David vs Goliath AKA MSU vs KSU

A couple of weekends ago, Jack and I got to travel with Dustin and the Montana State football team out to Manhattan, Kansas. We got to go with the team to their walk around at the field, and we took that opportunity to get some pictures of Jack out in the middle of the field on the WIldcat. Dustin did his undergrad at Kansas State so it was pretty neat for us to get to be at this game and to get pics on the field. Here is Jack and Dustin on the field:


Notice the sign that says Bill Snyder Family Stadium, well crazy enough we walked past the legendary coach himself as we walked back to the bus. Pretty cool.

That night we got to go with Dustin's parents down to see and surprise Dustin's best friend Pat at his Bar and Grill, The Spot. We ate yummy food (Mmmm fried pickles!), visited with Pat, saw pictures of his new baby boy, got sweet t-shirts, and Jack enjoyed his first sucker. Big time! His tongue was going a mile a minute around that thing and he didn't take it out of his mouth until it was pretty much gone. Here is is enjoying his nice BRIGHT BLUE sucker (Thanks for that Pat....you just wait until Ryland is old enough...!)


Jack absolutely loved Pat. Not only did Pat give him a sucker, but with Pat, Jack got to check out the gambling game machines, go for a walk around the restaurant, flirt with the old ladies there, and laughed his head off with Pat and touching or not touching Pat's shaved head. It was fun to watch and so hilarious!


We stayed in a suite with Dustin's parents and they let Dustin and I sleep in the big, amazingly comfortable King bed. They are way too nice. Shawn, Melissa, and Gillian got there late Friday night. We had fun Saturday morning trying Gillian's darling hat on Jack. I know it is mean to do to my little boy, but I must say, Jack would make one darling little girl!! :)

Okay, I guess Gillian looks better! :) She is the cutest little girl ever with big beautiful brown eyes!


On Saturday while Dustin had to work, we hung out and went to the mall in Manhattan. It seemed like we were the only ones in MSU clothes, lost in waves of nauseating bright K-State purple! :) But we had a good day. A lot of Dustin's family met us at the mall so they could see Jack and Gillian. Jack got to ride in one of those moving cars that run on quarters with Dustin's cousin's little girl. As you can see from the picture he really enjoyed it!

Even though the workers at the stores gave Patty a hard time in her MSU shirt, she still went in and hooked Jack up with a lot of fun Kansas State stuff: a binkie, a beanie, a shirt, and of course an awesome teddy bear wearing a Willy the Wildcat costume! He is set! She spoiled me a little too! Thanks Patty!

The football game was pretty sad and rainy and a tad miserable. The final score was 69-10 for KSU but here is proof that for about 20 seconds, MSU was actually tied with KSU:
Here is part of the group (minus me and Lynn) getting hyped up before the game (and the rain) started:

Jack snuggling with Grandma!

Gillian ready for the big game decked out in her Montana State cap! (Some random lady came and took a picture of Gillian. She looked THAT cute!)

Here is Dustin working so hard on the sidelines. Can you see him? I think he may have been tempted to sing along with the KSU fight song :) It really was cool getting to see what a big time school's football games were like. It was all pretty sweet!

Here is my crappy picture of Jack with Willy the Wildcat. If you can't tell, he is bawling. We have recently learned that Jack is NOT a fan of these big, creepy, big-mouthed mascots!


It was a very short trip (we left Friday afternoon and got home late late Saturday night, but we were able to spend time with Dustin's family so it was a way fun, short little trip. GO MSU! go kstate! :)

Happy Birthday Mindy Marie!

I cannot let today pass without doing a small tribute to one of my bestest friends EVER! Mindy Marie was my friend when very few others were. I think we pretty much saved each other in those awkward, difficult, middle school years. **And yes we really had the above picture taken in middle school. And yes we tried to color coordinate. And yes we ACTUALLY thought we looked good! :)** We were seriously inseparable and I was grounded enough of my life at this time (pretty much every other weekend) which proves that apparently we had a hard time parting! :) We were pretty crazy, goofy, nerdy, tom-boyish, and weird! But whatever we did we did it together. Some of the things we had in common and enjoyed immensely were: an unhealthy love of basketball and the Utah Jazz. We both were devastated each time they lost and had a weird dream of being kicked in the head by Karl Malone's big shoe or having him land on us during a basketball game! We were known to wreak havoc around the neighborhood whether it was toilet papering, disassembling trampolines, or just being obnoxiously loud playing night games! We always seemed to have crushes on the same boys! Hubie and ? Crud, I forgot our other code name...yes, we had code names! :) We created our own cow nicknames and T-shirts with logos and everything: Heifer and Holstein Forever! We also were known, or at least creative Mindy was known, for doing fun and crazy things for each other's birthdays!

Here is one of Mindy's birthday ideas. Strings all through my front yard!

Our friendship survived doing a newspaper route together where we actually had some of our deepest conversations as we rode along, many bike rides up the beastly Cliffside hill, jump after jump into ice cold 1st Dam, several walks through cemeteries at night including a night we will never forget when we heard a grave digger, Mindy biting Heather for the whole entire bus ride home for not giving Mindy one of the many, many notes we wrote to each other during school, Heather telling Mindy she had "urkle" pants, almost dying together running beastly 400 after 400 after 400 in track, and Mindy throwing an egg into Heather's face from about a foot away!

The coolest papergirls EVER!

I have so many wonderful,crazy, fun, and amazing memories with Mindy! Even though we live apart now and we probably don't keep contact with each other as well as we should, I want Mindy to know that she will ALWAYS be one of my best and truest friends - someone I know I can always turn to for anything. Happy Birthday Mindy! I sure do love you!

When Mindy met Jack!

Love,
Heather

So long Sally and Grandma and Grandpa Enslinger's 60th Anniversary Get Away!

Over Labor Day Weekend we went to Frisco, Colorado to spend time with Dustin's whole side of the family. Before we left though, we took one last hurrah ride in Dustin's baby, Sally the gold Mustang. We couldn't have 3 cars sitting around anymore, and the Corolla gets better gas mileage and the Highlander is our family car so the Mustang had to go. But not without some sadness from both Dustin and I. It is the car that Dustin bought all by himself in college and the car we went on many a date together in. (We of course couldn't sell it though. It will be Dustin's baby forever. I am sure Sally will be anxiously awaiting our next visit to Kansas.) Dustin drove it out to Colorado and it is now sitting in the garage at his parent's house.. As a family we squished and crammed ourselves into the stang for one last ride up the canyon. Here we are saying goodbye! So long Sally!!

This was actually only Jack's second time in the stang. As you can tell, things are a little tight in there fore a car seat.


Anyway....moving on from that sad note....we went to Colorado because Dustin's Grandma and Grandpa Enslinger wanted to do something and get everyone together to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary that is coming up at the end of October. We had such a fun time and it was great to see everyone! Here are the two love birds of 60 years!

We stayed in a really nice 10 bedroom house in very beautiful Frisco.

While we were there we were able to get family pictures. I don't a have a copy of the whole group one yet. But here is Dustin's family at least.

Here is our little family!

We celebrated the anniversary with cake, cake feeding, toasts and all. Each grandchild and child said a thank you for all they have done for them. Then Grandma and Grandpa spent the next little while scratching away at the $100 + amount of lottery tickets they got from everyone. (No gifts. Just cards and lotto tickets!) We also celebrated a few people's birthday. (Oh yes cake two nights in a row and it was delish!) Shawn, Melissa, Jack and I went and rented a paddle boat on the lake and Dustin got to go gambling.

Jack loved seeing his cousin Gillian and enjoyed taking a bath with her and stealing her pink and purple binkie right out of her mouth a few times.

Proud Jack! Poor Gillian!

He absolutely loved everyone there,especially when they ran laps around the house with him. It was pretty funny to see that a lot of the time all the adults were just sitting around watching the babies and being thoroughly entertained. Jack especially loves his Grandma and Grandpa, and I am pretty sure they are the proudest grandparents around too! They are so much fun with Jack! Here they are taking a break while getting pictures taken to entertain Jack!


Here are some other highlights from the trip.

On the drive to the airport we stopped and went shopping, and Lynn and Patty (and Dustin and I a little) pretty much bought Jack his whole 18 month wardrobe! Thank you so much for that! It was a really fun trip. It was great to see everyone and to celebrate such an amazing accomplishment of 60 years together by Grandma and Grandpa. Thanks to them for making the whole trip possible, for paying for us to get there, and for being the amazing examples that they are to all of us! We love you!

Jack's 9 month stats and skills!

Jack finally had his 9 month appointment on Wednesday. He is a perfectly healthy, wiggly, and happy baby. (The doctor had a hard time uh...examining Jack cuz Jack was being his normal self - flailing his arms and kicking the doctor!) His numbers looked good:

*Height: 30 inches *Yes, we have a very tall boy on our hands - just above 90th percentile*
*Weight: 21 pounds, 8 ounces. *Just below 75th percentile. I think our little porker is starting to even out. Really he has only gained 10 pounds since he has been born!*
*His noggin is also nice and large and full of brains ranking in size just above the 95th percentile!

This picture clearly shows how big Jack is! Our large boy has obviously outgrown his little bouncer chair. As you can see, when he is in it, it almost touches the ground. Oh he used to be so cute and little in it! :) We thought this pic was so funny with his long leg dangling down!


So, here's a few of the amazing things Jack can do and things he likes at 9 1/2 months old.

*He says mama, dada, no ooie (No Chewie), cock-a-doodle-doo, bye-bye, and papa. Ya know, the baby version of these words. But these are definites we have heard out of his mouth. He will try to repeat pretty much anything Dustin says, but not so much for mom. He also just loves to happily yell and scream, even when we are in church, because he likes hearing his own voice. He also has gotten pretty good at waving "Hi" and "Bye-bye" but can be stingy when he busts them out.

*He is doing a creeping, caterpillar-esque type double handed army crawl. He just started doing this more and more this week and he is getting faster and faster. He especially cruises if you stick food out in front of him!


*He is Mr. Independent when it comes to eating and will usually only eat something if he can feed it to himself which narrows his nutritional intake to Cheerios, crackers, gold fishies, and a few other things he has let me break up and put on his tray. The doc said just go with it. Let him eat anything soft that we are eating. Loves the mac n cheese and the other day he had spaghetti noodles for the first time and LOVED them. It seems baby food days are gone already.


*He is becoming SO active when he sleeps that he wakes himself up when he gets crammed or stuck in a corner or has stuck his legs out the bars of the crib. Here he is, with his classic sleeping pose actually holding still in his sleep for a minute!

But he did wake up with a scratch on his nose, probably from him throwing his arms everywhere. But my he is happy little guy! Another funny thing about how he sleeps sometimes is that it is just like how Dustin sleeps - on his side, hugging his blanket. So cute!


*He loves to walk! He will grab hold of our hands and take off speed walking! He also loves when we pull him to standing or when we stand him up to anything - his crib, the coffee table, his pushy thing, etc. He is trying to pull himself up to things, but hasn't quite got all the way with that yet.




*He absolutely loves tubby time, his pool, and just being in water. He is definitely our little water baby!


P.S. If you click on the pool picture and make it bigger, I discovered you can see his teeth REALLY good in that picture!

*He loves to chew on EVERYTHING! And I thought I had to worry about Chewie...

He has been doing some serious teething lately. He is now working on his 6th tooth coming through. He has 2 on bottom, this one will be the 4th on top! Can you see his little teeth, already with a lovely gap! :)


*He also loves his daddy (Daddy gets the best grins when he gets home from work), his mommy acting like a goofball, Chewie (oh he laughs and laughs at Chewie), Chewie's toys and bones, shooting hoops and dancing to the music at his sports station (video of him hooping it up coming later), playing with real keys, chewing on paper, and going for walks. Here he is on walk the other day and I was letting him feel some different textures.


**Although it is exciting to see him do new things, reach milestones, and grow bigger, it is also hard for us. Jack is growing up TOO quickly and time is going SO SO fast! Sometimes we just want to tell him to put on the brakes and slow down a little!**



We love you Jack!! Yee- haw!

Happy 27th Birthday Dustin!!

Dustin Lynn Enslinger was born on this day, August 19, in 1981! He was the first child for his young parents, and he brought absolute joy and happiness to them (other than the fact that he was nearly a month overdue! Poor Patty!) He was to be the only Enslinger grandson to carry on the name! *No pressure.* Today I would just like to say that I am SO thankful for this man in my life! He is an amazing man, a sweet husband, and a wonderful father! Enjoy a small array of pictures to celebrate his birth and life!

Here is that sweetl baby, at 20 days old, whose birth is definitely worth celebrating today!



Dustin grew and continued to be a joy to his family! Here he is at 8 months old. Does Jack resemble him at all? :) Maybe just a little bit!



Here he is at age 7, just because I needed to include an embarassing picture! :) What a guy!



Here, at age 10, you can see in those beautiful eyes that he has always been a sweet, smart, senstitive boy! BTW, nice hair and pink shirt, Dustin! :)



Dustin graduated from high school in 1999. He knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life. He cruised through school graduating from Kansas State University and then getting a Master's from Utah State all before the age of 24. He is truly amazing and so intelligent in so many ways. And nowadays, he does an awesome job as an Athletic Trainer for Montana State!



I truly feel like God had a hand in bringing us together, especially at the time that He did. We began dating a little after Dustin's birthday in 2003. While we were dating, Dustin helped me and my family through some very difficult and trying experiences. I will forever be thankful that he was in my life through some of my darkest and most trial filled days!



I felt like (and still feel like) the luckiest woman in the world to be married to such a handsome, loving, sweet, hard working, smart, wonderful man! What a happy day! And what a catch he was and is still!! :)



Dustin has accomplished so many great things in his life so far. But by far the greatest thing he does, or will ever do, is that he is the best father in the world to Jack! Jack absolutely adores him, and they really are best buddies! Dustin is such a fun, tender, loving father!



Happy Birthday Daddy/Dustin! We love you!

Love,
Heather and Jack (and Chewie)

My OTHER blog....

So I decided that I have too many random thoughts, and I don't want to taint my fun little family blog. So for your viewing/reading pleasure, if you so wish to check it out, I started another blog. It is heathershiddenthoughts.blogspot.com I will probably be updating that more than this one because I have a lot of random thoughts and I will be using it sort of as a journal outlet.

Heather

Swimming Lessons!

This past week Jack and I did a Parent-Tot swimming class. We had lots of fun, and Jack really is a serious water baby! He was by far the youngest baby in the class we were in, but he did better than kids double his age. He does really well at kicking his legs and doesn't mind putting his face in the water! He even did alright when I totally dunked him under a few times throughout the week. He was able to just kick and swim around on his own when he had the floating barbells in his armpits, he could stand on his own and hang onto the side of the pool, he hung onto the little boogie board and kicked his legs, and I helped him go down the ducky slide. He really did amazing and absolutely loved the water. The instructor and other moms in the class were constantly commenting on how excited he was to be in the water and how well he did with each new thing! Good times! Daddy was able to come and watch one day and he took these pictures while Jack showed off for him!

Jack swimming like a champ with his floating barbells!



Hanging onto the side of the pool SO good!



Loving floating around on the noodle! (Look at that face!)



Wahoo! Crusin the pool! Nice face, Mom! But in my defense it is NOT easy helping a 20+ pound 9 month old swim around a pool for 5 days straight!! :)



Riding on the noodle horse!



Jack and me after swimming lessons!