Lil' Shavers

Dane even showed "Bernie the Bear" how to shave. (Bernie is Dane's classroom pet that he got to bring home this week.)

A 4 year old plan!

Dane and his best buddy Kellen are obsessed with the idea of a sleep over - their mommies, on the other hand, aren't quite ready for that big step yet. So, they've been plotting how they can escape the house to spend the night with each other. Listen to these escape artists in action.



What's even funnier is that when Kellen's mommy came to get him the boys dressed in their winter gear and started walking in the snow to go through their plan. Dane made it just beyond the mailbox and Kellen actually made it half way down the street. I think we could be in trouble here!

Duck Hunting

Daddy is not the only duck hunter who has been braving the weather this season...



(P.S. - the curtain rod is actually a shotgun.)

The joys of being a kid

Dane and I went to the Harvest Carnival that his pre-school has every year on Halloween. It's always a blast and this year didn't disappoint. This video is bound to become a favorite in our house!

One unique Halloween bag!

Look what we found at Home Depot last week.....


Isn't that Duct Tape AWESOME! Of course, Dane had to have it and it was hard to say no to our little firefighter. :)

After admiring it for a day or two, Dane and I got to crafting. I knew that you could make all sorts of cool things with Duct Tape thanks to my savvy niece Eliana (she made a very cool duct tape wallet for Dan several years ago that he loves.) So, we did a search online for all things super cool made with Duct tape and we found this tutorial for a candy bag.

Once we had the how-to we got busy. Here's Dane laying out the tape.


After we finished, we had to play a few rounds of Trick or Treat. Here he his digging down deep for his lollypop.

And here's the finished product.

Movie Monday

We introduced Dane and Jaeger to the world of Mary Poppins and they absolutely loved it!

And they're still thinking about it several days later!

The boys and I were reading books tonight and Jaeger suddenly jumped off the couch and started dancing. I had no idea what he was doing and then I realized that the page we had come to in the book we were looking at had a penguin on it.

With all the choices of movies out there, I'm so glad that our boys can be entertained with the classics. Of course, Music Man is on our list of classics to watch - any other ideas out there?

Hollywood to H.O.G.!

Anyone remember the Hollywood stage Dane went through?


Well, Jaeger Ray has found his own stage. Perhaps, we should start calling him HOG BOY!

A day in the life

It's been awhile since my last post and a super long time since my last video. So, I thought I'd share a recent video of the boys playing together. It's been so fun watching the boys learn to play together. Some days we definitely have a lot of tears and taking of toys, but then there are those days when they are so sweet and play so nicely together. It just melts my heart on those sweet days.

Jaeger's vocabulary has just exploded and it's so fun to hear how he says words. If we didn't know better, we'd think he was growing up in France. Listen carefully to how he says garbage. :)

Impressive...

**Disclaimer: This is one of those My Kid is so Brilliant posts. I try not to post too many of these, but I was truly impressed with what Dane did the other day.

First of all, Dane wanted to write his friend Kellen a thank you note for letting him come to his birthday party. How cute is that?

Secondly, he did the below ALL BY HIMSELF! All I did was give him the paper and pen.

If you're having trouble reading his inventive spelling it says From Dane - To Kellen.

Here's the final product. He stamped all the other images.


I was pretty impressed with my sweet 4 year old, but then again, I am his Mommy and that's my job. ;)

First Day of Preschool

Our little guy is growing up.

For someone that really didn't want to graduate to the 4 year old preschool class and seemed to dread it all summer long, he was really excited once the actual day came. And this is coming from the kid that didn't want to turn 4 either. After we beat that obstacle and he realized that 4 really isn't all that bad (especially if said 4 year old has a new fire suit that fits him --thanks Grandma Heidi!) there didn't seem to be a concern about graduating to the 4 year old class. These pictures are a true reflection on how he felt about going!

And I'm happy to report that each morning since he's excitedly asked, "is it a pre-school day?" It's a good feeling to know he loves school so much.

Birthday Celebration - Part 2

**Disclaimer - This post is LONG! I really wanted to document the whole story. Feel free to skip ahead to the pictures and be forewarned - there are lots of those too!

Besides our small family party, we did have another birthday party for our little firefighter. When I asked Dane who he would like to have at his birthday party he said, "Kellen and the firefighters!" My first thought was how in the world am I going to get some firefighters to his birthday party and my second thought was it was going to be a tiny birthday party with just Kellen here. So I started down his list of friends and he quickly vetoed any other friends being at his party. He said, "I want a small birthday party and I just want Kellen, Natasha (Kellen's mom), Jenny (Kellen's sister) Mommy, Daddy and Jaeger to be there." I asked him for a few days and his answer was always the same. Our little firefighter knows what he wants! (Honestly, I think that Jaeger's birthday party was just too overwhelming for Dane and he knew that he wanted just a few people here. )

My first task in planning his party was to try to get some firefighters to come to his birthday party. And since Firefighter Unk Tim probably wouldn't be able to fly in from New Mexico, I decided to just call the Glacier Fire Station. The woman that answered said no, we don't do that type of thing. Strike 1. So then I had to start thinking about who I knew that was a firefighter and that might be able to make this happen. I had a first grade student a few years ago whose mom is a firefighter, so I emailed her this ridiculously long email with links to my blog showing just how dedicated of a firefighter we had on our hands and her response was it might be possible! Zip a Dee Doo Dah! And as you can see below, it was possible!!

So, now that I knew the firefighters might actually be coming to Dane's birthday party, I thought I should try again to get Dane to invite a few more friends. If the firefighters were making a special trip to our house, I didn't want them to be disappointed to see just 2 kids. So, I pulled out Dane's preschool composite and we looked through the kids in his class last year. I figured with school starting the next week that it might be a good idea to have a few friends come over to help ease Dane in to going back to school. Once he looked at their pictures he saw 2 friends that he wanted to come to his birthday party. Yea - now we had a party!

Thankfully, our guests arrived promptly because the firefighters arrived right as the party was starting. I was not expecting them to be here so quickly! All the kids jumped on the couch to see the fire truck pull up to our house and then we all ran outside. We got so lucky that the day of Dane's party was absolutely gorgeous! It was the first sunny day we'd had in probably a week and a half. Firefighters Keith and Marilyn were amazing. Firefighter Marilyn walked the boys around the truck and showed them everything and gave each of them a turn at holding something - an ax, a mask, an air tank..... Then, Firefighter Marilyn put on her turn out gear and the kids thought that was pretty awesome. Lastly, they let everyone have a turn sitting in the fire truck. They were here for probably 45 minutes - it was incredible!

Finally, you made it to the pictures!

Our signal to the firefighters to let them know they had the right house.

Checking out the fire engine.

Firefighter Marilyn talking to the kids.


Firefighter Marilyn in her turnout gear. (This was definitely a highlight!)


Oskar, Kellen and Johan taking it all in.

The birthday boy getting his turn in the fire truck.

After the firefighters left, we went inside to have pizza and play firefighter! So, of course, everyone needed their own fire equipment: fire helmet, mask, hose and, of course, a milk jug air tank!

And here's Jenny in action!

The fire truck cake and fire truck chocolates for the guests to take home.



We pulled out a few fire trucks and fire fighters for the kids to play with.


And here are a few signs we had around the house.


**If you read this entire blog post you deserve a gold star!!! Sorry it was so long.

Birthday Celebration - Part 1

My first day of school happened to be Dane's birthday, so I haven't had a chance to get caught up on what his day looked like. (After such a nice summer with the boys, I'm having to remember how to be a mom and work at the same time! I think I'm finally getting into the groove though. :) )

Sadly, both Dan and I had to work on Dane's birthday, but we tried to make it as special as possible nonetheless.

We started the day with these....

You may remember that for Jaeger's birthday Daddy put my sad pancakes with the number 2 written in them with blueberries to shame with his awesome fire truck he artistically made for Dane. And since our resident pancake maker was working I knew I had to step up my game as I was pretty sure our little firefighter wasn't going to be happy with the number 4 written out on his pancake. As I was contemplating how in the world I was going to make a fire truck pancake for Dane I saw this plastic squeeze bottle sitting on my dish drying rack and I remembered that my friend, Erin, had mentioned the idea of using a diner style squeeze ketchup bottle to make fancy pancakes. Ding ding ding!!! The squeeze bottle worked great - if you're artistically challenged like me, give it a try. You'll be sporting fancy schmancy pancakes in no time!

Here are a few photos of Dane opening his gifts.
A fire truck shirt from Jaeger.

Some awesome fire stickers from Grandma Heidi & Grandpa Mike. And you'll see his awesome fire fighter outfit from Grandma and Grandpa in later pictures! You can also see his new Playmobil firefighter set from Mommy & Daddy sitting on the counter.

Later that evening, we ate Dane's requested birthday meal of yogurt, granola and craisins. And then we got to the good stuff - his cake! (Which was actually his first requested dinner. And when I told him that we were already planning on having cake and asked him again what he'd like to eat for dinner, he said cookies!)

Probably shouldn't have given this guy a tire to eat!

Our little firefighter blowing out his candles!



All in all, I think Dane had a great birthday filled with everything fire!

Stay tuned for another post about Dane's second birthday celebration.

Happy Birthday to our sweet baby Dane!

I can't believe that our sweet baby Dane just turned 4!
You may remember us doing a birthday interview with Dane last year. We thought we'd carry on the interview tradition.

Who is your favorite friend? Kellan
What is your favorite color? Red and blue

What do you want to be when you grow up? A firefighter!

What is your favorite toy to play with? My firesuit
What makes you sad? If I get a time-out, that makes me sad.
What makes Daddy happy? Knives
What makes Mommy happy? Getting kisses! (I love this!!)

What is your favorite food? "Mutella" (Nutella)
What does Mommy do that is funny? Laugh. I do this really high-pitched laugh and both boys think it's hilarious.
What is Mommy's favorite thing to do? Have lollypops
What is Daddy's favorite thing to do? Buy knives
What is Mommy really good at? Doing dishes
What is Daddy really good at? Renovating. He sometimes puts new lights in. (Lightbulbs that is!)

What do you like to do outside? Play firefighter

What do you like to do inside? One of the games I really really really LOVE to play is firefighter. I like playing airport too.
What is your favorite dessert? Chocolate lollypops

What do you think is scary? A bear

What is your favorite animal? A giraffe

What do you love doing with Daddy? Going to Home Depot to build something for kids (and get some cookies!)
What do you love doing with Mommy? Playing dress-up firefighter!

And here are some of our favorite things about you...
* When you want to be "uppie" and you wrap your arms and legs so tight around us. It just melts our hearts.
* When you wake up first thing in the morning with your sweet cherry cheeks and are so ready to get started with your day.
* Your continued love for firefighting.
* Your infectious giggle.
* When you take my face and give me a kiss on my right cheek, a kiss on my left cheek, a kiss on the forehead and then finally a kiss on the lips. I love that!
* When you make this funny horn sound from the corner of your mouth just to get us to laugh.
* Watching you suit up - whether it be your firefighter gear, scuba diving gear, hunting gear, bike riding gear or astronaut gear.
* All of your cute body parts, but your sweet little biscuits continue to be our favorite!

You are beautiful inside and out Dane and we love you more 1,000,000 firefighters!

It just keeps getting better!

As most of you know, Monday mornings are our fire station day (See here if you need a reminder.) We are official groupies and it can be somewhat embarrassing as we pull up once again to watch their weekly maintenance checks. Yet, somehow each week gets better and the amazing firefighters never seem to tire of seeing us (at least they're not showing it!)

Last week, Firefighter Cameron gave Firefighter Nigel the royal treatment!

He started by letting Dane pull out the aerial truck. If you look closely you can seeing Dane bending over to turn on the lights & siren.


Then he took him over to the pumper truck and let him turn on the hose to drain the excess water in the truck. It was pretty amazing.

Here's a video of what Dane did!



As we were leaving, Firefighter Cameron gave both the boys an OFFICIAL Juneau Fire/Rescue Badge. And we thought the stickers were cool.


To top off our extraordinary Monday we went to story time at the downtown library and MJ (the amazing story teller) had a book picked out especially for Dane. It was one that he's very familiar with and he loved the special reading at story time. Here's a picture I happened to take of him a few weeks ago with the very book MJ read.

Preschool Birthday Celebration

Dane got to celebrate his summer birthday a bit early this year. His preschool makes sure to recognize those summer birthdays in the month of May. I love this idea, but I just wish I had known a few weeks in advance. I had this great sugar cookie recipe and I knew that's what I would want to make for his class. I pulled out all of our cookie cutters and asked Dane which shape he would like. I knew I was doomed the minute the cookie cutters came out of the bag. He barely even sifted through the helicopter, train, cars, and multitude of tools before exclaiming, "Fire Truck!" Of course Firefighter Nigel would want to make a fire truck cookie and of course Firefighter Beth (my new Firefighter name) would not have a fire truck cutter. :(

So I immediately got online to see if I could find one. Strike 1. (not enough time to get it to Alaska) I then asked a few friends that I knew loved to bake. Strike 2. I even posted a help note in our Juneau Parent Group and Freecycle (you'd be surprised at the things I've asked for that I've received!) Strike 3.

What's a Mommy to do? Try and make her own, of course!

I started doing a little research on line and came across several do-it-yourself ideas. See here and here. It looked pretty daunting, but I thought I'd give it a try. On the way to the hardware store for some aluminum flashing, I thought I'd go to Gourmet Alaska to see on the off chance they might have a fire truck cookie cutter. Of course, they didn't, but they did have a cookie cutter refill kit. Bingo!!! This was much easier than using aluminum flashing or aluminum oven liners. I still had to shape my own firetruck but the refill came with the perfect sized aluminum and tape needed to get the job done. It wasn't all that easy to form the fire truck from the picture I printed off the internet.


But after several tries, I came up with something passable. I put it on the counter the next morning so that Dane could see my handiwork. I asked him what he thought it was and his first response was "don't know." Great!!! I told him to look again and he said, "it's a fire truck!" Phew!

Here's Dane making the cookies.




Frosting these cookies was a whole other debacle. I made a million mistakes, but I think I may have actually learned from them for the next time I decide to decorate cookies. :)

And here's the final product.


And this is the reason I went to all that trouble.

Funny Friday

A recent conversation between Dane and Daddy.

Dane: "There's a bad guy in the living room."
Daddy: "How do you know there's a bad guy in the living room?"
Dane: "It's Mommy, she's not listening to me. "

I guess I better start being a better listener, so I can become a good guy! ;)

Worn Out

Apparently, building a planter basket at the Home Depot Kids Workshop and then visiting a Coast Guard Boat (more pictures to follow) was too much for our little man. He actually fell asleep while eating his snack.

Watch the video to see for yourself.

Funny Friday

Our sweet "Firefighter Nigel" (Dane's official name for himself- and boy does he stick it to us if we accidentally forget and call him Dane!) has been saying the funniest stuff recently.

This morning he bounded down the hallway shouting, "my penis is an astronaut!"

This kid is hilarious!

Firestation Groupies

Mondays are pretty awesome at the Glacier Fire Station.
They take all the fire trucks out to do a weekly maintenance check which consists of
1. starting the fan (cool)
2. putting down the stabilizers (pretty cool)
3. starting the chainsaw (extremely cool)
4. raising the aerial ladder (awesomely cool)

Now all of that maintenance is quite a show for our dear Firefighter Nigel, but the cherry on top of this already awesome morning was this sight....

Here's Dane's response:
"I need to say "sumtin" to him."
So, after Firefighter Jamie came down the ladder the first thing Dane says to him was, "that was TOTALLY scary!"

So, if you need to get in touch with us on a Monday morning, now you know where we'll be!

In need of a little laughter?

This might just do the trick!