Christmas…
Jamie and Ryan on our drifts
SNOW!
The mirror I got to go above my new table in the basement!
Jamie made everyone cocoa mix!
So excited to get his message from Santa!
Telling Santa he is 3 Faith Lutheran Preschool Christmas Program
Faith Lutheran Preschool Christmas Program
Faith Lutheran Preschool Christmas Program
Blue eyes...
- Saturday morning cartoons
We had two great Christmas weekends, but forgot to use the camera for much of them!
Halloween!
We had a great Halloween weekend.
Misty and Mary came to visit so Ryan and I got to go out on a date on Friday night! It was so nice. We trick-or-treated a few houses in the afternoon, but the big fun for Jamie was answering our door for the kids who came to see us. He loved giving out the candy. We had Grandma Betty, Neil, Susan, Andy and the girls over for some spaghetti that Ryan cooked (it was amazing, I’m so lucky to have my own personal chef!). The girls and I carved a pumpkin and we all had a great time.
The boys with Great Grandma
Andy made Jamie a McQueen out of play dough - wow!
So Cute!
Our Trick-or-Treat Crew
Misty and Mary
McQueen!!!
Baby Tigger
Who’s who?
Let’s have a little contest to see who can guess which tigger is Jamie, and which is Alex. Leave your guesses in the comments…
Tigger #1
Tigger #2
Monster Cookies!
My parents came out last weekend to celebrate my dad’s birthday. We had a nice relaxing weekend with them.
Ryan made stuffed french toast for breakfast Saturday morning… Jamie got to lick the spoon.
We also made Monster Cookies. Jamie helped mix them up.
A conversation with Grandpa.
Pumpkin Picking…
Last week we were invited over to our neighbor’s (The Spomers) to help pick pumpkins with Zane, Drew, Reagan and Paige. Jamie had an absolute blast and loved it. It was too cold for Alex to get in on the fun, but maybe next year!
Jamie looking for a pumpkin
Little miss Drew with her snake gourd... so cute!
Jamie with his stash
Paige got some just her size
The picking crew
Thanks, Leonard and Carolyn!
The Boys
I’m in Aberdeen for work this week, and I got the following in my email last night. I really miss my boys!
The Hills!
We spent the rest of the weekend relaxing at the cabin… ahhhh. Good to be home, and getting ready to head to Sioux Falls/Elk Point on Friday to celebrate Ryan’s 30th with Derek and Jeannie!
Alex swinging at the park.
Jamie swinging at Spearfish park
Sliding...
Daddy and Jamie feeding the fish
The fam...
The following are catch up pics I’ve promised the last few weeks.
The carnival
Weeee!
Catching Air...
Not sure what's up with the pen, but it's cute!
Riding the pedal boat at Farm Island over Labor Day
So cute
Sleepy...
- The Chef
News from Central SD…
Been busy so we’ve not had time to post.
Two Four weekends ago we went to MT to help my dad with his garage. Ryan did a lot of work on it and I helped (a little). We hung out with the family – celebrated our friend Jana’s birthday – took in the Baker fair – and ate tips.
Jamie had an absoulte blast sitting in my brother’s race car and getting four-wheeler rides. The child is obessed with Aspen’s race car so it was a huge deal for him to get to sit in it. Too bad he was scared when they started it up. Our friend Jana had a birthday the day we got there so we had banana splits with her to celebrate. This was after I indulged in some sirloin tips and sour cream and chive fries… The diet was not going well!!! We also went to the Baker fair but it was severly disappointing and not at all like I remember as a kid. No carnival rides, just some blow up things, which Jamie was not that impressed with. I did get to see my friend Desi and her family and have an Indian taco (more diet killers!), so that was nice! All in all it was good to see everyone and the kids did pretty well! While poor Ryan worked and watched the kids I got to go have a mud wrap and a massage and get my eyebrows waxed. Am I spoiled or what? Thanks mom! Jamie also got to have a hair cut from Sonja so we were quite pampered.
Jamie riding the 4-wheeler with Auntie Cec. Not sure is up with his eyes!
Riding the 4-wheeler with Uncle Aspen
Daddy’s hat….
Love those blue eyes…
And the highlight of the weekend – sitting in Aspen’s race car!
Last weekend Three weekends ago we headed back on the road to the cabin in the hills to help Ryan’s parents sheetrock the room they’re adding on. Well Ryan helped sheetrock. I watched the boys and enjoyed a relaxing day. I think Daddy is in need of some time off!!! Sunday we went and raced go-carts! Jamie had such a good time. What a lucky boy. ~ Photos coming!
The big news for Alex is that he’s started eating some “real” food. He wasn’t too crazy about the rice cereal so when we went to his Dr. appointment last week (19 lbs 10 oz ~ 27 inches) we were happy to hear he could start on baby food. He loves carrots. We’ll be trying a new food this week – probably sweet potatoes. Yay!
Happy Rally Week!
Of course I couldn’t get them to smile at the same time… but at least we’re getting in on the Rally in a small way!
7 Random Things
Several blogs I read do a 7 quick takes Friday. So, I thought I would try it out since it’s been a while since we posted.
One. We made a turkey last night. This is monumental news because, 1: we’ve never made a turkey in the 6.5 years we’ve been married (I told Ryan this was because of my fear of ruining holidays); 2: it came out tasting freaking fantastic! Ryan had been hungry for turkey sandwiches… so we went to pick up a breast to cook up and they were all small and expensive so we got a whole 17 pounder. We figured we could share with everyone we know (Grandma Betty’s going to get a whole leg and thigh today!). Who knew turkey baking could be so easy? We put bacon on the thing like Ryan’s mom does rather than basting it. Now, Ryan claims that this is the most fabulous tasting bacon you can get. I have never tried it because I’m not a big bacon fan and I think it looks gross. But, last night he was going on and on about how wonderful it was and so I tried a bite. O.M.G. – it was soooo good. Best bacon I’ve ever ate. So, we shared 3/4 of a package of bacon last night at 10:00. So, so bad for the diet. So, so yummy.
Two. ALEX turned four months old on Sunday! We thought we should weigh him to see how he compares to Jamie at that age since his Dr. appoinment isn’t for a few more weeks. He weighs 19 pounds. Can you believe this? Jamie weighs 37.5… you do the math. Good thing those rolls are cute when you’re a baby! He really is so, so cute though…
Three. Jamie went to his first dental appointment on Monday. He did great! I was so happy… he let them clean his teeth and look at them and didn’t fight or freak out or anything! This was mostly because of our awesome hygienist, Jessie. She’s very good with kids, tells them exactly what she is going to do and explains it all very well in 3-year old terms. Kids going to the dentist now is much, much different than it was 25 years ago, that’s for sure! I probably wouldn’t be terrified of going myself if it had been like this. The best part of the whole visit (for mom and dad) was when the dentist told us that Jamie would probably not have to have braces because he has a lot of space in his mouth for the permanent teeth when they come in. Yay! Daddy is thinking HARLEY money!
Apparently the only time I can get pictures of Jamie these days are when he’s sleeping:
Four. Jamie really loves Alex. I think he’s still a little jealous from time to time. Especially at bed time when Alex gets to get out of bed and be rocked, etc if he can’t go to sleep. Jamie pretends to cry sometimes so that he can get up too. The other night he called me into his room and said to me, “I’m just crying.” He wasn’t crying at all, but it turns out that was code for “Hold me, rock me.” Very cute. Otherwise there is definitely brotherly love. Alex obviously loves Jamie too and gives him all of the best smiles.
Five. I’ve finally found out why Jamie comes home with a cup of sand in his shoes and hair every night. I know boys will be boys and they love to play in the sand, but the sheer amount of sand that is dumped out of the shoes every night actually boggles the mind. I think we might be able to get Jamie’s sandbox filled this year if we keep it up! And is hair! There are no words. We have to shower off BEFORE bath time in order to get all of the sand out so that he doesn’t take a mud bath. So, last night I’m rising his hair and I’m doing the same old song and dance about how we shouldn’t throw sand, etc, etc, etc. And I ask him something along the lines of, “Really, HOW do you get all of this dirt in your hair?”. And he says to me, with that “DUH, mom” tone, “With a bucket”. OK then!
Six. My mother-in-law gave me two new cookbooks last night! They are from the ladies of http://www.hungry-girl.com, and they look AWESOME! One is 200 recipes under 200 calories. I flipped through last night and saw a few I can’t wait to try! Hopefully they make this weight-loss stuff a little more exciting. I’m down 3.5 pounds from last week… just have to keep at it (and do an extra dream-body Pilate’s work out to get rid of the BACON I ate last night!).
Seven. I have nothing else to say… this seven thing is hard! We’re heading down to crazy days downtown tomorrow to check out what they’ve got and to get some more fresh veggies at the farmers market. Yay!
Have a great weekend!
Our weekend…
We had a pretty exciting weekend. Friday night we went to the Circus over in Ft. Pierre! Jamie had an AWESOME time. Alex was not as impressed, but we really did have a good time and I was pretty impressed. I wasn’t expecting much but it was a good show. Sunday we took a trip to the river to go swimming. As you’ll see below, we spent way more time playing in the sand than we did swimming. Jamie isn’t that in love with the water yet – especially when he can’t see his feet.
Alex taking a 4 1/2 hour nap on Saturday!!!
We tried a little rice cereal on Saturday. He thought it was ok…
Biker Dude
Cuteness…
Grandma Betty came out on the 4th before fireworks. Jamie had a great time playing puzzles with her.
He LOVES being able to sit up and see what’s going on.
My Grandpa is a Biker…
Our little butterball.
4th of July outfit. You can see the quilt Misty made for Alex in the background – so cute!
Jamie & Alex
Jamie loves to sing to Alex. So cute.
Updates, updates, updates…
I have photos from the last two weeks that I’ve been meaning to post so this could get long!
This last weekends photos:
Naptime
Baseball!!
Playing on the slide…
My beautiful flowers. There were four flowers on this when we planted it two years ago. I think Ryan counted about 130 buds on it this year. It’s just crazy how much it’s taken off.
Tummy Time
We ran over to Blunt on Sat. morning to take in the parade for Blunt’s 125th celebration. It turned out to be a great parade! Jamie had a good time getting candy.
Jamie and my friend Megan’s little girl Jaydn chatting at the parade.
More Flowers – we’ve been trying to get a shot daily to see how much bigger it gets.
After bath time – all clean!
Jamie loves his little brother! Snuggling in mom and dad’s bed Friday morning.
Tummy Time – he hates it!
What a happy guy!
Before the flowers really started opening up…
The weekend before last we headed to Montana to watch my brother race his car in the Bump & Run’s that were being held in Ekalaka and Baker. Aspen got first place in Ekalaka and second in Baker. We had a lot of fun watching the races. It’s all Jamie can talk about most days.
Roll over in Baker at the Bump & Run
Big roll over/accident at the Bump & Run in Baker this year – the guy running the flags was thrown from the flag stand – he is ok and just had stitches, but it was pretty scary to see!
Aspen got first place in Ekalaka this year!
Aspen racing in Ekalaka
New pics!
Jamie is excited that Alex can play now… sort of.
Hangin out in the dune buggy.
Already sticking his tongue out at me.
Caught watching Saturday morning cartoons.
New Photos
Jamie got to go to the air show at Ellsworth Air Force base last weekend. He LOVED seeing all the airplanes. Tonight he asked me if we were going to go see the airplanes “formorrow”.
Think they might be brothers??
Click on the link above to compare some little Ogan faces.
We took Alex in for his two-month checkup on Friday. He weighs 14 pounds, 7 ounces and was 24 inches long. WOW!
Jamie Turns 3!
It seems like we’ve started a tradition to make Jamie’s birthday more of a weekend event than just a “day”. This birthday post will be quite long, if it is anything like the 2nd birthday post.
Jamie’s birthday was on Friday. Daddy took him to the Donut Shop to buy donuts to share with his friends at breakfast. After nap time, mom and dad came to daycare with red cars cupcakes (he requested red cake) and goody bags for all of his classmates (thanks, Grandma Susan). After eating cupcakes and candy and making a huge mess out of the classroom, we headed to pick up Alex and get on the road to Rapid City for the Memorial Day weekend. When we got to Rapid City, we went and unpacked our luggage and stuff at the hotel and checked out WaTiki waterpark, which is connected to the hotel we stayed in. Jamie loved watching the kids going down the waterslides, etc and it was hard to convince him to leave. After that we headed to Chili’s to have a big birthday supper with Grandma Susan, Grandpa Neil, Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Denny and Aunt Misty. Jamie had a good time and he even got a special birthday surprise from the waiters. A guy named Joe came and got Jamie and put him on his shoulders and asked everyone in the whole restaurant to tell Jamie happy birthday. Mom was afraid Jamie would freak out and cry – but he absolutely LOVED it and the looks on his face were priceless. Unfortunately no one had a camera. 
After a fancy dessert for Jamie, we headed back to the hotel to show all of the grandparents the cool waterpark. THEN, we headed to Target to do a little birthday shopping. Jamie had $20 from Aunt Patty and Uncle Mike to spend on a new toy for his birthday and Grandma Kathy and Misty also wanted to take him shopping for his birthday (spoiled?). Jamie really loved picking out what he wanted and had a good time shopping. He got the movie Madagascar from Grandma, some new dinosaurs from Misty and a big car that does funny stuff from Mike and Patty. Before bed Jamie got to open his gifts from Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Denny and Aunt Misty. He got a bunch of new summer clothes, a book and a slinky (in addition to the four-wheeler mom, dad, grandma and grandpa gave him a couple of weekends ago). FUN!
On Saturday we were supposed to go to Mount Rushmore to meet up with my (Nicole) cousins Shiloh and Jamie and their son Tyler. After Mount Rushmore we were going to spend some time at Storybook Island. Unfortunately it was rainy and cold in the hills so we stayed at the hotel and started our fun at the waterpark. Grandma and Grandpa watched Alex while mom and dad and Misty played with Jamie and had some fun of their own on the big slides. We went to Red Lobster for lunch and then back to the room for some much needed naps! After nap time Shi, Jamie and Tyler arrived at the hotel and we went back to the waterpark for a few hours. I think everyone had a great time, especially Tyler. We had a late supper at Friday’s and headed to bed.
Jamie and Daddy going down the slide (this is the only time Jamie went down).
Floating the Lazy River
Daddy and Jamie in Koko’s Kingdom
Grandpa Denny watching Alex
Tyler and Jamie at Fridays – they were such good boys!
Sunday, we had breakfast with the group and spent some more time in the water. Jamie finally decided that he actually Liked the water by the time we were ready to leave. He was pretty scared all day Saturday, but was super sad that we had to leave in the end. Figures. We said goodbye to Jamie, Shi and Tyler (it was SO great to see them!) and headed to Sam’s club to buy groceries, diapers, etc. A quick trip to Sears and the cafe court at the mall for lunch and we were on the road home! It was exhausting but fun. We would definitely recommend Watiki… fun, fun, fun - even though Ryan did break his toe on the bottom of the pool! OUCH!
My cousin Shiloh and sister Misty
Sunday after we got home we hung out with Andy and Jamie played with his new toys, which he loves.
Monday the kids actually let us sleep in! It was so nice. Ryan and I decided to attempt a birthday cake for Jamie, as we were having ice cream with Grandma Susan, Grandpa Neil, Grandma Betty and Uncle Andy after nap-time so that Jamie could open his birthday gifts from them. It actually turned out pretty nice, considering I was helping decorate it and I have no talent. (good thing for dad).
The Cake
At 3 we went over to Neil and Susan’s. Jamie opened his gifts and then played with his presents. We had cake and ice cream and he played some more. Susan surprised us with a big pot of scalloped potatoes and ham for supper so Ryan and I didn’t even have to cook supper! After supper we headed home and got the kids in bed. I was actually in bed and asleep by 9:30 last night and Ryan stayed up and played games with Derek and was up to feed Alex at 12 so I only had to get up once last night ~ it was wonderful and I slept so good (on our new bed)!!
Jamie sees his Cars cake for the first time
Opening gifts
First XBOX game!!
Baseball from Andy…
The stoplight Grandpa made for Jamie (if you know Jamie, you know he LOVES stoplights!)
Daddy showing Jamie how to hit the ball
Rzr from grandma and grandpa
He seems to be a natural driver – we’re in trouble!!!
It was a great – but exhausting birthday weekend! Today mom and dad are saying “It’s diet time!” I will post more pictures of the waterpark and of Jamie playing with his new toys when I get them. 
Alex Updates: He was 2 months old yesterday!
Mother’s Day Weekend
We had an interesting weekend… Mother’s Day Banquet on Friday at Daycare… My sister’s graduation in Mitchell that night… Company for the weekend… Everyone got sick Saturday with the stomach flu… VERY low key mother’s day Sunday!
Jamie and his classmates performing in the Mother’s Day program at Daycare.
Pictured: Jamie, Gracie, Nolan, Tayshaun, Barrett and Jordan
The Beautiful flowers my husband arranged for me for Mother’s Day (isn’t he a great guy?)
Alex playing
Jamie and Daddy relaxing
This is the “are you ever going to stop shining that bright light in my face?” face.
Jamie got one of his birthday presents early, since my parents picked it up on their way to Pierre. He LOVES it!
