Fun with Grandma

The boys have had a lot of fun with Grandma Routsong lately. When Nate and I had our "Prom," the boys stayed at Grandma & Grandpa's house overnight. They had a great time! When I picked them up the next day, they were gently swaddling their new little baby girl bears. Linda had gotten them these baby bears that come with a bottle. If you press their tummy, they squeak and open their eyes, or close their eyes and snore, just like a baby. It was pretty precious. Good thing, to prepare them for what is coming! Linda said they both wanted their bears to be girl bears, not boy bears, most likely because they know there is a little baby girl coming to our family. It was very sweet. They both love to take care of these bears and cuddle with them in bed at night. Thanks Grandma!

One day Jaxton went to a friends house to play. So Cooper and I met up with Grandma at the mall. We did some shopping and Cooper was our little helper. He loved shopping. I didn't bring a stroller because he is "too big" for one of those, so he just walked along with us and pulled off hanger after hanger of baby outfits to show us. He was so excited to look at all the little clothes and wanted to show me or Grandma all of his good finds. Then of course we had to put them back on the rack. He enjoyed it! It was fun for him. Then we had lunch at took a ride on the merry-go-round for fun. What a fun shopping trip! Thanks Grandma Routsong!

Preschool Field Trip: Lindenwood Nature Preserve

Jaxton's Coop Preschool group went to Lindenwood Nature Preserve for a field trip. It is a beautiful county park that is all forest and trails in the nature. The kids had a little book prepared for them to collect leaves, acorns, and neat things they found along the trail. It was a lot of fun! His class this year is: Gabe Gregory, Kerra Stewart, Kye Stump, and Danielle Fey. It is a great group of kids!

Of course Cooper gets to come along too!

The kids found a caterpillar. It was a small super furry one, the colors of a monarch butterfly. I wonder if it turns into a monarch? Jaxton was having such a blast, he would run on ahead with all his friends. So I didn't get to catch a whole lot of pictures of him. I got lots of the Coop, though! Here is Cooper with the caterpillar.

Here is the outdoorsman with his collection book!

Solomon Farm Fall Festival

We went to Solomon Farm Festival, a Fall Harvest festival here in Fort Wayne. It was a lot of fun! There were tractors to sit on, horse drawn wagon rides, food, parades, haystacks, goats to feed and more. We had a great family time in the first chilly fall weather!

Yay for Hay!

Super Hero Socks

Grandma Hutchinson sent another package, this time containing Spiderman socks! They were a hit! The boys wear them any chance they can get. I had to let them wear them 2 days in a row without washing because they were so excited about them. They rolled them back up at night and put them with all their clean socks so they could put them on again in the morning. They are really into superheros and saving people and fighting bad guys these days. We have a lot of fun around the house pretending to be superheros!

BuBBLeS

The boys were dying to take a bubble bath in our giant bathtub. They loved it! It has jets so it makes great bubbles! They had a blast! Sometimes the bubbles would get in their mouths, and it would taste bad. They would start spitting all over the place to try to get it out of their mouth. Then they would use a soapy hand to wipe their faces and mouths and just worsen the problem! It was pretty funny! Fun times!

Trip to the Zoo

We took a trip to the zoo with a bunch of friends from church. The boys don't use a stroller anymore. They are too "big." So they walked probably at least a mile around the zoo, but had a blast with their friends. Here they are inside and on top of some giant dinosaur eggs! And below is Cooper with his friends Logan and Kye.

A giant snake!

A dragon!

Safari kids

What a cutie!

Some kind of monkey/chimp

The Rainforest: Look at the curious faces!

The bridge inside the Indonesian Rainforest

A fun Tree House. The boys are doing spins on the floor.

Monkeys...

Huge Turtles

A train ride

A pretend play train: Here are your conductors!

What a fun day at the zoo! The boys were so exhausted when we left. They both conked out in the car, which they hardly ever do anymore. We had a great time! Next time we go to the zoo we will probably be taking a stroller and a sister with us!

Sunday Walk in the Park

On Sunday evening, we decided to check out the trails at Metea Park, a huge park 30 seconds from our house. I knew they had walking trails and hiking, but I had no idea how beautiful the trails were. It was around 6pm when we went and there was nobody there. We saw several deer, rabbits, and all the trees were multicolored for autumn. It was so peaceful and fun to walk through tunnels of trees. The boys loved it. We were all in mismatched jammies, with Cooper who picked out his swim suit to wear and Jaxton with a jammies shirt and Daddy with his church socks still on. It was an enjoyable evening!

This is the swimming beach we come to swim at during the summer. The boys love it because it is a sloped sandy beach so they can inch their way in the water and can touch the ground. The pool at the YMCA doesn't have a small shallow end so this is perfect for swimming for them!

A Date to the Prom...

I thought proms were long over with? Well, no. I got asked to prom yet again. This time by the most handsome, funny, and slick dude in town. Nate and I got all dressed up for this "Adult Prom" put on by a church member in the stake. Nate was so excited, that he went out and used it as an excuse to buy a brand new suit and a silver tie to coordinate with my dress! Doesn't he look good?! It was super fun! We had an italian dinner and then danced the night away. The boys stayed at Nate's parents house, so we didn't have to worry about being home to get them to bed. It was nice to just enjoy ourselves for the evening! When we first arrived, there was a random girl there who took one look at me and said, "Isn't that supposed to happen after prom?" (meaning my belly). I just laughed and said yes. It did feel a little strange getting all dressed up with a pregnant belly!!

Here is our group of friends we went with: Me & Nate, Jake & Jessica Newhard, Ron & Lisa Lewis, Blair & Summer Stump. We have some great friends in Fort Wayne!!

Nate was so fun to watch. Ron taught Nate some moves and he was loving dancing to some hip hop! It was funny to see all the hubbies dancing. Normally everyone is prim and proper at church. It was a change to see everyone let loose!

A fun night!

Chapter Books

We were at the library and Jaxton was gathering library books to take home. He had a stack of juniors chapter books like Goosebumps in his hands. He really wanted to read "big kid books." So I looked through all the juniors chapter books section to find a book that he may be able to follow and I found this one called "Stanley." It was pretty simple reading with black and white pictures on every other page. As we were checking out, the librarian asked, "Is that for him?" I said it was. She said, "Can he follow that type of book?" I responded, "We will find out!" She was impressed that he wanted to read a chapter book! Actually, I was too! So we began reading a couple chapters each day. It was a book about a boy named Stanley who was able to take his whole family in a spaceship to another planet. They met some aliens from the other planet who were tiny little people who lived in a tiny little city. They were having problems with food production on their planet and called earth for help. So Stanley decided to bring all the little people back to earth until their planet could produce food again. They built a tiny little city on earth to accomodate the little people. Well, Jaxton loved it. I had to tweak some sentences, but he did follow it. One day, I came up to get him from his quiet time after about an hour and this is what I found. He told me he had built the little people's city from his "Stanley" book. I was so impressed! Not only did he follow the book, he created his interpretation of their tiny village. My 3 almost 4 year old continues to amaze me!

Our Little Pianist

Jaxton loves to play the piano. He is very talented when it comes to music, songs, rhythm, his ABC's, and numbers. I really think he could pick up the piano pretty easily if he had lessons. He will play "pretty songs" for me and they are actually quite pretty! He also loves to put the piano on the drum setting and play the drums. He wants to be a drummer someday and is fascinated with drums and drummers in bands. So usually while Cooper is sleeping, I will let Jaxton have some piano time. He is our little musician!

Package Thief

We get packages all the time. Grandma Hutchinson sends the boys packages at least once or twice a month full of goodies and surprises. Nate gets packages full of Alarm equipment weekly. So Cooper has been super excited about all the packages lately, he decided he would just go ahead and open them up by himself. This one happens to be Nate's alarm equipment. He got a chair to get a fork out of the drawer and went to work. It took him quite a while, but he did open it. I made sure he didn't carry away any contents, but helped him take it to Daddy's office. He was so proud that he opened that package!! He has been opening lots of Daddy's packages lately. His curiousity is so cute just wondering what possibly could be inside!! Cute boy!

Happy Birthday Mommy!

I am 27! It sounds old!! I had a wonderful birthday. Some kind friends took me out to lunch. Then, Bill & Linda watched the kiddos so Nate and I could go to dinner. We did some shopping and got a new camera!! Yay!!! So now I have quality pictures again! Thank you Nate! My mom gave me an early birthday present which I have used very often, a KitchenAid mixer. Oh how easy it is to make pizza, bread, rolls, cookies, anything!! To make bread or pizza dough used to be an all morning ordeal. Now I can make dough while we eat breakfast in the morning and let it rise till nap time without getting one bit of flour on my hands!! Thanks mom! On Sunday we had dinner at Bill & Linda's and a birthday celebration there. The boys absolutely love birthdays and cannot wait for their own. So it was fun to have party hats, cake and ice cream, and presents!! Cooper was helping to set the table, and Jaxton was just too interested in the chocolates all wrapped up from his Great Grandma Routsong and the miniture gift bag containing $$$ to target from his Grandma. I had a wonderful time with the most wonderful people in my life! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!