Arizona Vaca - Part 2: The Zoo!

While we were in AZ, we packed up all the kids and headed to the Phoenix Zoo! It was a beautiful day and we had a great time just strolling around the zoo and checking everything out.

So, this post is mostly going to be about Case, but I don't think any one who reads this blog will mind! Pretty much since this summer, maybe even earlier, Case has been obsessed with something. His pointer finger. He always has his pointer finger out, just ready to point at something and babble on about it. A great side story, during our ultrasound a couple of weeks ago, the tech said, "Oh, look, your baby girl is pointing." Matty and I just laughed - I guess she's already a lot like Case! Well, there's no better place than the zoo to show exactly what I mean.
Pointing to some animal...

Just walking around, ready to point!

Ahh, it's just so funny (at least to me!)
Case loved running around with all the goats (do you see the pointer finger in both pictures)Here's Case on a Case tractor! I had never heard of these before we had Case, all of a sudden people started saying things like, "so, do you really like tractors?" I was so confused, guess we live in the land of John Deere but this makes for a really cute picture!


Here's a good one of Matty and Case driving the John Deere tractor


And after another photo shoot of 80 photos, we got a cute one of all the kids!

Arizona Vacation Part 1

WAY back in November... Matt, Case and I got to enjoy a vacation in Phoenix, Arizona. We went down to spend a week with our friends, Tiffany and Jason Hansen and their girls, Abby and Katie. We had such a great time, and Case LOVED it! He got to chase the girls around, be chased by the girls, play outside, and had a house full of new toys. I seriously feel like I didn't even have to pay attention to him at all, he was just constantly entertained. Here's some (ok, several pics of the kids playing in the backyard).
I took about 80 pictures of the three of them sitting on this swing, most of them looked something like this!

Here's the best one!

It was so good to just spend time with the Hansen's again, we've missed them all so much! What did we do? Well, what the Hansen's and Wassink's do best!... we ate, and we ate and we ate and we ate! We got to have a few of our Hansen favorite recipes and we got to grill out - not something we do too often in November in MN! We also visited a few fun places, talked and talked, but mostly, it all revolved around food - we wouldn't want it any other way! We even got to go to Cheeburger Cheeburger, a Maryland favorite that they also have in Phoenix. Here's a pic of Jason and Matty at Cheeburger Cheeburger
Here's some pictures from some parks we went to
I love this one of Katie!I didn't get any pictures of Tiff and I together! Such a bummer! At least we have several from our PC year, and hopefully we'll have more chances in the future when we have more visits! We'd love to get them to come to MN in the winter - ha! Somehow I doubt that will ever happen, but hopefully we'll have some more family vacations together in the future. It's crazy to think they've already added sweet little Emily to their family and we'll be having one more in June! Hopefully our little girls will be as good of friends as our kids are now. Up next, our trip to the zoo...

SURPRISE!!

Well, Matty and I did something that even shocked us... We had our ultrasound last Monday, it went great! The baby looked healthy and super active! We completely were not going to find out what we were having, just like with Case. We loved being surprised with Case and had every intention to do it the same. When we had our ultrasound with Case, we happily watched them check out every little body part and just enjoyed all of it. This time around, we both spent the whole time staring and trying to figure out what it was. Halfway through the ultrasound, Matty tapped my foot and said, "I kinda want to find out what we're having." I said, "I'm fine with whatever, it's your call." So he said, "Let's find out!". So... it's a girl! A little baby girl! I think it's almost crazier for it to sink in that we actually know what it is than for it to sink in that it's a girl. We are really excited and it's fun to call her Baby Sister for Case - although he still has absolutely no idea a baby is coming. It's fun to think of summertime dresses and little headbands and so much more!

Best Buddies

Case is CRAZY about his Daddy! It's so fun to see the two of them together, I don't think anyone can get Case to laugh like Matt can. Lately, I've gotten some fun pictures of them together, so I thought I'd do a little post.
If for some reason you don't know, Matt is a HUGE Nebraska Cornhuskers fan (college football if you are still thinking, 'who?'). His family is also big Huskers fans, so this year Christmas from Uncle Ryan was Husker themed. Ryan had a shirt made for Case that says Nebraska #41 on the front and Wassink #41 on the back - #41 was Matt's college football number. Ryan also got Matt and his Dad authentic Cornhuskers helmets with their college football numbers on it (in case you aren't too into football, this is a pretty big deal!). So here's some fun pictures from Christmas with the Huskers apparel. On Mondays, Matt has the day off so that's our "family day". This last Monday we started out with a lazy morning of snuggling on the couch
And then after lunch we headed out to the nearby park to go sledding. Case definitely loved getting pulled in the sled on the way to the park and he was pretty interested in and enjoyed the sledding downhill part. Matt and I loved it! I think he'll get more and more into it, but he was pretty brave and even clapped a few times. I didn't get any pictures because I didn't want to bring the camera to the park. However, when we got back to the house, I took some pictures of Matt doing his favorite thing with Case - throwing him HIGH into the air. Many of you have probably seen him do this and several people have even said to me, 'doesn't that make you nervous'. To be honest, it doesn't - I have no fears of Matt dropping him. But beware - these might make you a little nervous!
Here's proof of how much Case LOVES it!


I mean, pure joy on this little guys face!
And here is the image that gets you an idea of how high Matty was throwing him :) it was great!

And here's my two boys on a Sunday afternoon watching the Vikings - aren't they cute!


I love you two more than anything, Matty you are the greatest Dad ever to Case!

Stinker Man

I thought I'd take a chance to update on what Case is up to (besides mischief)! We had his fifteen month appointment on new years eve and for the first time in his life he moved up the chart in weight! He is now in the 10th percentile, weighing in at 21 lbs and 3 oz! The better news is we can finally move his car seat around. He's been facing backwards cause two months ago, he was still only 19 lbs. So he's facing forward and loving it. He was 31.5 inches tall which was 65th percentile and his head was 65th percentile.
Case is running around like crazy! He loves to be chased, not much has changed there! He loves to climb all over anything and everything. He can now climb onto the chair and then onto the kitchen table. He is very coordinated, kicking a soccer ball around better than I do (which isn't saying too much!). I think right now, Case's number one passion in life is balls. He'll sit and "cuddle" two balls in his arms. Here he is playing with four at once and in a ball pit at a local indoor playground.
It seems like Case learns something new everyday. He can now stick his little pointer finger up if you ask how old he is, can do the touchdown sign, can say his new favorite word, "up", can sign please, more, all done, milk, and his own made up sign for upstairs. He made up an upstairs sign because he LOVES going upstairs to visit Bert and Beki if they are home. I think his favorite part of the day is 3 pm when everyone starts coming home, he loves to run and check who's coming in the door but he has a special squeal of excitement when it's Daddy.
Case is also really into cars, trucks, airplanes, any thing that moves and makes noise. He's learned how to do a really good "vroom", and my sister got a picture of him in action!Maybe the best is his "Stinker Man Face". It started kind of randomly, he started doing this little face at lunch one day when it was just he and I. I was laughing so hard he did it over and over again. Then Hannah came over later that day, he did it again and she laughed so hard... that was all it took, he knew he had a "trick". He loves to perform "stinker man face". He does it on his own and when asked. It's kind of hard to get a picture of it, but here's a pretty good one! Basically he just squints his eyes real tight and smiles real cheesy like. We love it!

Mischevious

Case has a new obsession. If he finds anything with a lid, he likes to lift the lid, throw something in and then slam the lid shut. His favorite things are trash cans with lids, laundry hampers with lids and toilets. He has thrown sippy cups, toys, food, and many other miscellaneous things into the trash can. Only a few toys have been thrown into the hamper and only my hair brush had the misfortune of being thrown into the toilet. Well, the other day I was getting ready in the morning when Case woke up from his nap. I went and got him, brought him into the bathroom with me and was finishing getting ready. He was just walking around with his sippy cup in his hand, just checking everything out. All of a sudden I heard the toilet lid shut. I looked down at an incredibly guilty looking child and thought, 'gross, he threw his sippy cup in the toilet.' I lifted the lid and immediately started saying, "no, no, no, nooooooooooooo!!". Case did not know what was going on. When I looked in the toilet, I did not see his sippy cup, instead I saw my four month old, wonderful, shiny, awesome, iphone. Yep... I had left my iphone sitting on top of the toilet and Case walked right in, picked it up, lifted the lid and threw it right in. Ughhhhhhhhhhh! I had no idea what to do, except to grap it out, try to dry it as much as possible and get to the apple store. Well, it was ruined. Money, literally thrown down the tiolet. To make matters worse, while I was attempting to dry my iphone, Case picked up his sippy cup and threw it right in the toilet. Yuck!! I guess I can't exactly say he learned his lesson. Matty was wonderful enough to buy me a new iphone (insurance doesn't cover your toddler). So if you try to call me, and I don't answer, that's probably because I am being extremely careful of where to leave my iphone! Oh, the life of a mom :)

Yes, we are still alive

Well, a whole month passed and I didn't blog once. I kept thinking, I need to get one in by the end of the month and it just didn't happen. It was the normal crazy month filled with the fun of Christmas parties, concerts, etc. But it also included me getting the flu so bad that I ended up in the hospital with dehydration and needing some iv's. Of course the next morning Case got sick as well. I was reminded how fabulous my friends and family are as Nachelle, Hannah, Brooke and my mom all gave huge sacrifices to take care of me and Case. Matt went above and beyond, serving us for about a week until we were both better. So that explains a bit of the blog absence but otherwise it was just catching up on the busyness. I'll try to update in the next couple days about our Christmas in Iowa and I still haven't blogged about our Phoenix vacation! I don't typically make new years resolutions but I promise I'll try to be better about blogging - I think I said that at Thanksgiving, maybe that wasn't the best timing! Here's to more blogging in 2010!!