Choo Choo Train

I know I’ve said this many times…I love this blog. It is my memory book, it is my place to do something with some of the thousands of pictures I take that tell the stories of our lives. Pictures have always been special to me and even more now that I have a family of my own. However, I am finding it harder and harder to make time to keep up with this blog. I’m not quitting, and will try to keep this up for as long as I can. And I am hoping that someday I can make some kind books out of this to give to my boys when they are older. Someday, in my spare time…and right now is one of those rare moments when I have a some time to myself. Because, I’m almost to scared to say it out loud in fear that the magical moment will end, but…BOTH of my boys are currently napping! Jake stopped napping a long time ago, but he woke up really early today and has a birthday party to go to later this afternoon. When we came home from school, I told him that if he wanted to go to the party he needed to lie down and just rest, after much debating and arguing I finally got him to lie down, and it worked, he was asleep in about 5 minutes! So I found myself wondering what to do, and instead of doing the usual picking up, cleaning the house or laundry, I decided to make another cup of coffee and sit down with my computer and tackle the Christmas photos. So lets see how far I can get before someone wakes up…

Last year, Papa J gave the boys a train to put around the Christmas tree. It is a very popular thing in our house. They kept asking and asking daddy to set it up, so one night, while I was giving them a bath, daddy set up the train. After they dried off and got their pajamas on, we played with the train for a while before going to bed.

At first they sat and watched it go around a few times while Dylan kept saying “Choo Choo” and doing the signs.

Then they started getting squirmy and had to get closer and follow it around the tree

And this is what happens when I try to get them both to look at the camera and smile.

It didn’t take long before Jake had to take control as the train conductor and make it go himself.

And Dylan was happy just chasing it around the tree.

A few days later, while Dylan was napping, Jacob was playing with his Legos. I suggested that he build a bridge over the train tracks or buildings that the trains can drive by. He thought it would be better to do with his BIG legos, so he got those out and got to work.

I just love his imagination and watching him play.

Then Dylan woke up…please excuse the post nap hairdo and the travel hairdryer (I was in the middle of unpacking from being out of town and he was “helping”)

I just can’t resist this smile.

Then Jake thought it would be fun to put the legos on my toes

And that tickles, so I was giggling and it made him laugh.

And this is an angel that Jake made for me at school from his footprint and hand prints. I love it and plan to display it during all the Christmases to come.

The “Choo Choo” train is such a fun part of our Christmas and it warms my heart to see how excited the boys get when playing with it. One of these years I want to take them on the Polar Express, they would LOVE it!

And wow! I actually got a whole post done and they are STILL sleeping…lets see how much more I can get done, there are plenty more Christmas pictures to tackle. Stay tuned!

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Shopping for the tree

There is a Christmas Tree farm just a few miles away from our house. So last year we checked it out for the first time and we didn’t hesitate to go back again this year. Their trees are beautiful and they LAST. We almost felt bad getting rid of our tree last year since it was still healthy and alive after the first of the year instead of dying and littering our house with pine needles.

When we got there the boys had a great time running up and down the rows of trees.

It became a race

it didn’t take long for the boys to figure out how to ditch us by running in-between the trees.

You can’t really pick a bad tree there so it didn’t take us long to find our tree. After we paid for it and loaded it up, the boys were still having so much fun playing, so we stuck around for a bit.

Maybe someday I’ll get a picture with them where they are both looking at the camera.

Our house is decorated, Red the Elf has arrived and we now have our tree. All the Christmas fun has started. I’ll be back with lots more to share soon.

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18 Months

I often say I feel like I was robbed of Dylan’s babyhood. He grew up so fast, physically and developmentally that I forget he is not even 2 years old yet. In fact, in November he turned 18 months, and he does not look or act like he’s only a year and a half old.

A lot has happened in the past 6 months since he turned one. While he had been taking a few steps here and there, a week after his first birthday he was walking. And really didn’t stay in the walking phase for too long before he began running, everywhere…

He has been a teething machine, he now has a total of 10 teeth, including 3 molars. Teething didn’t really seem to bother Jacob too much, but it really affects Dylan. He suffers from the pain, has a loss of appetite, fevers, crankiness, etc…

Dylan has an appetite! Of course his food preferences are completely different from his brother’s. While Jacob loves his yogurt, fruits of all kinds, some veggies, cheeses and sweets, he is not a fan of meat. Dylan however will eat chicken, tri-tip, salami, bacon, pasta and fruits. But is not a fan of yogurt, cheeses or sweets. So our meals are either diverse, or have a little of something to satisfy everyone, or one kid just doesn’t eat as much as the other.

I remember when Jacob was a baby I was thankful that I never had to worry about him hitting, pushing or biting other kids, he never did that. Dylan on the other hand did go through the hitting and pushing phase, so I had to really watch him when playing with others. On that topic, which really doesn’t help that issue…his favorite thing to do is wrestle with his brother. At first I was always concerned about Dylan since he was still a “baby” and didn’t want him to get too banged up. But then I realized that he can easily hold his own and he is usually the instigator constantly tackling Jacob and taking him down. I quickly grow tired of playing referee and as long as no one gets too rough and they are in a safe spot, I let them wrestle. And they love it!

He is really starting to show more interest in sign language now and has been picking up signs as fast as we can show him. His vocabulary is really starting to pick up a little speed as well. He loves music and asks me to play some every time we are driving in the car. His favorite song as a baby was the Wheels on the Bus and it has now become 10 Little Indians. His favorite word right now is GO! Jake and I often count 1…2…3… and pause for Dylan to shout GO! Every time I back out of our garage Dylan yells GO! He is learning about the traffic signals and when the light turns green he yells GO!!

Justin taught him how to say football. One day he surprised me when we were walking past the TV display at Costco and they were recapping a game on the news and Dylan shouts FOOTBALL! I have a feeling he is going to be our athlete. The boy is always running and anytime he is carrying something he carries it in a proper football hold. he has great hand/eye coordination and at 18 months old he has a pretty solid golf swing complete with a follow through. We never taught him that, he just picked up a toy golf club and started hitting every ball he could find. Definitely got that gene from his daddy!

From the beginning Dylan has never been easily distracted. If he is upset about something it takes a lot of distraction techniques and time before he gets over it. He is my strong willed child! However, underneath all those mischievous grins, sneaky ways, loud and rambunctious personality, he is my cuddle bug. He gives serious hugs and will not let go. My mom says I used to hang on her like a monkey when I was little that sometimes she didn’t even have to hold on to me since I was holding on so tight. Dylan does the same thing. And to add to the hugs, he will stare in my eyes and give me kisses and kisses and kisses. He is a little love! And he’s also a cheeseball… When taking a picture of him, he scrunches up his face and shows all his teeth and says a long and drawn out CHEEEEEEESE. You’ll see in the picture below.

Everyone says the second baby is easier than the first since you know better about what to expect. Which is true in a lot of ways…however, there is no way to predict their personalities and mannerisms. In my experience, so far, both boys have been pretty different in almost everything. And I kind of love that! Honestly, I can’t believe this is an 18 month post for Dylan, not because I can’t believe how old he is, but because I can’t believe that he is ONLY 18 months old!

His 18 month birthday was November 8th, Election Day, so he wore his American flag shirt to mark the occasion.

And I thought the problem with the subscribers not getting email notifications was resolved, but it seems that no one got a notification about my last post about Halloween (click here to see it). So I contacted them again and am waiting for resolution…Hoping this one comes through.

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Pumpkins and Superheros

Halloween is such a fun holiday with the boys, I love that they get excited about dressing up in costumes, asking every day if it is time to go trick or treating and looking for decorations on houses when we drive around town. But I personally love Halloween because it is the kickoff to the holiday season with Thanksgiving and Christmas to follow. So when we started seeing pumpkins at every store and pumpkin patches we went to, Jake wanted to get one. We ended up with a small collection of a few pumpkins of various sizes that we used for decorations around the house. Then he kept talking about carving the pumpkins and we told him we had to wait until it was closer to Halloween. Finally, a few days before Halloween, we went to get some good sized pumpkins for carving. On Saturday morning that was our first order of business, a pumpkin carving party.

It seems I can never get the boys to smile at the same time for a picture…

The boys have a variety of costumes that they love to play with and Jake decided that he would be Spiderman for our pumpkin carving party, while Dylan was sporting a Superman shirt.

And Grandma was in town so she got to join in on the fun!

Neither one of the boys were too thrilled about the slimy insides (we will see how long that lasts)…so daddy and grandma did most of the hard work with cleaning them out, while they stuck with their spoons as “scoopers”.

And I guess the key to getting this guy to smile AND look at the camera at the same time is carving pumpkins as Spiderman…

Then mom joined in to get her hands dirty for a bit. And apparently the boys were really confused to see daddy behind the camera?

Then these two goofballs started their silly antics…

When it came time to carve them, we got one of the Halloween books that we had been reading with the boys that has various types of Jack O Lantern carvings so they could choose which ones they wanted.

Supervising daddy’s work.

My blue eyed boy!

We ended up with silly, sleepy and surprised. I call that a success!!

And we noticed that we carved 3 pumpkins this year, and Jake is 3 years old. Last year we carved 2 pumpkins, when he was 2 years old and the year before that it was 1 pumpkin when he was 1 year old. Total coincidence, not intentional at all. And I don’t think next year we will have 4, but with two boys, who knows…

With the pumpkins carved, costumes ready, we were officially ready for our Superhero Halloween! Batman and Robin to the rescue!

We started off the night at a neighbors house for a pre-party before hitting the streets to trick or treat.

BOO!

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Bates Nut Farm

A few years ago when Jacob was a baby, I went with some girlfriends and their littles to Bates Nut Farm. In the fall they turn their farm into a pumpkin patch with pony rides, a petting zoo, tractor hay rides, a corn maze and other fun activities. At the time Jacob was a little too young to really “enjoy” it all and every year I kept saying I wanted to go back. This year I finally made it. Our schedule is busy as usual, and there is only one day during the week that we don’t have any kind of scheduled thing like school, swim lessons, etc…So that day usually is filled with a playdate or doctor’s appointments, or errands that need to be taken care of. About a month ago on that day, we had nothing planned. And it wasn’t until about 8:00 that morning when I was trying to figure out how we were going to spend the day that I decided we were going to go to Bates Nut Farm. I got the boys dressed, packed up some food, loaded up the car and grabbed my camera. It is about a 30 minute drive into the mountains from our house which made for a nice leisurely drive to drink my coffee while singing along with the with kids music playing in the car. I like to get to these places right when they open to avoid the crowds and the afternoon heat. And this day was perfect!

After saying HI to the farmers unloading all the pumpkins, they started searching for the perfect one.

Dylan thought they needed some re-arranging and started moving them from one side to the other

Then Jacob wanted to feed the goats, so all 3 of us each got a cup full of food and went to the petting zoo. Both boys loved it and laughed when the goats ate out of their hands.

Then the lady working there offered to take our picture, and we still had food on us. So the goats kept trying to climb into my lap along with Dylan to eat it up!

Then we hopped on the tractor hayride for a spin around the farm.

And Jacob talked during the entire ride, commenting on everything he saw

And Dylan thought it was pretty fun

Then we walked around the stores and bought a few treats. We went over to where all the animals were and looked at chickens, pigs, llamas, turkeys and more goats before heading home for lunch. I love those spontaneous adventures with my boys!

The Frisco Project

Adventures in life, pregnancy, friendships, family & a little photography

Posted by Mdfrisco

Choo Choo Train

Shopping for the tree

18 Months

Pumpkins and Superheros

Bates Nut Farm