Our Own Little Bookworm

Sam has started "reading" books, and he is surprisingly gentle with books in general, no ripping or destroying which is unusual for Sammy! Actually there has been a lot of reading going on here lately and I have some cute pics to post later on that score, but for now hopefully you get a kick out of this video.

Water Babies

In these long hot days of August the boys have been playing in the water a lot. Especially in the evenings after we take our little neighborhood walk we like to fill up the kiddie pool, bring out the sprinkler, or just play with the hose while we water the flowers.







Both boys love the water in their different ways. Though Sam is usually our dare devil, it takes him a little longer to get brave with water, especially the pool. He tends to step into it for a second and then get right back out. He has started splashing with brother a little bit lately. Alex is like a little fish---he could play in the pool or sprinkler all day long!

"Hoppy" Days

Grandpa found a Toad outside and took a few minutes to give Alex & Sam a little nature lesson.

Alex didn't really want to touch the froggy, but Sam wanted to squeeze his head in!!

A Visit from the President

Well, at least a visit from the President of our alma mater!!! We hosted Dr. Bob III and Benneth Jones as well as my parents and Dr. & Mrs. Hall and Dr. & Mrs. Norton for dinner on Monday night.

Ryan had the idea to grill burgers for them since people are probably always cooking them fancy meals or taking them out to eat at fancy restaruants--and they all LOVED it!! They also got a real kick out of the apple and snicker bar salad (but seriously, who wouldn't!). I would have been hard pressed to get it all done without help though--Dad was on kid entertainment duty for the day, Mom helped me in a HUGE way cooking and cleaning with me, and Ryan was the grill master. It all came together beautifully!
If Alex ever attends BJU someday here is a story that will be fun to tell him: as the Dr. Bob and Mrs. Jones walked into our house Alex greeted them by lifting his shirt as high as he could and yelling, "Boo-boo, boo-boo on my belly!" Probably not the usual way a college president is greeted for dinner, but they laughed anyway!! ;-)

Sam was a little shy of all the visitors, but warmed up his vocals after a while and talked to the whole room!

I wanted to ask, "hey Dr. Bob...our kids are so cute, don't you think they should get free college tuition???"

We had to take our table out and bring over a big 10 foot table from the church to fit everyone around it!! There were twelve of us in all--that's a big croud for our little house! But it was really fun and a cool thing to have the president of our college over to our house for dinner!

CBC's 50th Anniversary Cake

This was the cake I made for our church's 50th Anniversary Celebration this past Sunday. It was 5 layers tall and we have no idea exactly how many pounds it weighed!! It had 2 chocolate layers, 2 banana layers, and one yellow w/strawberry filling layer.

here is the 4th layer before it was frosted.

this is a frosted layer--no fondant yet.

here is one of the round layers, frosted and with the ribbon already on--basically ready to be stacked together the next day. I store my layers overnight in individual boxes so they don't dry out at all. There are dowel rods inserted in all but the top layers--designed to help support the weight of the cake so it doesn't sink down into itself!!

A visit from Grandma Linda

A couple of weeks ago Grandma Linda made a quick trip out from Colorful Colorado to see the boys (and us too)! The boys warmed up to their Grandma in no time and before long we were having a blast at the park. Grandma Linda is a great reader and Alex especially enjoyed reading books with his 'gwamma winda' Sammy also got into the book reading including convincing her to read a certain train book at least twenty times in a row!!!

Thanks for the quick visit Mom ... sorry it took a blown out radiator to get you here. We all had a great time. Here are some of the pictures we got.

A Sunny Day at the Park

Last summer we enjoyed going down to TaHazooka Park, but this summer it is even better since they have a brand new playground structure! Add that to the bridge, lakes, ducks, and water fountains, and the boys couldn't have more fun! They do still enjoy the old slides and swings and we kind of make our way around the whole park as we go from one thing to the next.

Photo Shoot with Alex

Ever try getting a 3 yr old to pose for a photo shoot? There is a reason you take kids to a photography studio--they are professionals and know what they are doing!! We attempted to get some good shots of Alex a few Saturday mornings ago at the park for his 3 year photos, but only came up with one of him smiling and a few others that are ok. We are hoping to get a few more possibly this Saturday, or soon anyway, but we'll post these for now! He is cute--we're not arguing that fact!!--it's just hard to get him to cooperate with the camera!!

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?"