Baseball helmet

Jasper loves to play baseball. And when you play baseball you need a baseball cap. Or helmet.

Crush

Jasper has his first "crush." It is with his tumbling coach named Lauren. He always wants her to help him during class and usually stands in line real still to wait for her next direction. It is pretty cute! This is his 4th week of his 6 week tumbling program, so we'll have to make sure we go into the Altoona Campus and visit her after this session. He is even doing a great somersalt now! The first week he had no idea how to do one, and now he's doing them all by himself, tucking his head, and everything! Way to go big guy! This is a picture of Lauren helping him on the mats at class.

Happy September Birthdays!

We got together over at Aunt Sandy's house for pizza and cake to celebrate august and september birthdays. One picture includes Jasper playing BINGO. He loved this game and once he found it, i think he worked on spinning the wheel and calling BINGO the rest of the night. Perri also showed us some of her dance moves and Dom showed off his standing and taking a few steps - way to go, buddy! This was my mom's 55th birthday - so people were teasing her about being the "speed limit" - funny! Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

A Night at the Salon

Every few months, my cousin Allison graciously sets aside a family hair night! We get some pizza and she makes our hair beautiful again! This time, Jasper came with me and boy, did he have a good time! He got to play with Payton and Allison even got a manequin head out so he could do the hair, which included combing it, pretend "coloring" it with a brush and water, and of course, styling it. Uncle Junior came and helped Jasper do his hair, too. I think he will probably ask to come to another family hair night!

Cuddle Time

We went over to Grandma Vicki's house the weekend of her birthday and hung out with Jason, Noah, and Abbey. It was kind of a dreary day outside - misty and cold - so we put in the CARS movie and the boys cuddled up to watch it.

Go Hawks!

We headed over to the Norems house to watch the ISU v. IA game (Iowa won big, but I can't remember the score right now). Meaning that the game was fun to watch for a while and then we got distracted since it wasn't an exciting game. Ava, Katie, and Jasper enjoyed some time in the bouncy house. Adam, Zach, and Hank played some catch and Jman and Hank even got some reading time in. Jman is quite fond of Hank. When we got to their house, Jasper simply said, "hey hank" like he is over there all the time. It was funny! And just a few weeks later, the Norems welcomed baby Claire to the family! So now Jasper has two Norem girlfriends :)

Fishing Fun

We headed out to Stuart to enjoy one last fishing trip before the weather got too cold. We caught quite a few little fish, including one neon green fish that kept biting jasper's pole :) (his toy story pole has a green fish permanently attached to it). Jasper did a great job reeling it in and he and Syd liked the thrill of the catch more than actually touching the fish once it was caught.

Bubble gun

Jasper likes to pop bubble gum bubbles, which his mother started doing with him. He got to pop my bubble gum this morning when we were just playing around.

Jasper-isms

So now that J is talking more than ever - and that's A LOT - we thought we better do another installment of quotes from Jasper. (By the way, this is J getting an 'airplane ride' from me this morning.)

Here we go ...

"Who's that somebody?!?!": Said when he hears a noise outside or sees someone he doesn't know. (Also: "Who IS that somebody?!?!")

"Pun" or "punny": He says 'p' instead of 'f', so that's actually 'fun' and 'funny', as in, "You're punny grandpa" or "That's gonna be so pun!"

"Way": Things aren't just fun or weird or yummy to Jasper, they're 'Way fun', 'Way weird' or 'Way yummy.'

"Please do that any more.": Said when he doesn't want you to do something any more. (He always misses the 'don't'.)

"How's your day?": Said at any point during the day - morning, noon or night, sometimes right when he wakes up. And he'll often ask you multiple times during the same 'conversation' about your day. (He's very polite.)

"Mommy, Daddy ... I wake up!!!!!": This is how he announces to us in the morning or after a nap that he's ready to get out of his big boy bed.

"Boy big bed.": He often flips 'big' and 'boy' when talking about his 'big boy bed.'

"Mother Juice." Referring to his favorite book at the moment - a large collection of Mother Goose nursery rhymes.

"I wanna watch racecars.": Saying he'd like to watch the animated movie 'Cars.'

"Watch out for Big White (or Big Blue).": He tells us this when we're backing out of the garage, depending on if we're in Big White (my car, an Oldsmobile) or Natalie's car (a blue Honda).

"What color is it ... Can I see it?": Asked while we're changing a poopy diaper. (He's very curious.)

"Ruff, ruff ... open the door, I want inside (or outside)": We asked J what Cozmo said and this was his quote.

Tumbling

Jasper had his first tumbling class last Tuesday - with ONE other kid in the class at the Altoona Campus. That worked out well because J and Charlie got tons of one-on-one time with Lauren, the instructor.

They had to run up, then jump off, a foam ramp and then were supposed to go into a summersault. Jasper's not great yet at the summersault but he's already better than he was before he started. He'll be a pro in no time.

They then hopped into and out of hula hoops and hit the first balance beam (there were three). In the end J went forward, backward and sideways on the balance beams, took little hops on one and high-stepped over bean bags to work on his balance.

Lauren finished things up week one with a short lesson and kept their attention with a box full of candy sitting on her head. Each boy got one piece of candy at the end of the class - J took a blue sucker. (She better have the box next week -- I'm sure J will remember!)

He liked it a lot and I'm sure will learn a ton during the six-week class.

Kyren's football game

Paul, John, Ken, Syd, Jasper and I went to Ankeny today to watch Kyren's first football game since he moved back from Virginia. Kyren - Syd's half brother - plays offensive and defensive line and did a great job on both sides of the ball, especially defense.

Meanwhile, the gals - Nat, Debbie, Melissa and Vicki - went to Valley Junction for an antique jamboree.

Here are a handful of photos from Kyren's game. He's No. 52 on the silver team.

Go Hawkeyes!

Sept. 4 was the first game for the Ia. Hawkeyes! It's halftime now and the score is 28 to 7 (hawks) vs. Eastern Illinois. We put our Hawk shirts on and watched the game together. Jasper's shirt is an old-school shirt that Adam used to wear when he was younger, it's pretty cool! Here is Adam and J just hanging out enjoying the game!

Potty Jar!

Jasper's two loves, when it comes to candy, are suckers and M&Ms! So, we decided to make a potty jar filled with M&Ms. When he goes potty on the big boy potty,he gets 1 M&M. When he goes poopie,he gets 2 M&Ms. We'll see if it works or not, but if not, it was still a fun project. He picked out 'Nemo' stickers to decorate it with and we had a fun time!

Soon after we made the jar, he did go potty and got 1 M&M - so we'll see how it goes!

Line 'em up!

So, Jasper has inherited a little of his daddy's personality, in which, he is kind of a perfectionist. Here are some examples of how Jasper plays with his toys - he lines them up all in a row - he likes to make trains out of all of his toys, including his trucks in his sandbox. The picture with the magnets, I told him to put his magnets back up on the refrigerator and this is how he did it. And you better not move one out of place or it will be fixed right away.