Like Father Like Son

Could anything be better? Video games and airplanes? Looks like Hayden loves them both as much as his father! He had some help from Grandpa P on this one.

Pre 2nd Birthday Party

We had a great time celebrating Hayden's almost 2nd birthday with family and friends at Chuck E. Cheese in Cedar Falls. We were there right at 10:00 when they opened, and claimed our spot. Hayden had a BLAST at Chuck E Cheese. We played some games, ate pizza and cake, and then left to go to the pool. Hayden had fun swimming, but was pretty pooped. Joey had the most fun going down all of the slides and off the diving boards with his niece Faith.
It was a great day, and so nice to have all of our friends and family with us. As always we needed more time to chat with everyone as long as we would like to.

Friday Grandma P watched Hayden for the day so my Mom, Sister and I could run down to the outlet mall and get some fall shopping done. Grandma P set up a luau for the kids. She also watched Hayden's cousins Faith and Noah. They had hot dog kabobs, pineapple, a pool party, and lots of leis and toys. I picked Hayden up at 7 and he had dinner was bathed and was sooooo excited to tell me all about his fun filled day! What a blessing Bev is to offer to watch Hayden so I could have some time with my Mom and Sister. Hayden spent 7 hours there and wasn't ready to come home by any means. It is so nice that Hayden can spend such a fun day with his grandparents and cousins. I am excited for him to get older and experience more fun time with Grandma and Grandpa P.

After I got Hayden to bed friday night I met Johnny, Darliene, Sarah, and Donnie at the Hub to watch a Johnny Cash revival band. We had fun and the band was awesome. It was great spending time with everyone and spending an evenig out now that there is no smoking allowed in bars. It is sooooo great not smelling like smoke. Loved it! It made the whole evening way more enjoyable!

We came home Saturday night with Ingrid and all of her luggage in tow. She is spending the rest of the week with us until she leaves in Friday. She heard from her husband today and he is home from Iraq. He has to work the rest of the week, and then hopes to take some time off when she arrives! I am so happy for them to be together again, and am so happy he is home BEFORE the baby is born. It makes it easier for me to share her! We HATE to see her go, and like last summer, this one has flown by as well.
Next time we see her we will have a new Nephew! We are so excited. Ingrid will honestly make the best mother!!!

We will just be laying low this week. Ingrid and I are going out to dinner with my friend Kari tomorrow night. Kari has some more maternity clothes to give Ingrid. She gave Ingrid all of her maternity and baby clothes!!!! Ingrid also received baby clothes from her sister-in-law in Fargo and some from me. I hate to part with too much if our next child ends up being a boy.
Then we are headed back up to CF on Saturday for a family wedding. I think we are just going to make it a 1 day trip. We are hoping to be home for a few weeks, so we can get consistent with Hayden's sleeping issues we are having at night now. I am happy to say that he did fall asleep on his own in his own bed last night. I tried leaving his door open, and that seemed to work. We will see what tonight brings. Ever since he started getting all of his 2 year molars last month we have been having issues. Not sure if the 2 correlate, but will be glad when we get this all worked out!!!!!

Summertime

Swimming in his Euro trunks
Hayden has seen Sesame Street 2 times and both times he has fallen asleep! He slept this day for 2 hours on the couch.


We have had a busy summer and can hardly believe that is is already mid July!!! We have been playing a lot with friends. Hayden and his friends are getting to the age where they play together, not just side by side. Hayden is getting a lot better playing "nice" with other kids. He is not hitting other kids any more. My sister and I on the other hand are occasionally blessed with a hit or scratch!
We grilled out the other night and Hayden ate his first corn on the cob. He did really well and looked so cute eating it!
Joey and I went to a party the other night at my friend Jo's from bunko. Ingrid was nice enough to watch Hayden. It was a kid friendly party, but it was relaxing not chasing ours around. We had a great time chatting with everyone and eating yummy snacks. The beverages were great also on a warm evening!
I have been unwillingly sharing my sister with my parents and her in-laws. Every time she leaves here I am not ready for her to go. She is in Fargo until Monday, and is going to come back to CR with us next Saturday until she leaves on the 1st.
We are celebrating Hayden's birthday early this year in Cedar Falls. What started as my sister wanting to eat at Chuck E. Cheese before she leaves is now a 30+ gathering for Hayden's birthday. Unfortunately our friends Matt and Stacy are not coming now (punks). I was soooo excited to have all of our "old" friends there to help celebrate! It will be a great time with Friends and family. The more the merrier I always say!!!
This weekend we are spending it at our friends cabin. We are so excited to relax and boat, swim, and eat!

Party at the Farm

We had a fun evening celebrating Briar's 2nd birthday. The temp cooled down and the humidity went away just in time for the party. It was an absolutely perfect evening.
The kids had fun playing in the water outside, and running around. Hayden had a blast with Grace on the Gator and riding the golf cart with Joey and Phil. The kids had fun hitting the pinata, even though most of them got a chance to hit the duct tape version. The 3 year old broke the pinata much to the older children's dismay. Luckily Joey and Phil had a great time wrapping it up with duct tape to ensure the pinata would take many more hits!

Joey and Phil had a great time "playing" together like usual. They seem to run around and have more fun than the kids most times. They shot off the potato gun, rode around on the golf cart, and shot off huge foreworks. I think the firework thing is becomming a tradition with them. They seem to always light something on fire when they are together.

Hayden loved the forework show. He didn't even flinch. They were huge and loud. He was also right there when they shoot off the potato gun. I think they have a "helper" in the works!

We had a blast and didn't get home until 11:30!!!! It is always fun spending time with old friends.

The Aftermath

This was in the newspaper. This was taken at 3am at Mercy when they were evacuating patients. Joey helped sandbag (he is on the far right). Most of the people in this picture were previously up to their waist in water sandbagging, but moved to the back of the hospital to keep the water back while they evacuated patients.

It is so depressing driving through downtown and the neighborhoods affected by the floods. It is so sad to see only cleaning crews and muck downtown, and even more depressing to see people's homes destroyed and belongings piled up along the street. I feel soooo bad for everyone!

Fun in the Sun and Parties

Monday we went to Kari's house and played in their pool and sandbox. We had a great time. It is always fun to hang out with Kari and the boys. Kelley was there as well with her two kids! It was fun to hang out and catch up. We need to do it more often!!!!!
Today Hayden had a birthday party for his friend Theo. He had a great time playing on the little slide and pushing the shopping cart around. He especially liked the Thomas cake that Nadine made. He also had fun swinging at the park across form their home.
Tonight we have another birthday party to attend in Traer.
Ingrid comes back Thursday, and we don't have much else planned for the rest of the week. We are hoping to get together again with Kari sometime, and I have Bunko on Thursday.
I just got a letter from PDO today scheduling the open house for Hayden at the end of August. We will be back in the swing of things and fall will be here before we know it.
The bottom two pictures were taken by Hayden. He loves to take random pictures. Yet another thing he and Joey have in common!!!

Summertime!

Hayden likes to lay down and rest throughout the day! Just like his daddy!

This summer seems to be flying by. In less than a month Hayden will be 2. I can't believe it. I have a feeling I will be saying that at every one of his birthdays. :)
We have been keeping busy this summer playing with friends, playing at the park, going to the pool, going to the splash pad, playing at home in the sandbox and playhouse.
I was talking with my cousin's wife about their new daughter. She was asking me about how old Hayden was when he hit certain milestones, and I was shocked at how few I actually remember. I am so thankful I could come home and look most of them up on the blog! Then it also made me think I can't believe I am forgetting the things I swore I would never forget. Remember those little sounds and grunts as a newborn? I swore I would remember everything!

Soooooo.... it is time for me to type out some more of Hayden's little antics!
He love saying the word bicycle. If we are outside and we hear a truck, garbage truck, motorcycle, or airplane, he excitedly identifies them.
He counts to 10. He LOVES the wiggles and can sing some Wiggles songs. He loves Hot Potato, Rock a bye your bear, and quack cock a doodle doo. He also loves to sing you are my sunshine and skidamarinkadinkadink.
He now figured out how to open our extremely old and hard to turn door knobs, and thinks it is fun to escape. We put doorknob locks on his room and even figured how to get those off. One of those things where you struggle to remove it, but they can get it off with a little practice.
Hayden would much rather sleep in our room and snuggle in between us.
He loves going to the park and swinging. He has this certain laugh that only comes out when he is super excited and he does it when we pull up to the park, pool, splash pad, or get the splash pad out in our back yard.
He loves to pretend to go to work like daddy. He puts a bag over his shoulder many time during the day and says bye, see ya and then gives me a kiss and tries to get out the front door.
He has a new love of his Thomas slippers he got for his birthday last year. He runs around the house in them and laughs and laughs and laughs.
He is such a joy and we laugh so much with him. As hard and as exhausting as parenthood is I absolutely wouldn't switch it for anything. We have been sooo blessed with great friends, and have enjoyed spending time with them this summer.

Catching up

Whew, it has been a chore it seems like lately to come downstairs and use the computer to download pictures and catch up on my blog.We have been running around since my sister arived back in the states with my parents. We have celebrated Raleigh's 75th birthday with all of the family, hosted a baby shower for Ingrid, attended a Gabrielson wedding, shopped, went to the parade at Sturgis Falls, attended a family get together in Marshalltown with my mom's brothers, and shopped, shopped, shopped.Ingrid is getting a lot of things purchased here for the baby. It had been fun looking at all of the baby things again!Hayden has been having a blast with Ingrid. She certianly has keept him entertained. Which means I have been getting a lot of erands and cleaning done. She is up in CF until Thursday, and I must admit I was not ready to share her with my mom just yet!We had a great 4th of July. My parents came down and we ate with our neoghbors Nancy & Jonathan, and the new neighbors Kate and Tim. We had a wonderful meal. We had Chicken, potatoes, oriental salad, rigatoni salad, brownies, chocolate cake, strawberry rhubarb pie, and homemade ice cream. Nancy made ice cream last year also. I think we are going to make it a tradition. It was a beautiful day. Perfect temperature. We sat outside all afternoon, ate outside at nancy's and then walked to the country club to watch the fireworks. Hayden LOVED the fireworks. he commented on them throughout the whole show. He said ohhhhh, booom, uh-oh. At the end someone came up to him and asked him if he liked the fireworks. Hayden dropped the flag he was holding and started clapping and said good job.