Happy 23 Months, Mitchell!

Happy 23 Months, little boy!

His level of oneryness is increasing with each and every day! He is STUBBORN and very strong in his convictions...a little like the other man in my household :) Usually when I ask him "Mitchell are you a good boy or a bad boy?" He will respond "I'm a bad boy." I will then assure him (even if it's not necessarily true at the time)..."No, honey, you're a good boy." He'll continue to insist.."No, Mommy. I'm a bad boy."

Usually distraction is our best friend when he starts fussing about something. Jacob was trying his hand at the distraction trick yesterday. Mitchell was fussing for something or other and Jacob picked him up and started showing him some framed pictures in our entry way. There is one of us from Orlando with Pluto in it. Jacob asked "Who is this, Mitchell?" Knowing full and well who it was, but NOT wanting to cooperate Mitchell responded "It's NOT Pluto." Guess he showed him! Ha!

We often can't help but laugh at some of the onery things he does and says. :)

One of these dang pictures again, huh?

I will NOT smile for you.

What's so special about this chair anyway?

He has become quite the swimmer lately! We try to take him about once a week and he'll swim around on his own in his little floaties. When I can keep him from constantly going up and down the steps and the ladder, he loves blowing bubbles and trying to float on his back. "Mitchell's turn." "Now, Daddy's turn." "Now, Mommy's turn."

He still has no idea that he's about to become a big brother. He's not opposed to the idea, he just really doesn't have any interest in the subject at all. We'll see what happens when this new little guy enters his world! I'll post a new belly picture soon. Nine weeks and counting! It'll be here before we know it!

Mitchell was a big source of entertainment at yesterday's Thanksgiving celebration in Lincoln with my family. He was saying hi and bye to everyone, laughing and hugging people too :) He WORE himself out so that he slept the entire way home! Yeah!

Transitioning from Thanksgiving to Christmas :)

Aunt Katy visited us for Thanksgiving! She helped us cook up a mini-meal for the 4 of us to enjoy. We all attended the Plaza lighting ceremony on Thursday night..lots of fun! She also helped us set up all of our Christmas decorations on Friday! Thanks, Katy!

Here's Aunt Katy and Mitchell in their Christmas hats on Friday!


Friday was SUCH a nice day that we spent most of the afternoon outdoors setting up our outdoor Christmas lights. Mitchell and Tex entertained themselves in the front yard.

Let me smell that furry thing on your head...




The finished product got lots of "oooooooohs, and aaaaaaaahs" from Mitchell :)



We're headed to Lincoln, NE today for our Thanksgiving celebration with my Dad's family! Yeah! More Thanksgiving pictures and an overdue 23 month chair picture to come!

Stop and listen to me!

Here's a snapshot conversation that Mitchell had with Tex this morning as we headed down the stairs....

Mitchell "Wait, Tex! Mitchell go first." (Yes, he still refers to himself in 3rd person quite often!)

Tex didn't listen and bounded down the stairs.

Mitchell "TEX, wait for me!"

Tex continues down the stairs...

Mitchell "TEX, stop and listen to me!"

Now where do you think he's heard those words before? :)

I'm proud to report that Mitchell's big boy bedroom is ALMOST done! It's painted, bed is made, and the closet & chest of drawers are empty and ready to move the clothes over! We've decided to wait until his 2nd birthday to open the doors and surprise him with his new room....but as of right now it's missing the biggest attraction - his train set. We have been eyeing it at Costco for a month now. Jacob and I finally went to purchase it today and it's GONE :( We've got a month to find one, but still so disappointing!


Aunt Katy is on her way into town now for a Thanksgiving visit! Yeah! I misplaced my video camera during our trip to Omaha, but am hoping to stumble upon it tonight to post a video of Mitchell's Thanksgiving wishes...gobble, gobble :)

Weekend pics

We are getting so spoiled with this weekend weather!!! We really enjoyed having a FREE weekend to do whatever we pleased :) My Dad spent the afternoon with us on Sunday. Mitchell is obsessed with his Jeep (which he rarely drives). He would've climbed around in it for hours! Anytime we see a Jeep on the road or in a book, it's immediately "Grandpa's Jeep".

Here's a pic of the little guy driving the Jeep. Doesn't he look so grown up all of the sudden?

Surely I can fit in these cowboy boots :)

Mitchell has a thing for other people's shoes lately. He wants to try them all on! On Saturday morning, he was walking around the house in Jacob's shoes. He walked towards the door and said "Bye, Bye". I asked "Where are you going?" He cleverly answered "I'm going to Costco." Funny! :)

I'M ON VACATION THIS WEEK! I'm going to spend the first few days getting Mitchell's new big boy room all ready! Yeah!

BTW - Isn't it ironic that Mitchell woke at 6am both days this weekend....and now it's Monday and he's still sleeping at 7:15? Smart kiddo :)

Mitchell Funnies

Mitchell continues to crack me up with his little quotes. It's just so funny to hear what will come out of his mouth next...here are few for you to enjoy.

On the way to 'school' today, Mitchell said "I don't want to go to school, I want to go to church!".

At the Omaha hotel this weekend, he picked up the telephone and said "Hi, Grandpa. Whatcha doin'? Are you sleeping?"

We were looking at birdhouses at store the other day and Mitchell found a really big one and said "Mommy, this one's a bird CASTLE!"

My friend asked Mitchell if he was excited for Santa Claus and he responded "Santa Claus rides in an airplane." (at least at Home Depot he does!)

Mitchell was playing with my cell phone the other day and typed a row of ##### signs. He looked at it and said "I made train tracks."

He seems to use "can't" in place of "don't want to" quite often. "I can't go to sleep." "I can't go downstairs." "I can't eat breakfast." If I ask hin why not, his typical answer will be "I'm too big." (which is the answer I give him when he asks me to ride his horse or crawl into his playhouse..."I can't Mitchell, I'm too big.")

The list goes on and on....but I just thought I'd share a few of my recent favorites :)

Omaha Zoo

We had a short, but GREAT trip to Omaha. Mitchell was a REALLY good boy on both legs of the drive and he LOVED the zoo! Here are some pics....

Daddy and Mitchell looking at the jelly fish

Daddy and Mitchell in front of the shark tank. After staring at the fish excitedly for quite a while, Mitchell said "I can't see Nemo." We both laughed :)

Mitchell and Mommy in the 'bubble' looking at the penquins. See the black and white spot at the top? That's a penquin coming to say hi!

It was no surprise that Michell LOVED the train ride around the zoo! The only trouble was that he was so enthralled with the train itself that we couldn't get him to notice the animals we were driving by!

Mitchell and Daddy outside of the Butterfly exhibit...likely saying "Look at those butterflies, Daddy."

My stylin' men in the 3D movie. You should've seen his little hands reaching out trying to grab the animal figures flying at us!

Running around in the jungle exhibit...he got filthy! Look at the mud on his jeans! Oh, well!

We felt like we had the perfect day for the zoo. It was 55ish degrees, so a little chilly, but definitely nice enough to do everything we wanted to do! Not only did the cool weather help to decrease the crowd, but there was also a Nebraska football game, so there was hardly anyone there! Perfect for us!

Mitchell and I headed home this morning and left Jacob behind for another week of work. His LAST WEEK in Omaha this year...hopefully!

Visit from Taby and Dylan

Taby (life long friend - feels like it anyway!) and Dylan came over last night for dinner. It was GREAT to catch up even though we had to stop and start our conversations 8,000 times for "yes, boys", "don't do that", "play with this", "here it is", etc :)



Mitchell gets a big kick out of his older role model :) He was constantly entertained just watching Dylan...made for a great evening for both of us!

We're headed to the ZOO this weekend in Omaha! Jacob is up there for work this week and next, so instead of him coming home, we're headed there! We're hoping the weather cooperates!!! We're looking forward to a change of scenery and some family swims in the hotel pool - yeah!

Taking advantage of the weekend weather!

What a GREAT weekend! It was nearly 80 degrees in Kansas City, so we spent lots of time outdoors taking advantage of it! :)

We headed to the Shawnee Mission Dog Park again...which I've decided is MUCH easier to do with both Jacob and I rather than just me. With one two legged boy running in one direction and the other four-legged boy running in the other, it was a bit too much for me to handle on my own! Ha! It's getting fairly tough for me to carry Mitchell for long distances too (even if he would let me)...the extra tummy weight is already enough for me to handle!

Here he is watching Tex swimming in the lake. I feel like I should knock wood when as I type this, but he has listened to my "only doggies can swim" directions VERY well and doesn't even try to get in the water (as I feared he might)!




Playing airplane with Daddy on the walk back up!





Blazing his own path through the weeds...




So happy to be outdoors!



Well, I'm officially feeling VERY pregnant. There is absolutely no confusion from strangers these days. I'm beginning my 28th week and it's scary for me to think how much bigger I could get in the next 12 weeks! Despite the fact that I can certainly feel myself slowing down a bit and starting to struggle with normal bending over type tasks (bathtime, etc), I have no complaints! This little boy is being very nice to me...now let's just hope that will continue once he's out of the womb!

Conversation with Mitchell :)

Me: "Mitchell, are you excited to have a little brother?"

Mitchell: "NO. Just Mitchell!"

Me: "Honey, you're going to have one whether you like it or not. It'll be fun to be a big brother. Now we just have to figure out what to name him. What do you think we should name him?"

Mitchell: "Ummmm....name him Mitchell."

Christmas and Birthday Ideas

I added some birthday and Christmas ideas for Mitchell to the left for the grandparents & aunts. Please don't think you HAVE to buy from this list. I'm sure he'll love anything, but I created it in case you wanted some ideas. He's pretty easy to please :)

Fall Photo Shoot

We took Mitchell to the local Arboretum on Sunday for a Fall Photo Shoot. You may see some of these resurface in this year's Christmas card! Let me know which ones are your favorite!!!

Photo #1 - A moment of rest on the stairs

Photo #2 - Mitchell and Mommy's belly (27 weeks!)

Photo #3 - Ol' blue eyes

Photo #4 - Who knows what's about to come out of that mouth :)

Photo #5 - Mitchell and Daddy in front of the waterfall

Photo #6 - NO kisses, Daddy!

Photo #7 - Off into the sunset

Photo #8 - Angelic boy

Photo #9 - Hello, world!

Photo #10 - Family Photo

Photo #11 - Mitchell and Mommy

Photo #12 - Holding Daddy's hand

Photo #13 - Here's lookin' up at you!

Photo #14 - If you're happy and you know it...

Photo #15 - Like Father like son

Photo #16 - Family Photo w/ pumpkins

Jacob turns 30!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!



We celebrated one night early since he'll be in Omaha the night of his actual birthday. I'm not sure who enjoyed the cake more, Jacob or Mitchell!




Daddy decided to help Mitchell feel better about the mess on his face by joining in :)

By the way, one of Mitchell's favorite sayings lately is "Mitchell's making a mess."

As his birthday present, Jacob FINALLY got to pick out the new flat screen TV he's been eyeing for years now! We watched our first BlueRay DVD on it last night.

We couldn't ask for a better husband or daddy! Happy, HAPPY birthday, Jacob :)

We had a busy, but WONDERFUL Halloween! We took Mitchell to a friend's Halloween party in the afternoon, complete with an inflatable bounce house! He's never been in one before - and had a BLAST! In fact, this morning he was still saying "bouncy, bouncy".

He had so much fun that our little tiger slept all of the way home....

We carved our pumpkins too :) Mitchell wasn't quite sure what he thought about reaching his hand inside to pull out the seeds, but he warmed up to the idea! He was extra impressed when we put "fire" inside the pumpkins!

We headed over to the neighbors to begin trick-or-treating! Mitchell caught onto to it MUCH better than we thought he would! Of course, it made it easier to follow the bigger kids :) He started out in the wagon, but before long demanded that he "run fast" on his own.

He would go up to the door, say "trick or treat" and then tell them "Happy Halloween" before heading the next house! We were surprised how much he seemed to grasp the concept!

Grandpa and Sherri came over to wish the little tiger a Happy Halloween too!

He is already asking for "Mitchell's candy" this morning! Halloween is great! Too bad it only comes around once a year....