Friday, July 18, 2014

Meet Sha-Sha


Sha-Sha just joined our house a week ago,
she is Aubrey's imaginary friend.
One night while I was giving her a bath, she warned me
not to get Sha-Sha wet and then it began.

Here is some info about her:
-49 years old
(but sometimes 3)
-pretend friend cousin
-parents died in an accident putting up a swing set (?!?!)
-she does what Aubrey does
-she wears what Aubrey wears...

The other day we were getting in our Equinox for the
very last time and we said,
"You two girls...it's the LAST time in the Equinox!"
Aubrey got very upset and said,
"No, you have three kids- don't forget about Sha-Sha!"
OH DEAR! 

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Mini-van Mom


Yup, it happened, we are officially a van owner!
We bought it yesterday at CarMax in Des Moines.
We traded off our 2011 Equinox LT- SAD :(
for a 2011 Town and Country Touring L.
It's navy and only had 36,00 miles on it. 
It has got all the bells and whistles and we think it's 
pretty "fancy" for a van :)
We think this will be a van we will have for the long haul,
so we might as well enjoy all the extra features :)
So, who wants to ROAD TRIP?! :)






Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Blank Park Zoo

It was unseasonably CHILLY today
which made for a GREAT day at the zoo!
I think the temps were about 65-70 degrees!
We left the house around 8:30 and were at the zoo
until about 1:15 with a picnic lunch there.
Here are the highlights. 












Being brave petting the goats. 

Llama, Llama..




family selfie?! 




Aubrey was SO EXCITED for the train ride!


This is her excited face she told me :)




This river otter just swan up and down and around
solid...so fun to watch!


Finally...the giraffes! 


After our morning of the zoo we spent the next 
3 hours in Des Moines... (with both girls in tow)
VAN SHOPPING!
Yes, it is time for a van, we just need more space.
We'll update with pics if we buy one soon :)


Sunday, July 13, 2014

4 months

I truly can't believe Avery is 4 months old already!
I feel like the last month flew by!
Here are some things to remember about her:


typical "summer" schedule:
up at 8:00
eat/play
nap 10:00-11:30/12
eat/play
nap 1:00/30 - 3:00/30
eat/play
(evenings are still unpredicatable
with a couple cat naps , 45 min or so)
eat/play
bath around 7:15
crabby time until 8:15
eat - HAPPY AND CHATTY
bedtime at 9:00 
wake up once a night for a quick snack


LOVES to...
-eat her hands
-suck her thumb
-talk a LOT lately
-smile
-giggle/laugh
-have anyone's attention
-watch Aubrey play
-drool!!!!!
-play on her playmat
-grab at/eat toys
-chew on cold teethers
-sit up and watch everyone
-be with Mommy :)


-doesn't mind tummy time (WAY better than Aubrey was)
-does "sit-ups" since she doesn't like to lay back
can roll from tummy to back
-can roll 1/2 way from back to tummy
-always sleeps in her sleep sack
-takes a paci for about 2 minutes to fall asleep
then she is over it, much rather have her thumb anyway


(and a few fun pics of the girls :))
brown-eyed Aubrey
and blue-eyed Avery









Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Swinging

It was such a gorgeous day, with not a lot of humidity
maybe getting to 80, so Daddy put up the baby swing!
Uncle Josh and Daddy put it up (for Aubrey 2 years ago
when we first moved here) in a tree, but we decided
to put it on the swing set this time...here's how it worked out :)

Avery loved it!

Aubrey liked swinging close to Avery
so she could "teach her how to pump" - lol. 

Thanks, Daddy!

taking a break checking out the horses :)

Monday, July 7, 2014

Sunday

It was an interesting day/night on Sunday,
I thought I might as well blog about it, but no pics this time, sorry!
LONG post, but read as you wish :)
I'll divide it into 3 parts for ya.

PART 1: MORNING CHURCH
Sunday morning was a very typical Sunday.
A very typical church service, in that we get hardly anything out of it
in between Aubrey...
-wanting candy
-slipping on the pew benches
-wanting on our lap
-needing to go potty or POOPIES
(saying it out loud)
-wanting books read to her out loud
-wanting in Daddy's spot
-wanting held "like a baby"
 -playing with her toy "friends" too loudly
-dropping her sucker on the floor 
(and Mommy wiping it off and eating it again...why not?!)...
and Avery...
-squawking
-drooling
-tooting
-eating her fist
-eating Aubrey's hand
-eating Steve's tie
-fussing...
Ugh,  I wonder sometimes why we really even go?!
Steve made the comment the other day, somewhat joking,
"Do I really have to take my whole family to church?!"
We said we really need a children's church DURING the service
for kiddos between the ages of 2-5.
BUT, in order for that to happen we would probably have to get
it going and  neither of us thought that sounded too appealing.

Okay, enough of the church service, then it was lunch and afternoon naps
and thankfully everyone had a good nap :)

PART 2: CARE CENTER SERVICE
At 4:00 we, along with two other couples from church
were in charge of leading a service at one of the Care Centers in Oskaloosa.
Steve, being the deacon, was asked to give a brief little message
that lasted about 5 minutes, which he did a really nice job on...
he spoke about our "freedom in Christ" - related to 4th of July, of course.
Way to go, Steve!

Well, then we are supposed to lead songs and all that, too, and I thouht
that we should have Aubrey do some singing! 
So, THAT morning, we practiced with Aubrey to see if she would do it!
So, the time came for her  to sing and I thought we'll see how she does!
She was super excited.
She got up there (with Mommy and Avery next to her)
ALL BY HERSELF
in a room full of at least 20 older people and sang 
BEAUTIFULLY and LOUDLY
(with a little dancing and skirt lifting...oops)
Jesus Loves Me and
The Lord's Army.
I SO wish I had thought to record it becuase she did so good!
She wasn't even scared and sang nice and loud.
Of course, the older people loved her!
I don't think many kids or adults would want to do that
by themselves, so I was very proud of her!

After a successful service at the Care Center
we rewarded ourselves with some ice cream from "Frosty Udder!"

PART 3: WEATHER
We decided to skip the evening service.
Evening came and Aubrey was in bed already and we were watching some TV
and noticed that there were some tornado warnings in northern Iowa.
Hmmm, didn't really even know storms were coming, although
it had been a very hot and humid day, so no surprise.

There wasn't a whole lot on TV so Steve and I turned it off
and were playing 
"Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader" on my iPad at around 9:15
when the SIRENS in town went off!
Wait, What!?! Sirens for us?!
We quickly turn on the TV and it says we are in a 
Tornado Warning until 9:45.
Well, it looks like it is going to stay north of Oskaloosa
so no need to wait up Aubrey and move everyone downstairs....yet!
We continue our iPad games and the sirens go off AGAIN!
Okay, now just a Severe Thunderstorm Warning, Good.
Let's get Avery to bed and we can follow shortly after :)

It sure was lighting a TON!
As we are looking at the radar a bit more closely, it is looking
like maybe these storms will hit us around 10:25. 
Maybe we should just stay awake until then to see once.
Sure enough, right at about 10:15 it gets 
really windy and raining, and thundering loudly, and hail for a bit.

All of a sudden a HUGE lightening bolt strikes and we lose power.
Great.
AND the sirens go off AGAIN!
Now we have no electronics to see what that was,
still a Tstorm warning or now a tornado warning?!
So Steve calls his parents at 10:30 at night (sorry!)
to see what we are under, they said now a 
TORNADO WARNING until 11:00!
Okay, now since we don't have any way of really following
the radar with no power, we quickly make the beds downstairs,
find the flashlights and grab the girls from their beds
and head downstairs.
Avery stayed sleeping in the transition which was great!
Aubrey was completely out of it - which was good too!
We all climbed into bed 
(I'm glad we always have beds set up downstairs for everyone,
especially for a time like this!)
since there was nothing else to do with no power.
About 15 minutes after being down there, we could hear the storm 
was weakening, good!

We decided to all just stay sleeping down there since we didn't have
the AC with no power and it was cooler down there anyway.
I figured I would wait until the power got back on, 
and then move back upstairs.

I think we all slept pretty well downstairs for a few hours
in the SAME ROOM
(with the exception of Aubrey falling out of her bed,
but we were prepared and had pillows set up...she doesn't
even remember doing it :))
and then the power came back on at 1:30.
So I moved back upstairs with Avery 
and Aubrey and Daddy stayed downstairs.

Phew, we made it!
We asked Aubrey how she ended up downstairs 
and if she remembers falling out of bed or anything
and she has NO IDEA!
She was very confused this morning - lol!

What. A. Day!
Unfortunately more bad weather this evening coming. :(
 

Saturday, July 5, 2014

4th of July

We had gorgeous weather for the 4th of July
so the outside activities were very enjoyable this year!





First we went to the Bussey parade in the morning
and had a quick lunch in the park. 



Steve then went to his parents to haul hay
while I took the girls back home for naps.

After naps, we headed to Grandma Betty's
for supper and dessert.
The men were still out haying for awhile
but we still had some good food and fellowship!

Avery and Amanda


Kailey and Aubrey having fun
playing dress-up with Grandma's things.

Grandma Char and her
3 grand daughters



We then headed home for some showers
and headed over to the Christian school's baseball field
to watch the 10:00 fireworks in Oskaloosa.
Both girls were awake and enjoyed them!