than just a record upset this weekend. They made a lifer out of Jaxon. We think he will forever love Iowa. We took a family trip down to Okoboji for a last getaway before the baby comes. We got to see some old friends while we were there which was an extra bonus.

While we were there we...

Went tubing down the lazy river. We were really lazy... we went down this river ALOT. But it was much warmer than the other water, for whatever reason, and fun bumping into people. We played tag with mommy too.

We also practiced swimming (which by the way, also is fun to practice at home on the floor), and sometimes I drank a little too much water and got some in my ears. Daddy taught me to just shake my head all around and that water comes right out.

Did a little pirating...

And daddy taught me how to jump off the edge into the water where he would catch me. This was my favorite part of all, until he started yelling at me because I like to jump in the water even when he's not there. No fear!

We also got to play at the arcade. I won some candy at the claw game and watched daddy lose $10 to a game that he just had to beat, but couldn't. Sorry daddy. It's okay.

We had SO MUCH FUN. I highly recommend IOWA if you're looking for a great getaway ;-)

melting...

What a great day yesterday was. It was sunny and a beautiful 42 degrees in Minneapolis. I had a super productive day at work and presented a big project with kudos. Then Scott and I were able to see our little peanut on the big screen again... found out SHE is healthy and on track developmentally, still with a due date of July 8th. I thought that was the real highlight of my day, knowing I was going to be able to start shopping for cute little dresses and bows...

...but then I got home and saw Jaxon and he was so excited to see me. We sat on the couch, doing our nightly routine of watching Wall-E and he leaned his head over on to my shoulder and said 'Mommy, I love you.'. The snow was melting outside, while I was melting inside. Ahhh, does it get any better than this?