Turning six.....wait a second!?!

Turning six?  Yes Jude is turning six!  

Truly, how can that be because doesn't it just seem like yesterday that Aiden was turning six and we were beating on that rock hard pinata?  

 And yes (thank-you for pointing out) that last blog post IS about Aiden turning six.  Life has been on super charge, fast pace for us the past few years, and hopefully I will get a chance to post a few pictures from the past few years here and get us semi caught up.  

But back to our six year old boy, JUDE!

 Jude my turbo charged, sports loving, ninja climbing, toad whispering, curly haired, ALL boy!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUDE!

We had a simple but special evening on Jude's birth date.  Dinner at the pasta place that has the cool soda machine, blue velvet birthday cake, and of course presents.  Party with friends to follow after the school year starts to settle down for everyone.  

 Cool gifts this year was of course Legos.  Aiden has been putting together Lego sets since he was about six and this year Jude is to an age where he can follow the directions as well.  He has always been into the Lego "guys" but this year he wanted to be like big brother, and he proved he was up to the task.  He got a set meant for 8 years and up, and although it took him a good part of the day (a boy can only sit for so long), he put it together entirely on his own!  The other cool birthday present were some Star Wars action figures.  The droids are the best, especially when you have an awesome robot voice to make them sound extra cool!  

And last, but not least a remote control boat for the pool.  Not just any remote control boat, mind you....our boat is for toad toting!    

Your eyes do not deceive you, there is a toad riding the waves.  And quite honestly, doesn't he look like he's kind of enjoying himself???

 Our Jude has always been all about digging up worms or flipping over every rock to find a bug.  I'm really quite thankful he's never brought a snake to the front door, asking for permission to keep it.  My mother had that happen with the neighbor boys when I was growing up!    

For Jude, this past summer has been all about the toads!  

Our new back yard is a toad haven, and with a new toad tank on our back porch (thank-you Grandpa Terry), we have been home to over twenty toads at one time. Yes you read that correctly...twenty!  And I'm probably being conservative with that number.   

 Our Jude loves animals.  Potentially our someday vet, at least that what he's thinking currently, a vet ....or a gold digger (literally digging gold) like his brother wants to be.  Oh my....desperately trying to convince them both that gold digger it's not really a job, even though they have seen it on TV. Ahem.  

These brothers stick together, quite a pair!

Turning Six

For Christmas the boys got a few crazy straws...and since Christmas they have been a bit of the norm at breakfast each morning.  Silly boys!

 And silly dog.  Since our house seems it is in constant remodel mode...she makes her bed on the plastic drop cloth...as if she had nothing better to lay on.  Drama Queen with a capital 'Q!'  :)  

   And the most important news - or Aiden turned a whopping six years old!  Angry Birds was our theme this year and the boys both loved it.  They both got new t-shirts for the special day, and we carried the theme through with balloons, plates, napkins

 ...and even an unbreakable pinata. Ahem.  Mom may have gotten a bit carried away with the paper mache.  :)  It took two boys, two grandpas and dad to get the job done.  Aiden helped me with the pinata as well from the messy paper mache to cutting out the eyes and drawing the beak.  We had fun...even though it absolutely killed Aiden to know that there were secret surprises inside that he didn't know about.  

 Check out out summer crocs...they are the absolute perfect kid shoe for the summer.  And so cute too!  :)

Aiden got some fun things for his birthday this year as well.  Here he's unwrapping a guitar so he and Mom can learn together!  I need to practice some more...I think he's already got up to me!  

Mechanical bugs were also a hit and could crawl just as fast as some of the bugs I see in our house!  

This year our boy is quite the lego builder.  He got a fire station kit and spent several hours here on the floor after the party had wrapped up....down time.  :)  He can almost perfectly follow the books of instructions that come with it.   They're pretty complicated sets!

 Happy Birthday Mr. Aiden Cooper!

Six seems so big boy to all of us! 

Magnolia Tree Pictures

It is a super early spring this year.  I think it was at least 74 degrees out on my birthday on March 14th...which is unusually warm for Iowa.  My Mom will always tell the story of how I was born during the girls state basketball tournament....in a blizzard.  I'm not up to speed on the whole global warming topic, but it is weather like this that makes you wonder what we're doing to our planet.  That said, it is actually quite wonderful and I would take this kind of weather practically the whole year if I had my choice!  :)  The sunshine and warmth has brought about our annual magnolia tree pictures a bit early this year.  The first set of shots I took while the buds were just about ready to open.  I was afraid that the forecast for rain was going to beat off the petals when I was ready to take photos.  So I got out there a bit early.  

 There are several things about these shots show that you might not notice on first glance.  First of all...look, great pictures!!  Last year I couldn't get these two to stand still and smile for the life of me.  My boys are growing up.  Less wiggly....well I'm not so sure about that.  But at least my barking commands held some attention this year and I got pretty pictures.  :)  Happy about that!  

A little side note.  We got a big tree cut down this past week in our front yard.  It lost a huge branch last year that took Mom, Dad, Wes and I almost a whole day to cut up and haul away.  The tree cutting this week coincided with the movie "The Lorax" which we saw just a couple of weekends ago.  And if you know the Seuss story then you know that the Lorax pops out of a truffula tree after it is chopped down...and he is not terribly happy.  Wes and I keep asking the boys if they've seen the Lorax pop out of our stump.  Aiden rolls his eyes at us...but I think we've still got Jude a little nervous.  Oh the joys of parenting.  He he.  :) 

Anyway both boys wanted to take a Lorax picture, which I figured just entailed them standing on the stump.  But Aiden came up with the rather creative idea that they both needed a mustache as well....too funny.  So here are my two little Lorax boys with their mustaches.

 Which brings us to the second thing you may not notice about these pictures.  Check out how long Jude's curls are in the above picture.  And if I'm admitting to how long they are...then you know they are long.  I try to keep those bad boys as long as possible.  Jude got a hair cut between magnolia photo shoots, and now looks  a bit more like a boy.  And I got a beautiful day with open blooms on the magnolia tree and drug the two kiddos out again for more pretty pictures.  

 Aiden is holding up a petal because I just kept going on and on at how beautiful and green everything was, and how excited I was that spring was here.

 The below shot kind of cracks me up because Jude is trying with his absolute whole might to stand still (note the clasped hands together) and smile (note the mega smile that I now have in about ten pictures...it stuck there for 10 pictures).  Funny

 

So that's our Magnolia Tree Photo Shoot for 2012.

Happy, Happy Spring!!

State Fair 2011

Big Snow

Big snow means lots of bundling...

 and lots of shoveling. 

 Except Dad looks like he's the only one moving any snow around.  :)

Christmas? What Christmas?

You thought I forgot Christmas didn't you?  Well...perhaps your new year resolution should be patience!  And...ah...perhaps mine should be better blog posting.  Whoops, that backfired on me didn't it?  :)

So here we are at Christmas, and in actuality this first Christmas was back at Thanksgiving.   Down at Mom and Dad's, second Christmas at the new house.  The boys took care of decorating the tree,  

 and they may have been coerced into taking a few pictures for Mom.  This was Great Uncle Mac's green velvet chair...perfect for an old Irish man, as well as two wiggly boys.  :)

 A few more pictures taken...with smiles surprisingly not too bad!

 Let's see if we can list ages here (minus Mom and Dad because they just get to be called 'Grand' and that's good enough for the age bit for them).  Jude - 3 1/2, Navi - just exactly 1, Wyatt - 2 1/2, Aiden 5 1/2.  That's a pretty good group, and soon to be joined by two twins.  Next years picture is going to be fun!

 Navi sporting her new Christmas dress from Aunt Reece.  Note the little finger at the bottom of the page...her cousins can't get enough of her!

 Aiden and Grandma fixing Thanksgiving dinner.  

 Uncle Ankur...ahhhh...errr...hmmmm  :)

 Not a lick of snow on the ground yet, and weather warm enough to get a few photos taken outside for Christmas cards.  

 Back home, Mabel is giving us a piece of her mind.  She's talking in this picture...let me tell you, and she WILL have the final word.  Sweet Mabel.

 One morning Jude's monkey (blanket) was well past due for a washing.  Grandma had to do some convincing to get it in the wash, and even then old monkey was missed.  

 Mabel is happy now.  She got to open her Christmas present early.

 Santa came a few days early to our house.  We were up before the birds that morning as is to be expected.  

 Both boys got Lego head gear...a big hit with Jude.

 And Star Wars swords...a big hit with Daddy and Jude. Excuse me...Wes just corrected me. "Lightsabers"  :)

 It was the year of Lego for Aiden.  And actually I've been pretty surprised how well he can follow the directions and make these rather complicated objects.  Give him another year and he'll have it figured out completely!

 Just a few picture in LeMars, opening presents at Grandma Mary's house.  I was the last one to pick up the family cold, and it hit just for our trip North.  :(  The boys had tons of fun though, decorating cookies with Annie, seeing all of the Utesch family at Terry's, and opening piles of presents at Grandma Mary's!

I'd say with these kind of holidays under our belt, we are ready to welcome a new year!  :)  Merry belated Christmas everyone!

Annie has come to my rescue with piles of cookie decorating pictures.  

 Loving the extra effort.  :)

And the finished product was delicious (note the licking of lips) and beautiful!  

Thank-you Annie for the extra photos!