last week...

We headed downtown to the Festival of Trees at the old Vets.  It was a crisp evening but we caught the sunset over the city....one of my favorite things!

This picture does not have any sort of filter on it-it was just that pretty in there!  The ballroom in Vets is just over the top.  The ceiling changes colors, the boys loved it and so did we.  The trees were pretty but not as over the top as we had expected.  The favorite tree was the Lego tree and the Iowa Wild Hockey teams tree.  The boys thought it was pretty neat.  They had a few games and crafts as well.  It all goes to a good cause and it was a really fun family date!

We headed down to the Fong's after our exploring of the Christmas trees and the boys actually ate dinner!! It was some sort of miracle!  Maybe it was because they walked a mile or so to get to dinner via the skywalk system!  This picture is capturing how big their muscles were after eating all that food!

We headed back up the hill to our car.  We LOVE skywalking and especially at night.  It is so neat to see the cars whizzing by underneath you and Hutchinson loves seeing the Capitol Dome from all different angles!  You can see it peeking over Michael's head in this picture.

I can't get enough of this kid and the way he sleeps.  I wish I could crash that hard!

They love the Christmas lights!  I wish I could tell you how Hutchinson says it but I don't know how to describe it.  Whatever it is, it is cute and he gets EXCITED when we sees some!

One morning last week, we snuggled and snuggled and the he said, "we play tickle game, Mom?"  He has my heart, love his tiny giggle!

They LOVE the Christmas tree.  They really like taking the ornaments off and on...drives me a bit crazy but at least they aren't breaking them...yet!

Last week we hit the library for the first time in ages and there wasn't a single person there.  It was glorious.  Hutchinson loved having the train table to himself and I actually got to read a book! 

This kid's smile just kills me.  I LOVE it and those eyes....add in a funny hat and he just might be the cutest thing ever.  He loved the wolf hat that Aunt Vicki got Hutchinson a couple years ago but says now that it is too hairy?  Seriously, he is always changing his mind about thing like that :)

Cousin Carter stayed with us on Saturday night and we went to dinner at Smokey D's.  The boys did great and then we went to Jolly Holiday Lights-it was SO fun.  The big kids loved it and Hutchinson just sat in amazement!

Sunday after church we headed to Gusto with the Murphys.  It was so snowy and with all the windows in the restaurant it felt like we were in a snow globe.  It was so pretty.  I could have cuddled up with a cup of hot tea and stayed all day.  Not to mention the pizza is over the top!

We had to get out and 'coop 'no, as Hutchinson says.  It is so sweet that he can't say the S sound yet.  So when it does snow he is yelling NO!!!! But he is just really excited that there is SNOW!! It's pretty cute!  Finnean LOVED helping Michael scoop the snow with a shovel and a broom, before long we won't have to do it, just send him out there.  I bet I could pay him in cookies!

This boys has to stop looking so old!!!

Last week we had a Bare Root sale and I am in charge of shipping.  Hutchinson was doing his best to help with that process by driving the "Bare Woot Train" he said!  It just cracks me up of how much these boys love Bare Root! 

Finnean had his five year check up on Friday.  He was a champ!  He was SUPER scared of getting a shot but only panicked a bit and then got it done.  We took him to lunch at Wendy's!  His pick.  He is 40 3/4 inches tall and 35 pounds.  He is growing taller and that is all the doctor is worried about.  He is not worried about his weight at all.  He is actually in double digits on the growth chart--so that is a big deal at the Wagler house.  He is a healthy boy the doctor said.  I am so thankful for our pediatrician and his nurse.  They are so good to our family-it is really a blessing!

That night we had a fun family date and went to Target to let the boys pick out presents for each other.  Finnean was SO excited, it was over the top cute.  Michael said he was bounding through the aisles.  He struggled with staying under the $10 budget (Michael said that he gets that from me:).  After they each picked something out and we were on our way home Finnean said, OKay now we switch teams, Mom you help me wrap and Dad you help Hutch wrap.  It was just so sweet, so we got them wrapped and under the tree.  Hutchinson keeps asking if he can open his:)

This picture just makes my heart happy.  Love his smile!

Sometimes a wrench gets thrown in your plan.  Our wrench was a sick Hutchinson on the day of the super fun church Christmas party and then we had a sitter for a SUPER fun double date.  But sometimes you just have to be a parent and hold a sick baby for the whole day.  Michael and I took shifts and then H finally took a nap in his own bed.  Around 7 that evening he finally started to perk up a bit.  It was so sad to see him so sick, sweet boy.  He is feeling better for the most part but still whiny and tired.  I can't imagine how much weight he lost from throwing up all day, the kid can't really afford to lose any!  So I am sure he is just getting his energy back!  I was thankful for capturing this smile, it was one of the only ones of the day.  That is just not right for this smiley little guy!

UPDATE!

I have had these pictures taunting me on the computer and I kept thinking I would do a post a night but it just wasn't happening...so I just did a bunch of updates.  Hope that is okay with you readers out there :)  This way I can be up to date and not feel like I am always behind!  Stay tuned for plenty of Christmas adventures and keep scrolling:) Don't forget that you can click on the pictures to make them bigger!

So many reasons to be grateful.

I try to live a life that is full of gratitude.  Some days I am better at it than others but I especially love November because everyone around me is being grateful too!  It seems silly but facebook is full of gratitude, the news, people are a little nicer in general, it seems anyway.   Only if we could be grateful all the months of the year, it would be awesome for everyone's quality of life! :)  Okay, sorry for the tangent but it is so true!  I will just do my best to be grateful and hope it spreads to someone else! We had so much fun this Thanksgiving and the week leading up to it.  Hope you enjoy our adventures!

Crème Cupcake is a little dessert place on Ingersoll in Des Moines.  I met the owner last month at a Des Moines Moms Blog event and she told me about her cupcake decorating date.  It was a blast!  You get a super yummy cupcake, all the things you need to decorate your cupcake and a juice box for $5.  You go and make a mess at her shop and then leave!  You might even leave with a cupcake, unless your name is Finnean and Hutchinson and you eat it right there on the spot!  Chelsie and her boys met us there, it was fun to visit with them and just a really fun event!  The boys LOVED it.  We will definitely be back when she does it again! PS-Crème turns into a dessert lounge in the evenings, you can grab a sweet treat and a drink.  Perfect for date night or a girls night out!

Oh I love, love, love this picture!  It just captured the fun they were having! 

First of all, Finnean's teacher is awesome.  I just had to say it again.  She is so nice and friendly and amazing with the kids.  We just love Ms. Margaret!  Finnean had a Thankful Feast at school before he went on break.  I luckily got to help with it!  YES! I seriously LOVE volunteering in his class.  It is so fun to see him interact with his little friends and to see how things go down when you are not around!  It is kind of like peeking into his other life :)  All of the kids brought a food.  We are talking snacks galore, a few fruits and one little girl brought mac and cheese!  Hutchinson and I were in charge of setting up the buffet.  I told Ms. Margaret that our fee was some snacks for Hutchinson :) He loved "helping" set up! They had their little feast and then got ready for the First Annual Preschool Parade.  The teachers said that the kids got really excited when they were talkinga bout the Macy's parade and so they decided to throw together a parade.  It might be the cutest thing I have ever seen.  The had a police car (which Finnean painted the letters on-check it out!!), a marching band...which Finnean was a VERY proud member of, cheerleaders and they even had balloon "floats!"  It was so cute to see them all working together and I know they put a lot of work into all the details.  IT was so fun and such a great day!  I am so thankful that I get to be a part of this little man's life!

{Wagler Thanksgiving}
We offered to host Thanksgiving this year and it was so fun!  We kept it simple and dished out the responsibilities and it was pretty successful!  We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and a little bit of football.  We ate and played Heads Up to get moving after lunch.  It was so fun and the house was full of laughter!  We even squeezed in a couple hands of dominoes while the big boys played Wii!  I made my first ever pumpkin pie and I made them mini!  A little too mini is what the feedback was, I will do a whole pie next year, Richard!!  We snapped some pictures and just overall had a really great day! 

 

 

The group photo was much more successful than the Ankeny Wagler's attempt at a family picture.  :) 
I love this picture and the people in it.  I am thankful that I get to be a part of this family!



This is one of my new favorite pictures!  Adam always captures the best moments and I just love the real smiles in it and the angle! And the little boy! What's not to love!  PS-this was during the failed family photo attempt :)

I knew it before but I LOVE hosting! It was so fun to make the house festive and put some time into little details.  I am so thankful I learned to make pie this year and was able to make a French silk pie for the dinner.  I also got in some snuggles with the little guy, you can't pass that up!  There are just so many reasons to be grateful!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!



Family Reunion!

A few weeks ago my Dad's entire family was back in Iowa at the same time!  ALL twelve of them!  It was nice to visit with everyone and the boys enjoyed meeting some family that they haven't ever met!  Hutchinson took a liking to Uncle Mitch and Aunt Liz (my godmother)...it made my heart happy.  Finnean loved hanging with the big kids!  He is FAST!  You can see him showing off his skills in the picture :)

Bare Root!

I don't usually blog about non-kid stuff but I wanted to share about our Holiday Open House.  I am thankful that I get stay home with the boys and then get to do Bare Root on the side.  We had such a fun time and it was awesome to be surround by such great ladies.  We had three other vendors with us and our two trusty check out girls!  It was so fun and I am thankful that I get to do life with these ladies!

Halloween Fun and Fall catch up!

I love Halloween.  I would throw a HUGE Halloween party if my husband would let me know but he is not as big a fan of Halloween, so I just have to settle for taking the cute kids around :)  Michael was out of town for Halloween and we headed out to hit up the neighborhood with our neighbor friends!  It was so fun and so fun to see the boys hanging with their friends!

We had Ironman, The Hulk, a ninja and two darn cute fire fighters.  We definitely felt safe walking around with all those boys!  The big boys ran and ran and Car-Car and Hutchy took to ride in the wagon.  I am not sure that Hutchinson even knew what he was doing and he didn't realize that the candy was for eating we were almost done!  Finnean really wanted to hand out candy, so we came back and gave our not so good candy away! I didn't buy any...so we had to give SOMETHING away! 

The Sunday before Halloween we hit up the Ankeny FUMC's Trunk or Treat.  We invited Avett (and his parents too) and it was SO MUCH FUN!  The day was just perfect.  It wasn't cold, it was just an awesome fall day.  The big boys showed Avett how to trick or treat and they even got to decorate some cookies!  I am so glad that these boys get to go on adventures together!

Fire!!!

These boys love them some pancakes and pancakes cooked by fire fighters are even better!  They even put chocolate chips in them! It was fun to take Grandma Lisa to our fire station and show her around!

Our friend, Carson or Car-Car as Hutchinson calls him, had his 2nd birthday and it was fire truck themed!  It was SO cool because the fire truck came TO THE PARTY!  WHAT!? It was crazy and so cool.  They even had a little bounce house.  The party was PERFECT!  I absolutely love the bottom picture here!

The other event we went to at the fire house was their Annual Open House.  The boys got to play games and explore the fire house.  Finnean even got to put out "fire" with a real fire hose!  It was pretty cool and little boys don't get much cuter than they do with fire hats on! 

  

Random adventures!

In October we headed down to the Blanchard's to celebrate F and H's old buddies Grady and Jace's 5th and 3rd birthdays!  They had a lot of fun!! Hutchinson especially loved the cupcakes;)



The World Food Festival was sometime at the beginning of September (maybe?) but we adventured down to the Farmer's Market and then went to check out some new foods.  I love this picture on top of the boys.  They look so tiny in comparison to the big city!  Finnean loved trying new foods, which is totally out of character for him, but he loved the spicy pork that we tried.  So much so that he made us get more!  It was fun day of exploring our little mini city!

Apple Orchard!

Center Grove Apple Orchard is probably one of our favorite things to do in the Fall.  We can usually go on a warm day where the sun is shining and the farm is ours to explore! They have everything you might want and need (ahem, apple cider donuts!) for a fun fall adventure.  As I type this post up a few months later, the winter wind is whipping around our house and I would love to go back to that warm fall sun.  You know, the sun that keeps you warm and makes everything a pretty golden color.  Anyway, here are a few pictures that I couldn't resist posting, even if they are a little late!

The Corn Pool. 
Whoever thought up the corn pool is seriously awesome.  I wish we had a corn pool.  I could just stick them in it and they would play for hours!  It is in a huge barn and probably 30 feet by 80 feet (Michael's guess, not mine, so it is probably pretty accurate).  It is so cool and the boys just love it!
{I love Hutchinson's dirty face in the bottom left picture and his tiny feet and baby legs and arms.  I love that he is still pretty little!}

We hit up the Orchard a couple times and one of the times we went with Rachael and Lucas.  Lucas and Hutchy are the same size, so it fun to watch them explore together.  The boys loved checking out all of the farm animals and Finnean really loved pumping the water to race to rubber ducks.  We even took the hayride around the farm. 



Grandma Lisa was in town and we took her to the Apple Orchard on a Friday night.  It was beautiful! We explored and showed her around the farm.  The boys showed Michael around too, since he hadn't been there this year.  Everything is more fun when Dad is around.  See him swinging Hutchinson up high-you should have heard the giggles! The boys LOVED the goats.  The make them giggle so much-they are pretty funny animals! :)

We haven't pick apples before, so we thought since Grandma was with us, it would be a perfect time to do it!  We had SO MUCH FUN!  I love their little faces.  They were so excited to be getting apples right off the tree!  Finnean loved using the picker and carried it around most of the time.  His face when he got one down off the tree was priceless.  I love the family picture that Lisa captured of us.  Smiles all around! After the apple picking we headed back on the hayride to bounce on the bounce pillow.  By that time it was getting close to 6 and the boys hadn't had supper yet, so we gave them a apple cider donut and called it a night! 

This was the sunset from the evening.  It doesn't even look real, but man was it beautiful.  It was a perfect way to end the night!

Finnean is FIVE!

Being a mom is so weird.  You are never prepared for the emotions that come along with it.  I am happy and so thankful for our sweet Finnean, so thankful for all he brings to our house.  On the other hand, my heart is sad, I don't want him to be so old.  His hands seems bigger, the way he says things is older, he face, look at it...he looks older.  Sweet boy.  He is just an amazing kid.  Obviously, I am a bit biased but I can't get enough of his fun, loving, kind heart.  He tells jokes (that don't really make sense), he laughs from the tips of his toes, his eyes twinkle.  I swear they do!  They are still an indescribable color.  His hair is usually messy.  He hates washing his hands.  He is smart as a whip.  He loves school and church school.  His little brother thinks he is the coolest thing, ever.  He is the pickiest eater ever but still loves PB and Js.  He is quick to make a friend and from what he teacher says, is a super sweet friend.  He loves to draw and write, make maps and put on puppet shows.  His imagination is over the top.  He loves his brother but sometimes it is hard having a brother :) He told me he wants one more baby (not happening, buddy!).  He gets excited when his family is coming to see him.  He loves old buildings, just like his Dad.  Speaking of his Dad, he is head over heels for Michael.  I love watching them interact.  They love building Legos, watching This Old House or doing "work" together.  The cutest is when they fall asleep on the couch together during "rest" time.  He is challenging to me.  He makes me a better person, he makes me work hard to be patient but for the most part we see eye to eye.  We are a lot a like, which can make it interesting, to say the least!  He loves going on adventures but also loves just having a "mom day" at home.  He likes to help around the house and still loves Curious George.  He loves to read and hates going to bed.  He just doesn't want to sleep, he says.  He is fast, the boy can run and his form is killer.  I am hoping that will take him to "Ames" someday-that is where he wants to go to college BUT he says he is going to play football there :/ He loves the Cyclones and the Packers (most days-sometimes he tries to razz me and says he likes the Vikings, no way, Aunt Vicki, it isn't happening).  Did I mention he loves to read and look at magazines, he just examines things.  His attention to detail is over the top.  Except with his clothes, he often has to be reminded to put his shirt on the right way, it is always on backwards in the morning.  He is excited to be five.  He is excited for Kindergarten.  He is just a happy little boy.  I love that I get to do life with him everyday.  So thankful for the day we had together, the weekend really.  I will post more on that soon (HOPEFULLY!).  For now, enjoy the pictures from Finnean's actual birthday day, it was a great one!

This is Finnean's last picture as four year old!!!

We put balloons with messages and pictures outside Finnean's door in the middle of the night, so he could have a surprise when he woke up.  When he came upstairs this morning he said something along the lines of...Did you know there are balloons outside my door? I got up in the middle of the night and they kinda scared me, so I went back to bed, thought they were balloons and then got up again.  They weren't scary, I just didn't know what they were!  HE CRACKS ME UP.  So rational (sometimes)! He brought all 15 upstairs and read them all.  The boys had a blast kicking them around this morning before school. 

We batted around tons of ideas for a party for Finnean's birthday but couldn't come up with a good plan.  He wanted to have about 15 kids to OUR HOUSE-no way that was happening.  So we decided on lunch with a friend.  He picked Camden.  A little gal in his class that he has been friends with since last year.  They have the sweetest little friendship and they were SO CUTE!  They just giggled and giggled most of the time we were at lunch.  He picked Buffalo Wild Wings and we had a great lunch!  Can I just say again how stinking cute these two are!?

Camden brought Finnean a little gift.  He thought that was pretty neat.  It was this remote control monster truck that he declared was THE BEST TOY EVER!  I think he would still be playing with it if he wasn't sleeping!  

I asked Finnean what he wanted for Birthday Dinner and he said pancakes and eggs and bacon.  That is easy enough, so that's what we had.  He requested peanut butter and syrup on the cakes and I added the chocolate chip 5, he thought they were pretty darn good!  My friend Shelby captioned this picture perfectly, "he looks so happy, like he just had the best day!"  He really did.  It was such a fun day.  I can't get enough of that smile and today it was on his face all day! 

He worked on his thank you notes today too.  Oh my, he just blows me away.  I wrote out THANK YOU on a separate sheet of paper, so he knew how to spell it but he did the rest.  I just said, write Grandma and Poppa a thank you and he did this.  He got "Dusty" from Planes.  Love his art work :)

Finnean's teacher just sent me these from today.  She said that he had a lot of fun.  He looks kind of terrified here!  He requested chocolate chip cookies, so that is what I made.  I thought for sure he would want chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting but that was not the case!

He is just something else! 


I always love to look back on pictures on their birthdays.  Here is the post from Finnean's first few days in this beautiful world.  Oh my.  He was so tiny.  It seems so blurry but so real and clear-like it was yesterday.  Again, motherhood has the craziest emotions!