Like Father Like Daughter

ISU Volleyball

We bought season tickets for ISU Volleyball this year and we've had lots of fun at the matches.  The very first game we attended, Archie did not like the loud noise of the band or the crowd.  He spent a majority of the match on Mommy's lap with Mommy's hands over his ears.  He was excited to see Cy, the mascot, but did not want to get close to him.  However, when Cy was across the arena, Archer pointed Cy out to us over and over again.

Avalon was thrilled to see Cy and happily gave him high fives!  Definitely their favorite part of the matches.


The match against Nebraska was right during Archie's nap time, but as Nebraska was ranked number 1 at the time, we decided to bring the kids anyway.  Archie sat on Mommy's lap the entire match, which was nearly 2 hours since it went to 4 games.  It was amazing match and ISU beat Nebraska, which was awesome!  The first time the ISU program has beat a #1 ranked team.  However, my favorite part of the match (other than having Archie sit on my lap the entire time) was afterwards as we were walking to the car and Archie said to me "That was fun Mommy."  How sweet it was!  He said this again after the next ISU game that we attended.

And now in the last week, every time we drive back the Hilton Colleseum, where the volleyball team plays, Archie says without prompting "volleyball court Mommy, volleyball court."  I love it!

Happy Halloween

Jarad's sister, Libby, and her daughter, Taylor, came to visit us in Ames this past weekend.  We had a great time with them!  One of the most memorable days was when we went to the Remain Gardens and the kids all wore their new pumpkin hats!  The kids and the hats are both so cute!  Everytime the kids have worn the hats, someone tells me how cute they are and asks where I found the pumpkin hats.  And I say "their Grandma made them."  Thanks Mummi!

Just Like Daddy...

Archer wore this shirt for the first time yesterday, October 11th, and Avalon said "Archer looks just like Daddy when he goes to work."  Too Cute!

Center Grove Orchard

The kids and I made our first trip to the Center Grove Orchard on September 27th., which is an apple orchard and pumpkin patch about 20 miles out of town with lots of fun things to do.  It was a beautiful morning and we had lots of fun!  First the kids fed the goats, which Archer loved!  He loves pointing out any animal we see and feeding them too!  Then we played in the 3 little pigs houses and went to the tea party of Alice in Wonderland.  Avalon thinks the pigs houses are so much fun!  I'm not sure why, because all you do is run in and out of them.  And sometimes she tries to blown them down.

Next we headed to the corn pool.  I know, only in Iowa, do they have a corn pool.  Yes, it is a large pool that is filled with shelled corn.  The kids love it!  I have to post a cute pic from the first time we went to the Orchard last year, so you can get the idea of what a corn pool is like.

Next, we headed over to the jumping pillow, which is like a bounce house with no walls, so the kids love it!  Then we went to my favorite part, the super slide, where I got to ride on a burlap sack with the kids down a large hill.  It's lots of fun!  Lastly, we rode some pedal tractors and went on a hay ride to see the pumpkin patch.  All in all, a very fun day!  We have a season pass, so we'll go again soon. 

Archie's new toddler bed!

We moved Archie from his crib into a toddler bed last Friday, September 14th.  And he is doing great!  Well, it's not a new toddler bed, since it was Avie's bed first and before that it has been through many other kids too.  Thanks again to our friend Jo for passing the bed on to us.  But it is new to Archie and he loves his new big kid bed!  He goes to sleep no problem just like he did in his crib.  And so far, he still thinks he can't get out of bed until we come get him in the morning.  So that is nice too!  This morning when I went into his room to get him he said "Light green Mommy, I wake up now."  Too cute!

However, we did find him sleeping on the floor on the second night.  We are not sure if he got of out bed on purpose or if he fell out of bed.  Probably the former, but we are still glad the bed is close to the ground.

More climbing...

I have a video of Avalon climbing up the climbing wall in our garage now.  It was taken on August 17th, which was a couple of weeks after it was built and she is already getting really good at it.



She has also mastered the climbing wall at the park by our house, which is difficult because it is missing a few climbing holds.  According to Avie, the holds are missing because a big guy stomped on them as you can see in this video, which was also taken on August 17th.



Archie is now into the climbing wall as well.  When we were at the park last Tuesday, September 4th, Archie climbed to the top of the climbing wall that Avie just mastered (as shown in the video above) all by himself.  I didn't even notice he was on it until he made it to the top.  He climbed it again several times yesterday, but I wasn't able to capture a good video of him yet.  He has also started climbing almost all other structures at the parks as well and he can do most of them on his own now too.

First Day of Preschool

 Avalon had her first day of preschool last Monday, August 27th.  At first she was hesitant to go in on her own.  She kept telling me that I needed to stay and watch over her.  By the time I actually separated myself from her, Archer was so busy playing with the farm animals that he didn't want to leave.

After class was done, Avalon told me that she wasn't even scared when the teacher took off her purple name tag and that next time I didn't have to stay.  I thought that was great progress for one day!

Avalon's new book shelves...

Mommy was out shopping at garage sales with Grandma when they found some cute bookshelves for Avie's room.  And a good deal too, two bookshelves for $8.   In the end they cost a little more than that (with the cost of the paint) and created yet another project for Daddy.  Avalon and Daddy went to the hardware store and picked out some paint and Daddy painted the bookshelves to match Avie's room.  They turned out great!  See for yourself.

Across the Monkey Bars!

Avalon successfully made it all the way across the monkey bars much to our surprise!  We spent a weekend with Camille's family at a church campground.  On Saturday, July 14th, Avalon started attempting to cross the monkey bars.  Jarad and I were surprised since we'd never actually seen her swing onto the monkey bars and attempt to cross them.  She tried over and over again with almost all attempts looking something like this:



Then she figured out how to put both hands on each bar as she went across them.  I think her cousin Dorian was a great motivator because he attempted to cross them once and after that Avie went again and again trying to show Dorian how to do it.  Too cute!



Then, as Mommy was fiddling with the camera to make more room on her memory card, Avalon made it all the way across to the other side, which I didn't capture on video.  However, she attempted again and made it all the way except the very last bar and Mommy did get a video.  Way to go Avie! : ) 


 
We found out later that Grandpa had been working on the monkey bars with her the day before and teaching her how to swing from bar to bar.  The progress she made in those two short days was amazing!  She hasn't done the monkey bars much since then, but I'm sure she will again soon.

Happy 4th Birthday Avalon!

Avalon had her 4th birthday a few weeks ago.  We celebrated by inviting over her friends and their families.  Jarad set up a camera on the roof of the house in the back yard to capture the outdoor festivities, which included a pinata, a water table, bubbles, and a slip n' slide.  Check out the video that Jarad created using the pictures.  Avalon had a great time, and so did we!  Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate with us!



I just wanted to mention a few things that I remember from the party that can or cannot be seen in this video:
1) I like how Everett is busy playing at the water table while the rest of us are doing the pinata. I didn't actually know this the night of the party, so it was fun to see it on the video.
2) I like that once Keri sits down at the table, she doesn't get up for the rest of the video. :)
3) Unfortunately, the memory card on the camera runs out right before the big super hero battle between Aadi and Brian, because I was looking forward to seeing that.
4) It's too bad that we can't really see the slip n' slide, because there would be lots of fun pictures of the kids playing on it. Especially Emma, who seemed to be the only one that actually knew how to slide down it, thanks to her mom! :)

Jarad's newest project

Yes, that is a climbing wall and it's in our garage.  Jarad built it himself.  He plans to expand it to go along the entire garage wall.  The kids love it!  The pictures were taken after Avalon received her birthday gift in the mail from Aunt Libby and Uncle Chris, so she is wearing her very cute, new outfit with the tags and all!  Last night, Jarad said the kids climbed the wall over and over and had a great time!  Avie can already reach the top no problem, but Archie has a ways to go. 

Archie learns to pump on the big kid swings!

Grandpa is already teaching Archie how to pump the swing by himself, a skill that Avie has yet to master. Archie mostly swings in the baby swing, but at the park across the street from Grandma and Grandpa's house there are no baby swings. So Grandpa had him on the big kid swing and the next think I know, Archie is pumping the swing! Well, he isn't exactly making it go higher, but he is going through the motions. It was so cute! Grandpa would say "up" and "back" and then Archie started saying it with him. Check it out. Archie looks so little on those big swings!





Archie even decided to take Grandpa's role and get Grandma swinging. Too cute! Here he is pushing Grandma on the swing and telling her to pump "up" and "back."

Avie's 1K Race!

 

Avalon ran in her first 1K (0.62 mile) race on Tuesday June 26th.  When I was going out for a run a few weeks ago, Avie asked why I was running and I told her that I was training for a race.  She asked "when do I get to run a race?"  So we signed her up for the 1K kids run at the Chase Race in Fargo.

Avalon had lots of fun running and she ran the whole way finishing in 8:33.  She did slow down a bit when she was looking back for Dorian, but by the half way mark she was only pushing forward.  She ran a great race and we are really proud of her!  It was a long ways for her to run and even though it was 6:30pm, it was still 80 degrees.  After the race she told me that "she got really tired and sweaty."  Too funny!  At the finish line she received a medal and also a much deserved Popsicle for a job well done!




 Dorian finished the 1K in 9:54 and Corbin ran the 1 mile in 8:34. Great race Corbin and Dorian!  And the adults also did well.  In the 5K race,  Mommy ran a PR in 27:46, Uncle Grant took 2nd in his age group in 21:14, and Grandpa Hugo finished in 30:31. 

A couple more videos of Avie's race:
 

Twilight 12K

Camille ran her first 12K race in Anchorage, Alaska on June 1st.  She ran a PR (Personal Record).  I guess technically since it was my first 12K, it has to be a PR.  But I think it would have been a PR at any race for any distance (5K or 10K).  The conditions for the race came together perfectly as the race started 7pm, the temperature was 55-60 degrees, sunny, and no wind, and the race course was relatively flat other than a long gradual uphill at mile 2, a mostly downhill mile 4, and a steep uphill for the last 0.5 miles of this 7.5 mile race. 

Earlier in the day, we video chatted with Avie and Archie.  Avie, with some prompting from Mummi, told me to "have a good race," which I greatly appreciated.  I would like to think that if Avie were writing this post, she would say "Way to go Mommy!"

Avie's goodbye

Jarad and I just took a trip to Anchorage Alaska to visit our good friends Katie, and Matt and Jen.  We left the kids with Mummi and Ukki for 10 days, which is the longest the kids and I have been apart.  Prior to this trip, the longest that I had left each of them was 2 nights.  It was quite the jump, but the trip was amazing and the kids had a Grand adventure of their own.  More about the trips in future posts. This post gets a little long, so if you don't want to read it all, skip ahead to the paragraph before the numbers.

I was quite nervous to leave the kids especially in the week prior to our departure.  I knew Mummi and Ukki would do great with them, but I was worried none the less.

Before we left, we explained to Avie that we were leaving.  The first thing that she asked us was "How long we'd be gone?"  What a cool kid with just the right questions.  We tried to explain 10 days by saying 10 bedtimes.  Avie was so cute listening and hugging Daddy while we told her (as seen in pictures above).  Then we told Avie that Archie might really miss Mommy and she said "I'll be Archie's Mommy while you're gone."  It was too sweet!

We decided not to tell Archie and opted to just give him a a hug and a kiss.  It was almost bedtime when we left for Mpls, so we told Archie that Mummi was going to give him a bath and he took off saying "bye bye."  We found out later that he did go around looking for us later that night when Mummi explained that we were gone but we would be back.

As we said goodbye to Avie, we gave her hugs and kisses and then she ran up the stairs for her bath too.  She stopped at the top of the stairs and starting saying lots of goodbyes to us.  I wish I had a video tape to remember all the cute things she said.  But here are a few:

1. Bye bye
2.  Have fun
3.  Don't get into Trouble
4.  If you push someone, make sure to say you are sorry
5.  Okay, you can go now (as she waved her arm at us to leave)

 I did tell Avie that I didn't think I'd push anyone, but she went on to say "but if you do, you should say you are sorry."  Funny thing is that I did end up pushing someone.  I ran a race in Anchorage while I was trying to get Jarad's attention (as he was supposed to be watching for me), I looked over my shoulder and started running sideways and bumped the women next to me.  You'll be happy to know that I did say I was sorry! :)

Brookside Wading Pool

The kids and I made it to the wading pool for the first time this summer on Monday and it was hot!  It was 80 degrees by 8am and 90 degrees by 11:15am when we hit the pool.  This is an amazing wading pool here in Ames.  It is just for little kids (6 and under).  It has zero entry on all sides and is at most 18 inches deep.  And the water was nice and cold!  It was great to let the kids play without having to be hovering right over them the whole time.  And the kids had a blast!  Oh, and they provide a bunch of water toys as well.  Awesome!

Happy Father's Day!

Jarad's only request for Father's Day was to go to our favorite yogurt shop, Orange Leaf, where you get to make your own sundae.  The kids and I were happy to join him!

Avie's new bike

Avalon got a new Dora bike at Mummi and Ukki's house.  She has gone for a bike ride every day for three days since she received the bike on Sunday.  She loves it!  And she has gotten pretty fast already.  I find myself having to jog a bit to keep up sometimes.  On Tuesday, she biked a total of 0.85 miles twice.  Great job Avie!

And, of course, a couple of videos too, so you can see how fast she is now!



 

 

Archie's game

Archie makes up lots of fun games!  I'd almost forgot about this one until he did it again the other day.  When we would pretend to get Archie or tickle him, he came up with his own defense.  He would lick his finger and then get us right back.  It is the most bizarre thing and we have no idea where he came up with it. He first came up with it a few months ago, maybe February, and he hadn't done it in a while until May 1st when out of the blue he started doing it again.  He hasn't done it since then, but we did manage to catch a cute video, in case you are curious as to how the game goes.



Some Archie's other games include:

1)  When we shake our head, then he shakes his head.  Then we would nod really big and then he would start to nod really big too.  This went back and forth over and over and was usually played when he was in his high chair. 

2)  He would point to different people in the room, usually while we were eating and he was in the high chair, and then we would say the person's name.  Now that he has started talking more, we point to people and he tells us the person's name.  Again this would go round and round, over and over again. 

3)  He also loves to laugh and be tickled and is not shy to tell us so.  He'll come up to us and say "Tick me" and use his fingers to show the tickle motion on himself.  It's really cute!

Avie has also made up her fair share of games.  Right now, her favorite games are hide and seek, tag, and monster.  Monster is her own game where Mommy or Daddy or whoever is willing chases her and Archie around pretending to be a monster while she and Archie scream and run away.  And whenever Daddy is the monster, the kids like to hide in Avie's closet, so Daddy must be a scary monster. 

Avie also told me last week that she was playing a game called "Hairy Leg" while she was taking a nap (or quiet time in her room).  I asked her how to play and she said there were sea serpents on the floor in her room and she had to save all her babies and stuffed animals from them.  I have no idea what that has to do with hairy legs, but that is what she told. me.

Avie - Teddy Bear flashback

I just came across this cute video of Avalon acting out the "Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear" book.  It is so cute, I had to post it.  My favorite parts are when she "sings a song" and then the ending "I love you."  I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!  The video was taken on December 3, 2010 when Avalon was about 2 years and 4 months. 

Avie's new bed

Avalon has a new big girl bed.  Per our request, Grandpa and Grandma picked up the bed from IKEA on their way into town.   Daddy and Grandpa put the bed together to surprise Avalon. 

 

After it was complete, we brought Avalon up to her room to surprise her with her new big girl bed.  She was really excited and of course, the first thing she did was jump on the bed.  Avalon picked out the comforter herself a few weeks earlier. 



We are excited that Avalon has decided to sleep on her bed again!  She was so cute sleeping next to her care bear, I couldn't resist posting the picture.


 

For at least a week, maybe two, Avalon has been sleeping on a blanket on the floor.  She has also had many times in the past year that she has decided to sleep on the floor instead of her bed.  Her toddler bed still had her crib mattress from when she was an infant.  It is so firm that it is probably just like sleeping on the floor.

Grandma and Mommy also went out and picked out some pictures and stickers to decorate Avalon's room.  Avalon has since moved all the stickers around (at least the ones she could reach), so that all of the butterflies are together, all the lady bugs are together, and all the dragon flies are together, "to be with their friends."  Too cute!

Archie Climbing

Now that the weather is nice and we are back out at the park, Archie has started climbing up everything.  Here is a video of Archie climbing up a structure that Avalon climbed around 16 months (see blog post climbing - flashback).  I guess if we would have had this structure just outside our door with warm weather all year as we did in CA when Avie was this age, Archer probably would have climbed it earlier too.  This video was taken a few weeks before Archie turned two.  Way to go Archie!



Also, note the climbing structure behind Archie that is an arch. The next week when we were at this park, Archie decided to climb up this structure on the other side of the park, which is twice as high. I saw him halfway up it and ran for him. He attempted it several times and didn't fall, but he also never made it all the way to the top.

Avalon's first dance recital

Avalon took her first dance class through the Ames Park and Rec this year.  She always had fun and was excited to go to class!  Although, she did tell me that she never talks during dance class.  No surprise there.  Her first dance recital was April 1st.  The girls were so cute in their dance costumes! 

 

Avalon was really cute on stage.  She mostly just stared out at the audience with a serious (or maybe it was focused) face and occasionally did the movements when she remembered them.  At one point, the teacher came out guided her to run in a large circle, which she continued for much longer than the other girls.  It was really cute!  But my favorite part was at the end.  After their performance, the other girls ran off stage, but  Avalon just stood there looking out at the audience until finally the teacher came and led her off stage.   Overall, it was a really cute performance and it was just fun to see all the girls dressed up in their costumes!

Many of the pictures were taken during Avalon's last dance class where all the girls dressed up in their costumes again and they go to show us Mom and Dad's what they have learned during class.

 

Happy Birthday Mummi!

For Mummi's birthday, we met Mummi, Ukki, Libby, Chris and Taylor at the Embassy Suites in Minneapolis and had a great time hanging out, eating, and swimming!  We got to see our niece, Taylor, again who was 3.5 months old.  She is so cute and so happy, which made for lots of great pictures.  Avie, Archie and Taylor had a blast swimming at the pool!

It was Taylor's first time swimming and she was happy to be in the water with her Mom, Libby, and had fun watching the other kids!

Avie had a blast swimming with Mummi and Ukki!  And for the first time, she jumped into the water by herself with no one to catch her.  She went all the way under water before popping back up.  She loved it!  And went back to do it again and again.  Archer also had fun swimming!  He liked to be on the steps of the pool where he could stand all by himself.  And once he found the hot tub, he spent most of his time there with only short ventures back to the big cold pool.

Library songs

Ames has an amazing library especially for kids!  We go there once a week as they have lots of books, puzzles, and toys.  They also have Toddler Time twice a day where they sing songs and read a book.  Archer never makes it through the entire story time, but he loves the opening song that they sing every class.  He sings and does the actions.  It's really cute!  See for yourself.



In case you didn't catch the words:
Tony Chestnut knows I love you  (Toe knee chest nut(head) knows I love you)
Tony knows
Tony knows
Tony Chestnut knows I love you
That's what Tony knows

Avalon also likes story time and would probably stay the whole time if she could, but Archer always wants to leave.  Thanks to some of my good friends, they will watch her if she does want to stay.  Avie also likes the opening song. 

Archie counting

Archie has started counting. He loves counting and pretending to count things, but he didn't quite have all the numbers down right away. It's really cute! And it's no surprise since both his parents like numbers so much! :)

This is the first time I captured his counting on video taken on February 24th, which was probably within a week of when he started counting. At the beginning, he always skipped numbers 5, 7 and 9.


Then, for a while, he only counted to 6, still missing number 5. Taken March 2nd.


But now he can count all the way to ten without missing any numbers as shown here on March 31st.

Instant living room...

$80 on craigslist!

Sledding

In a winter with very little snow, we have managed to get out and go sledding a couple of times. Luckily we don't need much snow or much of a hill for a 3 year old to think sledding is fun! :) Even Archie liked it the last time we went although you can't tell from the look on his face. But he did keep asking to go again.




These pictures and video were taken at the local park near our old apartment in Ames on February 4, 2012. It was the perfect size hill for little kids.

Best buds!

If Avalon found a new best friend in her cousin Taylor, Archer also found his new best bud in Libby and Chris's dog Jack. When we first arrived, Archer was very interested in Jack but a little nervous to get to close. However, it didn't take long for Archer to warm up to him and find a new best friend. By the end of the week, we had to keep Archer away from Jack to give Jack some space. :)

Our niece!

After Christmas, we headed out to Colorado to meet our first and only niece, Taylor. She is adorable and we are so glad we could make the trip to meet her. She was one week old when we arrived. Avalon was taken with her right away. She was so excited to meet, play with, and hold her newest cousin!

Daddy's race track

When Daddy gets involved in playing, the games always get really fun! Check out this race track ramp that Avalon and Daddy made.

The new house

We made several trips to the new house before we moved in and the kids always had a great time! Sometimes I wonder why we even have toys, because they had so much fun even when there was nothing in the house. Here is what they did:



But, of course, we have tons of toys. Here is a picture of the house after we moved in. Since we don't have much furniture, we now have several large toy rooms.

Twinkle Twinkle little star

Archer loves to do the actions to song now, as did Avie around this age. At the beginning of December, we were video chatting with Grandma and Grandpa and Archer did the actions for Twinkle Twinkle Little Star with us. It was so cute! Enjoy!



This video was taken on December 14th, 2011 when Archer was 19 months old.

Moving day

For those of you that don't know, we bought a house! We just moved in about a week and a half ago. Moving day went really great thanks to all of our help: Keri and Grandma for watching all the kids, and Steve, Grant, Jarad, and Grandpa for doing all the heavy lifting.

The kids helping out at the old apartment. Avie said she was making sure the floor was packed properly (with the paper).

Breakfast at the new house before we moved in. Using the few boxes we already had there. Perfect size for the kids.

We rented a truck and a two wheeler and were able to get everything we own in one trip.

And our moving crew taking a much deserved break for lunch at the new house.

We only had one minor set back during the move.

Q: How many grown men does it take to get a queen size box spring up the stairs?
A: More than 4.

We have been waiting to buy a new bed for a long time, but our last couple of apartments have been too small, so we've continued to use our old full size bed (which was Camille's parents old bed). So now that we are moving into our own house, Jarad went to Sam's Club the morning of our moving day to purchase a new queen size bed, so we would not have to pay for delivery.

After several attempts, the guys realized there was no way we were going to get the queen box spring up the stairs. Finally, Steve says "this is why you should get a king bed because the box spring is two twins. So we decided this was a great idea! Steve and Jarad took the truck back to Sam's Club and returned the queen bed and purchase a king bed. So, now, we have a new king size bed and we love it! :)