Being Ok, Doing Good Work, and Talking about it

With little prelude there are my few stories this week:

The first night in Colorado last week, we had three families all hanging out at grandma's, chatting and playing.  The grand kids were all downstairs while the adults were chatting upstairs.  My sister, Tiffanie, decided it was time for her family to head home.  She had her oldest, Jordan, who's 14, head downstairs to let the rest of her family know it was time to leave.  Jordan ran downstairs and announced to the group at large that it was time for his family to load up the car and leave. He said, "Huntley's it's time to go.  We need to go home. '

Blake then stood up and said, "It's time to go, okay.  Let's go."

Jordan held out his hand to Blake, stopping him from progressing and said, "Oh, not you, Blake.  It's just our family.  You're going to stay here.  You're okay.  "

Blakey responded with, "Well, I'll be okay as long as no one kidnaps me." 

It's sure is hard to argue with that.  We still aren't sure where he came up with that one.  


Two days after we got home from Denver, we were seated at the kitchen table, talking.  Blake was in a very good mood.  He asked me for a hug.  So, I leaned over and gave him a big hug.  He then looked at Michelle and asked for a hug from her.  She leaned over for her big hug.  He then looks up at us and says, "Great work, guys.  Nice Job. "

We laughed as we thought, we'd never been told that our hugs were great work, let alone from a 3 year old. 


And finally. we were in the middle of our nightly ritual two nights ago of who was going to take Blake to bed.  So, we normally ask Blake who he wants to take him upstairs, tell him some stories and finish up with a few songs. 

"Blake, who do you want to take you night-night? 

"Mommy." Then he paused for a bit and looked at us and asked, "Do you guys need to talk about it yourselves?"

Apparently, Blake's noticed that Michelle and I talk a lot to each other about decisions, regardless of their significance. 

Back Home

Wednesday we left Colorado and Blake was sad to say good bye to his cousin, Mia.  There were 7 adults and 8 grandkids staying at the house and then 2 more adults and 6 more grandkids would come over frequently.  With so many people, Blake would just call all his boy cousins "boy" and all his girl cousins "girl".  But he learned Mia's name pretty quickly, although he did sometimes call her Zoey, which is her sister's name.

While we were there, Blake got stung by a wasp.  "A bug hurt me".

Every moment he possibly could, Blake was jumping on the trampoline. 

Dylan played a lot with Zoey, who is a little under 2 months older than him.  They would steal one another's toys and would cry when their toy was stolen and look over at the parents who were laughing hysterically so they would go back to their stealing because they weren't getting any sympathy from parents.

2 days after we got home, Dylan decided to crawl although he would much rather be standing.  The instant you help him stand, he gets a huge smile.   

We had a lot of fun. Thanks for playing with us!

Monday

Monday we went to the Natural History Museum.

The last thing we did was go in the space odyssey section, which was by far Blake's favorite because Blake is trying to get enough money to build a rocket ship to go to the moon and at the Museum, you can dress up in a space suit and blast off.  He was pretty much in heaven.

Did Dylan love Grandma holding him more than Grandma loved holding Dylan?

For all you "Despicable Me" fans out there, Blake went with my dad while he was out here to the bank and told the bank teller that he needed a loan to build a rocket ship to get to the moon.  The teller told Blake that they couldn't make that decision and needed to get the bank manager.  Bank manager talks to Blake and tells Blake that he needs to go home and write down his plan on how he is going to make the rocket ship and then come back and talk to him some more about getting a loan.  Blake will still remind me that we need to write down this plan.  While we were at the museum, he reminded me once again that we needed to write down the plan, but then he got carried away with playing.

Saturday

Saturday morning we took some family pictures and after a nap, we went with Grandpa to go race some cars and play miniature golf.

At first Blake thought Aaron was driving too fast, but after a couple times around, he loved it and even got to steer.

Dylan wasn't tall enough to drive, so he got to play with other fun stuff.

I took Blake around a couple of times too.

Gregg liked driving.

And once again, Dylan slept while the rest of us played mini golf.

Blake's idea of playing mini golf is everyone takes their first swing, then regardless of where the ball lands, Blake will pick up everyone's ball, put it where he wants, and then he will hit it in.  Needless to say, we did not keep score.

Gregg and Aaron went on the bumper cars, but Blake was a couple inches too short to go.

Friday

Friday morning we went to the park to get out some energy.

It was pretty hot..."cheeeeeeeese".

Mission accomplished...Dylan got some energy out and was exhausted.  He couldn't even make it home to take his morning nap.

Later that afternoon we went to the Denver Zoo with Grandma and Grandpa and Aaron's sister, Tiffanie, and her family.

I failed miserably this trip to take many pictures. But hey, at least we got this picture of Blake showing some leg huh?

Colorado Trip

Aaron had to go to Denver for work, so the rest of the family went along to visit with Aaron's family.  We all survived the flight on Wednesday.  Thursday, while Dylan was taking a nap, Blake and I went with the rest of the gang to Bear Creek Reservoir.  Blake swam a lot despite his dislike of sand.

We'll be here all week

A few stories for those who like to laugh:

We watched The Lion King with Blake the other week.  It sure brought back a number of memories for me.  At the time it came out, it was the best animation out there---we've come a long way since then.  Anyway, a few days after watching it, we were on our regular walk around the neighborhood.  Blake was bringing up the rear, which seems to be his current preferred spot.  So, Michelle and I were chatting and Blake needed our attention to tell us something. 
He says, "Guys! Hey, guys."
We both turned to look at him.  Once he knew he had our attention, he immediately asked us, "Can......you feel the love tonight?"  Kids remember everything. 

As Michelle mentioned, Robert (hers brother) got married last Friday.  It was a fun day, but ran well into the night.  When Blake and Dylan could handle no more, we packed up the kids and headed to the hotel.  
While we drove to the hotel, Blake said seated in his car seat, while scanning the traffic, "Mom, you're a good driver."
Michelle and I both told him that that was a nice thing to say.  He then finishes his thought, "Yeah, you never crash."
Apparently, if you don't crash you are a good driver.  Which I guess is true to some degree. 

And finally my favorite story in some time.......
A quick stage-setter, as mentioned Blake likes music and songs.  The second chipmunk movie has a song by Beyonce called "All the single ladies"  Blake has taken one of it's lines as a very repeatable one. 
Michelle's parents were in town for Rob's wedding.  Before returning them to the airport for their trip back to Ohio, we were just finishing up breakfast, sitting around the table, listening to Blake regale us with his stories.  This time he was telling us about what a good driver he was and that he likes to drive his green truck around all by himself.  He continued, "So, I drove my truck around.....with all the single ladies."
A little curious, Grandpa clarified with, "So, you drove your truck around the town, all by yourself, looking for singles ladies to pick up?"
Blake very slowly, very deliberately said, "Oh!......Yeah! ....... Baby!"
The room erupted in laughter.  It was awesome.  No one has any idea where that line came from.  But based on the reaction he got from saying it, I don't think it'll be going away anytime soon.

Happy 4th of July

We started the morning with a pancake breakfast at church.

Blake loves taking pictures and sometimes he gets decent pictures.

After breakfast, we put Dylan down for a nap, and Blake and I went with James and Amber to the parade.  My favorite part of the day happened in the afternoon when everyone took a nap.  When was the last time that happened?

Fun With Cousins

While Grandpa was in town, the boys had a camp out.

After the camp out, they played and played and played.

Miami University..that is the college town Grandma and Grandpa are currently serving their mission.

Grandma and Grandpa's Visit

Grandma and Grandpa were able to take a week off of their mission to come for Robert and Sarah's wedding.  The grandkids LOVED playing with them.

Blake might have worn Grandpa (aka slow poke..according to Blake) out.

Dylan loves his Grandpa.  He even has his arm around him.

Grandma and Grandpa even watched the midgets so Aaron and I could go out on a date.  It was fantastic!  Thanks for playing with us!

Blake the Builder

James put some stuff up on the balcony so that Blake won't slip through.  He had to help every step of the way...even by going to his favorite store, Home Depot, to get all the supplies.

Blake sure loves his buddy.

Robert and Sarah

Last week, my brother, Robert married Sarah.  Seth, Kaleb, and Blake were the ring bearers.  They wore a sign that Robert made that said, "Uncle Robert, here comes your girl."

They got right to their spot and then the boys were pretty much done with standing nicely.

Isn't Sarah beautiful?  Blake thought she was so he made sure to tell her that she was beautiful and I think she kind of liked hearing that from him.

Sarah's little sister, the bridesmaid on the far left, fainted right when Rob and Sarah were kissing.  Amazing kiss?

Dylan was a happy camper all night because there was so much to see and so many people to hold and play with him.

We made it through the night...this picture was taken at 10pm. We were leaving and they starting playing "Party Rock" which is his favorite song to dance to, but he said, "I love this song, but I am too tired. I need to go to bed."

Congrats Rob and Sarah!  We are so excited to have Sarah in the family.

8 Months Old

Dylan is 8 months old already and wearing 18 month old clothing.  Why?  Probably because he is always eating.  I will typically feed him and then keep him in his highchair to clean up.  Apparently Dylan wasn't happy with the amount of food that I gave him and saw some cheerios on the counter that he needed to devour.

Our little busy body is never happy sitting for a short period of time and it is kind of exhausting.  He is crawling backwards and crawling forward when he feels it is necessary.  Somehow he manages to get where he needs to go, but he is the happiest is when he is standing (with help).  He has also started his phase of crying when I leave the room...sigh.