State Fair 2010

September 2010

Over Labor Day weekend, our little family went to the Minnesota State Fair.

The kids LOVED the bus ride. Lucy loved entertaining everyone with her smiles and cooing. Jack loved looking out the windows and pointing out train tracks and construction vehicles to us.

Jack's favorite part of the whole experience was sitting on all of the John Deere equipment.

He ran from one tractor/lawnmower/truck to the next, just loving it!

 
 
 
 

 









We enjoyed going to Little Farm Hands and letting the kids experience farm life!

Jack picked out what he wants for Christmas!
(Keep dreaming kiddo!)

Jay and Jack both enjoyed the slide much more this year, in fact, they went at least three times this year!

Tired Kids!



Co-Sleeping

August 2010

My view as I fall asleep,

couldn't be more beautiful!

 I love having Lucy inches from me through the night, but she has grown so much that her crib has been ordered and she will soon be a whole 15 feet from me.  I will miss hearing every sigh and every yawn as she lays beside me.

A Night at the Drive-In

August 2010

A community near us held a fundraiser for the volunteer fire department which featured a drive-in movie!

It was a great evening!  They had bouncy houses, fire truck rides and a two movies played back to back.

Our little family had so much fun! 

Jack nearly ate his weight in snacks that night!

After the first movie was finished, we popped the kids into their carseats and they promptly fell asleep, leaving us able to enjoy the second movie, "American Graffiti".  It was a great family night and a great date night.  We wish we had a drive-in near us all the time!

Crazy Hair Days!

This little lady has the most wild

and crazy hair!

So, she is rarely seen

without pigtails or ponytails

to control this wild hair!

I think Snookie would even be jealous of this little girl's natural Poof!

Touch a Truck

In August, our community had a Touch a Truck night

which to our little man,

was a dream come true!

Jack loves everything truck/construction/tractor related.  Thanks to Jack, I can now identify an excavator from a back-hoe and a front end loader from a grader.  It is so cute to hear Jack say excavator, "exc-vator!".

Wild Rumpus

We love Wild Rumpus.

Because, of course, every children's book store should have tail-less cats that tolerate toddlers,

 chickens that look like they are wearing bell-bottoms wandering throughout the store,

and a place for toddlers to sit and read a good book!

I think I enjoy going even more than Jack does!  I love how excited he gets to read as many books as he possibly can (all to himself, not mama!).    I will really miss this store when we move.

Lucy's 6 Month Stats

August 16th, 2010 (yup, I am behind and playing catch-up!)



I made this!

Seriously, I made this!

I grew this little girl in my belly and every little bit of nourishment she has ever received was made by me, those chubby cheeks, that double (or maybe triple!) chin, that pudgy belly and that round little bottom were all made by me. She has not had baby cereal yet, never had formula and I am pretty sure Daddy hasn't been giving her Dippin' Dots. I am just always in awe that I regularly burn toast, sometimes forget to pay bills, never know what day of the week it is, kill houseplants and never remember to water the garden, yet I can literally grow children! Amazing. Primitive feeling. I can't believe I can grow something so perfect.

I would love to take credit for her infectious smile and stunning blue eyes, but even though Daddy didn't grow her, she took ALL of his genes!

Lucy continues to be an absolute joy! She is so mild mannered and always has a smile on her face! When we take her out in public, she shows off and makes us look like good parents ...which is good, because we usually have Jack with us too... who makes us look like bad parents.

Lucy's 6 Month Stats

Height: 26 1/2 inches (70%)

Weight: 16.7 lbs (52%)

Head: 16 (5%)

When you look at this little girl's percentages, you would get the idea that she is tall, thin, and has a little pin-head, but to look at her, that last thing you would call her is skinny and I think her head is perfect! Lucy's doctor was very happy with how Lucy is developing, she is ahead of the pack except with babbling. Lucy is a quiet little girl that doesn't have a lot to say! The doctor also said that Lucy's first teeth are on their way and we will see them soon. The scary part of her appointment was when Lucy's doctor said to me, "You do know that this is going to be your busy child, right?" and no, she was NOT talking about Jack (who was leaping from chairs yelling, "I JUMP!"). Huh, what, Lazy Lucy? At that moment, and really at any moment, Lucy was rolling all over the exam table and trying to sit up. I pointed out my son and said, "No, No, No, that is my wild child, there is no way she can be more active than him.". The doctor disagrees and says that Lucy is very active and will prove to be my busy one. Dear Lord, PLEASE help me! When I stopped to think about it, I realized that at that same age, Jack was not rolling around (he rolled over once when he was 4 months old and never did it again until after he was walking!) and he wasn't trying to crawl either. Lucy is always rolling across the floor to get to what she wants to play with and is desperately working on crawling to be able to chase after her brother. Once this girl figures out walking, I am going to be one busy Mama!

Likes: Big Bro Jack, Mommy, Daddy, cuddling, baths, tummy time, rolling all over the floor, reading books, watching Jack purposely fall down over and over again, stroller rides to the park, shopping, zerberts on her tummy, being tickled, being in the exersaucer or jumperoo, and chewing on anything she can get her hands on.

Dislikes: as usual, this is a tough one to figure out. This time she did actually cry for her shots, but I think it was only because they drew blood first, which she hates! Other than that the only time she cries is if she is in her car seat and it is not moving. That includes stoplights! At every stop light she starts to fuss and you have to pump the brakes to keep her from crying. Driving with Lucy is kind of like the movie Speed, only that instead of not letting the bus go below 50mph, we can't stop at stop lights without a bomb going off in the backseat.

Special Skills:

*being absolutely cute and adorable at all times

*making people fall in love with her with just a smile

*an unbelievable tolerance for her older brother's love and affection

*speed roller! She can cross a room in seconds, but only if you aren't actually watching her!

*sitting up

*loving everyone she meets

A Day Out With Thomas!

In August, our little family enjoyed a Day Out with Thomas!

Jack received a Thomas the Train set from my sister for his birthday and ever since he has LOVED everything train related!  So, we were really excited to find that Thomas was coming to Lakeville.

The day (HOT, HOT, HOT) was filled with tons of activities and even a 20 minute train ride (luckily air-conditioned!).

Lots of Legos

 Train tables with lots of trains and lots of toddlers practicing sharing skills!

 Daddy and Jack on the train

I think Lucy might have enjoyed the train ride even more than Jack!

OK, the water play totally gave me the heebie-jeebies with the thought of how many germs are in it, but it was so stinking hot that I knew the child was much more likely to get heat stroke than diphtheria.



Happy Girl!

 Smiling all day

Can leave a little girl

EXHAUSTED!

Lucy's Baptism

On August 1st, Lucianne Jesme was baptised.  The baptism was preformed at the same church that I was baptised in and it is also the same church that Jay and I were married in.  It was a wonderful ceremony and Lucy now has two wonderful God-parents, Missi (my sister) and Sean (my other sister's husband).  Missi and Lucy share the same middle name, which is my Great-Grandmother's  maiden name.  The priest gave a wonderful homily which discussed the saints St. Lucy and St. Anne. Father Andrew also discussed baptism, the importance of family and keeping what is most important to you, closest to you.  Even though we are "out-of-towners" we felt so welcome in this church and honored to have the homily built around this important event in Lucy's life.

Yes, Lucy looks like she is melting, because she is!  Small town churches may be filled with a sense of community, but it is not filled with air-conditioning!

After mass, my parents held a party in Lucy's honor.  It was wonderful to have extended family come and celebrate this occasion with us!

Nana, Papa and all of the grandchildren!

Nana and Lucy

Great-Grandpa Dean, Great-Grandma Bev and Little Lucy.

South Dakota Trip

This summer, the kids and I took a trip to South Dakota to visit my parents.  My sister and her kids visited at the same time and my other sister came to visit all of her munchkins!

Holly's kids are such great cousins to my kids!

Cale read books to Lucy, which she loved!

He also gave her plenty of kisses!

Nana and Papa had plenty of pets for all of the kids to play with, including cats and bunnies this trip.

The kids had lots of fun coloring this little house that Holly got Jack. 

We also took all of the kids (Lucy too!) to Toy Story 3!  That means we took a 6 year old, 4 year old, 2 year old and a 5 month old.  This was Jack and Lucy's first trip to a movie and my first trip to a movie since I was pregnant with Jack!  Surprisingly, Lucy was the one who enjoyed it the most, and was the best behaved!  She spent most of the movie standing straight up in my lap, mesmerized by the screen.  She did take a few minutes to nurse (o.k., that was a weird experience to breast feed in a movie theatre, the same movie theatre that I went on dates to in high school!) and she took a 20 minute cat nap, but other than that, she was totally focused on the movie!

This is Jack once we got home after the movie! 

Jack in the Box



This child has more toys than he can play with in a day, but what is the most fun?  Well, of course, dumping all of the toys out of the toy box and climbing in!