Science City 2012

          We decided we would go to Science City for the first time.  It is located in Union Station in Kansas City.  They have a train display and we wanted to take Landon since he loves trains.

          Our nephew, Carson, came along and it is so much fun watching the boys interact.  Landon has to do everything his big cousin does.  It is like taking a Mini and a Mini Me anywhere we go.

          We found the train display after walking throught about a third of Science City.  It was not what I was expecting, but it was still a good display.  I was hoping for some models train displays, but there was only a small one.  Oh well, we got to go on a train like the one Landon's Papa Worcester worked on.  He always sees a BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) train and will say "that's a Papa Wo train".

          The boys were ready for a quick snack on the way out.  Carson wanted ice cream so we found some at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.



Look Back on 2011

It is amazing how much we did during the last year and how much Landon has grown.  I decided to put together a snapshot of last year on the first post of the year.

January  - We had our first real snow.  Landon lost is glove right away and Sadie, our dog would not stop jumping in him so we did not play for very long.

February - I did  not take a lot of pictures this month, but we did adopt our newest member of the family.  Landon is still not too fond of Carmel.  She is a really sweet dog, but has a lot of energy and tends to jump on him a lot.

March - The weather was nice so we finally took out the tricycle from Christmas and started to ride.  Landon could not reach the pedals so Daddy and Mommy did a lot of pushing. 

April - We went to Deanna Rose for the first time in April.  It is a old farmstead with buildings and animals.  Landon feed the little goats and after watching the milking he decided he would sit on the saddle in the milking barn. 

          Then it was time for Easter.  We had a nice morning at our house before we went to see all the grandparents and cousins.  It is nice having all the families close.  Landon picked a flower out of Grandpa Griffen's garden for his cousin Maggie.

 

 

May - It was time for Mother's Day and we went to a Royals Game to celebrate.  Landon did not sit for much of the game so Daddy took him out to play for a bit so I could watch some of the game.  Only on Mother's Day.

          Then it was time to head to the zoo.  Every year for our Anniversary my mom gets us the Friends of the Zoo family pass.  It allows us to go any time of the year for free.  It is nice since we can go for the morning, have lunch and then head home for Landon's nap.

 

Wow, the year was flying by.  It was June already.  Not much happened in June, except a bunch of planning for someone's 2nd birthday.  We decided to get some fish for his room.  Of course, Mommy is the one taking care of the tank.  We did not have much luck with the fishies and had quite a few die.  We are now down to one lonely guppy, but he is holding his own.
          Tazz, Grandpa Worcester and Grandma Worcester sweated it out in awful hot temperatures to get Landon's new playset started in the backyard to make sure it was ready for the big party in July.

July - This is now our busiest month with the 4th of July and Landon's birthday.  Everyone continued to sweat it out finishing up the playset.

          We went out and watched the Olathe Fireworks.  Landon was not the most patient little boy, but once the fireworks started he loved watching them.

          The month went by really fast and before we knew it our little boy was 2 years old.  He loved the trains he got from Daddy and Mommy and then had a Go Diego Go party with family and friends.  If you have been following our blog you may remember the cake.  If not, you can look at the entry from July.

 August - Other than celebrating Daddy's birthday we just chilled out and relaxed.  It was a hot month and a great time to spend in doors.

          Landon started a new Day Care and it has been a great change.  We all love the new place and I only wish I would have found it the first time around so we did not have to go through our horrible experience. 

          In addition to a new school we enrolled Landon in a children's fitness center called My Gym.  He loves going to his gym classes and seeing all the instructors.  We think out of all the instructors Mickey is his favorite.

September - Was full of fun.  Landon attended one of my friend's daughter's birthday party and found out he loves to play skee ball.  He is just like his Mommy!!!

          Then it was time for his new toddler bed.  We tried earlier in the year to convert his crib to the toddler bed, but he was terrified of the bec.  We took a family trip to Target and picked out the Car's bed and all the bedding.  He loves his cars bed, even though if given a choose he still wants to sleep in Mommy/Daddy's bed.

October - We drove up to Iowa to participate in our second Get Your Rear In Gear 5k runs for Colon Cancer.  Tazz's co-worker who passed away last August is from Iowa and we joined his families team.  Landon ran in the kids run.  He took a little spill towards the start so Daddy went and finished the race with him.
          Tazz finished the waterfall and firepit seating area in our backyard so we had our first fire.  It was a huge fire at first, but we quickly got it under control.  We talked Landon into coming out and sitting with us by making popcorn.
          Then it was time to go to Suburban Lawn and Garden to pick out our pumpkins.  I never got good pictures of Landon in his Halloween costume, but he was Thomas the Tank Engine.

November  - We realized we never took a family vacation and decided to check out Great Wolf Logde and their indoor water park.  It was a great family staycation and we will definitely go back.  Landon became a Magi and "colored" a shirt to remember the trip.  We took him on one of the big water slides, but it was a little to scary for him.  Hopefully next year he will be able to do a little more.

December -  We had a really great end to the year.  Christmas was spent with family.  Landon even enjoyed lounging out with Sadie on his huge teddy bear watching the Kansas State Wildcats.

I really enjoyed looking back at the past year, but now it is time to look at the year 2012 and all the fun we will have.

New Year's Resolutions (Plural)

Well it is the end of the year and I have done an awful job of keeping this blog up.

I have several New Year's Resolutions and one of them is posting something at least once a month, but hopefully I can find something every couple of weeks.  Landon is growing so fast and is into so many new things I doubt it will be too difficult.

In addition to the blog, I will lose weight and get in shape this year.  We are in the process of converting our home office into a gym.  I have decided after almost 10 years to stop selling Mary Kay, so there is no need for the office any more.  Plus this will give us a place for the exercise equipment with a door so Landon will not mess with it.  He wants to walk on the treadmill or stand on the eliptical and there are so many stories of little ones getting hurt on them even when they are turned off, but plugged in.  I don't want anything to cause injury to my little man.  I am sure being the roughhouse boy that he is, he will do enough harm to himself.

And the resolution I make every year and never keep is to keep my house clean and picked up.  Of course I still blame my parents for making me the messy person I am (they promised me a dog that I never got growing up).  Ok, so I realize that was around 25 years ago, but I have to have my justification, right?

I wish everyone who reads this a healthy, safe and prosperous 2012.

Get Your Rear In Gear - Des Moines 2011

Tazz, Landon and I headed up to Des Moines on Friday, Sept. 30th to participate in the Get Your Rear In Gear with Ryan's family.  We were part of Home Team's team, but wore our Team Ryan shirts with pride.

The runs and walk were Saturday morning at a really beautiful park.  We could not have asked for better weather.  Well, it could have been a tad bit warmer, but it was still a great morning.  Tazz started the day off running in the 5K run and did a great job.  He was aiming to run it in 24 minutes and I think once the chip timing is in he will be really close.  When he crossed the line it read 24 minutes and just a few seconds.  Then Landon participated in the kids run.  He took a little spill near the start, but Daddy saved the day and finished the run with him.  Landon recieved his first medal as he crossed the finish line.  He is very proud of it!  I think we definitely have an athelete in the family.  Then we walked as a family in the walk.

It is sad to say there are so many great things we do not learn about until some drastic happens to friends or family.  One of those things for our family is the Get Your Rear In Gear runs for Colon Cancer.  We miss Ryan and wish he would have won his fight against colon cancer, but perhaps we can help to raise awareness so others will.

Now we just look forward to the runs next year in Kansas City and Des Moines.  I even noticed there was the first run in Denver next year, so perhaps we will go visit some friends and participate in their race, too.

Our 5th Wedding Anniversary

Tazz and I celebrated our 5th Wedding Anniversary on September 23rd.  At times it does not seem like it has been 5 year and other times it seems like we have been together longer (not in a bad way).

On Friday, September 23rd we had Oklahoma Joe's Barbeque (ribs and fried) and exchanged gifts.  We decided to keep the gifts small with all the charity events and traveling we are doing in the next month or so.  Since 5 years is wood, I got Tazz a K-State wood plaque for the basement when we get it finished.  He got me a really nice frame and Landon picked out a musical card...Daddy helped with the card, but Landon really likes the ones that have sound.

Saturday Grandma Griffen and cousin Torie came over and watch Landon so Tazz and I could go out.  We ended up have a really nice meal at Gordon Biersh (not sure on the spelling) down in the Power and Light District.  We were surprised to get right in and finished dinner earlier than expected.  So, we did what most parents do on a night out...we went shopping at the mall and Toys R Us.  Very exciting times.

Landon's New Big Boy Bed

We decided we would try the toddler bed idea again with Landon.  Only this time we bought a new Cars bed instead of converting the crib to see if it helped.

Off we went to Target to get the bed, bedding, pillow and a new Cars books.  He was very excited about the whole idea.  I am not sure he completely understood, but it was still a lot of fun.

We got home and Mommy started to get all the pieces out of the box to start putting the bed together.  Landon wanted to help with this and hit mommy several times in the head with the excitement.  For the most part it went together easiliy until we had to put the sides on and Mommy lost her patience.  Daddy came to the rescue and we got it all put together.

We have left the crib together and in the room for now until he gets used to the bed and he has options.  He was really excited and bounced on the bed until we read our new book.

It was finally time to go night night.  He did manage to sleep in his bed until about 3:30am and then he decided he needed to sleep with Mommy and Daddy.

Fun party at Fun Run

Landon was invited to one of my friend's daughter's 5th birthday party at Fun Run,  It was much quieter this year since it was a private party so Landon played more.  We had a blast.  Landon loved the bouce houses with all the slides, played a car game (glad he is no where near old enough to drive!!!) and learned all about skee ball.

Landon loved this turtle!

Lighting McQueen bounce house with slide.

The perfect slide for Landon.

The cake was VERY yummy!

Learning to drive...well it you can call it driving.

Skee ball...after we ran out our tokens he asked for more.