Happy Memorial Day

Had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend.  Although the weather was rainy and cold.  Got together with some close friends who I haven't talked to in a long time. Had a few drinks.  Set off a few fireworks.  Also went for a rainy day family drive along Apple Blossom Scenic road. I have never been up there before and it has a beautiful view.  I forget how beautiful the bluffs in Wisconsin are.    

 

5 year anniversary

 

 

Here is looking back on our wedding day.  It was our 5 year anniversary yesterday.  What a beautiful wedding day we had.   Here's to many happy more years together. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another Cute Qoute

I rented a movie from Red box tonight.  "The Jungle Book"  On the way home from Judy's I gave the movie to Riley so he could see what it was.   I asked him if he knew what movie it was.  He replied "The human and the bear movie."  Ha!  There is a picture of a boy and a bear on the front so no wonder he thought that was the name of the movie. 

Riley translated

Riley is a great conversationalist.  Sometimes I forget he is only four years old and have some really great conversations with him.  He uses a lot of words and most of the time in the right context.  He does have some words he uses that are pronounced the wrong way and it is funny.  Here are a few Riley words translated:

Festibal = Festival
Gave = Gabe
Nack = Mack
Iryawn Man = Iron Man
Glub = Glove
Black Cider bug = Bacselder bug
Beach = Jeep

Those are the few words I can think of right now.  I know there are more but I just can't remember them.  He is too funny. 

Here are some pictures from my week.

Austin loves wagon rides.

 

Riley adores our neighbor kid, Brian, next door and was so excited to play with his water balloons.

My mom bought these adorable outfits for Austin and Riley today.  I just wanted to get one good picture with them wearing them.  Austin was not in the modeling mood today.

This one is a little better but still not a happy face. 

Now he is happy because he is eating. 

Happy Birthday Riley!

Four years ago today my first baby boy was born into this world.  What a blessing he is.  I just want to keep him away from the world and have him stay my cute, sweet, loveable and innocent boy forever.  He has the cutest smile and most of the time it is a crooked one.  He says the most adorable things and always is making us laugh.  He is such a good little boy and we are so proud of him.  Jason and I often find ourselves having conversations about how blessed we are to have such wonderful children.  I think all parents feel that way.  That is how parents are supposed to feel. 

We had a Spiderman party for Riley on Saturday.  Jason bought us all matching t-shirts to complete the Spiderman party experience.  He also decorated the Shelter for the party.  He did a great job.  What a great dad!  I made homemade cupcakes with spider webs on them and a cake for Riley with  a big spider web on it.  Riley loved it and that was totally worth the time it took for me to make them.  We had a beautiful day for the party and a great turn out of people.

       

Picture Perfect Day

Today was a picture perfect day!   It was so nice to enjoy the day outside.  Jason and I took the kids to the store and bought some tomato plants and flowers to plant in our yard.  Riley loves helping dad plant vegetables and flowers.  He picked out the flowers which we thought were really pretty.  After the planting was done we had brats on the grill for lunch.  He also tried to help dad get rid of some of the boxcelder bugs and he calls them "black cider" bugs.

My mom and I took the kids to the Winona park to feed the ducks.  Everything is blooming outside and it was a beautiful day.  Nature makes me happy.  Riley had so much fun playing on the jungle gym.   He is such a social butterfly.  He calls all the kids he meets for the first time his friends.  He will talk anyone's ear off he meets.  He loves to play with anyone and everyone he meets no matter who they are and I love watching him play.  Oh to be a kid again, no worries in the world and everyone is your friend.

Riley loved feeding bread to the ducks and geese.  We went through two bags of bread pretty fast.  I gave some bread to Austin too but he fed himself instead.  Apparently he loves the taste of bread.  He had fun running around on the grass and picking dandelions.  He tried to eat those too but I was able to intervene.

After eating dinner we went back outside for a nice walk.  What a great day spent outside.       

Riley's Cute Quote of the Day

 

Riley: "Mom do you know who Snow White is?"  Me: Yes.  Riley: "I know who Snow White is but I don't like her."  Me:  "Why?"  Riley:  "Because she is a girl." 

Mother's Day

We had a nice Mother's Day weekend.  I spent the day with my mom.  We went out to lunch at Applebee's and then went to the Craft barn in Galesville.  Then on our way back we stopped at the  Elmara Winery in Trempealeau.  I want to go back again when the grape vines are in bloom.  Very beautiful area.  Also we finally figured out the lyrics to "Loves me Like Jesus Does" by Eric Church.  We listened to it over and over and laughed so hard because we could not figure out the first line of the song.  It is "I'm a long gone Waylon song on vinyl."  Had a great day spent with my mom. 

  

Here is the picture we took on Mother's Day.

 

Here is how the vines look in full bloom.

Climbing football players

Went for a nice long walk outside tonight.  Riley met some new friends at the "racetrack".  He brought his football and everyone wanted to play football.  All of the kids were climbing up on the soccer goal and I heard them ask him to climb up too.  He hollered to me "Mom can I climb on that?"  I told him no and then he turned and said "No I can't climb on that."  Ha!  Sometimes he does listen to me.  I walked around the track for about 30 minutes with Austin while Riley played.  It was nice. 

 

 

 

Lovely days

I have been enjoying the weather this week and taking full advantage of it by being outside as much as possible with the kids.  We have made many trips to the park and took many walks.  I even went for my first run of the season.  I started out feeling like I was still in shape and ended knowing I was not in shape!  It felt good to go for a run though. 

Today was the first rainy day in a while.  Despite the rain Jason took Riley trout fishing in the creek for a couple hours.  Jason caught a few but Riley didn't catch any.  He still had fun jumping in puddles and came home wet and muddy.  After that we stayed in for the rest of the rainy day.  Riley had lots of energy that would have been better spent outside than inside.   Ha!

Riley asked me to read him a new book tonight.  He requested the "big yellow book" which just happened to be the Children's bible.  It is a really neat book and Riley is at about the right age to read it now.  After I started reading it he said "Is this the book about Jesus?"  I read him the first chapter about how God created the world and Adam and Eav.  He seemed really interested and wanted me to keep reading.  I told him we will read the next chapter tomorrow night which is "Noah's Ark."  It is fun reading to him about the bible and Jesus. 

Riley is on his fourth night now without wearing a pull up.  He has not had any accidents yet which is surprising.  I know he will one of these nights but I am happy he has not yet.  He is such a big boy now. 

Love this park!  So nice to have such a beautiful spot right across the street.

 

 

Stopped  to watch some people playing baseball.

 

The racetrack.

 

 

One of Austin's favorite things...carrying shoes around.

Sunday Smore's

Had another good weekend.  Went with my parents to Milwaukee on Saturday to look at condo's with my sister.  Looked at three different ones and we all liked the last one the best.  Kelly is in love with it and very excited to make an offer and move in.  She got that "I know this is the place" feeling when she walked in.  I remember when Jason and I first found our home and we just knew it was the one.  It was fun to look with her.  The condo is beautiful and I hope she gets it.  If it is meant to be it will all work out.

Today I cleaned the house while Austin took a nap and Jason took Riley for a walk.  It was another beautiful day.  Opened all the windows.  We grilled out for dinner and had smores over the grill for dessert.

 

Snow day in May

Today was a high of 37 degrees!  We actually got snow accumulation on the ground!  Craziness!  This winter just keeps on coming.  I feel bad for the people in Red Wing, MN who got 13 inches of snow today.  At least our snow did not amount to much.  On the way to work I was listening to the radio and heard about some schools that were canceled for the day because of the snow.  That has to be a first.... a snow day in May!  Ha!  Oh well what can you do....mother nature will do what it wants.
 
Had a fun time playing with the kids tonight.  Austin is showing his personality more every day.  He loves to clean.  He is always dragging my broom around the house trying to sweep the floor.  Then he crawls around on his knees and uses his sleeve or whatever else is available to scrub the floor.  He also will stand at the top of the stairs and holler really loud "Da!".  It is so cute....he wants dad to come upstairs.  He has started wanting to feed himself lately.  I will go to spoon feed him and he grabs the spoon or goes in with his hands to eat the food by himself.  It is a big mess.  Tonight he ate a bowl of peas and carrots all by himself with his hands. 

Riley is learning how to get dressed all by himself.  He can put his own shirt and pants on but sometimes they just end up backwards.  He is getting better all the time.  I tell him if he is going to go to school soon he needs to learn how to get dressed all by himself.  He is also working on writing his name.  He is a great helper with Austin.  When we are driving in the car he always shares his toys with him and if he is fussy he always tries to make him laugh and it usually works.  He likes to share his food with him too.  Of course Austin is all about eating.