A Very Busy October!

I don't feel like we've sat down all of October!! We've been on lots of playdates, drove to Sioux Falls for my cousin's wedding reception, a 25th anniversary celebration for Brian's Aunt and Uncle, a very fun baby shower for the upcoming arrival of Baby Tucker, took family pictures, and played outside...A LOT.

Looking so innocent..


His new thing is he likes to pile up all the pillows around him and then giggle like we can't see him.


On a stay at home day with Daddy...making mini pizzas for lunch. He is meticulous about his pepperoni, wonder where he gets that from??


He loves grapes! Turns out, they aren't so nice on the digestive system when he has them 5 days in a row. Oops. Lesson learned for Mommy and Daddy!


A little story time with Sasha...she puts up with so much.

A few weeks ago, we went with some friends to Severs Corn Maze. I had always heard about it but I know it's always a little crazy so we didn't venture there lot but Charlie loved it. His favorite part was definitely the animals. Except when I paid $5 for a horsey ride. He was not going to sit on that horse for anything. Maybe next year.

The corn maze at this place is HUGE. At first he wasn't so sure about it but he ended up liking it a lot! And we were finding corn all over the house for days!!

That's all for now!

October fun..in the sun

I LOVE fall. I love it love it love it. I DO NOT love turning the air conditioning on in October because it is 90 in our house!! It makes me crabby. There is something wrong about going to a pumpkin patch/apple orchard and sweating. I also feel like if we aren't getting "fall" now, then we won't. It will go from 90 to snow. You know it will happen!

Oh well. We're trying to enjoy as much outside time as possible. I'm not sure what we are going to do with Charlie all winter. The second we come home he wants to go "side side" which is outside in Charlie speak. He stand at the screen and leans on it like the outside is just calling to him. It is always the most dramatic part of the night when we have to come inside for dinner. I'm sorry to anyone who tries to call me on the phone during those 10 mins. We are all a hot mess.

I'm just going to post a bunch of pics tonight because I'm cramming for book club on Thursday and I gotta get back to reading! Happy October!

Cheeeeese!


Picking some apples with his eyes closed. (we are not good photographers)


An old beehive...that was thankfully not in use!


3 peas in a pod. I'm not sure why Charlie looks so serious in these. I promise he was having fun.


Charlie LOVED the llamas. He could have stood there most of the day.


Charlie thought it was hi-larious to stand on the hay stack.

I'm not sure what he's doing but Daddy told him to lay on the roof.


Charlie decided to go stand by the barn...


And everyone else joined in!



I couldn't resist throwing one in from last year. Charlie especially has changed so much!


Charlie last year on the haystack..we call this his "sloth" picture. From Goonies..

Before we went to the apple orchard, we had breakfast with my college girlfriend Maureen and her family. Between Al, Maureen, and I, we had 6 kids!! It was a little nuts.

(From left to right) Maureen, Beau, Alyse, Clare, Finn, Trey, me, Charlie, and Allison

Random person's leaves after C got a haircut.

Family orchard picture.

And we're back!!

After hundreds of comments about where we have been (ok, it was just three..thanks Sue, Molly and Ethan for missing the blog), I am back on the band wagon of blogging. I hope to keep a more regular rhythm instead of once every 5 months...yikes. I realized that we don't take as many pictures if I'm not using them for the blog so for the sake of keeping memories..we are back!!

We've had a crazy busy summer. Mostly good, and some not so good. The good: several trips to South Dakota for long lazy lake weekends, trip to Chicago with my Mom for NKOTBSB (ah-mazing), trip to Denver for Jacquie and Ben's wedding with UNI girls, and fun playdates with our friends. With the ups comes the downs of course and unfortunately while my Mom and I were in Chicago, Brian's Grandma Frankie passed away. We miss her like crazy but are so thankful for the time that we got to spend with her - especially these last 19 months that she was able to spend time with Charlie.

So I'll just try to catch up all the pictures from this summer (the very few we took that are on my camera!) and try really hard to post more often!!

Charlie has really ditched all of his toys this summer for his police car (thanks Micah!), any kind of ball, and/or trucks. Once in awhile he will get out something else like the sit and spin that Grandma Pat gave him but 90% of the time you will find him in his car holding a ball or truck.

So happy about his police car!

Meeting new friend Beau Luskey!



First time finger painting. Way more paint ended up on him than the paper but that's what bathtubs are for.

We only braved the Twins game once with Charlie this year. He isn't as willing to just sit on our laps but he did great at the game we went to. He loves to people watch and there's all kinds of people to watch at a Twins game.

Momentous...first time at Famous Daves. Not really sure about this Daddy.

Hmm..not so bad!

First popsicle at the beginning of the summer. We realized when he knew exactly what to do that maybe daycare does popsicles for snack!! It is definitely a favorite dessert!

We were so lucky to be able to go to Denver for my friend Jacquie's wedding. It was so incredibly beautiful - at this gorgeous museum with the mountains in the background. My Mom came up to watch Charlie so Brian and I really enjoyed a weekend away!

Charlie's first trip to the fair. He DID NOT enjoy the guy who was running the train. Even with his cousins Stella and Piper along, he freaked out everytime we would go past the scary man.

Scary man in red...

Charlie really loves his books. In the morning while I'm getting ready he will just sit on the couch or on his chair in his room reading books to himself.

Charlie is #1!

I bought this chalkboard sticker thing when Charlie was born thinking I would write notes and stuff on it. I never used it so I moved it down to the bottom of the wall and Charlie loves it!!

And we're into fall...

Charlie is king of the yard!

Fun with the leaves!

A quick update

I think maybe Charlie hit the "terrible twos" at 16 months. No, not really but I certainly felt like that yesterday at the store. We went to Jerry's Foods for a few quick things after I picked up Charlie from daycare and about 1/2 way through our trip, Charlie had a meltdown because I wouldn't let him chew on the pasta box. (You'll thank me for that later I think bud.) So here we are - standing in the aisle in full on screaming melt down toddler mode so I looked over and saw fruit snacks on the counter, grabbed them, opened them, and gave them to Charlie to get him to calm down. I officially because "that mom." Oh well - we do what we gotta do I guess!

Here is Charlie and Sasha earlier this spring. They love to sit on the bench together.



We were so lucky to have my BFF Erin and her hubby Dustin and their little guy Declan in town a few weeks ago. They flew all the way from Kansas City. Declan is just 2 weeks older than Charlie so it was so fun to get the boys together. And they ended up on the same schedule so we got the chance to do our favorite thing together - play cards and board games!!

The boys just cracked us up the entire weekend.



I had just told Erin about Charlie and his "stranger danger" and the second he looked at her, he held his arms up. Maybe it was because they had a little guy his age but Charlie just loved on Erin and Dustin all weekend!



Do you have a 7 of diamonds? Go fish.

Charlie also graduated from his first ECFE (early childhood family education) class. I made Brian come to the last class for the picture. Because the class is at 5, Brian could never be off work in time to make it and I think everyone thought I was a single mom! Charlie loved the class and all his friends even though it doesn't look like it in the picture. And the best part of the class - one of our teachers has a high school daughter that wants to babysit Charlie! Score!

Charlie is VERY into books right now. His favorites are "I Love You Through and Through", "5 Little Ladybugs", "The Belly Button Book", and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". While I'm getting ready in the morning, Charlie loves to sit in the chair and "read" his books.

Charlie probably wouldn't appreciate this picture but he has officially transitioned from 2 naps a day to 1 nap and it's made for some ROUGH evenings for Mommy and Daddy. He is pretty much ready to go to bed at 5:30 so the entire evening consists of trying to keep him busy to distract him from how tired he is! Poor guy. I know he'll adjust but we probably a few more weeks of an early bedtime!