One big happy family!

We are pleased to announce that we have added another member to our family! We recently adopted...a pet fish! A-man loves fish (well any animal really) and so we thought a good starter pet would be a beta fish. We are still undecided on a name for the fish. Jason is wanting to follow our tradition with beta fish and give him a fighting name. Our first fish was named Jackie Chan so Jason is thinking Chuck Norris for this fish. Diana, on the other hand, wants to give the fish the same name as one of the fish in A-man's book, 15 Animals, and name him Bob. At this point we have compromised and are calling him Bob Norris...Below is a picture of A-man showing us the sign for fish and introducing everyone to the newest member of this family.


Our newest member of the family

We have also unofficially adopted 2 of our favorite teenagers, Blake & Riley for 2 days at least. They used to live out here with their awesome family but recently moved to Boise, Idaho. We were lucky enough to have them come visit us for a couple of days and we loved having them here. In addition to giving A-man tons of love and attention we also got to play games with them and enjoy some good times. A-man loved showing Blake how to make his Mater car work and Riley loved his cuddling!


A-man teaching Blake how to use his car - "1st you shake it"


And then you put it on the ground and it goes!!!


Cuddling with his buddy Riley

Trains & Luai's

Another random post that shows how cute A-man is...

We went to a Luai party at our church a few weeks ago and A-man wore the cutest outfit. I had purchased the outfit months ago on sale and was waiting for the right opportunity for him to wear it and we finally found one! He fit in perfectly with the Hawaiian theme. Not only did he look fantastic but he had a great time eating Hawaiian food and watching the dancing. He cheered with the crowd and laughed and giggled the entire party.

Not only do I look cool but my hair is super spiky!


Mom's little man


Hawaiian hunks!

I may have mentioned in the past how much A-man loves trains but did I ever mention how much his dad loves Lincoln Logs? Well the other day their two loves combined. We found a Lincoln Log train set - it has a train track with trains and a whole Lincoln Log town to build around the track. We immediately grabbed it up and my two boys were both getting ready for a great time. A-man wouldn't let go of the train on the whole ride home and kept saying "whoo-whoo". By the time we got home we started assembling the tracks and town. While A-man was enjoying his new train, Jason was building his log town. A-man started to get interested in Jason's buildings and it soon became a battle to see how much Jason could build before A-man destroyed it. We had a lot of fun playing! It will be even more fun once A-man starts building it himself!

Trying out his new train set


I'll take care of this for you dad...

Backyard fun!

The best thing about living in a house is having a backyard. A-man loves spending time out back and playing with all of his outside toys. He's loves being outside and enjoying the sun and shade. Our back yard has a lot of trees so it's nice and shady and doesn't get too hot. We have our own little playground back there and he thinks it's awesome! Not to mention all his trucks that go in the dirt and the balls we throw around. He has a little slide and climbs up the slide and then giggles as he slips down. He has a sand and water table and splashes like crazy with the water and loves scooping up the sand.


Backyard fun

He has his own fire truck car and he and his friends love playing in his fire-truck. Sometimes the back of the firetruck fills up with water and he has another little splash toy. Even though he can't move the car around on his own yet that doesn't stop him for still having fun with it.


This is where I store my extra water


Hi there!


Driving my way!


Let me show you how this is done!

And of course we have a kiddie pool. It's super cute and looks like a giraffe. It has a slide and the giraffe's mouth sprays water when hooked up to the hose. The first time he went into his swimming pool he couldn't get enough of it. He wasn't used to it and kept slipping but would immediately jump right up and keep playing. Even though the water was super cold he kept going back for more. The kiddie pool has definitely been a summer staple!


Let me in there!


Climbing up the slide is just as fun!


Guess who loves their swimming pool!


Sliding down the slide for the first time!


Best part of a good day swimming is warming up afterwards

Dad's birthday!

The other day A-man and I went downtown to surprise dad and go out to lunch. We had a great time. We've been downtown a few times to visit dad and A-man always loves it. This time was a special day because it was Jason's birthday and so we got to celebrate the big day with dad. A-man also learned a new trick - how to use the phone. He borrowed the phone of one of Jason's co-workers and would hold it up to his ear and say "hello"! It was adorable and had everyone laughing. He's been doing it non-stop ever since. In addition he got a great view of the city!


Hello!


My kind of town - at dad's work

Later that week we threw a barbeque for Jason's birthday and A-man loved all the attention - even though it was dad's birthday A-man was the star of the show. We played in the pool, played horseshoes, red-neck golf, and ate yummy food. We finished the night off with some great Peanut butter chocolate cupcakes. A-man had more fun with dad's cupcakes than his own birthday cupcakes.


The yummy cupcakes


A-man devouring the cupcakes

Happy Birthday dad/Jason!


The birthday boy!

Swimming lessons

Our little shark ready for his first swimming lesson

Our little guy loves the water - I mean LOVES the water. We get him anywhere near water and he goes crazy excited. So since he loves water so much we decided to enroll in a mom & tot swim class. The class was every weekday morning for 2 weeks. A-man loved his swimming classes. The first day he just kept giggling and laughing. Then as we continued attending classes he became more and more adventuresome. By the end of the 2 week class he would put his face in the water to blow bubbles (although he ended up just drinking the water most of the time), he would lay on his back and just chill out, he would walk off the edge of the pool when it came time to jump in, and he would doggie paddle across the pool while kicking his legs (with mom still holding him). His swim teacher commented numerous times about how great his arm reaches were for someone so young. He loved all the songs and games we played in the water and always participated. He continued to laugh at every lesson and brightened everyone's day.

Favorite part of swim lessons - other than the water

During every lesson the instuctor would bring out a box full of rubber ducks for the little ones to use during the lesson. They would throw them in the water and then fetch them out, use them to splash, and overall just have a toy with them in the water. Near the end of our lessons one of A-man's favorite things to do was to play with the rubber ducks. He loved going through the box and throwing as many ducks into the water as he could. It became a challenge to keep him away from the duck box. We comprimised by letting him play in the box for the last 5 minutes of class. Some days we came early and played in the baby pool before the swimming lesson.


The infamous rubber duckies

I have a feeling that swimming pools will always be a part of our summer life knowing how much of a fish our little A-man is.

Zoo fun!

Fun at the zoo!

We recently bought a zoo membership because our little A-man loves animals! We have gone to the zoo numberous times and he enjoys it more and more everytime. The best part about it is that he is starting to recognize the animals. I have about 30 animal toys and he can identify all of them. I will put out about 7 at a time and ask him to find one and he nails it every time. Some of the animals he knows by site are: giraffe, elephant, hippopatamus (one of his favorite storybook characters), bird (of course), cat, dog, frog, turtle, crocodile, zebra, pig, cow, sheep, horse, chicken, snake, lion, tiger, bear, moose, mouse, duck, fish, monkey.


Enjoying dad and the zoo!

He has a blast at the zoo and we now try to go for a couple of hours every week. It's perfect because we go and see different animals each time. He loves it and it makes for a fun outing. We've also had some incredible opportunities there. He had the chance to pet a snake and apparently it was hilarious. He also loved seeing the monkey's and wathcing them jump all around.


petting a snake!



Giggling after petting a snake!

When we went the other day he saw some bears up close - the grizzlies were right up against the window. He got a little confused when one of the bears went swimming. He showed me the sign for bear and then looked back at the bear swimming (we were watching the bear through the glass underwater) and gave me the sign for fish. Apparently he thought the bear was now a fish since it was in the water swimming. It was super cute and super cool to see a bear that close up!


Other than animals - the next best thing at the zoo - WATER!

In addition to see hundreds of animals A-man loves all the water features at the zoo. The water fountain was a definite hit not to mention the splash park, spraying features, and anything else that happens to be water.


Best seat in the zoo!

Speaking and signing!

Bragging mama moment - my son is brilliant! When we met his birth mother we knew she was very intelligent and apparently her son is taking after her.


More!

We have been teaching A-man sign language to help him communicate with us. It has been a miracle! He is learning so many signs and communicating non-stop with us. In addition to signing now he is starting to say so many words. His first sign was milk and more. Then he added bird and dog. Now he knows a ton of signs - he can sign mom, dad, bird, dog, frog (added today), snake, giraffe, bear (that's how we get him to fold his arms for prayer), please, thank you, eat, drink, flower, bug, car, train, fish, all done, baby signing time (the DVD's we use to help teach him sign language), hat, head, hair, (all basically the same), shoes, horse, cow, go, stop, wait, grandma, and grandpa.


Sign for fish


Eat!


bird!


Dog


Go, go, go


Thank you


And last - but certainly not least - TRAIN!

Who knows what signs he will show me tomorrow - every day he adds a few more. It is amazing to see him communicate with us. It also makes him so much happier because we can understand him.

In addition to signing non-stop his speech is coming along also. He is saying more and more words every day. It started with mama and dada. Then he started to say "bir" for bird as he would do the sign. Now we get "more, milk, hat, gamma, nona, papa, gampa, eat, tank u, sho, and a whole lot of sounds to go with his signs "buh" for bear, "fuh" for fish and frog - you get the picture. Yesterday he said computer - in his own way. But he is definitely picking up the speech and loves to talk!

Look at me growing!

Our little guy is growing and growing and makes us laugh constantly! Here's some pictures to show you just how wonderful he is!

Fourth of July!

FIREWORKS!

We love the fourth of July! It's summertime, fireworks, bbq's, celebrating America - what more could you want! We wanted A-man to have a great time since we always do on Independence Day. We started the morning off by walking downtown to get some breakfast - we were going to stick around for the town parade but someone got a little tired and so we headed home for a nap.

Our town fourth of July activities!

After naptime we went back downtown and hit the festival and fair. There was live music, activities, food and shopping! We had so much fun. Normally we hold a barbeque but since we had been out of town all weekend we went out to dinner instead. After dinner we met up with our ward at a local park to watch fireworks. We had so much fun visiting with friends and then watching 4 different firework shows!

Picnicing at the park


Check out my leg lights! The girls dig it!

The park that we went to had their own fireworks but were located in such a spot that you could see 3 other towns fireworks as well. It was awesome! A-man was having a blast before the fireworks began but once the fireworks started he was in heaven! After the first few he started laughing and signing "more, more"! Then he started to clap and oohh and aahhh. He thought it was great!


More, more!


Clapping at the show!


Mesmorized by the fireworks


Oohing and Aahhing

Overall I think the day was a success and we now have another fan of the fourth of July!

Starved Rock State Park

Our family at Starved Park state park

On our way home from Nauvoo we stopped at Starved Rock State Park and did some hiking. We put A-man in the front-pack and a-hiking we went. A-man had a blast! He thought it was hilarious to go up and down the stairs and would start laughing hysterically!

Hiking to the top of Starved Rock

He also made lots of friends during the hike - he made it a point to say "Hi!" to everyone and wave at them. He also had to stop and pet every dog that we came across. Needless to say he is a friendly little fellow!


A-man making new friends

We had a great time hiking and went into some canyons, saw a waterfall, went to the top of Starved Rock and just enjoyed being together as a family. Here's a few pictures of our day trip!


Dad is sure tricky to put A-man up!


Mom and A-man with another wood carving


Aiden and a wooden racoon both saying hi!


A-man and dad at the bottom of the canyon