1-168th Infantry Annual Dine Out

Lee and I at the dine out. This year it was held at the Ameristar Hotel and Casino in Council Bluffs, IA. It is always fun to get dressed up and have an adult night out. However, Lee had drill the day before and the day of the event, and I'm 20 weeks pregnant, so we were in bed by 10:30!!!

Getting ready for Christmas!

Grant had so much fun helping me decorate the tree. He reminds me almost daily that he helped mommy :)

However, he did not want me to take his picture in front of the tree...so, if you don't get a Christmas card from us this year...this is why! Gotta love TWO year olds!!!

A long day...

We had a long day of shopping, playing at the mall, and picking out our Christmas tree at Howell's tree farm...BRRRR!!! It was all a little too much for a two year old! (12/5/08)

Jack O'Lantern

Grant's first pumpkin carving!

Trick or Treat

This is how we started our trick or treating...he did NOT want to wear his monkey costume!

Oh...but we get candy!!!





I guess I'll even wear my hood and look cute for ONE picture, but I still refuse to wear the pants to my costume :)

I'm PREGNANT!!!!!!!!!

That's right, I'm pregnant again! 13 weeks and 2 days...due May 5!

Pumpkins, Apples and Cider

We visited Larry Joe and Jean Vandewater this week for pumpkins, apples, and homeade cider. They could have almost charged admission it was so much fun!

Adventureland!

Grant loved it and except for one meltdown, we had a great time! I'm not sure if his favorite ride was the airplane or the Frog Hopper. He obviously isn't afraid of heights like me :)

Grant is a "concrete thinker"

So, an update on preschool...
Grant's getting better and hasn't asked to leave in the middle of class since the first day. He really enjoys playing with the new toys and is even getting a little better at sharing with the other kids.
However, craft time is not going well! He is an absolute "concrete thinker"...meaning, he sees a paper plate as ONLY a paper plate, etc. Today we were learning the letter "C" and were supposed to be making a cat face out of a small paper plate and various shapes. I tried to get him to glue the "eyes" on the plate...he refused! When I stuck them on myself, he peeled them right back off! I showed him the other kids cat creations...and he still didn't care. He said, "no, plate!"
We had the same problem at our zoo class last week. We were making jelly fish out of a styrofoam bowl and streamers. He was really stressed that the bowl was upside down and that we were taping streamers to it! He pulled a few off before I convinced him he should leave them on because were making something cool.
Oh well, artistic talent doesn't really run in the family anyway :)

Grant's first day of "Preschool"

I enrolled Grant and I (and the neighbor boy) into "Mommy and Me" preschool for this year. Obviously, he's only two, so I don't expect great things...however, Grant's first day did not go so well.

The first thing we were supposed to do was put name tags on the kids. Yeah right!! While the other little sweeties were putting on their name tags, Grant said "NO!" and went right to playing...I kept trying throughout the free play time with always the same answer, "NO!" So, we forgot about the name tag and decided everyone would just have to know him as the kid who wouldn't wear the name tag :)
Later, during circle time, Grant got off my lap, walked over to the door and said, "Let's go, I wanna go!" OK, so we're about 35 minutes into our first day and he's bored...I will give him some credit - the teacher was not engaging the kids at this point as she was talking to the parents...but still!
He excelled at one area...SNACK TIME! He sat down in his little chair at the little table and ate all of his snack, said please when offered more, and didn't get up until every last goldfish was gone!

So, free play and snack...known as recess and lunch...anyone want to bet what Grant's favorite part of "real" school will be?

Our Summer

This has been a busy summer for us. It started with my brother, Matt and his new wife, Tiffany moving here from KS. We were SO excited to have family close! Lee and I took advantage of our new "babysitters" and I joined him at a conference in Las Vegas in June. We had fun, but realized Vegas is not our favorite vacation spot when we were in bed by 10:00pm :) Grant survived and even decided his new favorite person was Aunt T.

Lee then got busy with flood duty. At first he was in the Emergency Operations Center helping to decide where and when to send soldiers to help with sandbagging and other duties. Then he spent a week in Burlington, IA helping to save the city's power plant from the flood waters ~ they were successful!

Next came a short family trip to NW Iowa. We went camping (in a cabin), visited some Lewis & Clark sites and took Grant to the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha. This was a great get away for us.

July brought a fun 4th of July watching Grant watch the fireworks. He LOVED them! Then Lee was off again for Annual Training in MN. Grant and I traveled to Iowa Falls to stay with my grandma for a night while Lee was gone.

In August...we went to the State Fair, Science Center and had Lee's company picnic in Storm Lake at the water park. We also enjoyed a quick vist from Uncle Wade...but missed Aunt Steph.

I also stayed busy this summer watching the neighbor boy plus three kids from Earlham. We spent lots of time at the local parks, pool, library, and included a day at 3 Mile Lake and a trip to the Blank Park Zoo.

Tiffany and I have been busy canning and freezing food from our garden. Can't wait for fresh salsa this winter!

Other fun things this summer: visits from Papa, a day trip to Ames to see Lee's family, the rodeo at the Madison County Fair (Grant loved to see the cows and horses "jump"), four-wheeling at the farm, trying out the canoe, and Grant's latest favorite toy...his battery powered Jeep!

With fall FAST approaching...Lee is looking forward to hunting and I'm looking forward to sweatshirt weather and pumpkin patches! We also hope to see all of you very soon!

Starting our Blog

I have tried to think of a way to keep all of our family and friends up to date with pictures, email, news, etc. I tried MySpace and Facebook, which has been fun, but not everyone has an account and it leaves a lot of people out...so now I'm trying a blog. Sounds kind of fun!

So, welcome to The Vandewater Voyage. The place for all information about Lee, Jessica, Grant and even Riley!