The Stallings

Pumpkin Patch

2009-10-29T18:43:00.001-07:00

We finally got out to the Pumpkin Patch. We have been trying for a few weeks, but whenever we have had time it does what it does best in Washington, RAINS.

Landon loved all the pumpkins. Every time we drive past a field of pumpkins he says "pumpkin, pumpkin" over and over again. He got to pick out his own pumpkin and was very excited to bring it home with us.

We even managed to get a family photo in. It didn't turn out too bad.

Blocks, Blocks and more Blocks

2009-10-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

So all of a sudden Landon is totally into building things. We have two sets of blocks, wood ones and a set of mega blocks. We have had both sets for well over a year and He was never into them until very recently.

Landon will get them out and dump them all over the floor and most of the time his mission seems to create something that uses all the blocks. So as you can see most of the time his creations are pretty tall.

This set is his mega blocks, which are really just giant legos. These make it easy for him to create his buildings, but he will do the same with the wood blocks. I always quite amazed that he can create these tall "buildings" and has no problem with them falling over. He has mastered these things.

What have we been up to?

2009-06-14T13:34:00.001-07:00

Okay so I know, I have been horrible. It has been over a month and I haven't posted anything. So here is my excuse....life. We have been super busy. We have taken a trip to the zoo, celebrated Mother's Day, enjoyed super nice weather, went to "Elmo Live"and taken Landon to his first Mariner's game. It may not sound like a lot, but when it means packing up for and lugging a toddler around it is a lot.

Landon taking time to smell the flowers on the pear tree. It isn't often that Landon stands still enough to do anything, let alone smell something.

Brad and a friend of his put a mini size "playground" in. Landon loves to climb up and slide down his mini size slide. He still can't get enough of being outside. The moment we get home he wants to be out there the majority of the time it is hard to get him to come back in.

Brad got awesome tickets for a Mariner's game. About 30 rows up an the 3rd base side. We couldn't have asked for better seats.

We were really worried that it was going to be a problem with Landon being the "never sit still for anything" kind of kid, but we had friend on one side of us right next to the aisle and a nice couple on the other side that really didn't seem to mind Landon at all and as soon as the game started Landon was worn out enough that he sat on our laps and towards the middle of the game he was sound asleep.
My mom and I took Landon to the zoo for the annual Mom and Me at the Zoo. We thought that he would love looking at all the animals, which he did, but there was also a band playing children's songs that he was more into. The above picture is him dancing away to the music. He spent more time dancing that he did looking at animals.

Of the animals he saw, the petting zoo and farm animals were his favorite. I think it more about the space, there was room to run around, than the actual animals.

Afternoon at the Park

2009-05-04T19:22:00.000-07:00

Landon would spend all day every day outside if we would let him. With the nice weather that we have recently had, Landon has got to do a lot more things outside including an afternoon at the park with friends. He loves to be able to walk around the jungle gym, with Brad or myself of course.

His smile says a thousand words. It's amazing how quickly they grow. It was only six months ago that Landon would have been overly cautious about climbing up and walking around the jungle gym, but now Brad and I have a hard time keeping our hands on him. He wants to go up, then down and he never wants to go home.

Landon climbing up the rock wall. It is amazing how much confidence they have in themselves at this age. If Brad and I would have let him I really think he would have attempted to climb this on his own, he may not have had much success, but he never thinks that before he starts.

Children's Museum

2009-05-04T19:12:00.000-07:00

Brad and I recently took Landon to the Children's Museum for the first time. It ended up taking him quite a while to get comfortable enough to actually go and play with all the "stuff" without Brad or I coaxing hi to do so. Once he got into the groove though he was totally into it. As you can see below he really liked getting to climb up, on and through things.

Landon loves fish. I think if you let him he would stand there all day. I think it helps that "fish" is one of the only animals he knows besides "puppy" and "kitty". I guess when you can call out what you are looking at over and over again it makes the experience more exciting.

Landon is all boy. Anything that involves noise is heaven to Landon. Whether it be his own voice making sounds or as he got to do at the Children's Museum, shaking and banging things.

Go Silvertips!!!

2009-04-19T17:58:00.000-07:00

Grandpa gets tickets to all kinds of events and most recently he got tickets to see the Silvertips Hockey team. You can't really tell from the pictures, but Landon did have a great time. The seats aren't regular seats, they are like sitting at a bar, so Landon got to sit on top of the bar/table and watch the game.

Okay, so the pictures aren't the best. I think we waited a little too lang to start snapping photos.

As you can see He didn't really dig the mascot, but it was neat that are seats were up next to the season ticket holder private rooms so we got to get to see the mascot without lots of other fans around.

A little too quiet

2009-03-16T19:56:00.000-07:00

The other night I was busy doing something and thought that Brad was keeping an eye on Landon, but Brad thought that I was keeping an eye on Landon and this is what happened. The one door we normally always keep closed just happened to have been accidentally left open and someone thought it would be fun to play with toilet paper.

Landon loved it. One of the first thing we taught Landon to do a long time ago was to wipe his nose. With all this toilet paper he was in heaven. As you can see in the picture above with his fist full of toilet paper wiping his nose.

Table & Chairs

2009-03-16T19:41:00.000-07:00

For Christmas Landon's Great Grandparents got a table and chairs set. I kept wondering if he would ever be able to get up on them by himself, since He still can't get up on any furniture in our house. He finally made it up on the chair not too long ago and He loves it.

He loves to sit at the table and color, drive his car across the table or just look out the window.

Helping Momma With Laundry!

2009-03-16T19:34:00.000-07:00

Okay so maybe playing in the laundry basket when it's empty isn't much help. As you can see though he sure does think it is fun.

Landon is so into doing whatever Brad and I are doing now. It really doesn't matter if you is actually doing what we are doing as long as he gets to touch or play with something he thinks that we are using at that moment. For instance I brought out the laundry basket and emptied it and he needed to get right in it.

Gettin' in a workout

2009-01-28T08:24:00.000-08:00

The toddler days are finally here. Landon has discovered that he can climb on a few things in the house. The elliptical being one of the them. He got right up on it, fearlessly, and I really think he would have stayed there if he could have figured out how to climb higher without any help.

Okay, so maybe he had a little help getting to this step.

He is very proud of himself for discovering that he can climb up on something. I know that this is just the beginning.

Christmas

2008-12-31T14:10:00.000-08:00

Brad, Landon and I had a great Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve at my Grandparents and Christmas Day at my parents. It was really nice to not have to go far and to be in places where Landon feels right at home. It is amazing how much Landon has changed just since his first birthday 4 months ago. He finally has started to get the concept of ripping paper and that he gets the item he unwraps. Once he got something unwrapped he wanted it out of the box immediately so that he could play with it. The only hard thing was getting him to move onto the next gift. It was so much fun to see him get excited about his presents.

Landon playing with his new workbench.

Landon unwrapping one of his many gifts.

Landon trying to get one of his new toys out of the box...he needed a little help from mommy in the end.

Landon realizing it is okay to rip the wrapping paper off.

Snow!!!

2008-12-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

We got a little more snow than we bargained for at our house....somewhere close to 2 ft. Although Brad and I were a little frustrated since we had to get to work in it, Landon was in heaven. He loved the snow. You would have never known that it was in the teens temperature wise or that everywhere you walked you had to be super careful you didn't fall because it was so slick. As long as Landon had on his snow suit, boots, hat and gloves he was all set. He figured out very quickly that it was slippery and would walk very slowly and with all those layers I don't think he realized how cold it really was.

The look on his face says it all! What a happy little guy.

He is content just being outside, even if he is just walking around or standing there taking in the sights.

Halloween

2008-12-11T17:23:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's almost Christmas and I am just getting to posting pics of Halloween...sorry everyone. I can't believe how fast time flies.

As you can see Landon was a dragon for Halloween. The first few times he put his costume on he got gifts of some sort, whether it be candy or a toy, and I think he was beginning to think that every time he would put the costume on he got something.

As you can see, it was a long day. Going from place to place really wore him out. This was the only picture of him we actually got on Halloween. We ended up having to dress him up again the next day t get some shot where he was crying.

What a cute face! Who would have thought a dragon could be so cute.

Afternoon at the Park

2008-11-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

Landon loves to be outdoors. He seems to be happiest when he is doing something outside. Too bad we live in washington and have to fight the rain year round, because I would love to let him play outside all the time.

Landon loves the toys at the park. Whether it be the swings or the slide he is entertained doing either. From the picture below you can see he can stand, but he has yet to walk more than a couple of steps on his own.

As you can see he loves to swing. I have yet for him to get tired of it. Every time we have gone to the park we are ready to go long before Landon is ever ready to go.

Little Helper

2008-11-11T18:18:00.000-08:00

As you can see Landon loves to do anything that someone else is doing. In this case Brad was putting locks on the cabinets to keep Landon out and he felt as if he needed to participate. If he only knew that what he was doing was ruining his fun in that cabinet!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

2008-11-11T18:02:00.000-08:00

Brad and I took Landon to the Plant Farm between Marysville and Arlington to get pumpkins for Halloween. Not only did Landon get pumpkins, but He also got the opportunity to go on a "train" ride and a hay ride.

Landon got to sit on a tractor, which loved. He knew exactly what he was supposed to do when he got up there. As you can see he reached right for the steering wheel and wanted to drive the tractor all by himself.

Landon loved the train ride. There were nursery rhymes that played and the "train" had a bell, for someone so little it was really a lot of fun.

It was fun to see Landon stand up to the pumpkins and think back to this time last year and realize how much he has grown.

Landon uses a spoon!!

2008-11-01T23:10:00.000-07:00

Landon has finally figured out that he can use a spoon. It may be a little messy, but hey I guess you got to learn some how.

The down side to this...he thinks that he has it mastered and he no longer needs our help for anything. I guess this is probably the first of many things that he will "know" he doesn't need our help with.

Ringling Bros. come to town

2008-09-09T18:47:00.001-07:00

Landon got to go to his first circus this past weekend. Brad and I were excited to see how he would react. We were both really amazed that he made it through the entire 2 hour show. He loved watching all the lights and people running around the floor below and listening to the music.

Balloon fun

2008-09-09T18:39:00.001-07:00

For Landon's first birthday I couldn't resist, but to get him balloons. The day of his birthday he was kinda into them and would hit them when given the chance, but the day after he dicovered that you can do more with balloons than just hitting them. Every time I would turns around he would have those things wrapped around some part of his body so that when he crawled around they could go with him. It was quite the site to see little Landon with balloons twice his size being drug behind him.

Landon turns one!

2008-09-09T18:16:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it has been a year. How time flys when you are having so much fun. Although at times we wondered how we would make it through 18 years with this little man, every second has been well worth it and Brad and I look forward to every second yet to come.

Tub Time

2008-09-09T18:06:00.000-07:00

I don't know what it is about the water, but Landon absolutely loves it!!! Even when you think that he has had to have had enough, due to the fact that his fingers are getting wrinkled, you have thought wrong. If he is cranky, tired or mad a bath can otally change his attitude. Brad and I often feel guilty taking him out.

Cooling down

2008-08-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

With the temperatures being record breaking we have had to become creative in keeping Landon comfortable.Although the heat doesn't seem to bother him, he did think it was the coolest thing to sit in the freezer to cool off for a minute.

Landon loves to play in the water. I think he would stay in the bath or pool all day if you would let him.

When ever he gets a chance he is throwing things in and taking things out of the water. Even at home he loves to put cars in the dog's water dish if you haven't hidden it.

Landon's First Fair

2008-08-09T21:56:00.000-07:00

I got to go to my first fair today. I got to see and touch all kinds of animals including horses, pigs and cows.

I loved looking at the baby pigs sleeping.

I got to to see and touch a bunny for the very first time.