Reimen Gardens

We traveled to Ames this morning to visit Reimen Gardens. It is a beautiful setting and has tons and tons of flowers, plants, trees, walking paths, ponds, a children's area, a butterfly house, etc, etc, etc. The kids had a ball. There was a special dinosaur exhibit going on that we thought they would really enjoy, to be honest they didn't pay all that much attention to the dinosaurs scattered around, they were more interested in running around and exploring. We also went to the ISU campus and walked around a bit. I forgot my camera in the car, which bummed me out b/c I could of captured some great shots of them by the Campanile and by the lake with the swans, Sir Lancelot and Elaine. But I'm sure we'll be back!!!!!! :) Here are a few of the 100's of pics I took! :)

HUGE Milestone!!!!!!

It is a BIG day in our house today! Porter started to potty train! So far he has done really well....but we'll see what tomorrow brings. :) I don't mess around with pull-ups, I just put them right into underpants (did it this way with Stella, too) and see how it goes. I brought his little potty down to the family room this morning and put a bath towel under it. He had an accident right away, then he went on the potty. Stella and I were cheering for him SO loudly, Porter was so excited and proud of himself--it was sooooooo cute! :) He's gone 5-6 times on the potty and probably had about that many accidents as well. He's even gone on the big potty using the potty ring that we have. He also went poo-poo on the potty this morning. I was SHOCKED! It took Stella 6 weeks to do that!

Sitting on his throne

I'm so proud of me!

Little undies :)

Checking out his poo! Yes, I even took a pic of the actual poo....luckily I spared you that photo!!! :)

Such a big boy in his underpants!

Breakin' Out The Umbrellas

Stella is always wanting to use her umbrella. Yesterday was the perfect day for that, it was a steady rain, but not stormy at all. The kids had fun taking a walk in the rain. :) And mommy had fun getting them out of the house for a bit to burn off some energy! :)

They Live In A Box Down By The River

Okay, so maybe they don't really live in a box down by the river, but I feel as if they live in this box as much as it has been played in the past few days!! They have pretty much been playing in it all day today, which is nice b/c it is raining today! Stella even wanted to eat her breakfast in there! :)

Peek-A-Boo

Stella closing the roof.

Porter playing with his "Choo-Choos"

Being Silly!!

Nothing is more fun than playing in a big ole box!!

Maybe I Should Supervise the Kids Better???

Last week I was sending an email and the kids were playing upstairs. They play upstairs by themselves all the time, as long as they aren't crying or screaming I assume everything is okay..... Well this particular day Stella yells down to me that Porter is out of band aids, I'm thinking how could that be, his box was practically brand new. Lo and behold she had taken it upon herself to cover him with band aids, I think he had 9 of them on him, including all over his Crocs! So here is a photo of his with them plastered on his forehead! And then just a random shot of Stella from the same day.

Party Time!

Yesterday we celebrated Porter's second birthday. We had a sports ball theme, since he is OBSESSED with sports balls! He LOVED LOVED his cake, that I made for him, it was a round cake that we decorated as a baseball. He received some really nice gifts and had fun playing with his new loot.

With his cake.

Opening his t-ball set from Anna and Sara--HE LOVED IT!

Trying out the Lil Quad from Grandma and Grandpa

Blowing out his candles. He loved this part!! So cute! :)

Playing with Grandpa before the party started.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Porter!!!!!!

Today our little P-Man turned 2, it's hard to believe! He was born at 7:28 PM and weighed in at 6lbs 14 oz, 19 inches long. He was the same length as Stella, but weighed 2 ounces more....as my Dad said when he found out this piece of information "I know where those 2 extra ounces came from!!!!" (Good one, Dad!) He's turned into a spunky little guy whom we love with all our hearts. :) Today he opened his gifts up from us and we went out for an ice cream treat. His party is on Saturday, and I'm sure he'll love all the excitement! :)
A little stroll down memory lane....

Taken probably less than 2 hours after he was born.

Around 6 months old

A few days shy of his first birthday (this photo cracks me up b/c his shirt says Mr. Mischief and he's walking around Nana and Papa's house with a box of Tampax!).

Close to 18 months old.

Taken this morning during his gift opening.

Goofballs

I went into Stella's room the other morning to find Porter dressed like this! He had gotten into her closet and found some cool shoes and into her jewelry basket for some accessories. I admit I took these photos for the sole purpose of embarrassing him when he's a teenager! :)


Of course Stella can never be left out of of anything so she had to make funny faces for the camera! :)

Sleeping Beauties

I hardly ever go into the kids' rooms after they are asleep, but a few days ago I noticed that Porter forgot his baby that he sleeps with downstairs so I took it up to his bed after he was asleep thinking he'd wake up and want it in the night. When I went into his room I was feeling around for him and couldn't find him! I was starting to panic when I realized that he was laying length-wise on his pillow! It was so funny, I had to run down and grab the camera. Then I snuck into Stella's room and captured a couple pics of her sound asleep. She was so excited when I showed them to her the next morning, in fact she told me that she wanted me to take more pics of her tonight when she was asleep so that she could see them in the morning! LOL!