Our 2 year old

Well, it has happened, our little baby is turning 2!

Here's a re-cap of some of the highlights of the past two years. Will dove into his cake at 1 year - it was a mess, but worth it!
Will is never afraid to express how he's feeling -

here's a face we see a little more often than we'd like :)
The dinosaur obsession begins!
One of my favorite pictures of Will, he was such a fun, chubby, baby!

So SMILEY!
HUH?
Our little Michelin Man
All bundled up ready to face the MN cold!
He is our little jokster, and LOVES to make us laugh!

We LOVE YOU WILL! Thank you for being such a fun loving, sweet boy. We have enjoyed every second we've spent with you and love watching you grow and learn new things. We can't imagine life without our little Willie, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Just Checking In...

We had a very relaxing week! The weather was gorgeous at the beginning of the week, we even got up to 72 degrees! YIPPEEEE! It was great, Will and I played outside so much we both had rosy cheeks and little sunburns on our arms. I love the beginnings of summer. BUT, all good things come to an end, especially here in MN. By Friday, it was down to 40 degrees, Saturday was snowing and we still haven't crept out of the 40 degree hole. Oh well, more rain is predicted and we know how to stay inside and have fun!

My sweet sister in-law was due to have her baby on April 23, alas, she has still not had the baby, yep, almost 5 days overdue. It will be interesting to see this little creature and see if her overdue-ness shows in her personality. Will she be VERY laid back, calm, and easy-going? I can't wait to find out! Will and I are supposed to head south to help out when the baby comes, so we've been on pins and needles (not as much as my sister in-law has, I'm sure!) waiting for the littlest Mortensen to arrive. Our week was completely unscheduled and we had absolutely nothing planned, so it was nice to relax, catch up on some projects I wanted to finish, and spend some good time with Will.

This morning, Will and I were just taking it easy. We've both been a bit under the weather, so I didn't feel like going anywhere. I remembered I had bought something for Will during Christmas time, but never gave it to him. I was holding onto it for a winter bordem emergency. I figured today qualified, plus it is the end of April! It is called MOON SAND and it was SO FUN. They sell it at Target. Basically it is just really soft, nice, colored sand. It entertained both Will and I for over an hour. We really had fun, and it was relaxing to just sit, and play with our hands, laugh, and make a big mess. Big mess, yes, sand all over the place. Easy to clean up? DOUBLE YES. I am a big fan of this stuff now, even though it makes a mess, it cleaned up in like 30 seconds with my dust buster.

Now we're back to waiting for the babe! Good luck Lorinda, we are thinking about you, and love you! You have been so patient, I know I would be very grouchy if I were you, but you are so sweet and patient!

Jersey Boys

On Saturday night, Scott and I decided to go on a date. We wanted to go see the muscial Jersey Boys, but it was sold out. Being the creative business man that he is, Scott said "let's just go down there, and see if anyone is selling tickets..." being the obedient wife that I am :) we did just that. We stood on the corner of downtown minneapolis, looking like sneaky criminals trying to get tickets. Is scalping tickets illegal? Well, we saw this many standing right by the door holding up his two fingers - so I told Scott "Do that, I think he is telling people he needs two tickets." So, being the obedient husband that he is, he stood there with his fingers up! Then, people really started looking at us. It was pretty funny. Needless to say, we didn't get any tickets, so we went to eat at a really nice restaurant, where the waiter put in Scott's order wrong, so we got 1/2 off our meal! Yipee! It was such a fun night, we had a great time, and we hope Jersey Boys comes back so we can see it! We heard great things about it. The scalper.... he he he
Anxiously waiting for tickets... we look like honest people, don't we?

We were so proud of Will after general conference. Here's what he learned! Oh, and don't forget to notice the hand-full of glow-in-the-dark dinos. He has 10 of these, do you think all 10 fit in one of his chubby little hands? Well, they don't. But he sure thinks they do. He walks around dropping them, bending down to pick one up when another one falls, etc. etc. etc. It is cute, I love my little guy!

Rochester Nature Center

We had a wonderful weekend! Scott, Will, and I headed for Rochester on Friday to visit Wes and Lorinda. It was great to see them, we haven't seen then since January. Rochester is only about 1 hr. and 15 minutes away, so it is always a wonderful get away! We LOVE spending time with Wes and Lorinda, they are like best friends, and we love to laugh with them and talk to them.

Will had a great time playing with cousins! We went to the nature center and got to see

lots of snakes, bugs, turtles, fish, and we got to look at birds through binoculars.

I'm sure Will's most favorite part was following Caleb and Ivie around!Trying to take a picture of a 2 year old is virtually impossible! Most shots of Will are action shots, unless I'm holding him... he does not hold still!
Look at these cute kids! I just love them!
See, I finally had to get in the picture to hold him still.

He really liked this T-rex skeleton!

Welcome Spring!... and bugs

This morning I hosted playgroup at our house. It was great, we had a lot of fun! In order to TRY to welcome Spring, we did some Springtime crafts. We made blossom trees with popcorn (I think eating the popcorn was more fun for the kids than the actual craft, but they turned out beatutiful!) Then we made Melting Snowmen (from Family Fun). However, the most fun/interesting/unexpected activity was "diggin" for bugs in chocolate cake... read on for more details! Isn't Will's melting snowman cute? Okay, actually I did it,

but he did help stick on the carrot nose.

And he liked holding "Melty"Here's some of the crew - thanks for coming guys, it was great!!
Here's Will showing his snowman to the camera... I think he was asking me to "open" it. Ever since Easter, he thinks that all sorts of random objects "open" like Easter eggs. Sorry Will, Melty was glued on TIGHT!
The best part of playgroup was our end activity. I told all the kids that I had some bugs in my garden, and that I didn't like bugs and needed their help digging them out of my dirt. So, each kid got a cupcake paper serving size of chocolate with a fake plastic bug at the bottom. Well, little did I know that most of the kids were going to be TERRIFIED of those plastic bugs. It was actually quite funny to watch. The little girls were panicking because they could see a green leg here and there, and some of the boys were a little a suspicious. There was a boy or two that thought it was great. And most of the kids were okay with continuing to eat their cake after I showed them that the bug was just pretend, and completely harmless. I guess I should always expect the unexpected. I had no idea the kids would think they were real, I just thought they would be excited about digging around in chocolate cake!
The aftermath of the chocolate cake! All you party throwers beware, if you'd like to hide pretend bugs in food, make sure you know who you're dealing with! The moms just stood there and laughed and tried to calm down their freaked out children, it was great. I'm sure these kiddos will think twice the next time they come to MY house, especially with food involved! Sorry guys! Hope to see you soon!

General Conference

We LOVED watching general conference. Sunday was a very dreary day outside, so it was so fun to be in our little apt. as a family watching conference on our laptop. Before conference started, I went outside and got some sand, rocks, and pine cones. Will was thrilled that he got to play with sand inside (we drew with glue and then sprinkled sand on top... Will's drawing of choice? A brachiosaurus, of course!), we paintend the pinecones and rocks, and glued the pinecones on our sand art paper. Once we'd run out of projects - about an hour into conference - I pulled out a little "Conference Journal" I had printed off SUGARDOODLE and Will spent the next hour and half, coloring with markers. I didn't know it would be such a hit. Every now and again he would pipe up and say "President Eyring?" or "Nephi writes?" and once when Scott said "Who's that Will?" He correctly responded "Uctdorf (sp?" It was great. We had a wonderful weekend together watching conference and feeling the Spirit in our home - we are SO blessed! Will found Scott's sunglasses and loves to put them on and off - all himself of course! Here he is, giving me lots of hugs and slobbery kisses - THANKS WILL!

What a handsome little devil! Oh, and don't forget the extra LONG necked brachiosaurus or brontosaurus named "Bronta" - he was SO proud of this long neck!

A Trip to the Conservatory

Will and Daddy - nice cheesy grin Scott! :) This picture does not do justice to how gorgeous it really looked... and can I just tell you, the smell was so overwhelmingly good, it smelled like Bath and Body works, but better, because it was all natural! Oh, and do you see the train of people? It was so busy, we were in a big line going around.... it was still fun though!
Sniff sniff, mmmmmm, yummy!

This is Will all the way at the other end, looking at the goldfish in the little pond.

A couple weekends ago (it has taken awhile for me to get the pics off my camera) Scott had a pretty low key weekend, the weather was beautiful (meaning about 40 degrees and sunshine - we are so warped by the weather here!), and we wanted to do something as a family. We had heard from several people about the Spring Flower show at the conservatory and zoo near our house, so we headed down there - and apparently so did the rest of metro area. It was crazy busy, we still had a lot of fun.

Dip in the smoothie

Since living in MN, one thing we have desperately missed is CAFE RIO! So, tonight for dinner, I made creamy tomatillo dressing and we made our own Cafe Rio... it was DElish! I thought it was yummy, and almost the exact same. When I was making the dressing, in my blender, I kept dipping chips into it and saying "YUM!" So Will wandered over and said he wanted a chip. I gave him a chip and he said "I wanna dip it in the smoothie!" Except is sounded like "moofy" it was pretty cute. What was even cuter was his face when he tasted the very zingy, limey dressing! He shivered and puckered his face, it was great..... but he kept coming back for more!

We love our little guy, he sure keeps a smile on our faces!!

Please?.....

Yesterday Will so very politely came up to me and said "Please have a jelly bean Mama?" With such a cute little grin on his face, I could barely resist. BUT, we were minutes from dinner so I said "You can have a jelly bean after dinner, we are going to eat in 2 minutes, okay?" Sadly he responded "Ask so nicely!?" As if to say, "but I asked so nicely the first time, and even said please!" Whenever he asks for something politely I always tell him "thank you for asking so nicely!" - and then he gets whatever it is that he wanted.... it was pretty hard for him to figure out that just because he asks nicely doesn't mean that he gets anything he wants.... it's rough being a 2 year old!

A little bit of Spring....

My very thoughtful, kind, sincere husband brought me

home a little piece of Spring.

I wish I could take better pictures,

so you could really get the feel of how

gorgeous these flowers really are! Aren't they pretty, and isn't he sweet?

He knew I'd been having a bit of a rough day/week,

and he knows just what will cheer me up!

Like Father like Son

Will in Scott's glasses.... need I say more?

Easter Weekend

Our little family had a wonderful Easter this year. It was a lot of fun with Will actually knowing what was going on... sort of. We like to celebrate all the commercial reasons for Easter on Saturday, so that morning, we hid eggs and Will got to "hunt" for them. He was ecstatic! He found an egg at the top of the stairs, just outside the room, and loved it. Then when he realized there were more, he got even more excited!! THEN, when he found out there was candy inside, he went NUTS! He didn't want to use his basket, or mom and dad's help in holding the eggs, so he kept walking around dropping them, trying to pick them up, dropping more as he bent down, and did this the whole time he was hunting. Will was also really excited about his Easter basket. He got spoiled, thanks to Papa and Gigi Mortensen. The easter bunny brought Will a dvd "101 Dalmations" (which he has watched every day since... and guess who his favorite is? Yep, Cruella! - What a boy!), a book about Peter Rabbit, two things of bubbles, playdough eggs, and of course, candy! He really had a fun time. For about 2 or 3 mornings after Easter, he would wake up and ask if the Easter bunny had come. It was pretty funny.

These were some really cool dinosaurs from Grandma - you put them in water and they transform -this was BY FAR Will's favorite thing from his easter basket. He played with these most of the day!Talking so nicely to his little dinosaurs!Opening Peter Rabbit, he wanted Daddy to read it right away!Do you think he liked the bunny ears? Me neither,

but I know he loved the mouth full of candy he had!Kicking the snow looking for buried eggs.... good luck Will

Can you see how happy he was after his splendid egg hunt in the snow?

Our Sunday Easter was really great too, we had a great church meeting, and a very yummy meal. We did a little devotional talking about the real reason we have Easter. Of course we talked about Jesus and how he was resurrected and came back to life after he was nailed to the cross. Will thought that was very special, he even reminded us about Lazarus being raised from the dead (we learned about that about a month ago in FHE)... he scares us with his memory! It was a wonderful, SNOWY day, spending time together and remembering our Savior and his sacrifice for us.

Let the fun begin!

Now that we are all private and have the place to ourselves.... welcome! We can finally put up our Easter pictures. Actually, that will have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry to get you all excited. I hope you will continue reading our blog even though now you have to sign in to do it. I promise I'll make it worth it!

See you soon! Happy Monday to everyone!

PRIVACY

Hey all ya'll. It has finally come to that time, we decided to go private. Drop me a comment with your e-mail if you'd like an invite to keep reading our blog... I know, you'll have withdrawls if you aren't able to read about Will everyday! We'd love to stay in touch with everyone, so please let me know!!!

And for all you out there who are reading my blog without me knowing it, time to come clean :) You can still read it, I just need to invite you first. If you don't want to leave a comment, e-mail me: kara.mortensen@gmail.com

THANKS!

Big Boy Bed Update

I know you are all curious, so I just thought I would tell what an awesome little boy we have, and update you on our latest sleeping arrangements. Will is doing GREAT!! When I posted about his bed, he was crying himself to sleep, locked in his room. Well, that was it!!! He only did that once, and now I'm proud to say he goes to sleep beautifully (even for naps!) and sleeps like a charm. He does usually wake up around 3 ish, sneak into our room and crash on the floor, but he doesn't even cry or wake us up, I just wake up and there he is, like a little puppy. Somehow, he seems to always find our little decor pillows, snuggle up and make himself comy. I know he should be sleeping in his bed ALL night, but honestly, we are ALL benefitting from the quiet nights of sleep. Will is going to bed around 7-7:30 and not waking until almost 8 most mornings.

One of these days, we'll really crack down and make him stay in his bed all night, but for now, I'm just counting my blessings, and my hours of sleep! For those of you who have the toddler bed to look forward to, best of luck!

Happy St. Patty's

A very happy St. Patrick's day to you - from the Mortensen clan! We hope no one got pinched!! We sure didn't, we were all very festive. Will even chose green to make his "new" bookmark. Must be "luck-o-the-irish" because Will got TWO smooches!

The Big Boy Bed

Yikes... we were hoping the bed would over a bit smoother, but as you can see from the pictures, Will isn't as thrilled with his new bed as we are. He did have a lot of fun helping us take down the crib, and put the new bed up, loved his new dinosaur jammies, and loved jumping and playing on his bed.... all until it came time to sleep in it.

The first night, he went right to sleep, slept until midnight, then spent an hour running back and forth from his room to ours saying "Sleep in mommy's bed!!!" Finally, Scott slept on Will's floor, with Will, NEXT to the bed, that would have been a great picture. Father and son cuddled up together, NEXT to the brand new bed. The second night of the bed went a bit smoother, he slept this time until 2 am. Then, he insisted on sleeping in our bed, or us sleeping in his bed. We resisted, and felt cruel, and finally he just layed down on our floor, without pillow or blanket, curled up in a little ball, next to my bed. When he first did it, I got up and put a blanket on, then about 10 minutes later he woke up and proudly said "All done sleeping mama!" I said "No, it's not time to wake-up, you need to go sleep in your bed or lay back down and go to sleep." Of course, there were some tears, but he was still there in our room at 6:30 this morning... that's when I finally gave in and let him sleep in our bed for a few hours.

Now, as we speak he is going on 30 minutes of screaming in his room "Open door mommy! Mommy hold you!" And of course, my heart is breaking, but I can't find a better way to make him go to sleep in his own room, in his own bed. Poor little guy, we all learn to sleep in a bed without any traumatic memories, right? Somebody please tell me he'll still grow up to be normal!

YAY for Tax Returns!

This year, with our tax return money, we decided that we should finally buy a better a table. Our other one was great, we really enjoyed it, but there things that we needed to change. We debated a long time about what to do, but finally broke down and just bought a new table.

Here we are "toasting" to our new table! The table....
It has a leaf that is hidden inside, underneath and when put in, the table is HUGE. I don't think we'll ever out grow this table. Of course looking at the table in the furniture store, it looked really small, but now that it is in our tiny kitchen, it's not so small. We love it!