This boy

This boy melts my heart every day.

He's funny, and not afraid to embrace his feminine side.

But then can pose with a tough-guy pose like this one, showing off his foot braces. This was his last set of braces, as he stopped wearing them a few months ago!

He still plays endlessly on his own, getting so involved in building with duplos and legos, or with his guys and cars.

... even sneaking in extra play time when we go upstairs for bed.

Check out these eyes. I'm in love with everything he does.

He doesn't want to help all the time, but when he does he's quite good at it.

He's learning letters and writing his name better and better ... and impressed mommy with this in the bathtub:

(His sister is learning to read, and tonight at dinner he told me he wants to learn to read too!)

He plays puppy. It cracks mommy up.

Yeah, actually, it's just laughter all the time:

(except when he keeps talking about diapers, which he thinks is funny. Can I get him to stop talking about diapers?)

Check out this physical humor:

(and don't you love how Vic sees how much we're laughing, and has to join in?)

He loves tanks and planes and jets and trucks and boats and shipwrecks and ... everything.

Another thing that has been making us laugh ... a little family inside joke ... is reenacting one of our favorite Alex videos from when he was just under 2 years old. We call it the "cookie video" -- and the kids and I will often just start asking for "cookie ... cookie ..." and giggling nonstop. Here is the original (Alex is such a cutie!!)

And one of the recent reenactments:

Despite his goals to "not go into de woods," he is slowly becoming our nature boy. I took this picture after a mommy-son walk last fall ... his first time going up the stairs at Enger Tower.

Alex continues in his nature preschool, and on the journey toward kindergarten, one stop along the way was early childhood screening. I didn't get as many pictures as when Victoria did it (Alex happily hopped off with the person all on his own), I did snap this one of them doing games together. He is developing normally and seems to be learning all he needs to in order to be ready for school.

At the end of the day, this boy is the ones who needs to be with his family, and will even follow me around while I'm doing bedtime with Victoria. His humor and stubbornness underlie a loving and intelligent, deep thinker.

Sure love you, little man :)

winter baking

There's lots of excuses to bake in the winter! First, there are kid birthdays ...  had a leftover layer of cake after Victoria's birthday, so when we next had our neighbor Mackenzie over,  cut slices of cake and let them "decorate" them with the remaining frosting and sprinkles.

P.S. Most of that cake dd not get eaten. I wonder why.

And of course there is Christmas! Always fun to decorate these nummy butter cookies, my Grandma Reed's recipe.

Another P.S.: Can you find Piper and Anna? What do you think is more important to them than cookies?

Dale and Katherine's Wedding

Family weddings are so fun, and this one was no exception.

My uncle Dale married Katherine in a lovely and sweet outdoor ceremony at Grandview Lodge in Brainerd. The Reeds arranged to stay at a nearby hotel with a water park (!!).

So, the morning of the wedding, we hit the pool area. Alex was a little nervous and only wanted to watch. And refused to change out of his PJs. Thankfully we had Grandpa to hang out with him while Mommy played in the water with Vic.

After watching everyone have fun and being shown everything in the water park, Alex finally decided that a little slide looked like fun. He tentatively put his swim suit on, and once he got over the hump of anxiety, it was game on for him too!

 Adam, Megan, and Mason arrived. More fun! And hey -- check out this winner of a healthy lunch.

We had to leave the park to get ready for the wedding. The kiddos and I dressed up and got in the car ... and the ride to Grandview was just long enough for A-man to fall asleep. I couldn't believe he didn't even wake up when I took him out of his car seat and walked over to the wedding site. This is how I got to sit during the ceremony:

(hi Uncle Frankie in the back!)

The WHOLE ceremony.

(hi Grandma Bonnie!)

Since I had my hands full, my beautiful and smart and talented daughter became my photographer:

It was a beautiful day. But here's what I'll also say: it's hard to not have a great day when I'm with these two:

We walked to the lodge for the reception. My heart melted when Victoria took Uncle Frank's hand for the walk there. Uncle Frank is my grandpa's brother, the only remaining one we have from his family. He is a wonderful guy.

At the lodge, fun with family. Here is Alex with Auntie Jeanne:

We ate and drank and had a grand time. The kids also talked Mom into buying them stuff at the gift shop, so you can see Vic modeling her new hat below (with cousin Jett in the background).

When cupcake time came, the kids and grandpa were having a ton of fun with frosting mustaches.

I will admit ... when I heard of a destination wedding I started worrying about the expense of travel and hotels, but in the end was SO GLAD we went. It was so important to be there to celebrate their love on their special day, and to spend all the time with family. Memories are precious.

he did it

No words needed.

fall fun

Yeah, I know there's now snow on the ground. But it's impossible not to love these photos from last fall.

Victoria loves raking. She asked to do it almost every day. (shhh ... she also loves shoveling!)

She also loves her Piper.

Almost as much as Piper loves watching for squirrels in the yard. This picture makes me so happy:

Fall comes with its own chores, such as scrubbing the pool. I was pretty proud of the kids who volunteered to scoop out water and scrub wth mommy!

Thankfully chores are interspersed wth fun.