The Madison County Fair

This was our first year to go to the fair as a family. The boys were in love with it. They loved the cows. They loved the petting zoo. They loved the model trains. They loved the children's fun room. They loved the ferris wheel. The only thing they didn't love was leaving!
Sam really, really tried to get a hold of one of these goats. Poor thing, he actually grabbed it's lips one time!
Alex kept getting nose-to-nose with these little goats--it was hilarious!





This goat was trying to make friends with us since we had a little cup of food pellets!
The view from the ferris wheel of the fields west of the fairgrounds

the carnival in all it's tacky fun! Alex begged to go on every ride!

Sam just sat back and enjoyed the ride. He was pretty tired by this point and just relaxed in my lap. Ryan and I were a little nervous about whether or not the boys would be scared so high up in the air, but they weren't at all.

Alex loved the ferris wheel. We heard lots of oohs and ahhs from him. He loved it so much, in fact, that for the next several mornings first thing when he woke up he asked me, "I go on Ferris Wheel today? Big Boy?"

Independence Day Festivities!

We started off the weekend with a few fireworks of our own in our driveway. (these just left over from last year really!)

This is how we started out watching Daddy light them off--Sam on my lap and Alex close by...then Alex moved to a "safer zone" and Sam was fidgeting so I had to back up and hold him!
Alex watched the rest crouched on the doorstep. He would grimace and then when it was over ask for more!
my little pyro!
We were going to go to the zoo on Friday for the day, but Omaha was getting rain the whole day, so Ryan said we should just make a quick overnight trip to my parents' house since they have a parade and stuff at the park. So we piled the kids in the car and off we went!
Ryan and Sammy waiting for the parade!!

Alex and Jen got to ride the train!! The fun of being an aunt!!

Heather and Cole got to ride the train too later that night.

Dad and Cole are talking to Alex!! I think Dad's trying to stop a 'sword' fight!

Love the parade!!

Alex waved at everybody in the parade. He also got pretty good at asking for candy--great!--which he actually did not want to eat. He's not a big candy fan, just suckers. He just wanted to do what all the other bigger kids were doing!

Sam watched the entire parade very intently. He seemed to love it, and spent most of it in his Aunt Jen's lap, chillin'.
The other half of our parade line up!
My littlest nephew, baby Hunter, spent much of the time snoozin' away!

Grams got the boys some bubble wands to play with and they loved it!

Sammy got his first try at corn on the cob! Did a pretty good job, with some help, and loved it too! That's my bottomless pit child!
right before we left for home we got to have s'mores in mom & dad's new firepit that we kids got them for their anniversary! It was really fun!
Hope you had a Happy 4th!!

Nina & Papa's May Visit!

I can't believe it's taken me this long to sort through all the pics of the Coons' May visit to us, but that's life I guess! We had a great time with them. We had some church activities to go to, spent lots of time outside, found a little children's museum here in town, even took the boys to Chuck-E-Cheese for the first time! The kids had a great time get spoiled by their grandparents and we had lots of time to relax together. Thanks again to the Coons for driving all this way!

Alex's Birthday Stuff!

Well, the big guy turned 3 on Monday. I went into his room and told him Happy Birthday and he said, "Wow!" I told him to go see his daddy and when Ryan told him good morning he responded with, "Daddy, you say Happy Birthday to You!" Think it was going to his head already?

We spent the whole morning outside playing, he got to watch a Thomas the Train movie after lunch, and we went to a few stores in the afternoon--some of his favorite things to do! Seriously, the kid loves going to the store! He walked around all day telling people "Happy Birthday to You!"

I didn't get a good pic of the little decorations we had, but I made this banner and we did some crepe paper and streamers. And we tried to have balloons. Yep, we tried! We went to the store to get 2 balloons. Against my better judgment I let him carry one out of the store. Made it through the doors and he let it go! Popped on the side of the building. No prob, we have another! Made it home, but when he let it go inside the house it popped on our popcorn plaster ceiling. So he was left with this tiny little 4 inch Happy Birthday balloon! Oh, well. Live and learn!
This is the train set Ryan and I made him for his bday. He LOVES trains right now, but mommy is not in love with the idea of messing with train tracks all the time, so Daddy just nailed them down! We constructed this little box that fits right on their play table and painted it up and he LOVES it!

We had hot dogs, chips, and beans for dinner because that is one of his favorite meals. He wasn't too interested in eating until we told him that after he ate his dinner we had a present for him. Now until this point I wasn't sure if he really understood the whole birthday thing, but we now know that he does get the present thing. I've never seen him clean his plate so fast!

Before bedtime we did a video call with Nana (Alex says Nina and so Nina it may from now on be!) and Papa so they could watch him open his present from them. He was so excited to see a kid sized tool set. Every tool you could imagine and he loves it! He's been "fixy" everything!
We had chocolate cupcakes (with no frosting on his) for his birthday. (I am planning on making a Thomas the Train cake when family comes to town, but not for just the 4 of us. It would never get eaten!) Alex might not like frosting, but he loves chocolate cake. He has been known to randomly ask for cake--as if it is just always on hand for him!
Here he is wearing his new toolbelt. It took a few tries to get him to like wearing it, but now he loves it! Walks around with this silly smile on his face like he thinks he looks cool! So cute!

Happy Birthday Alex!!!

This was Alex's first day of "life on the outside!" He still looks the same!


Alex's 1st birthday. He took his first steps that weekend!


On his second birthday we found out that he loves chocolate cake!


These are just two recent pics of the big guy. He's grown so much and we are so thankful to God for giving him to us. He is so fun-loving, energetic, and affectionate. He makes us laugh all the time. We love him to no end!

A Nature Walk at Camp

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Here's a little bit of the beauty of the North Woods! Ryan and I took a little walk back to Reflection Lake here at camp today and it was so peaceful and beautiful--if you could get past all the bugs. ;-) We didn't see a bear despite the talk of all the bear sightings this year, but we did see many deer tracks and lots of little critters and Ryan managed to bring two ticks back with him on his jeans!

See You in a Week!

Ryan and I will be taking the teens in our youth group up to summer camp in Wisconsin. We leave around 4am on Monday morning (yes, pray for us!) and don't get back until Saturday night. It will be a long week, but loads of fun. I call it a practical vacation since I have none of my regular responsibilites of cooking, cleaning, changing diapers, etc! The boys will be at Grandpa and Grams Gibson's house in IA. I dropped them off there yesterday. They are having a blast running around their big house, playing on the swingset, and getting into general mischief!! Mom has promised to post a few pics, if they give her 5 whole minutes put together to sit down, on the Gibson family blog so if you would like to see what they are up to then just click on the link on the right called The Gibson Clan. Hope you all have a great week!

My Garden "Helpers"

I had many thoughts as to the prospective title of this post: "Mommy, the Slave-Driver" (that one donated by Ryan) or possibly "Aren't I Glad They Don't Get Allowance Yet?" Actually, the boys weren't really doing anything good or bad to my flower beds. Just simply digging in dirt! Something they love, love, love!

Of course Alex wanted to use my spade to dig....hmmmm, maybe not such a great idea, kid! So I got him a soup spoon instead.

But when Thing 2 saw that Thing 1 had a spoon...well...we had to get another spoon!



Of course Sam finally got wise and took off down the sidewalk toward the church before Mommy really did put him to work!

And these were the irises about a week later!

Night=Night Everybody!

Lunchtime Fun

Just a little video from Papa & Nana's visit. Sam has started "cleaning his plate" to the fullest & Alex is still workin' on those table manners! They are lots of fun, these two boys of ours!