A Rare Moment

When I started this post, I was taking a rare moment in which I was the one relaxing in front of a football game and Will and Anders were upstairs doing something. It was nice while it lasted, except that I feel like crap. I may have a cold and allergies at the same time - all I know is that I cannot stop sneezing and it is making my nose red and my head hurt.

We had a whirl wind weekend with family in town for Will's cousin Sarah's wedding. It was a very nice wedding, Sarah looked gorgeous in her dress. Congratulations to Sarah and Josh! Here are some pictures from the reception, where the kids tore up the dance floor.

This might be my favorite picture from the night. The couple's first dance and what is that in the background? Oh Clara! So cute!

Check out Henry's fancy moves.

Anders also had lots of fancy moves including some kicks...

Some fancy walking...

Dancing a with a cork, while Clara rests a little or maybe that is one of her moves.

And he also included some jumping in his repertoire. It was a fun reception, Pete was a great DJ, and the kids crashed when we got home.

Here are a few pictures from our weekend up at the lake. We had lots of work to do and Anders pitched in.

We had lots of timbers from the timber framing classes taken in the last two summers that needed stacking. If you enlarge the picture you might notice the gloves he has on - we bought some kid-sized work gloves after the trip was over.

We also took some time to go out in the canoe, or 'noo as Anders calls it. He loved it, which was a relief because his first time in a canoe last year consisted of a lot of yelling and crying.

He went "up, up high" many times on his own, which was alarming. Being up high and pointing out other things that are up high is favorite thing for him.

This was so cute. Will and I were working hard to stack wood the last day before we left and we looked up and he was bringing us this 2x4.

Couldn't resist the typical spaghetti face picture.

Oh and one final thing - I have a piece of scrap paper batting around there that says, "honey, no stop it" which is what he said to me when I was washing off his face one day.

Ok, free time is over, Anders just peed on the rug. Dang it!

I Two Now

Anders is two now. Crazy. I took him to his two year appointment today and the doctor was pleased with how much he is talking, the fact that he has been wearing underwear for 4 weeks now (do I dare say he is potty trained?) and with his health. He jumped up to the 5th percentile with a weight of 23 pounds 8 oz and is in the 25th percentile at 33.5 inches. He used to not even be on the charts for weight, so we will take the 5th percentile. While we were at the appointment, he showed the doctor his climbing skills by scaling the exam table. Typical Anders - he also climbs fences, out of his crib, opens the back door now, etc. He keeps us on our toes for sure. So, here are way too many pictures from his birthday celebration (way too many in that it took Blogger two days to load all of these, so if you get worn out looking at the pictures, it seems to be for good reason).

We started the birthday celebrations a few days early with a visit from Grandma Kathie and Grandpa Bill. Here is Anders helping them put together the easel that Grandpa Bill made for him. It is very cool. Anders likes to fix things and figure out how things work, I won't be surprised to come home to this taken apart some day.

Beautiful artwork by Anders. And no, we did not get a puppy - that is Tighe and he belongs to Josie. Or maybe Bill and Kathie.

Fast forward to the weekend. We drove down Thursday night and spent Friday hanging out at Aunt Carrie, Uncle Rob and Eleanor's house. Anders requested waffles for breakfast (eata faffle) for his birthday so Rob was kind enough to make them for all of on Saturday. Oh and the best part of the weekend was that Anders absolutely refused to sleep in the pack and play - he insisted on sleeping in the "biga bed". It was real fun - we had to give in and let him fall asleep and nap in the bed we were sleeping in and then transfer him to the pack and play. What a nightmare, but thankfully, he was happy to sleep in his crib (with the side down of course to make climbing out easier) when we got home.

After breakfast we gave what may be his most important gift - a new Hawkeye jersey and a another Iowa t-shirt.

Eleanor and Anders on game day/birthday day with their coordinating Ricky Stanzi jerseys.

Before the game we had time to go to the park near Rob and Carrie's for a bit. Anders got some climbing out of his system.

Baby Dee (or is it D) even got in on the action.

Pete ran the general store, while Clara shopped.

After the game, which Iowa won, Anders got his hand in the cake - despite the fact that his Aunt Sarah and I were right there.

This is the cake that his Aunt Sarah made. The tire wasn't messed up when she brought the cake in the house, it still tasted great. We had another cake at the party too - a lovely green and purple angel food cake that Grammie made. I don't think she chose the frosting colors, though, I'm pretty sure Henry had something to do with that. Anyway, I didn't get a picture of it - bummer.

Ok, more park time - this is the birthday party - the picnic shelter we were at was right next to a play ground. Here are Henry and Zach flying and maybe checking out a real airplane, while Drew and Anders rush to a fire.

The park also has some amusement park rides, including this train - or choo-choo train as Anders calls them these days.

The birthday boy.

This is a music-less carousel. The kids loved it, but it was kind of strange to have no music.

Clara seemed to enjoy the elephant.

Drew and Anders teamed up again for some flying.

I love this action shop of Henry.

Eleanor and Rhiannon were very nicely color coordinated with their plane.

It was very late when we finally got a family picture taken. Unfortunately, this was one of the best shots.

The next morning we met everyone in Amana for breakfast. Anders enjoyed the food - especially this piece of toast.

Then we tried for a family photo - I think this one is pretty good considering all the people in it. After that, we left town to spend some time with Aunt Sarah, Uncle Mike and Zach and Drew at their house.

I love this shot of the 3 boys gathered around whatever Anders is looking at.

Anders got a new umbrella from Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Dick. He immediately headed outside with it, so Zach got out his umbrella to join in the fun.

For some reason, Anders decided he could go down this slide sitting down. All other slide rides were taken on his belly, feet first. We ended the day with some more amusement park rides and fire works, which thankfully Anders enjoyed. Then headed home on Monday. It was a fun weekend.