Firsts of the Season

With the warmer weather(almost a little too warm and humid if you ask me) comes lots of firsts of the season. Saturday night we had a fire in our fire pit and made smores. The boys loved them! Ty was not patient enough to let his marshmallow get toasted so his smores were enjoyed one piece at a time. Gabe was the same way last year but this year he actually likes to let his start on fire so we go from one extreme to the other. Nothing says summer like a marshmallow mouth. Monday brought 90 degree temps with humidity to match so we got out the little pool. The water was cold but the boys had fun anyway and even braved it out and sat down in it a few times. Gabe asked me why our pool was so small, guess at almost 5 the baby pool doesn't look so big anymore but he still managed to have fun. Callie is experiencing all kind's of firsts, since this is her first summer season she has lots of cute summer outfits, this is one of them. I know I am a tad big prejudice but seriously this girl could not get any cuter!

Gabe's Preschool Graduation

Gabe had his preschool graduation this past Friday. It was cute, they all came in wearing cute little graduation caps. They each stepped forward said their name and what they want to be when they grow up. Any guesses on what Gabe said? I took a video of it, it is kind of hard to hear and I should have tried to zoom but you might be able to figure it out.

Alright upon further investigation the little one in front of us drowned out Gabe's answer so if you guessed astronaut you would be correct:)

After this they sang a few songs, this one is one of Gabe and now Ty's favorites, I didn't record the whole thing but you get the idea(again I apologize for the lack of zoom)

They also did a few cute finger plays and acted out Hats for Sale. Their teacher did a slide show of all of them and the activities they have done throughout the year. They had a cute cake and I'm pretty sure that may have been Gabe's favorite part.
Our GraduateGabriel Quintin we are so proud of you and the thoughtful, energetic, fun loving, caring, friendly and smart little boy you have become. We watched you go from not having an interest to writing anything to writing your name and any other word we give you(spelling help of course) quite well, from hating to draw and scribbling on the paper to making an actual person with actual body parts in your pictures. But most importantly asking questions about God and Jesus and declaring your love and thankfulness for them each day.

Next fall we have decided to send Gabe to Early Kindergarten instead of regular full day Kindergarten. It was a tough decision but with a summer birthday we decided we just didn't want him to always be the very youngest in his class. It also gives him a little more time to mature and continue to perfect some of his academic skills as well. I am sure all of these things we have seen grow in him over the past school year will continue to develop next year and he will be raring to go to regular Kindergarten the following fall. We will miss Ames Christian and his wonderful teachers and friends.

Keep Moving Forward

A good line from one of Gabe's favorite movies (Meet the Robinsons) That is what Miss Callie has been up to lately. She doesn't "crawl" exactly but well, I'll just let you watch the video. She definately gets where she wants to go.


Of course moving forward also gets her caught in some pretty funny places too(you gotta get a picture before you can help her out:)

Busy Weekend Randomness

Just a few silly shots from our busy weekend. Saturday we were really busy making the cake, smoking the meat, etc and I think Gabe finally got sick of being in his jammies. He gets himself dressed on a regular basis but usually we have to tell him to go get dressed. Saturday he went and did it on his own and came down like this. Not sure what's up with the shirt tucking but it was pretty funny. I grabbed the camera and Ty wanted in on the picture action as well, weird since when I want him to pose...well you know it doesn't go well.
I also tried to get a good shot of Callie attempting to crawl she tries so hard but just doesn't quite get the moving her arms thing. She gets pretty frustrated after while.(see video at the end for an example:) She is also a small challenge to feed as she likes to move around so much and look at everything around her. She makes a big mess and also likes to suck her thumb between bites. She sure is cute though:)
When we got home from my mom and dad's Sunday we needed to do some major house cleaning from our flurry of activity on Saturday. Gabe decided to help out with the vaccum and he actually did a really good job, he even got it out of the closet, plugged it in and got it started without any help. We were impressed.

Callie's Dedication

This past weekend was very busy around our house. We dedicated Callie on Sunday at church which also happened to be Mother's Day(sorry Mom's your cards and gifts are late this year) Friday night the preperation began with Carl and I going grocery shopping for all the food. My parents watched the kiddos so we also got to go out to eat at the new El Azteca location in Sommerset, with graduation in town for ISU it was quite busy but worth the wait, it was wonderful and their new location is great! We got all our stuff and then Saturday began the flurry of activity. I decided I wanted to try and bake and decorate my own cakes now(Andrea had done them for me in the past but I decorated some cupcakes a while back and had lots of fun so I decided I wanted to give it a try) wow was that a lot of work(thanks Andrea:) I picked out a square pan for Callie's cake and then decided I wanted to cover it with pink and brown polka dots, then I realized that the look I was going for was not going to work unless I made it a double layer square cake. I tried my hand at fondant for the first time with the polka dots and it was kind of fun to use. I made a marshamallow fondant and then divided it into 3 parts and colored each part a different color, then rolled it out and used different size circle cutters. I used buttercream icing for the white base and then used the paper towel method to smooth out the frosting(take a viva paper towel once the frosting has crusted, lay in gently on top of the area you want smoothed and gently rub your hand over the top, it worked great!) My wonderful husband helped me transfer cakes from pan to rack and then to cake board and he also helped me frost the darn thing, man did it take a lot of frosting! Gabe loved to help cut out the polka dots as well. I then had my very neat handwriting husband write the verse on the cake and do the polka dot placement for me(he is the designer) I think it turned out pretty well for my first attempt:) Callie did great for the dedication there were 12 other kids being dedicated at the service we were at and unfortunately we forgot to take our camera to church. We had some family down as well and we all went back to my mom and dads for lunch, Carl smoked pork shoulder for pulled pork sandwiches and it was a good day. Callie was a little off schedule with all the festivities but did a great job overall. The boys loved all the people around and that cake was a really big temptation!
but it did manage to survive till after lunch. We tried to keep it small for her dedication since it was Mother's Day and we didn't want our extended families to feel obligated to come over to Ames for the day instead of spending it with their immediate families but we appreciate all the prayers and love for our family as we strive to teach Callie about God and pray that she will one day know and love him and follow him and his teachings. She and the boys are truly a gift from God and often I look at them in amazement at how much they have grown already and the things that they, on a daily basis, teach me. We love you Callaghan Grayce and pray that you will see Christ's love in us and see an example putting God first in our family. You have brought us so much joy, so many smiles and even a few tears already and I pray that God will watch over you and your heart and help you grow to be a woman, wife, and mommy striving to serve Him.

7 months

Callie turned 7 months on Sunday! She can now sit up very well unassisted but still prefers to play on the floor on her belly or back. She gets up on all 4's and even up on her toes and rocks back and forth but still doesn't move from that position a whole lot. She gets where she wants to go by rolling and scootching herself around in a circle. She puts everything in her mouth and has started eating cereal puffs, although she has a hard time figuring out how to get them from her little fist to her mouth. She also loves the jumperoo we are borrowing from some friends. She didn't understand what she was supposed to do at first but now jumps and grins the whole time she's in there. She is such a happy girl!

Reiman Gardens

We made our first visit to Reiman Gardens for the year this past week. It was beautiful weather after a few rainy days and the tulips were still in full bloom so we packed a lunch and headed to the garden. We met Steph, Brenna and Lauren there as well. The kids had fun discovering all the garden gnomes(the theme for the summer), including the world's largest concrete gnome, which Ty had a love/hate relationship with, he would go up to it and lay on it's legs and then run away screaming. They also had fun doing their old favorites, the wood plank maze, the chimes and in general running around and having a good time(the frog pumps weren't in working order yet, which I was actually kind of glad about, less wet although they still managed to find some water to put their hand in) I had fun posing Callie in front of different flowers. Poor girl was getting so sleepy and ready to go down for afternoon nap and I kept pulling her out the stroller to snap another cute picture, I figure this will be the easiest year to do it, she can't fight me on it too much or run away from me quite yet:) Occasionally I would attempt the 3 of them, I don't think we got 1 with all 3 looking but oh-well. We had a great day at the garden!