Adventureland

John and Laurie made a spontaneous visit to Des Moines Tuesday night to take Elliott to Adventureland. I'm not sure who was more excited to go...John or Elliott? Elliott did great and much to our surprise went on a lot of rides by himself.

Riding on the train...Grandpa got Elliott a blue slushy as soon as we got there so he had a blue mouth the whole night

Riding the tea cups 

Riding rides gives you a big appetite...he scarfed down a whole hot dog in less than 2 minutes 

Excited to go on the river ride

Elliott got scared once the "big kids" yelled a few times 

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for such a great time  

26 Months

The Month of Firsts

Elliott is truly starting to become a little boy. He no longer has the chubby baby cheeks and innocent baby look. Twenty six months was a big month of firsts for Elliott and after writing them all down it's easy to see why he's been so tired lately. 

1) First Day At "School": Elliott started at a new daycare on June 2nd. I think you can probably judge from the expression how unexcited he was about the whole thing. He struggled a little bit...ok, a lot! The first couple of weeks were pretty rough and Elliott had a lot of "sad" moments according to the teachers. Lets just say that this kid does not like change! They started bringing him into his cousin Katherine's room when he was sad and it really cheered him up! We are 4 weeks into the new school and he is doing much better. He still cries when we drop him off but according to the teachers he has made great strides and he is actually enjoying his time there. 

2) First Time Using A Big Boy Potty: Mark went home the weekend of June 14th and 15th for a basketball tournament and took Elliott with him. Laurie got out the potty the boys used when they were little and Elliott decided he wanted to sit on it before bath time. He's sat on the potty several times at home but has never actually gone. Much to Mark and Grandma Laurie's surprise he actually went! And the next day he went #2! 

3) First Time In A Big Boy Bed: Elliott slept in a big boy bed all by himself at Uncle Steve's while on our way back from Danny and Javen's wedding. He then slept in Mark's old toddler bed while at home in Odebolt. We decided to bite the bullet and move him into a bed at home and he's doing great! He still whimpers when we leave the room but not for very long. (I still haven't taken a picture. I'll post one soon.)

The Wunschel Wedding

Danny and Javen 

May 30th, 2014

Danny and Javen got married in Glenwood, MN on May 30th, 2014. It was the Friday after Memorial Day weekend so Elliott and I decided to take the whole week off and vacation with Pops and Mimi and the Uhl's. Addison, Elliott, K'Lyn, and I got in one car and Aaron got in another and we took off for the 6 hour drive north. Don't worry, Addison packed a stuffed animal for her dad so he didn't have to drive alone. Much to our surprise, Elliott and Addison did great! They played with the iPad, watched a few movies, took a nap and had zero melt downs! 

We stayed at a big cabin (by big I mean a 5 bedroom cabin that sleeps 26 people) and had an amazing time. It rained poured on us the first night but the weather the rest of the week made up for it. We visited the park plenty of times, watched the movie Turbo even more times, and went to the "beach." 

Mark and the Conley's arrived late Wednesday night and we spent most of the day Thursday just hanging out and decorating the reception site. We went to rehearsal on Thursday night and Elliott and Addison got to practice their roles of ring bearer and flower girl. 

The wedding day was absolutely gorgeous. The weather was fantastic and the bride and groom were just glowing! Elliott and Addison did wonderful...despite our worries.

The gorgeous cabin

The water was freezing but Elliott and Addison didn't seem to mind 

"I ryden my biiike"

The beautiful reception site 

Addison playing the role of Mom and making sure Elliott is doing what he's supposed to

The bride and her flower girl

What a beautiful moment 

The Lageschulte sisters 

On the pontoon 

The wedding party 

The best picture I have on my camera of the bride and groom

We got to visit Aunt Chelsey and Uncle Steve in Minneapolis on our way home 

Megan's Graduation

My little sister graduated from high school...let me say that again...my LITTLE sister graduated from high school. The sister that we took on walks in the stroller after church. The sister that I watched take her first steps. The sister that I watched grow into a beautiful, mature lady. I couldn't be more proud of her!

Senior Night

Grandpa Jeff rented a bouncy castle and Elliott and Addison had the best time of their life

"Hey guys, did you see that Microsoft went up 2 points?"

The cousins

25 Months

I feel like I just wrote Elliott's 2 year post and now I'm already doing 25 months. I think we have finally hit this thing called "Terrible Two's." I'm not sure if you've heard of it, but apparently toddlers go through a difficult phase around their 2 year birthday. Yup, we are there! Elliott is testing our limits daily hourly and hates when I leave his sight. It's difficult but Mark and I are slowly learning how to stand our ground. We love him to no end and know that he's just going through an important developmental stage. 

Elliott is really starting to carry on conversations with us, although we only understand about 20% of what he says. Below are some of our favorite conversations the last couple of weeks:

Elliott - Track broke, track broke. 

Mom - Ok, Mommy will fix it.

Elliott - Der we go.

Dad - Elliott, do you want some cereal?

Elliott - Kix, like Mommy (I was eating Kix)

Elliott - And berries (I had raspberries in my cereal)

Elliott - No...poopies (pointing to his cereal)

Mom - What? You have poopies in your cereal?

Elliott - No...poopies 

Dad - Do you have poopies in your diaper?

Elliott - No...BOO-bees (pointing to his cereal again)

Mom - Oh, you want blue berries? 

Elliott - Yeah (giggling hysterically) 

Elliott - Snack, Mommy?

Mom - Sure, what do you want?

Elliott - Fruit snacks.

Mom - Um, how about an orange?

Elliott - Um, how bout.... fruit snacks? 

Reading books in his new playroom 

Taking a break from unpacking 

New haircut 

Talking to "Baby Kat" 

It's Good To Be Home

After a whirlwind of 2 months of planning, we closed on our new house on April 25th and moved in the next day. Thanks to a lot of help from family and friends we packed up our entire house on Saturday morning, drove 200 miles, and unpacked the entire UHaul Saturday night. Whew! You should have seen the UHaul. Mark had all 26 feet of it packed from floor to ceiling and front to back like a puzzle. We are now busy painting and decorating and making it our home. 

Helping Mom unpack...kind of

Fun at the new park just a few blocks from the house

This was a picture of the only stuff we couldn't fit in the UHaul. Yes, we had the UHaul packed that full.

Elliott's 2nd Birthday

Elliott is 2! It sounds so weird to say that we have a 2 year old, although he's looked like a 2 year old for about 6 months now. Thank you "tall" genes. Elliott understands and repeats so much. We have found ourselves already playing the spelling game so he doesn't know what we are talking about. He is addicted to the choo-choos he got for his birthday and has to take them into the shower and into bed with him. He is starting to test Mom and Dad to see what our limits are and I'm afraid to say that he wins occasionally just because we don't have any fight left in us by the end of the day. Yes, sometimes our son goes to bed without brushing his teeth and eats animal crackers for breakfast. But we love him to no end! He is so full of life and can cheer up any bad day at work when he greets us with a huge smile and hug when he we pick him  up. 

We celebrated his birthday this last weekend and it was a great success! We had a lot of family and friends over and Elliott had a blast playing with everyone. It was one of our last weekends in Kansas City before our move back to Iowa which it made it that much more special!

Elliott was 36 inches and 31.6 lbs at his 2-year checkup.

Who knew that balloons could keep them entertained for so long

Awe...so cute 

Ok, get away from me now 

So many fun new toys 

Deciding which balloon he's going to dig into first 

Yup, that's the best we could get 

Cousin Love!