Santa

Santa came to Frederika today and to our surprise Jordan was VERY EXCITED!! This morning he told me that I had to tell Santa what to bring for Christmas but when the time actually came......

he climbed right up there and told Santa that he wanted a John Deere Tractor, John Deere Wagon, a truck and maybe another John Deere Wagon. Then when he got his sack of "goodies" he turned to Santa and said "Thank You". Daddy and Mommy were SO proud.


MERRY CHRISTMAS!

by Jeni

P.S. Santa was GREAT, thank you.

First real snow

Well, it is the end of November and we finally have some snow.

Jordan LOVES it. We still remember just a couple of years ago when he didn't want to touch the snow, now we can't keep him out of it. Today he spent a good hour outside playing.

Jordan watched Daddy move snow off the driveway with Papa's skid loader so.....

when it was time for Jordan to go out he wanted his tractor to move snow with also.

Moving the snow to the side like Daddy does.

"Just making footprints"

Daddy had been pulling Jordan around on the sled, Jordan decided it was just as much fun to pull the sled himself and make tracks.

Even with VERY RED cheeks, he still didn't want to come inside for lunch.

I am sure we will be back out again as long as there is snow on the ground.

by Jeni

Happy Halloween

Well, October is over and with that comes Halloween. We asked Jordan several weeks ago what he wanted to be for Halloween and he very proudly stated......

A Fireman!

so, for the third year in a row we dressed our fireman up and went out trick-or-treating.

The last two years the costume was courtesy of Aunt Angela & Uncle Phil and their wonderful store in Oregon. Jordan outgrew that costume mid-summer so it was sent back.

Aunt Angela in her wonderful way knew just what Jordan needed for his birthday however and sent him a wonderful fire coat. Pair that with his fire hat from his 1st birthday and fire boots that Cousin Megan decided she no longer could wear and ta-da.........


Our Fireman! - version 2008

He had a great time, this year he would even say trick-or-treat and he remembered to say thank you after getting the treats. It was a great night to walk Frederika and even see ALOT of our neighbors.

Bringing the loot from the first house back to the van. Wish the look on his face showed better in this photo. He was so proud.

Well, here is a small portion of the look of "candy victory"!

by Jeni

Grandparents Day at School.

Jordan's preschool had a grandparents day a few days ago. Gramma "Mir" & Papa Steve were able to join the class. We are not sure who was more excited about the day.

The class was asked to bring a picture of themselves with their guests and they were going to do a craft project using the picture.


Jordan was so excited the morning of the special day, he had to wear his shirt like Papa's and his "Papa Boots". Gramma brought her camera like usual and was able to snap a few pictures, Jordan also was able to get a couple.

Mrs. Elsamiller taken from Jordan's view.

A very proud Jordan with Mrs. Elsamiller.

It was rated a "great" day by all.

by Jeni

October Day at the Park

With sun shining on a wonderful Sunday afternoon the what does the Scanlan family do, heads for a park in Chickasaw County with cameras in hand. Daddy wanted to get some nature photos, however, we came back with photos of Jordan and family.

We walked around the park for awhile, snapping pictures as Jordan would stop for a blink of eye.

Finally a good family picture, even though Jordan didn't want me to sit on HIS rock.

by Jeni

Jordan's Artwork

I am going to try this, not sure if it will work or not. Jordan has been doing some awesome art projects in school and we would like to share them. I have scanned these so I hope they come out alright.

these two pieces are one project, our scanner wasn't big enough to do the entire page in one scan so I folded it in half and did two "parts". This was the first project he brought home, mainly just scribbles.



This was the second project he brought home. Again, it is to be one piece but scanner wasn't big enough.



This is the most recent art project to grace our fridge!

Notice how everything is circles. He has also learned how to write most of his name. For those of you that aren't used to looking at little kids writing, in the upper left corner starts the J..... the n looks more like a couple of boxes on top of each other.

It just amazes me everytime he brings something home how much more thought has gone into it. He is learning SO MUCH!! and seems to love learning. I will try to keep putting his projects on here. Hope you enjoy!

by Jeni

Labor Day Weekend.

Labor Day Weekend usually means the end of summer and going back to school. Since the weather was so nice this long weekend we decided to do a couple of outside activities. Saturday we headed to a small zoo that I heard about at work. Jordan loves to see animals so we decided this would be a good thing to do.

At first Jordan wasn't real sure about the dragon, then I showed him it was just cement. He decided then it was fine to hold his ear while daddy took a picture.

When we were done at the zoo we headed back home with a stop in Independence to see the train that "someone" spotted on our way through the first time.

Jordan "driving" the caboose.

Monday was a day for fishing! We invited Granma & Papa to come up and fish with us in Frederika, an of course they said yes. We didn't catch much of anything but the boys had a great time fishing together, and daddy even got some time to take pictures.


Daddy & Jordan getting started.

Papa and Jordan waiting for Jordan's fish.

It took several hours but Jordan finally caught his fish. He was the only one to catch a fish by the way, daddy just caught sticks according to Jordan. Papa said it was worth the day just to see this face when the fish came out of the water.

Hope everyone had as great of a Labor Day Weekend as we did!

by Jeni

Pre-School Starts

Today was the first day of Pre-School for our little man!


We have been talking for a couple of weeks how he was going to go to school in the morning then to Amber's house for the afternoon. All the way to school this morning he was talking about how good he was going to be in school for his teacher and then he was going to go to Amber's for lunch and a nap then daddy would pick him up and take him home. All was going GREAT until........we walk in the door to school and panic hits his eyes. He finally realized that he was going to stay at school and mommy and daddy were going to leave. The tears came and he was glued to my side. We stayed for awhile but both of us had to get to work so we had to leave. The teachers tell us that he was fine within a few minutes, in fact he may be the leader of the class. He was a great helper and did just as was asked. He even says he LOVES school and wants to go back tomorrow.

Our baby is growing up so fast!

Party Day!

Well, after Jordan telling all his daycare buddies since Christmas that they are invited to his birthday party, we decided we should probably have a party for him. So..... today is the day. The invites are out, the decorations are ready to be put up, and Mommy made the cake.

Contrary to what Aunt Emily thought, the cake was made with ONE pan. (Have to love Wilton). I do apologize to the parents for the red frosting and making the kids teeth, tounge, and lips red.

I think everyone had a good time, we played on the playground equipment for awhile, had cake and then opened presents and played some more. All his gifts were hits!

Mommy & Daddy's first attempt at a kid party went off GREAT!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN!

by Jeni

WHO IS HAVING A BIRTHDAY?

Somebody in the house is turning 4 in less than a month. Jordan started telling all his friends in December that they are invited to his birthday party. (Mom didn't even know that he was having a party.) So, today after church we went around town to get some pictures for a birthday invite. Thanks to some WONDERFUL neighbors we got some really great shots.

Carolee has a great garden shed with this wonderful rose growing up on one side. Jordan LOVED the tractor seat he could sit on, but wondered "where Roger's tractor".

Carolee & Roger also have a wonderful barn that Jordan loved to stand, or sit, in front of.

A great big THANK YOU goes out to Carolee & Roger for the unkown use of the "photo studio". You are the GREATEST neighbors to have.

Happy Early 4th Birthday Jordan!

by Jeni

It has been quite a month!

The weather has put this house in quite the turmoil. We have had LOTS of rain, then the tornado in Parkersburg/New Hartford area, then Northeast Iowa flooded. The flood included the river that runs through Frederika, which thankfully didn't effect us other than Jason having to help get the merchandise out of the Bait Shop. We have a normal small stream running across our basement floor.


The next stop for water was the Cedar River that divides Waverly in half. Ann & Steve ended up June 10th with almost 6 foot of river water and sewer backup in their basement at home, the Iowa Realty office also had a basement full and one foot on the main level.


A couple of weeks later and the house is water free, just needs to be organized again, and they are starting on the office.

For more pictures of the flooding and clean up take a look at our photo gallery at the following link: More Flood Pictures

by Jeni

Oh, what a week!!!

June 9, 2008 the city of Waverly went underwater. My parents were right in the middle of it and spent a couple of days cut off from everyone except the neighbors that they could talk to from porch to porch with rushing water between them. Tonight is June 15, 2008 and we finally have the basement cleaned out of all the "stuff" just have to wash things off. After this many days of dealing with 6 foot of flood water in the basement mixed with sewer backup, my sister Emily has given us all something to laugh about.....
To see more pictures of the damage, go to www.scanlanphotos.com there are several galleries to choose from.

When I have more energy I will post more here also.

by Jeni

Time away from the television......

Monday, May 26th, while Jason was in Parkersburg helping, Jordan and I decided to take a break from watching all the news and visit Granma & Papa. We had a HighSchool Graduation Party to attend that direction anyway so decided to drop by and see what they were up to.

Of course, Jordan being as spoiled as he is by Granma & Papa, got Papa to get the "truck" out to see if he could drive it. Papa put the battery in and Jordan jumped in, looked up at me and said "me a big boy now mom". He was such a proud boy Monday!

Look at the concentration at driving down the SIDEWALK! Mom hopes he uses this much concentration when he gets his real license.

After a couple of trips around the parking lot, he had to check the battery, and other fluids I am assuming. Once he was satisfied that everything was alright under the hood, he jumped back in and around the parking lot we went again.

Proud Boy!


We did have to find the sun glasses after awhile.
"Me look cool mom?"

All he has talked about since Monday is that he got to drive the big truck. Sorry Megan, I'm not sure if you will be able to drive him around the parking lot anymore or if he will drive you.

by Jeni

What a Weekend

Watching the news the last few days has been more than depressing. Around 4:45pm on Sunday May 24th a storm came through NE Iowa and hit several communities. The community that seems to have been hit the hardest is Parkersburg. While this is about 1 hour away from us and all we got during the storm was LOTS of rain and a little bit of small hail, Parkersburg has been basically destroyed.

Jason, or resident Fire Fighter/EMS, traveled with others from Frederika to help with searching for victims and cleaning things up. Monday he was even able to get some pictures, instead of me posting them here check out our photo website.

by Jeni

FINALLY a non-rain weekend!

WOW, a Saturday that it isn't raining. So, what does the Scanlan family do? We take the chance to get outside and get things done.

Jason spent most of the day in the shop working on his truck while Jordan, or now known as "shadow", watched VERY carefully. By the end of the day, the truck was fixed.........

and almost all of Jordan's cars had been on the jack at least once.

Jeni got the lawn mowed, well almost. Now the mower is on the jack waiting to be fixed!
We will all sleep VERY well tonight.

by Jeni

After the flash flooding last week, Jordan & I took a drive around Frederika and found a few "flood funnies". These flamingos seem to be on their own island.......

....hoping that "dry" land will be around for awhile.....

How about a "water side" picnic.

by Jeni