Strawberry Pickin'

 We wanted to check out some local Texas flavor back in February, and Froberg's farm did not disappoint! It was an adorable little family owned farm that had rows and rows of red ripe strawberries. Finn put on his game face and went to work, it wasn't until the bucket was 1/2 way full that he realized these were eatable strawberries! He then changed his method--one in the bucket and one in his mouth.  

A couple extra dollars added to the price after we weighed in hopefully covered what he got a chance to sneak

 After we picked our body weight in strawberries we went to check out the little store, it was full of locally grown produce, homemade candy, freshly made jams and salsas, and AMAZING fried pies! We took away quite the haul, you've got to support the local community right?!

Finn turned 2!

Finn at two years old completely blows my mind! He is an actual person that I can have full conversations with. They usually consist of what Diego is doing to same a baby animal, what he was dreaming about that night, and what he wants for breakfast, and every thing in-between!

His two year stats:
height- >95%
weight- 85%
head- 50%

He loves running from place to place!
Pretzels and cranberries are his favorite snack (only when candy isn't offered, he will do ANYTHING for a piece of candy)
His favorite way to fall asleep is when daddy sings Vampire Weekend to him.
He is a future master chef and already rules our kitchen. Some of his specialties are: fresh vegitable juice made in our juicer, apple juice from concentrate, and pancakes, he is a pro at flipping them over all by himself.
He enjoys playing, watching, or talking about football with his Daddy
He still loves to snuggle and love on his Mommy (thank goodness!)
He will now try to say anything we ask him/ anything he hears which is very entertaining! D has already taken full advantage of this with things like "Booya!" and "Don't tell me my business devil woman" (addressed to his me..... )


The most exciting thing about turning two for ME Finn was facing forward in the carseat, now we get to chat, sing, and dance with each other everytime we get in the car we love it! Looking up and seeing that cute face in the rear view mirror smiling at me will never get old.

We were able celebrate twice with Finn for his birthday this year. Once with all our closest friends and family in Utah, including a "football cake!" by request of course. Here he's sporting some of his fun presents.

Then we had a family party with just D and I, we had to make up for the fact that is was just his boring old parents so we got Tacos for din din, went to Chuck E Cheese, had another football cake, and then finished with some frozen yogurt where he got to pick out all his toppings!

We are so proud of this little man and the sweet person that he is becoming!

Also here is a sneak peak of what our last 2 weeks have looked like. With the Buzz Lightyear big boy pants he got for his birthday and his bright green frog potty, we were ready to tackle potty training! He has been doing so well, I might just squeak by with only having one child in diapers at a time!

Winter for a week- it's quite enough

Ok so I have been pretty bitter about how warm it has been here in Houston all winter long. There was one week in December that I almost lost it when it was 75 degrees.
I could. not. wait. to go to Utah and get a break from this madness. Turns out I had no idea what I was thinking, because Utah was WAY worse!
 I have now decided that I will take that 75 degree weather over -2 degrees any day!
Luckily we had our Nona, Pappa and all of our fun cousins to make it the funnest week we could have asked for!
We found a lot of fun indoor activities to keep us busy like Jump On It with cousins,

 Playing trains, reading books and even going to a movie in a movie theater! Finn was stoked to be sitting in his own seat in front of a huge movie screen with a bowl of popcorn right by his Nona. We came home and he didn't stop asking to go back to the movies for days.
Nona was the best playmate, he LOVED that she would get down on the floor with him and give him 100% of her attention (having a pregnant mommy is no fun at all.)

 As luck would have it we got to meet Finn's newest cousin Hazel who lives in Colorado. We were so excited, Finn did so well being soft with her and loved having her snuggle up on his lap.
Then we got to meet sweet baby Lainey only 1 month old. It made us both so excited to be having a baby girl!!

Finn's favorite activity of the whole week was sledding! We bundled him up A Christmas Story style and braved the weather and he was in absolute heaven! We would send him down the hill all by himself.

 He is quite the thrill junky so we sent him off a couple of jumps.

We love everyone in Utah and it was such an amazing thing to be able to go and spend time there, we miss you all already and we would be back braving all that snow in a heartbeat!!

Lately

 Turns out making a human being out of food is hard work. Don't ask me why I decided to do it all over again! They say you forget and I did, but just for a brief period, once the deed was done it ALL came flooding back and I was locked into this roller coaster with a hope, but no chance of jumping off.
I'm 20 weeks (1/2 way woop woop) and:
-my toddler is still alive
-there is "food" in the fridge
-clothes on our backs
-and our house is still standing
So I would say I'm KILLING it!
On the days that: Finn has never seemed faster or more full of energy, my bed has never seemed more comfortable, anything but ice cream appears to be toxic sludge, and Dora episodes some how make me cry (no matter what challenge that little chubby explorer is faced with, she and that booted monkey just tackle them!) I try to remember how completely worth it, it will all turn out to be..... right?!


In other news, last week our home was stricken with whatever this year had to dish out on the flu. I'm assuming Finn got it from the YMCA (that will show me for working out) and then D got it from him.
I however got a flu shot (being pregnant and all I was top priority) and poor Finn was scheduled to get one in a week! So I was ship shape to take care of my sad boys.

I am officially a terrible person because it pained me to see Daniel feel better and head off to work this morning. But I'm SO relieved Finn is feeling better and is his happy energetic self again.

Quick Christmas recap

 So I stink at constant updates, but now that I'm pregnant I have a legitimate excuse. I'll keep it short and sweet because it's all about the pictures anyway, right?

Making and decorating sugar cookies on Christmas Eve! We stayed in Houston this year and had our first little family Christmas all on our own. Finn was a blast Christmas morning, jumping and clapping after every unwrapped present, and true to form his favorite gift was probably the push pop that Santa put in his stocking.

 

Finn and Daddy watched some football ***side note Finn is eating a huge scoop of peanut butter on a cereal spoon that he got all by himself in this picture (he is my child)** 

We got new PJ's and Finn got to open "Brobie"a Yo Gabba Gabba (such a trip) pillow.

We put our beautifully decorated cookies, a carrot, and some egg nog out for Santa and his reindeer and we were off to bed!

The rest of the break consisted of Finn eating his push pop (as mentioned earlier) and occasionally building robots with his new blocks with daddy.

 

That weekend Daniel rocked the yummiest Souffles in the entire world. So yeah I'd say Christmas was all in all quite a success.

Dallas!

When Daddy went home to work hard, Finn and I stayed to hang out with Anna and Jamie and their cute kids who were visiting from Wyoming and Idaho for the week.

 

 Played with Pugga a lot! Went to the Stock Yards in Fort Worth, went shopping, and went to the Dallas Zoo!!

We have loved all the time we've had with cousins this month! Coming home to be with just Mommy and Daddy is Bore-O.

OCTOBER

 We have bucket lists and we are checking them off! This month was short and sweet.

 The Pumpkin patch- and it was well worth the long drive out of the city! We fed goats, ate corn and fried Oreos, played in the hay, played on the play ground, picked out pumpkins, and Finn got bit in the leg by a goose! Despite the fact that it was 85 degrees and I was completely bitter about it, we had a great time.

Then we took those pumpkins and carved the crap out of them :) Kylie and Zach came over and we ate homemade applesauce, spider Oreos, and at least tried to listen to Halloween music (turns out it's all pretty much terrible).

 I worked on our costumes and made Finn a little mad scientist jacket out of a men's button down shirt,then I fashioned some leather gloves and some goggles to finish it off and we were a family of freaks! Two Frankenstein monsters and the Mad Scientist that created us! We were set to go to Grant and Callie's Halloween party!

It was such a blast and all the detail work was amazing! Callie is a pro at throwing parties and at making costumes, this was their "Minion" costume and Finn was convinced that it was Muno from Yo Gabba Gabba and was starstruck all night!

 We finished the month off with some cupcake decorating and trick-or-treating with cousins. It was a fun year of Halloween with Finn, he was mesmerized by the idea of running around outside past his bed time, knocking on doors and getting candy from complete strangers!! (and I realized that this holiday is seriously weird...)

 Earlier in the month we had a party with my Boy Scouts and Finn quickly caught on to the doughnut on a string game :)