...and he's up

yes, yes - a few posts ago I was a little worried, and now look!! He is wasting no time in his pursuit to keep up with his older siblings. 6 months! Little stinker.

Mmm, yummy toesies!

balloon landings!

The Indianola Balloon Classic was going on this weekend and 3 hot air balloons went RIGHT over our house - I mean one could have actually landed on our roof! This is our back yard. The last one really did land in our neighbors yard. We hurried out and watched the "chase crew" deflate the balloon, fold it up and pack the huge basket onto their trailer. Andie says she wants to ride in one someday, so I shared some pictures of when I got to ride in one when I was little. Shane is worried he will actually have to go up in one with her (with his love for heights). Anyway, it was exciting... they are serious about ballooning here in Indianola!

just the beginning?

Well, we tried a summer session of dance classes for Andie - to "see if she likes it" (that's what I told Shane. He replied, "like she's not going to like it!") ha! So, this is her at her very first class! Let me just say, she was the CUTEST thing I have ever seen!!! It was so great. She had fun and we had fun watching her.
They actually did barre!
Look at that pointed toe!!

a little shuffle action...
a little heel step action (my father-in-law would be so proud I can write these out) :)

all done! I have to say, even though there were only 4 kids there (being only a summer class) she was the best one. And the others had danced in a class before. The teacher told us afterwards she was surprised it was her first class and that she has great feet. It was truly fun and yes, probably just the beginning.

brothers

I love this picture!! Wyatt has been so nice to baby Sawyer, learning to give him loves. You can see his poor "dead" tooth. :( I'm so sad about it. Apparently he hit it hard enough during one of his many rough and tumble stunts that he killed the nerve. Shane's sister Rachele had this happen when she was 2, I've been told, and the tooth falls out. (I never knew she was such the rough and tumble type!) Ahhh! I don't want his little tooth to fall out!

Only in America

The National Anthem kicked off the Fourth of July parade in Urbandale - isn't this cute? We'll have to work on which side... :)
Little Fourth of July carnival in Urbandale - they had so much fun - they've never done "rides" before!
Umm, a little trouble in the wacky fun house

should I be worried?

I don't know, this just seemed a little early for all this, but maybe I'm just not ready!

birthday! birthday!

Aren't these the CUTEST thank you cards you've ever seen?!? I didn't even want to give them away! (I'm a hopeless mom already...saving everything she makes) Andie looked shocked and said, "Mom, we HAVE to send them!"
We decided to have a double birthday party on the 4th of July this year (Andie turned 4 and Wyatt will be 3 at the end of the month). It was a little wild, but so much fun. Shane's mom offered to have it at their house, and hey, I took her up on that because our house is still a bit under construction and the help is much apprecieated! And, we usually make homemade ice cream on the 4th, so perfect with birthday cake! The kids are: Emelia (the daughter of Penelope, a best friend from high school), Carson & Chance (sons of dear friends Jamie and Chris).
Andie very excited about ballet gear... must get her signed up before this fall!
Wyatt wants to be sure to get those candles out - which usually involves a lot of spit. So, we opted for cupcakes for his cake. That way he can only contaminate one. heehee! :)
Andie's butterfly cake (wonderfully made by Shane's mom!). and notice the ballet skirt already on! note to self : enroll her in dance class

oooh! aah!

watching fireworks while eating cake and ice cream

Lake Gammie and Papa at the party - they are great together. And, now that mom has RETIRED, they are relaxing and spending time together at their Sun Valley lake home. Yea! I'm so happy for her!

giddyup gammie!

These are from a little while back, but I thought they were so cute. It is hard to get gammie in a photo!! We love her to pieces and are so blessed to have her.

belly laughs

almost 5 months!

A Happy Father's Day

The kids and I surprised Shane with a couple of his favorites - spaghetti and meatballs (which is really rigatoni and homemade meatballs - but we call it spaghetti) and Aunt Lizzy's molasses cookies. Andie helped make this sweet card. Her little letters are so precious!!

Aunt Julie's Quilt

The kids were playing "picnic" on a beautiful quilt that Aunt Julie made with such fun colors - so I set Sawyer in, too, for a quick photo! Shane's other Aunt, Aunt Sandi Sue, also quilts, so we were really spoiled with the most beautiful handmade baby blankets.
This has been a CRAZY week - Shane's sister, Stephanie and her little Emma were visiting on their way to moving to Washington state (she is so cute I want to gobble her up), Andie had her first swim lessons, AND I was helping clean some of Shane's renovated rental houses in the evenings (9pm-midnight!) so we can get them filled with some hopefully paying tenants!

Two wheeler

Shane decided to have Andie try to learn to ride her bike today. It was so nice out, and she had a good time. (No skinned knees!) She did really well - much better than she knows. She doesn't know all the times he wasn't holding on!!

If life gives you wind...

...fly a kite!
We finally found a good use for all of the wind out here! The kids had a fun time flying a kite today. We have another huge kite from Gammie to try, but thought we should test this one out first. Good thing - despite Shane and I reminding him to "hold tight!" Wyatt let go at one point, and well, if you look hard at the last photo you can see Shane in the tree getting the kite down. :)

Every time Papa comes to visit, Wyatt makes a fun game out of taking his ball cap off of his head. So, finally Papa brought a special surprise for the kids - their very OWN caps! They were excited. In fact, I heard Wyatt get up to go to the bathroom during the night last night, and when I went in to help him...he had the cap on (it looks really nice with footy pajamas) :) Thank you, Papa!!!

Happy Mother's Day

catch of the day

We went out to eat and to get ice cream with the kiddos one night and it was so nice we thought we would go to a park in Indianola since we haven't checked any out yet. The first one we saw had a ton of people there, so we followed signs to a different one only to see that it was all taken apart except for a merry go round! So, with ice cream melting we hurried home and decided to sit by our little pond, eat ice cream and throw a line in. Hey, Uncle Jim makes it look so easy... :)
Well we did catch a 10" bluegill that was hooked pretty well, (with Andie taking 20 min to reel it in...haha!) So, we decided to clean this one and add it to a mess of crappie that Jim had given us. Andie and Wyatt were so funny, they kept touching the fish and saying it was cute, but when it came time to clean it - you can see that Andie lost her excitement. Even still, Andie said,"This was a fun night!" - I guess better than the park any day.
Oh, and Wy Wy has had his "mop" trimmed since then!!

chasing butterflies

It is so nice out today - the perfect spring day to chase butterflies with the butterfly net from Lake Gammie and Papa! Andie and Wyatt ran until their sides hurt. Those butterflies are fast!

splish splash

Sawyer is 3 months! His "fussy time" in the evenings has now turned into a bright-eyed, excited time (which is much more preferable). It is really funny watching him look around and take in everything.

"Daddy...

...will you be my prince?"

Andie asked Shane that very question. Seriously. How can he NOT buy her a pony and let her eat candy all day? :)

little critters

It was like a catch and release day with the kids today. Let me explain... Shane helped the kids catch first, a toad, then a baby rabbit. I'm not sure who had more fun, Shane or the kids. But, they were really excited, especially when we presented the frog to gammie. :) I'm just sorry those pictures aren't on my camera! Then Andie ceremoniously took the toad to the pond to let it go, and likewise set the rabbit down to safely let it go.

little critters