Father's Day Fun

This past weekend was the first in a long time where we had no real agenda other than to just have fun as a family. No traveling. No big house projects. Just the four of us.

So we ended up starting the weekend by picking strawberries at the strawberry patch on Saturday. Last year, Jordan had a lot of fun picking strawberries and we thought this year would be more of the same. While Jonah just chilled in his carrier, Jordan was more interested in walking up and down the aisles looking for ants, carrying around the marking flags, and stepping on the sprinkler than he was in actually picking strawberries (although he still ate enough strawberries for the four of us!). All in all, it made for a very unique outing.

Then on Sunday, after Dad got to sleep in with Jonah as Mom made apple pancakes, we made our first ever trip to the Minnesota Zoo.

We had a hunch Jordan would enjoy it, as we'd already had numerous ventures to the Como Zoo. After several hours at the zoo, we'd had enough fun to decide on purchasing a membership. For Sally and I, our highlight was time walking around together as a family, and experiencing all of the sights and sounds through Jordan's eyes. Jordan claims his highlight was the buffalo, although we are a bit skeptical as we only spent about 5 seconds or so watching them. Jordan also really enjoyed the opportunity to touch both a snake and a lizard, as well as the butterfly exhibit, the wolves, and running around with the binoculars.

All in all, it was refreshing to spend quality time together as a family, and we are thankful for the blessings God has given us in our two little boys.

An Eventful Month

Okay, so we know we said we'd be updating the blog more frequently and haven't really held up to our end of the bargain... So what follows is a mega-post that will update on the many things that have happened over the past month-and-a-half.

First, some news on the Jonah side of things: Jonah has grown a lot in the past couple of months. He is already 10 weeks old, and started sleeping through the night this past week. Yahoo for BabyWise!!! He is similar to his brother Jordan in that he was in the 90th percentile for length, while being a little heavier than Jordan at the 50th percentile for his weight. He is a very smiley and talkative boy and has been such a gift to our family.

We've also had some fun times with our families in the past month. In May we went down to visit Matt's family, where Jordan had a fun time taking a canoe ride with Dad and Papa Dave. Then this past week, we went to visit Sally's family, where Jordan got to see Papa Ken's trucks. He really enjoyed both experiences immensely!

Finally, we embarked on our first family road trip as we drove down to St. Louis for Luke and Sarah's wedding. We were admittedly apprehensive to take an infant and a 2-year old on a 10-hour drive, but we were so proud of how the boys handled it all. We made it a two-day trip on the way down, stopping at a hotel in Rockford that had a fun pool area for Jordan to play at.

When we arrived in St. Louis, we had a great time celebrating Luke and Sarah's wedding. The wedding went great - the weather was beautiful (a bit warm, but still great), and it was fun to spend time with family in a different setting. Jordan was the ringbearer, and did a great job fulfilling his duties (even if we did have to bribe him with M&Ms...).

The real surprise of the night came at the reception. Despite his father's complete ineptitude on the dance floor, somewhere somehow got the dancing fever. He had a blast tearing up the dance floor, and the video below only offers a small glimpse into our son, the dancing machine. He even displayed some breakdancing moves (which we're still trying to figure out where he learned them from)!

We drove home in one shot, and again the boys did a phenomenal job. In all, we only had to pull out the DVD player for about 2 hours. Not bad! Well, that is a glimpse at the past month in the Anderson household. We'll post an update in the next few days (seriously!) with some pictures on the fun that we've had over this Father's Day weekend. In the meantime, you can check our Shutterfly account for more pictures from the past few months.

Welcome Jonah! (like a month ago...)

Okay, so the fact that we haven't updated this blog too often isn't news to anyone, but we are going to now make a concerted effort to blog more regularly, and we thought the most fitting post would be to welcome Jonah Glenn Anderson.

Jonah's arrival is hardly new news - it's hard to believe, but he's almost a month old already! Just a quick recap of the stats - Jonah was born on Wednesday, April 8th at 2:37pm, weighed in at 8lb, 1oz, and measured in at 19.5" long. He has been a great baby so far - he eats well, sleeps well, and has made the adjustment from one to two relatively easy for Mom and Dad to handle. Jordan has been the tougher one to deal with - while he's great with Jonah, he tends to be more whiny (especially when both Mom and Dad are around).

While we are still adjusting, we love being the parents of two boys, and can't wait to see what God has in store for us in the future. This is going to be a fun ride!

(For more pictures, visit our new Shutterfly account - the link is on the right...)

Like Father, Like Son

Jordan is showing more and more signs of taking after his father. Lately, his musical taste has come to closely resemble his dad's. On car rides, he loves to listen to Vertigo and Get On Your Boots by U2, as well as Viva la Vida by Coldplay. He also enjoys dancing to them - the video above shows him getting down to Get On Your Boots.

And on New Year's Eve, he began to expand his culinary horizons by trying a favorite of Dad's: White Castle! As you can see in the pictures below, he wasn't quite sure what to make of the Slider, but he gave it a try (which is more than we can say for Mom). In the end, he liked the chicken rings and fries better than the burger. But either way, he has made his father quite proud!

View the post below for more videos of Jordan...

Videos of Jordan in Action

We have been trying for weeks to post the videos below, and finally got them up. Here is a glimpse of our playful, rambunctious little boy in action over the past month:

At Christmas, Jordan had a blast playing with his cousins. He especially enjoyed wrestling with his cousins, Eli and Elana!

Jordan also has lots of fun playing with Bailey. He enjoys wrestling her (noticing a theme here?), and loves it when she chases him.

Jordan has been quite the busy boy these last few months. Here's just a few random pictures to recap what he has been up to these days. We've tried to upload a few videos over the last few days, but have had some problems. We will continue to keep trying and hopefully post a some.

Dad and Jordan working on taking the railing off the wall in preparation to paint. Jordan loved it. He enjoys being a helper. He also loves to help mom in the kitchen :)

Jordan loves school (ECFE) - especially craft time! When it is too cold outside we bring the snow inside to play with. He didn't know quite what to think at first.

Jordan's new train set for Christmas. He loves trains lately, thanks to our neighbor's lighted train display.

Christmas was a blast this year with Jordan! Here is Jordan with Grandpa getting out his new truck. He also enjoyed taking care of his cousin Elana's baby when she was busy. Hopefully this will continue when Baby #2 arrives in April.

Eli, Elana and Jordan got to make homemade mini-donuts on Christmas night. They had a blast!



Jordan and Grandma Nancy snuggling.

Jordan has developed a love for cats. We have no idea where this comes from nor do we encourage it. :) Even after the cat bites him he still wants to go find her and either pet her or give her a kiss/hug.

Jordan and Miles on playoff day! Too bad the Vikes didn't win, but we still had a great afternoon hanging out with our small group at the Oklobzija's. Jordan loves playing with Miles!

Finally, here's our little guy sleeping on his new Mickey Mouse stuffed animal (from Aunt Buffy, who spent Christmas in Florida this year). He has been sleeping a lot lately with all of the fun things he has gotten to do and all the fun people he has gotten to see. We hope you all are doing well!