Thursday, May 26, 2011

Updates....

Here are a few posts with updates from one weekend in the middle of May. Enjoy!

Birthday Surprise!

I celebrated a birthday a couple of weeks ago. It was a great birthday! Brent had taken me out to our favorite "celebration" restaurant, The Melting Pot, for a delicious dinner. Then, he took me back to Minnesota for the weekend. I was able to celebrate with family and with friends, and had a really wonderful weekend!

As we were driving to MN, I got a call from my favorite four-year-old. He told me that there was a birthday surprise waiting for me at grandma and grandpa's house. I asked what the surprise was, but of course was told "I can't tell you, it's a thurprise!" I tried for a good 3-4 minutes to get it out of him, but he held his ground!

We got to my parent's house, and walked in and found it all decorated! It turns out he remembered how fun it was to have a birthday and wanted me to experience the same thing! Melts my heart.... :)

The table decorations all set for birthday dessert.

When I first opened the door, I could see that the hallway had a streamer, and then a bunch of posters that had my name, age, his name, etc. He had fun showing them all to me.
He also pointed out the smiley faces that he drew for me, but he couldn't really give me a good explanation on why he drew some frown faces or flat faces. He just said "cause I like them!" Weirdo :) Gotta love him!


He also decided to be goofy and would only say cheese and look at the camera when he was leaning backwards.


Uncle Brent didn't want to miss out on the fun!


Thanks for the super birthday surprise, buddy! You made my day very special, I love you!!

A gift of love...

We got a great gift a couple of weeks ago... Lumber! (Not what you expected, huh?)

My parents are in the midst of putting in a new deck. The old one gave them 20+ years of great service, but there were a few holes that had rotted through. With little feet running around frequently, it was time to make a change. They gifted the new home-owners with the lumber that was still good. Lucky us! They'll help make some great shelves in the basement. We picked it up with our empty mini-van, but some of it had to be cut in order to fit okay.

Before getting started, it's important to follow a few steps. First, put on hearing protectors:

Next step? measure twice, cut once.
Next, run around the yard and burn off some energy.


Finally, load it into an old mini-van.


I just love this face!


Here's my dad, hard at work, always willing to help out his kids. Thanks for the generous gift, Dad!


David was a big help, making sure to pound a board on the ground like he saw Uncle Brent do, in order to take care of a few sawdust shavings before loading it up.


After we finished with the lumber, we wanted to help my dad a bit with his deck project. He had some stone delivered so he could re-slope the ground while the deck boards were still absent. David was a big help, shoveling as much as he could into an ice cream bucket and carrying it around back.


Showing us how he was helping.Watching Uncle Brent get a few scoops into an even bigger bucket.


David loves his grandpa, and clamored over the boards to be able to be near him.


I love how his tongue sticks out when he's hard at work.


Two peas in a pod.


He's become such a hard worker, taking it serious and wanting to do a good job. It's great to see his work ethic being developed!


Grandpa's are the Best!

After a hard day's work, the most logical thing to do is start rolling down the hill. Wouldn't you agree?!
I'm not sure if it's because I missed knowing either of my grandpa's (and I hear they were both really, really wonderful), but I really think that grandpa's are the BEST! I think it's because I get to see such an amazing example here in my own family! We all know this little guy has wonderful parents, a super cool auntie and uncle :) and if you've ever met his grandma you couldn't doubt her love for a second, but one of the best influences in his life is GRANDPA!



Don't you just love how they're relaxing on a nice spring day? After what must've been an inspiring conversation, it looks like a fun game of "you can't get me" needed to be played!






I love how excited he gets with trying to stay close but not too close!






Caught!






Getting tied up...






Flipped over...






And tossed aside.






Somehow I don't think he minds! You wouldn't either, now would you, if you had such a wonderful Grandpa?!