Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Walker Johnson Park

The boys and I have been trying out lots of new parks this summer and tonight we found Walker Johnson Park. It is Awesome!! (Shawn has taken the boys there once before but this was my first time)
You have to drive way back to the tennis courts, park, and walk over the hill to the trees to find it but it is totally worth the hunt. 
First you are greeted by these cute little houses...

....and a couple swings. 


Then you walk over the hill to find this amazing tower to climb!


Past the tower are these rope walls.


And this is what I mean in saying you have to walk towards the trees...


 ....the park is hidden in the trees!



My boys had a blast! They loved climbing the ropes and discovering lots of bugs! 


What is a trip to the park without shooting a few deer?






 Lincoln watched a little girl get her pictures taken, so when they moved on he had to go sit down in the same spot she did. :P





This will definitely be a park we go to often! It is the perfect place to take your kids to burn off all that extra energy at the end of  the day. :)

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Omaha Vacation

Why hello! Yes we are still alive and well. :P
I am not sure if I am really returning to blog land but here is a random little blog for you.

We are not going to be taking a big vacation this year, so instead we decided to do some fun little things as a family. Shawn was able to take Friday off of work, so Thursday we got a hotel room in Omaha so the boys could swim and Friday we headed to the zoo!

Our boys have really bonded lately and  we have had some very fun "brother moments".
This was right before we left on Thursday and I believe this is how the conversation went:
K: Winken you want to hab a conversation?
L: yeah!
 So they move these chairs together and Kallen proceeds to tell Lincoln all about his toy helicopter

Then I hear:
K: Winken you want to hab wap time?
L:Yeah!
And Lincoln proceeds to back his chubbly little self onto Kallen's lap where they hang out for a few minutes.

We have had tons of these moments lately and it just makes me smile! We got to our hotel around 8:30pm that night and, against my better judgement, we let them stay up late to take a quick swim.
We got them back into our room and into pj's around 10pm and they were out almost instantly!

It made me smile to see them sleeping next to each other and they did awesome all night!
A late night equaled the next morning in our hotel room looking like this....


...feeding Lincoln in one bed to keep him quiet, while Kallen was passed out in the other bed. :)
We knew the boys were too young for a whole day at the zoo so we took our time in the morning:
-reading the Bible
-swimming and relaxing in the hot tub
- being super cute

- and getting ready for the day! It was the perfect family morning!

On our way to the zoo Kallen piped up from the backseat: "Where is Home Depot?" "I don't know Kallen." "I just want to go to the zoo after Home Depot!" (seriously!?)
We made our way to the zoo around noon and between our DesMoines zoo membership and a coupon we got in super cheap! We accidentally forgot our stroller so we headed over to rent a stinkin $12 stroller and the guy was on break so a worker gave us our stroller for free!!

The boys had a BLAST at the zoo and aside from the occasional, I haven't had a nap and it's 103 degrees meltdown, they did really well!
Kallen touching a starfish:

"Mommy wook it's a orange fish! My fabowite cowor! Take my picture with the orange fish mommy!!"
A quick stop at the playground to burn off some energy:

Watching our kiddos play:
 (yes I went to the zoo naked- wouldn't you on such a hot day!? heehee)

Seriously the biggest snake I have ever seen!!!!
By the end of the day Lincoln was so tired he sat with this cracker hanging out of his mouth for like 15min. It was ridiculous!
Checking out the polar bear:
And around 4:15 Lincoln gave up the fight:

We really had no intention of making  it through the entire zoo, but with only skipping a few things we made through the whole thing in about 4 1/2  hours. We were on the boys schedule the entire time and for the most part we just went wherever they wanted to go. The zoo was so good about having water stations everywhere and the only money we spent was $6 on some caffiene for the parents and $4 on a Shark book for the boys!
It was the perfect little mini-vacation and I was so sad to see the day come to an end.
Our goal was to keep things cheap and with a $60 hotel room found on hotwire.com that came with a huge continental breakfast, our entire weekend was under $100!
I am hoping we can do a couple more fun little weekends like this before the year is over.
I just LOVE spending long weekends with my little family- now if we could just both quit work and vacation all the time......:P

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Absent

I could give you an entire list of reasons as to why I have not blogged for 2 months, but what it all comes down to is that I have lost my motivation to blog.
I will most likely be back soon, but until then here a few pictures of what we have been up to:

{ Playing with Cousins }



{ Traveling to Madison, WI for a wedding and stopping at the zoo while we were there }


{ Swimming! }


{ March of Dimes Walk for Babies }

{Kallen has been taking a lot of self-photos }

{ And Biking this trail }






Monday, March 19, 2012

Boys will be Boys

I recently read in the book Bringing Up Boys by James Dobson that any minute you do not keep a little boy busy- you deserve whatever happens to you.

I believe it!
I sometimes envy moms whose children will sit down and watch a movie- oh the things I could get done!! But then I remind myself how thankful I am to have two crazy, energetic little boys.
How relaxed bored I would be if I didn't have two little stinkers to chase around Constantly!!
This post may get rather lengthy- I haven't blogged in a while!
(refer to the first sentence of this post if you are wondering why)
But this blog is suppose to be a way to record our life- something I can look back on in a few years and hopefully laugh about. And in the chaos of raising my little men, I am realizing how easy it is to forget all of the funny things they do.

Lincoln is the closest I get to having a TV watcher. He will sit down for 15 minutes (gasp!) if something catches his attention.
But he is also TROUBLE!
This little boy is pure orneriness! And what's scary is that he is SO sneaky! You turn your back on him for 1 second and you will find him several feet away into something naughty. Hugs and kisses do not come easy with Lincoln so you know that if you get one, he really means it! He is my momma's boy so he usually keeps a pretty close eye on me. He is talking Way sooner than Kallen ever did! At 16 months he is saying full sentences and repeating everything he hears.

On Mondays and Tuesdays I watch my 5 month old nephew Cru. He is such a sweet boy and we have so much fun!

Because we have been able to pass down all of our clothes, the boys have a lot of matching outfits. Lincoln and Cru have a love/hate relationship...

...but Kallen and Cru have a special bond. It seems like Cru will always smile for Kallen and K is SO good with him! It gives me hope for someday when we have another one. :)

(yes I realize cru is crying in this pic but it shows how proud Kallen is of his cousin)

I have come to accept the fact that the Iowa Deer Classic will forever be a part of my life, so this year we made our annual trip downtown with my boys decked out from head to toe in camo.

They LOVED it and spent the entire time "shooting" deer with their little fingers. :)


A while back we found a deal on Living Social for the Ramada Inn here in town. Our voucher included a 1 night stay, pizza, breakfast, the waterpark, and a little pirate-themed gift bag full of goodies. The boys had a Blast and now everytime I say the word park Kallen screams "Waterpark?!".






They even slept in the same bed for half of the night!

My kids were born to be outside. I'm pretty sure we just survive the winter in anticipation of spring and summer coming.
 My boys spent all of  last week running around barefoot and playing in the dirt! (they were in heaven)
Lincoln's favorite place to sneak away to is under the deck.


When we decided to have our children so close together, I pictured them being best friends and it is finally happening!! I'm pretty sure my boys don't know what to do without each other. When Lincoln wakes up in the morning the first thing he says is "Bubba!" (his name for Kallen) And when Kallen wakes up from his naps, usually an hour before Lincoln, he spends the entire time asking for Lincoln. While they do fight several times a day, they are beginning to play so well together and I love watching a strong bond form between them! The only negative thing is that my boys play Rough! I am finding that it's hard to find other kids to play with because they usually end up getting hurt. This is something I am really working on- learning that it is ok to play rough with your brother but you need to tone it down if you want to have friends. A lot of the problem is that Kallen just gets so excited to play and doesn't know how to control his excitment.


Now for this boy:


He is at such a fun fun age!! The things that come out of his mouth keep us laughing constantly. He counts to 13 (odd # I know) but usually forgets the # 8 so now his counting goes like this: "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,9,10...oh and I forgot 8!" He recognizes several letters in the alphabet and knows some of their sounds. Kallen is getting to be very helpful around the house! He is able to do small jobs and is very assertive.
Potty training has been a NIGHTMARE! He will go potty as long as we remember to take him but does not go on his own, and going #2 has been a loosing battle.
Last week we were having dinner at Pizza Ranch with all of Shawn's family and the kids were all done and getting up to play but Kallen would not move. I asked Kallen if he needed to go potty and he quietly said "I pooped". So I hopped up to take him to the bathroom and clean up the mess. (gross) When we came back to the room, Shawn walked up with a smirk on his face and asked me if Kallen had pooped. I said "yes. why?" Shawn proceeded to tell me that he looked down and saw something that looked like poop on the floor out in the main room on the way to the bathroom. My son left a pile of poop in the middle of pizza ranch right beside the pizza buffet!! I was mortified!
Aside from our potty training issues Kallen really is a good boy! He is becoming very responsible and obedient and it's nice to see our strictness (is that a word) and hard work start to pay off.
I feel so blessed to be able to stay home and raise these crazy little boys!
I love seeing life through their eyes and am amazed at how much I learn through them everyday!

I'm pretty sure this is how we will look at the end of every day this summer....

...just proof that we have had a good day!