Happy 2nd Birthday Finn Morse!!

Finn and Mommy before his party.  The birthday crown came from Aunt Sarah, Uncle Jason, and Cousin Calvin.

Checking out his treats and puppy plates.

Happy 2nd Birthday Finn!

Finn and one of his favorite people, Kevin.

Jumping in the backyard

Finn's Puppy cake

Checking out his cake and getting ready to blow out the candle

Are they singing to me?

This is great!

Mmm cake....

Time to open gifts

Finn and his motorcycle (another one of his favorite things)

Bubbles from Kevin, Melissa, and Jack

Where did they go?

Holding his puppy from the Bakkens

We have grown A LOT in TWO YEARS!!!  July 31, 2013

Vacation Bible School singing for Luke and Liam at church (funny story below regarding Finn).  This is a group of the second graders singing one of their songs.

Finn and his buddy, Sawyer (Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer)

This was post naps one afternoon and Finn really wanted Sawyer to play with him

REALLY wanted him to play

Best buddies!  Finn and Sawyer were born one month apart.

Finn will turn TWO on the 29th of July.  It is hard to believe how quickly he has grown.  He is talking non stop now and is into everything.  He stays busy during the day, takes a long afternoon nap, and then literally runs until his tank is empty at night.  He shows no interest in any type of television or anything that requires him to be still for long periods of time.  He loves being with his brothers and loves legos, motorcycles, cars, trucks, water guns, hockey, basketball, and baseball (just to name a few).  One of his favorite things is dogs of any size or type.  Anytime and absolutely every time he sees a dog, he wants to pet it and "say hi."

Over the past week, Luke and Liam attended Vacation Bible school at our church.  At the end of Bible school, they had a short program and root beer floats afterwards to celebrate the week.  They also did a fundraising project to raise money for people in need and the reward (for the kids bringing in their spare change) was that the youth leader would throw a pie in the face of two college age counselors.  I am not sure Finn will ever forget the "pie in the face."  He talked about it all night and all the next day and kept asking me, "o.k.?  O.k. momma, they o.k.?"  It was hilarious how concerned he was about these people getting a pie in their face.

Aside from his immediate family, some of Finn's favorite people are Kirsten and Kortney (both good friends of mine), Kevin and Melissa (his godparents), and a neighbor friend (Maddie).  One of Finn's favorite activities is to do "Hots" with Kevin.  "Hots" is basically doing a bonfire and roasting marshmallows and making smores.  Finn mostly loves roasted marshmallows, but occasionally he will eat them with chocolate and graham crackers too.

We celebrated Finn's birthday with a few of his favorite people over the weekend and he had such a good time.  He really loved having everyone sing "Happy Birthday" to him (so much so that we sang it twice).  He loved blowing out his candles and was so excited to get presents.  He isn't a big fan of cake, but every time we mentioned having his birthday party he said three things: "cake, hots, and Lilla."  He went with me to order his puppy paw print cake so I think that is why he was so excited.  "Hots" is his term for having a bonfire and roasting marshmallows.  And finally, "Lilla" refers to the Weigel family (his godparents) that he loves to be around.

Happy 2nd Birthday sweet Finnegan!  We all love your smile, your loving personality, your strong opinions, and all the funny things you do.

Nick the Bear

John made a trip to visit his family in Cincinnati and to celebrate his Mom and Dad's 70th birthdays!

Pool time with our best friends

Finn and the Giant Bear "Nick"

Finn at SkyZone Trampoline Park

The hurricane wind simulator at SkyZone

Another crazy picture at the pool

Aiden and his big bear, Nick

We recently had the opportunity to attend a carnival in memory of a little boy named Zach who passed away at the age of 10 from leukemia.  This was the 5th annual neighborhood carnival to raise money for an organization called the "Pinky Swear Foundation."  Pinky Swear raises money for families going through difficult times when they have a child who is hospitalized with a life threatening illness like cancer.  Among all the games and other activities, there were also several raffles at the carnival and Aiden entered the raffle for the 4 foot stuffed bear pictured above and, he WON!  Who wouldn't want a 4 foot bear to tote around, right?  Aiden has named the bear "Nick."  Finn loves the bear as well!

We have enjoyed many warm days at the pool lately.  The boys love going to the pool and it is a great way to burn energy and spend some time outside when its hot.  We also spent a rainy day at the trampoline park with a friend.  Lastly, John made a trip to visit his family in Cincinnati and to celebrate his mom and dad's 70th birthdays.  The boys and I were not able to make the trip, unfortunately, but we hope to see everyone soon.  We miss our aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents!  

Parade and Carnival

Waiting for the Parade with some friends

Checking out the pretty flowers at the park

Watching the parade.  The boys had never really been to a parade before so this was quite fun for everyone.

You want me to ride in here?

I really don't like this, guys...

Liam and the climbing wall

Luke trying to ring the bell

Football toss for AJ

Luke loved the climbing wall

Liam and Luke trying the wall

Finn and the Llama

The boys had an exciting weekend with their first ever parade on one day and then a carnival the next.  The city where we live had their yearly town celebration.  We have done the carnival in the past when Luke, Liam, and AJ were quite young, but for various reasons we haven't ever made it to the parade until this year.  Aiden's school had a float in the parade and he was asked to ride on it so we attempted to meet everyone.  Unfortunately, there was a mix up in the meeting area and we couldn't park where we were supposed to park, but it all worked out because we got to watch the parade (and get lots of candy) and ride the float.  We ended up walking half of the parade route and eventually stopped when everyone was getting tired.  We ended up seeing some hockey buddies so we watched the parade with them and waited until #64 (Aiden's school float) when we jumped in the parade and the boys got to ride awhile.  This was definitely one of the longest (and slowest) parades I have ever seen.  We were there for nearly 1.5 hours before they got to #64 and they had 106 floats total!  

After the parade excitement, we went to the carnival on Saturday.  Finn's favorite part was definitely the animals and the live music.  Although we thought he would love riding the train, he screamed the entire time and tried to jump out midway through.  Aiden loved the various games like the football toss and ring toss.  Luke and Liam definitely enjoyed the climbing wall and would probably still be there if we didn't have to give someone else a turn!  Thankfully, although it was warm, the rain held off so we could enjoy the day.

Happy Summer!

Happy 4th of July

Finn is putting some gas in his lawnmower

Shooting off fireworks with our best friends plus a neighbor friend

Popper fireworks

Our best friends plus Finn (left to right: Jack, Jeff (holding Finn), Charlie, and Andy Bakken

Water Balloon Baseball with Aiden

Slip n Slide

Liam and water balloon baseball

Before you give the credit to me, I didn't make this cake.  John made it for the 4th!  It had red, white, and blue swirl inside and the boys loved it!

We had a super fun 4th of July.  Although we stayed home, we made the most of it with fireworks every night, slip n slide, water balloons, swimming, and fun with friends.  It was a great time and the boys were so tired after the 4th that they actually slept until 9:30 am the following morning.  This was the first time that Finn has really participated in the 4th of July festivities.  He was already in bed by the time we started last year, but this year he really enjoyed the fireworks and called them "hot and loud."  Luke was his typical crazy self with the fireworks.  He loves to help John light them and as far as he is concerned-the louder they are, the better!  Happy 4th of July!