Garage Sales

Had to post a picture of my latest strange garage sale find. Couldn't pass it up for 50 cents. I'm sure my husband will love me for getting him such an awesome shirt.

I had no idea...

By the way... he will NOT be wearing this in public. :)

Bath Boy

Would the real Slim Shady please SIT DOWN?

Please SIT down. Please SIT down. This is my 7 month old standing up... he lost interest in crawling after a week. Heaven help me.

People who annoy me, pt. 1

I'm making this post a part 1 because I just have the sneaking suspicion that I will find a few more people in life that annoy me and will warrant a blog post about it.

This post is for those people who don't control their pets. The following scenario has happened to me twice now:

Standing in line checking out at the pet store. The next thing I know Kaiya has been licked from chin to forehead by the ugliest, most slobbery dog on the planet. And the owner, who has the dog on the leash is not intervening!!! As I scoop Kaiya up and hold the line up while I wash her face with baby wipes, the owner laughs -- "oh you silly dog," not apologizing or acknowledging that their animal just french kissed my child. I think they think that it is so cute that their dog loves kids so much.

Two times this has happened to me!!! And the best part is that you KNOW had my child pulled their dog's tail they would have asked me to get control of my child. I think I am going to start giving Kaiya self-defense lessons against canines. And I promise I'm not a dog hater... this just annoys me. :)

Anyone else have funny kid/animal stories?

Nothing says summer fun like...

...finger painting...

...your entire body.
...5 kids in a kiddie pool.

...a serious game of t-ball.

Water Park

How is it that I have been a month behind in blogging this summer? It's crazy... and I'm going to catch up one of these days. Mid-July we joined friends on a trip to the water park. Baby Aeva turned "1" and so we went to the park to celebrate. Although Kaiya had no idea what a water park was she couldn't sleep out of excitement and was still mumbling "wa-wa park" at 10:30 p.m. Turns out that it was more than she could imagine and she had a BLAST. About halfway through our day I realized that I could put a life vest on her and she could manage riding on a two-person intertube with me down the big slides. They won't let me hold her, but she can sit on the middle section of the two person tube and I can wrap my legs around her. Once we figured that out, she really had fun. She was quiet as a mouse the whole way down the slide and when we flew out the bottom she just started cracking up. Giggles over and over... and she wanted to go again. Here are a few pictures from the day.

Rachel & Connie

Kaiya in an over-sized life vest

And... we've been hearing about the wa-wa park for weeks now. She has a new doll house w/ little dolls and she piles the whole family into the car. If you ask her where they are going... 9 times out of 10 they are headed to the wa-wa park. :)

Blueberry Picking

The first week in July we headed out to the Pickin' Patch again. Blueberries were very ripe and ready to be picked! All together we picked 25 lbs. The kids did pretty good. Although Kaiya could not stop eating them. She picked like 5 and ate 254.

Cassie & Kaiya

This is pretty much what Kaleb did the whole time...

This picture I post because Connie -- What the heck is he doing? :) I think this is a blackmail photo...

Kaiya showing me the BIG berry she picked... and then ate.

Wordless Wednesday

The 4th

The 4th was a nice day. Kaiya was a bit moody most of the day, but I wanted to see the fireworks, so against my better judgment I hauled us down to the lake. :) The fireworks were enjoyable, but what I can't figure out is why Winona Lake does three displays at the same time. Why don't they spend all the money on one HUGE show in the middle of the lake?

This folks, is my new wagon. It is possibly my most favorite garage sale purchase of the season. It's a Radio Flyer... and it was $20. Shamefully, I didn't offer her $15 for it. What. was. I. thinking? I was just too excited because I knew $20 was an excellent deal on it. The best part? It fits in my trunk. The worst part? My 7 month old son thinks he should stand up in it. :) Cassie & Kaleb waiting for the show to start.
Mama & the kids
Not one of her better moments
Kaleb intently watched the firework show -- he was kind of confused about it.

Wordless Wednesday

Body Building. It's never too early too start training. Look at that form.

St. Louis, Pt. 1

Half of my pictures from this trip are on Tony's laptop and the other half were on my camera. So... this post will have to be broken into two and then the other cute pictures posted later. We had a great week - although it went super fast and didn't get to see everyone we wanted to. We spent the first half of the week with my friend Bethany. Went to the zoo & Grant's Farm and just spent some time relaxing together, while simultaneously referreeing our girls.

Kaleb loved the zoo... and Grant's Farm...

The rest of the week we stayed with the Free Family, our good friends from Logan. Tony & Nate were in classes most of the weekend and the girls just hung out. We saw a free movie at the theater, played outside, grilled out with friends. Those pictures are on the laptop.

Here are a few from a meal with Jen & Jason.

AJ after Kaiya beat him up. JK -- I can't remember what happened.

They really do love each other. So sweet.

To Be Continued...

Austin & Kristina

A few weeks ago the kids and I ventured down to St. Louis to spend time with friends and meet up with Tony for the weekend. He had to be in town for a conference anyway so it worked out great. On our trip down we made a pit stop in Indianapolis to visit our friends Austin & Kristina. Their subdivision has a pool which made for a nice refreshing stop before finishing the drive. Here are a couple cute pics of the kids with them.

More posts from St. Louis will be on the way soon. I think Tony has some of the pictures on his computers, so I gotta snag them from him first.

Out of the mouth of babes, pt. 1

Now that Kaiya is talking I thought it would be a good time to start this series. Out of the mouth of babes will be the funny things that only a toddler would say.

The following conversation took place last weekend at Tony's mom's house while Kaiya was getting her diaper changed:

Nannie: You stink! Whew!
Kaiya: NO!!!
Nannie: Yes, you stink!
Kaiya: No! Poop stinks!

That's it folks -- she's genius! :)

And today... although he isn't speaking yet, Kaleb gets an entry as well. A good hour after he had eaten, I was holding him and I lifted him into the air and exclaimed, "There's my crawling..." --Kaleb spits up - all in my mouth, on my face, in my hair and down my shirt. Yep. It was nasty.

Good thing he's so cute. :) Here's a pic from June with that new little tooth. He's actually cut both bottom teeth now.

I'm still playing catch up with pictures from earlier in June. Here is a glimpse of Kaleb's first experience with food. I made carrots and applesauce for him to try. He wretched through the entire meal. :) This is kind of how it went:

Why, oh why is she doing this to me?
Still wretching...."Watch me, Kaleb! I'm a pro at this eating thing."
If sister can do it, I can do it.
He has caught on rather quickly. We've done peas, green beans, sweet potatoes, beets and pears in addition to these first foods. Now that we are in the middle of summer I should be able to get some good fruit purees made. Organic fruit is hard to come by around here though... Looking forward to being in the bigger city soon. :) I think we are gonna stock up at Trader Joe's when we pick up Tony in Indianapolis. 17 days and counting!

First trip to the Movies

A few weeks ago, Kaiya had her first trip to the movie theater. Not counting the couple of times we took her when she was a few weeks old. We were in denial about the lack of freedom we had once she was born. The movie theater experience is not nearly as enjoyable while nursing a little baby. Somehow takes away from the entertainment aspect. Anyway....

The theater in town does free Wednesday shows, so we have gone almost every week. She did pretty good given her short attention span. And she was wiped out afterward.

Dear Tony,

I heart you.