Summer is Officially HERE!

Okay, I actually don't know what the first official day of Summer is, but it feels like it.... Wow... I just googled it and amazingly... it is June 21st! So in 30 minutes it is officially Summer.

And also - speaking of the date - HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! I love you, honey. Thanks for all that you do!


We've been having lots of fun here in Wisconsin. Preschool is over for the Summer for Gabe and he just finished a week long "Sport Sampler" class offered through the rec department. I think RUGBY was his favorite! (Oh no, please don't let my baby play rugby someday! It's even worse than football!) Part of the reason he liked it so much was that it had rained really hard the day before and the field was a muddy mess. He was completely covered in mud when I picked him up. But he had a blast!

Caleb is officially two and talking more and more every day. I still don't understand as much as he would like, which frustrates him sometimes, but he's getting clearer. He does some two word phrases like, "Go 'side!" ("Let's go outside") and "Sorry mama!" (after he misbehaves). Otherwise he just uses one word a lot too, "Bite!" "Buttons!" "M0!" (more) "Bike" "Kitty" and lots more. My neighbor's little girl is six days older than Caleb and I swear she's carrying on full conversations already. Guess that's a girl for you! (But can she bench 40 pounds? I think not... jk)

So, Josh will be busily working this next week at Country USA (a music festival in his county - this year featuring Zac Brown Band, Blake Shelton, Travis Tritt, Jack Ingram, Jason Aldeen, Darius Rucker... no girls this year!!) I think he was wishing that Julianne Hough would be there again this year, but no luck. It's a lot of drunks but he'll get to hear some good music!

I'll probably be taking to boys to the waterpark a lot - if I'm feeling brave enough to handle them both myself! We all went this past four days that Josh had off and they LOVED it.

Here's lots of pictures of the most recent summer fun - strawberry picking at a local farm, goofy boys hanging out, riding the train, waterpark, etc.!

Caleb's 2!

Happy Birthday to my big little boy! We had his party on Sunday and he had lots of fun. I made a dirt cake in a dump truck which he was more interested in pushing around than eating I think. It was miraculous that it didn't end up on the floor! (Until a few hours later when, trying to get it out of my mom's crammed full-a-stuff fridge, I yanked it a little to hard and the back of the dump truck poured crushed Oreos all own my shirt.... awesome.)

Other than that, it was a fun day. He got some Thomas stuff, a Mr. Potato Head, some clothes, tons of stuff to do bubbles (which he goes crazy for), a Handy Manny car, a lawn mower, a stuffed Buzz Lightyear, a couple books, some giftcards, money, and more. Talk about a spoiled kid. I'm already having a rummage sale in a couple weeks just to clear out some stuff! How they accumulate so may toys, I have no idea. It's unreal. His favorite toys are anything with wheels (especially trucks with some sort of trailer to hook up). And balls of any kind - footballs, baseballs, basketballs, even golf. He's definitely his father's son.

At his 2 year checkup today he weighed 37 pounds and was 37 and 3/4 inches tall. (Just for comparison, I think Gabe weighs 38 pounds and is 43 1/2 in. tall.) They can pretty much wear the same size shirts but Caleb needs shorter pants (3T - while Gabe is wearing 5T). Josh gets so confused doing laundry as to whose is what.

Anyways, Caleb is such a sweetie. He's so much fun to watch Gabe chase around. Tonight he was just sweating from running like crazy with Gabe. Oh, and another funny thing I have to mention - he loves buttons. Like - if he sees one on someone's shirt, he screams "Button!!!" and chases you down and tries to eat it. He even sometimes does this little cookie monster growl like, "Mmmm, num, num, num..." and shakes his head as he's attacking your buttons. It's both very cute and very odd.

So, that's my summary of Caleb at 2 years old! (I left out the temper tantrums and the "Nnnnnno!!" as he throws something, but we'll try to forget that...) Here's some pics!

Memorial Day

Parade in the morning, church picnic at the park around noon, riding the little park rides, and lots of playing outside pretty much sums up our Memorial day. Oh, and we planted out vegetable garden over the weekend too. The boys are loving all the watermelon, corn on the cob, blueberries, and other great summer food. :)

Random Gabe moments...

Me: "Hey Gabe? How'd you get so cute?"
Gabe: "Um, Jesus just made me that way."
------------------------------------------
Me: "Why are you pooping so much today?"
Gabe: "Because it's summer time."
Me: "Oh? You have to poop more in the summer time?"
Gabe "Yeah. Because summer time makes you poop."
---------------------------------------------------
We told Gabe to go sit on time out (for something I don't remember)
Gabe: "If I sit on time out for a long, long time, then I will get smaller and smaller and then the kitty will come and take me and eat me. Do you want that to happen??? Do you!!???"
(This was genuine concern - he was like yelling it- totally believing it would happen)
-------------------------------------------------
Gabe (in a deep voice, imitating me? I don't know) "Hey daddy, I got a surprise for you. Caleb's poopy."
------------------
Had to add this one from yesterday:
Gabe: "Tell me a story of when I was a baby."
(I tell him about the night he was born - again - he loves to hear this.)
Then he asks: "Then I came out of your tummy?"
Me: "Yup!" (he's never needed more info than that.)
Gabe: "But where did I come out?"
Me (looking at Josh) "Uh...." (I debate telling him my belly button, but decide not to lie. I won't tell you what exactly I said but even I'll admit it sounded horrible. I looked at Josh after and said, "Was that a good answer?" and he said, "Uh...nnnnoo.")
Gabe crinkles up his nose and goes: "That's the cwaziest thing I ever hweard!!!"
(Wait till he asks HOW the baby gets there.... I'll leave that one to dad.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gabe (to Josh): "I tink God made you a person and a bear."
Josh: "Why do you say that?"
Gabe: "Cause your back has fur on it."
----------------------------------------

7-17-10
Yesterday when I was exercising in the living room (an unusual occurence) Gabe said to me:
"Why are you doing that?"
Me: "So I can lose my belly."
Gabe: "Mom! If you do that then the baby can't grow in there anymore!"
(So, had he thought there WAS one in there?!)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
and here's a picture.... "like father like son"

-----------------

Random Caleb moments:
Putting Caleb to bed one night, and giving him all his stuffed animals....
Caleb: "bonk-ee! bonk-ee!"
Me (confused): "Blankie? You want your blankie?"
Caleb: "No! Bonk-ee!"
Me: "Barney?"
Caleb: "Bonk-ee!" (then pauses a minute and goes) "Bonk-ee! Ooh ooh, aahh aahh!!"
Me: "Oh! MONKEY!"
Caleb: "Uh-huh, uh- huh!"
(Good thing he's smart enough to get his point acoss a different way!)

"The City Beautiful!" (Our Nauvoo Trip)

This week we had the chance to get down to Nauvoo, Illinois for a little vacation. Josh's sister, Janell, and her family were in Illinois for her husband's graduation ceremony from the University of Illinois (he was taking online classes for his masters) and Josh's parents flew out to Wisconsin also.

So after they were here for a couple days we all drove down to Illinois and met Janell's family for a quick Nauvoo trip. Janell booked this house online and it turned out to be such a great place! Way better than the Nauvoo Family Hotel which I've stayed at every time. We were joking about it on the way down and how Janell's other hotel that she booked online for their drive out had been so bad that they just kept driving, and we were like, "This house is gonna be 200 years old.... really gross.... it'll be like the early saints experience!" But we got to Nauvoo and drove to the temple and the house was literally right across the street! It was crazy! She said, "I didn't know it'd be THAT close!"

We got to visit Carthage Jail (where the prophet Joseph Smith was falsely imprisoned and later martyred- explanation for you three non-LDS readers) then take turns going to the temple and leaving the kids at the house. That was actually the first session I've been to at Nauvoo since getting my own endowments about six years ago the day before my wedding! It was cool to actually be there in a relaxed state and able to look around and admire the beauty of the rooms of the temple. It's so amazing the way they built it to look just like it would have in the 1840's. Aaron even talked them into gving us a short tour after our session. Overall, besides few deafening temper tantrums from Caleb (where I may have lost hearing) it was a great trip!

Here are some pictures!

A trip to the zoo

Well, we decided to take a little trip to the Henry Vilas Zoo the other day when Josh had off. He had to work on his actual birthday (April 18th - the big 3-0!!!) so this was kind of his happy unbirthday. We went down to Madison in the morning, saw the animals, ate our little picnic lunch, then went back in for a little while longer. We left at about 2:00 and the boys both slept on the hour long ride home. It was a really fun and FREE day! (minus the gas money I guess) I love that the boys are both to the age now where I don't have to worry about packing a huge diaper bag with bottles, milk, extra clothes, etc. and Caleb is to the age where you don't have to carry him nonstop. I told my friend this and she's like, "You better hurry and get pregnant before you totally get out of baby mode!" I'm like, "No, I think baby mode will be better if it's when my two boys are like, 4 and 6 and I only have one kid in diapers!" So we'll see...





















Caleb is definitely entering terrible twos. He has this eye-piercing shriek when he wants something and I say, "No." It's turned a few heads lately (at the mall... in Target.... at the zoo....) everyone hears it and I can see them like, turn to their neighbor with this, "Whoa, glad I'm not that kid's parent!" look. And I'm all, "Yup. He's mine. All mine." :) I must say though, I think he is the strongest kid on the block. There are times that I really think he is already stronger than me. I will post a picture of him in his diaper showing off his buff bod.

Caleb's seriously catching up...

One of the ways that I motivate Gabe to eat is by saying, "You better eat it all. Caleb's gonna get bigger than you!" Some days I wonder just how much longer will it be. I think Gabe will always be tall (he is 42" - we measured yesterday.) I think he weighs about 40 pounds give or take. Caleb, I am guessing, is about 37" tall and weighs about 37 pounds. I was going out to buy Caleb and Gabe some new shoes the other day and trying to decide their sizes. Gabe is just going into an 11 and Caleb? He's a 9. Wide. Here is a picture of my little boys comparing feet. The pictures just got funnier and funnier. First, "This little piggy..." then turned into, "Here Caleb... smell my sock!!!" Typical boys....






Then I had to put down the camera and save Caleb....