Cousins

Aaron and Maggie LOVE their cousins! When we were in Fort Dodge for the week in August, they were able to spend a lot of time with all of them and they had a blast!


The "big kids", Claire, Aaron, & Brett had a sleep over on the fold out couch. Maggie joined them to watch a movie on the projection tv before bed! (Though she was just walking all over the bed pestering everyone!)

I looked down the hallway to see all 4 of the kids sitting in Brett's room playing together! Yep, Claire is wearing a chicken costume!

Claire is such a sweetie!

Maggie & Claire driving the Gator!

Watch out world, Maggie is behind the wheel!

Brett gave Aaron a ride on the 4 wheeler. (Don't worry- they wore helmets!)

We went to check out the awesome new aquatic center in Fort Dodge. Aaron, Claire, and Olivia are posing for a picture.

Brett & Jacob join in


Aaron loved Brett's goggles!



We had fun checking out 2 of the parks in Fort Dodge that got new playground equipment. The kids had a blast!

Lovin' the tire swing





Brett, Jacob, & Emma

Olivia and Claire

Eatin' at Nanny & Papa's!

We got to enjoy lots of Nanny's awesome cooking and Papa's amazing grilling while we were in Fort Dodge this summer! Everything tastes so good from their kitchen! :)


Aaron, Maggie, & Claire enjoy their food at the little table. Cheese!

Maggie is chowin' down her purple flower cookie from Larita's. (These really are the best cookies ever!)


Banana Nutella crepes!

Splash pad

During our week in Iowa this summer, we were able to get together with our old college friends, Nicole, and her kids, Isaiah and Ellie. It was really crazy to realize that Nicole and I hadn't even seen each other since I had Aaron & Maggie! We had a blast catching up and the kids had fun playing at the splash pad, playground, and having lunch at McDonalds together! The time went so quickly that I didn't take very many pictures and we didn't even get one of Nicole, Amy, and I... but we had a blast! Hoping that it won't have to wait so long to see each other again!

Water table

Aaron & Maggie loved the water table this summer. (This used to be a sand and water table, then just a sand table, and now just a water table. Who would ever think that having sand and water together in one table was a good idea?) One of our favorite things to do was eat breakfast outside on the deck and then play in the water table right away in the morning, while the deck was still shady and cool.

Sharing some pictures of Maggie playing! (Nanny and Papa were here visiting and Aaron was off doing something with the boys!)

"Hiding" in the cabinet

Miss Maggie is hugging on her "Baby Love" which is the name that Aaron gave her because her little outfit says love on it.


Cheese!

Maggie thought that she (and then she & Aaron) might be able to sit down and close this door so they could "hide" in here!

I love these pictures- they crack me up! This is the goofy nature of our children that I usually don't capture in photos!

Random summer bits & pieces

I'm SO very behind on my blogging and am going to be making some serious efforts to get my blog more up to date! Today I am sharing some bits and pieces that don't need full posts.

These first two pictures were taken way back in May on on of our very first nice weekends. We were doing some work in the 'yard', planting grass seed, cleaning up, weeding... and the kids were playing and helping!


Maggie looks like such a little rag muffin in this one! (And she looks so young!)


Aunt Amy bought Aaron these flame shoes and he LOVES them! He's convinced that they make him run even faster than usual! He asked me if I would take a picture of him in his flame shoes.

The kids were helping make english muffin pizzas for lunch a couple of weeks ago. Maggie was trying to eat it all before we even got it to the oven!


Aaron's friend, Asher, loaned him this Super Why costume. Aaron wore it constantly for a few days and says that this is what he wants to be for halloween! I love the glasses!

Mommy and Super Aaron!

TV trance

Our children love the tv. Seriously, L-O-V-E. There are times that I have seriously considered getting rid of the darn thing, so that Aaron doesn't ask to watch it all of the time! Then I remember that I really like the tv too!

We have limits on tv time and ways that Aaron has to earn time. For example, if he doesn't take a nap, he doesn't get to watch any tv. We started this when Aaron was having a hard time taking his daily nap. Now that he's in school, this may change. Generally Aaron watches 1-2, 25 minutes shows per day. We will often watch a movie on the weekends (and have popcorn), which he loves. Aaron didn't start really being interested in the tv until he was almost 2, but not Maggie. In all fairness, Aaron was hardly exposed to the tv before he turned 2, so he probably didn't really have much of a chance to know if he liked it or not! Maggie loves the tv already and will sit and watch with her brother!

Craft time

The kids love to do arts and crafts, so we try to make some time to get our creativity flowing!

This day we were making animal headbands with ears and noses. This was the first set that we made- bunnies with the big ears and we glued on the noses after this. We realized after trying them on that the ears that Aaron & Connor had were too big and wouldn't stand up, so we had to cut the down a little smaller!

Maggie's orange eared bunny!

The second one that the boys decided on were supposed to be leopards, I believe! I drew the ears with markers and then the boys cut them out (and I did hand over hand with Maggie to cut hers- she can't be left out of the cutting). Aaron decided to just cut squares around his and not cut on the lines this time!

These are the finished product of the bunnies with their cotton ball noses! So cute!



This was Maggie's first attempt at painting with water colors. We decided to paint on their Build A Bear boxes (which have since been re-purposed for wrapping birthday gifts.) After I took this picture, I turned around to help Aaron get his paints open, and Maggie was already drinking the dipping water for her paintbrush!!! I quickly got it away from her and was relieved to find out that the Crayola water colors are non-toxic! Phew.....

Needless to say, I helped her paint with water colors for another couple of minutes and then she moved on to markers!

Aaron is quite the little painter!

Family after flood

July was a very rainy month in Chicago, which lead to some flooding in our basement. Tony, Angie, Emma, Jacob, and Olivia came to visit on their way back from Ohio. The same weekend we had to ask my Dad to drive in for some flood assistance and my mom flew into Chicago on her way home from a trip to Canada. Though the flooding was unfortunate, the time with family was great!