How To Get to Heaven

It seems that when ever we are driving around Ayden talks a lot about Jesus. I love how his mind works and what his his mind thinks about.

Today on our way home from Grandma Williams house this was our conversation:
A: Mom how do u stand on the clouds?
Me: I don't know how to stand on clouds buddy.
A: oh well Jesus just makes them into land then we can stand on them.
Me: oh good thinking.
A few minutes later...
A: Hey Mom,you know how I get to heaven? I have a big ladder that's bigger than me!
Me: wow that's pretty cool!
A: yeah it is.
A: I know how Jesus gets us to heaven! He uses a fishing pole, maybe I should give him dads fishing pole!
Me: how does he use fishing poles to get us to heaven?
A: he puts some sticky stuff on the end. Then when we are laying in the big dirt hole he sends down his big fishing pole and sticks it to us and pulls us up! Jesus doesn't want all those bugs crawling on us.

I don't know where he learned that people get buried in big dirt holes but I do think its pretty cool that he knows its up to Jesus to bring us to heaven. I love my little boy! I can't wait to see how these questions change through the years but I continue to pray that we will be able to keep talking about our faith together!

Our 18 Month Big Girl!!

I can't believe Ahnie will be 18 months old tomorrow! I was reading a friends blog this morning about her little guy that is a year younger than Ahnie...it reminded me and made me miss baby Ahnie and all the milestones she was reaching at such a fast rate a year ago. With our first move fast approaching I should be using this nap time to pack but I wanted to pause for a minute and capture the stage that Ahnie is in right now!

Our big girl is growing up right in front of our eyes! She is feisty, throws tantrums, no is her favorite word some days but those things never last too long. :). She loves to play with her babies, read books, sing, dance, climb, tackle, play hide and seek, talk and talk and talk even if we don't know what she is saying. She loves to color! And she is usually trying to do anything her brother is doing :).

Ahnie has just started to think its funny to make us laugh. If she gets us laughing once she will quickly sign and say 'more' and do it again.

Ayden and Ahnie are really starting to become good buddies! Often AJ will try to get her to play with him or be trying to get her to say things. They do go back and forth somedays like all sibblings but at the end of the day they love each other!

My favorite thing Ahnie does these days is stand at one end of the living room with her arms stretched out and runs over to you for the biggest hug a one year old could give.

Enjoy a few of our latest pictures :)

Finger Painting

Nature Hike on a BEAUTIFUL day!

Cheese!  At the pumpkin patch!

Driving the school bus at Touch a Truck fair in Waterloo

Going to church with her Daddy :)

Prayers

At dinner every night Ayden loves to pray which usually consists of "dear Jesus thank you for dying on the cross for our sins AMEN! LETS EAT". We have been getting him to say what he is thankful for as well.

Ayden started when he was little just by saying Amen! So we started asking Ahnie to say Amen and when we do all she says is "let's eat!" (Her first 2 letter sentence ). I had to u capture this picture last night...oh how I love this beautiful little girl and prays that she will grow to know Jesus someday!!

Picture Day

Tomorrow is AJ's picture day at school.  We have been busy so this afternoon we needed to go get him something to wear and the only place we had time to go was Target.  They had very few options and everything I asked Ayden about he yelled "No, that's BAD!!!"  When did my son have such an opinion about his clothes...  Every thing had to many buttons or two pockets.  We found one cute plaid button up shirt with only one pocket.  I put it on him and told him he was a stud muffin and he was happy with that! 

He asked when he was getting his pictures taken so I told him Betsy was coming to school to take his pictures.  He said "But, Mom!  I have to learn at school there is no time to take pictures!!!  We can't take pictures at school!  Its learning time!"  Haha who knew he was all business and no play...  I never would have guessed that to be his reaction.  I am excited to see how his pictures go...

First Day of School!!!

On thursday AJ had his first day of preschool! He has been very excited and has been asking about going since I told him I signed him up last spring!

The night before we went out to eat to celebrate then came home and it was time to pick out his outfit. I laid out three choices for shirts not including his jersey. Ayden had a shirt then Brett yelled "AJ u want to wear your Hawk jersey right?" of course he wore the jersey!

The next morning AJ was pumped and ready for school! I woke him up by saying "who has two thumbs and wants to go to school?". He sat up and said "this guy!".

We got ready had breakfast the headed outside for pictures and off to school. Ahnie was fussy this morning and did not want her brother to leave!!

On Tuesday's I get to take AJ to school so I did and when we got there he went straight to the sand table and didn't even say bye... This got me a little choked up but No real tears :).

After school I picked him and his friend Cadia up and they were both excited to tell me about their days! Ayden loved the play ground and playing with dinosaurs! At the lunch table he even sang 5 little ducks!

My little guy is growing up right before our eyes!!! I love it but it's all going to fast these days! I wish time could slow down a little bit :).

"No It's My Baseball Game"

First off I really need to do some blogging about this summer but I miss placed my camera as I have been trying to pack up things and make messes as I try to organize and put away :)  So hopefully I will have AJ's birthday posts and many more up soon!

Well, if you know my little boy then you know that he is constantly talking about "his" baseball team, games, players etc...  It is so real to him that his punishments these days have been taking away his baseball things and his "games".  It is amazing how he listens when his make believe baseball games might get taken away.  I can't imagine what will happen when he is on a real team!

This week has been my frist week back at work.  Since the students have not started yet my hours have been very flexible.  Yesterday, I worked in the afternoon so the morning we had lots of time for fun!  We did a project at home then headed to Pheifer (sp?) Softball Field.  Ayden was so excited for his "game".  We had all our equitment but when we pulled AJ was bummed.  I asked him what was wrong and he said "My players aren't here yet.  I called my coach!"  So we decided to have "practice".  We had lots of fun!  Ahnie even hit off the tee and ran the bases.  But when it was time to go he was sad again and told me his game was changed to this afternoon.  I just agreed but knew we were not going to be coming back today...  While I was at work Brett text me to ask if he could play softball at Pheifer at 6:30.  I said yes thinking Ayden would be very excited to go watch.  While we were all packed up and walking up the game we kept talking to Ayden about random things and he would not respond to us.  I finally asked him what was wrong and all he could say is "It's my baseball game tonight!  I am suposed to have a game tonight not daddy!"  He was sad the whole way there until he noticed that there was no game on the 2nd field so he was able to have more practice because again his players and coach didn't show up...  I hope his coach gets on the ball because he won't tell me who his players are to actually schedule a game. :)

DIY

This summer we have been getting used to the idea of selling our house.  I feel that we are out growing our home but we love the neighborhood.  We love being so close to a number of parks, hartman resurve, the trails, close friends and some of the things we love about our home in general.  So, we have been casually looking at new houses.  Its such a hard processes because he find something we like then it gets sold quickly, or its too expensive, needs to much work, its pretty much the same as this house just another small bedroom, we don't like the area or many other things...  We just have not found our next house yet.

But during this time we have been thinking about differnt things we need to do around our house.  For the past few years we used our porch for a big dog house for Jacoby.  I decided it needed to be changed into an actual porch so we could use that space a little before we didn't live her anymore and we also want it to look nice for potential buyers.  I was looking everywhere for inexpensive patio furniture and if any of you have looked at patio furniture its not very inexpensive.  Then one day my friend, Emily, was out running and saw a table and 3 chairs that were rather rusty and old but marked FREE!  So her husband went and picked it up for me and dropped it off at our house.  It was what I wanted but needed some work.  I first found some pillows that would go and had a specific color I wanted to spray paint it with (Teal!).  I searched everywhere and couldn't find it so I picked up some plain old white.  I had almost all of it painted then was at a friends house and saw a stool in the color I wanted.  I ask and she did spray paint it.  She had bought the spray paint at KMart (who knew they sell a variety of spray paint).  I went right there and they had 2 cans left!! I came home and put the kids to bed and got to work!

In one afternoon I had a table and 2 chairs painted!!!  I still have to get the 3rd chair painted but that can wait.  And here is our finished project:

I just love how it feels to get a project done like this!  It gets me excited to do lots of other projects around the house!

Scrub A Dub Dub

We decided to give Jacoby a bath one morning this summer!  What a fun activity for a 2 year old!  AJ had a blast and I think Jacoby liked all the attention expect being tied down so he couldn't run away.  Slightly unfair but needed! :)  Enjoy the pictures:

Bath Time!

Come back here Jacoby!

I gunna get ya!

No Mercy!!

Our precious little girl having fun in the water oblivious to all the fun her brother is having!

Are we done yet?!

Spotlight to Ahnie's Personality

Tonight, while I was finishing up baths I got Ahnie out first so AJ could play in the bath for a few minutes by himself.  He likes to do his "Wipe Out" moves which are a little too rough for Ahnie.  As I was watching AJ all of a sudden I hear Ahnie running down the hall.  She pokes her head in the bathroom just long enough for us to see she has AJ's binky in her mouth and turns as fast as she can and runs out of the bathroom.  AJ starts whinning and I get him out of the bath.  When we walk out there she is cuddled up on his blanket giggling. 

If you know AJ well, these are his two favorite things and he does not like to share!  She gave them back right away.  It gave us all a good laugh!  Gotta love the simple things!  She sure is sponkey and has a little sense of humor! I think she will be able to hold her own with her big brother as they grow.

Williams Hockey Team?!

Okay, lets start this post off by saying No, I don't have a baby in my tummy but we do have a friend that does so I think this is where it stemmed from...

AJ saw my stomach and here is the convo after:

AJ:  You got a baby in there yet mommy?
Me:  No, should I have a baby in there?
AJ:  Yeah, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 of them!
Me:  You think we need 8 babies in my tummy?
AJ:  YEAH!
Me:  Why do we need 8 babies?
AJ:  So we can have our own hockey team!

Well, I don't think this family will be creating our own hockey team any time soon but I guess that is what AJ is hoping for!  I quickly told him thats why we have so many friends and we can invite them over to play hockey!  He was statisfied with that!

"I sorry Mommy"

A few weeks ago I was giving Ahnie a bath and next thing I know AJ was running into the bathroom saying "I sorry mommy!  I so sorry!  Its ok Mommy!"  I didn't know what to think and just asked what happened.  All he could tell me was my angel broke.  He brought me a piece of this:

This is a angel that my grandpa Higgins made for me.  I hold it very dear to my heart because we found it down in his workshop with my name on it when he passed away.  (He gave one to each of the grandchildren when they were confirmed.  I was confirmed later that year)

To Ayden's suprise I was not mad.  It comes in pieces and fits together to look like this.

He had picked it up wrong and it fell apart.  But, this led into a great conversation that we were able to have about how happy I was that he came to me even though he thought I was going to be upset with him.  I told him that it is better to come to me with something that went wrong rather than try to hide it or not tell me about it right away.  I love that inocense of a child and I hope that he can continue with that.  I also hope that I can remember to be calm and understanding later in life when he comes to me with things that are not such an easy fix.

Girls Night...Simply Wonderful!

Dear Ahnie,

Tonight, we had a little mommy/daughter time while the boys were at a baseball game.  It was a wonderful and simple night!  We spent a little time just shopping at Target...I didn't need anything just wanted to get out of the house and look (my favorite thing to do) then we headed home for a quick dinner and took a walk together.  You were getting a little antsy so we stopped at the park!  (One of your favorite places to be!)  While we were at the park I was able to give you my full attention!  It was so fun!!!  I could not get over how big you are!  You are very independent and love to play little tricks on me!  You insist on walking up all the steps by yourself and love to pretend to go down the slide and at the last minute you would run across the platform and giggle so loud! I could listen to that giggle all night!  Finally, you did got down the slides.  Even the big one!  I think you are going to be our dare devil!

You are so sweet these days too!  While at Target we bought you your very first dolly with her very own binky.  You love giving her hugs and kisses and you like to try to put the binky in her mouth.  After a while you end up puttig it in yours instead.

I love these nights where we can spend just the girls!  I hope that we continue to have girls nights as you grow up and spend time together doing things we both love to do!

I love you and love watching you grow up and develop your personality.

Love,

Mommy

We LOVE VBS!!!

AJ loved VBS this year!!!  Every afternoon after his nap he would say "Mommy, time to go to VBS!!!"  and would insist on wearing his "lion" shirt no matter how dirty it was...  Thank you to all who helped my little guy have a great time!  I can't wait to see what all he learns when he is in an actual class :)

Ahnies Hungary Little Caterpillar Party

We celebrated Ahnies first birthday on Friday the night before her actual birthday.  I choose the Hungary Little Caterpillar book as our theme for the party.  Thanks to pinterest I had lots of great ideas to decide from. 

I made a caterpillar cake :)

I couldn't decide on the smash cake so I just made a little round cake and decorated the beautiful butterfly that the caterpillar turned into.

I found how to make a tutu to complete her Birthday Girl outfit!

This was my favorite touch.  I took monthy pictures of Ahnie and put one on each section of the caterpillar to see how Ahnie has grown this year!

Ahnies wonderful grandmas helped me out by setting out all the food!  They were a huge help before the party began until the end!  Thanks so much grandmas! :)

We ate almost everything the caterpillar ate in the book.  Strawberries, pears, watermellon, apples, oranges, salami, cherry pie, cake...

The big kids made their own caterpillars!

Grandma H. made sure everyone got their names on their caterpillars.

After eating we ate the cake.  Ahnie wanted to be done and get down and play.  She was not so sure about the cake but after she had a few bits she started digging in.  Unfortonially my camera died before she started enjoying her cake so here is the best one.  Luckily my mom got some good pictures but I don't have them on my computer...

After cake we opened presents!  Ahnie had lots of helpers but she had lots of fun opening her presents. We were so blessed that so many friends and family could come and help us celebrate our daughter!  She recieved so many wonderful presents!  

I can't believe she is already 1!!!  I loved every minute of planning her special day.  I have really enjoyed planning birthday parties for my children!  Guess I better get started on Ayden's 3rd Birthday!  Its only 2 months away!  

Ahnie Turns 1!!

On April 28th our baby girl turned 1 year old!  I can't believe we don't have a baby anymore...  I think she looks so old these days and is on the go!!!

This past month she has mastered walking and is everywhere and into everything!!!  It makes playing outside so much easier.  She loves to crawl up steps but we still are working on how to get down.  She loves to go down the slides and swing at the park!  She is always trying to keep up with her brother!

Ahnie said bye bye to her bottle the day after her birthday.  I was very excited to be done washing bottles everyday and done buying formula!  I was a little nervous how she would make the switch to milk though but she has done great!  She was not a good cup drinker but once the bottles were gone she switched to a cup very easily.  I think she is even a better milk drinker than AJ was at this age!

This month we went to Des Moines with the Hofferts and Ahnie got to enjoy the waterpark and the zoo much more than last year!  She loved being in her floatie walking around the pool by herself and swimming in the deaper section with mommy.  We tried a few of our songs from AJ's old swimming lesson and she loved it!  At the zoo she was a little more laid back and tired.  We went right after lunch which is normally her nap time so she hung out in the stroller much of the afternoon.  But she did help feed some animals and at the Monkey cage after I was making monkey noises at her she started making them back!  It was so cute!!

Ahnie had her "fun" one year check up and did GREAT!  She was not a fan of the shots so I forsure thought she would hate the finger prick but she really did good!  She just sat and watched as the lab tech kept squeezing her finger.  I was impressed how they could get that into such a tiny vile.  As for her stats she is still top of the charts.  She weighed in at 24lbs (75th-90th%), Height was 31.5(95%) inches and Head was 17.5(25th%).  It was funny they first measured her head at like 17.75 inch and when she put that in it said the percentile was really high.  So she remeasured and with only .25 of an inch it dropped down to her normal percentile.  We also found out that Ahnie had low iron so we are now on an iron supplement so hopefully it will check out higher at her 15th month check up.

She got her 4th tooth this month and this one snuck in on us.  Finally not to much trouble to get this tooth.  Usually it is a big ordeal with her!

Ahnie signs 'please' for everything and is starting to point at everything.  She said a hi sound while she waves and says d-d for daddy.  She talks all the time but we can't make out to many words yet and the ones we can I don't think anyone else would pick up.  Hopefully in the next couple months she will be talking a little more.

Ahnie is wearing 18 month clothes and just grew into a size 4 shoe.  She is wearing size 4 diapers.  She is forsure a big girl and we hope she starts to slow down!!  :)

I did finally decided to give her hair a few snips.  Brett was against me cutting her hair so I did it the Sunday morning after her birthday while he was at work.  It looks so much better!!  I just took a few snips from behind her ear and now everything looks much more even.  I still don't know what to do with the hair on top but hopefully it is getting long enough it will start laying back a little bit and not always in her face!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all you mama's out there!!!  I feel pretty blessed to be called Mom by these two cute little kiddos!!!  We had a great day around the house just hanging out as a family!  Couldn't have asked for anything more!

A Quick Getaway!

Thanks to Deal Garden we purchased an amazing package at our favorite hotel in Des Moines, Ramada Inn.  This hotel has an indoor waterpark that we tried out for the 1st time last summer.  They have a little kid area with 4 slides our big kids can do on their own with a fun pirate ship, 2 big slides they can enjoy with an adult a normal pool and a hot tub.

Our deal included a poolside room, pizza and pop for dinner and breakfast for 4 up to $10 each.  All of this is for the price we paid for just the room last summer!  If this deal goes out again we will be jumping on it!!!  The best part was we went with the Hofferts!

We went 2 weeks ago after work on a Monday.  We headed straight to the hotel, enjoyed the pool, cleaned up, had our dinner then had popcorn and M&M's (AJ and Madi's fav) and cuddled up to watch Fox and the Hound.  AJ and Madi were so cute!!!  They cuddled the whole movie.  By that point my camera died but it was the cutest thing ever!!!!  Finally, after all 4 kids were sleeping the parents snuck out  and we actually got to hang out together without kids!!!  In the morning we had breakfast, went swimming again then checked out picked up some lunch, had a picnic at the zoo then headed in to see the animals!  It was a perfect trip!!!

Excited to go to the WATERPARK!!!

Ahnie's mode of transportation

TT loved it!!!!

Here come the alligators

Brett and AJ going down the big slide

Can you find them?

All 4 kids getting cleaned up

Popcorn

Madi reading to AJ...so sweet!

movie time!

Zoo Time!!!

Lets go!

Nemo!

the pirate ship

Here are some pictures of our trip!