1....2....3!!!!!

Happy Birthday to the most handsome, fun, creative, smart, kind boy around! 

Axel turned three yesterday, I can't believe it, I can't believe how fast this year went by. I say that each year, but really this time I mean it. :) The terrible twos are OVER, and they weren't all that terrible :) We survived it, and even had A LOT of fun too.

Axel has grown so much this year, and has gone from being a toddler to a little boy. It is almost strange how much change and growth happens in a year!

Here are some things about Axel for the record...

ROBOTS
At the start of this past year, his whole world was robots. He talked, played, and watched robots all day long. He knew the entire episode of Iron Giant word for word, Wall-e, and ROBOTS. Not to mention he watched countless transformer shows. He read robot books at night, was a robot for Halloween this year, and wore it at some point every day for the rest of the year.

Then he learned about SUPERHEROES and that became his whole world.

This year he has learned about and can define over 70 superheroes. I mean most boys his age like batman, spiderman, and superman. But if you show him a picture of a superhero he most likely will know it's name, and what his super powers are.

This has been really fun for our family this year. Kory loves comics as well, so they have really engulfed themselves into this. My knowledge of superheroes has expanded as well. I thought I knew my stuff, but BOY was I mistaken. I still have to ask Axel sometimes who certain guys are.

We were in the party store the other day, and they had the life size Avengers, and we were talking about them, and I said "There is Hawkeye" (Pointing at Nick Furry) and he looks at me confused, paused and then corrected me "That's not Hawkeye mom, that is NICK FURRY". :) After that I lost all credibility with him.  When I tried to convince him that the Scarlet Johanson was in fact the Black Widow, he gave me a pretty untrusting look.

He has learned a lot about SHARING this year. Like most two year olds this has been a hard one for him. But he finally is getting that sharing is fun. He lets Dani use and play with his toys, and dress up clothes, and I am really proud of him.

I tried to remember something funny or cute he did each day and for a while there I was really good at writing them all down... but he really is super FUNNY, and I get such a kick out of the funny things he says and does each day.

I love listening in on him and his FRIENDS playing together. He LOVES playing with his friends. This has been harder for me, he is already wanting to be with his friends all day long. Sun up and sun down he wants to play with his friends. Luckily we have a GREAT group of kids around here, and a lot of really fun cousins. He is a lucky lucky kid to have so many options for play groups.

He is such a good BROTHER to Dani. Sometimes they fight. I think that goes with having a sibling but he is so kind and patient with his sister, who sometimes is not so kind or patient with him. We're working on it.

We celebrated his birthday a day early, and for the past couple of days as he plays with all his new toys, he has been so kind and HAPPY. He is just on cloud nine!

He is a SWIM champ! He completed his first real year of swimming lessons. He can float on his back by himself, submerge his face, glide while kicking, use a kickboard like a pro, and is pretty confident in the water. One day after watching me dive in while swimming with friends he taught himself how to dive in. :) Post the video later :)

We have a lot of things to look forward too this year for him, and this coming month for him. He is starting pre-school, and soccer, and singing/dancing. Wowza! that is a lot of things at once!

I could probably go on an on about how wonderful, and great I think Axel is. He is pretty great. We are so glad to have him in our lives, and to have him for a son! Happy Birthday Buddy! You are the BEST!

Here are some questions I asked him this morning: Note he is wearing batman clothes right now. His answers are tailored to that.


1. What is your favorite color? Black and white AND yellow and red (all of which he is wearing) 
2. What is your favorite toy?  Batman (also what he is wearing) 
3. What is your favorite fruit? blackberries
4. What is your favorite tv show? Batman and Wonder Woman and Superman
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Chicken Nuggets
6. What is your favorite outfit? His new Batman Jammies
7. What is your favorite game? Playdough
8. What is your favorite snack? Cookies
9. What is your favorite animal? Zeebra, Lion and Monkey
10. What is your favorite song? na na na na  batman! 
11. What is your favorite book? Batman
12. Who is your best friend? Nicolas, and Ashdon, Maddy, Jared
13. What is your favorite cereal? Spiderman
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Go swimming
15. What is your favorite drink? Milk
16. What is your favorite holiday? my birthday
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? batman jammies
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? cereal
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? I don't want dinner for my birthday?
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A superhero! BATMAN

SPLASH

I just uploaded a whole slew of pictures from the start of the summer until as of late....Enjoy!

Memorial Day ~First Swim of the Season at grandma's pool with dad

Axel was really hesitant at first...

 

Dani was too, I was quite nervous that I would have to hold them both all the time in the water.

 Like always Story is such a ham!

 and Gauge is sure a tough crowd...

 Axel warmed up eventually that day after working with dad for a bit...few!

 Earlier this summer we had a play date with Kass and her kiddos at the splash park. I got a kick out of the girls matching suits, and so did Story. She loves baby Gurl.

The boys kinda matched too in their blue skull shorts :)  

 
 

 Me and my girl

 Axel just chillin

 We tried to get a picture of the girls in there suits but as you can tell by the time the flash went this girl was already on the move.

 Gauge trying to get baby girls attention

We have passes to 7 peaks and have been spending the occasional day there. Sometimes it is a nightmare, but sometimes we have fun. On this particular day we met up with Ash and her babies and as you can tell by the pictures we had quite the time :)

This girl....

Axel

 Ashdon

 Nixon

These babies kill me, he is so chill and she is soo crazy! She has a thing for his hair, I mean who doesn't, he has great hair. But poor kid, hopefully this stage will end soon, and they can be friends. 

 Never were there better friends...

 Wave pool

 Blowing bubbles :)

 Who knows really... I think she was trying to blow bubbles and inhaled water...cause that looks like the face you would make.

 Just chillin with the girls, soaking up the sun

 Lazy river on the tube....

 It was quite the balancing act for Ash and I to help these boys on the tube, while holding two very nervous babies.

 Me and my kiddos, don't mind my white legs!

And last but not least... Swimming Lessons have begun and have been CRAZY busy this year. But Axel has been doing SO well in them, even with his momma as his teacher (which I was really worried about) But he already has been floating on his back with out his floaties, and will hold his breath and put his face in the water! (as seen below)

 

He has MAD jumping skills, and will jump in the water from the edge over and over without any help, and he doesn't panic when he goes under. He loves it infact! He LOVES doing "Superman" (of course) and for the most part is only somewhat disruptive in my class. Sometimes he tries to boss me 

 around.

 

 Dani is a little fish, she is fearless in the water, and really willing to do anything. Her favorite part about lessons is ring around the water. She sings "Ashes Ashes...blow bubbles!" all day long! It is pretty much the cutest thing. :)

 I love my little summer babes, I mean really who wouldn't! 

the yard: part 1

We have been working on our yard lately, and it (like all projects in this house) has been HUGE, and time consuming and exhausting.

But we were super excited to get an early start on our yard this year, and it is a good thing too, because it has taken us a lot longer than expected, but we can't wait to have it all done, and to have a nice backyard for our kiddos/dogs to run around in! We will have it done just in time for winter :)

Cutting down the trees

The first Saturday in April we had a Tree Cutting party, and we got  A TON of help and a TON done. We are so grateful for everyone who came and put in some time that day to help us out, it was a huge help! We cut down a BUNCH of the overgrown Chinese Elms, a chain link fence, and an entire row of lilac bushes!
                   Before                                            Cutting                                         Chopped


It was a very productive day! Big thanks to Ash and Nick, Lisa, Nate and kiddos, Grandpa Anderson, and Kyle for giving up a big chunk of your day to make this happen.

Chopping up the trees.

It rained for a few weeks so we were finally able to get to chopping up the trees. Kory's dad brought over his wood chipper and we literely did that all day long one Saturday and then for the next two weeks.  It was a big job, but easier than trying to haul those trees off to the dump a million times.

It has been a much bigger job than expected, and every Saturday we go to bed sunburned, and sore, and the progress is slow. Our yard is SO overgrown, and in pretty bad shape, but we are seeing the fruits of our labor, slowly, but we are making progress.

Pile of...

We got it all into nice organized piles, some to landscape, some to burn in our future fire pit, and some to take to the compost yard.

We then raked and tilled the crap out of the soil. Our back part of the yard is a GIANT weed pit. I even tried to rake all the weeds up early, and they still came back!!! GRRR so we tried again...and then finally I decided to borrow my sisters weed wacker and hack the crap out of it, and it was SO much easier than my previous attempts, and it helped me not get so overwhelmed by it all. Thanks to all who came and helped clean up!

Landscape schmandscape

Moving the wood chips was SO hard, I made a goal of 5 wheel barrels a day, because I was getting quite overwhelmed every time I went out there. We have a row of Lilac bushes along the fence, so we trimmed those up and put wood chips under it so that we wont have to try and mow under them.


While trimming them up we were so surprised to find not 1,  but 7 semi mature plum trees growing alongside them! We sadly have to cut most of them down because they are all over crowded,  but I am excited for the future years to get to pick plums with my kids, along with the Red Haven Peach Tree & a Bartlett Pear Tree I started to grow this spring!

One day while I weed whacking, my eyes started to burn and I started to smell onion really strongly! Then I looked down and sure enough there was a whole patch of green onions just growing randomly!

I also cleaned up this flower bed, and came to the realization that these "weeds" that don't ever die, are actually in fact Lillies! (We always mow them down before they get a chance to show there buds) Aren't they so pretty! So glad our lawnmower was broken for so long (Didn't think I would EVER say that)

Planted...

I have come to terms with the fact that I wont be having a vegetable garden this year. We just didn't get the back yard cleared/ cleaned up soon enough. I was pretty bummed about it at first, as I wanted to do one last year, but was hugely pregnant, so this was going to be my year to do it again, and do it differently than my first year. Instead I decided I would focus on my flowers. I really do love gardening. I love planting flowers, trimming them and making them beautiful. I think they add so much! I planted a whole bunch of petunia's in our front flower bed.

And then found a bunch of these AWESOME pots at the dollar store and planted some more and we hung them on our fence, and I LOVE THEM! I seriously love going out into our yard and seeing them first thing! What do ya think?



One mans trash is another mans treasure. 
Sometimes this rings true. Kory's sister Shauna gave us this GREAT table and chairs for our yard. We have LOVED having them to eat outside on, and they are in FANTASTIC condition. It has probably made this whole thing 10 times more bearable for me. Because it gives us somewhere to be.
 
Along with that, that very same week my sister gave us a great BBQ and it has been FANTASTIC. My kids LOVE eating outside! And I love the flavor the charcoal smoke adds to my food! So much better!

We also got a three times hand me down swingset from Kory's sister Kelli. Kyle didn't want to try to move it with them. I don't blame them either. When we took it down at their house, I am not going to lie, I was seriously doubtful it would EVER go back together. There were more broken bolts than not, and it was pretty sketchy. It was a lot of work taking it down. Dani was irrate the entire time we were there, and it was SO HOT even though it was earlier in the day. It took us a LONG time. But we did it!

When we first were taking it apart, Kory and I were taking pieces off one by one, and we look over and notice Axel already had a bunch of those pieces loaded in the trailer for us! He is such a good helper!

When we got home with it, it went a lot more smoothly, and Kory did an awesome job at putting it together! And dani slept like a champ so we didn't have to worry about her crying or running in the street, or pulling Axel's hair...

 Now we have a great swing-set, and my kids LOVE it.

However, sometimes one mans trash is STILL another mans trash.

So upon removing one of the piles of what we thought was yard waste in our back yard, we stumbeled upon a HUGE garbage pile. It was DISGUSTING. We found bags of kitty litter, lunch boxes, soda cans, diapers car engines!...it was NASTY. No wonder we have so many stray cats!!! SHEESH! All these years we thought it was just a yard waste pile that he left.

 

Speaking of cats as we were moving said pile into the trailer and garbage can, we stumbled upon a little femir bone, then another, then a tiny hip bone, then a set of tiny ribs, some spine, and finally the skull of a cat! I will be honest though, I was quite relieved that it was a cat and not something else! After everything we have found in our yard who knows what else is burried there! Most likely one of the many stray cats died while trying to get to that pile of kitty litter. Don't worry though our neighbor took the skull! SICK

 We were able to haul the big things off to the dump this Saturday, and now are just dealing with small pieces that we will just put in bags then into our dumpster.

I know it doesn't look like much, but just looking back at the before picture I am reminded how much we have done. I will save the after picture for when we are farther along, but it is quite the difference! It is crazy how open it all feels now! We still have ample shade and plenty of room for our kiddos to run and explore!

Soon enough we will be ready for that fence! Can't wait!