Forts and Yunker Farm

After my mother and I returned from shopping this morning, we came home to find a man-made fort in my living room! Every blanket, chair, and cushion in the house was used to make this puppy!


With a quick lift of one of the blankets, we were able to gain access to the insides and we found these two handsome chaps.


Later in the day, we went to the Children's Museum and Yunker Farm. Tyler milked a plastic cow successfully.


We all played with the big bubble maker and then tried to blow a huge bubble. We weren't able to get a bubble to form, but we were able to alter the shape of the soapy film that was created when we lifted the board.

Chalk, space ship, games, and bike rides

For those of you who don't know...my nephew, Tyler, is visiting us this week. Last year, his brother stayed with us for a week and we had a blast. Now we're on our first part of our adventure with Tyler. He'll be here until the 3rd when we head back to my parents for the 4th.

My mother will be coming tomorrow too! Yay! I love it when family visits. I also like not having to travel with Raleigh.

What a Weekend! Prepare for a long read :)

Before, I get into talking about this weekend, I've got to share this picture of Raleigh's two bottom teeth. Yes, TWO bottom teeth. In the past two weeks he's popped out two teeth.

Somehow, this weekend managed to be a really long weekend. Not the "OMG! when is this going to be over" kind, but the "wow, this is awesome, this weekend feels like forever" kind.

As you know, Josh's dad was visiting for part of the weekend. Friday night, Jamie and Chelsea had us all over for a yummy Vegan dinner, well, the baked beans weren't vegan, but everything else was and it was delicious. We're all trying to be supportive of Joel, Josh's older brother, since he has decided to become a vegan. It's really not all that hard to be supportive. I tend to really like all of the vegan dishes and Josh and I haven't been eating all that much meat anyway since we started trying to buy only organic meats.

Raleigh slept for a good chunck of our night at Jamie and Chelsea's, but when he was awake, he entertained all (like usual). I hope that he doesn't grow up knowing exactly how much we all adore him, at lest not so much that he gets too full of himself.

After Jamie and Chelsea's, Josh and his dad played some more tennis, and then capped off the night, and most of the morning, in our back yard having a fire in our fire pit. Jamie joined them sometime after Raleigh and I went to sleep, and the three of them proceeded to talk around our fire pit until about 4 am on Saturday morning, which was shortly after I peeked my head out our back door to see if they were still out there.

Josh and Steve slept in on Saturday, and then I made omelets for breakfast. They turned out Yummy! Shortly after the omelets, Steve had to head back to Jordan so that he could be a Judge in "Jordan Idol." I can't wait to hear his stories about that :)

Saturday night, Josh and I gave Raleigh a bath in his little pool outside. See video below of play time after we got him all clean.



Sunday, Josh attended church, while I cleaned up around the house (My brother and his family are coming to visit on Monday) and then we attended a Scandinavian festival at a local heritage center.

We tried a bunch of delicious foods.

Lefse (Potato Flat Bread)

Potetklub (Potato Dumpling)

Frikadeller Meal (Meatballs, potato w/gravy, and red cabbage)

Rokelaks Baguett (Smoked Salmon Sub sandwich)

Hangikjot (Smoked Lamb on Brown Bread)
Sorry I forgot to take a picture of this one.


Skinkrulle (Ham Rollup w/asparagus and peas and yogurt dressing)

Rosette (stale rose shaped cookie desert sprinkled with powdered sugar)
Sorry I forgot to take a picture of this one.

Here are some more pictures of our day today:

Latest Video Clips

I beat Josh in Tennis!

Okay, so it was only a game of 21, but still...I beat Josh. That doesn't happen all that often. It was a really close game too. The final score was 21-18. We teeter-tottered back and forth on the score a bit. But in the end, I came back from 17-18 with two two-pointers.

Grandpa Steve is visiting, which is the main reason why we went to play tennis in the first place. Having three people on the court is nice, if Raleigh fusses or doesn't think that the toys he has to play with are good enough, one of us can go and entertain Raleigh (As if seeing his mom stumble all over the court isn't entertainment enough).

Grandpa Steve is in the background in the picture above. I was the entertainer, while Josh and Steve played a game of 21. I think I was so focused on Raleigh that I didn't even find out who won between the two of them.

Josh and Steve are out on the porch playing their musical instruments, while Raleigh is sleeping inside; the stroller ride back from the courts put him out.

I've always wanted my own pool

Too bad this one only fits Raleigh. :)

Blowing Bubbles

Raleigh, Josh, and Winnie had fun with bubbles this weekend.

Overall it was a fun weekend. Spending time with Family is always fun. Originally, my mother and possibly my father were going to be visiting, but due to a leaky hot water heater and a leaky roof, and some car issues, they weren't able to come.

Deb, who had planned on coming last Monday, ended up coming last Wednesday and staying until Yesterday. It's always fun when Josh's parents come because Josh's brothers and their "others" come to visit also.

I do wish that my parents could have made it out, and not just because we wanted to borrow their chain saw :) I haven't seen my parents in ages, it seems. And Raleigh is changing so much lately. I wish we lived closer :(

I think we're planning on a visit from my parents the last weekend in June hopefully.

Look! He can spell!

Serious pushups

Is this normal? He's perfectly happy doing pushups instead of crawling. Every once and a while he'll let his feet slide and he'll push himself backwards with his arms. This only frustrates him when the toy he wants is in front of him. Boy that picture above looks kind of freaky! His eyes look weird. Here are some cuter pictures below.

Lots of changes going on

Now that Raleigh can sit up on his own, he can play with this activity center that my friend SweetMarySunshine (www.sweetmarysunshine.blogspot.com) gave us. He absolutely has a blast with this thing.

Raleigh tried appricots for the first time tonight. They were a bit too tart for him, and he made a bunch of sour faces that we didn't catch on camera. We did get the aftermath on camera though.

I can't believe how much he has changed in just the past weeks. He's doing pushups, he' s almost crawling, and he's trying to do ab crunches when he's on his back. You already know that his first tooth showed up on Friday. If he's semi propped up with a pillow, he can pull himself up to a sitting position by himself.

Tonight, Raleigh had real fun in the bath for the first time. He was kicking and splashing all over the place.

On a sad note, we were going to get a visit from his Grandma Deb this week but she's under the weather right now. So we'll have to wait for another time. We were really looking forward to her visit, but now we're wishing that she get well soon.

On a good note,
My mother and hopefully my father will be visiting us this weekend. It's been a long time since they've seen Raleigh. I can't wait to get some good pictures!

I've been trying to find a time to upload some more video clips but I haven't been lucky so far.

Happy Monday!