Bubble Wrap

Nate got a huge package of equipment today. Inside, the boys found a treasure!! Bubble Wrap, and lots of it!! It was the highlight of their day. All day long I heard bubbles popping from being jumped on and pinched. What simple pleasures!!

House Construction: March 25

Work on the Exterior of the House

Front View from Dupont Road

Back view from Hardisty Road: Siding & trim partway done

Dining Room window

Great room windows & back siding

Back of house siding & trim work

Happy St. Patricks Day

St. Patricks Day has always been a special holiday in our family, because my sister Becky gets to celebrate a green birthday every year on March 17. Happy Birthday Becky! The big 23!! This year, Jaxton had preschool on St. Patricks Day and they went all out with the holiday! The kids made 4 leaf clover hats, wands, and ribbons proclaiming their loyalty for Ireland. Then at the end we were invited to see their St. Patrick's Day Parade! What fun. Even Cooper got to be a part of the parade! It was one of the first nice sunny days yet this spring. What a fun day!

Cooper & Mom Time

Jaxton is at preschool 2 mornings a week, so Cooper and I get some time to spend together. It is really fun to give him all my attention, and he loves it! Here we are playing his most favorite game. It takes years to get all set up and then is over in about 30 seconds!! That's the excitement of a 2-year-old!

House Construction: March 15

They have all the stone laying outside ready to put up on the exterior of the house.

Here is all the siding for the back and sides of the house ready to put up.
Can't wait!

C...C...Pooper

Cooper calls himself Pooper. So we tried to get him to make the letter C sound before saying his name. Unfortunately it did no good. He will say, "C..C..Pooper."

Ice Cream Treats

Enjoying ice cream after Family Home Evening

Mad Ants Fan

A Sunbeam

Jaxton is a Sunbeam this year! He is just growing up so fast!! He loves Sunbeams. He has no fear! We take him to the Primary room and he just runs in there without looking back, all the way to the front row where his class sits. He just loves it! Of course at first, and still sometimes, he didn't realize that he had to sit still so much and be reverent so much. I was told that the first or second Sunday he and a friend of his went running up around the podium in the middle of Sharing Time! Since then, I have not heard any bad news, so I think he is learning that Primary is fun, but also a reverent place. I am so glad he loves it.

************

Yesterday, Jaxton got upset about something. So he left the room pouting and said he didn't want to eat anymore or do anything. I said, OK, that is fine. I let him go pout by himself. A couple minutes later he comes running back into the kitchen with a huge smile on his face. He said, "I'm happy again, Mom. I sang a song about Heavenly Father and Jesus and I got happy!" That just melted my heart. How sincere and innocent a child of Heavenly Father he is!

Routsong Robots

Fort Wayne Mad Antz Basketball

Nate's company sponsored the Fort Wayne Basketball team, the Mad Antz, again this year. By so doing, he gets season tickets. So we go to lots of basketball games. Sometimes he will take customers, and sometimes we will just go as a family! It is super fun! Cooper, I can honestly say, is obsessed with the Mad Ant mascot and the basketball team. They give out free bangers (those long balloon like things) and you bang two of them together to make a loud banging noise. He has mastered that skill and brings them home and never stops banging them together. If we try to take a banger out of his hands, he has a complete fit. If the banger starts to lose air, he also has a complete fit exclaiming that it is "broken." He sleeps with a stuffed animal Mad Ant in his crib with him, wears his Mad Ant shirt whenever he possibly can, and can find the Mad Ant logo all over town wherever we go (it is a Fort Wayne team, so the logo can be found a lot around town). He will sit through the game and watch the players, focused pretty much the entire time. He is seriously the Mad Antz' biggest and best fan. This particular night, he had a huge scare from the mascot. The referrees made a call against the Mad Ants, and so the mascot Mad Ant was stomping around making a scene in response to the call (trying to be funny). He took someone's banger and popped it and was just stomping all over the place like he was mad about the call. Well, all of a sudden, here he comes and he came right over to our platform box where Cooper was standing just maybe 2 feet away and stomped on our platform so loud that it scared Cooper to death. He was terrified and started screaming and crying. The Mad Ant was not paying attention enough to who was around while he was making his scene, and little did he know that he had terrified his biggest and best fan! Thank goodness he didn't take or pop Cooper's banger, or that would have been the end of the world for poor Cooper! Everyone around saw the Mad Ant do this and saw poor Cooper crying, so the Mad Ant came over and tried to make it up to Cooper with a hug and high five, but Cooper would NOT have it. I don't know if that Mad Ant will ever be forgiven by the little guy!! As much as a fan as he is, he is now terrified of the mascot!

Jaxton loves the games too, but for a very different reason than Cooper. Jaxton just loves being in such a public place, with so many cool things to see and do. He loves the attention he gets from people and loves to meet new people at the games. He loves eating popcorn and snacks and watching the Mad Ant mascot run around the court and the stands. He also enjoys finding the numbers on the players' jerseys. He will choose his favorite number and follow that player and watch him to see if he will catch the ball or make a basket. But his attention span to focus on the game is short lived. He just wants to see everything and be involved in the excitement!

Here is Jaxton standing on the corner of the court during half time while the players are warming up. He loves to take walks and see all thats going on in the stadium.

This was half time. They always have cool things to see at half time, but this is seriously the coolest thing I have ever seen!! There is one real person in the middle of this line of dancers. He has 2 dummies in front of him and 2 dummies behind him. The dummies are connected to a pole at their wrists and their knees and their ankles. The real person in the middle is holding on to the poles with his hands, and it is connected to his knees and ankles too. So, whatever move he does, all the dummies do too! They were in perfect unison! It totally looked real! Never seen anything like it before!

Jaxton won the heart of one of the Mad Antz cheerleaders. Every time we have brought the boys to the game, she has made friends with Jaxton. Of course Jaxton loves the attention. He calls her "my girl" and will look for her when the cheerleaders dance. It was 80's night this night, so she is all decked out in 80's wear. But she asked Jaxton if he would come dance with her to the YMCA during a quarter break. He was ecstatic! So here they are dancing out on the court. What fun!!

Great family fun!!!

House Construction: February 18

Windows Doors & More

They have installed all the windows and all the doors to our house, including garage overhead doors.

Front

Hardisty Road side of the house and our garage doors (they will be painted)
Patio french doors

Back of the house

Nate's future Simplx office windows and doors

Front door and Den

Front Door and dining room

View from the front door

Master bathroom window where the tub will sit

Master Bedroom windows

Standing in great room looking into kitchen/hearth room

Upstairs bathtub

Boys' bedroom closet is in

Heath room and french doors to patio

House Construction: February 14

House Construction: Doors, heating & cooling, venting, fireplaces

Front

Front Door
Hearth Room (Kitchen) Woodburning Fireplace

Living Room Gas Fireplace

Master Shower drain

Master Bathroom - Toilet & Bidet plumbing (Nate had to have one!)

Venting for heating and cooling begun

A vent

Nate's future basement office door and window

The view out the upstairs bedroom: Jaxton and Cooper's future elementary school across the street

Happy Valentines' Day 2010

Nate was actually out of town for Valentines' Day Weekend. He was in Utah. So I didn't expect to really celebrate the holiday this year with everything that we have going on. However, when I got home on Friday, 2 days before Valentines' Day, there was a huge package at our door from 1.800.FLOWERS. My heart just melted. He was thinking about it, even while he was not home. What a sweetheart I have. I opened my package to find these absolutely gorgeous roses of all different colors. It totally brightened up my day and my week. I have a wonderful man! Thank you honey!

Grandma Hutchinson sent an awesome package with all sorts of goodies. It had these dot paints that are so great because they do not spill or are messy. The kids just dot over and over and can write like a pen with them. So here are the boys painting with these "dots."

We went to a playgroup Valentines' Day Party for the kids. They each got to decorate their Valentines' bag and then deliver their valentines to all their friends' bags. Jaxton had Disney Pixar valentines with Toy Story, Cars, Nemo, Incredibles, and Ratatouie on them. Cooper had dinosaur valentines. Then they were able to decorate and eat heart sugar cookies. What a fun activity! This is Jaxton examining all the valentines he recieved that day.