Fall Retreat

This week was pretty good. Jaxson had a better week at school... No Tears!!! Yea for mommy... Krista has been a huge mom of the year. Taking Jaxson to school, helping him relax, and getting him excited about going. This week was more of a relief for Krista than for Jaxson. Jaxson also has really taken on his Spanish class. Usually when I come home from work I ask him how Spanish was. He usually just shurgs it off and talks about spider-man. This time when I asked he counted 5 in Spanish and was really excited. I was thrilled that he actaully was excited too. This week Vada had her annual and she was in the 60th percentile for weight and height. She is off to a great start for her new little life. The best news was that the doctor says she doesn't need a heart check up for her murmor. What a relief. The week was pretty uneventfull for the most part, till Thursday. It seemed like everything was happening that day. Krista had an annual I had a Missions meeting and we needed to play a balancing act with getting dinner ready and the kids packed for our minnie vacation.
On Friday though, I had the day off and we headed up north to celebrate her parents 30th aniversery. We stayed at the Grand View Resort. It was a beautiful place. Krista again came through with a phenomenal cabin for us. It was right on Gull Lake. Jaxson and I took this oppurtunity to take Grandpa fishing. Jaxson caught his first fish with Grandpa. It was pretty funny. There were a couple of guys fishing there all afternoon. Jaxson dropped his line in and he caught his first fish with Grandpa's help. The other guys were pretty upset but told him nice work. Jaxson was brining them in one by one for an hour.
We had a good day Friday just relaxing after that. Katie, Krista's sister, brought up this new mind boggeling game called Blokus. It was addicting and we played for hours. Saturday we took Jaxson to make some crafts and hang with some other kids. Than we went to get Vada and swam for the rest of the afternoon. That night Krista and I made sweetish meatballs and a cake for desert. Vada and Jaxson were playing hide-n-seek and I think they both wore out Katie. Especially Jaxson.
It was a calming trip home. Jaxson, Vada, and Krista all slept on the way home. It was a great weekend.

and the Bean's take first place!

Well the Bean's had another busy week!

Thursday night Presten and I went to the Faith and Action Gala at Rockwoods in Otsego. They had a silent and live auction; along with dinner and presentation. We ended the night with a group called the Happiness Emporium. They put on a very entertaining show for us. My sister came up for the night to watch the kids. Jaxson and Vada had so much fun with her. She even got to come grocery shopping with us on Friday. I don't think that she will be doing that again anytime soon..it was quite the experience for her.

Saturday was a big day! We had our Otsego Park and Rec Pumpkin Day event. I had to be at the event early to get everything set up. Presten had to work so thank goodness Vicky was able to come for a bit to help with the kiddos. I was not able to stay for the whole event because Vada was getting a little fussy, but there were so many people that came that we needed to get another 400 pumpkins delivered! So it was a success!

Saturday night we headed to Chris and Kristen's for their "Fall Party". We had a pumpkin carving contest that we WON and by a landslide! We came as TEAM BEAN and were ready for the show down! It took a couple hours to finish our masterpiece, but in the end it was all worth it! We stayed the night at their house, because we had a birthday party in St. Paul this afternoon. We had so much fun at our first slumber party! They even made us a great breakfast this morning!

Then it was off to Como Zoo for Nishad and Arun's birthday party. It was really nice. They put on a little educational presentation and then we had pizza and cake. It was a such a great way to spend a beautiful afternoon and end the weekend.

My sister met us a Como today to give us a whole bunch of apples raspberries, potatoes, pumpkins and squash from Bill's parents garden. I already made up my first batch of raspberry jam! I will be busy making applesauce this week!

Jaxson had a pretty good week at preschool this week. He even sat for school pictures and went to Spanish with no tears. We are making progress!

Vada has a couple more teeth coming in so she had a runny nose, but that is not slowing her down!

We'll off to bed early tonight! Have a great week! The Bean's!

Time to Celebrate

We had a weekend of Celebration. On Saturday afternoon we had Vada's first birthday party!! She had so much fun seeing all her friends and family. She went through a couple grumpy spouts, but she did pretty well. We a tough time with her opening presents because the first present that she opened was a toy so of course she wanted to play with that and wanted nothing to do with anything else! After getting through her presents it was CAKE time! Vada got a whole chocolate cake for herself! She quickly perked up after taking a taste of the frosting...but before long she was a mess and ready for a bath! She had a really nice party and it is hard to believe that she is already ONE!!

Then Saturday night Presten and I went out to the Oceannaire to celebrate our 5 year Wedding Anniversary. The food was AMAZING! When we left we said to ourselves-"why haven't we gone there before..?" Delicious! After dinner we walked around Nicollet Mall for awhile and then headed home. It had been a long day....

Jaxson's preschool update: Tuesday...we had quite the day. It was rainy- we were in bumper to bumper traffic and Jaxson did not want to go to school...he eventually worked himself up so much that he threw up all over himself. We were halfway between home and school. We ended up making it school and I had some extra clothes for him so he changed and ended up having an okay day...a couple meltdowns, but he made it. Thursday-much better! A couple meltdowns between some transitions, but he had the best day that he has had in a long time. He even earned a Pizza Party!! He decided that he wanted to have his pizza party with grandma and grandpa while Presten and I went out to dinner - so that is what they did!

Vada is now not only walking, but going from toy to toy to the table to her new rocking horse...we are having to chase her everywhere! She has also become quite the smuggler. She likes to give lots of hugs and loves being held! She can also give up high fives!

We are looking forward to all the things that both Jaxson and Vada will learn and do in the next year!

Well have a great week and we'll see you next Sunday!! The Bean's

Here is a little clip of Jaxson's first singing performance...you can tell he is really into it!

A year with Vader Baders!

Next Sunday Vada will be ONE!! Can you believe it? We certainly can't! The year has just flown by..it really seems like I was just in the hospital with her. She has been such a gift to us. She is so sweet and loving, loud and crazy...we could not imagine life without her. She provides us so much entertainment- with her brother of course!

Now that Vada is almost one...she can dump every toy out of her toy bin and then leave it for me to clean up. She can pull out all my Tupperware and scatter it all around the house. She can eat Lexi's food and splash in her water dish. She can scream at the top of her lungs to get what she wants. She can make a complete mess when stuffing every last bit of food into her mouth. She can say mama and dada. She can smile so big that your heart melts. She is our little angel.

Last week went so fast....I went out for dinner with Amy on Monday night. We had to reschedule like 15 times so it was exciting to finally find a night that worked! Other than that we had a typical week. Friday the kids stayed at my parents house in Rochester. We had a Wedding on Friday night for a co-worker of Presten's. The Wedding and Reception was really nice. Saturday I went scrapbooking with some friends from the neighborhood. I finally am starting Vada's first year book! I scrapped from 10a-7p and they were still going! I didn't get quite as much done as I would of liked, but it takes some time to get the creative juices flowing!

Jaxson and Vada were really good for my parents -from what I hear. Katie made them spaghetti pie on Friday night and they took the kids to the park on Saturday. Jaxson said that he had so much fun at the park! He was so excited to go their house and he did not want to come home. Presten bribed him with a movie, so he got to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks when they got home on Saturday.

We hope that everyone had a good week and we'll see ya next Sunday! The Bean's