Family Fun!!

With all of the travels to Bloomfield lately, we haven't been able to take advantage our own Downtown Farmer's Market. So on 7.11.10 we decided to skip the Davis County Fair and just stick around home. I am glad we did-we had a fun filled day together!

Cupcakes for morning snack...?

That doesn't happen all the time but with cupcakes this good-we thought it would be okay. We bought two to start with... one for me and one for Michael BUT got a really sad look from Finnean-so we decided to get him his own. If you are ever in Valley Junction, you have to check out Carefree Patisserie. YUM!

(P.S. we didn't let him eat all that frosting!)

Finnean is a little more focused on the cupcake rather than a smile :)

Love this one.

After the Farmer's Market we hit up a parade in Ankeny for Summerfest and then went back later in the evening for dinner. Finnean loved having a picnic and loved listening to the music as the band set up. This is one of my favorite pictures. We never get both of us to smile at the same time!!

Playing ball and listening to music! It doesn't get much better for Finnean!

Back to Des Moines!!

Finnean and Dad were checking out the rushing water.

We were standing on the new, very cool pedestrian bridge that crossed the Des Moines River downtown. We decided to stop downtown and check out the bridge after our long stay in Bloomfield. We were happy to back to our home!

Love this one because of the capital in the background.

The boys were walking over the glass part of the bridge. Finnean was so brave-you can see the water below you! I love the huge smile!

I wish I could have beautiful eyelashes like this little sweet thing!

My sweet boys!!!

Bloomfield Reunion

Our hometown, Bloomfield, had a Reunion over the 4th of July weekend. It was good to see old friends and have some small town fun! Uncle Adam and Aunt Maddy made the trip as well-so nice to be with family.

Checking the tire pressure!

Having a sh-nack!

Finnean and Carter on the Jury! They took a tour of the Courthouse.

Finnean even got to try the ring toss. He didn't make it but got pretty close! Check out the sweet action shot that Dad caught on camera!

YUM! Free watermelon!

Look at those cheeks!!!

Dad and Finnean checking out tractors!

Checking out a different year of tractor!

I caught Carter picking on Finnean!!!

"What do you think Grandma and Poppa? "

Sweaty boy!!!

He ran about 10 laps around the Court House. He was hot!

Getting tired...

Maybe not!!

Okay...maybe so.

I thought Finnean was going to fall asleep on the blanket.

Cute Finnean Stories

• Michael was hooking Finnean into the car seat this morning and Finnean kept saying "I stuck! I stuck" We kept telling him no you are not stuck you are in buckled in and safe. All the way to the interstate I heard... "I stuck! I stuck! I stuck!" I said "Finnean you are not stuck you are safe!" He said..." I stuck Mommy!" He finally gave it up and read to me all the way to daycare.
• Michael called tonight and Finnean said "Daddy!" "Wuv you!" Talk about melt your heart!

• We went grocery shopping on Sunday night. Everything was going well but we were getting a little restless, as we were waiting on the meat counter to get all of the meat ready (we got a meat bundle-check it out at Hy-Vee!) SO Finnean and I decided to let Michael have the cart and burn off some energy. We went to the fruit section and started smelling every fruit. I would say that is a orange, Finnean would say orange and wrinkle up his nose and "smell" it. This went on for as many fruits there are in the fruit section and all was well until he took a huge bite out of peach! What do you do!! First of all it is NOT clean and I don't want to take home a peach with a big bite out of it...so I probably did the wrong thing...but we just left it there. :) Opps! So we get done smelling fruit and it is time to go outside to wait for Daddy. I let Finnean know what the plan was but he wasn't game. He wanted to find Daddy. SO he continues to scream "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" Kicking and screaming-it looks like I am stealing this child from his Daddy at the grocery store. He is still screaming outside. Finally we go back in and find Michael...luckily he wasn't too far behind us...boy was I embarrassed!

• Michael has every other Friday off and gets to spend the day with Finnean. He said last Friday they had a great morning at the zoo with Josh and Kaia, met me for lunch and then came back to take a nap. For some reason Michael takes his shorts off of him to take a nap. I am not sure he will do that anymore. When he went to check on him towards the end of the nap...there he was bare bottom in the air! Somehow he took off his diaper at some point during his nap! Luckily no "accidents!" What a turkey!

• We turned Finnean's car seat around in the car so now he faces forward. He thinks this is so cool. Now he really shouts at the trucks that go by and is telling us about what he sees. He can also see us so I hear all the time... "Mommy. Mommy. Mommy!" and he says it so fast it cracks me up every time. I say "what Finnean?" and then he precedes to tell me whatever cool thing he is reading or that he sees. I love that little boy!!

DUNK!

Have I mentioned that Finnean loves sports? :)

We were shopping at Target tonight and found the "ball" on sale (bonus!) and got home and he was throwing it all over the basement...thankfully it is soft...I got the idea to make him a hoop. Then at least he could throw it towards something!! So with a little masking tape and a card board box...Finnean has his first "HOOP!" He was so excited when he figured out what it is for and he kept saying Hoop! Dunk! Ball! Go!

A Finnean update...

It is hard to believe that Finnean is 19 months old. He continues to amaze us and I think he gets cuter everyday and smarter too. Here are a few of the things that he has been up too...

• Finnean is working on sharing. Not fun when you are a little over 19 months old. Some of his favorite words are NO! and MINE! A challenge but we knew it was coming.
• He still LOVES Jerrrry. He loves to get him "ice cubes" and let him have one. He is very good at giving nice touches but Jerrrry is not a fan when Finnean throws toys at him.
• He continues to gain so many words each day. He is just a little chatter box. He has loves to go "nigh-night" and loves to drink "whader" (water). He loves to eat "Schnacks" Snacks are probably his favorite part of the day. It is so cute how he says it! I know there are TONS of words he says...I just need to start writing them down to tell you about them!
• Finnean has started squealing. Whew-it can be very loud and thankfully he doesn't do it very often.
• He can RUN!! He gets his little arms a moving and picks up some speed! He can turn on a dime. It is amazing how quickly he can change directions.
• Finnean has also turned into a wild man. He runs around, falls down, and just laughs and laughs. He dives on the floor, rolls around---anything to get some attention.
• He still loves sports. He has really been liking "soccer!" We were rolling a ball today and he put it on the ground said "soccer" and kicked the ball.
• He loves to read. He has started reading books to himself and can identify so many pictures. He amazes us on what he picks up.
• He has a new love of hamburgers. He likes to put ketchup, mustard, guacamole, cheese on them...whatever as long as it has a bun, I think that is his favorite part.
• Finnean has started putting two words together. "Mommy help" or "Daddy up" are some of the favs.
• As you could see below---he loves to dance!!!
• He has been working on puzzles and if he is in the mood-he really goes to town.
• Trucks, balls and dogs are really all he needs. We do not go anywhere without at least one.
• He is still on the smaller size but wears 18 month shirts and 12 month shorts still need to be rolled! He is wearing a size 4 shoe but I think we are getting close to a 5. He is still in size 4 diapers. We think he has been gaining some weight! He sure does eat a lot!

I know there is so much more that he does, says, and funny happenings that happen to us...stay tuned for more.

More Bloomfield...

Happy Birthday America!

We celebrated in Bloomfield by going to a PANCAKE breakfast! That was pretty exciting in itself, then we hit up a parade and finished the night off with grilling. Here is Finnean playing with his BALL of course! He is getting really close to making tons of baskets!

Do you think they look alike?

We have been in Bloomfield so often and we hear it over and over..."He must be a Wagler!"

Why yes he is!! The jury is out on if he looks more like Daddy or if he looks like Poppa. It is a pretty close call!

"Bubbies!!"

Finnean loves bubbies.

Cake!

A sweet finish to a tough day.
This picture was taken at the lunch after Mom's funeral that took place on July 6th. Monday was the visitation and then the funeral Tuesday morning. It was filled with family, friends, laughter and tears. Jeff, my step-dad, put it perfect...."For a really sad day, it was still a pretty good day." The funeral service was beautiful and we are truly blessed to have so many people that care about us. So when I say this was a sweet finish it truly was. We decided not to fight Finnean and make him eat lunch but just let him eat cake. Sometimes you just need a piece of cake. At least he used a fork.

18 month pictures

We have been so crazy busy that this little guy didn't get 18 month pictures until he was almost 19 months but it was worth the wait with all the great smiles that we got! He really hammed it up and had so much fun. We tried out a new photographer in Bloomfield...
Check her out at www.lvmphotography.com
Enjoy all of the pictures-I posted so many because I just can't pick! Michael is concerned were I am going to be putting all of the ones that I want to get printed!

This is one of our favorites. Finnean was a little uneasy at the beginning so he had his cookies. I think that is why we got all the smiles, he ate the whole box!

O my, the innocence of this one just melts my heart.

Belly Laugh...priceless.

Finnean has Dance Fever!

Finnean had a great love of music. He is working on his strumming on Dad's guitar, he gets mad when I touch the guitar and says "DADDY!" So only Daddy shows him how to strum. He can "snap" his fingers and you can see him working on that in this video. He loves fast music and can really get his head a bopping. Jack Johnson is still his sleepy time music but we are working on exposing him to all kinds of music. His favorites are Big Bad Voo Doo Daddy and Brian Setzer. Michael showed him a video on our computer the other day and he just sat in awe watching him rock out on the guitar. When you sit down on the computer he says "up" because he thinks you are going to play a video on the computer and cries if you don't get some music going. I hope that he gets Michael's musical skills and not mine :)