40th Anniversary

This past weekend we spent a long weekend in Algona to celebrate Matt and Nancy's 40th anniversary. Carl's boss's wife, Danelle lent us her wonderful camera and we took many, many, many pictures so be forewarned this post will be a bit of a picture overload. We arrived Thursday night and the boys were so excited to be at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It was a great weekend and even Auntie Em came from DC for the special occasion. While at Grandpa and Grandma's the kiddos had all kinds of fun. Like sleeping in this. Carl was a trooper and spent 2 nights in the tent with Gabe, Ty and Clark. I think he was glad to get home to his own bed. They also had great fun playing hopscotch, helping Grandma in the garden, discovering inch worms, and playing on the slip and slide Grandma bought. Some of them more then others(really she loved it she was just ready to be done because the water was cold) Another highlight of the weekend was getting to meet Marzi, Em's boyfriend. He purchased a new toy while they were back and we all had fun playing(driving) with it too. Even Grandma and Grandpa! Of course while at Grandma and Grandpa's you have to have a tractor ride and even get a little creative with mower rides as well. Since everyone was home we wanted to get a family picture taken as well. I think it turned out pretty well for dealing with 5 kids 5 and under! This one turned out pretty cute too with all the grandkids. Since we had a spectacular camera(a Nikon D90 for you camera geeks out there) I couldn't resist snapping many, many photos of the kiddos just being cute like these. And I tortured them with another impromptu photo shoot on Sunday in front of the corn. We are hoping the Cyclones score many of these this season! This may be one of our only family of 5 pictures since Callie was super little. I think it turned out pretty well. And before we left Callie discovered Purdy. She would screech when Purdy would come near so she would walk away and then Callie would take off and chase her down as fast as her little knees would carry her. It was quite funny, The kiddos even did a pretty good job of posing for one last picture with Great Grandma before we left, despite their picture overload for the weekend. It was a great weekend. Happy Anniversary Matt and Nancy!

10 months!

In two short months my baby girl will be 1! That is so hard to believe. This month Callie has continued to crawl and pull herself up on everything. She loves to climb our stairs but still has not figured out the going back down things yet. She has 2 new teeth, her other front tooth and her eye tooth on top. She started eating more solid foods and loves toast and anything sweet! She has learned to do so big and can wave bye bye as well. Her hair is getting long and curly! She is a constant source of entertainment and we love her sweet grin!

This is What Happens (3)...

when you have a sweet little girl after having two very boyish boys.
you can see the gears turning in that little head...is it edible?
oh yes it's edible, to Callie everything is edible:)
and my favorite from the torture, I mean photo session...

This is What Happens(2)...

when you have two little monkeys with bunk beds.and this is what happens when you try to get a nice self portrait with a goofy 5 year old.to his credit he did cooperate for me one time.and this is what happens when you give the 5 year old the camera.

This is What Happens....

when you put a wiggly little girl in the bathtub with her brothers! See her pleading eyes, she just wanted to join in on the fun. Success she's in. She LOVED it, splashed away like no one's business. The boys found themselves crowded to one side hiding their eyes from all the flying water.

and this is what happens to little girls hair after she takes a bath.

Whirlwind Wednesday

It has been a busy few days at our house. My Grandpa Duane had been struggling with his back hurting him for quite awhile now and this past weekend it got to the point he couldn't even walk anymore. Long story short they admitted him to the hospital and found what they thought was a blood clot on his spinal cord. They did surgery and found it was not a blood clot but a staph infection. He has been very sick and hurting so badly so my Mom and uncles have been taking turns staying with him at night. Carl had already put in several hours at work and was able to take Wednesday off so we were able to go up to see him. I rode up with my mom to Mason City Tuesday evening and he took the kiddos to his parents house where we stayed. I was able to see Grandpa for a little while and then rode back to Algona with Bone and Grandma. The next day we took the kiddos to see Grandma at the farm for a few minutes before I hitched a ride back to Mason City with them to see Grandpa again. While I was gone Carl utilized Mawdsley's shop and changed oil in the van. The boys had a blast running around the farm and the bonus of the whole thing was they got to help pick the sweet corn that was now ready! Grandpa was doing much better the day after his surgery and it was good to get to see him. Carl brought the kids over to pick me up from Mason City that afternoon and they stopped up to say hi. I think he enjoyed seeing them even for just a few minutes. He is now in skilled nursing care still in Mason City where he will have lots of physical therapy over the next week or so, then go to Algona skilled care where he will have to stay for another 5 weeks to receive IV anti-biotics to make sure all the of the infection is gone and it hasn't spread anywhere else in his body. This will be tough for Grandpa as he is a farmer whose place is on the farm. Being away this long plus the recovery itself is going to be hard on him so I'm sure he would appreciate any prayers:) It was kind of whirlwind day or so but it was good to visit and the boys loved staying at Grandma and Grandpa's for the night and then getting to play the next day(not to mention the trip to Algona's Daylight Donuts for a treat in the morning:) We got to enjoy the sweet corn we brought back for a few nights now. Everyone is a fan. Even the littlest one!

Socks are for...

chewing, didn't you know?
The boys found this quite funny and kept referring to Callie as their little puppy dog:)