If you take a mouse to the movies...

This book, "If You Take a Mouse to the Movies," is one of Cooper's favorite stories. In fact, he loves all the Mouse books by this author. In this story, the mouse makes a popcorn string to put around his Christmas tree. By the end of the book, he has lost his popcorn string and has to go back to the movies to get more popcorn all over again. So this Christmas, we decided to make popcorn strings!! It was a little bit harder than we thought because our popcorn kept breaking apart when we put the needle through. But we managed to get a decent sized popcorn string and the boys proudly strung it around our Christmas tree!

Cooper's Swimming Lessons

Cooper has been in the Parent/Child swimming class for kids 18 months to 3 years old. He has been doing great! He is just about ready to move on up to the 3 year-olds's class with no parent. He has always been athletic and has no fear of the water whatsoever. He loves to be dunked under the water and loves to jump in the water and go clear under before he comes back up. It's like a thrill to him! His favorite is the marshmellow floater. Its a stick with 2 giant marshmellow like floating things on either end of the stick. He can put his arms over the stick and kick his feet and he absolutely loves that he needs no help with this. We would move backwards and he would swim towards us to "catch" us. He has loved swimming lessons!

Above, on the far left is his teacher, Becky. She was pretty strict with what she wanted the kids to do. It was good for Cooper because it pushed him and really helped him learn some skills. Below, Daddy & Cooper are working on backfloats and kicking on their backs.

Mom usually takes Cooper swimming for his class, but we got lucky this day when Daddy had an hour to join us. Cooper was overly excited to have Daddy in the water with him instead of Mommy! And Mommy then got to take some awesome pictures and videos of our little fishes.

Jaxton's Swimming Lessons

Here is Jaxton, ready to swim! Jaxton has been in the Preschool swimming classes at the YMCA. He is with 4 other 3 and 4 year olds with 1 teacher and has really enjoyed it. His swimming skills have definitely improved as he has become more comfortable with the water and getting his face and eyes wet. He loves these life jackets because they totally hold him up in the water. He has learned how to keep his body afloat in a life jacket by kicking his legs underwater, a skill he didn't know how to do last summer, so even with a life jacket, he felt like he was still sinking. But now he knows how to keep his body afloat by keeping his arms and legs moving. Below is his class with his teacher. Today they were learning about water safety.

Here is Jaxton on his turn swimming with his teacher. He is swimming back to the wall.

"Look at me!! No hands on the wall!" He was excited that he could stay afloat in his life jacket.

Thanksgiving Mad Ants

There was a Mad Ants basketball game during the Thanksgiving weekend. Nate took most of the guys in the family with him to the game, all the brothers and brothers-in-laws, and most of the boy cousins, including Jaxton & Cooper. They all had a great time!

Jared Routsong & Jordan Owen

A crazy stunt man

The Chick-fil-A Cow

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun this year. All the Routsong family came together besides Nick & Carissa who were in Arizona. We spent Thanksgiving Day at Grandma & Grandpa Routsong's house for a Thanksgiving feast and lots of fun! On Friday, the Owen family and the Routsong family stayed at our house for fun overnight. That means we had a house full of 18 people! What a party! It was great fun and we are glad our house could accomodate that many people. We enjoyed every moment spending with the family and all the cousins! Here are some family photos from the holiday.

Madison Owen & Cassidy Routsong

Jace Owen
Ryan Routsong

Asher Routsong

Cooper playing Jordan's drums

Jaxton falling asleep with Uncle John

Great Aunt Marion & Great Grandma Routsong

Cooper with Aunt Sissa

Routsong family games

Thanksgiving at Preschool

Cooper's little preschool group got together to make Thanksgiving treats. They put feathers into apples to make Apple Turkeys. They also made pilgrim hats and ate Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches. Fun times!!

Of course the big brothers all got to make Thanksgiving things too!

Ready to be Big Brothers

Are these guys ready to be big brothers? I think they are!! They got to accompany me to a couple of my prenatal visits at Auburn OBGYN, and though a handful to bring with me, they were so excited to be involved in the baby's checkup. I was worried how the appointment would go with 2 munchkins running around a tiny checkup room. However, my Certified Nurse Midwife was so excited to see my boys there and jumped right in to let them help. She pulled up a chair so they could stand on it and see my belly. She let them measure my belly with her special measuring tape, and she let them squeeze out gel onto my tummy and use the sonogram to find the heart beat. The boys actually did find the baby's heartbeat by themselves! It was so much fun for them that I wanted to bring them again so they could be involved in the baby even before she arrived. I appreciated so much my midwife involving them and allowing them to help out. It was pretty awesome!

Happy Birthday Batman Jax!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BATMAN!!!

OOPS, I MEAN, HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAXTON!!!

Jaxton wanted an all Batman Birthday this year for his 4th Birthday Party. So we went all out with Batman and it was a hit!! His friends that came to his party were: Kerra Stewart, Adrian Fry, Braden Spagnolo, Kye Stump, Jax, Coby Stump, Gabe Gregory, & Cooper, a house full of superheros!

First the superheros got to decorate a batman mask that they could wear for the party.
Then we played "Pin the eyes on the bat." Here is Jaxton's attempt.

Next there came a special envelope addressed to Jaxton from Batman himself!! Inside was a picture of the couch. With a little help from Dad, the kids realized that Batman was trying to give them a message. So they went searching the couches and found yet another envelope from Batman. They went on this scavenger hunt all through the house, to the bunk beds, the fridge, the bathroom, till all the kids got a turn to open a letter from Batman. The final place he sent them to was the fireplace in the hearth room, and there they found the jackpot: Batman capes and lollipops!!

Next was Jaxton's favorite part: PRESENTS!! He got lots of fun toys from all his friends. Batman pajamas, iron man shooter, nerf gun, Toy story blanket and stuffed toy, puzzles, coloring books, batman figures, and batman legos!! Everything a superhero needs! Thank you friends!

Here's all the superheros eating pizza for dinner! Yum!

Batman...Batman...Joker!! ( A spoof on Duck Duck Goose). The kids loved this game! It lasted a long time and they loved chasing each other!

Now everyone's favorite part: Cake!! I made a batman logo cake like Jax requested. It was a mini yellow cake on top of a large circle black frosted cake with a black batman logo on top. Of course Jax got 4 candles which he blew all out at once. And then the kiddos enjoyed their dessert with ice cream!! What a fun birthday party!! Happy Birthday Jax!! We love you!

Jaxton Turns 4

Jaxton is our big four-year-old! I can't believe it! It feels like just yesterday that he was a newborn baby. And yet, 4 years have come and gone!! Jaxton is such an angel and such an asset to our family. Here are some memorable things about Jaxton:

1. His favorite superhero is BATMAN. He wears his batman halloween costume almost every day around the house. He loves to pretend to "get the bad guys!"

2. Jaxton is a builder! He loves to build things. He will build giant cities, spaceships, rocketships, garages, castles, boats, anything and everything. He loves to build with blocks, trio blocks, and legos. He can spend 2 hours at a time working on a "project." He is extremely creative!

3. Jaxton also is an artist. He loves to color. He is amazing at keeping inside the lines. Every day he wants to print off a new coloring page from the internet so he can color inside the lines. On our road trip to Minnesota, he colored about 10 pictures, very detailed and intricately during our 9 hour drive. He also is very creative at drawing his own pictures of people and spaceships particularly.

4. Jaxton loves to read! He loves books and loves stories of all kinds. He picked out some simple chapter books at the library and listened as I read to him the stories. And he followed them great, even though there were limited pictures in the books. He also loves Daddy's stories about when Daddy was a little boy. He loves books and stories of all kinds!

5. Jaxton is a musician! He absolutley loves to play the piano/keyboard. He loves to turn the keyboard to "drums" and he plays the drums all the time for us. He is such a good mathmetician with numbers and patterns that I know he could pick up reading music very well. Sometimes I catch him dancing around the room to the demo music on the keyboard. He is very in tune with music. He likes classical music on Sundays and says it helps him feel ready for church. And he picks up lyrics to songs quickly too. Most of the time he can sing in tune with the right melody. He is very musical.

6. Jaxton loves to eat "superhero food," which consists of vegetables and fruits mostly. If I tell him that green beans are superhero food, then he eats them. Same with carrots, peas, and most vegetables. He already loves to eat all fruits, breads, dairy products. He is a great eater all around. But just until recently, he wouldn't touch vegies. That is until they became superhero food. Now, Jaxton will decline a cookie every now and then because he know that superheros don't eat sweets and junk food. Amazing!!

7. Jaxton loves to "go to work with Dad." Once in a while he will go to the gym with Nate and then run errands with him to the post office and the bank for work. A few times he has accompanied Nate to customer's homes for small service work. He feels so proud to be with Dad and "working" with him during the day. It is sweet to see how much joy it brings him to feel needed and appreciated by his Dad.

8. Jaxton adores his cousins. His favorite cousin by far (no offense to the cousins) is Lauren. He just wants to be with Lauren and play with her when we are visiting family. Of course he loves to spend time with all the cousins, but he has a special thing for Lauren. Voting day in Indiana occurred just after we had a visit with family over the weekend. When I explained to Jaxton that I was going to go and help pick new leaders for our city and country, he told me to go choose Lauren. He wanted Lauren to be the leader of our city. It showed how highly he thinks of his cousin Lauren.

9. Jaxton is a soccer player. He asks all the time when soccer will start. He knows the snow has to melt first, but he is very excited to play soccer again. He always will mention, "Cooper likes basketball, but I like soccer." He is proud to play soccer. I can't wait till soccer season starts up again.

10. Jaxton is a wonderful big brother. He is learning how to teach Cooper and help him learn things that he doesn't know yet. And Cooper absolutely adores his older brother. He looks up to him and just loves him to death! They love to wrestle together too. Its like a brotherly bonding thing. Usually one of them will get hurt and end the fun, but they definitely enjoy it. Jaxton also is looking forward to being a big brother a second time. He understands that there is a baby coming and he likes to talk to her through my belly button. It is awful cute! He can't wait for her to arrive.

Jaxton, we love you! Happy Fourth Birthday

Preparations for Baby

We thought our baby girl on the way deserves a special little girl room! All the wood in our house is dark brown stained. We had a crib from the boys that was more oak color and seriously scuffed up from being moved from house to house and storage unit to storage unit the past 3 years. So, we decided to take on a project and sand it down and paint/stain it dark brown. We have never really done a project like that before, and it was a lot more work than we imagined. The sanding was taking forever to sand by hand, so Nate went to get a battery powered sander so we could get the job done quicker. I wore a mask for fear I would inhale too much sawdust and paint fumes!! So whenever Nate or I got a few free minutes, we tried to work on the furniture. Free time, though, is hard to find with 2 toddlers running our house!! But we did it. We think we may also paint a dresser and a changing table too to complete the furniture in the room.

Here is after 1 coat of paint. Still have at least another coat to go....like the mask?

A work in progress...

The Mad Ants Season Begins

The Fort Wayne Mad Ants Basketball season has begun. Since we are season ticket holders, we were invited to the "Meet the Team" event at Crazy Pins Bowling. Of course all the team members were there as well as the famous mascot Mad Ant, whom the boys absolutely admire. It was a ton of fun. We were eating our free buffet dinner when the Mad Ant came around to our table. Nate had gone to get food for the boys, and the Mad Ant sat down in Daddy's chair. The boys got worried and told him that that was Daddy's chair and not to eat Daddy's food. So the Mad Ant motioned that he had already eaten. He gave them high fives and they were so excited. Then we all got wristbands that allowed us to do several activities, including the famous ball pit. The ball pit is much, much more than what it sounds like, with balls shooting out of machines, obstacles to climb on and around and through, a huge slide, and giant ball guns the kids could shoot balls out with. It's almost a danger zone inside there watching out for balls flying all different directions. Cooper kept his wristband on for about a whole week. People were asking whether he had been to the hospital, thinking it was a hospital bracelet. But no, he just couldn't part with his Mad Ants paper wristband. What a fun time! Can't wait to go to the games!!

The Pretzel Man

We had a Preschool Field Trip to Antie Anne's Pretzels which was a huge hit with the kids. We invited lots of other people to come for the field trip and had a large turnout. The Pretzel Man was so much fun! He was right down on the kids level and held their attention the entire time. While we all got to eatHe told us all about the history of the pretzel, where it came from, and how it is made. But he did all that and kept the kids interested with his animated personality.

Then, each kid got to actually try making a real pretzel. The Pretzel Man gave the kids steps. First, they had to roll it like a snake. Then they had to hold it up like the letter U. Next they had to twist it with a flick of their hands and lay it down on the table. They would take the "bunny ears" and fold them down and pinch the dough so it would stick. Then they could hold up their pretzel for everyone to see. Jaxton followed the steps to a T!

Rolling it like a snake

Holding it like a U

Twisting it with a flick of the hands (with a little help)

Getting ready to fold the bunny ears down and pinch them...

Showing everyone his pretzel!! Great job Jax!!

Now Cooper's turn:

Rolling it like a snake

Twisting it, then folding and pinching the dough

Ta-Dah!!!

At the end, the Pretzel Man used the rest of the dough to make 1 giant pretzel with the kids. They helped him roll it out on the long table, then he twisted it. The kids were loving every minute!! What a fun day! Jaxton and Cooper talk about the Pretzel Man often. I think he made an impression on them! Thank you Pretzel Man!