Climbing

Some updates on Christopher:

He has now learned how to climb onto the couch and kitchen chairs himself. He will jump off the couch and he thinks it's pretty funny. One night when he did it continuously I decided to put some pillows to soften his fall. Getting onto the kitchen chairs is great and all...except that leads to the table, which can lead to a nasty fall. He has also figured out how to open the gate to the stairs that Chadd built. This just means we have to lock it which is more of a pain than anything else. So far no stitches or broken bones :)

He is also saying alot more. It's mostly mumbo jumbo, but I can see some words are on the verge of forming. His real words so far are "mama" "dada" "ball" "bye" beyond that you have to use your imagination!!! It will come with time!

He is doing very well at climbing on playground equipment and the little slide we brought home around Easter time from his cousin's Nick and Emily, he can climb up and slide down all by himself now!

Pickles anyone?

I'm proud of my silly husband for trying this canning thing! His love to actually eat the pickles is what has driven this whole project! So Chadd went to the farmers market yesterday morning to supplement our supply of cucumber pickles. The dill is home grown and we had several of our own cucumbers too!

Here' the rest of the kitchen all ready to go.

Here Chadd is sterilizing the jars.

Get ready...

Stuff the jar, grab the cover...

And seal! Success!!!

Chadd tried the upside down seal technique. We'll find out if it worked! He wants crunchy pickles, not mushy.

Hallelujah!!! 9 jars of pickles!!!

RIP Ducky

The bathtub ducky has seen better days. It has been determined by scientific methods that there is indeed a hole in the back end of the duck and it will no longer function properly. It's been a year long era with the ducky, but it's time to move on. Christopher just doesn't know that yet!

So in this first picture, he is running back and forth from his bedroom to the bathtub, filling it up with little toys.

As you can see, the ducky is getting full!

It looks ready now, it's time to get in!

Well, he almost fits in there with all the toys!

This is a picture when the ducky was still young and healthful. Now he's a little limp! Oh, so many good times with the duck!

Ashly is at Camp Grandma and Grandpa this week. She has been going to this special camp since she was a baby. It's a great camp and it comes with great recommendations. The fees are great (oh, it's free!) and the counselors are excellent! The only problem is the location. It's located in the Northeast corner of North Dakota, but if you can make travel arrangements (and we were lucky enough this year that the counselors actually provided the transportation!) it is definately worth it! I hope Cman can get enrolled in the camp when he gets older!!!

Hope you are all having a great time in ND!!! I'll be meeting up with my family at Ottertail Lake next Monday. I work this weekend, then Cman and I will be heading to the lake for a nice week of RnR. Can't wait!!!

The Fourth

Here's the kids at the 4th of July parade: Rose, Jackie, Nate, Ashly, Christopher and Kyle

New this year was face painting.

The family photo. Gotta love it!

We were lucky to have my mom and dad come and celebrate the fourth with us. We had so much fun! We spent the day at Lake Minnetonka with Chadd's family.

Chadd took us out on a nice, long boat ride. It was so relaxing and it never gets old looking at all the beautiful homes along the lake (I know, dad, too many windows!!!)

Chadd the driver...and me just chillaxin in the back of the boat.

Chadd really is trying to nap!

This is the dock, you can see Greg's (Chadd's uncle) airplane.

Everyone hanging out.

Ashly running off the dock.

Chadd went out on the kayak for awhile.

Ashly went out for a sailboat ride and they were out for over 4 hours. Well, it turns out that they did actually have trouble. The center board broke and water was leaking in so they were trying to bail water out with a tshirt and cup. Here's a picture of the guys trying to get the sailboat on the boat lift.

Here's Christopher and Buddy playing ball. He will drop the ball in front of you and he wants you to throw it in the lake and he'll go get it, but if you could imagine Cman didn't quite get it out to water, but Buddy would play with anyone willing, even if they were only 1 yrs old!!!

Cman loves this car. He spent a lot of his time just hanging out in the car.

Rose, Jackie and Ashly

Water

It's so fun to watch Christopher try and figure out how everything works. The hose was great fun! It's hot here today!!!

Harvest time

The garden is baaaaaaaack!!! And it's in full bloom! We sprayed "deer off" and it seems to be the magic trick to keeping the deer off. Go figure!

We've got tomatoes and peas and jalapenos and most importantly, pickling cucumbers.

Here is Cman testing out the first harvest. There were two pickle cucumbers ready to eat and he LOVED them! He ate them both without hesitation. Chadd has been reading up, he got canning jars from his mom and soon we will be for canning! It'll be an adventure!

Mmmmm, Mmmmm, good!

Jalapenos and the little chair

For father's day we gifted Chadd a jalapeno popper rack. He loves it! I tried one...too hot and Ashly won't even try one. So Chadd can have all the jalapenos to himself!!!

The finished product.

The happy Chadd.

We got Christopher his own little chair. He loves sitting in it and knew how to use the cup holder right away.

Always has to have a ball.

Reading a story in his new chair.