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!!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving Holiday with my family up in Cambridge! My cousin son, John, came up from Wheaton to spend his break with my family and my Uncle Kevin flew in from Maryland. Of course my parents, Brooke, Alisha, Scott, Macey, were there as well as my grandma and her caregiver, Cheryl. Everyone arrived throughout the week - we arrived on Wednesday, but everyone was there by Thursday morning. My mom made an amazing Thanksgiving meal, just like always! Ahhh, seriously I already want o eat it again! Case couldn't quite wait until the big meal, so he started his Thanksgiving feast a little early on the couch...

He was more than happy to join the rest of us for the real meal as well...At Thanksgiving, instead of doing the usual going around and saying what we are thankful for my parents had looked up scripture that proclaims our thankfulness for our Savior. We took turns reading aloud the scriptures, it was a great way to worship together as a family!

Throughout the rest of the weekend we relaxed, watched football, played games, ate a lot more food, and so much more! On Friday some of us went to the movie, The Blind Side. It was really good! Case loved playing with Macey and the two of them wanted to play outside as much as possible.

They both loved the blue car, it was good they're both so tiny and could fit in it together.

Case spent hours walking around the yard kicking his ball. That's probably currently his favorite thing to do - that's why I wish it wasn't getting cold outside right now. Hopefully when the snow comes, he'll love that too! He also enjoyed getting his first wheelbarrow ride from Daddy!

It was a great holiday! And I am once again so thankful for this season to be in MN and celebrate the holidays with family. Up next - Case's first Christmas in Iowa!

Big News

Well, I haven't been exactly keeping up with my blog lately. Maybe that's because I am sleeping in as long as Case sleeps, taking a nap during his morning nap and lying on the couch pretty much as soon as he goes to sleep at night. Maybe it's because I am constantly shoving animal crackers in my mouth or Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip granola bars, anything to keep me from throwing up. This might all sound a bit strange to you, BUT not if you've ever been pregnant!! Yep, that's right, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I am - as Matt likes to say - "with child". Ahhhh, so fun!

We found out on October 8th. Saying that now, I can't believe how long ago that sounds. I am 12 weeks along and due on June 9th. Case will be a little over 20 months old. I look at him everyday and just can't believe he is going to be a big brother! We've already had an ultrasound - at 6 weeks so all we saw was a little blob with a super tiny fast heartbeat - it was great! I had my second doctor appointment today, got to hear the heartbeat and then got my H1N1 vaccination. In case you were wondering, we will not find out what we are having by ultrasound. Just like with Case, we'll wait until the baby is born! A LOT of people have already weighed in with their guesses, come to think of it, I'm not sure if a single person has guessed boy, funny! So feel free to let me know your "instinct" - it's always fun to hear!

As far as pregnancy, it's going pretty fast. As I mentioned before, I am feeling pretty sick but it's not unexpected. And the question everyone asks... any cravings? Well as mentioned earlier, PB chocolate chip granola bars and animal crackers get me through the day. But for actual cravings... chocolate chip pancakes, fruit, lemonade, doritos, mashed potatoes, and McDonalds breakfast sandwiches. Just mentioning them makes me want all of them. I have given in on the first three cravings but have tried to be normal with the last three. I think for the last three I've had each of them only once since finding out I was pregnant. But seriously, I could do McDonalds breakfast everyday.... yummmm. It's probably a good thing it's only an option in the morning. I've also tried to keep going to the gym on the days I'm not actually physically sick. So hopefully I won't get as huge as I did with Case - we'll see... chasing him around sure should help. He is as busy as ever, into EVERYTHING, climbing on furniture. It's great! It's a bummer it's getting cold outside because he would love to just run around outside. So we try to be creative and do some fun things. I'll try to be better about blogging :) Hopefully I'll get caught up a little over Thanksgiving break... but no promises!

In other big news, Matt and I will be gaining a sister-in-law in July! Matt's brother Ryan proposed to his girlfriend, Kari, in October and they will be getting married July 9th. We LOVE Kari and we couldn't be more excited for them!

Fall Fun

I'd have to say that here in MN, we have not had the best fall. It's been rainy, cold, and we've even had a real snowfall or two. There have been a few of the fabulous fall days that are more typical for this time of year so we've tried to make the best of those! We've been busy and have had a lot of fun. I mentioned we had our five year college reunion about a month ago. It was so fun seeing "old" friends and just remembering the way God blessed us during our college years with just some of the greatest friends/roommates imaginable. I am so grateful for our time at Bethel and what the Lord taught us and continues to teach us through those friendships. Unfortunately, I only managed to take a couple of pictures over the weekend.

Here's Hannah B with the boys, Case and Coleman at the Homecoming football game

A group of us went to the Darr's on Saturday evening to hang out, eat food (they always have the best food), play ladder golf (again, Sarah and I were amazing!), sit around a campfire and just catch up. It was great. We took a baby picture early in the evening - always an event!

Here's Owen, Turner, Abby, Case and Meghan. They are such sweet kids!

Here's the group that was left at the end of the evening - more people were there but here's the one group shot we got. Thanks Steve and Sarah for always hosting such great parties!

Last weekend we attended the annual Fall Fest hosted by the Darlings. The theme this year was Disney and since Case was already Tigger, I went as Pooh and Matty went as Christopher Robin -sorry, no pictures of him :(
The party was great as always! We always have chili and this year I tried Anna Lindquists white chicken chili. I can't even begin to describe it... it was AWESOME!! I seriously loved it so much, I couldn't stop talking about it. There were some great costumes, a ratatouille family, a narnia theme, wizard of oz, peter pan... it was really fun to see what everyone came up with.

Here's Bethany as Glenda the good witch

Here's Nachelle (in my opinion the best costume), The Magic Carpet from Aladdin

On Monday, Matt and I took advantage of a nice day and took Case to the apple orchard. We had so much fun picking apples, visiting their petting zoo, pumpkin patch and play ground. Case thought it was great because there were so many apples on the ground that he got to pick up and throw. He could have done that for hours!
Here's a lot of pictures from the apple orchard - it was so hard to even narrow it down to this!

On Saturday night (actual Halloweeen) Matt, Case and I joined Macey, Alisha and Scott at their church's pumpkin patch. We had fun and Case LOVED it! He had no fear of the animals and would have jumped right in the cages if we let him. There were goats, rabbits, donkeys, chickens and a camel! We also played some games...
where Case won some little prizes (a plastic snake, a matchbox car - both big hits), "trick or treated" along a hallway, and ate some carnival food. Case had his first taste of cotton candy - big shocker, he loved it!

Here's the best picture of Tigger and the Koala Bear (Macey) that I got...
Case and the Scarecrow...Happy Fall!

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