Learning about Nauvoo

We all had a fun time learning all about Nauvoo back in the 1840's. We only had Saturday to explore the city so we tried to do all that we could in the short time we had. There was a ton to learn and see so we had to be a little more selective then we wanted.  

 One of our first stops was the living center. Here they had all kinds of things you could learn about how you would live and make things back when the Saints were here. Here they were learning about rope making. Thomas stayed with gramma and brought home his rope. Sup was not at all interested...can't ask too much of a two year old. So Eric and I took him to look around the city since it stopped raining.

 We decided to stop at the Johnathon Browning house and gun shop. We learned all kinds of new information and the boys loved all the different guns that were displayed that were made by Mr. Browning.

 After lunch at the hotel we headed back to Nauvoo. We decided to go to the blacksmith shop. Both of the boys really enjoyed this stop. They sat and listened and really liked watching the little horseshoe being made. After he made the horseshoe he gave it to the person whose birthday was closest to April 6th. Since my is the 5th I was able to take home the little horseshoe so the boys thought that was really neat.

 Thomas was so excited to pick out his own prairie diamond. Everyone was able to pick out their own at the blacksmith shop. 

Our next stop was the bakery. Everyone got a little gingerbread boy cookie to eat after the little presentation. It seems that I was not quick enough with the camera. As we got outside everyone but Sup had already eaten their cookies. Sup had just a little bite left so this was the best shot I got.

The beauty of Nauvoo

We had an amazing time visiting Nauvoo and being with family this past weekend. It seems that everyone had a great time learning about the early Saints and visiting with one another. We didn't have a lot of time and certainly could have seen and done a lot more (I am sure many would agree:).

After I would say a short night Friday for all of the family we set out spending all of Saturday exploring the city. It was easy to pick us out seeing that all of us were wearing blue t-shirts with the Nauvoo temple that Jason made for everyone. 

 It was a bit of a cloudy and rainy (at times) day but we didn't let that from stopping us :). My pictures do not do the city justice but it really is a beautiful city. Sup loved the lambs ear that was on the path to the living center. Eric said that we need to plant some at our home.

 Behind the visitors center they had a lovely garden with these beautiful statues of the amazing women that lived in the 1840's. For some reason Sup insisted that this particular one looked like Mommy? So he made Daddy stand next to it for a picture.. silly boy! 

 Nauvoo sits right on the banks Mississippi river. They had a little floating dock that we could stand on and get a view of the mighty Mississippi!

  Of course you can't miss the beautiful temple on top of the hill over looking this once bustling city.

As you can see Thomas was so happy to have a family picture taken. But at least we were able to have our little family together in front of this magnificent building.

On top of this hill was a wonderful view of the city. You had the temple in front and the view of the city below. The Church had built this monument of Joseph and Hyrum as their last stop and look at this wonderful city that they built before they headed to Carthage. It was a special and spiritual moment for me.  

City Beautiful

Our family is having a little get together this weekend in Nauvoo. We are going to meet up with Eric's side of the family so have a little family reunion. It has almost been a year since we have been able to all get together so we are all very excited! The boys left this morning with my sister and gramma and they were very excited to all their cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course gramma and papa. Eric and I will be meeting up with them in the evening. Eric has been there once before but me and the boys have not been so we are grateful for the opportunity to explore this historic town and enjoy the blessings of being around family!

More cake

May is a month full of lots of cake! For those of you who may not know Thomas' favorite color is green and he loves T-Rex. So it was not surprising when he asked for a green cake that looked liked a green T-Rex. He seemed to be happy with the results.

 He was able to blow out the candle all by himself, so he was pretty proud.

Gifts for Thomas

Thomas got a lot of nice gifts from all his aunts, uncles, grammas, and papas and I can say that he loved all of them. He has been playing and having lots of fun with them. He was very grateful for all his gifts as well.

 Eric had taken Sup to the store to pick out a little something to give to Thomas. Thomas was so nice and told Sup thank you and even gave him a little hug. It was very sweet.

 He had been waiting to play with these little racks since Sara and Gramma got here so he was very excited to finally be able to play! He said that he was going to use it this fall as well to help Daddy rack up the leaves! We will have to see if that happens!

Both Thomas and Sup got some fishing poles from Aunt Sara and had lots of fun all evening.

Thomas' birthday dinner

We celebrated Thomas' birthday Monday night so that Daddy could could celebrate with us. Thomas is old enough now to where he can tell us want he wanted for his special dinner. He told me steak with steak sauce. He has become a big meat eater so I was not all surprised with his choice. When I asked him what he wanted with it he said, "nothing I only want steak and steak sauce!!" So I ended up up having to round out the meal a little bit. So we had some corn on the cob and biscuits. The rest of us ate the sides but Thomas stuck to what he wanted steak with steak sauce.

 It was very nice to have my gramma and my sister come to visit for the week. Thomas shares his birthday with my sister so we hope she didn't mind Thomas' choices ;)

We were all cozy at the dinner table! we wouldn't have it any other way.

Focused

This was so cute I had to take a picture! Last weekend Eric and I decided to take the boys for a drive to Kentucky Lake and ride around one the bike trails they have. We packed our bikes and food for a picnic and were off on our little adventure!

 We had taken the paper along so that we could look at it and Thomas insisted that he needed to look at it as well. So I handed him this Toys R Us ad.... needless to say it kept his attention for about 35- 40 mins! Amazingly he was more content just to sit and look at not asking for anything, just looking was just as fun.

So here is my "little ol' man" sitting here in sweat pants with his drink looking at the paper! 

4 years old!

So my baby is growing up, I can hardly believe he is four years old today! As with our Sup we are celebrating Thomas' birthday tomorrow. But unlike Sup he knew it was is birthday so we allowed him to pick one present to open. There was little choice when there was a big box to open. So after church we let him open the bike that Gramma got for him. He was upset that it was not put together and had to wait until Daddy got home. And if you know Thomas the first thing Daddy walked in the door was, " Daddy you NEED to bulid my bike! Come on!" So poor Eric didn't even get a chance to eat dinner until the bike was bulit.

So here's our Thomas so happy that his bike is put together! Happy Birthday Thomas!! We love you. 

Little gardeners

We planted these strawberries around Thomas' play house last year so that he and Sup could have a little garden to help take care of. They came up so nice nice this year and had a ton of blossoms. The boys were so excited to have their own berries and Thomas was especially protective of them. He was very careful not to step on them or let Sup step on them. The boys wanted to make sure the plants were well watered so they could eat all the yummy strawberries :)

 Sup missed the plants...it seems he thought the grass needed some water as well.

Thomas did a little better with watering them.

We have gotten a few red berries and they were so yummy. I think Eric and I have gotten one or two but the boys have eaten about fifteen. They run out everyday to see if there are any berries that are all red!

Cookies

We finally had a chance to make Thomas' green dinosaurs cookies he got for Christmas. We made them a few weeks ago and the boys had a lot of fun with making them, decorating them, and of course eating them! 

 Thomas of course had to decorate all the T-Rex's and he did a really good job with it.

Our Sup did a lot more eating the icing and sugar sprinkles then he did with anything else :)

Of course there was cake!

I decided to make him a choo choo cake for his birthday cake. He has really gotten in to trains these last 6 months so I was sure he would love it. I made it blue and orange for him because they are his favorite colors :)

 When Eric was little he use to have toys on his birthday cake and thought it would be a good idea to do that for our kids as well. So beside the cake I put some new choo choos for him to play with.

We had to light the candle twice as well. Just as I lit it the first time Sup had it blown out! So we had to light it again and sing before he blew it out the second time.

 It was funny because when we started to sing and he was so happy then half way through he seemed to have enough and put on his grumpy face. Apparently the song was too long and he wanted cake!

I am not sure why he doesn't want to use forks. He can use them very well and as you can see the fork is right next to him. But I guess the cake was better to eat without it! Silly boy!

Opening birthday gifts

He was excited to open his gifts after dinner. He did a good job opening them all by himself. He would what to sit and look at them but Thomas would want him to keep opening them telling him that there were more. So it wasn't until all the gift were opened that he was able to see what he got.

Thomas went to the store with Daddy earlier to pick out a gift to give to Sup. It was funny when he handed him the gifts and said, "Here Sup these are from me, they are monsters trucks!" before he even unwrapped them. 

Phillip's birthday dinner

We celebrated Sup's birthday last night and he had a great birthday! We thought about what foods he liked the most for his little celebration and came up with breakfast foods. So I made him some blueberry pancakes, cheesy scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash browns.

 He ate pretty good and seemed to like his choices. Although he found these green tongs and thought they would be better to eat with then his fork.

Dodge ball

We have a huge maple tree in our front year. We love it in the summer because it gives so much shade for our family and the house. But in the spring there are hundreds of helicopters that fall off. After all the helicopters fall off the stems that the helicopters hung from fall off then we have all these stems that are ALL OVER! Well when the wind blows or you rake them up they form these balls. Eric thought it would be fun to teach them how to play dodge ball  with them. 

 Obviously Thomas thought it was more fun to throw them at Sup then to have Sup throw them at him.Of course that just tells Sup to do it more!

 So Thomas thought he would get him with a really big one.

I am not sure how much they dodged each others ball but for the most part they had fun with it. But I will admit I will be happy when all these helicopters and stems stop falling from this tree!

Two years old!! Oh my!!

I can't believe my baby boy is two years old today! We are going to celebrate is birthday on Wednesday because Eric works all day and won't get home until very late. So I don't have any celebration pictures posted today but I will be sure to post them in a few days :) But I wanted to get an offical picture on his birthday! We love you Phillip and are so happy you are a part of our family. Happy Birthday baby boy!

A few things you like to do...

* Probably your favorite to pick on Thomas til he's screaming and crying. It seems that you know exactly how to push his buttons (what are little brothers for ;)

* You love to play outside with your trucks and your sandbox.

*Trains and airplanes are probably your favorite toys

*You are a VERY fast runner, boy can you move!

*You like to dance to upbeat songs, you can really rock it out!

*You love to welcome daddy home and are so excited to play with him

*You love to cuddle with Mommy or Daddy. We both love this!Thanks for being such a sweet boy!

Blossoms

Our flowers finally blossomed about a week ago, they are so pretty and smell wonderful! They looked much nicer this year with the little fence Eric made for them. Last year they all fell over because the blossoms are pretty big.

 The boys really loved the flowers and may have picked a few for Mommy.

 They really like the smell of the as well, as you can see below Thomas would stand there and smell them.

Matching

Thomas wanted to help pick the picture to put on the computer. He wanted everyone to see his matching jammies with Sup. He handed me the camera as well so I would be sure to take the picture. So here are my cute boys in their matching jammies. They even put on some smiles :)

Lazy tree

We had this tree in our front yard that was half dead so we decided to cut it down so it was not in misery anymore. It was hit by an ice storm a few years back before we moved in. Because it was leaning Thomas called it the "lazy tree".

 It was kinda funny because Thomas told us he was not going to be lazy like the lazy tree because he didn't want to end up like the tree....I may have to remember this story ;)

 So as Eric was cutting the bottom he noticed that there were ants eating tree from the inside out. There were a thousands of ant so Thomas got the hose out.

 Thomas was not too willing to share the water to kill the ants so Sup was sweet and helped Mommy pick up the tree limbs. He can be a very good helper.

 Here Thomas is killing the ants he had a lot of fun with it.

We did want to replace the tree so Eric picked up a new Japanese maple to put in its place to provide some shade in the summer.