Beat the Heat

Goodness it is hot outside, it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't so humid. At least today there are no sudden thunderstorms in the forecast, the last few days we have had strange weather. Yesterday the storm woke Gabe up from his nap because it hailed for awhile and the hail stones hitting his window scared him. He doesn't scare easily so it must have been traumatic for him. Today since there was no rain in the forecast we headed to the park and the wading pool. Gabe loves the water and had fun playing in the fountains. Ty usually loves to crawl around in the water but today he was content just to sit and play with the toys around him, fine by me less worrying about the location of two active little boys. Cousin Clark also joined us for awhile but I never could get a very good pictures of all of them together. Way too much going on to sit for pictures. This past weekend we bought Gabe a blow up pool at Wal-mart since they are now on clearance. He loves it and had a blast playing in the water. It had to be drained yesterday since there was quite a bit of debris in it from the storms. We may have to swim from home tomorrow so we are close to the air-conditioned comfort. I haven't gotten any pictures of Gabe in his new pool yet so hopefully soon.

A few rare semi-good pictures of the brothers together, they stayed in one position for more then 2 seconds!

Ty and Brenna playing during the storm, it didn't seem to bother them:)

Just chillin in the water

Too much to do to smile for a picture

Gabe loved the fountains!

Sun Bathing Brothers

My Little Acrobat

Ty is definitely too mobile for his own good some days. The other day I was in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast and was on the phone with Carl I came back to the doorway to check on Ty who was eating breakfast in his high chair and this is how I found him.

The kid loves to climb and fears nothing. This is not a good combo for a 2nd child with an equally fearless big brother to get ideas from.















Our backyard continues to amaze us with all the new flowers that are popping up. Yesterday we went out and looked at all the new ones and Gabe always likes to smell them. He smells so funny, he wrinkles up his nose and basically snorts at the flowers to try and smell them. He always wants to be the photographer now as well and doesn't especially like to be the subject of the picture so we are trying to teach him how to take a picture and actually get people in it. He did pretty good on a few of these.






















Today some college friends came over with all their kids to play. Gabe loved playing with everyone and it was so nice to see the girls and how big everyone's kids are getting! We tried to get a few pictures of all of them together but getting 8 kids all 4 and under to cooperate was not going to happen especially since it was getting close to nap time and we were quickly approaching melt down stage. Gabe was sad at nap time today that everyone had gone home. We all had a great time!

Happy Haircut

well not exactly happy but a haircut none the less. Ty got his first haircut today. His sides and back were getting pretty long so I took him into get his haircut. He didn't mind too much as long as he had a comb in each hand and could look at himself in the mirror, he seemed to wonder what the cape thing was and why it was covering his arms and he only really got upset once towards the end but overall did a good job. The picture of him below is what his hair looks like now. Gabe got his haircut as well and is getting to be an old pro. He really likes the sucker he gets when it is all done. We had a busy weekend around here with a garage sale on Saturday morning at my mom and dads house. We cleaned out our basement and got rid of some stuff we just don't use anymore. It was a lot of work but we did get rid of quite a bit of stuff which was so nice and made a little money in the process. While I was busy at the garage sale Carl took Gabe to see the B-17 bomber plane that was at the airport they were there for over an hour looking at it and then watching it take off and land. Gabe even got to spin the propellers with a little help from Daddy and give the pilot a five. Carl said he was just entranced by everything going on with the plane. Unfortunately he didn't have the camera with him so he couldn't get a picture of him with the plane but he did get a cool airplane toy that Gabe loves and keeps beside him at all times. I will post a video of Gabe talking about the airplane(well kind of I had to do quite a bit of prodding since I had a rather stubborn child this afternoon) In house news the fireplace wall is completely done! It is so exciting to see it finished and it turned out great! Not only a few little things left and the inside will be complete.


















Carl took the camera to work with him the other day to get some pictures for a project he is working on.... I don't think this was the project but found it rather amusing anyway...boys!

One Month from Today...

my baby boy will be 1! Crazy to think his birthday is right around the corner. It is so fun to look back every month in his baby book and look at all the new things he's learned to do, rolling, sitting up, crawling, pulling up, standing on his own, now we just have to get the walking thing down(and getting him to eat, this kid wants nothing to do with real food and even baby food most days, any suggestions?) We got his chair picture this morning and surprisingly he cooperated better than I expected.This is the mess he made on the day I tried to just let him feed himself, he played with it, rubbed it in his hair and then threw it on the floor, I'm pretty sure maybe only 2 bites made it in his mouth:)

Exciting Stuff

Check out this link to see the latest exciting stuff Carl and the JCorp crew have been working on.

Also trim on the wall is done, now all that is left is sanding and staining, very exciting news from our house!

July Flowers

We went out to our yard this afternoon to see what new flowers we have blooming. A few weeks ago our neighbors had the former owner of our house come over in the afternoon. He was such a nice older gentleman and took the time to walk around the yard with us and tell us what some of the flowers and plants were. He is in his upper 80's and he couldn't remember everything but we were impressed at all he did remember. During his visit we also found out we have a lot of weeding to do, which we were expecting we just didn't want to pull things that weren't mean to be pulled. Right now we have lots of day lilies blooming and a few Asiatic lilies blooming as well. We have lots of wild flowers along with several unidentified varieties. We have one lily that is taller then me, it is amazing and the first bloom just opened up yesterday. That is the big yellow one. I tried to get a picture of Gabe beside it for reference but my model was uncooperative today. In Ty news he has started standing unsupported. I could never quite get a picture of it though. He just started within the past few days walking behind his little push toy as well. I have the feeling we will have a walker before we know it. Both boys love going out to the yard to play, Gabe likes to see and smell all the flowers and always asks what they are(sometimes I know) Ty just likes to climb on our little picnic table and eat grass:) It is nice to have such a great yard to enjoy!

At Long Last

the wall is finished....well that is not quite true it needs to be sanded, stained and varnished and just a few little trim details below the mantle but it is nearing completion which is huge progress from just 6 short days ago. My wonderful husband has been working very diligently making our wall look great. Here are some pics from this morning. I will post one more set when it is totally done.

Fireplace, Fireworks and Fireflys

The Fireplace wall is at least half done! This is what it looked like just 4 short days ago, the first pictures is what it looked like Thursday night and 2nd is what it looked like Friday night. A lot has been accomplished in a short amount of time, I am so excited! Wednesday night Gabe and Ty both discovered lightning bugs, it was pretty cute there was one crawling on the picnic table and they both were just watching it and then the next thing we knew Ty was reaching out to try and touch it and he actually grabbed it and we caught him just before he got it into his mouth, saved from being eaten by a Tiger. Gabe was also trying out his Buzz Lightyear wings while we were outside and practiced "falling with style" when he would jump from the bench. Gabe's also been trying to master his new bike he got for his birthday from Uncle Pete, he understands how to pedal but seems to get a little apprehensive when it starts to go to fast, we'll get it someday! Friday we celebrated the 4th by working on the wall(well Carl worked on the wall, I cleaned the house and ran errands) then in the evening we had some family over for pulled pork, which Carl smoked all day. It was awesome, my mom stayed home with Ty since he went to bed around 7:30 while the rest of of us(minus Clark and Grandpa Spencer, since they both needed to go to bed to) walked down to the Iowa State Center and watched the fireworks, it was so nice to just walk a couple blocks to see them and then not have to battle any traffic on our way back, My mom did report that you could see them pretty well from our front yard as well! Gabe had a great time trying out the pinwheel Aunt Andrea and Uncle Alan had gotten him and he loved doing sparklers and snakes. He seemed to enjoy the fireworks for the most part but we did catch him a few times putting his hands over his ears(there were some pretty loud ones) We had a great time celebrating the fourth!