a couple stories

Last night I thought of something I forgot to include in my update. I'm sure I've mentioned before how observant Landen is, and this proves it. For the last few weeks he has been going into my room to play. He climbs up onto the bench in front of my mirror where I fix my hair and put on my make-up (when I actually wear it). He has watched me enough times that he knows what to do with a lot of the stuff I have sitting out. He bushes his hair with my brush, brushes his face with my make-up brush, "puts on" or eats chap stick, pretends to spray my B&BW body sprays and hair sprays and the whole time he jabbers on about something. When he "sprays" something, he make the sound effect... ssss ssss sssss. He usually makes a mess, so I try to keep him out, but he is pretty sneaky. He almost always throws a fit when I take him out and shut the door.

One other cute thing Landen has started doing is kissing the baby...my belly. He likes to kiss it over and over again. I wonder if he will kiss the baby or my belly after the baby comes!

another update

part of the cradle that Elliot is building







Landen being goofy while eating theatre popcorn








Landen sitting with the pumpkins that I grew...they were suppose to be pie pumpkins, but they got really big. Notice the green one has Landen's name in it. I scratched it in when the pumpkin was small and the skin was thin and it scarred it...we used to do that when I was a kid.




playing with his food









trying to climb out of the high chair...and showing off for the camera










Landen was a puppy for Halloween. I tried to paint his face, but all I managed to get was his nose and he wiped it off before we left the house.
I'll try to get some better pictures posted later when I get them from Connie and my Mom.

















We haven't done a whole lot since my last post. We made it to see one of Justina's volleyball games on the 9th. Landen was really good and he enjoyed getting to play with Sutton after the game. A couple weeks later Landen and I went with my parents to see Jerome's last home football game. I didn't get to watch much of the game because I had to chase Landen, but it was a good game from what I could watch. (By the way, Justina and Jerome are my cousins and both are seniors this year. Dexter, Jerome's little brother, is a freshman this year and he has gotten a lot of playing time this year. He'll be fun to watch as he goes through high school.)

I have been trying to get a lot of stuff done before the baby comes...which is coming up pretty quick! I have had Connie come over to help me do some canning a couple of times. We did plum and cherry jellies a couple of weeks ago and the other day we canned tomato soup and juice. I'm so glad to get the 9 gallons of tomatoes out of my freezer! I had a very productive garden again this year. In fact, I have so many jars of canned tomatoes (soup, juice and whole) that I am only going to grow a couple of plants next year for eating and sharing...no canning! I still have several gallon bags of bell peppers in my freezer, but they are useful in cooking. Elliot knows how to make his pepper jelly now, so he might use them for that later this fall or winter. As far as my "to do before baby list" goes, I still have a couple sewing projects to take of, but I enjoy sewing...getting it done during Landen's naps is a different story. That explains my lack of updates.

The only really big thing we have done since my last post is we went to Lincoln last weekend. Elliot had a dentist appointment and we used the trip to buy that last things we needed before the baby comes and to do the majority of our Christmas shopping. Yes, that's right, Christmas shopping in October. We decided trying to get it done with a 17 month wild child and a newborn would not be easy or fun, so we did it early. Anything else we need to get will have to be done online.

Well, that's all I can think of to post about this time. At the rate I am going, I probably won't post anything (expect maybe more Halloween pictures) until after the baby is born. Enjoy these nice days we have been having, they may not last long.

Never slowing down!

Trying out crayons for the first time.











Landen decided to climb the ladder with uncle Adam to help him decorate for the wedding reception.








Sutton and Landen were entertaining everyone with their dance moves at Adam and Kayla's wedding reception.






Sutton and Landen enjoying a sucker at Rail Fest in North Platte.









Karen and I decided to have the boys' faces painted. Sutton had the same thing painted on his face, but he smeared it almost right away.






Landen was enjoying cartoons one morning while I was getting ready to go to the doctor.







Landen watched Daddy put some spices in the pizza dough last weekend, so he thought he needed to add some more. He is going to be a good little helper in the kitchen!









Sometimes Landen will disappear to his room and will be very quiet and this is what I usually find when I go to check on him. He loves to just look at his books. When I sit down to try to read some of them, he closes the book or runs off to play with something else.








As I have mentioned in the past, Landen loves playing in the water. He was drinking the water as it came out of the drain holes in my planters on the deck. He had actually done this several time over the summer, I finally just got a picture of it.







Our Schwan's man always gives Landen a sheet of stickers to play with, so Landen and Daddy were being silly and putting them on their noses.





It's been a while since my last actual update, so I had to read it again to see if Landen is doing anything new. He has learned a new sign, please. It only took a day of me showing and helping him do it to figure it out and remember it. It really helped that I had some chips that he likes and he kept leading me to them and pointing and grunting...so I took the opportunity to teach him the sign for please. He also has a few new words. He says quack (cack) any time he sees something that looks like a duck (or bird). Elliot taught him monkey and owl. He puts his hands up to his arm pits and says ooo ooo for the monkey. The only time he will do the owl is when he wants to look at this pop up book he has that the eyes move on the owl. He is totally fascinated by that and pulls the book off the shelf while saying who who over and over again. I have also heard him say cracker (cacka). When I ask him to say please and thank you, he kind of says the words as he signs. One thing he says that I forgot to mention last time is he counts two, three. We can't get him to say one, though and we have been working on four and five. I just thought of another word I forgot last time...he says hello anytime he gets to play with a phone...toy or real. He has finally started saying hi (I thought he would say hi before a lot of other words). He finally realized the reaction he can get from people when he says hi, so as we walk through the grocery store, he will say it over and over. He is such a flirt!

September 19th, 20th and 21st was a busy weekend. Friday evening we helped with the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Landen got to play with Kayla's nephews who are 2 and 8 months older than him. He had a lot of fun chasing and copying them. On Saturday morning, I took Landen to Beaver City to watch the Eager Beaver Days parade. We got home a little before noon, ate lunch and then Landen took a nap. Later that afternoon, we went to the church for Adam and Kayla's wedding. From there we went to the reception in Holbrook for supper and the dance. We left around 10:15 and I'm pretty sure that Landen was asleep before we were out of Holbrook. He did not want to have his clothes changed when we got home, but we managed to get him into a dry diaper and pjs. Sunday we had decided to go to North Platte for Rail Fest at Cody Park. We met my cousin there since she lives in North Platte. We rode a minature train and toured a real train that they turned into a museum. We rode a few rides they have at Cody Park. As you can see in the picture above, Landen got his face painted like a puppy. We all had a lot of fun and Landen slept all the way home. The following Tuesday afternoon, I took Landen to a friend's house to play with her son and the kids she babysits. We didn't stay long becuse she had a couple extra kids that day and her son was crabby and needed a nap. The next day I went to Elwood in the afternoon because my photographer was having an open house and doing free mini sessions and a free 8x10 from that session. The next evening we went to McCook because I had an eye appointment. This past week was less eventful. I'm not going to complain about that. Saturday we went to my parents' house in the afternoon. Landen and I rode in the tractor with my Dad for a little while, then we went to town to get the stuff my Mom bought at the auction for all the left over stuff from the Beaver City elementary. (Incase you didn't know, Southern Valley built an elementary connecting to the jr/sr high school which open in 1995...when I was a 7th grader. BC, Oxford and Orleans all closed their doors to students and teachers for the last time this year...sad) We stayed at my parents' house to watch the Husker game and Landen spent the night with them. Sunday morning, Elliot got up early to go to GI to get some more wood to finish the cradle that he is building. I stayed home and slept in and then worked on a sewing project. It was so much more fun with my new sewing machine. I had been using my Great Grandma's machine which is more than twice my age and is practically and antique! After Elliot got home, we ate lunch at his parents' house and then went to pick up Landen. I keep wondering what it would be like if I were teaching and then I think I'm glad I get to be a stay at home mom! I'm scared to think about how busy we will be when we have teenagers in sports and other activities and by then I will be teaching again. I'm glad that's a few years away!

funny video

Here is a cute video of Landen playing with a Halloween jack-in-the-box. The funny thing is that this was the third or fourth time he played it and it still made him jump. He actually acts scared of it now. He starts it and runs away, then he'll turn around and watch and he still jumps when the cat pops out. It makes me laugh every time!

I'll post more pictures (including some from Adam and Kayla's wedding reception) later. Hopefully I will get that done before the end of the weekend.

I forgot something

I had so much that I needed to say in my last post, I inevitably forgot something. Landen had a pretty significant first August 22. He spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa Becker's house without Mom and Dad for the first time! We decided that since he will be staying with them while I am in the hospital, he needed a practice run before hand. They picked him up on their way home from GI and it happened to be about his bedtime, so he was good and sleepy. My Mom said they played for a while when they got home and then they put him to bed and he went to sleep as quickly and easily as he does at home. They also had him most of the next day. I don't think he ever really acted like he missed us and when my parents brought him home, he acted like he didn't want to have anything to do with me. I thought that it would be nice not having him here for a day, but I was actually bored. I ended up taking a nap in the afternoon. Luckily Elliot and I were busy that morning or would have missed Landen even more. We are going to have to have him stay there again before the baby comes. Hopefully things will settle down once the wedding is over.

15 months old

playing with empty wine bottles. He often drags these out and carries them around









playing with Daddy's glasses...again. He just climbed up there and sat down...what a little monkey!











Daddy built tunnels with couch cushions and Landen had fun crawling through them







Licking the lid clean from a salad.
















Daddy and Landen watching Play House Disney one Saturday morning.







Mommy and Landen had a long day and fell asleep in the rocking chair. This was a rare event.






Jack Rodenbaugh is entering Landen and Taylor Blickenstaff.








Video 1 is a short video of Landen's favorite thing to do when I run the washing machine. You can hear his head bouncing on the door as the washer runs the spin cycle. Video 2 is about a month old, but it is cute video of Landen dancing and singing with some music Elliot had on.

Even though the dog days of summer have not been as hot as usual, they sure have been busy. We have had something going on almost every weekend in the last month. One of those Saturdays, Landen and I went to Kearney with my Mom and Grandma to find a dress for Grandma to wear to Adam's wedding coming up this weekend. (That is the reason we have been busy for a couple of those weekends.) During the week, I have been running after Landen even more now that he runs more than he walks. Now that I have reached my third trimester of pregnancy, I have been more tired and I feel like I have not been getting as much done as I should. (for example; my kitchen is a mess more often than it is clean and Landen been known to find a snack of toast or Cheerios that didn't get picked up after breakfast...oh well!) I feel like I fight a losing battle because just as soon and I clean something up, it is a mess again before the day is even over. I have a feeling it will only get worse when the baby comes in two months.

Landen is growing so fast. I'm just going to go through some of things he does now. One of the things I forgot to mention in my last post is that he likes to blow the crumbs of his toast around on his tray. Another thing he does while eating toast is pull the crust off. Sometimes he will eat it and other times he will leave it on the tray. He can be a picky eater one day and will eat anything the next. It seems like he doesn't eat meat very well, though. I hope that changes since he comes from a beef eating family! Another thing that he is picky about is that he has to have a fork or spoon when he eats. I don't discourage that at all and he is getting very good at using them. He even tries to pick up crackers with a fork. He does have some favorite foods that I can count on him eating when he won't eat anything else. He loves yogurt of any flavor, so I always stock up when it is on sale. He also discovered that he likes my chocolate malt-o-meal that I have for breakfast sometimes. He finally decided that he likes peaches and pears and will sometimes eat a whole 15oz can by himself.

Recently, Landen has figured out how to go down stairs on his own. I'm not so sure I'm really happy about that because I used to be able to leave him on the deck and know that he couldn't get down. Now he is off the deck before I reach the garden. It's really scary out front because he runs straight into the street and since we live so close to the school, there is a lot of traffic during certain times of the day. I'm trying to teach him to stay out of the street, but he thinks it's a game. Landen has also start whistling. I have heard him do it several times in the last three months, but it was mostly accidental when he was trying to blow on his pin wheel, but recently he has been whistling on purpose. He laughs at us when we whistle and then sometimes he will do it. He is very independent and he won't do what you ask him to do unless he wants to, especially when it comes to giving kisses. He also grabs our fingers and leads us to do something for him and gets very mad if we won't do what he wants or can't figure out what he wants. If he doesn't lead us somewhere, he brings things to us. He usually brings me his container of graham crackers or a plastic bottle to open. I pretend I don't know what he wants me to do with the bottle and he will grab my hand and put on the lid. As soon as I unscrew the lid he gets really excited and takes it from me to play with. That just reminded of another thing he just figured out. He can now use a straw to drink from a cup.

Also in the last month, Landen has had another molar come in. This last one made him really sick with diarrhea for about 4 days. It was really bad for two days with horrible diaper rash, and after that it was not as runny and the diaper rash was clearing up.

I'm going to finish with a list of words that he says (at least once) at 15 months (some of these he has been saying for a while): up, horsey, boo, nigh nigh, da da/daddy, um, mom, uh oh, yee haw, read (I think), open, ow, yay, I did it (I'm sure that is what he says anyway. It is in context because he says it when he stacks his blocks together and claps for himself.)
animal sounds: horse (eeeee), dog (pu pu pu), cow (mbooo), pig (he kind of snorts...we are teaching him to snort instead of oink)
signs: milk, more, done eating/finished (this one is funny because he just waves his arms as hard as he can), thank you, and blows kisses

First hair cut

Playing with Daddy.







Landon Christenson and Landen.










Sutton and Landen





























Before, during and after pictures of Landen's hair cut.




Landen helped himself to Cheetos all evening Saturday night.









I haven't posted anything in a while for a couple reasons. One; I've been lazy, and two; I hadn't taken any pictures for a while. We haven't really done a lot since my last post. We have gone to the pool only a couple time lately because it has not been really hot and I just didn't think the water would feel as good. Either that or Landen's nap schedule didn't work with going to the pool. I still walk down town almost everyday to get my mail and/or groceries. It's about 6 blocks one way, so the walk is a good distance. I am sometimes pretty tired by the time I get home, especially if I get a lot of groceries. Last Friday, the 8th, I went to Lincoln with Connie and Larry. I had a lot of shopping I needed to do and we picked up some stuff for the new baby. Landen was really good and he even ate good. (he doesn't always eat good when we are away from home.) This past Friday, Elliot, Landen and I went to Kearney mostly to get out of town. Saturday was a busy day. In the morning we went to Kayla's bridal shower. Kayla is going to be my sister-in-law in September. That afternoon, she gave Landen his first hair cut. After his hair cut, he got to play with Kayla's nephews, Landon and Spencer. Landon is 2 months older than Landen and Spencer is 8 months older. That evening we went to a 50th birthday party for Mike and Patty Roskop. They own the dairy in Beaver City and I worked there feeding calves the first summer they were here. Both Mike and Patty turned 50 this month. Today we just stayed home and relaxed. My parents had to come to Arapahoe to get together with Kayla's family to do some wedding planning, so they stopped to see us before going home. Adam and Kayla also stopped by for a little while. Landen was really wound up and was showing off for Grandma and Grandpa. A couple of days ago he started trying to jump. Once he got both feet off the ground, but usually it's just one foot or just his heels! Today he discovered that he can walk backwards. He has walked backwards before, but only on accident. Today he was walking in circles in reverse!