routine

Mama makes dinner.
Dad & Finn play.
Mama, Dad & Finn eat dinner.
Dad does dishes.
Mama helps Finn take a bath.

I like our routine.



Now we just have to get past Finn's distaste for rinsing his hair...

sunny day

After church today, we celebrated Aaron's 34th birthday with chili dogs & a giant chocolate chip cookie cake. :P Yumm! Good choices Aaron!

Finn's shirt says "My first Alaska T-shirt!!" :)


After Aaron's birthday lunch, Kenton, Finley & I went home & all took a nap...we've had a pretty busy weekend. It felt nice to rest for the afternoon. But as soon as we were all awake, it was back to work!

Finn & I went for a jog (he was in the jogging stroller) & played at the park down the street while Kenton mowed the lawn.

Finn can use almost all of the playground equipment without help. I was amazed at how brave he is. He kept skipping the stairs & just pulling himself up to the platform.

I took a video to share just how fearless Finn is when it comes to slides. Please disregard my dorky commentary. ;)

2nd annual track town throwdown

Kenton pulled it off for the 2nd year in a row; the Track Town Throwdown was a big success! This is the name he created for the Heroscape Tournament that he planned for the last two years. We had 20 guys playing ages 8 to 50-something & guys came from Portland & Medford to participate. Kenton's grandpa Lew helped me moderate - we kept track of time, scores & announced who was playing with who. There were 5 rounds that were 50 minutes each & it lasted from 11 am to 4 pm...even longer for us. Plus, everyone takes home a prize! It went really smoothly & everyone had a great time.

Round 1: Kenton played against Dom...Kenton was hoping to play him, but not in the first round. Kenton ended up losing this game, but won 3 games overall: placing 8th out of 20. :)

Tyler was able to play in the tournament this year (I think he had to be at a wedding last year) & did really well. He was the youngest one playing & won his game against the oldest player. :) Go Ty!

Jacque also helped me & Lew & she kept me company. After 5 rounds it can get a little repetitive, so it was nice to have a friend. :) Stu played in the tournament, even though he's fairly new to the game. I think he played as many games today as he'd ever played before. Plus, he beat Kenton! Good job, Stu!

Finn spent the whole day with Mummi & Pappa Henry! He did really well & was happy to see us when we picked him up. We had a mellow evening at home (after a very nice dinner with Kenton's family) & enjoyed some silly time with Finn before bedtime.

We're pretty exhausted after such a busy day but it was worth it. Everyone had a great time & really appreciated all the work that Kenton put into making the tournament happen. It's a huge job & Kenton planned it all! I'm pretty proud of him for organizing such a successful event. :)

maybe this will work

The hardest time with Finley is when I'm trying to make dinner. He stands at my legs & cries or tries to push me away from the counter so that I can pick him up. Kenton does a great job trying to keep him distracted, but if he lapses for even a moment, Finn comes toddling into the kitchen to yell at me. It tends to stress me out a bit, as you can imagine, so today I lifted him onto my shoulders while I finished getting our salads ready. It worked today, but it's not going to work every time...especially if I'm working at the hot stove.

I'm really ready for Finn to grow out of the mama-stage. But it is very sweet. I know I'll miss it as soon as Finn realizes how much fun he can have with Dad & all of his toys! It won't be long before they'll be playing games together all the time; then I'll be wishing he would cry for me.

great grandparents

Finn's a pretty lucky kid. He has both sets of grandparents & 1 set of great grandparents that all live in Eugene! He really loves them all & gets so excited when I tell him that we're going to any of their houses. Last night, we went to Marylee & Lew's house (Kenton's grandparents, Finn's great grandparents). They bought a train set (among other toys) so that Finn would have cool toys to play with when we visit. These photos were taken by Outi on a different day, but you get the idea. :)

He's starting to get the hang of the remote.

I love how closely he's watching the train here...doesn't want to take his eyes off it for a second!

We feel so blessed to be surrounded by our family & that Finn gets to grow up knowing his grand/great grandparents.

busy weekend

I had the day off on Friday, so Finn & I took the rare opportunity to play with Ethan, Macey & Amy (rare during the week, due to work/nap schedules). The kids did really well & seemed to have a lot of fun with each other. I only took a couple of photos because I've been trying to take some more videos of Finn lately. So here are two photos:

Macey & Finn eating cereal

Ethan's hat :)

On Friday evening, we celebrated Ashley Stubbert's 31st birthday at their house. Kenton's grandparents babysat Finn so that we could be child-free for the evening. It was great to be a part of Ashley's celebration. Other than the embarrassing kicking-over-of-the-beverage incident, we had a really fun time. And honestly, that's why we don't put our drinks where we walk, so I can hardly be blamed! :)

On Saturday evening, Kenton's parents watched Finn so that we could go to a movie; another rare opportunity for us. I actually only recognized the names of 2 of the movies showing in the theater - a true sign that my life has changed since having a child. :)

Here's a great shot from that evening: Finn & his buddy Tok, the nice dog. :) Kevin & Outi's other dog, Maggie is a bit older & not too sure of Finn. He knows to steer clear of Maggie & pretty much does whatever he wants to Tok. :) Tok's a good sport & generally just walks away if he's not in the mood for Finn's hugs & pats.

Finally, here is a video from Sunday evening. Finn was really interested in his airplane toy & was playing with it for several minutes (kind of a big deal for him, since he's usually so busy). It felt like we could really see the wheels turning in his head & so cute to see his determination to get it right. Anyway, it's a little long & ends with a crash...but Finn only whined for a second & then he was back at it again. So hopefully it will be as amusing to others as it was for us. We generally think he's pretty great but we have a bit of a bias... :)

silly kid

I wanted to share this silly video of Finn. I was playing peek-a-boo in the car with him & he was cracking up! I wanted to get a video of him laughing hysterically, but by the time I got the camera out, he was a little warn out. I managed to get some giggles & squeals, but then just started asking him to say cute things. So here it is, if it works...

big news!

Finley went potty on the toilet tonight! :P He was running around the house, enjoying a little naked time when I asked him if he wanted to go potty on the toilet. He said "Yeah" & started running towards the bathroom. I was a little surprised but went in with him & sat him down. He started to squirm & said "No no" but I told him to try & make the potty come out. He relaxed for a second, looked down, & peed a little! I gave him lots of praise & he looked at me with such a proud smile. It was very sweet.

We're not trying to potty train him yet & this was only the second time that I'd tried to get him to sit on the toilet. I really didn't expect him to even sit, let alone go potty. It was cool. This is probably the start of a very long process that I don't expect to be complete for quite some time. From what I hear, boys take a bit longer to potty train than girls, right? So I'm really not getting my hopes up. :) It was just fun to see him try & to be able to tell that he understood what I was telling him to do.

getting closer

Short blog tonight...gotta get to bed!

Fun with Pappa Henry

Making silly faces

New rug, new door/drawer handles, newly painted medicine cabinet

A view from the door to include the new shower curtain. Nothing too exciting, but it works a little better than the old curtain. :)

We stayed busy today, running errands & working on the bathroom some more. We didn't end up working on the grout, but we weren't really crying about that. Not looking forward to the messy job. But hopefully tomorrow we'll finish it up! Yay! I love finished projects; we're almost there!

all in a day's work

Last night we had our friends Stu & Jacque over for dinner & games. Here's a shot of Finn trying to play Halo on Kenton's Xbox. :) He's a mini-Kenton in the making...

Finn & Jacque playing with shiney gold pipe cleaners.
Finn found them in a craft drawer the other day & can't leave them alone. So they've been scattered throughout the house & found in random hiding places. Jacque had a hard time leaving them alone too. They're just so fun to bend & mold! :P


And today, we tackled a big project: our bathroom counter/sink/faucet/backsplash:

Here's the before shot of what the sink & counter used to be. We had painted the cabinets when we moved in 2 1/2 years ago, but decided the leave the counters as they were for the time being. Now, the time has come as we near the date that we're planning on putting our house on the market (July 1st, we hope!)

I keep saying "we" but the only part I played in the whole project was to keep Finn away from the action. I didn't even do a very good job at that! :) Kenton's dad, Kevin, was a huge help & they managed to complete the job with only 2 (or 3?) trips to Jerry's Home Improvement!

I did get to help Kenton with the tiles. Finn napped for over 3 hours, so we were able to get the final touches done before he woke up.

Here are some "after" shots; the grout still needs to be done on the tiles but we have to let the glue dry for 24 hours or something...

I went shopping for a new rug & shower curtain that match a little better. The rug looks really cute, but the shower curtain had a hidden sea shell pattern & shell beads across it. I couldn't handle it, so I'll be shopping again tomorrow. :)

unexpected fun

This morning when I was leaving the house with Finn, he saw a bright red ball across the street laying in the grass. He started saying "baba" (translation: ball ball) over & over until I realized what he was trying to tell me. I figured we might get to play with it later in the day if it was still there. But when we got home, it wasn't across the street anymore...it was in our front yard! Someone must have thought it was ours or something?

Anyway, I was excited to show Finn when he woke up from his nap (3 1/2 hours, by the way; he has a little cold...). We played with it for awhile until Dad came walking down the street (he rode the bus home). I love it when something unexpected ends up filling our day with fun.


Here's a photo from last week:

I picked up Finn from my mom's house after work last week & at one point all 6 grandkids were there with their mamas. My mom wants to start a tradition of lining the kids up in age order for a photo every time they're all at their house, so we started that day. We were pretty surprised that all 6 kids held hands & I couldn't believe that Finn & Griffin both looked at the camera. They're the only ones looking in this photo, but I think there were some that had the others looking too. You can't exactly get every kid looking at the same time; that's kind of asking a lot! :P

mama & finn agree

Corn on the cob is super yummy!

I knew that Finn liked corn but he'd never had it straight off the cob before. He has a good set of strong teeth (in fact, he's working on cutting tooth number 15!), so he was up for the challenge. I figured my Hecht family in Michigan would be proud to see these photos - they have a sweet corn farm! It's in his blood! :P

I wanted to include this photo that showed his bib. It says "Li'l Finn" & I think it was Kenton's when he was a baby (referring to him being Finnish, of course). Perfect bib for our little Finn.

3-0 - oh my!

We celebrated Gretchen's 30th birthday last night! Hard to believe... I guess that means it's only 3 years away before I'm 30! Crazy.

There were 30 sparkling candles on her cake. I think they were a little harder to blow out than normal candles...it took a little more work.

The kids were impressed!

One of her gifts was a pink tool belt. Super cute. My parents intended for it to be used to help Josh with home building projects. The girls thought it'd be nice for scrapbooking! ;)

Gretchen & her sisters: Katrina, Becca, Gretchen, Erin & Amy

My artsy photo of the evening. :)

Finn spent the night at Kenton's parent's house. It was the first time he stayed there over night. He did great & slept all night (woke up at 7 am). We enjoyed sleeping in until 8:45! Big deal for us - we never get to sleep in. Thanks Kevin & Outi! It was a nice little break for us. :)

back to work

...so my blogging has been neglected a bit. We're also not doing quite as many exciting activities as we were on Spring Break. But here are some photos from a couple of nights ago. Nothing too amazing, but Finn & I were playing in his room before bedtime. I put a lamp on his table & liked the sleepy lighting it created. Helps calm the mood a bit. :)

Checking out the flashcards that Zella (Lauren's mom) gave us last summer when we visited Berkeley. He mangled a few of them back then, but still enjoyed them this time around.

Trying to capture the moments

I love it when it feels like I can watch his brain work. I can tell he's taking in what he's seeing & thinking about things. :)

Our little monkey - just one boy, but all monkey! :P