Boo at the Zoo

The fam traveled to Duluth to see Cody and Ashley and go to Boo at the Zoo this past weekend. It was a great test-run of the boys in their costumes, and overall fun way to kick off our Halloween festivities. Just Ashley and I took the boys, as Cody was suffering from a aching back and J hung around offering moral support by watching college football at his side (we left after the UT/OU game in case anyone was wondering).

The boys had so much fun trick-or-treating and checking out the animals. We saw kangaroos (super weird), a polar bear, a tiger, monkeys, and lots of other critters I'm forgetting at the moment. Sammy enjoyed yelling "trick or treat!" as loud as he could at each booth, and Freddie enjoyed about 8 lolipops and the huge rain puddles along the trail. By the end of the event Freddie was a muddy mess and I basically had to strip him down before putting him in J's new car. I had to wash the entire chicken suit and his shoes.









Thanks to Codes-n-Ash for having us! I wish I'd taken pictures of their house all decorated for Halloween - it was very impressive and festive. I loved it! And the boys especially enjoyed the special Halloween cupcakes Ashley made for them, complete with skeltons, holiday sprinkles, ghosts and their initials. yummmm....

More pictures in the Duluth set on Flickr. CLICK HERE

Push!

Sammy pushing Freddie in the car:


Freddie pushing the car:

Jump!

Sammy is becoming more and more daring in his physical feats!

Picture day!

Here is what Sammy wore for his school pictures yesterday.


And here are Sammy and Freddie, smooshing each other again (ie fighting over the red chair, in a friendly way):


And Mr. I Have The Chair to Myself

Bed head.

Just a funny pic of Sammy from Tuesday morning. He got a hair cut Wednesday afternoon (Thurs was picture day at school).

Extended Rear Facing (in car seats)

I've been meaning to blog about this for a while, especially since I know a lot of parents of toddlers. But, here it is -- your PSA about Extended Rear Facing, just in case your pediatrician dropped the ball on this one and failed to mention it at your baby's one year well-check.

First, what is Extended Rear Facing?
From Car Safety 4 Kids (www.carsafety4kids.com):

Extended rear-facing simply means to keep a child in the rear-facing position after the child reaches 1 year and 20 lbs. One year and 20 lbs is the minimum requirement for turning a child to the forward-facing position. This means that the child must meet BOTH requirements before being turned. A 10 month old that is 20 lbs needs to be rear-facing in a convertible seat. A 14 month old who is only 18 lbs still needs to be rearfacing. The AAP now recommends keeping a child rear-facing until the upper limits of the seat are reached. Since many seats rear-face up to 30-35 pounds (depending on the seat), many children can ride rear-facing into their second, third, and even fourth year of life. In Sweden, it is common practice to keep children rear-facing until 4 or 5 years of age. The reason? It is the safest way for anyone to ride. Need proof? *From 1992 through June of 1997, only 9 properly restrained rear-facing children died in Sweden (*CPSafety). In the United States, the number one cause of death in children under one year of age is from congenital anomalies . At the age of one, when most children start riding forward-facing, the number one cause of death is motor vehicle crashes(Child Passenger Safety Fact Sheet).

From the AAP:

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that all infants should ride rear-facing starting with their first ride home from the hospital until they have reached at least 1 year of age and weigh at least 20 pounds. It is even better for them to ride rear-facing until they reach the highest weight or height allowed by their car safety seat’s manufacturer.

Please check the requirements of your seat! For reference Freddie is currently in a Britax Marathon, which he can ride backward in until he reaches 33lbs. 33lbs!

For more reading on ERF: http://www.cpsafety.com/articles/stayrearfacing.aspx
For videos about ERF (if you need more convincing, links to other videos): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2DVfqFhseo&feature=related

While the boys and I were in Wisconsin...

My handsome husband was in Trout Lake, MN, performing with Nate and our church band.

Here's the band. Jacob is the best looking guy in the band. Well, definitely in the top three. Good looking guys in the band. ;)


eta there are five dudes in the original pic. for some reason blogger is cropping my photos. I will have to investigate later. :p

A good one of the pumpkin hat.

pumpkin head, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

I think it's super cute. Freddie tolerates it. Ah, it's tough to be adorable.

I have the sweetest boys.

My cuties!, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

They did this all by themselves and I ran to get the camera. Of course, this is right before they started smashing into each other and wrestling. Boys are funny.

Our visit to Kennedy's House!

The boys and I traveled to Wisconsin this past weekend to visit KP and her new baby brother Gage! The drive took me a little longer than I would have liked (thanks to my terrible sense of direction, road construction and confusion, and my overall dislike of driving) but the trip was worth it. The kids had so much fun at Kennedy's house (Sammy loved riding bikes outside with Kennedy and he keeps asking to go back) and it was wonderful to meet Gage while he's still so itty bitty (weighing in at around 7lbs!).

Thanks to Holly and Jesse for having us! Your new house is lovely (and HUGE!) and the Wisconsin fall is stunning. But the local Catholic Church needs to work on their Pumpkin Fest, right Holly? (we walked into them blaring "It's 5 o'clock somewhere" if that gives y'all any indication) LOL!

Here's a cute picture I got of the kids on a huge rock in the front yard.


Sammy <3's KP! :D


Lots more pics of our trip on Flickr: CLICK HERE!

An attempt at getting a photo

of my two children together.


Sammy looks adorable. Freddie, uncooperative.


Bird on the head ???


Freddie, alone, at the bottom of the stairs. Smiling because he got there all by himself. And he likes to say "Cheese!"

"Cat"

Freddie's favorite item, aside from "Blankie" and "Om-meeee" (aka Mommy) is Cat. He loves this thing. He bites Cat on the face, pulls his whiskers, throws him around, cuddles him, drops him, but will not go to sleep without him. (Her?)

Freddie loves Cat.

Piano Boy

My little musical man.





Sammy loves to sing and play instruments. I keep telling Jacob we need to teach him more. Of course, I'm a musical dumbie so I have no idea what more is, I just know that my boy is SO interested and we need to get him started on... something musical. Suzuki method perhaps. Note to self: look into it!

I've fallen behind.

On updating the blog because I've been knitting. Check out my Naptime Knits album on Flickr if you are at all interested in my projects. :)

I also post pictures of the boys of Flickr, so that's a good stop if you see I haven't updated here in a few days.


Wha?! A cute hat for me? I won't wear it. Oh, but you will stubborn child of mine.

Happy 4th Birthday, Cal!

Cal's b-day dance., originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Sorry my post is kinda late. We had so much fun at your birthday party at the Apple Farm last week!

To see more of Cal's party, please visit my Flickr stream. Set entitled Four. :)

Harvest Time

Sammy has been taking a class through Minneapolis Parks and Rec and is really enjoying it! Today I took some pictures of the group outside playing a winter game - basically there were two teams and they all had to run down to the pile of winter clothes, everyone had to put one thing on, then they ran back to the start line and sat down. First team to finish (all sitting down) won. Sammy was the leader of the green team. (and he picked a hat to put on - ha!)



Here he is post-Harvest Time. I just love this little kid!

Farmer Jamie (that's the teacher) made them all squirrels so he had whiskers drawn on his face.

Then I let the boys run around for a little bit before we headed home for lunch and naps.




Doing what boys do.
Sammy actually climbed a couple feet off the ground. Freddie tried, but he wasn't so good.

And don't feel too bad for Freddie missing out on all the cool things preschoolers get to do. The weather's been incredible lately so he's enjoying some solo park/walk time with mama. So far no complaints!

(Freddie likes to say "cheese" now when I take his picture. I love this one, too. :)

Welcome baby Gage!

We are so excited for the Bueno family - they welcomed a new baby boy to the world yesterday! Congratulations!

Big sis Kennedy!

Are you ready for some football?*

These two always are. But they are also geared up and ready to watch the Cowboys tonight. In HDTV if all is going well with Installation Guy. :D


Sammy doesn't have any Cowboys stuff *hint!* (well, he can squish into a wind jacket from last year but it's getting tight!) so he's wearing a grey T-shirt and navy/grey Nike windpants that he loves. Sammy wears a boys small (4/5) *hint* *hint*


Freddie, on the other hand, has a complete custom Cowboys outfit made by a lovely DS mama in Dallas. Jacob asked for an exact replica of this outfit in his size. The fleece pants are soooo soft.

*Apparently "Are you ready to rumble?" may only be used when talking about boxing. Even though I know I've heard it before basketball games, at least.

What's that expression? Rough and...

Oof-dah. , originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Oh, yeah. TUMBLE.

Dirt.

"Hey Freddie. You really should come see this."


"yi-yi, mmmm-guy, baaa" OR, in English:"m'kay. Lemme just slide down and I'll be right over."


"Look at this! Dirt."
"Yeah, I see what you mean. We should dig."


"Or... sitting in it's pretty cool, too."

If you're awesome and you know it - clap your hands!

Happiness!, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Emma giving Freddie a head-start.

Playing chase with Emma, too., originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Chase in the backyard.

Another true action shot., originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

The boys, Emma and I ran around playing chase this morning. They loved it.

I am cuteness.

Down., originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

See me embrace danger.

Visit flickr for more pictures of my fun morning at the park while Sammy was at preschool.

Myhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif FLICKR photostream

Cute random pic from a couple months ago

Not sure if I'd ever posted this one before but look at that smile!!!! Watch out ladies. :)

First Day of School

Tuesday was Sammy's first day of his second year of Preschool. While I am amazed by how fast the summer went by, he is so excited and happy to be back! I have one true first-day-of-school picture but I'm not posting it because it has the school name. He was in too much of a hurry to join his friends this year and didn't let his mom get 5,000 pictures like last year.

Here he is hanging up his backpack in his cubby. :)

He brought his giant blow-up airplane from the Fair for the first day of sharing.

Buh-Bye Summer

We had a fun final weekend of summer. Nana drove up for a visit. J and I went to the Fair to see the Black Crowes with Codes and Ash. Codes and Ash came down for a couple of days. Nana watched the boys, and then Nana watched Freddie so J and I could take Sammy to the Fair.

Sammy rode a TON of rides and drank a lemonade. He brought home another inflatable airplane, and can't wait to go again next year. We were traveling light so no pictures, but I have to mention that we went on Labor Day and that morning was surprisingly not crowded. We didn't wait in any lines, even for food!!! And all the rides were discounted by one ticket.

Later that day we took the boys to Wabun Park since the pools in Minneapolis are all drained the day after Labor Day. I do have pictures from there. :)

Happy 30th birthday Jacob!

We love you. Super much.

Oh, and thanks for the new camera. Husband buys wife gift and surprises wife on his own birthday. You can't beat that. Guess that's the last of the craptastic camera knocks on this blog. :D