Our Weekend With Ivie

We had a very special guest at our house this week.  Wes and Lorinda went to Utah for 4 days and Ivie got to come stay with us!! It was a blast, and Will was in heaven!  He LOVES Ivie and would do anything she told him to do.  They had a lot of fun playing together and laughing together.  It was great to have a little girl running around, giggling, and letting me doll her up! While Ivie was here, we enjoyed lots of fun adventures!  We had some friends over and had a big spaghetti dinner, played in our very first "real" snow storm, went to storytime and puppet show, played at the indoor playground at the Mall, made "Snowman Toast" (with cream cheese and raisin faces on bagels), watched movies, drew pictures, painted, and had a PJ party, per Ivie's request.  It was great, we will miss her when she leaves!

Sorry the pictures are out of order, my computer is being difficult.

Will and Ivie eating popcorn while watching Little Mermaid

Ready for church. These are two very cute kiddos!

Okay, I know you can't tell from this picture, or the next, but popping popcorn is VERY exciting.  They were jumping up and down and laughing hysterically about the popcorn shooting out of the popper! It was great.

"Here is comes! Look out!"

Will LOVES taking baths and he loved it even more because he and Ivie got be CRAZY.  They had fun splashing each other and playing in the tub.

Okay, this isn't the greatest picture, but I HAD to put it in here....

Doesn't Will look JUST like SCOTT?  I think so.  Especially if you've ever seen

baby pictures of Scott.  It cracks me up, I can't believe how similar they are!

Sweet little Ivie, I loved doing her hair, she is such a cutie, I can't wait to have a girl someday!

Thanks for coming to stay with us Ivie, we love you and had a great time with you!!

A Gopher-ful Weekend!

M-I-N-N-E-S-O-T-A, Minnesota, Minnesota, GOOOOO Gophers!  That's the cheer.  Scott got season BBall tickets with some friends and we went to the opener.  I couldn't tell what Will liked more, the popcorn, his sucker (as you can tell from his shirt), or watching Goldy.  I'm pretty sure it was Goldy, he would copy everything he did during the whole game.  When we finally got close enough for a picture, he couldn't take his eyes off of Goldy and what he was doing.... see him checking out Goldy's "thumbs-up!" We had a blast, it was a great family night.

Here we are with our friends Jessica and Justin Atkinson, fellow AGGIES, I might add!!  We had a blast, Will really loves these two.  Okay, do you see all the gold and maroon?  Talk about school spirit, I need to get with the program.  Do you think I could be wearing anything that could clash more with the gophers colors....? C'mon Kara, I thought I had a little more style sense than this, but apparently I didn't realize how important it was to be wearing school colors.  Lesson learned.
Saturday, the morning of Scott's b-day, we ate a huge breakfast of pumpkin pancakes, apple cider syrup, bacon, and fruit.  Then we threw on some clothes, hopped on the bus and went to the Gophers Homecoming parade.  Will loved it.  Especially the candy.  I thought he would get sick of it from Halloween, but not so!  Here he is cheering on the UPS man.  Yep, the UPS man was in the parade.  Weird.  I mean, I love the UPS man when he's bringing me stuff I've ordered on-line or packages or something, but I never thought I'd see him in the parade.  I underestimated his importance.
Just chillin' in the leaves, waiting for the bus.  Will has been loving his Cobra hat, and his halloween get-up.  In fact, he asks to put it on every day, and asks if he can sleep in it.  I finally had to peel off the socks yesterday after playing outside so I can wash them.  

The Birthday Boy!!

There are many reason I love Scott, but here are a few of them.....

You take Will to the zoo so I can stay home and rest....

You do the dirty work.... like catching frogs with Will and taking out the garbage
You make every effort to really spend quality time doing things you enjoy  with Will, and teaching him to learn to laugh and find joy in being together
You bake......  And make eggs.  Okay, you bake molasses cookies, and you do make really good eggs.

You take me on dates and you're not afraid to stand on the corner to scalp tickets for a show you know I REALLY want to see.  And when it doesn't work out, you don't give up, you just make it more of an adventure and take me to a really nice restaurant without worrying about how much it will cost.  Then on the way home, you still let me stop at the gas station for chili cheese fritos and dr. pepper.
You're awesome at staying in shape and being healthy.  You put your mind to something and you do it!
You take me places..... 
You work hard, and you are good at what you do.  Basically you are good at everything.... has anyone else caught on to that yet?  It's true, sorry guys.
You don't push Will to do things he doesn't want to do.... hahaha, okay, you push him JUST enough, and look at him now, he LOVES to swim!
Most of all, you took part in bringing this little guy to our family, I don't know what I would do with either of you! AND......
You are an amazing father!
Happy Birthday Scott!  We love you, thank you for all you do for us and for always keeping us laughing and smiling!  We hope you have a special day!

MHA Halloween Party

Each year, the MHA first years plan the Halloween party.  Scott and Brian Lee are the only students with kids so usually we don't even bring our kids.  But, we decided they could go, and we wanted to show them off! :)  Plus, people never get to see them.  The girls that planned the party, were so sweet, they planned a "pin the spider on the web" game.  Will thought it was great and really liked the spider stickers and his trophy he got in the end.  Scott even played, so here they are showing off their trophies.

Here are our friends Annie and Ryan - army dudes, Dave and Natalie - nerds, I think? :)

Justin and Jessica - Scouts

Ben and Melissa - lemonade stands

The party was fun.  I think Will's favorite part was that Scott gave him a cup of rootbeer.  I'm surprised we wasn't sick, he ate TONS of candy and pop I thought for sure he was going to be sick, but this morning he woke up and asked for some candy..... things will never be the same.

HALLOWEEEEEEN

A family of creepy crawlies.... Kara the cat, Will the snake, and Scott the tape worm.  Yep, that's right folks, a tapeworm.  Pretty creative I thought.

Trick-or-treat!! Will with a sucker in his mouth couldn't enough of the trick or treating.  Here he is with some of our neighbors, and friends, Marcus - the soccer monster, Tyson - the wee little cowboy, and Morgan - the snail.
"I need some wiskers and a nose like you mom!" 

"But Will, I don't think snakes have whiskers"

"Ya, they do Mom, they do!"

"Okay, whatever.... here you go...."
Before the fun began.  Will and I went to storytime at the library for halloween and listend to lots of great stories about monsters under the bed (I was worried, this was only going to foster his utter hatred for his room and bed.... but he slept quite well last night), spooky pumpkins, and of course, we got to see puppet show.  This is our friday routine and Will loves it.  Doesn't he look handsome in his light up halloween shirt?  I think so.  Kind of a weird picture of me.... but it was halloween, right?

Field Trip

The weather is getting colder here in MN and so we've started our winter-long excursions.  This week we went to the Children's museum.... always a favorite.  We go almost every other week.  Will never gets sick of it, I have to be careful when I tell him we are going otherwise he practically dies of excitement until we leave!  We went with some of our good friends.  There is a McDonalds right out front of the museum (smart person, whoever owns it!) so it is always the first thing the kids climb on before getting to the museum.  There are lots of little boys here in our ward and complex and they have lots of fun together!!

"Hey, where's my change?"

Will loves making me "pay" for my delicious plastic fruit.

There are lots of great "rooms" at the Children's museum,

"Our World" includes a Dr. office, grocery store, restaurant, post office,

music room, and the favorite.... a big BUS!  It is a real MNDOT bus

and Will loves it.  Especially since there is a real stop light that changes

just outside the bus, and we've been learning about stoplights

and singing the stoplight song a lot lately.

We've also taken quite a few trips on the bus this week (always a highlight).

One to campus to meet Daddy for lunch (that was definitely a highlight)

and one to the UofM Homecoming parade....

Rotten Ronnie.... but look at Will's face, he looks SO ecstatic, how can you not love that?!

The Monster Dash

Sorry, you'll have to skip to the bottom to read about our race, my pictures and computer are being stubborn. 

Angie and I after the race.  Angie is 7 mo. pregnant.... can you believe that?  She is adorable!
Will was a very bashful Cobra and I was a black cat.  


My friend made Will this awesome Cobra fleece hat, isn't it cute?  Will thought it was great, he especially liked the long snake tail I made for him.... I thought he looked like a very nice snake!



Well.... we did it!  Will and I had a blast at our 5K on Saturday.  Scott was sad he missed it, he had class in Rochester.  Early Saturday, Will and layered on our clothes and headed over to Lk. Harriett for the spookiest 5K ever! :)  It was so much fun, I'm glad we did it.  Thanks to the friends who made it possible, Chalece for loaning me her car, Angie for the motivation (she's 7 mo. pregnant!), and Kendra for keeping me warm and cheering me on!  

We had a great race, stopped to trick or treat along the course a couple times and enjoyed seeing the hundreds of silly costumes people come up with!  Will was my running partner and kept saying "go faster mom! Keep running!"  It was so cute.  I was pushing him in the stroller and I guess he didn't think we were going fast enough.

The morning started COLD, I thought I would freeze and poor little Will kept saying, "My nose is cold!" But once we started running and the sun came out, it was a beautiful day and we were peeling off our layers!  We will miss this event next year, hopefully they'll have something similar wherever we move!!

Sick Day

Will hasn't fallen asleep on his own on the floor while watching a movie, EVER.  Isn't he sweet, and don't you love his outfit.  Grandma sent him a Halloween package that he LOVED and the socks were included.  They have pumpkins that light up, and he hasn't taken them off for three days straight now, except for a couple hours yesterday so I could wash them. :)


Poor little guy....

Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder

We glittered our pumpkins again this year.  Will was loving getting in on the action.  I think his little pumpkin is just great, beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder!  He's been looking at our pumpkins everyday and saying "Mom, our pumpkins sure look great!"

PS - don't you like my table runner?  My very talented sister in-law made it for me!

How I'm Feeling Today....

The best way out is always through.....

- Robert Frost

Swords, Knives, and a 2 Year old

Have you ever noticed while reading the Book of Mormon that it is pretty violent?  I never did, until I started reading Book of Mormon Stories (for children) to Will every night.  Recently, Will has developed into the very boy stage where everything is a sword or a knife.  Just yesterday he came up to me with his golf club and said "this is my sword, let's fight!" I said "I don't think we should fight, I like to be friends and be nice, is that okay?" Will said "No, just nice people fight, let's fight!"  

Or how about this conversation I overheard (Will talking to his dinosaurs) "Arrrrgh, you're being very naughty apatosaurus, I'm going to cut your head off and throw you down the stairs.  This is my knife, you be nice right now!"

Yikes.  This is not good, I'm not blaming it on the Book of Mormon, he loves to read it, but repeats to us the most gruesome parts, and I'm afraid that is what he is remembering.  I think we need to do a better job at pointing out the principal of the story to him.... which we try, but it usually ends up something like this: we say "Nephi was obedient, he had to be really brave so he could get the gold plates....." Will says "He's not very nice, he cut off his head...."

It's a boy thing, right?  He's still sweet, right?  I sure hope so, because I don't really know what I'm doing here!

PS - sorry for the double non-picture posts.... I'll get some up soon!

Date Night

It has been a while since Scott and I went on an actual date.  Or at least went somewhere together without our third wheel.  Don't get me wrong, we love that third wheel, why do you think it has been so long since we've gone anywhere without him?  ......So, on Friday night we went to the Hennepin State Theater and listen to Khaled Hosseini, author of the Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns.  It was very interesting and intellectually stimulating and cultural.  It was great.  It was wonderful to be out of the house, to sit next to my hubby (who looked very handsome), and to reflect on the blessings that we enjoy as citizens of the United States, living in a country where we are free.

We had our good friends Dave and Natalie come watch Will.  When we asked them, we told them it would be super easy because he was just going to go to bed, then they could watch a movie or whatever.  Well..... 2 animated movies later, plus an overflowing toilet, we arrived home to Will and our sweet friends sitting on our bed, Will wide-eyed and exclaiming "I'm just sitting here waiting for you mom!"  What a stinker.  I don't know why we thought he would actually go to bed and go to sleep for someone else, he doesn't even do that for us.  It was pretty comical.  Will has been talking about Dave and Natalie ever since though, even though he told us that "I don't like Dave, I just like Natalie" a few times, he still asks about them.  This morning, hurriedly getting ready for church Will said "When I was sitting on your bed, Natalie was sitting by me and I opened my mouth like this, really big, and it was a really big yawn!"  Translation: I was sitting on your bed, sitting, not laying down, because I was determined to wait for you, even though I was exhausted.

Raising kids is such an adventure, but at least Scott and I had a little break and at least Dave and Natalie had a little experience in parenting.  Win-win, right?

All Mine

My very own "Mr. Incredibles"  I am so LUCKY!

Me and my man... Didn't Will take a great picture?  Just kidding, he was actually climbing on the rocks behind the camera.... we used our timer.

Every Little Boy's Heaven

What could be better than throwing rocks in the lake with dad?

I know I've said it before, but Will loves being outside.  He also loves water.... MN is his heaven!  The weather has been so beautiful, we've taken a few excursions outside on a few Saturday afternoons.  We've enjoyed the sunshine, and especially the time together as a family!