We have been having lots of fun lately playing in the snow, spending time with cousins at Thanksgiving and playdates, and decorating the house for Christmas. We've been having fun as well as dealing with more toddler tantrums. I know that the older my little 22 month old gets, he will try to become more independent and try to do things by himself and it will cause frustrations if he can't do what he wants to do, but I'm not ready for the terrible twos or threes. It seems to go in spurts where I think my sweet little toddler has been taken by a tantruming crazy boy and then he all of a sudden comes back and is my sweet, hilarious, fun little boy. Luckily it seems to be only 2-3 days of crankiness followed by several months of sweet happy boy.

Charlie has been talking up a storm lately. He is starting to form sentances and has long 'conversations' with himself when he's playing :) He says "mommy sit, bella no!, here Lalla (Bella),I love you (my favorite :)) me do, or my do. He says many more but I'm tired and that's all I can think of right now... "No" and "Mine" are favorite words and are said constantly. He repeats pretty much anything you say, it's like having a mini me :) I love the hugs and kisses that Charlie freely gives and his zest for life. He does everything to 110%, whether it is persistence to get the Christmas ornaments OFF the tree everytime we leave him alone in the living room, or streaking around after bathtime for as long as possible before he gets captured for pj's, or giving Bella hugs, or playing as hard as little boys play. I love you to pieces Charlie! You give us such JOY!

My little toddler has been having too much fun during naptime lately. This is what we found after thinking our sweet little toddler was asleep for the last 30 min. Lots of time to make a big mess! And this doesn't do it justice, it was a deep pile!


My handsome hubby with his mustache for the month of November :) I was SO happy when he shaved


Thanksgiving day....it was such a beautiful day!


My little snow angel :)

Catch up

It has been way too long since the last post on the blog and I feel like there is too much to catch up on. We took a trip to Grand Marais this fall to look at the leaves, do some hiking, and Brent got out fly fishing and hunting a bit. Doug and Becky came for a fun visit. It was great getting to spend a week with them, Charlie loved it even though he had pneumonia for half of their visit here. Once the meds kicked in he became his normal happy and crazy self. We went to a few apple orchards. We enjoyed the beautiful fall playing in the leaves and spending as much time playing outside as possible.

Big news in our house was the transition of crib to a toddler bed. Charlie is my little monkey and began climbing out of his crib and eventually falling out and bonking his head. So we were forced to get him a big boy bed much much earlier than I would have liked to. Surprisingly he did quite well with it and now goes to bed pretty easily most nights. It took about a week with the first 3 nights the hardest. After that it only took about 15 min to go to bed and now he lays down and doesn't make a peep as he falls asleep. I'm really happy to have that big milestone over with. Getting rid of the nuk will be the next thing to happen after Chritmas. He only has it for naps and night time right now and I love that it soothes him so easily. So Charlie and I will be enjoying that he has his nuk until after Christmastime :)

Also- Happy Belated Birthday to my wonderful husband on October 24! :)

Our Grand Marais trip


My boys...




My little cowboy :)


New big boy bed! It took 1 week and he is fully transitioned to his new bed and goes to bed like a champ :)


Halloween event- such a cute white tiger!


Loves helping out in the yard


Grandma and Grandpa Gilchrist came for a week long visit- Charlie had a blast playing with them. We went to the zoo, an apple orchard, the Childrens Museum, Brent and I got out for a few date nights, and fun times hanging out at home. We miss them already.


Charlie and 'Gampa'


The whole crew


Our pumpkins


Halloween night before going trick or treating. He caught on pretty quick to the whole routine of going up to doors and saying 'tick or teat' and taking candy. It was pretty fun :)
My little sea otter!


He couldn't stop digging his hands in the candy and tossing them to the trick or treaters! He didn't actually eat one piece of candy that night though.
(he changed costumes and became an adorable puppy halfway through the night)

Why you let an 18 month old play with finger paint outside...

Last week we spent a lot of time enjoying the great fall weather. During one of the warm days I thought finger painting might be a fun activity. I mean, daycare does all of these fun crafts with 10-12 toddlers at a time...how hard can it be with one 18 month old?? Well...see for yourself :) (it was worth it because we did have a lot of fun, but due to his limited attention span, it was 5 min of fun and 15 min of clean up!)

The Great Minnesota Get Together

Today we went to the MN state fair with Heather, Dan, and Bethany (and baby Totman sister to come soon :) ) We went this afternoon for a few hours and had a ton of fun! Brent and I initially weren't too excited about going to the fair this year. For many reasons: because we have an 18 month old, knew it would be crowded and busy, have an 18 month old, it would be hard to maneuver a stroller, we have an 18 month old, etc :) Having an 18 month old always makes us think things through a bit more than before having Charlie. You have to plan ahead a lot more and bring tons and tons of snacks and just be ok with a few toddler tantrums here and there. Actually Charlie has been surprising us lately and has been an angel when we go out on excursions...for the most part :) We had a blast, enjoyed yummy (and very junky, bad for you) food, and the trip was a success! Heather and I only lost Brent, Dan and the kids once for about 45 min, but otherwise all was fantastic! Thanks for the free ticket to the fair Heather :)

Family pic


Milk mustache


He got spoiled with all the sugar at the fair! Loving the ice cream :)


Big smiles at the end of the day. Charlie and Bethany giggled, hugged, and gave kisses the whole bus ride back to our cars. They were so slap happy!


Bethany loving the snacks too


Battered Australian potatoes, one of the food choices we got...yummy!


Despite the look on Charlie's face, he had a ton of fun in the Miracle of Life barn looking at the baby animals.


Loving daddy time

Tennessee

Playing catch up with my blog posts. I don't even know where the summer went! I can't believe it is almost September, kids are starting back at school, and I even saw a few trees start to change color. However I am loving that my windows are open right now with the cool breeze blowing and I have an apple candle burning. That is my favorite.

Right now my lil Charlie is sick with some stomach bug. He has been lethargic and laying on the couch all day. For those of you who know him, that is NOT like him to be so quiet. I have been fortunate to not have to deal with any baby puke until today. I'll just say that today I've done several loads of laundry and my kitchen and bathroom floors are now very clean. Poor buddy, I hope he feels better soon. I love the snuggles but I'd rather him be running around like a crazy man.

Anyways...back to the TN post:

We went to Tennessee to visit the Gilchrist family in June. We had a blast! Charlie had a lot of fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa G and Uncle Troy. We also got a chance to hang out with Brent's cousins from North Carolina for a few days too. We went to a swimming hole and stopped to get some ice cream afterwards, the guys and I went 4 wheeling for a day through the woods and streams, and we spent lots of time relaxing and hanging out with the family at Todd and Chris's house. One morning I was ambitious and went out for a run in the neighborhood. It was supposed to take me 30 min and I ended up getting lost for 2.5 hrs. A search party was sent out for me and Brent found me and took me back on the 4 wheeler. After that I decided I would take a buddy with me next time with a better sense of directins :) Haha!

The flight was interesting with a 16 month old who just wanted to explore and run everywhere. Brent and I decided that we don't need to take any more flights with Charlie in the near future...it was a TON of work to keep him occupied on the plane. He was pretty good and didn't fuss much but was just busy busy busy. He loved to open and shut the airplane window shade...Im not sure the gentleman in front of us loved it quite as much though :) He also had two huge blow-outs through his diaper and clothes on both flights so we ended up changing his diaper in the teeny tiny airplane bathroom. I realized after I changed him that I forgot his change of clothes so he ran back to daddy in just his diaper happy as can be. Once we got off the plane at 11pm he ran around the airport giggling. Bonus of being up late in the airport was that he slept in til 8am. Oh how our lives have changed that I think sleeping til 8 am is late :)

We miss you Doug and Becky! We can't wait to see you again in October :)

Many pictures to prove how much fun we had.

Snuggles with "Gampa"


Snuggles with Grandma


"Am I doing this right?"


So much fun running into the water


Swimming with Grandma


I love my uncle Troy


Group shot before a muddy day of 4 wheeling


The "Before" Picture


The "After" Picture...you have to click on it to see how muddy we are. We were caked from head to toe with mud flecks...tons of fun!


It was a crazy 4 wheeling day, lots of paths that the water was really deep. Troy and Doug both got stuck and had to get pulled out.


Daddy


Uncle Troy


The swimming hole


Resting after a fun day of swimming with the family


It's WAY more fun to wear your food than to eat it


Charlie had so much fun running in and out of the lake. Here's a quick video of the fun:

Summer Vacation

We're Back!!!

We haven't really been gone or away on vacation for awhile, but we took a break from blogging to enjoy the warm weather here and just play. We have done TONS of playing and it's been fantastic! We have spent a lot of time at the beach, pool, my sister's house on the lake, and on the boat. Lots and lots of fun times in the sun this last month.

Since it's been a month and a half since I've posted on the blog, I'm slightly overwhelmed about where to start. I have over 500 great pictures since June and I don't have the time (or energy) to put them all on the blog. So I guess I'll have to slowly work my way through them and put some favs up. So be patient with me :)

We also were at my In-Laws in Tennessee back in June that I will be posting lots of great pictures from. That trip alone was probably 280 pictures :) It was so much fun to see the Gilchrist family...we miss them a lot! Skype helps :)

So here are a few pictures to get you through til I can put more up...




Taking his job of watering the plants very very seriously


Chopsticks hitting the table makes a loud noise! (we just got this table and chairs for Charlie and he LOVES them! They are the first thing he goes to in the morning...a very good Craigslist investment!)


Look, I can climb the stairs all by myself...good thing Daddy is behind me though because sometimes I like to jump off them


A garage sale freebie. Charlie has fun going in and out of the tent. Not the cutest thing ever, but how can you beat free?!


Cool kid :)


Ice cream is a must have in the summer! This was a free cone from DQ after the 4th of July parade


Splash pad in Apple Valley, a big hit on the scorching days we had this month


Ahh....finally time to relax during dinner. Gotta lounge with my feet up