Happy birthday to our sweeties!

Last night we had a double birthday party for Elle and Grant. It was such a beautiful week so we decided to take advantage of the gorgeous Fall weather and have the party at the lake. Grandma and Grandpa, Michelle, Wyatt and Chase came, along with the Mike and Leia, and The Mackeys. Aunt Marilyn stopped in too!

Michelle made adorable little cakes for Elle and Grant

Our theme was ice cream!

Elle was not too sure how she felt about everyone singing to her.

Elle and Isabel - the Frenemies. Playing together very nicely, actually! They had a blast running around and playing in the sand.

Rylan and our big One Year Old!

Family Vacation 2010

Our annual camping trip to the Iowa State Fair.

Day 1

We arrived at Yellow Banks Park just in time to set up our campsite before it got dark. It was a pretty muggy night, and when we got there we discovered that our air mattress was not in usable condition. Bummer. All in all though, everyone slept well!

Day 2

We tried out a new place for breakfast - 5&Diner. It was a cute 50's cafe with pretty unique food. I had a Mediterranean Skillet with artichoke hearts and feta cheese. Yummy!

Grant just couldn't decide between the waffles and the pancakes.

After breakfast we stopped at Target to buy a couple of things we forgot, and a new air mattress. I know, I'm a wimp.

More yummy food. Gigantic fried mushrooms - a tradition at the Farmhouse Cafe, where we had lunch on Saturday before going to Living History Farms. Our good friends Adam and Erin along with their boys Asher and Wesley met us there. After lunch we all headed to Living History Farms for the day.

Grant, trying out the vintage rocking horse

Shelling corn at the 1900's farm

Geese!

At the blackmith's shop. It was....warm in there.

Watching an antique printing press in action

The best we could do for a family pic

The Sleepers came back to the campground with us that evening and set up camp. Erin made delicious cheesy burgers for everyone.

Ready to roast some marshmallows!

It was perfect camping weather. Sunny days, and beautiful mild evenings!

Day 3

State Fair. What a great day! Mike and Leia Brown drove up to join us for the day. We walked around for 7 1/2 hours, and saw as much stuff as you can with 4 kids in tow. We took camel rides, checked out the petting zoo, admired art at the Culture building, did some wine tasting, sampled some Iowa food, and skipped the insanely long line to view the butter cow.

Aaron and Elle watching a sand sculpture in progress at the Arts building

No fair would be complete without a smoked turkey leg to gnaw on.

....and cotton candy, of course. (I feel like I've talked about food a lot in this post)

Prize winning pumpkin

The girls dragging Leia around

It was really special this year to have such wonderful friends join us all weekend. We are so blessed!

A Summery Summary

Here are a few highlights from our busy and super fun summer!

A visit from cousins Caity and Jackson all the way from Oregon! We spent some time downtown at Spaghetti Works and checked out the sights.

SOTO Festival! Two days of extreme fun at an outreach festival Candlewood put on. Lots of people showed up and got to hear the gospel(YAY), testimonies, and some great music from the worship teams. The kids had a wonderful time. Two bounce houses...need I say more?

The police showed up....

We visited the Hot Shops open house. The kids watched a really cool demonstration on some type of water/oil marbleizing. Really beautiful stuff.

Trever and Aubrie's Wedding!

We headed to Kansas to help Trever and Aubrie celebrate their big day. Aaron sang in the wedding, I accompanied him on the piano, and the kids were ring bearer and flower girl. They took their jobs very seriously :) It was a beautiful wedding and a perfect day.

Here are the proud ring bearer and flower girl. They both did marvelously!

Bree & Cousin Calvin, the other ringbearer

Aunt Karrie!

Aaron and I with the beautiful bride and handsome groom.

Aaron did a little work on the front of the house. We got a little landscaping and a new boardwalk put in!

Our water bill was a little high this summer....I think the hose was out almost every day.

We spent some time at the Lake on various occasions.

Elle at the lake, enjoying either cookies or dirt....

Grant with his homie Naldo

Rylan and Uncle Cole

The lake was really high this year, so no sandy beach :( We had to settle for mud.

Summer showers and winter boots

You know Summer is drawing to a close when the school supplies are on sale!

Here are the kids with their new pencil boxes and crayons.

Tried to get a picture of all four at Becca Whitney's grad party last a few weeks ago. No such luck.

What we've been up to

Rylan: The artist of all things monster

His current obsession is drawing monsters and robots. They are all very colorful and have a serious amount of sharp teeth. Last week we bought school supplies, and with all the new crayons, colored pencils, scissors and glue, he probably spends up to 2 hours a day creating paper monstrosities. His summer has been filled with all the typical boy things: swimming, making mud, building forts, playing with Daddy's hammer and nails, and collecting bugs.

Miss Bree

Bree has been busy being Rylan's best friend this summer. They are pretty much always together in whatever they are doing. She still enjoys the girly side of things though. It's rare to find her without some article of princess dress-up on. She gets a major kick out of getting her hair done and is constantly asking to wear lip gloss. She is really excited to start doing some pre-school work this Fall. Bree is a BIG help with Grant. She is always available to entertain him or give him a bottle when I need her to. She has a very cheerful spirit and a helpful heart.

Elle: Our almost 2-year old!

Elle's 2nd birthday is next week. We measured her last night and she was almost exactly where Bree was at the same age. Elle is loud. Very loud. She loves to talk at the top of her voice. Keeping Rylan and Bree in line by yelling "Ryo" and "Bee" is one of her self-appointed tasks. She is definitely a 'busy' girl. Some of her activities this month include: dumping out a tube of black paint on the carpet, coloring with a red crayon on the couch, drawing on various walls, and trying to have a tea party with toilet water(Don't worry, I caught that one really quickly). She is constantly singing and dancing. She loves to sing the theme song to Calliou, her favorite cartoon, and she is quite the entertainer.

Grant: Mr. Funny Faces.

Grant's been up to the most of anyone. Crawling, pulling himself up on furniture, trying to stand on his own, and biggest of all.....getting some teeth! It's about time! He has two of the cutest little teeth in the bottom front, and he loves to bite with them! His favorite activity is trying to sneak up the stairs. He's made it up five before I could catch him at it. At his 10 month check-up he was weighing in at 16lbs, 4oz.

Bad Blogger

Wow, I'm a bad blogger. Did you see the date of my last post?!?

So, I started keeping a list of funny things the kids say incorrectly.
This past week....
Grant: Won't laugh. He just growls.
Elle: She calls any food item "cookie." Doesn't matter what it is.
Bree: Calls her toenails "ponytails." (Think about it, it kinda rhymes).
Calls pop cans "trash cans"
Rylan: Calls croissants and biscuits "casseroles"
Calls shampoo "cream soda"(I really don't get that one)