Busted!

The boys have recently begun actually playing together and it's so sweet to watch them become friends. I love hearing their sweet giggles when they're having fun together (as opposed to the screeches over a stolen toy!)

The other night the boys were a little too quiet in their room and this is what I found when I went in to check on them!

Yep, they took every last diaper out of a huge Costco size box of diapers. If you look closely you can see the plastic bag that the diapers came in behind Dane and the box thrown into Jaeger's crib. What you can't see are the other 3 plastic bags that were torn into as well. They managed to somehow open 4 bags of diapers that came in that box.


Things went from bad to worse in a matter of seconds. *Note to self - Don't leave a roll of paper towels in their bedroom anymore!


Clean up was extra time consuming that night, but fun was had by all! It's hard to get too mad, when they're having a blast. :)

Sun + Daddy having the day off = a perfect Saturday!

Two weekends ago we had the most beautiful Saturday and Daddy had the ENTIRE day off! What an amazing treat. So we decided that everyone would be able to choose one thing they'd like to do for the day.

Daddy choose a trip to the glacier for some bear viewing. Sadly, we didn't see any bears, but we had fun watching the salmon spawning.

Can you guess what Jaeger choose? (Okay, let's be honest -- Daddy suggested this and everyone gave an overwhelming YEA!!! All my boys have a definite soft spot for doughnuts.)

Mommy choose a walk on the Flume Trail downtown. As you can see in this picture, Jaeger is IN LOVE with his Daddy. It's so sweet. He gets so excited when Daddy comes home from work. He'll drop whatever he's doing and run to the door. :)

Can you guess what Dane choose?

Yep, another trip to the fire station. (Thankfully we were downtown so we didn't have to bother the Glacier Fire Station one more time. ;) )

Just like all the other trips to the fire station (except the one where the firefighter told Daddy & Dane that they could watch him scrub the toilet if they wanted - I think that firefighter may have woken up on the wrong side of the bed that morning) this trip did not disappoint. Firefighter Jenkins was amazing. He actually let Dane try on his mask. Oh we had one little excited boy! Dane's been fascinated with the masks recently and the real thing was so much better than the cup he uses at home. Firefighter Jenkins also let Dane squirt a fire extinguisher!!! Don't worry it's filled with water, but Dane thought that was so cool. Here you can see Dane in action. Thankfully, we had Dane's airtank and helmet in the car so he was fully equipped!

We ended the day with dinner and a bonfire with our good friends, Dennis and Natasha. All of the kids ate their weight in S'more's and we all crashed hard once we got home.

What a perfect day!

Sweet one on one time

With Dane in school three days a week, I get a lot more one on one time with this little guy -


and I'm absolutely loving it. Admittedly, sometimes poor Jaeger Ray plays second fiddle to his more vocal brother so it's so nice being able to spend time with just him.

So far we've spent a lot of time outside as he is definitely our outdoors man. One morning we went to the glacier to throw rocks and look who walked right in front of us!


And here's Jaeger helping me make Snickerdoodles to surprise Dane with on his first day of preschool.


When I taught 3rd grade in California, one of my all time favorite students was named Simon. He was such an amazing kid. And his mom was even more amazing! She made it a priority to take each of her kids (she has 3) out of school once a year to have a date with just them. The year I taught Simon, she took him out of school for a few hours to take him to lunch. I thought that was such a wonderful idea and one that I'm sure Simon will remember and look fondly on for his entire life. Since that time, I've always thought once I have children I'm definitely going to take my kids out one on one to make some special memories. And I'm looking forward to making lots more memories with just my sweet Jaeger Ray.
(And, of course, with my sweet Firefighter Paul - aka Dane.)

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!