The Next Picasso

Gabe embarked on the world of finger painting today. It was a rainy day and he had been asking me for awhile to get the finger paint set out(I bought it in a moment of weakness at Sam's Club several weeks ago) so I decided that today we would give it a try. He did a pretty good job and it wasn't near as messy as I thought it might be. He was very focused on trying to make a rocket ship, planets, a bi-plane and a dinosaur. To the untrained eye these pictures may just look like scribbles on the page but to the preschool art enthusiast they are a masterpiece.

When we were done finger painting Brady came over to play. They found it quite fun to climb up into the wood cubby on our fireplace wall. Ty decided it would be fun to join them, although he and Gabe had a wrestling match for positions in the process. Bree joined in on the fun too. On a different note we have had a lot of activity going on around our place with the start ot the school year. This was what we saw from our front window the other night. Never a dull moment at our house!

Where do I Begin?

It's been a crazy last week at our house. Carl's Grandma passed away last Saturday night so we knew we would have to head up to Algona sometime during the week. Wednesday we picked up Carl's sister Em from the airport, poor girl was here the week before visiting Grandma since we knew it may just be a matter of time then she flew back to DC because she had a planned vacation to the Bahamas so she flew there for vacation then flew back to DC for a few hours and flew back to Iowa for the funeral. Talk about lots of traveling. At least we didn't have to travel that much. Tuesday before we left I filled our little swimming pool in the backyard. The water was pretty cold but Gabe still jumped in and liked to play. Ty liked putting his hands in but was more interested in the ball, truck and plastic hose:)They discovered a new game that day as well, Gabe pushing Ty around in the back of the dump truck. They both thought it was pretty fun. Tuesday night we discovered the jeep was leaking coolant again, we just had the radiator replaced a few months ago so back to the repair shop it went. Apparently the radiator was bad again, luckily all under warranty still so no cost to us this time but it is hard to drive to Algona with 5 people and no vehicle. We ended up renting a car for the trip up as we weren't sure when ours would be done. We got a Ford Explorer which did have more space then the Jeep but the back hatch did not seal correctly and we all almost asphyxiated driving down all the gravel roads, the whole back end of the car was completely covered in dust along with all of our stuff in the cargo area and even all the way up to the front of the car somewhat, I think we should have gotten a discount for it being a hazard to our health:)(although the boys didn't seem to mind too much) Grandma's funeral was very nice, she would have appreciated all the people. She was a special lady who we will all miss very much. While we were in Algona Gabe and Ty got to spend some time at Mawdsley's farm and at Grandpa Matt's farm. They were so excited to get to go for tractor rides. Ty had his first tractor ride on Grandpa Matt's tractor and he seemed to like it a lot. He did not like it when big brother climbed up there too and touched the steering wheel, if Gabe's hands were off he was fine but the minute Gabe put his on the wheel, the waterworks began. He is our little firecracker. The day we left it was pretty windy so Grandpa Matt got out the kites. Gabe loved to watch them fly and of course wanted to help fly them too. Ty even got in on the action a little bit. We headed home Friday afternoon, as we were all tired and ready to sleep in our own beds. Saturday Carl cleaned out the garage after all the wood working and building he had been doing in there, it needed it pretty badly. Sunday we had some friends over for lunch and walked down to Fan Fest. Gabe and Ty got their picture taken with Cy. Ty was brave enough to have his picture taken with the cheerleaders, in fact he was mad when we picked him up to keep moving. We also got to see the stadium renovations and new sky box suites they put in. They were pretty nice. We only had one minor mishap when Gabe feel down the concrete stairs, I don't know how he fell but I turned around and there he was somersaulting down the stairs. Luckily he didn't go the whole way down and had no scrapes or bruises or anything, I think it just scared him. Despite his fall he is sooooo excited for the football game on Thursday. He is ready to go cheer and eat some popcorn. Go Cyclones!

Celebrate!

Wow what another busy weekend. On Saturday we had Ty's 1st birthday party. It was just family as some friends had previous commitments but was still fun. Carl's family was unable to make it for the party as his Grandma was not doing very well and passed away Saturday night. We are happy that she is home with God now but will miss her very much. We had the party at noon and Carl grilled burgers, brats and hotdogs. Thanks to Aunt Andrea we had a great cake as well:) Ty enjoyed all the people around but didn't really understand the concept of opening presents yet, or blowing out the candle(he tried to grab it) Good thing Big Brother Gabe was around! He did enjoy eating his cake, which was probably his favorite part of the party. We will be heading up to Algona sometime on Wednesday for visitation and funeral so probably won't be blogging too much this week. We got a new camera on Saturday before the party so all these pictures are with our new camera. I'm not sure if they will download the same so hopefully they will not be too big.

Happy Birthday Ty!

My baby boy turned 1 today! We celebrated by going to the state fair and Hickory Park for supper with Grandma and Grandpa. Before we left we had to get his chair picture of course, I am actually glad this is the last one we have to take for a year because it is getting so hard to get one with him actually sitting or standing still. Ty was pretty indifferent to the whole state fair experience although he did really like the mini-donuts(he truly is his mothers son:) Gabe on the other hand thought everything was great. He loved trying his foot long corn dog. He also really enjoyed the mini-donuts. We went to the varied industries building and got our Cy hats. Then we found the best entertainment, the lawn mowers and the play equipment. Gabe loved going down the slide on the play equipment and "driving" the mower.Gabe also really enjoyed the spray fountains in front of the Grandstand. He ran right to them and was soaked but didn't care a bit. We then took the boys to see the butter cow and the butter Shawn Johnson. The line was long to go by the butter objects so we just looked from a distance. Outside of the Ag building they had the biggest pumpkin contest, as you can see some were pretty big. Then we made our way to the livestock barns. Gabe loved to look at all the animals and Ty even got into the fun of things by making the baa sound at the sheep. After we had our fill of fair food must haves(Hollie-mini-donuts, pork chop on a stick, and fried cheese curds and Carl-mini-donuts, corn dog, and fried oreos-we also tried the fried pineapple this year but that will NOT be making the favorite list for future years) we headed back up to Ames and met my mom and dad at Hickory Park for supper and to get Ty's birthday sundae. When they brought it out he was mesmerized at the candle on top and then when they started to sing he just kept looking at them in amazement, I'm sure he was wondering why everyone was singing at the restaurant. He enjoyed several bites of his sundae and then Daddy helped him out. My one year old is now sleeping soundly in his bed after a very long day. I leave with you with some pictures of my sweet baby boy.


Titus Zachary 8-14-07

3 months


6 months


9 months


1 year!

Busy Busy and did I Mention Busy

That is the kind of weekend we had at our house. Thursday evening Carl's grandma who will be 93 in September had a mild heart attack while she was out in the backyard. Unfortunately she fell and broke her hip because of the heart attack. The good thing was that someone found her rather quickly and called an ambulance and Carl's Dad. She was taken to Mason City as they have a bigger hospital with more capabilities. We found out about all this Friday morning. Unfortunatly Carl had to get a ton done for work before we could leave and the boys had their 1 and 3 year picture appointment at noon. The pictures did turn out cute but it is always a stressful experience for us to try and get both boys to smile. Ty was Mr. Serious and would hardly crack a smile at all. Gabe is just goofy and liked to look everywhere but at the camera. I didn't get a CD with the pics on it this time so I can't post any of them but they were cute regardless of my less then optimal subjects. After the boys pictures we headed back up to Ames and picked up Carl's sister and my mom and dad kept all 3 of the boys so we could go see Carl's grandma. She was much more alert and talkative then we thought she might be and was good to visit with her. Carl's mom was with her all night the night before so we took her back to Algona for the night and then drove back to Ames. Saturday we headed back up to Mason City with Carl's other sister Em who flew in from DC. The boys did a great job in the car and at the hospital and I think Grandma was glad to get to see them. Once again we drove over to Algona because we needed to bring something back for Carl's mom. While we were there we headed to my grandparents place to raid the sweet corn patch. Sunday we celebrated our 6 year anniversary with a trip to Adventureland. Gabe had a blast! I wasn't sure how he would do but he did great. He LOVED the rides and wanted to ride again and again. He liked the spinny rides and the slow rides and pretty much everything he was tall enough to go on. Still not quite big enough for the roller coasters but he had fun riding everything else. Ty went on the carousel and the train but otherwise was in his stroller or someone carried him. He fought naps most of the day and probably only slept 20 minutes the whole time we were there but still did pretty well. Some of Gabe's favorite rides were the ferris wheel, the airplanes(he's in the back of the red plane), the frog hopper, the boats, and the balloons(and the tea cups, rocket ships, and pretty much every ride he went on I guess). He learned some good lessons in patience when he had to wait in line for the rides as well(kind of notice him trying to sneak under the rope) Thursday night before all the craziness began the weather was so nice we decided to take a walk to campus. It was lots of fun and the boys had a blast playing on all the grass at central campus. Gabe thinks the campanile is a castle so he had fun playing by it as well. Soon the students will be back and campus much more busy so it was nice to get there while it was still quiet. Carl's grandma is being moved to hospice soon so it was nice to get to see her for awhile. Prayers for comfort for her would be much appreciated.