Should have taken this as a warning...

Averaging about one blog every four months... pathetic. Thanks to all of you who actually come out here looking for some news on what we're up to. Here's a little story that should make you smile...

I picked up a chocolate cake from Woullet's for Eric's birthday. I fought off all snide remarks from my co-workers about not baking one myself and drove home feeling confident that there was more love poured into the beautiful chocolate cake in the box on the passenger seat than I could have ever created in the 10 minute Betty Crocker disaster that otherwise would have occured in my kitchen that night (failing to plan ahead, of course). Needless to say, the cake was delicious and Archer once again showed his love for all things cake.


So, I shouldn't have been too surprised to hear the story that came up while I picked him up from Miss Kendra's this past Friday.


It goes a little something like this.... It was the last day for one of the daycare kids so, as lovely as Kendra is, she decided to make cupcakes. After naptime, Kendra is helping a few of the kids in the bathroom when her 5-year-old son runs into the room screaming something like ... "ARCHER... TABLE... CUPCAKES... AHHHH" Turns out my son had climbed on top of the kitchen table, sat himself squarely down, and helped himself to the cupcakes. His face looked a little similar to the birthday cake picture, except they were vanilla cupcakes and they had finished the cupcakes outside near the sandbox. I now have a pretty good idea of what spackle would look like if it were made of frosting and sand... lovely.


Hoping it won't be another four months until next time. Hope you're all enjoying the end of summer... I love fall, but this weather can last a few more weeks!

Some call it Golf, Archer calls it "Baseball"!

This weekend Eric was in St. Louis at a bachelor party with some of his college friends, so my parents came up to keep Archer and I company. As you can see, Grandpa Jim made Archer a mini-putter of his own (I think it's nicer than my putter, which has incidentally gone missing from my bag). We had a ton of fun watching Archer try to figure out how to hold the club. In the end, he had more fun "Gramma Golfing" and throwing the ball and chasing it down.

We've been enjoying the back yard a ton now that it appears that Spring is going to stick around for a while. Eric and Archer play football a lot... Archer loves to yell "touchdown"... we're still working on learning the "Ickey Shuffle" :)

Otherwise, Archer is talking like crazy and learning new words and phrases every day. Here are a few of our favorites:


"Uh oh, book fall down, go boom, bye-bye" - said after he pushed
his book over the back of the sofa.


"Good Stuff" - his new favorite thing to say when eating something yummy.


"Clifford Dog, Clifford Dog, Clifford Dog" - he LOVES this book
(thank you Auntie Nicole). Funniest thing... the first time he said it I swore he was saying "Kung Fu Duck".


I'm heading to Chicago this weekend to see my girlfiends -- yippee! Hope you're all enjoying the beautiful weather. Archer's at such a fun age right now... I wish you could all see him in person. We love visitors, so let us know if any of you would like to make a visit Up North this summer! Take care everyone!

Archer's Favorite Book

Archer has totally fallen in love with Eric Carle books. His new favorite is Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See. You always know which book he wants to read because he'll walk around the house saying "I see... I see" He's starting to try to count things, which my mom swears makes him a genius baby. She wanted some proof of him counting because her teacher friends are starting to think she's nuts ("sure Cindy, he's counting, next is advanced physics, I'm sure") so I got him on video this morning. He couldn't quite get past the frog (One, two, three, FROG!)

You'll also notice that the little man is looking a little more dapper after getting his first haircut. I can't believe how much older he looks without his baby mullet.

Otherwise, it's Monday, it's my 30th Birthday and I couldn't ask for much more in the world... life is good and I'm very grateful.

Keeping my fingers crossed that our new nephew is born soon. Good luck on your nursing tests, Mandy! I don't know how you do it all! :)

Archer + Tractors = Fun!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing - Photo Books

Spring... finally!

Is it just me or was this the longest winter ever?!? Maybe it's because Archer has discovered the outdoors (or "outsiiiiide" as he likes to say) or because we're just so tired of playing with the same toys in the house... either way, it appears to finally be over.

We've had a busy couple of weeks. My mom was in town for a week to hang out with Archer. Since Eric is taking some time off, they all had a lot of fun in the back yard building one last snowman, playing with lots of sidewalk chalk, and going to the zoo.

Last weekend we went to Iowa City to attend the wedding of one of Eric's fraternity brothers. Grandma and Grandpa Dunlap were excited to have Archer stay with them for the night (the first time Eric and I were away overnight together... yikes!). So, we drove down on Thursday night and headed for Iowa City on Saturday afternoon.

While we were there, we checked out the Bettendorf Family Museum. Archer was slightly obsessed with the toy train set...

On Saturday morning we went to John Deere Commons to play on the tractors. Archer mentioned something about practicing his driving so that he could impress Addison this summer... but, I'm not exactly sure that Travis or Bongo will let him drive anytime soon! :) Check out the video above.

Josh and Stephanie's wedding was beautiful. It was great to see lots of old friends that we don't get to see very often these days. I'm convinced that every third woman is pregnant these days (evidenced by number of lovely bellies I saw just at the wedding alone). It's so exciting to know so many great people who are about to become parents... so fun!

Other than that, life is good. Happy birthday to three of my favorite ladies who have turned 30 in the past month or so... can you believe we're not in our 20s anymore? I guess I have 10 days left, but am pretty comfortable with the idea of getting older. In some ways it makes me feel like finally old enough to have a husband, a house, and a son... although most days I still feel like a kid... do you ever really feel your age?

Oh the shame...

So it's been literally like 8 months since I posted something. I noticed that there was a link to our blog from the Johnson Family blog... nothing like a swift kick to get you to post a little something.

Archer is LOVING winter and all the snow (yes, it's March, but hey... it's Minnesota). Here's a photo of him in his new snow suit!

He's becoming such a big guy running around, pointing at everything and asking "whazzat?" It's one of my favorite sounds/words ever. We're getting ready to leave for Okoboji tomorrow morning and I haven't packed a thing. So, this is all for now. But, I promise it won't be another 8 months before I post again. As always, our Dropshots site is pretty current... so check out our photos!

And suddenly he's a little man...

It's been another month. Amazing how time flies. We've been busy with all kinds of summer fun. Grandma Cindy visited us for two weeks while daycare was closed (we really had a to twist her arm to convince her...). It was so great to have her here and watch the two of them get to know eachother so much more.

The craziest news comes in the last week! Archer is now learning to crawl/scoot around AND he has his first tooth. I'm amazed at how the smallest things make me realize that he's no longer my little baby, but is day-by-day becoming a little boy. (Sigh... college suddenly feels right around the corner). It is, however, a ton of fun to watch his mind work. He's super inquisitive and loves to figure things out. We'll be sure to keep you up to date on any new progress...

Hope you're all enjoying a lovely summer!