Dancing Queen

This past weekend we went back to Spring Grove to attend one of my classmate's wedding. Olivia could hardly wait for the dance to begin. The wedding ceremony finished at 4:00 and we had a little time before the dinner was going to be served, so we went back to my parents' house to change Soren's diaper and regroup. Olivia was beside me the whole time saying, "Mommy, we need to go, the party is starting." She was so excited to dance, and I think part of it was also staying up past her bedtime. As soon as the music started, she got her groove on and hit the dance floor. Celebrate Good Times, Come On!

Olivia was even giving dancing lessons!

Soren's first Haircut

This past weekend I had an appointment to get my haircut. After getting there and taking a look at Soren's hair that was beginning to curl over the tops of his ears, and their sign stating that babies first haircuts are free, I thought, let's go for it! We were able to give him a lollipop to hold him still for a few minutes, but then he soon got bored of that. So, I told him to feed Mommy, so then in continued to stick it in and then pull it out... a hairy grape sucker, yum! But soon, that too got boring for him, so he was passed off to Daddy where he proceeded to do the same thing. Phew! She was finally able to finish! He looks like such a big boy!

Do whatever you want, just as long as I have this sucker!

Stop, Drop, and Roll

We have had a great time learn all about Fire Prevention both at preschool and through the community this week. Instead of the normal story time this week at the library, we had the opportunity to take a field trip to the local fire station. The best part was the mode of transportation to get to the station...we got to ride on TOP of the fire engines! The kids loved it, well, at least the ride. Once we got to the station, we watched a fire fighter get dressed and then they wanted each kid to give her a high five. Well, Olivia, understandably, was very nervous of all her apparatuses and masks and thus spent the rest of her time with her head buried in my legs and shoulders. Soren on the other hand, wanted to get in every emergency vehicle and push as many buttons as he could.

Here is our little button pusher.

Happy Birthday John Deere

One of Soren's new words is "ta-cer" (tractor), so we jumped at the opportunity to take the family to a local festival celebrating John Deere's 90th anniversary. Olivia enjoyed the inflatable slide and jumping castle, while Soren's favorite was digging in the corn to find hidden treasures, John Deere fruit snacks! Both the kids loved to "drive" all the tractors. Grandpa, your grandkids made you proud!

Grandpa, just call us when you need some help!

Scarecrow Festival

Our local arboretum had a scarecrow festival this weekend to help raise money for the maintenance of its facility. It was a beautiful sunny day, so a friend of mine decided to take our children to this festival since both of our husbands were busy for the day. The kids enjoyed looking at all the scarecrows, but I definitely think the highlight of the day was the corn maze. They did a good job of leading us in and around and getting us all turned around, as well as navigating us out of the field.

Here we go!

Soren always wanted to run in his own direction, just glad we didn't lose him!

Olivia enjoyed the races

While Soren enjoyed the sand

My 2 Precious Sunflowers

Go Pirates!

This past weekend was the Homecoming football game for our town. We had a couple of family friends over for supper and then walked 3 blocks down to the high school football game. We made it to half time, well just barely. The 2 one year olds needed to go to sleep, but the 3 and 4 year olds, along with their parents went back to our house for a bonfire and smores. Yummy!

Headed to the game!

Go Pirates!

Aloha!

Purple, purple, purple, that is definitely Olivia's favorite color these days. So, you can just imagine her excitement when she needed to bring something purple for sharing time at preschool. After going on a purple hunt, she settled on this purple lei. I was explaining everything about leis, grass skirts, Hawaii, and before I knew it were were trying to shake our hips. As you can see it this video clip, she loved that part best!

I love, you love, we all love...olives?

Eleven years ago when Erik and I first met, it didn't take me long to discover his love for olives. After going to one of our favorite Italian restaurants, he decided to try to replicate their bread dipping oil. It had olive oil, fresh diced garlic, Parmesan cheese, and then Erik of course added olives to his version. I do have to say that it is very delicious. Now whenever Erik makes this treat for himself, he has two little mouths right beside him wanting some of that yummy bread dipped in his special sauce. After both kids were introduced to this dipping oil, they too were on the path of loving black olives. The other day, Soren was signing "eat" while pounding on the refrigerator, and being the clever mother that I am, I figured out that he was probably hungry. When I opened the door, there was a piece of string cheese next to an olive container. When he pointed in that general direction, I thought for sure that he wanted the cheese. Nope, I was wrong he wanted the black olives. We have actually had to make an olive limit, 5 per kid, which just so happens to be the same number of fingers on one hand, coincidence? We will let you decide. So, the next time that you are at the grocery store where the olives are on sale, promise not to laugh at my cart, doesn't everyone by 10 cans of olives at one time?

Face the music, Laura, Face the music!

Oh, to procrastinate, or not? That is the question! Have you ever fallen behind on something so far that it just felt to daunting to even attempt to catch-up? That is what has happenned to me and our website. It all started with our kids' first double birthday. I was busy prepping for thier birthday, then planting the garden called to us next, followed by evenings of fun with family visits, reunions, star gazing, and now here I am harvesting the garden that was part of the beginning of all this procrastination. I owe an apology to all my faithful babyjellybeans viewers. Every once in awhile I would check the site and I would be astonished to see the visitor number steadily climbing, my face would turn a pinkish hue as I quickly retreated and closed the window before anyone would see just how much I have procrastinated. Now it is time for me to face the music! I shall post! I will catch you up on the past! I shall post! I will keep you informed of the future! I shall post!

The Blessing of Seeds

After six years of apartment living, we were so excited to finally get to have our own garden. We planted tomatoes, green peppers, zucchini, squash, lettuce, onions, green beans, broccoli, basil and cilantro. Just like the first time you do anything, we too learned many lessons this summer. We learned how to battle slugs and vine boars, when to harvest onions, the importance of planting at the right depths and give the plants enough space to grow. But more than anything we learned about God's amazing gift of seeds. In the spring, I brought out all the seeds for the entire garden in my hand at one time. Now, 3 months later, the bounty of the garden doesn't even begin to fit inside my hand. After bucket load after bucket load my freezer and deep freeze are plum full. Wow, those little seeds when tended to and brought up with love and guidance, blossomed to such productive plants. Hmm, seems to be a parable in there somewhere. Well, would you look at the time, it is time to go feed my two precious little seeds, or umm, children.

Spring

Fall