All Things Frankenstein

Daddy is a big fan of Frankenstein. Growing up, he watched all of the old Frankie movies. After he married Mommy, he had Mommy watch all of Frankie movies. (Mommy liked them, but definitely doesn't share Daddy's passion for them!)

So Mommy has slowly been growing Daddy's Frankie collection. The Frankie Nutcracker came from a shop in Salt Lake City two years ago. The Frankie Linus was gotten free from CVS with a coupon this year! And the Frankie bucket came from Target for Ian.

And, of course, when Mommy saw the cute little Frankie shirt in Ian's size, she just had to get it!

Our little monster in his "lab", using bubble solution to make gorillas and puppies.

Rawr! Making little Frankie clones!

Come to me, Igor!

Hmmm...Linus Frankie, you need a bride.

Hold that thought...Veggie Tales are pillaging and plundering!

Cute little monster!

He loves his Linus Frankie.

Rawwwwwwwwwrrrrrrr!

Ian, I am sure we will have so much fun in the years to come finding ways to add to Daddy's Frankie collection!

Fun With Friends

Ian sure is a lucky boy! Before he was even a twinkle in our eye, we prayed that he would always have good friends. Even though he is only 17 months old, we've definitely seen an answer to those prayers! Although he may not fully realize it, Ian is so blessed by the friends he has!

Thursday was definitely a fun friend day. We started off by picking up Noah that morning. His momma, Libby, had a few things she needed to do that day, so we got to have Noah come hang out with us! Our first stop was Wal-Mart to pick up a few items. Since it was snack time and Ian is a better shopper if he has snack, we stopped by Subway to get a couple of cookies...yum! Noah was such a sweet boy and sat in the back of the cart the WHOLE time. Ian has yet to sit still in a cart for more than three minutes, even strapped in up front!

Hehe...I love these little cookie faces!

*Ahem* This would not be a picture of my child trying to climb out of the cart. I know he doesn't sit still, but surely he wouldn't actually try and climb out. Don't believe everything you see.

Ian was trying to feed me a piece of cookie (feeding Mommy is his latest fun trick) and I was pretending to eat his hand. Both boys thought that was pretty funny. I love Noah's laugh - it is the sweetest sound!

Back in the car, Noah appointed himself "Keeper of the Nilla Wafers". Seriously, he's got a future with this! He did a great job.

Back at home, the boys watched Veggie Tales and played outside for a bit while I got everything ready for our play date. Then we loaded up in the car and were on our way. Have trucks (and Cheerios), will travel!

Chione had sweetly agreed to have the play date at her house this week and, like the super-organized Mommy she is, had toys and fun stuff set out for the kiddos when we got there.

Jennifer and Eli had beaten us there and were already playing. The hands-down favorite toy was Kamy's keyboard!

Ian and Eli had a great time hanging out by the keyboard.

Noah sharing toys with Eli.

Fairly soon after we got there, sweet little Kamy got up from her nap and joined her buddies.

Like I said, Ian is so blessed to have so many friends!!

We're starting a little tradition at our play dates of taking Mommy & Me pictures. Chione had fall decorations everywhere, so taking pictures in front of her mantle seemed like the perfect place. Up first - Jennifer & Eli!

Kamy & Chione!

Ian and Mommy. (Yes, I know...we are not in front of the fireplace. We had actually taken a picture in front of Chione and Keller's big screen beforehand and the fireplace picture didn't come out.)

Lunch time! I tell ya, Chione is so with it! She had two highchairs and two Bumbos, so lots of seating for everyone!

Jennifer was so sweet and offered to take a picture of me with the boys.

Haha - little Eli is a boy through and through! He was ready to dive into Chione's lunch!

Kamy, on the other hand, is a perfect little princess. She just sat quietly in her Bumbo and watched everything. Haha - we love our boys, but they keep us on our toes! (Although Miss Kamy started crawling this week...check out Chione's blog for cute pictures of her little mover.)

Eli was quite happy to get into the exersaucer and work off some of that energy.

After our fun play date, we weren't back in the car but a few minutes before the boys conked out!

Haha - with the boys asleep, we had a very peaceful drive back to Noah's house. Once we got there, the boys played outside for a bit.

It wasn't long before Noah's mommy pulled up. Noah ran over to see her and picked this pretty little dandelion for her. Such a sweet little boy!

Ian got to meet Einstein, Noah's big brother. I now know one child that would LOVE a puppy for Christmas!! Ian gave Einstein so many hugs and Einstein good-naturedly let him. They gave each other a few kisses too, but my camera wasn't fast enough to catch those!

We had such a good time getting to see everyone. Josh & Libby, Chione & Keller, and Jennifer & Ethan - you guys and your little ones are truly a blessing to our family!! We're looking forward to many more years of fun play dates!

Acorns A-plenty!

Ian has a new favorite activity at the park. He is no longer very interested in slides, swings, or climbing stairs. Instead, all he wants to do at the park is play with the acorns.

He finds the acorns so fascinating, especially since Mommy and Daddy won't let him taste them!

Once he has a good collection going, he has a few options.

1). Make his pile bigger.

2). Transfer his collection to Mommy or Daddy's hand. (This is a favorite choice.)

3). Stick them down the hole to the nearby water meter. A little two year old showed him this fun trick last week and Ian thought that was the coolest thing in the world!

4). Send them down the slides or put them on the balance beam. These are also very fun choices. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good pictures of these activities when we were out this morning. (Daddy took the rest of the pictures on their walk tonight.)

5). Carry them around for hours (at least while we are at the park). I love this picture!

Ian, you are so fun to watch with your acorns! It just proves we are all a little nuts around here!

Spelling Fun

James was giving Ian a bath tonight and all of the sudden started calling for me. I hurried in to Ian's bathroom, not sure what to expect. A fun little surprise awaited me. Ian had spelled his first word! Fortunately, he was happy to show off his newfound skill to Momma so I could take pictures!

Can you tell what he is spelling?

Bet you guessed by now!

Yup! I guess we should be proud. Our child can spell "no" as well as say it!

Okay, so it was random luck that the first two letters he grabbed tonight happened to make a word (although we have been working on letters and their sounds). Actually, I'm a bit relieved it was so random...otherwise we'd really be in for it!

At least we know Ian is enjoying his baths! Teething is still pretty hard on him, although he only woke up once last night and actually went back to sleep pretty quickly. James was super sweet and let me sleep in this morning. When my turn was up, James came back to bed for a nap at 10am. Ian climbed in bed with us and before I knew it, he had fallen asleep cuddling with me! He NEVER takes a nap that early in the morning and rarely ever falls asleep in our bed, especially in the middle of the day! After I got up from my extra nap time (an hour and half later!!), I took a picture of him snoozing.

So sweet! And just what Momma needed today. Well, little man, I'm sure we will have more adventures tomorrow. Perhaps you can learn to spell "Yes, Mommy"! :-)

Grateful

We've had a super hard week. Poor Ian has woken up at least every other night screaming in pain. He's getting six new teeth in all at once and it is MISERABLE!! Tylenol, teething tablets, and Orajel just can't keep up. We're all losing sleep over it.

The face of teething misesry at 2am. Nothing calms him down except laying on the couch watching Veggie Tales. Believe us - we've tried everything else.

We're also encountering complicatings with James' GI Bill money for school not coming through (please pray!) and both of our cars needing expensive repair (we're probably gonna have to replace mine). God has given me so much peace though, and I'm grateful for that. We've been praying a lot of direction for the these issues and for future educational and career plans, and I feel like we are really making progress in those areas as well. I'm definitely grateful for that!

And, for some reason, I have just been so grateful for everything I have these last few weeks, even before we hit all the hard stuff. I can't help but think back to when I desperately wanted to be married, even if it meant dealing with typical marriage problems. Then I wanted a baby, even if I had to deal with all the hard stuff that went along with that. And I wanted to be in a house, even if that meant having to work extra hours or pinch pennies in other areas. And I'm there. I have a wonderful, supportive, hard-working hubby who is an amazing father, an out-of-this-world wonderful son, and a beautiful home in a wonderful neighborhood with wonderful neighbors to live in. And I'm grateful for all of it. Truly, in the midst of all that is happening, I just feel so blessed to be at the point of life I'm at.

I was thinking all these warm fuzzy thoughts as I was taking Ian for a walk tonight when we came across some cows. Totally proved my point. How amazing is it that I live minutes from beautiful walking trails where we get to see cows in the middle of a huge metroplex?? Awesome!

This guy sure was hungry.

Ian enjoyed watching him graze (for 30 seconds, anyways...haha).

Trying to get a wider angle to show the walking path in front of the cows.

It ain't all sunshine and roses for sure, but tonight I am thanking God for my blessings!