Thanksgiving 2013

This Thanksgiving we spent in Paxico with Mike's family. We made sure to dress in our best so that we could get pictures taken for our Christmas cards. Mike's aunt Leslie takes great pictures and we always commission her to take our pics.

 

This year went well. We found out once we started taking pictures that the light was too bright and so most of the pictures we are squinting too much or the brightness is affecting the shading of our faces.  These were the best two.

We always make sure to pack a bag of extra clothes when we go for Thanksgiving. We take our four-wheeler, Wyatt's dirt bike, and the guns so we need clothes to change into for these various activities once we are done eating.

This year we had a great time and we got to do everything we set out to do. I even got a 3 mile run in! We headed out to the North 80 and got a chance to shoot our guns. Wyatt got to shoot the .22 again and loved it. He shoots is so fast that it sounds like a fully auto!

I even got to shoot my 9mm that I got for Christmas last year. It was awesome! I loved shooting it and went through half a box of ammo sighting it in. We went shooting as soon as I got my run done, hence the crazy shooting clothes!

This is the pose Wyatt was striking as we were leaving. During the family picture time he kept calling himself Mr. Handsome! Apparently we have a future male model on our hands! Ugh!!

 

 

What do you do for Thanksgiving? Gun owner?

Konza Prairie Hike

Ever since I went to a teacher class on the Konza last year, I have been itching to take Mike and Wyatt out there to hike. Well, almost one year later, that itch has finally been scratched!

Today was a gorgeous day! The high was 72-degrees and it was overcast with a slight wind. This would be perfect hiking weather for the family.

After a trip to the library we all got ready and headed to the Konza. We decided to hike the nature trail since it was the shortest distance, 2.6 miles. I was worried about how Wyatt would do but thought this would be a great energy waster and he would be so tired and fall asleep on the way home. Mental score!

Smiling for the camera! This was at the beginning of the trail.

We followed that path all the way to the top of that hill!

Sometimes you have to stop to smell the flowers! He said they smelled like lemons!

Wyatt and Momma!

Daddy and Wyatt!

Notice there weren't many pictures after the first half of the hike. Shortly after we made it half-way our energetic boy turned into the whiny monster and whined the entire rest of the way. We sang songs and tried to keep his mind off the fact we still had a ways to go. That worked for a little while but the crying and fit throwing started in the last leg. Luckily we made it to the bridges and Wyatt forgot how tired he was so he could walk across them.

Hopefully this will be the first of many family hikes for us on the Konza!

Big Kid Bed

Today was a big day in our home, Wyatt got his "big kid" bed put into his room! Last weekend he and I picked out his new bedding, Cars theme, and he was so excited to actually get it onto his new bed.

My big kid!

No more being able to touch both sides of the mattress! This bed has some room to grow.

Khemometer

Wyatt brought home his present that he made at school for us. I, of course, had to open that evening and couldn't wait until Christmas. We loved it and we asked him what it was, to see if he really knew, and he told us it was a Khemometer. We could use it to see how hot and cold it is and then explained to us how the khemometer works and what the mercury would do inside. Love it! :)

Slow and Steady

Wyatt's coloring has taken a complete 180 from where it was just a month ago. He is actually taking his time and coloring things for purpose and not just scribbling. We sat down to color tonight and he saw the dinosaur picture and had to color it. Then he said he had a dinosaur that matched the picture and sure enough he did! He went to the fridge and got one of his dinosaur magnets and used that for his inspiration to color his picture.

Hard at work with his inspiration in front of him!

Showing off his masterpiece! (I colored the moon and trees. He lets me color the background.)

I told him to write his name in the box just to see what he could do and I was impressed!

Labor Day

We concluded our Summer with a camping trip to Melvern Lake with Mike's family. This was the first time we had been camping since he was 1, gotten double ear infections and began the long journey to tubes. Camping this time around was so different and so much better than when he was 1. He could run around play with the other kids and actually liked the sand at the beach! My dad came up to visit for a couple of hours on Sunday and Wyatt loved that there was someone else there just to pay attention to him. They shared a Lunchable for lunch and then we headed out on our boat. We had been talking about Wyatt going on the boat but knew it could be iffy. He hates it when Mike starts the boat up at home and says it's too loud. We got the boat loaded and Wyatt and I were waiting on the boat for Mike to park the trailer when he just started freaking out!! He was crying uncontrollably and wouldn't let go of my leg. We pushed off and started cruising the lake when we realized that he had fallen asleep. The kid literally went from screaming his head off to asleep in a span of 3 minutes! We stopped put the Bimini top up to keep the sun off him and let him sleep for a little bit. Once he woke up we started cruising again and he LOVED it! He was king of the lake. He enjoyed it so much even got into the water with us when we stopped the boat to go swimming. We were on the lake for 3 hours and decided that was enough for everyone and headed back to take a rest. That night we took my father-in-law, niece, and sister-in-law out with us and Wyatt had a blast with them. He was acting like we boat all the time. We are definitely going to take the boat out more often next summer since he loved it so much!

Wyatt and Poppa Flash eating lunch.

He was tired of me taking pictures of him.

After 3 hours on the lake, he was passed out cold.

Making a sand castle with Dad.

Destroying the sand castles that Dad made.

Filling up the dump truck.

Coloring

Wyatt has been more careful in his coloring and you can tell immensely. He is actually choosing what to color and only coloring that object. He likes to use his other hand to keep his marker in check but we can work on that.

Swimming Lessons

For the past two weeks Wyatt has been attending swimming lessons at City Pool. To say that Wyatt hasn't been enjoying them is the understatement of the century! After the first three days of non-stop crying and refusal to do anything I ask him, I enrolled him into private lessons at Alma. This has made a world of difference! We are doing private lessons and it's just him and the instructor, so there's no getting out of doing anything. Tonight was our last day of swimming lessons and I had to take some pictures of Wyatt in all of his glory of swimming!

Warming up for lessons.

Went under!

Jumping off to Nikki

Made it!

Thanks Nikki! :)

Fishing Buddies

Today Mike and Wyatt went fishing at Mill Creek. The night before Mike had set some lines and he took Wyatt with him to check on them. The experience was even made better because they rode in the kayak down the creek. Wyatt was super pumped the night before and that is all he could talk about this morning. When they came home I took some pictures of their catch. Mike said that Wyatt liked riding in the kayak and did really well sitting still and helping him. The only time he didn't like it was when Mike pulled up the big flathead and it splashed Wyatt and he got upset. Wyatt also enjoyed sitting on the bank and throwing rocks into the water. Boys!!

Wyatt was so proud of his morning with Dad!

Wyatt and Daddy posing with their catch!

This was his version of a kayak!

Recycling we will Go!

Wyatt loves to go to the recycling trucks with me. His job is to throw the cardboard into the trailer as far as it will go. While he is doing that I'm throwing the cans into the trailer. Then we do the newspaper together. He loves it and we talk about what things we can recycle and what we throw away.

Potty Training Update

Wyatt has been potty trained for almost two months and things are going very good. He loves to pee outside, go figure! He is also pooping on the potty, which is a huge feat for him. He's always had poop issues and I'm so glad that this has made it easier for him to go. Wyatt does a great job when we are out in town letting us know that he has to go and not having an accident.
He still has the occasional accident and we are working on not waiting to go to the bathroom and pulling up our shirt while peeing. We also have several songs that we sing after pooping or peeing. We like to take Lil Wayne's Party Like a Rockstar and we have turned it into Potty/Poopy Like a Big Boy. We also have a great version of LMFAO's Party Rockin' called Potty Rockin'. He loves singing these little choruses and doing a dance.

Guess who's wearing underwear?

Wyatt has been "officially" potty training for the past three weeks and it has been a roller coaster. He had been using the potty at school for quite awhile but we had been waiting to make the transition at home. The first weekend of potty training didn't go well. He had three accidents before 8am and then I lost my cool and yelled at him about it. Hey, I never said I'm perfect! Well we went ahead and put a diaper back on deciding that this was his first week of training at school and that he could use a break not being in such a structured environment for potty times.
After that dreadful weekend I was sure he wouldn't go back into underwear but on Monday he was excited and went back into them. He continued wearing them during school and in the evening at home. That Thursday we went to Target and got two more packages of underwear because I could see that we were going to need a lot more than the six pairs we had! Wyatt picked out some and we have been wearing them ever since.
This past weekend was our first one where he wore underwear the whole time and he did great. He's still trying to get the hang of timing and not waiting until the last minute to go. Mike and I have learned what his pee-pee dance looks like and can spot it from a mile away!
This week he has been doing great but can tell that we need to start working on Wyatt's aim when he pees standing up. I've put Mike up to the task and we'll see how that goes! :)

Pizza Pie

We made homemade pizza today and Wyatt had a blast. I will let the pictures do the talking, instead of me for a change! :)

He kept putting his face down and trying to lick the sauce! Yummy!!

I definitely have to say that the Play-Doh pizza maker has helped Wyatt to make this beautiful creation. He knew exactly what to do and how to spread everything out and even. Score for Momma! :)