Bruiser

Finn has had more accidents in the past few weeks then Olivia has had in two and a half years.

He's had numerous bloody mouths, a cut above his eye, and multiple bumps on the head.  I think we are going to start to call him bruiser.

The boy is on the move, there is no stopping him now.

Here are some pictures from his 9 month photo session.

This face spells trouble.

Potty Training Treat

Olivia went to her first baseball game last Friday.  It was a reward for going to school all week wearing undies with no accidents.  Yah for no diapers!!  Well, I guess diapers at ni-ni time and when we go out in public.  I don't have enough courage to take her out shopping with undies on.  All in good time.

She had a great time.  She watched about five seconds of the game, learned that she is scared of fireworks, jumped in a bounce house until she got kicked out, and ate popcorn face first, yes, I said face first.

Olivia already wants to go back, maybe next time we can sit on the berm and take Finn with us.  I'm sure he'd enjoy the festivities as well.

He's Getting So Big

I can't believe Finn is going to be one next month, he is getting so big.  Where does the time go??

I decided to take a few pictures of him crawling today since he will be walking in no time, he took three steps today, all to get to the basketball.  Think he's going to be a star?  Maybe rascally guard?

And one of Olivia for good measure.

Shedd Aquarium

We decided to take an impromptu trip to Chicago to visit the Shedd Aquarium last weekend.  The kids had a great time.  Olivia enjoyed looking at the fish and turtles.  She would go from glass case to glass case screaming I want to see more fishies.

Finn loved watching the dolphins swim around while his sister asked repeatedly if she could go in there and swim with the big fish.

Lunch was one of the most amazing lunches we've had out in a while.  Okay, not the food, but the view was great, what a prefect day to each on Lake Michigan.

Olivia enjoyed eating her cheeseburger until she realized the little birdies liked it too.  This was our following that we had the entire time.

 After the aquarium we decided to stay over night so the kids could swim in the big swimming "cool" as Olivia calls it.  We had to drag our screaming and kicking babies out of the pool at 6 PM so we could eat dinner.

Finn's Newest Toy

If only this was helpful!

A Day at the Zoo

We've had the most fabulous weather around here lately.  On Sunday we decided to take advantage of the cool weather and venture out to the local zoo, per Olivia's request, of course

We first stopped to see the elephants (or elephanants as Olivia says), Olivia loves the elephants.  Every time we say the word zoo she starts talking about them.  We are sad to see Babe and Sophie leave Niabi.

We then stopped to feed the goats and fish, which I am pretty sure if we only did that she would be happy.

After we stuffed the animals full and thoroughly scrubbed our hands, Olivia took a ride on the miniature ponies.  She thought she was the bees knees.  She wanted me to walk in the circle with her, but girlfriend wouldn't let me touch her.  She had to do it all by herself.  About half way through the ride she told me that the horses were stinky and the needed to take a bath.  I agreed!

After our pony ride we strolled through the kangaroo area.  They had a bird cage in this area, we've never gone in, and now I know why.  This time, Olivia wanted to walk through the cage and I was the lucky one to draw the short stick.  I spent $1 on nectar so we could feed the birds.  Olivia thought this was great, for about 30 seconds until the first bird landed on mom and wouldn't leave until the nectar was gone.  UGH!  NEVER.AGAIN.

We successfully escaped, I think I had sophomore year flash backs to Mr Rodger's English class when we watched Birds and had to discuss themes and motifs.  I hated that movie (and that class if going to talk about it)!!

After our bird adventure we finished the rest of our trip through the zoo, complete with a carousel and train ride.  We had to tell Olivia that the animals had to eat lunch and take a nap in order to get her out.  She sure loves her animals.

The Farm Life

I'm a city girl at heart, most of you know that.  Farm trips used to be few and far between for me.  However, ever since I met Scott trips to the farm are becoming more regular since he grew up on one.

I do have to say, it is so much fun watching Olivia pet the baby kittens and learn about the cows.  She loves to crawl on the equipment and pretend that she is driving the tractors.

The last time we were in Wisconsin Grandpa Richard took the family on a hay rack ride.  Olivia loved it, she kept screaming "I'm on a tractor ride, I'm on a tractor ride".

The kids were spoiled after the ride with pop rocks and big league chew.  I had to do my best not to get into the candy before the kids did.

Grandpa Richard brought out the Jeep for Olivia and Jamie to play with.  It was a good thing the batteries were low, these two could have caused a lot of trouble.  

They probably should have taken it through the car wash first.

Another Vacation in the Books!

We did it again!  We mastered another family vacation.

The four of us ventured up to Minneapolis, MN a few weeks back.  We had a great time.  Olivia of course, would have been happy if we would have let her swim in the hotel pool the entire time.  We were able to peel her away from the pool twice.

The first day we spent the afternoon at the Mall of America.  I was in heaven - until I realized that I wasn't going to be able to do any shopping.  We spent the majority of our time in the theme park and the rest of the time in the Disney store.

Our little Olivia is a dare devil.  She loved all of the rides that she was tall enough to go on.  She even went on the "Log Ride" with mom.

We did visit the Disney store, once.  We were lucky to walk out of there only losing $50.  Within the first minute we were there Olivia had a suitcase in hand, a magic wand, and had stripped off her shoes in order to try on the fairy shoes that she found.  She is one lucky girl.  Not to forget, Finn picked out his own Goofy stuffed animal.

The second day was spent at the Minnesota Zoo.  It was an amazing place, it took us five hours to see everything.  Of course, the only thing Olivia wanted to see (elephants) they didn't have.  But she was happy with the aquariums, she even got to pet a shark.  She thought she was pretty hot stuff....until she watched another kid fall in, then she wanted to leave.  Finn thought the fox that was running across the window was pretty funny.