Friday, May 31, 2013

Our Pool Is Open

The pool was ready to swim in on Tuesday and the kids have been in it everyday since. We sure love our pool, but in less than a weeks time we have had a near drowning and a call to poison control. In regards to the near drowning it was more of a scare. Trace had his life vest on, his head was above water the whole time, and we were right there. He was just panicking because his feet couldn't touch the ground. It gave him a good scare, so hopefully he will be more careful in the future. In addition, he decided to take a bite out of an old chlorine tablet resulting in a call to poison control. Thankfully, he spit it out right away and we were able to rinse his mouth thoroughly so no damage was done. I guess those are both reminders of the blessings and curses of having a pool. Hopefully the rest of the summer is full of blessings...





Monday, May 27, 2013

Memorial Day Weekend

Trace and Andrew

Patrick, Stacie and Andrew

Kianna, Aliyah. and Kaylee

Andrew's Family Party

Trace and Bryker

More sleepover fun

Kids with Grandpa Wayne and Grandma Sue
Cousins minus Andrew

Stacie's awesome hiding spots



We just returned from a long weekend in Iowa. We arrived late Thursday evening and the action started first thing Friday morning when Trevor met his friend, Tod Santel bright and early for coffee. When he returned, I took off to workout with my sisters, Shelli and Stacie. We had some good sister time and even got pedicures. I then picked up the rest of my family and headed to lunch with my mom, Grandma and niece, Rylan who is 22 months old. Kaylee had fun playing with Rylan. She will be an excellent babysitter someday. We spent the afternoon at my nephew, Andrew's graduation party, the reason for our trip to Iowa. Andrew plans on attending the University of Iowa this fall with a major in Finance. We are proud of his accomplishment and what a nice young man he has become. Way to go Andrew!

On Saturday, we spent the day with The Cook's and Langfald's. The weather was cold and rainy, so we made do with some indoor activities. We let the kids run around at The Playstation, went out to eat, took them to the movie "Epic", and grilled out that evening. The night was finished off with the kids having a sleepover at their cousin, Bryker's house where they ate popcorn and watched another movie.  Since Trevor and I were kidless we went to the movie "Star Trek" with our friends, The Issa's. I'd say we all had a pretty great day!

On Sunday, we went to church where we had a great time catching up with friends. We then headed to my dad and Sue's house for the afternoon. The kids had a great time with my dad. He played with them for two hours straight. What a good grandpa! The rest of the evening was spent back at my sister, Stacie's house. My grandma made her famous chimichangas for dinner. We spent the evening visiting and playing games. My sister, Shelli, was awesome with the kids. She had arranged for them to compete against each other in a series of games including: tic-tac-toe, hangman, pictionary, and hide-n-seek. The latter game proved to be the most fun. After the kids took turns hiding a number of times it was time for the adults to hide. Stacie definitely got the prize for the best hiding places. We found her stuffed inside a Chick-Fil-A catering container one time and on top of her kitchen cabinets another time. It made for some good laughs and more fun times in Iowa!

Saturday, May 18, 2013

Mother's Daughter Tea Party


Ella, Kaylee and Katie

Kianna and Ada

Silly Faces

Silly Faces

The girls, their dolls and I got all dressed up and had a tea party with some friends. I think this is becoming an annual event, because we all enjoy it so much!

Monday, May 13, 2013

Gaskill's Visit

Grandma Sue with the birthday crown Kianna made her.

Enjoying our hot fudge sundaes

Sauder Village Jail

Trace in old school house

Girls in old school house



Kianna and Trace milking a cow

Kaylee milking a cow

Grandma Sue with the scrambled eggs Kianna made her

Grandma Sue's loot for Mother's Day

Me with my Mother's Day loot

Silly Faces

My dad and Sue came to visit us for a few days. We hadn't seen my dad since October and Sue since Christmas. It was so good spending time with them. We had a lot to celebrate. Sue had just had her birthday earlier in the week and they were here for Mother's Day. In honor of Sue's birthday, Kaylee and I made homemade hot fudge sauce and we had hot fudge sundaes. In honor of Mother's Day, Kianna made Sue and I breakfast, the kids made us cards and gave us flowers. Trevor grilled out steaks. It was a nice day.

In the midst of all the celebrating, we watched the girls' soccer games and made a trip to Sauder Village. We had a great time at Sauder Village, which is a living history farm setup to replicate life in the mid 1800's and early 1900's. We got to see what houses and schools looked like back then. We got to see how jam, horseradish, noodles and rope were made. The kids got to milk a pretend cow, gather eggs from a chicken, see some baby animals and play several games that kids back then would have played. We had such a good time that we bought a membership there. We plan on going back sometime soon. We also had a wonderful meal at The Barn Restaurant. I was honestly full for the entire next day.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

CBS Program


Trace and his buddy, Brayden



Trace had his CBS program this morning. He did a good job singing his songs. There is one little boy that sings SUPER loud. We discovered that Trace must not do well with loud noises because he would cover his ears when he was close to this boy. However, when Trace was moved down a few kids he would start singing. Can't say I blame him!