Vacation Part 2

After the wedding we went to South Carolina and spent Sunday night, Monday, and left Tuesday morning.

Monday morning ( 7/30/12) Aunt Beth took us to Hollywild Animal Park.  It's a small, local zoo but nothing like I have ever been too.  When you walk in you buy bags of grain and crackers and there are all sorts of animals running free throughout the park and all most all the penned animals can be fed.  The other unique thing about the park is that all the animals are stars!  They are animals that have been in movies, commercials, or ads.  The horse and the monkey from the movie Pippi Longstocking are there.  The lions that Disney based their drawings for the Lion King movies are there.  Pretty neat!

Once we walked through the whole park, they then took us on old buses with all the windows removed for a safari ride.  Again, you buy big bags of day old bread and bagels and you can feed the animals that walk right up to the side of the bus.  They had emus, deer, cattle, all sorts of free ranging animals.  They even had a baby bison that was less than a week old!  It was so much fun feeding them and the kids had an absolute blast.  Again making memories, loved it!!

Thanks so much for having us Aunt Beth and Uncle Walt, we had such a wonderful time at your place!  And we will definitely be back.  The rest of our vacation was a lot of driving and we learned that driving vacations with young kids just don't work.  They had more fun and were better behaved and less fussy when we stayed in one spot and did small outings.  Destination vacations are the only way to go from now on!  I better get it in writing and remember to read this next time when planning a vacation...

Atlanta

We had such a wonderful time on vacation this year!  The kids and I and my mom followed Dan and Jane and Jane's sister, Debbie and we left Wednesday morning and drove all day to Clarksville, TN, just outside of Nashville.  The kids did a wonderful job traveling!  The next day we made it to Atlanta and headed straight for the pool.  It was so fun just hanging out at the motel and visiting family.

Friday we went to the Georgia Aquarium.  What an amazing place!  But the crowds!  It was insane with all the people every where.  Chris' Uncle Tom and Aunt Kathy and their kids were only 10 minutes behind us getting in line to get in, and they ended up having to wait over an hour outside because they stopped letting people in the building, it was so full.  At times it was hard to see the tanks and animals, you just couldn't get close enough.  But we lucked out after eating lunch.  We ate in an overflow/conference room area and the room had two large windows to the Beluga Whale tank and the Whale Shark tank.  It was AWESOME!  The kids could have stayed there all day.  They were able to get right up to the tank without a crowd.  We stayed well over an hour just at those two tanks. Check out the video of the kids with the belugas!  They found a new favorite animal that day.  Love making memories!

Friday night we ordered in pizza at the hotel and then the kids broke into groups, 4 girls and 3 boys, and we had a treasure hunt.  I hope the kids had as much fun with it as I did!  They had a picture treasure hunt where they had to do certain things and take a picture of it.  And the second part was collecting items.  I included the pics they took!

Chris did it again, he pulled one over on me and I had no idea!  Everyone else did, but I had no clue!  He has been incredibly busy this summer and had a job getting close to finishing up and inspections the week we left.  He said there was no way he was able to leave and go with us.  But I should have known.  About 10:30 Friday night, he comes walking in to the hotel!!  He made his first airplane ride to come down to Atlanta for the weekend to be at his cousin Tommy's wedding.  Wonderful surprise! He was supposed to be on a flight back to Wichita Sunday afternoon, but once he was there, he just couldn't leave us.  He worked it out with his guys and finished our vacation with us!

Saturday was the wedding.  Fun wedding, with a gorgeous bride and handsome groom.  I am so glad we got to share their special day.  Welcome to the family Katie!  Looking forward to seeing all of you again soon.

Sunday we left Atlanta and headed to South Carolina to spend a couple days at Aunt Beth and Uncle Walt's house...

Vacation

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, we leave for VACATION!!  We are headed to Atlanta, GA first for Chris' cousin Tommy's wedding.  Sunday we leave there and head toward Washington DC.  Spend a couple days in that area and then start making our way back towards Kansas.  Unfortuntely, Chris isn't going to be able to make the trip.  He is so crazy busy with work and has a job that is supposed to be finishing this week with inspections next week.  So, my mom is going to go with us (YAY!) and we will follow Chris' parents.  It will be a great time and we will have lots of pictures and stories to share when we get back.  I also have lots of stuff to update from earlier in the month as well.

Independence Day

July 3rd we had our annual Fourth of July party at our house.  Every year our party is growing and this year was no different.  Because we were also celebrating Helm Electric's 10th Anniversary, we had lots and lots of people out this year, over 200!!!  Big party, but so much fun.  We also enjoyed having so many of our out of town/state family join us this year.  I hope you can all join us again next year.

We had all the food setup in the shed this year.  Huge difference not having that many people in the house!  Much cleaner and more enjoyable to go inside after everyone had left.  And I don't think anyone minded having the food sitting out.  Must not, it was almost all gone this year!!

After eating, we had Helm Electric trivia and handed out gift cards to Jim's Chicken.  That was fun, but some of the questions were a little hard, even for me.

Along with the food and trivia, we also had our hay rack ride going.  The trailer was never empty.  Actually, I don't know how they managed to get the amount of people on the trailer that they did, it looked pretty amazing seeing all those people up there and having fun.  We also made a barrel train for the little kids this year.  Also a big hit and a lot of fun.  And then the toys, bikes, horseshoes, ladder ball, and just sitting around and visiting, and t-shirts, can't forget the t-shirts (I have a ton left over, please let me know if you would like more).  Another successful year.  The big hit of the night, of course, the fireworks!!!  The guys did an amazing job putting on a spectacular show!

Thanks to everyone who joined us and celebrated Helm Electric's 10th year in business and also celebrating our wonderful freedom.  With out the sacrifices of our soldiers, their families, and our forefathers, none of this would even be possible.  THANK YOU!!

Love, Amy

HARVEST TIME

Wheat harvest was early this year by at least a couple of weeks, maybe more.  Seems last year they cut just the week before our 4th of July party.  So it may have even been a whole month early.  Obviously, I am not a farmer and don't have all the crop knowledge.  But I LOVE seeing the combines in the fields.  It is so cool to watch.  And even more fun this year with Evan so enthralled by all the big machines.  He also LOVE'S it!  So last week, we were all super excited when we came home one evening and saw the combines in the field across the road from us.  The kids were so excited, they ran to get their lawn chairs and sat at the edge of our yard, waiting for the big combine to cut right in front of them!!  Who knew wheat harvest was now a spectator sport?!  It was so funny sitting on our porch seeing them sitting way up there, waiting.  Too funny!

Unfortunately, they had just enough daylight to cut a little section right off the intersection up the road from us.  So they didn't get to see the big combine up close before having to come in for bed. :(

 

 

 

 

But they made the best of it and played patty cake games and sang to each other!

 

 

 

I love that they can play together.  Sometimes nicely and sweet, makes up for the fighting times :)

 

The next morning we were able to make it outside to watch them up close.  Made it a little harder to see since they were looking into the sun at them.  But they were so excited!!  Evan kept asking when they were going to come into our yard and cut our wheat (grass).  Such a cute little guy!

 

 

 

 

 

Harvest is almost done.  At least the fields in our immediate area have almost all been cut.  If we want to see combines, we are going to have to travel to seek them out instead of just seeing them on our route to going somewhere.  Too bad.  I would love to get Evan into one next year.  That would be so COOL!!

I hope harvest was a success for all the farmers out there.  Still praying for rain.  Our attempt at growing crops isn't going so well without the rain again.  Our corn is pretty sparse.  Luckily, our livelihood doesn't depend on it.  I couldn't imagine the stress on farmers if they had to look at our crops, YIKES.  So far the other corn fields around us look better than ours.  But I am sure rain would be welcomed by all.

Happy Harvest,
Amy

6 Years Old

I remember everything from my doctor's appointments, bed rest, labor, the weekend spent in the hospital with our new baby girl, to those first couple of days/weeks at home like it was yesterday.  How could that possibly have been 6 years ago?  Why does it all have to go so fast?

Madi has begun a new independence streak.  Made me sad the other day when she didn't want to hold my hand while walking to the store from the car.  "Mom, I am a big girl, I don't need to hold your hand."  Stab to the heart :(  "I know you don't NEED to hold my hand, but I like to hold your hand because I love you!"  "Okay, I love you too."

She loves riding her bike, painting, helping Daddy, making crafts with Mommy, teasing Grandpap about her flip flops :), swimming or anything with water, gymnastics, going to lunch with Nana, and looking forward to first grade.  The list could go on forever.  Of course she also likes terrorizing her brother.  But I guess what sibling doesn't.  She really does enjoy playing with him and teaching him and helping him do things.  But she can get a little bossy and overbearing and then they start to fuss with each other.  Evan used to just do whatever she said but now he has his own stubborn streak and way to do things and enjoys pushing buttons.

We had a fun day celebrating her birthday.  First thing in the morning she wanted to open her presents.  Daddy picked out new boots, socks, jeans, and a sleeveless rodeo shirt.  And a horse stamp set from Evan.  Daddy did pretty good for someone who never buys the kids clothing.  We then watched a morning movie and then headed to the zoo for lunch and a couple hours walking around.  As soon as we got to the zoo, it sprinkled on us the whole time.  Which was okay, I have been begging for rain for weeks.  I would gladly have sacrificed being outside in a downpour if we could have gotten some rain.  So we kept going and didn't worry about the drizzle.  But then it kept getting a little harder and the kids were getting a little whiny-er (I'm sure that's not a word, but they were)  So we walked up to the museum and went through it.  Came home and not 15 minutes later, the sun came out and we didn't get any real measurable rain.  Bummer, should have stayed at the zoo.  That evening we went to Hong Kong for supper with Chris' family.  Came home and had cake.  Saturday morning, Grandma and Grandpap came out and picked her up and took her shopping for her birthday gifts.  She came home with a whole bunch of stuff and she was one happy girl.

Because her birthday fell on a holiday weekend and so much other things going on, I didn't get a party organized on her birthday weekend.  So this last Friday, June 1st, we had a sleepover party with two cousins and a friend.  She was so excited.  All week she asked "Is today my sleepover?!"  And everyday she would get bummed because she had to wait more days.  I think this party was by far the best, I even had fun, Chris even had fun!  The girls all arrived by 5:30.  We had hamburgers and hotdogs for supper.  The kids ran around and played, collected bugs, just had a fun time together.  Chris got the bb gun out, they played some basketball, we took a tractor ride and picked mulberry's, they stood in the wheat field so I could take their pictures, played some more and then we started the fire.  We made smore's and ate lots of marshmallows.  Then we dragged out every blanket and pillow we owned and piled it all onto the trailer and had our own drive-in movie.  It was pretty cold but with the fire and the blankets, it was a wonderful time.  They all had so much fun!!  Chris and I had so much fun!!  After the movie we all came in and within 10 minutes almost everyone was out (helped that it was well after 11:00).  Madi is the exception.  She loves having sleepovers but she is the worst one getting settled down and asleep.  I thought for sure they would all sleep in.  NOPE!  7:00am they were up and going.  We made breakfast and they played for awhile, took another tractor ride and then we packed up all their stuff and headed into town.  Our last birthday activity was a trip to On the Pot.  Madi loves going there, she loves painting.  The girls all picked out a piece to make for their Dad's for Father's Day and we spent the next two hours painting.  Parents picked up their kids at OTP and I was ready to head home for a nap.  Fun time but exhausting!

Here's her birthday pictures, enjoy!!
Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!
Love, Mommy

Family Photos 2012

We got our family pictures back, YAY!!  They turned out great and can't wait to get some printed and update my walls!  Thanks Tony, great work!!

May...So Far

Our favorite part of spring has to be May Day.  It has been so fun working together to figure out what kind of basket, what kind of flower and what goodies to include.  And then making a list of all our family and friends that we want to give one to.  The kids helped me make those pony bead and wire heart flowers.  Madi liked picking out the colors and patterns for her beads and then trying to decide which friend would like it the most.  Evan just did his randomly of course but he was so excited to give his best friends Mari and Ella their own flower.  And of course the most fun is the ding and dash.  Our dash was a little more relaxed this year since we did our deliveries during the day and most were at work.  But we still had a lot of fun.  I overheard Madi at one point talking to herself saying "This is the best day ever!"  I love that the kids enjoy giving to others and sharing kindness.

April showers bring May flowers
and what do these May flowers bring?
Happy thoughts and sunshine smiles
And wishes for a wonderful spring!

Since Madi's birthday is after school is out, she was able to celebrate early with her classmates on May 2nd.  We had a Cardinal cupcake and treat bags for everyone.  She had fun but still a little confused.  "Is my birthday tomorrow?  No, just your birthday party."  Getting a little excited for that birthday!



 

 

Evan enjoying his cupcake, I mean frosting!

Our big fun so far this month was the Flywheels annual tractor drive.  We had 43 tractors travel about 41 miles.  Almost the whole route this year was on dirt roads traveling south of Salina.  The trip was a lot longer this year since we had two extra stops but they were great stops.  We had our regular, stop on the side of the road stops and then we also stopped at a farm where he had a shop full of old hand tools, a car, a couple of tractors, it was pretty amazing all the things he had in this shed.  And then we stopped at a car museum that one of our club members owns in Mentor.  They put out a wonderful spread of food and drinks for us.  It was above and beyond generous.

We had six tractors in the drive this year.  Chris worked his tail off getting all those tractors up and running.  We also had two new drivers and two new passengers this year.  Chris' brother Jon drove and my mom Sandy drove this year.  And then we put some old seats in our little wagon so the kids could ride with us.  They had so much fun.  They had drinks and snacks and plenty to look at.  We left Lane Diesel at 9:00 am.  We had a pretty uneventful trip until the ball on Chris' tractor fell off which let the trailer the kids were riding in come undone.  Chris said he felt a bump but didn't think anything of it, just the road.  But Madi said the trailer fell and they skidded for a ways and Daddy just kept going so she had to yell at him to stop.  Thankfully we also installed seat belts so the kids were unharmed.  Between the trailer falling off and Mom's tractor being slower than all the others, they were pretty far behind us.  They met back up at the tool shed stop.  From there we travelled about 20 minutes to Lake Wasey where we all parked for lunch.  The organizers for the drive arranged for food to be cooked and available for us.  Chris' mom drove out at lunch time to pick up the kids.  They were covered head to toe with dirt.  They got a lot more dirt kicked up at them than we thought they would.  Madi was ready to be done but Evan threw a royal fit when we tried to load him in the car.  So he stayed and finished out the drive.  He just absolutely loved it!  The next leg of the trip, Evan even managed to get a nap in!  Our last stop was at the home of Rex Russell, one of the Flywheels members.  He collects old cars and has a museum in Mentor, a small town just south of Salina.  They provided drinks and barbecue sandwiches with all the sides to go with.  It was unexpected and so very nice.  Evan enjoyed looking at the old fire trucks.  The best comment from him was "I'm going to drive allll these tractors!"  He just loved seeing all 43 of those tractors parked in rows and he wanted to sit and drive on all of them.  Other than the fire trucks he didn't really care about anything else but the tractors that day!  After our stop in Mentor we had just a couple miles to drive back to Lane Diesel.  We pulled in there about 5:00.  We loaded the two slower tractors on trailers which Chris, my mom, and Evan pulled home while Dan, Jon, my dad and I drove an extra 15 miles back to our house with the other four tractors.  We pulled in at our house at about 6:30.  It was a great day but it was long, hot, and dirty. 

More May fun to come!

April

For Christmas this year, all my mom wanted were pictures.  She wants pictures of the kids and our families to hang on her walls.  Since the last family picture was from Jason and Tabatha's wedding, we decided that a new family photo was long over due.  So we gave mom a gift certificate to have family photos done.  April 1, we were all able to get together and have Tony Guzman do our family photos.  I am so anxious to get those pictures back!  But since he is only doing this part time and just started a new job, I am really trying not to pester him.  (I may have just found the source of Evan's lack of patience, hmmm!)  We had such a fun photo session!  Of course Jaxson and Madi were perfect and the uncooperative one would be my Evan.  But we couldn't help but laugh it off.  He was acting the part of the photographer to a tee!!  He did and said everything Tony did.  Directing everyone and using the tripod.  It was just too funny!!  We eventually had to trick him into getting some pictures done.  We even had to take a few shots with the tripod right next to him.  All the editing being done could be the reason it is taking awhile to get them back ;) I sure hope they turn out good!!  We also had to bribe with ice cream :)  Here's all three grands patiently waiting for their ice cream afterwards.  Of course, now he sits and smiles, stinker!

April 3, the kids are giving us a concert.  They play a mean barrel and cinder block drums!  The featured songs were "Red Solo Cup" and "Shake It For Me Girl"!  It was a great free concert.

Favorite mode of transportation!

 April 8th was Easter.  The kids are really enjoying our church and church family.  I am so happy that we have made this commitment to raising them in the church and having them at a young age learn about God.  We have been really active in our church community.  We enjoy the Mid Week Manna sessions.  Evan absolutely adores his Sunday School teachers and can't wait to go to "his classroom."  The adult Sunday School classes are paired with a kids class during Lent.  Both kids were able to visit their Lent Buddies and sing to them and they got gifts from their Buddies.  I have had several older adults stop us and tell us how much they enjoyed the kids coming in and singing to them.  Chris and I have also gotten involved with various groups and committee's.  I enjoy helping in the classrooms and look forward to VBS this summer.  We have met a lot of great families with wonderful qualities that we want our kids to be around.  Love it!!

Dressed in their Easter best!

April showers bring May flowers!  I love the rain but please don't send us any more severe weather.  April 14th was a long day.  The kids spent most of the afternoon and evening hanging out in the basement, totally oblivious to the tornado weather around us.  I don't like tornadoes, have been deathly afraid of them since I was little.  Kids even slept in the storm shelter for a couple of hours on the air mattress.  My nerves were about shot by the time we were finally able to make it up out of the basement and to our beds well after 1 am.  We had three very close calls and thank you Lord, he spared Salina two direct hits and one direct hit at our house.  This picture is from the first storm that went through.  These clouds kept lowering and lowering as they traveled through the middle of Salina and opened up again right after clearing Salina city limits.  We were just waiting and hoping to not see a funnel dip out of these clouds.

After some very agonizing days of worry and tears over this loose tooth, she finally pulled it out herself!!  April 20th Madi lost her first tooth.  It was so loose but she had so much anxiety over it falling out.  It got to where it was bleeding most of the day and she wouldn't let me look at it or try and pull it out.  I finally convinced her to reach in and pull it.  And surprisingly, she did.  She was one happy girl!!  All smiles and so proud of herself for pulling that tooth all by herself!  But the tears quickly returned the next day :(  She found that the tooth next to it was now loose.  "Mom, I wanted the new one to grow in before I got another loose tooth.  Why do I have to have loose tooths?"  Oh, the pain of growing up.

The tooth fairy visited and left her a dollar!  She was so excited!  And even more exciting was the trip to Wal-Mart where Daddy bought her a new big girl bike.  Tooth and tooth fairy, forgotten!

That's a pretty smile!

Evan enjoying his bike too!

More gymnastics this month!  She is getting to do more and more things that the big girls have been doing.  The big balance beam and even an introduction to the uneven bars!  So exciting and so much chalk!

Towards the end of the month we had some unseasonably warm temperatures.  We had a couple of days well into the 90s, YUCK!!  But it gave the kids a chance to get in to their old bathing suits and play in the sprinkler.  It's been such a long time since they got to play in the water.  Even though the outside temp was warm, that water coming out of the ground was still mighty cold.  But the cold water never seems to bother Madi.  Evan on the other hand, well, he either doesn't like the cold water or just doesn't like the sprinkler.  He is content just to play in a big bucket of water.  He loves the water, bathtime, pool, just not a fan of the sprinkler!

Love that smile!



Cheeeeeese!



The last couple of winters we had show tractors for The Flywheels to work on during the winter months.  But not this year.  So Chris was able to finally restore a tractor for himself.  He pulled in his John Deere 720 on March 3rd and started tearing it down.  He wanted to get it all done and ready for the Tractor Drive on May 5th.  Two months of work, evenings and weekends.  It makes it nice for all of us to get out of the house and hang out in the shed together.  Even though the kids aren't quite old enough to actually be really good help, they at least were by our side, checking in and "helping" here and there.  Evan got really good and stealing Daddy's tools.  He found any and every bolt or hole to stick some kind of tool into.  He loved it!!  That boy had no option but to fall in love with tractors and tools, and he did!

Beginning

Middle

Evan helping sand the paint on the tool box.  Look at that joy!

Almost end!

TA DA!!  Looking good!

Chris did an amazing job!  April 21st he pulled it out of the shed and was able to drive it down the road.  Very proud of his work!  Looking forward to doing more work with him and the kids.  Such a great activity that we can all enjoy and do together.

March

Blogging has taken a back seat lately.  I love being able to look back and re read, look at the pictures and remember the things we have done and a reminder of the kids' milestones.  Facebook is so much easier to just leave a quick note about something that was said or what we are doing or just sharing a picture or two.  But I still want to keep up with the blog so one day I can put all of this in a book and have it forever.  Since this is my journal/baby book for the kids, I need to do some catching up on some of the big (and little) things that have gone on the last couple months.

One of our favorite things to do in early, early spring, after being cooped up in the house all winter, is to drive out to Kanopolis Lake and have a picnic supper or roast hot dogs at a campfire and then drive around and look for deer.  Count how many we see.  It is early enough in the year that the deer haven't been spooked away by campers yet and are pretty much used to having free range of the whole park.  On average we see around 100 deer and lots of turkey.  Kids enjoy it for a change.  We went out on March 4 and had our picnic supper and the kids were able to play on the new park equipment that was put up during the winter.



Being silly!


March 15, Madi had her spring music program at school.  She did so great!!  I am sure glad they do the younger kids' programs in the spring.  If this had been earlier in the year, she would have never gotten in front of all those people and sang.  Now, play Where's Madi? and see if you can find her among all those kids!

The third week of March we finally got to Spring Break!!  We had big plans for the week but some of it got rained out.  It rained almost every day of our spring break.  We did manage to get out of the house for a little fun though.  March 20 we went bowling with cousins and friends.  Kids had a lot of fun but it sure was a test of patience for Evan.  Six kids on one lane made a long wait in between bowling turns.  Everybody did great except for Evan.  We need to work on our patience skills! :)

Friday, March 23rd, we got a break from the clouds and rain and had a gorgeous spring day to enjoy the zoo.  It is so nice having the zoo so close to make a trip out and spend a couple of hours.  And great paved walk ways when everything else was such a muddy mess!

The month of March also brought back one of Madi's favorite activities, GYMNASTICS!!  She loves gymnastics and they have such a great program and leaders through Parks and Rec.

So last time, I wrote (I had to go back and re read it has been so long ago) that I started potty training with Evan.  Well, we didn't do so good.  He was doing really good before we started with having dry diapers after naps and some in the mornings also.  But he did a bit of a back slide once we started training.  He was having a lot accidents and waking up with super wet diapers.  He wasn't catching on with telling me he needed to go potty.  And ended up using the pull ups like diapers.  Which is way more expensive than just buying diapers.  So three weeks of trying to potty train and he just wasn't ready.  Back to diapers for a little longer.