The Magic Elf Hat

I've gotten a lot of questions from other moms as to how we kept the elf hat on Mr. Finn for all the various photos and occasions. I'm slightly reluctant to share because its more fun to just say "oh he loved it" but I will share......I had the idea for Elf Finn this past summer, bought the outfit in October and had been DYING to share with everyone. In the meantime, we started to make the hat FUN so Mr. Finn would like wearing it when it was time for the momentous Christmas Photo Occasion. So we played a lot of games of "ohhh, daddy is having so much FUN wearing the FUN hat!" "ohhh, mommy loves the FUN hat too!" "Ohhh, the FUN hat jingles!" and there even was an occasion where...well....this picture says it all....we made the hat FUN!

Imagine It!

We met our friends at the Imagine It Museum for some FUN!!!

Playing with the moon sand was a BIG hit!

Finn liked Bob the Builder from Afar, but I did manage to get a picture of this little girl who loved him! Ha!

He may live in the south, but he is an Indiana boy at heart!

Daddy's Present

Well Daddy got a big surprise for Christmas this year too.....a Guitar! Finn had FUN playing with it too!

Christmas

Christmas was so much FUN this year with Finn! Here he is in his various Christmas outfits and his favorite presents.....please note the broom is still wrapped but he knew exactly what it was!

More morning routine cuteness

pre bath snuggle

caught a cute little snuggle with Finn and daddy waiting for the tub to fill up

Coloring

We bought Finn some crayons and a giant roll of paper last weekend so we could start some coloring! Please excuse the no shirt, we had just finished a very messy lunch and daddy was too excited to start coloring to put a new shirt on him and once he saw the crayons he went crazy!

Big Brother Finn

We had a Christmas and Maternity Photo shoot with Miss Brittany Erwin a couple of weeks ago and here is just one of the sweetest photos taken that day. I think Mr. Finn is going to make such a great big brother!

Breakfast Eggo

We have a new morning routine.....when Finn starts to wake up, I throw an eggo in the toaster, go in and grab him out of bed, walk back out to the toaster and get the eggo where we BOTH blow on it (seriously adorable to see Finn blowing on the eggo, it is the faintest little thing but he's very serious about it!) and then I hand him the eggo, which he takes with both hands and then I sit him in his chair in the living room facing the lit up Christmas tree and he sits and eats and mmmmm's until it is gone and it is seriously the cutest thing in the world (although I suppose I think everything he does is cute)!

The Big Man

Mr. Finn got to meet Mr. Santa Claus last weekend, and he seemed to actually enjoy the experience! Santa did say he asked for a lot of stuff for Christmas though, let's just hope the big man delivers! ;)

Just some cuteness

A Toddler and a Christmas Tree???

We were so nervous, but after polling lots of other seasoned parents, we went ahead and put up the tree this weekend! We put it up after Finn went to bed so when he woke in the morning he got to see it in all its twinkling glory (yes, it was still dark when he woke up, aren't we lucky?) Needless to say he loves it and we haven't had any issues with it....so far.....

Toddler Tornado

This is what happens to the house when mommy and daddy are sick all day and let the toddler have the run of the house. (This is only the half of it, I was too embarrased to show more pictures) Happy Thanksgiving!

Way back When-esday

Thanksgiving last year - look how little Finn was! Such a baby! (and yes Todd is standing in a hole, but I guess this is what we would look like if he was 5'2" or I was 6'4")

Scrubbing

Mr. Finn can now wash his own hair.....seriously how cute is this?

Way back When-esday

So I totally stole this idea from all the other mommy bloggers out there, but I think it's super cute. Way back When-esday......this time last year we were taking our Holiday card pictures with our little Santa Finn! We're gearing up for the Holidays now and I've got a little surprise for our Holiday cards this year and can't wait to take our pictures!

Been Caught Tickling

Elk and Bison?

Where are those pesky Elk and Bison? Are they over heeeeeere????

Riding Along

So he's afraid of our vaccuum at home and at daycare, but pull one out of the closet on vacation, sit him on it and wheel him around and it is his new best friend......

A Walk in the Woods

So I haven't posted any pictures from our vacation yet, but I'm working on that now. Here's a few pics from one of our hikes we took on vacay....

I'll take it from here, mom

He LOVES to sit in the driver seat and pretend to drive....he even knows to use the stick shift! It's hilarious! He'll also add in some vroom vrooms!

16 things about Finn at 16 months

I cannot believe our little guy is 16 months old. And I swear he has grown/developed so much just since his 15 month check-up. It's amazing how many new things he has learned and its really exciting for both of us when we discover a new skill!

1. He LOVES his blankie.

2. He can sign: eat, more, milk, all done, hat, help and thank you! (and does waving bye-bye count?)

3. He can say: more, ball, dog, hi, buh bye, uh-oh, dadda, yeah, cheese, cracker, Cha Cha, car, truck, go, bubble, pop,uh-oh, baby, cat, help and I swear he said coca cola in the grocery store the other day! He's big on words with the "k" sound these days!

4. When he gets to stairs and wants to go down, he sits down on his butt and scoots forward until his feet touch the next stair, no idea where he learned it but it is adorable.

5. He loves the park! He can play on the jungle gyms all by himself, he can climb up the stairs, crawl through the tube and slide down the slide all by himself and run around and start all over again, and again, and again! Such a big boy! And with each passing week he gets more and more adventurous!

6. He loves bath-time and water....watch out Michael Phelps, 2024 records will be shattered by Finn Lakes!

7. He can play catch and will roll/throw a ball back and forth with you.

8. He loves stories and his favorites are: Chugga Chugga Choo Choo, The Opposites Book, The Happy Man and His Dump Truck, Hand Hand Fingers Thumb, The Very Hungry Caterpillar

9. He loves food and will eat anything except squash. His favorites are: spaghetti, bananas and strawberries, just like his momma!

10. He will let you know when he wants to take a nap, he'll walk into his room, grab his blankie and paci out of his crib and sit and wait for you to put him in his crib. And at bedtime he'll lay right down once you put him in!

11. Tickle spots.....Finn is so ticklish and loves to be tickled! His most ticklish spots are under his arms and his feet! He can make himself laugh when he tries to take his socks off! Under his arms which we discovered when he was just a baby, he would always laugh whenever we would take his clothes off and he still does.

12. After daddy finishes bathtime, he brings Finn to momma for a big ole wet towel wrapped snuggle!

13. He loves his wagons and his cars...he loves to push them around and he loves to ride in them all over the house.

14. When he smiles his entire face smiles and lights up.

15. He had his first ear infection this month! While I know we were lucky that we didn't have one until now, it was the first time we had seen Finn so sick and sad. It was pitiful and heartbreaking but momma sure did get some good cuddles out of it!

16. He appears to be left-handed! Ever since he started picking things up at only a few months old he always favored his left hand. But now that he's starting to use a spoon and draw with crayons he always uses his left hand. Neither one of us are left-handed but I think it's pretty cool!

And he evidently is DONE taking these monthly photos in this too small outfit, see his babysite for more pics....

Super Family!

Happy Halloween!!!!

How the FUN all began......

What's up with all the FUN you ask? Lots of inquiring minds want to know the origin of the FUN blog name.

3.5 years ago Todd and I got married. While making decisions in anticipation of this major event in our lives, the final criteria we used during all of our planning was, you guessed it......FUN. After the wedding (which was very FUN by the way) we submitted our info to TheKnot.com's real weddings and we were chosen! We had to fill out a long questionnaire all about the wedding and of course they asked for the theme for the wedding....to which I responded with FUN of course. And then after having an actual phone interview I felt like a real nerd saying FUN over and over and over.

Throughout our lives together, Todd and I have tried to squeeze the most out of life, which tends to simply boil down to...."what do you want to do this weekend? Have FUN!" So of course this has become somewhat of a joke with friends that we shared this with.

When it came time to come up with a name for our blog I was stumped. We didn't want to name it the Finn blog since we had hoped to expand our family, The Lakes blog is just kind of boring.....so I reached out to a friend who jokingly suggested the FUN blog....of course!

We voted today!

And yes, I said we.....I have to give credit to the bump that allowed me to not have to wait in line today! Deuce's first sticker!

Happy 50th Anniversary Great Grandma/Grandpa!

We travelled to Milwaukee this weekend for Great Grandma and Grandpa's 50th anniversary! It was the first time that they got to meet Finn and it was great to have the whole family together!

Having a toddler.....

makes posing for pictures much more difficult....

My what big shoes you have!

On Marquette University's campus, statue of Father Jacques Marquette.....daddy likes to take pictures of mommy posing with statues everywhere we go (yes it is surprising how many statues there are in the world) and now he has two of us to subject to his pleas....