Need More Time

I know I'm supposed to post about Coleman's birthday, BUT . . . right now we are in the middle of trying to potty train Coleman. I feel like I only get short 5 minute spans on the internet to do anything, which means, definitely not enough time to upload the Gazillion pictures I have. With a whole lot of hoping and a huge amount of luck, Coleman will get the whole idea of the potty down soon, and I'll be able to spend a bit more time to blog. Until then, please feel free to give me any tips or advice, so I don't stick this kid back in diapers and call it good! :)

Happy Happy Birthday!!

I have spent the night (well since Coleman went to bed) preparing this:

Tomorrow is Coleman's Birthday and this is what he is waking up to. I can't believe he is already turning three. It amazes me how time flies! Anyway, I just want Coleman to know how much I love him, and I hope he has a wonderful birthday!

Oh and I'll try to be a bit more on the ball and post the activities of the big day!

Graduation Weekend

I realize I am soooooo behind on blogging. Graduation weekend actually happened about two weeks ago, but you can read about it now anyways! It started with Phil's family joining us on Wednesday where we showed them some of our favorite parts of Grand Forks, like the river walk and the parks. My parents joined us the next night and it was lots of fun and playing from then on. I didn't get very many pictures of everyone and I appologize for that. We are so grateful for everyone who joined us in celebrating Phil's great accomplishment!

Coleman playing on the monkey bars with Grandpa Roylance.

I LOVE this picture! I didn't realize how crazy his hair was! :)

All the boys on the slide. Looks to me like one of those boys is a little large to be up there!

Teegan swinging with Uncle Andrew

Phil doing "under-dogs" to Coleman

Phil doing "under-dogs" to his 28-year-old younger brother, Andrew! Nice!

I thought this was hilarious! We were just hanging out playing the wii, and we decided that Phil's parents should learn how to play Guitar Hero. Here's to you Kyle and Cindy!

So both Grandpas decided that even though it was like 50*, the boys should still play at the splash park. Oh well, they had lots of fun, and besides that is what Grandpas do best!


Phil and I enjoying LOVED having all the family in town! We got so much help with the boys! I almost forgot I was a mom! :) (Just Kidding!)

Phil's graduation ceremony actually wasn't too bad. I had lots of help from the grandparents and Andrew's phone, and the whole thing only lasted about 1 1/2 hours. Just an FYI, the next few pictures are a bit fuzzy, because apparently, there were finger smudges on the lens. Of course, we didn't figure this out until afterwards. Oh well! If anyone got clear pictures, please send some my way. Thanks!

Walking across the stage to receive his fake diploma!

As Phil was doing his little processional march out of the auditorium, he passed right by us, and Teegan decided he was going with Dad. Too cute!

Grammy made all of us a lei to celebrate Phil's graduation. They were filled with money and candy! SWEET! :)

We decided to have a pre-birthday party for Coleman while family was in town. We drove out to Turtle River . . . in the pouring rain, and found a shelter to celebrate. Grammy decided Coleman should have a "Lightning McQueen" party, and he loved it! Here he is getting ready to blow out the candles!

Coleman working on the principle of sharing. Frosting, yum!

Riding his new tricycle from Grandma and Grandpa Roylance

Coleman opening up presents from Grammy & Grumpy's (Leapster Leap Frog, Animal Book, Outfit, "Cars", and Magnadoodle)

After the little party, we decided to use Grumpy's GPS and go geo-caching. We started out on our adventure, that was later nicknamed "The Death March". The hike wasn't so bad, besides the mud, but the mosquitos were HORRIBLE!!! Every time you stopped walking, they would swarm you. We all put on bug spray, but it had no effect on those darn bugs.

It was so pretty on our little hike. This is where the GPS told us the geo-cache would be, but we couldn't find it. Maybe next time (when the mosquitos aren't out in full force)!


Hopefully I'll be more on the ball, seeing how I still have tons to post, but this is all of our Graduation celebrating, so I'm heading out now!

A Little of This . . . A Little of That

I just had this conversation with my two (okay three in a couple weeks) year old son. I look over and see Coleman and Teegan playing under the kitchen table, and Coleman is holding his hands together kind of funny.
Me: Coleman, what are you doing?
C: I'n holdin' the baaalloons.
M: Oh, you have balloons?
C: Sure, at the zooo.
M: You are at the zoo?
C: Yeah, Teegan the monkeys.
M: Teegan is a monkey.
C: Yeah Mom. Uh oh, the baaalloons all gone.
M: Where did the balloons go?
C: I let go in sky.
M: You let them go up in the sky?
C: Sure Mom.

I can't believe his imagination! It just makes me smile! This whole scene sounds like it is from his book "Curious George". Anyway too funny . . . I had to share!

On to more updates, we have been meeting up at the park with friends lately and having lots of fun.
Todd was nice enough to bring water balloons and his launcher to keep the big boys entertained!
He was also nice enough to share with the little boy-who was told by the big boys to "go get your mom". Nice.
I found Teegan sneaking into the picnic basket while waiting for our dinner to finish grilling.Don't worry, he scored! He found the warm biscuits and started digging in . . . literally!
And to finish off . . . I moved over to the dark side . . . as in I'm now a brunette. For those who don't believe me-and for those who haven't seen me-here are a couple pictures to prove it. (This is for you Jennifer M.!) I am still having a hard time getting used to it, but I'll live with it for now. I haven't said anything to my mom, yet, and would kind of like to keep it that way until she sees me in a couple days. She has warned me not to do it, so it will be interesting to see her reaction in person. Anyway, here you go:

Oh, I almost forgot, Phil is graduating on Friday with his Masters in Nurse Anesthesia!
I sent out some announcements to some family . . . sorry other family and all friends . . . I ran out of time and money. Anyway, everyone is welcome to come join us at the Chester Fritz in Grand Forks on Friday at 3 pm. We will also be having a small open house for him on Saturday night at our house. Bring a dessert to share if you would like to join us!

Celebrating Summer . . .

. . . or at least what summer we can get. Last week was really nice. Sunshine and in the 70's. This week it is cloudy, rainy, and a chilly 65*. I have already seen a few leaves begin to change colors. As much as I love fall, I really would like to enjoy more summertime! We have been trying to take advantage of the warm days and head to the park. Coleman and Teegan trying to climb the tree (without success)!


One of the parks here, has a church group (I think it's a church group) that comes Monday-Friday and provides a free lunch for all the children. The other day, they also had the firetruck come, and boy was Coleman excited! He had the biggest smile on his face. I didn't ever get a picture of him checking it out, but it was still fun to see!

I'm not sure if this is because of our crazy summer schedule or what, but every time we get in the car, it seems like Teegan is always falling asleep. The other day, he fell asleep in the shopping cart at Walmart. Right as I realized he was asleep, he did the bobble head thing, and smacked his face on the front handle bars. It left a bit of a mark above his eyebrow, and I felt so bad. No pictures of that event, either. Just him sleeping in the car!

Since we don't live in Utah, our ward had a picnic at a park on July 24th to celebrate Pioneer Day. A member of our bishopric read a pioneer story, and then after dinner, we played pioneer games.
Here is Phil winning a game of stick pull against Dusty Butler.

Here is Phil losing a game of stick pull to Kevin Thomas.

They even let the kids try and Coleman loved it. He played this round with Jake Wood.

Another game they had was water balloon baseball. Not exactly a pioneer game, but still lots of fun!

Phil was holding a water balloon and trying to get it to pop on Coleman. However, he missed, and it totally soaked Teegan. Teegs was such a good sport about it though, and hardly even whined!


Anyway, that's a little update of our summer happenings!

Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime?

Some of our favorite summer activities are enjoying Phil's dutch oven cooking. A few weeks ago, he did a pot roast, and it was delicious! Just an FYI, Phil wants me to start documenting his cooking, so you'll probably see lots more food pictures in the future!
Before:

After:


If you live in North Dakota, you get to enjoy baby birds in the Summer time. A swallow built it's nest right in the upper corner by our front door. At first I was annoyed, but now it has been a lot of fun to see the little babies.


We also LOVE the fresh produce we receive (it doesn't happen very often this far North, unless you want potatoes or sugar beets!) Here are my boys lovin' the watermelon!



And one of our most favorite summer activities is to go CAMPING! We went this weekend with some friends and had a BLAST!

Coleman and Teegan on our LONG drive to the campground. We had planned to go to Warroad, Minnesota, but when we got to there, we weren't very impressed, so we continued on down the road for another 45 minutes, and we found this FABULOUS campground called Zippel Bay State Park.

By the time we arrived, both boys had peed through, so we had to sit in the car until dad could get the tent set up and our bags out for clean clothes. I was doing my best trying to keep them occupied, because they were going CRAZY!

Enjoying the great outdoors (and some cookies)!

The park was right on the bay of Lake of the Woods, which was a HUGE lake on the border of the U.S. and Canada. It had a nice beach, and the boys just LOVED playing in the sand.

Phil and Teegan playing on a Big Rock!
The boys digging in the sand.

Dusty trying to wade out to the rock, but he chickened out! :)

Our beautiful campsite with the bright sunshine on Saturday afternoon!

Coleman had so much fun spending all day and all night outside.

Teegan taking an afternoon snooze in the tent.

Anna and baby Samantha!

Phil making us a delicious BBQ Chicken dinner with Potatoes, Rolls, and Blackberry Cobbler for dessert! Yum!

This is what happens when you give a 13 month old some licorice . . . a very sticky mess!

Dusty was nice enough to let Coleman watch "Cars" on his laptop. I think this might have been one of Coleman's favorite activities of the whole trip! He couldn't take his eyes off the screen!

There was lots more happening, but my camera died, so I don't have anymore of our little outing. It was great to go camping and enjoy time with friends. Thanks Butlers and Piersons for letting us join you! We can't wait for the next one!