Vacation 2009, Part 2

The first full day of vacation, we decided to check out downtown Wisconsin Dells. It was a lot of fun. Julie and her family hit the Ducks and had a blast. They got to see a lot of really beautiful sites of Wisconsin Dells.
Jade and Toby ready to go.

While they were on the Ducks, we went downtown to start looking around and keep the baby busy. We found a lot to do, bought a lot of stuff and decided to get a caricature done of Emily. She was willing. So Kevin held her for the artist...

and this is the result. He did a great job and as Kevin said "We'll have to keep that outfit forever." Isn't she cute?

After we met up with Julie and her family and we ate lunch, we decided to get an old time picture done of the group for fun. The "fun" cost a lot, but oh well, we were on vacation.
Toby, Kevin, Emily, Kris, Jade, Julie, Dalton and Mark

Luckily we had a couple of cute girls to put in front so hopefully the focus won't be on the old girls in the back!

Twofer Tuesday

Vacation 2009, Part 1

For our family vacation this year we chose to go to Wisconsin Dells. Kevin and I had been there before in 2006 and I had been when I was a kid. Actually, on summers off from college, my mom worked at the A&W in Wisconsin Dells.

This year we invited Julie and her family to go along. The first night we went to Moosejaw for dinner. It was fun.

Mark & Julie in their Moosejaw antlers. It was a requirement to wear the antlers.
Mark, Toby, Dalton and Julie
Even though Emily was asleep, it was decided that she needed to wear the antlers also.
Poor Jade. She got stuck wearing the antlers also. She was a good sport. It could have been very embarrassing for a 17 year old!
Kevin, Dalton and I

After this, it was decided that Dalton would no longer have any Mt. Dew or any soda with caffeine in it. Didn't matter too much. The kid is a ball of fire. I wish I had his energy. He helped out with Emily and kept her entertained a lot of the time.

Toby is a good big brother; to Dalton and to Emily. He was really good with her and wasn't concerned when she looked at him and started screaming. He actually saved us a lot of distress when he said "She's hungry". We didn't believe him at first but soon found out he was right when we fed her and she quieted down.

Jade is the big sister. She is so tolerant of the boys. She really liked babysitting Emily, I think. I don't think we paid her enough for all she did.

Strangely, whenever Emily had a poopy diaper, the kids all disappeared and didn't want to help with that. I just don't understand.

Stay tuned for more exciting pictures. Luckily Julie is a photobug and takes a lot of pictures because I was a bad mommy and didn't take near enough pictures, though I think I starred in more than I would have liked to.

Emily is Five Months Old!

Wow. I can't believe Emily is already five months old. She amazes us every day with every new thing that she does. She is recognizing her name, eating more solids every day, growing like a weed and getting her second tooth (yes, I realize this is a young age for getting teeth, but I can't push them back in).

Ever since my friend Shannon introduced me to the wonderful Craigslist, I have been on it every day looking for great bargains. One bargain I recently found was for Flash Photography that just happens to be at Coral Ridge Mall. The bargain was that you bring your child or children, dogs, family, etc. in for a new photographer to practice on. For all of your "troubles" you get a free 8 x 10 picture. I signed us up right away.

The photo session was a lot of fun, until Emily rolled off the platform and hit her head on the floor. After that the photo session was done. Then we had to busy ourselves for about 30 minutes while they got our pictures ready for us to view. I thought "oh-oh, they are going to try to sell us a huge package". I knew that I would love all of the pictures and would probably be suckered into buying all of the poses, but I was going to be strong.


This was the picture we picked. We didn't pose her or anything. I call it her senior picture pose. We'll have to remember this in about 18 years!

I was very proud of myself. I didn't get suckered in to buying any more pictures. However, Kevin did get suckered in and next week we're going to pick up two more pictures...

Anniversary Celebration

After the parade in Indianola, we hit the craft fair. There was a lot to look at and lots to buy. I held back though, and only bought a few things. One was this frame. I had gotten frames like this for the dogs that are on our refrigerator. Unfortunately the dog pictures have not made it in the frames yet, but they are there.

So I decided I'd better hurry and fill this frame and not just let it sit around. This is the finished product. I'm so proud.


After hitting all of the vendors, we sat down and realized that it was my parents's 43rd wedding anniversary on August 6th and we hadn't gotten them anything. We decided to go back to the picture frame guy and get a frame with all of the grandchildren's names and pictures. I told him I needed a Taylor, a Jessica and another Emily. He asked me how to spell Emily. Evidently there are many, many ways to spell Emily and he had many different spellings - Emaleigh, EmmaLeigh, Emilee, Emilie. He said he tried to get every possible spelling of every name so he would have it all on hand. I was impressed.

He put the frame together and I said "No. You have the names in the wrong order!"
He said, "You can take the back off and change them around." I felt kind of dumb.

When we got home, I emailed my brother to ask him for wallet sized pictures of his girls. He immediately forwarded me to his wife. I knew I should have started with her first! After a lot of discussion, we decided to use Taylor and Jessica's school pictures and Emily's three month picture. I think it turned out well. Aren't they adorable!


Grandma and Grandpa loved the picture. Grandpa wanted to take it to his office at St. Ambrose University in Davenport, but Grandma said no. The nice thing about this picture is they can change the picture as the girls get older and if there are any more grandchildren (better get busy) you can add to the frame.

After dinner we took a picture of Grandma and Grandpa with Emily.
Happy 43rd Anniversary, Mom and Dad/Jeff and Audrey/Grandma and Grandpa! We love you!

Indianola Balloon Classic 2009

This was the 40th year for the Indianola Balloon Classic and it was my first time going. Kevin had been to it before when he was much younger, and, of course, Emily had never been either. Our friends, JD and Doug, suggested we go. So we did. And we had a lot of fun.

We started out at a parade, Emily's first. We didn't catch too much candy. There were other bigger kids that got to the candy before us.

Emily and Daddy watching the parade.

Getting ready to watch the balloons. Look how sunburned the poor baby is.

What a bad Mommy. The only excuse I have is "We were in the shade!"

Poor baby.
She still seems pretty happy.

These first three pictures are of some crazy guy from California who straps himself to a bunch of helium balloons and takes off by running and hoping to catch some air. He lands by letting balloons go. We didn't get to see the landing, but we did see an airplane that looked pretty close to this guy and his balloons. I wonder where you buy balloons that big...

These are random pictures of balloons

Daddy cut my head off. Nice picture...

This balloon was from Milo where Julie is from.

After the balloons all floated away and the band was done playing,

we went back to the motel and fell asleep.

Happy Baby

Why is Emily so happy?

Is is because she just spit up on her clean outfit?

No...

Is it because she just let out a really loud fluffer?

No...

Is is because she sees her bottle?

No...

Scroll down.....

She's getting her first tooth

and she LOVES my finger in her mouth!

After dinner Emily and Daddy practice their identical smiles.