Big Sister

Callie loves being a big sister.  She often times tells me that Ezra is her baby not my baby.  She wants to hold him frequently and is always concerned when he cries.  She loves to help get diapers, bottles or whatever else I may need.  She loves her little brother immensely(even though one day she told me she didn't chose that kind of baby and she wanted a baby girl:)  She loves to try to help feed him and burp him and loves to lay down by him on the floor.  It is so much fun watching her get to be the big sister and not the baby.  Ezra is in for many years of getting bossed and mothered by his big sister(she bosses the big boys too:)  I love that she loves him so much.

Our Impromptu Civics Lesson

The other day as we were driving home from picking the boys up from school I saw a helicopter above us.  I told the kids to look at the helicopter and as I was saying it I looked over at the ISU baseball diamonds and practice fields and saw this.

Actually there were 5 helicopters sitting there.  I had forgotten that the president was speaking on central campus and all of the helicopters were here to transport him.  I decided that we would stop so the kids could get a closer look so being so close to home we ran there and grabbed the camera and then drove back over to see the helicopters.  By the time we got back they would no longer let you cross over University Blvd and had the area all blocked off.  We pulled into the stadium lots and found a place to park and walked up to the sidewalk along University.  I tried to get the kids to pose with the helicopters in the background but this was about as good of picture as I got.

I figured the president must be coming soon since the Secret Service started walking up and down the line of people waiting on the sidewalk and instructing them not to get any closer to the street.

The kids weren't super fond of waiting around so they decided to entertain themselves rolling down the hill behind us.

Pretty soon though we saw police cars coming with their lights on and then two big black cars with flags on front.  We were a little too far away from them to get a good picture but then the questions started from Gabe.  He wondered why there were all the police cars, why there were 2 black cars, why there were guys in suits standing on the street, etc, etc, etc.  After explaining as best I could he watched all the people in the Presidents entourage get on the helicopters.  He wondered why we didn't know which one the president got on.  Pretty soon the rotors started up and all the kids were intrigued.  One lifted off first, followed by 2 more and then the last 2.  It was quite a sight.

(there's the secret service in the street, Gabe wondered if they were huntsmen:)
Carl and I had seen this happen in DC several times when we worked there but it was pretty cool to see it take place a couple blocks from your house.  The kids thought the helicopters were cool and loud.  I was glad our timing was right to be able to see it that day.  Regardless what you think about the person in office, it is pretty cool to witness their coming and going and how much goes into it.

1st Day of School and 2 Months

Gabe started 1st grade last week on Thursday.  I was all proud of myself because I remembered to have him hold a sign for his pictures that said his grade and the date.  Like this.

and of course no 1st day of school pictures would be complete without the little siblings getting in the mix.

Not sure whats up with Ty's fist but whatever.  Then on Monday the 27th Ty started Early Kindergarten.  If you guessed that I forgot to give him a sign to hold you would be right.

For some reason Ty also has a real aversion to actually looking at the camera for a picture.  This week has been a strange week as they have been getting out early all week for mini-conferences(15 minute getting to know you and your child with his/her teacher)  Ty is doing afternoon Early Kindergarten so his days have been very short this week.  We are both looking forward to next week when he gets to go for more then a little over an hour.  So far both boys are loving school and liking their teachers and classmates.  Callie is getting used to being home without the big boys again but I think she things Mom and Baby Ezra are kind of boring:)
In other news Ezra turned 2 months old today!  He is still eating a 4 oz bottle about every 3 hours and generally will sleep at night from around 11 until 3 or 4 and then until around 7.  He has started smiling at us some.  The big kids think it is the most awesome thing any baby has ever done and a big production is made about it each time they catch a cute little grin.

He likes his swing and to move and would most days rather not sit still.  He is not the best of nappers but some days he does better then others.  He is starting  to coo a little bit too along with his cute smiles.  Here is his 2 month chair picture.

Big sister didn't want to be left out of a photo session.

With school starting and getting back into a routine we are ready for Fall!  Bring on some football!

State Fair

We weren't going to go to the state fair this year but when we found out Aunt Em would be there for the evening and since it was a nice night and she had not gotten to meet Ezra yet we ventured to Des Moines.  The kids were excited to get to see some of the same animals that we saw at the county fair earlier in the month.  They especially liked these that they could put their heads in and have their pictures taken.

They also liked getting to pet this baby calf.

and of course no trip to the state fair is complete without state fair food.  The kids wanted cotton candy.

and Carl wanted to try the new double bacon corn dog, which we decided wasn't worth the extra cost:(  but we did still get our favorites mini-donuts, cheese curds and fried oreos so all was not lost:)   We also had to check out the Iowa State booth in the varied industries building.  The kids had their picture taken with the Cy-Hawk and Big 12 Championship Cross country Trophies.

and of course had to get their Cyclone tattoos.

Shortly after this Ezra needed to eat and Aunt Em was almost done with her meetings so we went to find a bench and wait and feed the baby.  Look at that double chin:)

Em with the kiddos.

Em also spoiled them and took them down the Giant Slide.  They loved it.  Here they are climbing to the top.

and coming down, it was starting to get dark but Em has Callie in front and then the boys are right behind them.

They liked it so much they begged to go again and Em took them again.  They then talked her into buying them a root beer float

and a lemonade.

It was great to see Em(and Grandpa Matt too, who was down for the tractor pull) even for a little bit.  We didn't get to everything but I think the kids had fun at the fair.

You Make Me Smile

Nothing beats a new babies first smiles. We've been trying to get Ezra to smile at us for the last few weeks to not much avail but he has been flashing us a few here and there the past few days.  So cute.

Despite the getting up at night thing which I won't miss:)  I feel like he is already growing way too fast.  I told Carl I kind of feel like we are going to blink and we will be sending him off to school.  Crazy how quickly they get big and start to do new things.

Fantastic Five!

Ty turned 5 on the 14th!  Once again I'm not sure how that happened but our red head was super excited for his birthday this year.  We started celebrating on Sunday with a small family party.  Ty's favorite part of course was opening his presents.

He got some great gifts including a squirt gun, a new wii game, an angry birds game, and avengers backpack and these.

yep boxing gloves to go with his new punching bag

  He has been wanting a real punching bag for awhile so he was loving the gloves and bag.  So far they haven't hit too many things they shouldn't.
After presents we did cake and ice cream.  We went super easy this year with the cake and did a sprinkle cake.  Ty didn't seem to mind.

The entertainment though came from one of Gabe's birthday presents.  A zip line that Carl got installed this past week right before Ty's party.  I never did get a good picture of Ty going down it but here is Callie testing it out.

Despite the cool, rainy weather they still had fun playing outside and Ty was blessed to have family come celebrate with us. 
Ty's actual birthday was the Tuesday after the party.  That day we celebrated with balloons on his chair at breakfast and gift to open.

 The kids get to request what they would like to have for their birthday breakfast and like big brother before him Ty requested cinnamon roll waffles.  Here he is with his 5 candles lit and showing us how old he is.

After breakfast we ventured to Des Moines with our friends to Union Park so the kids could play on the Rocket Slide.  They loved it!  There was also a carousel there but for some reason it didn't open for the day.  The kids didn't seem to mind though as they thought the slide was great on its own.  All was going great and we were all prepared to go eat lunch at Zombie Burger which is where Ty had said he wanted to go the whole morning until it was time to actually go.  Then this happened.

yep all our fit because at the last minute Ty wanted to go to McDonalds instead of Zombie Burger.  Me being the mean Mommy that I am said no he had said he wanted to go to Zombie Burger all day and since we didn't have one of those in Ames we were going to go to Zombie Burger because it was more special then McDonalds since we have one of those in Ames.  He was unhappy for awhile but we did manage to get a half way good picture of all the kiddos in front of the rocket slide.

 We did convince the birthday boy to do Zombie Burger and he really wasn't a fan so I am guessing that he won't request it again:)  They did kind of get a kick out of the decor though, he said not to take him there again though cause it was scary.

After lunch we drove back home and then headed out again shortly after for supper at Hickory Park with Grandma and Grandpa.  Ty was pretty excited about his birthday sundae.

We had a few busy days around Ty's birthday and I forgot to get his chair picture until a few days later but here is his 5 year chair picture.

Can't believe he's 5 already. God truly blessed us when he gave us Ty.  Life wouldn't be the same without our funny, fiery, loving, crazy, smart, mischievous red head! 

Kossuth County Fair

Carl and I grew up going to the Kossuth County Fair but we hadn't been back for years so this year we decided to go check it out again and take the family(especially since I'm not up for taking 4 kiddos to the state fair, especially this year)  When we got there I made them pose in front of the gate.  This is the first picture I got.

Yep finger up the nose, not looking at the camera, blabbing to dad, keeping it real here:)
This one is a little better.

We went and checked out the open class building and 4-H buildings.  The kids thought the big vegetables were cool and we saw Grandma Nancy's blue ribbon zucchini and peppers.  I was surprised at how few things were entered in open class.  I used to help my great aunt with open class ribbons (bear with me the first letter of this word _uice is completely gone from my computer so I'm trying to avoid words with that letter like -udging and pro-ect but if you see it thats what's going on:) and there were so many entries, tons of canned goods and baked items this year a maybe 2 shelves of canned goods and 2 cases of baked items.  Anyway I digress.  The kids also liked the to see some of the 4-H things.  Especially ones that involved Legos.  These tractors were also a favorite from the 4-H building.  Especially when Gabe discovered the kid whose pro-ect it was was named Gabe:)

We also went through the FFA barn.  Callie was a little scared of the miniature horses so I was a little aprehensive to her reaction to the livestock barns but she warmed up to the animals.  Those puffy things in the cage in the back are a type of chicken.  They looked like puffs of fluff as you couldn't see their faces or legs even.

We headed down to the livestock barns where we saw the bucket calves and sheep first.  Callie requested her picture be taken by many animals in many different barns so the following are all from our livestock barn tour with most of them featuring our picture happy princess.

and sometimes she even allowed Daddy and the boys to pose for a few pictures with the animals:)

We also went through the Floral Hall(kinda like Varied Industries at the State Fair but much smaller).  The kids got balloon animals.  The boys a sword like this one.

and Callie got a balloon dog.  Before we left Gabe requested we take each of their picture in the combine's tire.

that blue thing in Callie's mouth would be what was left of her balloon animal dog.  No worries we threw it away shortly after and she did not choke on the deflated balloon.

This is what Ezra did for the entire fair.

oh-well he will hopefully like it more the next time we go(look at those cheeks and chin!)  We had a good time and were glad the kids has fun at the fair.