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!

Super Saturday

We had a busy Saturday this past week. Carl helped some friends build a storage area and work bench in their garage. The kids and I went down to hang out as well. That morning Huxley was having kids activities at the 3 C's center. While the men folk were using their carpentry skills Heather and I took 4 of the 5 kiddos(Callie stayed back to take a nap) to have some fun. Fun has a different definition for many, my little red head kept me on my toes most of the morning. He may have had fun but he was giving me gray hairs. For some reason I would tell him come here, he ran away in the opposite direction, I told him don't climb that, he would climb faster, you get the idea. In the midst of the red headed tornado I did get some cute pics of Gabe, Brady and Bree acting out the 3 little pigs. They loved it and did a great job. After the 3 C's it was time to take the kids to the much antcipated "poopy party" at Chuck E. Cheese. Ty was promised if he pooped in the potty like a big boy we would get to go to Chuck E. Cheese as a reward, we did this for Gabe as well and that was actually the last time we were there. The boys did great and loved playing the games. Callie was happy to hang out in the booth with Grandma while I took Gabe around to the games and Ty got to play games with Grandpa(a rather strategic move on my part as I let Ty pick who took him to play games, I knew he would pick Grandpa and after our rather stressful, discipline filled morning I think he was glad to have a break for me too:) Carl was just happy he had building as an excuse not to have to come. When we got back we hung out at the Krugers for awhile and the guys did end up getting quite a bit done that day. The storage area turned out pretty well and is pretty sturdy too:)

Spring Program and a Birthday in April?

We had Gabe's spring program last night. We had been hearing the songs for months now and we were excited to finally get to see the program in person. Gabe did a good job and we could actually hear him singing a few times:) He didn't yell out this time to say hi to people, although there was still waving and in general being silly. I wasn't able to get any good shots of him during his program because there were many heads in my way and my camera does not do well in dark settings but we did get a couple afterwards with both sets of grandparents that made it out for his concert. Callie wanted in on the picture action too:) Today at school they celebrated Gabe's birthday(his birthday is actually June 23) Since there is not school on Gabe's actual birthday they have been celebrating all the summer kids throughout this spring. Gabe's big day was today and he was very excited to take these for his birthday treats(ice cream cone cup cakes). Thanks to my strong thumbed hubby for piping the very thick frosting on for me:) When Gabe got home he said the kids LOVED them and he had to strike a pose in his birthday crown. I was just glad the treats mostly survived the drive to school and the rain this morning. Now Gabe is really excited to celebrate his "real" birthday in June!