STATE FAIR 2013

We had a great night at the Iowa State Fair on a random Monday night in August!  We went with Megan and Brian and Heidi and Wayne and had an absolute blast!  We went for the Jarrod Niemann concert and then ended up actually staying for a little bit of the Hairball concert as well.  We had so much fun, thanks to our babysitters/grandmas, and many unforgettable memories were made! 

Megan, Heidi, and I at the Jarrod Niemann concert.

And we really had no problems at all with sharing food that night.  Between pickle dogs (which were amazing and my favorite!), fried snickers, and red velvet funnel cake, we tried it all!

APPLE ORCHARD

We took a trip to my Mom’s house at the beginning of August to stay with her for the weekend.  We had a great weekend and love our time spent there.  We hung out at the house, did some shopping, went to the park, played at the mall play place, and went to the Apple Orchard.  I also got to enjoy a couple morning runs.  For some reason, I really enjoy going on runs when I’m in Iowa City!

We really had a great morning for the Apple Orchard on Saturday morning, and as always had a great time!  There were actually tons of apples on the trees, so we picked plenty! 

Taking the tractor ride out to the orchard is always one of the highlights.  Apparently the sun was a little too bright for Brady.  :)

   Out at the Orchard with Grandma.The apples tasted so good!

Their baskets filled up fast!

What a cute little Bunny Rabbit!And such a handsome little boy!        We came back to our house on Sunday and my mom came along.  We did corn on Sunday, which is a summer tradition to boil it, bag it, and freeze it so that we can have awesome Iowa Sweet Corn year round!  After we finished the corn my mom made a wonderful apple pie with some of the apples from the orchard.  It was delicious!

GOING TO MISS THIS!

As today is really our last day of our summer vacation, I look back on a few pictures of the summer that really just show the day to day of our nice, enjoyable summer that we had!  It was a terrific summer and we really enjoyed it to the max!

I don’t officially go back to work until Friday, but the boys will be going to daycare and me to my classroom tomorrow.  I still have so much to do to get ready for this school year!

So today, our last day of our summer vacation, was spent doing Science Day at the Klein’s house, coming home for naps, and just relaxing this afternoon.  We did our traditional lunch with Lee in Grinnell this past Monday and have really fulfilled our summer days!

As much as I love my job and enjoy working outside the home, I really loved this summer and am really going to miss it.

The hardest thing about going back to work will be our new morning routine!  We have really enjoyed our lazy mornings this summer and the realization of getting up at 5:30 and out of the house by 7:15 is quite frightening!

So, here’s a few pictures that make me think of and love our past summer vacation together with my boys.

 

Lots of running around in the backyard with shirts off!  And yes, Brady has pajama shorts on over his actual shorts in these pictures!  :)

And it may sound silly, but yes, I will miss my two little baby girls as well!  Although I’m sure they’re ready for us to get out of the house so that they can enjoy some quiet time!

The boys hanging out in Mom and Dad’s bed.

  

And of course a popsicle or summer treat on the back deck after a T-Ball game or hot day!

BRADY

Brady’s going to start Preschool this year and he is so excited!!!

Preschool will be such an amazing and perfect place for Brady to be and grow.  He will be one of the oldest in his class as his birthday is at the end of August.  He will be in the 3’s class, but will just be turning 4 when they start school.  Lee and I had to choose which way we wanted to go with him, and we both agreed that it would be much better for him to be the oldest in his class than the youngest.  Lee knows from experience, as his birthday is the day after Brady’s and he was the oldest in his class, and I know from experience from being a Kindergarten teacher.  In my opinion it is so much better to have them more mature and ready than to push them into school when they just aren’t ready.

Brady will have so much fun in preschool and I just can’t wait to see and hear his excitement about everything that he gets to do at school.  He is also a very bright boy and can recognize all letters out of order except for two that he still gets confused on.  He can also identify all numbers up to at least 20.  He knows his shapes, colors, etc.  What I really need him to learn in preschool is how to behave and get along with his friends.  He is our “wild one” and he needs those preschool teachers to straighten him out a bit!  :)

Brady absolutely adores his big brother and will say and do everything that Tyler does.  As much as he loves him, he also gets very upset with him on a daily basis. 

I keep telling Brady that when he turns four, I don’t want to continue to see so many tears run down his face, as he can turn them on very quickly!

Over this past summer, I have seen a huge change in Brady.  I think that he is starting to act like a more grown up little boy, which is very welcoming considering him starting school within the next few weeks.

I am giving him more responsibilities and enjoying his independence.

Brady is a great sleeper!  He takes a great nap in the afternoon and goes to bed quickly at night.  I have never had to fight him to go down for a nap or at night time, which I love!  I just love that these boys love their naps and sleep, because so does their mom!

Brady will try anything new, food or activity.  He is a fearless child—always has been!  He will open his mouth wide to any new food without even looking it over or smelling it.  He would go down any large waterslide or rollercoaster if he was big enough.  It’s been a difficult summer in that regards.  He hasn’t been tall enough and Tyler has.  It’s been hard for him to watch Tyler go down waterslides and he can’t, but soon enough he will be there right along side his brother!

Brady is…crazy, funny, loud, active, smart, huggable, fearless, wonderful and so much more!  He’s got the most amazing eyes and dimple!

He loves to cuddle with me and give me hugs.

He is very polite!

He loves to watch cartoons.  I feel like he kinda got the short straw on the educational cartoons that Tyler used to always watch when he was Brady’s age.  Now Brady has to sit through Tyler’s “big kid” cartoons and doesn’t have as much time to watch the cute cartoons that actually teach him something.  But, he does love Garfield, Team Umizoomi, and then pretty much anything that Tyler watches.

He loves movies and will actually watch the whole thing!

He loves his I-Pad time.

He loves his stuffed animals.

He will play great with toys all by himself.

He likes to play games.

He loves snacks!

He loves to swing!

He is a little fish in the pool!

He wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.

Brady is such a ball of energy who is just a cute and pretty awesome little boy!

Love you Brady Joseph!

TYLER

Wow!  I cannot believe he will be starting Kindergarten in just 7 short days!

I have absolutely no concerns for Tyler as he enters the world of school and Kindergarten.  He is beyond ready and will do great with his teacher and all friends in class.  I look forward to being able to spend more time with him on a daily basis.  He will come to work with me in the morning and leave with me at the end of the day.  It will be a wonderful change from what has been for the past 5 years!  I will love to hear his stories at the end of each day and will really just be happy to get to spend that extra time with him.

My hopes, yes they are just hopes, are that when Tyler goes to school and Brady is at Preschool, the time that they then spend together at home will be better than what we are going through right now!  Tyler usually spends all of his energy and time trying to annoy, hurt, or pick on Brady.  It’s getting very frustrating and like I said, my hopes are that this will change once school begins.

Tyler is still a very sensitive child and does an amazing job at listening to and following directions from other adults/teachers.  He is usually a rule follower and usually very responsible.  (Except when it comes to his brother!!!)

He’s not one to go out a limb and try new things, food or activity, unless of course Brady has already tried it.

Tyler is still a huge napper!  He still actually NEEDS it and I think that this is going to be the most difficult change when he starts school next week.  He still tells me when he is tired and that it’s time for nap.  I have never had to fight him or Brady to go down for a nap.  This has been wonderful, but it makes me nervous for how his afternoons are going to go at school for about the first month or so.

Tyler is…smart, sensitive, happy, active, funny, tender hearted, polite, tall, loud, huggable, amazing, and so much more!  He has the most amazing smile that just lights up his face!

He loves to watch cartoons.  In the past year his cartoon selection has completely changed and I am really missing the old ones!  He likes to watch Beyblades, Digimon, and pretty much any japanese created cartoon!  It’s actually crazy and I don’t understand how he likes to watch them!

He is obsessed with playing with his beyblades!

He loves to watch movies and loves movie nights with popcorn.

He loves his I-Pad time.

He likes to play Go-Fish.

He likes to listen and dance to music on Pandora.

He loves to learn and is counting down the days until Kindergarten.

When he is well rested and when he wants to, he can play very well with Brady and can be a really good friend and brother to him….

He can also be really terrible to his little brother, and then gets into trouble and shows us one heck of an attitude!

He listens to everything anyone is saying, so you really have to be careful about what you say in front of him.

He has an amazing vocabulary!

He picks up on things incredibly quick.

His handwriting is not so great.  I’m blaming it on the fact that he’s left handed.  He also won’t ever let me teach him anything, so we’re kinda at a loss until his wonderful Kindergarten teacher can work on that with him.

He started swim lessons this summer and did amazing!  Again, he picks up on things so quickly!

Tyler has wanted to be a doctor since he was 2 years old.  This has not changed.  He still says that he’s going to be a doctor!  :)

He still loves to cuddle and hug and I really cherish those times as I know they won’t last forever!

Tyler is just one amazing boy who is going to do some pretty awesome things in this world!

Love you Tyler Thomas!

ZOO DAY!

We took the boys to the zoo last Sunday and had a great time!  It was a perfect day for the zoo and we just couldn’t pass up the great weather—we had to find something fun to do outside for the day!  Unfortunately we hadn’t seen much of Lee last weekend, since he was at work doing inventory, so we took the Sunday, that he was actually able to spend with us, as our family day and enjoyed it outside in the fabulous weather at the zoo!

Brady petting a 7 year old alligator.Tyler petting a snake.   Tyler and Brady checking out some animals.Tyler and Brady—with a wallaby in the background. These two boys are GREAT!  And…notice Tyler’s shorts rollled up and the band-aid on the right knee.  Of course, he fell in the parking lot on the way into the zoo!Feeding the llamas.

Rather than us buying food to feed the llamas and the goats, we make the boys pick up all the food that has fallen to the ground and feed the animals with that!  They love it!

Believe it or not, we actually spend a lot of our time at the playground at the zoo!Feeding the ugly fish.

This elephant sprinkler kept them entertained for the longest time!  It was wonderful!  They had so much fun!

             Our family at the Zoo!

7/28/13

DATE NIGHT!

Last weekend I was lucky enough to have 2 of my favorite boys take me out on a date to dinner and a movie!  Lee, unfortunately, was at work all weekend doing inventory, so it was the boys and I for the weekend.  Friday night, we decided to do date night and went to dinner at Okoboji and then to the movie Turbo.  It was an amazing night with the three of us.  The boys got along with each other the entire night and it was fun from the minute we left the house to the second I put them to bed that night. 

We started the evening with them ringing the doorbell to pick me up for the date.  When I answered the door, they each had 2 yellow flowers for me.  Brady was absolutely loving the whole night of taking his mom on a date and wanted to look handsome and play out every role of mom’s “date” on this date night.  Tyler, being a 5 year old, knows that he is not old enough to go out on a date and therefore wasn’t “into it” as much as Brady was, but still behaved very well and had a fun night.  When we got to the restaurant, they were gentlemen and opened the door for me.  We enjoyed a wonderful meal and at the end of the meal, Brady told me that he wanted to pay for dinner, so I gave him my card to give to the waitress to pay.  He was very excited and one of the first things that he had to tell his dad was that he paid for dinner.  After dinner, we drove to the movie theater for a great movie, Turbo!  It was fantastic, with me sitting in the middle of the two most wonderful dates ever!  They loved the movie, and I loved every second of the date night with my two little gentlemen!

This was a night I don’t ever want to forget!  Can’t wait for our next night out—just the three of us!

LOVE IOWA SWEET CORN!

Best meal of any summer has got to be,

BLT’s and Iowa Sweet Corn!