Adventureland

Becky and I took a Friday afternoon off in June to go play at Adventureland with Eric, Dawn, and the girls. We had a blast!
Becky was so excited to ride the horses....

drive the boat with Becca....
ride on the ferris wheel....
sit in the stagecoach with Mommy and drink her pop..... and
riding in the airplane with Becca. (even though she didn't understand how to make it go up and down! It's pretty funny when all the parents are standing around yelling at the kids, push up, no, push up, like this or pull back, no, pull back, like this!)

Kaitlyn had fun too, I think!Here is a picture of everyone after the rain hit! It felt pretty good, but I think it kind of wiped everyone out!

no surgery

Grandma didn't end up having her surgery today. She had a fever and her white count was up, so she has infection somewhere. They ran a bunch of tests. She got put on some medicine so hopefully she will be feeling better soon and can have the surgery on Monday. I will let you know. Thanks for all your prayers. Please remember to keep Mandy in your prayers as well. She will be having her surgery tomorrow.

prayer request

My grandma Peggy, (Mom's Mom) is having a mastectomy tomorrow morning. Please keep her in your prayers. Our friend Mandy is also scheduled to have a bone marrow transplant on Wednesday. Her anonymous donor will be giving his marrow tomorrow. Please keep the three of them in your prayers. Thanks. I will post to let you know how they are doing when I hear.

June zoo visit

Here are a few pics from our trip to the zoo. We had a blast. Becky got to....

ride on Daddy's shoulders....ride the train with Mommy..... have a picnic....
play on the slide.....

over and over and over and over again.....

and her most favorite thing: feed the fish!

All in all, we had a great trip. I especially enjoyed seeing the elephants, but for some reason, those pictures don't want to upload tonight. I think everyone else liked them, but I know I did! If you are terribly disappointed you didn't get to see elephants, click on Our shuttterfly pics and look at the June album. You'll get to see Rosie and JP there. I may try to post them again some other time, but it's time to sign off for tonight.

Sorry, Jennie!

I really was going to blog some pictures tonight. I'm way behind and have several I need to get added. However, it's not wanting to upload pictures for me. I will try again later if I can. In the meantime, Jennie (and everyone else who looks at our blog) sorry I couldn't get it updated for you. I will be on the computer every night this week and will try to take a few minutes to get pictures added. Have a good one! P.S. You can always click on the Our Shutterfly Pics link on the side and look at pictures I have posted there if you you need a Becky fix!

weekend in Mt. Ayr

Al had to work at 2 on Saturday, so Becky and I headed to Mt. Ayr for a short trip. We had a blast. We played outside for a long time. Becky got to play in the playhouse. We found a merry-go-round at the park, ate ice cream, and played with Kaitlyn and Becca. Becky even slept all by herself on an air mattress. Big weekend!

The girls eating all by themselves. Becky was fascinated by Kaitlyn, and every time she looked silly at the camera, Becky would look at her. Oh well! Kaitlyn was just excited to show off the space in her mouth where her two front teeth used to be! Here are a couple pictures of me and Becky on the merry-go-round. Becky looks a little scared, but I think she mostly liked it. She was laughing a lot. I had a blast. I'm so disappointed it's going to be torn down this summer. Oh well...at least I got one last thrill ride in!

We did it!

Holly and I ran the 5K (3.1) miles in the Dam to Dam race on Saturday. We had never run that far before, so I was very proud of us. It sure tuckered us out, but we did good. Look at all the people behind us at the finish line!

Sesame Street Live

Becky in her seat getting ready to watch Sesame Street Live


Bode was there too! He found us during the intermission ~ which made it just a little too long for kids to sit!


Becky really seemed to enjoy the show. I think her favorite part was the strobe light though. She kept looking at the ceiling saying, "Look at that. Wow. Look at that. Pretty." Gotta love a kid's perspective! Becky was also very concerned about the characters and every time they went off stage, she would say, "Where'd they go?" All in all, though, it was a great time. Even Al didn't hate it because Becky was having fun. I think he may have been a little relieved to see so many other dads there too!

playground

Becky, Bode, and I went to the park in Spencer with Larry and Donna the Saturday of Memorial Weekend when it was nice outside for like an hour. Brrr!!! The kids sure had fun running around, and I had fun taking pictures until my camera batteries died and I had no back-up with me!

cool cousins

Becky and Bode on their bikes eating suckers. Looks like trouble to me!

Becky lovin on Emma. She is going to have fun teaching her all about princesses one day, I just know it!

bedtime struggle

As many of you know ~ or don't because I haven't blogged in forever ~ Al and I have both been struggling with Becky going to bed on time. She has become a master staller and somehow ends up not going to bed until 9:30 or 10 and then waking up crying in the morning because she's so tired. Well...this week we decided we would just make her go to bed and let her cry. Monday night her and I did our bedtime routine for 30 minutes. I asked her if she wanted to rock three times. She did not. At 8:30, of course, she did. I left her in her crib standing up crying. I then got on the internet to make sure I was doing the right thing. It's so hard to listen to your child scream at the top of their lungs for you! I went and checked on her in 15 minutes. I had calmed down by then, because as you can imagine, Al and I both are at our wits end by the time we leave the room at night trying to make her go to sleep. I realized something had to change when she was playing with a bear telling it, "Go to sleep. It's ridiculous!" That's when I knew maybe our "routine" wasn't working out so well. I tell you what, it's really humbling to see your child playing back the way they see something happen. They are so always paying attention. Anyway.. at 9 on the first night, I hear, "I wanna lay down!" I went up, she laid down, and I covered her up. It only took 15 minutes the second night and 10 the next before she was ready to lay down after screaming.

Tonight...she's in her crib without the railing. I had asked her if she wanted a big girl bed and she said yes. So I took off the footrail tonight. She hasn't gotten out of bed once! Granted I'm paranoid and she would so be asleep if I hadn't checked on her five times to make sure she hadn't fallen out. There is no guardrail on it, so I'm sure I will be a nervous wreck all night. She seems to really like it though. The only time she cried out was when one of her pillows fell on the floor and she wanted me to get it. The last time I checked on her, I heard something fall. Granted, there was no crying or screaming so I should have left her alone. However, the paranoia made me think, what if she is unconscious and can't? Of course the bang wasn't that loud. It was her book I told her she could keep in bed to look at if she stayed in bed. She did, the book didn't!

So I think my baby girl is growing up to be a little girl. While I am sure her staying in the bed this first night is a little bit of a fluke, I'm going to pray it stays this way for a while!

pooped in the potty!

Kid you not..she really did. I think at first she was just stalling not wanting to lay down for her nap, but she told Al she wanted to sit on the potty. He brought her downstairs and let her. She told him to leave the room. He did. A couple minutes later, Becky comes running out and says, "Mommy, I did it!" I went in the bathroom, and sure enough there was poop in there. Now, you think only a mom could be so proud. Nope, just after I had dumped the turd in the toilet, here comes Al with the camera! (That's a husband truly after his wife's scrapbooking heart for sure!) We decided it wasn't something we needed a picture of, even though it was a perfectly formed turd. Becky was very excited too. Kept saying, "I did it!" and clapping her hands. At least now we know she can do it!

RECESS

Becky and I went to Recess in Ankeny with Julie and Drake this morning. After the kids got warmed up, they had a great time running around. If you've never been, it's great for toddler age!

Easter dress

Here is Becky in her Easter dress! She actually kept it on the entire day. WOW!!!

more pics soon

I'm not sure what is going on with Blogger....the pictures are doing weird things. I don't feel like trying to guess what's going on, so I will try again real soon, I promise! I've got some great pictures of Easter I want to post. All is well with us. Hard to believe March is almost over already!

A good friend of ours, Mandy Baumgarten, was diagnosed with leukemia and is in the hospital in Pheonix undergoing chemo. It is a very agressive form of cancer, and she was pregnant when she found out she had it, so there will not be a baby. It was not an option for her to wait the nine months before starting treatment. She wouldn't have made it. She is doing very well and is very optomistic about it, but my heart just breaks for her and her family. She is in our thoughts and prayers. We pray for a speedy recovery.

Also, our friends Brian and Sarah Thompson's little girl, Calla, is in the hospital with RSV. It has now turned into pneumonia. She is also in our prayers.

Al is no longer in nursing school. He started a full-time job in Waukee three weeks ago, and really seems to like it. He is doing collection work, but it is with a smaller company. So far it seems to be going really well.

Becky ended up with another ear infection. I thought she might have one as she was waking up in the middle of the night. On the 17th, she went to the doctor. I was right. She got some new medicine, that tastes a lot better than the stuff she had last time, and an appointment to go back in a month to try to figure out if it's gone or if we need to consider getting a tube put back in her left ear. The doctor said we may also do a hearing test just to make sure her eardrum hasn't been damaged. I'm afraid we shouldn't wait a month. She was just messing with her ear tonight and telling Mommy it hurt. Trying to figure out if she's for real or if her molars (which still haven't officially come in) are just causing pain radiating up into her ear. Oh...the guessing game of being a parent!

Guess there has been a lot going on. Have just been too busy to take the time to post, I guess. In fact, I should be working on a transcript right now, but I just had to post about Mandy. She is in my thoughts and I wanted everyone to know so they could say a prayer for her as well.

I will get Easter pictures posted this weekend if not before, so make sure to check back!

February pics

For some reason, I'm not able to see where the pictures start and where they end, so I'll just give a description here. Becky got to help Daddy shovel the snow, got her first Barbie for Valentine's Day, got to wear her "hair tup" as she calls it, got to pose in her Elmo dress, and got to ride the train at the mall. What a busy month!