June in review

June can be summarized by two words: birthdays & wedding. That was our June. We celebrated Michael & Samuel's 1st birthday on June 9th (and June 11th). We celebrated with some friends and my brother- and sister-in-law and family. I made monkey cupcakes, which turned out pretty well.

The monkeys

The monkey birthday boys (Samuel (left))

The boys are so much fun at this age! They are both crawling very well and pulling themselves up. Michael will "cruise" along furniture and he climbed all the way up the stairs (with Daddy behind to catch him if he fell) last night. They love to "play catch" with a ball. Michael will clap on command and play "peek". Samuel will say "oooh, aaah" all the time and "da da da da" while he crawls. He also loves to say "ah ah ah" like he's laughing. Grandpa taught him that.

We traveled to Small Town where I grew up, on June 10th so I could go to a couple bridal showers for my brother's fiancee. I went to one on June 10th. Emma came with me, but K picked her up about 45 minutes after we arrived because it was bedtime. Later on that night, she came down with a fever so I ended up sleeping in bed with her. I didn't sleep much, though. I was in the kids' room (all 3 kids sleep together at Grandpa & Grandma's house). They are loud sleepers. Samuel snores!!

We had another birthday party for the boys on June 11th with my parents, grandparents, sister, her husband and baby and my brother and his fiancee. It was fun that they could be a part of the party. We had a dump truck party.

The dump trucks with brownie mix and pudding "dirt"

The birthday boys opening more presents (Michael (left))

We had a 2nd shower for my brother's fiancee on June 12th at the church where her family attends and where she grew up. It was fun to see/meet some people that know her well. It seems like a great church.

More birthdays...my niece celebrated her 5th birthday on June 7th. Wow! Where has the time gone? I had my birthday on June 19th and K celebrated his birthday on June 23rd. My sister had a birthday June 27th. Lots of birthdays this month.

And my brother got married on June 26th! It was a fun wedding! Emma was the flower girl and she did better than I expected. I'm a pessimist, I admit, but she was asking me about it and not really sounding like she wanted to do it just a few days before we went to Small Town. But, I think the whole reason she did well was the ring bearer. He was a bouncy, outgoing 4 year old and they got along really well. They did well at the rehearsal (held hands and walked down the aisle) and really well at the wedding. Emma did come and sit by K & me for a little while during the message and the vows. The boys were in the nursery. I'm so glad we could be a part of their special day. Congratulations, J & R! (Unfortunately, while I did bring my camera to the wedding, I forgot to take pictures.)

Now, on to July!

The weekend in review

We had a great time with the family this past weekend. We were at K's brother's house. Which means I didn't have to worry about cooking. Here's a huge thank you to my sister-in-law!!!

We had turkey, mashed potatoes, etc. on Thanksgiving. It was yummy!! Then we went for a walk. It must be part of the Thanksgiving tradition to go for a walk after a big meal, because, growing up, my family did that, too.

Friday morning K's mom and I went to Kohl's. At 7:30ish. It was still really busy! I couldn't believe it. We waited in line to check out for a half hour. I can't imagine how long it would have taken earlier in the morning.

We also opened Christmas presents with K's family. We all got some really cool stuff. I got an awesome blanket from my sister-in-law. It is super soft. I was arguing with Emma this afternoon about whose blanket it is. Well, not really arguing, it just went something like this...Emma said "Emma's blankie." And I said "No, Mama's blankie." Back and forth. I think she still thinks it's hers. I'm so hiding it from her. It was fun to see Emma get more into opening presents this year. For example:

And Friday afternoon, the Huskers played Colorado. And it was a good game! Too close for my comfort, so I couldn't watch all of it.

Saturday was pretty laid back. Aunt M took Emma's pictures in her studio in the afternoon. She does such a great job! Emma did well, too.

I hope you had a great weekend, too!

STL

I almost forgot to write about all the fun we had in St. Louis earlier this month. And it was fun for the most part.

K, Emma and I got to St. Louis early Tuesday evening (November 4th)...right about bedtime. We stayed at the Residence Inn in Chesterfield, MO. What a nice hotel! It was more like little apartments, actually. There were quite a few different buildings with 8 rooms (I think) in each building. (This would be a lot easier to explain if I had taken a picture!) All the rooms had outdoor entrances and our door was pretty close to K's brother's family's door. I will refer to them as "the fam". Anyway, our room & the fam's room were on the first floor and kind of secluded (you had to go around the back side of one of the buildings.) And they were right next to the basketball/tennis court. Great for letting small children run. All this to say that we put Emma to bed in our room and went and watched election coverage in the fam's room. They got into St. Louis around 10.

The next day we headed to the (FREE) St. Louis zoo. It was perfect weather to go to the zoo. There was only one unfortunate thing. The zoo people were spreading manure on the flowerbeds. See?

That's some stinky fertilizer. But we still had fun at the zoo. I love seeing the hippos and elephants. They are so....big! After the zoo, we had lunch and went to see The Arch. K took Emma to the top of the arch and K's brother, B, took 2 of the cousins up. I stayed down with M and the baby. One time to the top (during our first trip to St. Louis back in '05) was enough for me. Then we went back to the hotel and Emma got a nap. Thank goodness. She does like her sleep.

Thursday was the big transfer day so we were at the hospital from 7:30 until 11:00. The fam watched Emma which included taking her to the St. Louis Science Center. Which was FREE also. Here she is having some fun.


K and I got to go out for lunch by ourselves at Chick-fil-a. We don't have a Chick-fil-a here. Then it was nap time and we ate at a yummy barbeque place for supper called Masterpiece BBQ. Which was conveniently located by a Ben & Jerry's. But we were so full, we had to take that to eat later after the kids went to bed. I can't even remember what we had, but it was chocolate and it was delicious.

Friday we had to say goodbye to St. Louis. And not cooking and not cleaning. Back to real life. And our own beds. But the beds at the Residence Inn were really nice, too. And the breakfast was wonderful. Because that's one of the main things I look for in a hotel!

We're hoooooome

We drove home today. It was a long ride and I was so ready to be home. And see Emma again. She was napping when we got home. So we found out how much fun she was while we were gone from Grandpa and Grandma. She really did great. She was happy to see us when she got up, but not overly excited like I was secretly wishing.

Okay, enough about me. I need some advice from you guys. I need a good book to read. I haven't read a good book for a long time. Wait, I read The Westing Game (highly recommended by my brother-in-law) recently. It was a good book! Please give me your suggestions! I may not get to reading any time soon because I tend to get into a book and stay up all hours to finish it and then I'm pretty tired the next day(s). When you read a really good book are you sad to finish it? I get that way. I don't want the fun to end!

Big fun

This is long, people, so I hope you have a few minutes...this is more like a diary of our trip...

On Thursday, August 7th, we set out for the great state of Wisconsin to see one of K's cousins get married. We went 3 hours and then stopped. For the night. At my brother- & sister-in-law's house. It was a good thing because we still spent a long 8 hours on the road (we stopped for an hour for lunch) the next day. Emma actually did quite well considering she doesn't sleep very much in the van anymore. K and I took turns driving and the other one took care of Emma (read: fed her snacks). Because what would a road trip be like without snacks?!!

We arrived in Small Town, WI in time to eat the rehearsal dinner. And then left to put Emma to bed. We stayed in a different Small Town at a bed & breakfast with K's parents. We actually stayed a separate "cottage" that turned out to be an apartment with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath, a kitchen and a living room. It worked just fine for us.

Saturday was the wedding. The wedding was at 1:00. Not a great time for children under the age of 3, but Emma actually took a morning nap that day. During the wedding, K sat with her in the cry room since she is quite loud. The wedding was wonderful. It started out with some praise and worship songs. Loved that. The groom's dad is a pastor so he did the wedding. The reception was at a family camp (near where we stayed) in a big mess hall. Then there was a dance, but it was "loud" according to Emma and K doesn't dance, so we left to put Emma to bed. This was the beautiful camp where the reception was held:


On Sunday morning we met with K's extended family that was there for some singing and devotions. And lunch. It was fun seeing some family that we hadn't seen for a while. Then K's mom, a couple of his aunts and myself decided that we were going shopping. Woohoo! I found some new books for Emma - recommended by K's aunt who is a teacher - at the Goodwill store. Anyway, then we ate supper and hung out for far too late (for Emma) at K's grandparents motor home.

Monday we left for home. We stopped at the Wisconsin state capital. It was beautiful. Except for the brass badgers above the doors. Those were just...interesting. See for yourself.


We stayed at brother- & sister-in-law's house again Monday night. And Tuesday was a great day! We went to the Iowa State Fair. It rained pretty steadily in the morning so we did the "indoor" stuff. Including...the ShamWow! I got one! It may have been a fake, though since it was called the ShamiWow...but it looked the same. It stopped raining in the afternoon and it was really nice to be outside.

We had a lot of fun with K's brother & sister-in-law and Emma's cousins. Not to mention that we ate over $40 worth of food. But it was all yummy! My favorite were the mini-donuts. And the shake. And the big pretzel. You get the idea. In the words of K's brother, it was big fun!!! As was our whole vacation!

To read more big fun vacations go see Kristin at We are THAT Family.

Oh my

I'm back. Kind of. I still need to catch up on sleep. My brain is still somewhere last Sunday or so. I will give the full vacation report on August 29th with Kristen's vacation carnival.

For the very brief summary, our vacation consisted of a very long car ride - despite only sleeping 1/2 hour, Emma did fine - a wonderful wedding and beautiful Wisconsin weather...seeing some relatives that we haven't seen for a long time...a bed and breakfast with a missing breakfast...another very long car ride...and rain and yummy food at the Iowa State Fair!!

Sirens

We were visiting my family this past weekend in the town I grew up in. It's a town of about 5000 people. We had a great time visiting family. My grandma is doing just fine after her knee surgery. She went home yesterday and my aunt & uncle & cousins from Texas are staying the week at her house. My aunt is a nurse so she'll take good care of grandma. Thank you for your prayers!

My mom emailed me last night saying that around 6 pm last night there was a big fire at a store in town. She sent pictures. It looked terrible. If the wind had been the other direction, I think a lot of other stores could have been damaged or totally lost. The wind was blowing toward the street that runs next to the store that was on fire. Here's a big hooray for firemen! They have such an important and dangerous job. Just look at all the smoke in this picture.


How in the world can you see in the middle of the smoke? Not to mention being able to breathe! Thank you to all firemen across the country!!!

Weekend fun

Last weekend, we enjoyed visiting K's parents and brother & family. K's brother and wife have 3 great kids and it was fun to hang out with them. Emma enjoys playing with her cousins, who are (boy) 5, (girl) almost 3 and (girl) 2 months. They also live on an acreage, so there's lots of room to run around outside. Emma loves being outside!

We went to celebrate the youngest baby being dedicated to the Lord. Our church refers to it as family dedication because it's really the Dad & Mom standing up in front of the church promising to raise their child to know Jesus. It was a nice ceremony - what I saw anyway. Emma only made it through 3 babies (our neice was first, fortunately).

We also got to go to the zoo on Monday. K took the day off of work so we could stay an extra day. It was really nice out and Emma enjoyed it. She really wanted to walk in the zoo, though, not ride in a stroller. I don't blame her! She's been to the zoo once before, but she was only 5 months old, so I don't think she noticed too much.

Colorado

As I have mentioned a few times, we were in the mountains last weekend. We left Wednesday night around 6:30 and got to Estes Park at 5:00 am central time. In case you're wondering, after traveling through the night to get there and during the day to get home, I would travel during the day both ways...with 3 kids under the age of 2. On the way there, I think K and I got about a half hour of sleep total. Emma did much better, but was still up for 2 hours when she would have normally been sleeping. So our family started out the vacation short on sleep.

We stayed in our friend's dad's newly purchased house. We did have one issue dealing with the sewer...it backed up into the basement. A plumber was promptly called and came to deal with the issue and we ended up getting to clean up the yuck that had gotten on the basement floor. I should have taken a picture.

However, it really was a great vacation. I love to see the mountains, especially with snow on top of them. It was a little snowy the first day, but we saw the sun for the other two days. It was fun spending time with our friends and going shopping in downtown Estes Park. K and I got to have a date night while our friends watched Emma. We drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park and saw a lot of elk. We also went to Bear Lake and walked for a little ways on 3 feet of snow as it was snowing around us!







Emma ended up getting a fever on Saturday during the day. She was a trooper on the way home. For the most part, she looked like she didn't feel very good, but she did very well in her car seat. She's been living on Tylenol since then and I took her to the doctor's office yesterday. They aren't sure what it is...maybe a virus. So please pray for Emma's fever to get better! Thank you!!

Colorado

We are traveling to Colorado next weekend with two other families and will have 3 kids under the age of 2. It's about a 7 hour drive without children. We are driving there Wednesday night and ideally, all the kids will sleep most of the way there. Ideally. The drive back could be a different story. Unfortunately, our daughter is not the most patient person. I wonder where she gets that from? It should be fun having all the kids there, though. I just need to remember to be more laid back about everything that happens and not have to be "in control" of every situation. If you think of it, pray for my patience!
Julie