Bo Attack!!

Watch out for Bo! He just might crawl over and stick his fingers in your face! :)

Click here to view the video on YouTube

Boating

Hailey, Bo, Ducky and I have been doing a lot of boating lately (Bo's ferret hasn't gotten in on the action yet). Hailey has made us boats out of laundry baskets, books, blankets and toy bins.

On a separate, yet related note, I have toy bins all over the house. Every day the toys are dumped onto the floor, stepped on, kicked around, scattered, but rarely played with. The precious bin is used as a boat in a game that could last anywhere from 15 minutes to most of the day. I digress. . . . anyway, Hailey has also learned that some boats have names!! This has definitely added to her interest in the boating game!!

Today Hailey set sail in "The Ice Cream Cake of Mine" while ducky is captaining "The Perfect Boat of Number 4". (The number 4 reference is to the foam number 4 that was in Ducky's boat, not to any NFL quarterbacks that might come to mind). Isn't that creative?? I loved the names!! The quarters look a little cramped, but you might be surprised to know that Ducky's boat has several toys in case he gets bored, and Hailey's has a freezer FULL of frozen juice bars!!

Barn Buddies

Purple rattle. Check.
Baby Mickey rattle. Check.
Piggy. Check.
Bo in the barn! CHECK!!

Guess What!

Does this look like a boy who crawled for the first time today? He would only do it when I didn't have the camera rolling... But hopefully he'll be in the swing of it soon long enough for us to share his adventures with you!

Cherry Puff

We've found that a nice way to end the meal is with a few puffs. This gets Bo over the fact that he's done eating, which for the most part is never a happy moment. The puffs bring him down from the feeding frenzy that is mealtime.

Not Sleepy Yet

Have you ever had one of those days where you just don't want to take a nap? And when you don't want to take one, you play with all the toys in your room trying to avoid said nap? Well, 'round here, this is what the aftermath looks like. But hey! She's asleep right? :)

Bathtime Bo-nanza

I guess this was more like a frenzy... Hailey got ready and in the bath first while I was trying to get Bo out of his clothes and diaper. Every time I took my hands off him, he was half way to the bathroom. I finally got him stripped down and we walked over to the bathtub. If he could, he'd have jumped right up and into his seat. As it was. He got a side view for a couple seconds until Mommy helped him in. What did I get? Just this back side view. :)

Elmo Slippers

Here's the second receiver of slippers. We showed off Bo's pair yesterday and here's the Elmo slippers that Hailey picked out! She's so happy with them! She had to wear them to bed and when we were reading books, she picked up the blankets just to see the slippers. What a cutie!

Little Boy

We recently split Hailey and Bo up into separate rooms. Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough, but I just could not get those two to coexist in the same room. Since we have an extra room it really wasn't worth the fight. I was mostly concerned with the fact that they couldn't sleep well together. After I separated them they both were able to sleep much better.

The thing I didn't realize was that Hailey was just getting sick and tired of her little brother!! She wasn't mean to him or anything, she just didn't seem to really enjoy him. The day I took him out of her room she became soooooo sweet to him!! It has been really exciting for me to watch.

This morning she picked out his pink diaper (sorry Bo), and then tried to put his slippers on him. I really wish I could have gotten a video, but these two are always moving so fast that I'm lucky to get a picture!! Anyway, she was talking to him in a "baby voice" saying "Come here little boy, little boy. I'm just going to put your slippers on. You don't have to worry, Hailey's here." [Collective Awwwwww] Aren't they just the sweetest!?!?!

Car Pictures Day 2

I had to put this one out there for Uncle Earl. I think Bo's checking the suspension in the front end of the old car. I'm just guessing, but since you and Bo are the professionals, what do you think our car needs to get those wheels aligned??

Driving Mister Bo

Well, it's Bo's turn to drive the car. Once we put him in it, he didn't want to get out! He's super serious and ready to let 'er rip!!!

Drool Train

We're thinking that Bo might be working on those teeth again... We can always tell by how far the drool lines go down on his shirt. And honestly, he can't really hide it that well. :)

Some Outtakes

After 1000 posts, I've finally gotten a good idea of when the kids have had it in terms of picture taking. I thought now would be a good time to show you what I've learned...

Bo says, "Gerrroff me!"

Yep, someone's not happy and ready for bed.

Bo totally agrees!

1000th Post!!!!!

I honestly can't believe it! Thanks for sticking around for 1000 different ramblings and pictures of our kids. Hopefully you get something out of this as much as we do. We love having the blog to look back on our adventures!

Here are the two kiddos for the 1000th time for your viewing pleasure!

Here is what I think their looks are saying:

Bo says, "You are the best big sister ever!"

Hailey says, "I know." :)

Bluest of Blue

Apparently blue eyes don't run in this family, they gallop! I feel like I'm the odd one out around here... See for yourself!

Bo-man's big blue eyes!


Uncle Will and Hailey (~9 months)


Mommy, Hailey and Auntie Donna.

One More Block Party

Here is one last picture from the Block Party last Saturday. I totally missed this! Anyway, while waiting in line for the big Titanic slide, I told Hailey she had to wait behind the girl in front of her. After her and Belle were standing there for a bit, they decided to hold hands. They even got the girl they were supposed to be standing behind to join in the fun too (that's who's holding Hailey's right hand) They were sooo cute!

The Bo Man Stands!

We finally captured that little bugger standing up by himself (with the help of the big block toy) We also captured his first word he's been sporting for a few weeks!!! I'm trying, but I just can't get "da, da, da, da" out of him yet :) Enjoy!

About Books

Hopefully this will be a consistent theme as our kids grow up... They just love books! Even Bo (though right now he just prefers the taste of books). Hailey went to the library last week and returned the handful of books she had checked out. She came home with 18 new books! Then on Saturday morning during Bo's nap, her and Mommy went through I think all of them! (Except that Kipper book with the monster... Which she doesn't like, which we talked about off and on most of the weekend... Which we really need to take back to the library...)

I really hope they don't grow out of it!

Block Party

Our good friends Luke and Amber invited us to their church's block party. When we were pulling in the parking lot, Hailey shrieked like never before and was super excited to be at a party!

She was excited to hang out with Belle. Here they're plotting what they want to do next. Bouncy castle or slide ship Titanic... Castle... Titanic... Titanic? Castle?

TITANIC!!! Listen close to the giggles on the way down!

Click here to view on YouTube.

Bo wishes he was a little bigger... He would have chose Titanic too!

Last, but not least, we did some face painting. Hailey had a cupcake painted on her cheek for about 5-7 minutes. Then she smeared half of it off. Thank goodness it was free! We had a lot of fun and thanks for inviting us Luke and Amber!

Roomba Stalker

Here's one way to keep Bo busy for a while... Put him in the chair and let Roomba run around! Hey, where'd she go!?

Bo's Milesone

Lately, Bo has been working REALLY REALLY hard on crawling. He can get on all fours and lean forward as well as doing an army crawl with his arms... Little did we know he had something else in store for us today!!!

Apparently he knew! This was before I left for work today. Can you see why this is one of the reasons it's so hard to go to work!?

STANDING BO!!!! He pulled himself up all by himself and was just focused! He was so proud! And obviously, we are too. :)

Old Clothes Rock

We've been doing a lot of cleaning and sorting lately. I think Hailey has really enjoyed this! She's found toys she used to love as well as her crazy pants! Wow have I missed them!! :)

The Real State Fair Pictures

Well, as I promised yesterday and Hailey warned you about with her Dinosaur horn... Here are our state fair pictures! I'd promise more pictures from our escapades in Wisconsin, but we were having too much fun to remember to take any pictures! Canoe rides, swings, tea parties in the sand and many other things! Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa (with the pony!)

On to the fair!!!

I'm pretty sure that most people would tell you that you need to dress properly before heading off to the fair. Hailey was no different. Strawberry shirt? Check. Ducky? Check. Kitty boots? Check, check!

Our first stop was the "birthing" center where they take all the farm animals about to have babies. I think this was the perfect first stop!

Here is a lamb and her Mommy!

While we were there, we heard that there was a sow giving birth to piglets... The PA person had just announced the arrival of piglet #11! This was the more appropriate picture for the soon to be 3 year old... No messy piglets around this one! :)

We got to pet the bunnies!!

No trip to the fair would be complete without a picture of our favorite water fowl!

After the animals, we had to do some rides. I was nervous to take Hailey on it, knowing that they don't call this the "giant slide" for nothing. I'd be the first to report that she absolutely LOVED it! She laughed and laughed and laughed all the way down over each bump! The only bummer was that we didn't have a third person to take our picture. However, I suppose we should save some things to keep on the to-do list for next year. :)

Then we went over to the kid rides area. We wandered around looking at all kinds of rides from twirling tea cups to roaring dragons. Hailey got to pick one of the rides that she wanted to go on. And as you saw from the video yesterday, she picked the dinosaurs! I really think it was funny that she had Ducky riding in front and she was waiting patiently in the back, holding her hands. Just to note, this is the point where I suggested the buzzer button... I still feel bad for that carnival worker!

We had to be sure we made a trip to the orchid exhibit. Even though Hailey said she didn't want to look at any flowers, I talked her into it to ensure that Mommy would be slightly jealous for skipping the trip! I think this pretty orchid accomplishes that a bit!

However, much to my surprise, this probably made her more jealous! Freshly made, still hot, covered in sugar mini donuts!!! I don't think it's possible to go to the state fair without eating some food. And I figured that every once in a while, we get to let it all hang out and get the things that we think look good. So after the mini donuts, we also partook in corn dogs for lunch, freshly squeezed lemon-aide and ice cream! I'd also like to note that I partook in some cheese curds. I had Hailey distracted eating her ice cream when I got them and felt a little bit bad for sneaking them and not sharing... On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 feeling bad) I was about a 2. What?! The cheese curds were that good! :)

Additionally, with a face like this, do you think she really missed having a cheese curd?

Lastly, we hit up a couple slower rides. We took the skyride that three person booths that go from one side of the fair to the other. Hailey was free, so I couldn't resist! She liked being up high and seeing all that she could see.

Here is the video to prove that. After the skyride, we also went up the space needle ride. This went up really high in the air and spun slowly around giving us a great view of both downtown Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

Click here to view on YouTube.

Hailey has already been talking about the giant slide and the dinosaur ride. I'm thinking we'll have to make another trip next year. Will you visit us this time?

State Fair Fun!

Well, since we're all a little bit wiped from the weekend, here is Hailey on a ride at the fair. I had just told her to press the buttons on this ride... And she then spent 98.5% of the rest of the time in the dinosaur pressing the button. Also take notice of Ducky in the front. He sure had a blast up there! But back to the buzzer. I really felt bad for the guy who has to handle this ride all day, and deal with kids who are obsessed with pressing those buttons!

Click here to view on YouTube

The Neillsville Crew

Well, we'll be in Neillsville for the next couple days. But we still have to get our book reading done! The book of choice is a book of old called "Two Kittens". It's a book that is near and dear to Grandma and Grandpa as they read it numerous times to Darlene when she was little. Hailey definitely enjoyed it! I'll try to post again tomorrow night, but if I don't, be prepared for pictures on Monday night!

International House of Pancakes

Here is one more picture from the cabin weekend. We took turns cooking meals and I got to do the cooking over the fire. On Saturday night, I was able to master the fire and grill pork chops like nobody's business. So Sunday morning when we wanted to do chocolate chip pancakes, I was asked to do them on the fire again. I had never cooked them that way before, but we found a cast iron skillet and warmed it up over the coals. Things were going so well, Jim added blueberries as well. If you've never had them, I would highly recommend them!

More Cabin Pictures

As promised, I finagled some more pictures from our cabin adventures last weekend!

Hailey and Grandma found a garter snake hiding in the rocks! I can't believe she wasn't freaked out. Especially after how much she cried when I made a snake out of play-doh and made a sssssssss-ing sound. The only bad part about this snake was that it STUNK! We had to wash our hands twice to get the smell out!

Hailey's chilling in the wheelbarrow/lawn chair. And bo was hanging out bundled up in his little hoodie sweatshirt. Hailey was really wanting some of those blueberries. But we decided against it since we just pounded 3-4 pancakes laced with chocolate chips and blueberries. :)

Alas! It's been quite a while since we got a picture of the family! Aren't we a stunning crew?!?!

One Year Ago.. Again

I noticed that about this time last year, I was posting the "one year ago" pictures. I thought, what the heck, let's do it again! Here is one from just over a year ago. I know that girl is Hailey, and she was really starting to come into her facial features. But wow how much time has flown. I feel extremely thankful for the technology of the day where we can host 1000s of pictures and have them readily accessible for a trip down memory lane. It's only a few clicks away. That being said, don't forget the archive links down the right side of the page. Choose a month and have a blast! I do frequently!

Bo Sit

Welcome to Bo's favorite new hobby! He used to freak himself out when we'd sit him up, and then he'd notice that we weren't holding him! He's getting sturdier and sturdier every day! We're inching closer and closer to a mobile Bo!!