It took me long enough

My family was never big on getting professional pictures taken each year around birthdays. There are a lot of families that like to document their kids. Since I didn't grow up taking specific birthday pictures it has been hard to remember to do so with my kids. I am also VERY picky when it comes to pictures so I have a hard time paying to let someone else take them. The only places we can afford are places like Target and the department stores, but I have never been happy with them. A few years back after having pictures taken at one of these places I thought to my self I could do a better job taking them myself. So that's what I started doing. Jake's family is very good about taking the annual kid picture. I didn't want my kids to be misrepresented on Grandma Wangberg's shelf. So each year I would take pictures of Tade and they would turn out just fine. I was pretty good at remembering to take them around his birthday each year. Then I added Seth to the mix and it became a lot more difficult. I think last year we finally got around to a photo shoot at Thanksgiving time. Both my boys are spring babies so I was way off the annual birthday shot. This year I was determined to remedy the picture problem. I was going to give in and call Target to have them do the pictures. I had real good intentions to call many times, but it never happened. Then one day I was checking my friends blog and she had the cutest pictures of her little boy posted. I asked her who did her pictures and how I could get her to do mine. Turns out it was someone in her ward. I contacted Melissa, the photographer, and said I NEED good pictures of my boys. On Friday we ventured out to an abandoned farm near her place and took some awesome pictures. She loves to play with the coloring. I love the pictures because they are so cute of the boys, but totally different from anything I've had. So here are my adorable boys. I actually got pictures done within a month of both their birthdays. Maybe I'm turning over a new leaf.

The End.

Tade Says the Darndest Things

Tade always says things that we find adorable or totally hilarious. I try to remember all the funny things, but usually by the time Jake gets home I can't remember what made me laugh so hard. I've decided to work at writing these things down right after they happen. So this week Tade was on a roll and I remembered to write it all down. The following it why kids are just so darn cute.

#1
We are going to Utah in August for a huge family reunion. There will be 150 people from my dads side at this reunion. We will be out there for two weeks. During this time we will be visiting Jake's family as well. Tade and I have been looking online at things we're going to do while we're out there. The other day we were searching out the Dinosaur Park they have in Ogden. He is so excited because he loves dinosaurs. This only made him want August to come faster. We were sitting on my bed the other morning when he asked if we could go to Utah now. I told him it was still a longs ways away. "How long, mom." I told him still over two months. He wasn't grasping how long that was so I told him, "we still have to go to Williamsburg, Deep Creek Lake, do two soccer camps..." Then I paused. Tade looked at me and said, "go to the dentist." I just started laughing. He is doing all these fun things this summer and the one thing that stands out that he really wants to do is go to the dentist. I have such a strange kid, but he LOVES the dentist. This is all because our dentist has a really good toy bucket.

#2
We had some thunderstorms this week. It didn't bother the boys too much. Tade told me he didn't like how loud the thunder was. So I just told him that he and Seth were way louder than the thunder. Seth wasn't sure what was going on. He just kept pointing to his ears while saying, "listen." He was way more fascinated than scared. I think this bugged Tade a little. His younger brother couldn't show him up in the bravery department. So Tade took it on himself to educated Seth about thunderstorms. Seth and Tade were at the table. I was in the kitchen fixing some food and listening to Tade say, "here I'm going to show you what lightening will do to you. Put your head by my finger." At this point I looked up and saw Tade's finger right next to Seth's forehead. Next thing I knew he flicked him in the forehead. It wasn't very hard, but I was trying really hard not to laugh. I have no clue where Tade got the impression that lightening was like a flick in the head. Seth just sat there looking at Tade wondering what he was doing. Don't worry, Tade doesn't going around just flicking people in the head. He was doing it strictly for educational purposes.

#3
Wednesday was the Champions League soccer game. It was Barcelona vs. Manchester United. The game was on during the day so most people around here DVRd it to watch in the evening. Jake and Tade got invited over to our friends the Wonnacotts. All the guys had managed to avoid hearing who won. Before Tade left he put on his Manchester United kit. He was definitely cheering for Man. U. We had had some British soccer coaches stay with us last summer and two of them were huge Manchester fans. They converted Tade into a fan also. So the boys went to the Wonnocotts for the game. Turns out Manchester United lost. As Jake and Tade were leaving Keith, the host, told Tade "sorry your team lost." Tade turned to him and said, that's ok because I still believe in Manchester United." I already posted this on facebook because I knew it would make coach Sheli and Vicky proud, but I need to inclued it in my blog as well.

Black Hills Park

Yesterday we had a stay at home day. The boys were great. They played so well together, but I knew staying home today would be pushing it. We had plans to have a play date at Luke's house, but Carrie called this morning and said that her boys needed to get out as well. So we changed our plans and headed to Black Hills Regional Park to see the nature center, play at the park, and have a picnic. The park we played at was so unique that I couldn't stop taking pictures. You can tell by what follows and it doesn't even represent half of what I took.

Exploring the nature center. Tade was showing everyone the hawk in the tree.

Look at them learning. Ok, so they're really having fun just moving the circle covers around, but we can pretend.

Seth found a new friend, but was disappointed when he couldn't pull him out of the tree. He turned to me and said, "mom, tuk."

Tade was kind enough to pose with the stuck duck too.

There was an observation deck that over looked the lake and several bird houses. Inside there were several pictures of birds. The kids loved coming outside and being able to see the live version of what they had just seen inside.

Seth you're just a little too short buddy.

Still a little too short, but on tip toes he could just manage to see a little bit of the lake.

This is the awesome playground. Some architect or engineer or whoever designs playgrounds I'm sure had a great time designing this one. Tade calls it the spider park.

It had a flying saucer. This was the kids favorite thing. It spun in circles. Unfortunately after taking turns spinning them Carrie and I were worn out and called it quits. It's a good thing there were plenty of other things to grab their attention.

Another fun and unique piece at the playground was the rocket ship bouncy thing. The kids had a grand time bouncing each other. If only there had been four rockets to sit on it would have been perfect.

Tade called this the dinosaur skeleton. It is connected by ropes so it wobbled around as he climbed. After a while Tade got the hang of it and could climb all the way through very quickly.

Seth even tried, but didn't get very far. It's so frustrating not being able to do everything your big brother can do.

It had rained earlier in the day so the playground was kind of wet. By the time we left the playground was all dry, but our boys rear ends were soaking.

One of the many reasons this is called the spider park. Look at those climbers go.

We did stop playing for a couple minutes to refuel.

Seth found his favorite thing at the park aside from the flying saucer. This was the ladder to....

The strangest slide I'd ever seen at a park. Nowadays they are so paranoid about making safe things at parks. This slide surprised me because it has no sides. Seth thought it was the coolest thing in the world. He just wanted to sit at the top and look around.

He did let me slide down with him once though.

Here he is on his perch taking it all in. Isn't he such a cutie?

Memorial Day

Every Memorial Day since Jake and I started dating we have done a Memorial Day BBQ. So today we continued the tradition. Usually we just do it with the family we happen to have in the area. This year I wanted to have a bit more social event. We have made a ton of wonderful friends in the area and I wanted to include them in on our festivities. It was a wonderful evening. Our kids played so nicely together we didn't have to worry about them. They stayed out of the way tying each other up, then saying one was dead, then resurrecting whomever was dead. It was rather entertaining to watch. While this was going on the adults were free to chat. The weather outside was gorgeous so we chatted on the deck for several hours. It was such a delightful evening. One bonus is that the deck is screened in so no bugs.

While some of us chatted for hours....

and died and resurrected for hours....

others played Greedy Hands for hours. Jon has created a game called Greedy Hands. I was supposed to learn how to play it tonight, but I was to busy talking. Sean and Shauna said it was a fun game. They even bought one from Jon so they could teach me later. Yeah, he actually thought up a game and then had it made. How cool is that to have your own game?

Josh enjoying his dinner on the deck swing.

Madeline loving the ice cream. It was also her first birthday today.

Natalie chomping down a cupcake.

What a colorful face you have Noah. He's just saving some to lick off later for a snack.

Seth loved the endless assortment of desserts that were within reach on the counter in the kitchen. I have absolutely no clue how many cookies he really had, but I know it was a lot. What's a holiday without lots of sugar for the kids?

Our Obsession

We have tried all sorts of sports. In Utah we went to Grizzly (hockey) games. They were ok, but after going to an Olympic Hockey game during the Salt Lake Olympics we realized how slow the Grizzlies were. So we went to some Utah Jazz games mostly because we were given free tickets. Those games were beyond boring. Sorry if I've offended any Jazz fans, but it just wasn't for me. When we got to Maryland we went to some baseball games. Here we have two teams to choose between. We could be Nationals or Orioles fans. While I am an Oriole fan at heart the games just dragged on. They are fine to attend on occasion, but I couldn't be a devoted fan. Then we found DC United. A sport that finally kept us interested. I totally get the European and world obsession with soccer. The game keeps moving and you know that it will be over pretty much an hour and forty-five minutes from when it starts. The fans are great. They chant, jump, throw confetti, and pound drums the whole time. Tade likes going to the games with us which is a plus with a 5 year old. He actually understands a lot of what's going on. Last year we hosted several UK soccer coaches who were over here teaching at soccer camps for the summer. Tade had the best time learning all about European soccer. By the end of the summer he was calling his uniforms kits, the field was a pitch, and soccer was no longer soccer it was football. We loved our coaches and all the time they spent teaching Tade about what they love so much. They even keep sending him stuff from England to keep his love of soccer flowing. We are well stocked with Manchester United and Liverpool stuff as well as DC Untied things. With his new soccer knowledge Tade has even chosen what position he wants to play. He has informed us he wants to be a goalie. A while back we were at one of the DC United games and Tade asked why the goalie was holding the ball. He said "there are no hands in soccer." He's never liked the no hands rule. So he sat back and processed everything then looked at us and said "I want to be a goalie because they get to use their feet and hands."

Last year we went to many of the games. This year we decided we wanted to see a lot more games so Jake's mom and I bought partial season tickets for him for Christmas. This was an incredibly cheaper way to attend games. Plus it made for a wonderful surprise for Jake. It has been so much fun knowing we can see more games. Tonight we went with the Morgans. Both Jon and Allison played soccer in high school, but had never been to a DC United game. So we figured it was time they went. They were playing Real Salt Lake tonight which we thought would be an appropriate game for all of us to attend. It was a fun evening out, but unfortunately a scoreless game. Whenever we go to games with friends the outcome it always 0-0, but it still beats watching basketball or baseball. So GO DC UNITED!

We're not sure if the reason Tade loves going to the games is because he wants to watch soccer or because he knows he gets cotton candy every time we go. He and Josh both had a grand time getting sticky.

Allison and I joined in on the sticky goodness also. We could just feel the cavities forming.

Tade was so excited to have a buddy his age at one of the games.

It sure is fun to have an obsession that we all enjoy. GO DC UNITED!

Preschool Graduation

Tade graduated today as a Quince Orchard Cougar Cub. This was no little preschool graduation. It took place in the high school auditorium with awards, caps and gowns, and diplomas. Yesterday they had graduation rehearsal for 1 1/2 hours. A little overboard? Yeah I think so, but the teacher over the child development program said when she was asked why such the ordeal she answered back, "why not." So today my 5 year old graduated cap, gown, and tassel. There was a slideshow during the graduation with pictures of the children from the year. At the end of the slideshow it said congratulations future class of 2022. How crazy does that sound?!?!

Receiving his preschool diploma.

The class performed a song with actions "The Green Grass Grows All Around."

Tade even got so sing part of the song.

My little graduate. Even though the cap and gown is a little over the top you do have to admit it's cute.