Update from the Last Month

So much has been going on this last month since my last post.  I have to play catch up and try to remember it all.

The end of May we celebrated Madi's 5th Birthday.  I guess we started something new this year.  What ever age you are turning, that's the number of birthday parties you get.  Madi had 5 birthday parties this year, she is so spoiled.  First she celebrated her birthday at school, we then had a family birthday party on the 22nd because Uncle Jon was going to be in town, but since Uncle Jason and Aunt Tabatha and Jaxson couldn't make it that weekend, we had another birthday party at the lake the following weekend.  (That takes us up to number 3 if you lost count.)  We celebrated just the four of us on her actual birthday with a supper out and then we had a friends party on June 4th, which was her Princess Party.  Yikes, lots of running around and lots of cake!

Luckily the Princess Party was all planned, put together, executed and cleaned up by someone else.  Now that was a party!  The girls had so much fun getting their hair done, nails polished, lipstick applied, tiaras placed, fairy wings adorned, all topped off with a princess fashion show from five of the cutest little girls I have ever seen.  Thank you to Carolee Jones and friends from CAPS who put on an amazing party.

The week of her birthday we also made a trip out to Rolling Hills.  It was a gorgeous day.  Not too hot so it made a very nice morning out.  We wanted to go say goodbye to Robbie, the orangutan.  This was his last week at RH before moving to the St. Louis Zoo.  We have been visiting him for the last four years and is always the highlight of our trips out there.

The first week of June we had Vacation Bible School.  It was an amazing week and we met lots of new friends and got to do some really cool activities and crafts.

June 7th, Chris and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary.  The four of us went out for supper and had a nice evening together.

Wednesday, June 8th, first thing in the morning, we got a call that Grandpa Tom had passed away.  He passed away from a blood clot that had developed after having heart surgery the week before.  At the same time, Grandma Betty was being admitted back into the hospital with severe stomach pains.  She has been very ill as well since February after having her third bypass surgery.  Her kidney's and liver were still not right and she has been having complications with all of that since.

We left Salina at 4 pm Wednesday evening and headed to Mobile, Alabama.  We got into town at 8:45 Thursday morning after driving straight through.  We went up to the hospital and we got to go in briefly and see Grandma.  She was in a lot of pain and just didn't look like herself at all.  They were getting ready to take her into surgery to have a pacemaker put in, port for dialysis, and to repair the blockage in her colon.  Surgery went well but they would have to go back in the next morning to finish the repair on the colon.  Unfortunately, she didn't make it and the next morning (Friday, June 10) while we were all at the hospital, she passed away as well.  It was so very sad losing them both so close together but also grateful knowing that they are both in heaven, able to walk together and speak together again.  No more hurt and no more pain.

Sunday June 12, we had a memorial for them both.  It was a wonderful tribute to their lives and to the wonderful family that they raised.  They will be sorely missed.

But along with the tragedy of death we also were able to spend some wonderful time together as a family.  And I know that Grandpa and Grandma got a kick being able to watch all of the little ones playing together and having a good time.

We left Mobile on Tuesday morning and took our time getting home.  We were going to spend some extra time in St. Louis.  Have a little family vacation.  But after one day, we were all done and ready to be home.  We toured the Budweiser Plant and went to Grant's Farm, which was a little zoo.  Free and a wonderful place to go.  And we were home late Wednesday night.  It was time to get back into our regular routine.

We had a lot at home waiting on us to get done.  Work, house, fields and now we are getting things planned and ready for our big 4th of July party.  Madi has gymnastics, nature center and art center next week, sleep over Friday night, harvest at the Flywheels Saturday.  Back to our busy, busy lives!

I put a slide show together from the last months activities.  Too much for single photos.



It was so great seeing all of our Helm family and a big thank you to Aunt Linda.  For opening up your home and everything you did for all of us while we were there.  I hope that we can all get together again and have more happy times together.

And for anybody in the Salina area, come see us Sunday, July 3rd for the big fireworks show.  It's going to be great!!  Chris spent all of last night watching video clips of fireworks and making a huge order.  Can't wait to see it all!

Love, Amy

End of the Year

Madi wrapped up her last year of preschool on Wednesday.  The last two weeks have been pretty fun for her at school.  They had a class picnic with a sack lunch with their families and school friends, they had pj day and got to wear their pajamas to school, on water day they got to wear their swim suits and play in buckets of water at the end of the day, and the last day of school was wheel day.  Everybody brought their bikes or scooters and they rode around the circle drive most of the day.  Madi also got to celebrate her birthday.  We were going to bring popsicles since they were outside anyways but her friend Kenley convinced her she needed to have cupcakes.  So instead she picked out strawberry cake with strawberry frosting and then picked out strawberry juice boxes.  I like strawberry, but that's a lot of strawberry!!  She said everybody LOVED the cupcakes, except one of the boys who said PINK, I'm not eating anything PINK!!  Boys!! :)

Later Wednesday evening was graduation.  They each walked in on their own with their construction paper mortar boards.  They did a little program and then they each got their diploma.  It was so cute!  They had cookies and punch and the girls played together and had lots of pictures taken and then we all went out to eat afterwards.  It was a fun evening.

Madi is so excited about going to Kindergarten next year.  She will get to make all new friends.  But she is not looking forward to shots this summer.  If anyone asks her if she is excited about Kindergarten, she says yes, but I don't want to get shots.  Then they look at me with a questionable look.  I'm just preparing her for her next doctors appointment knowing she will have to get all her shots up to date before going to school next year.

Now we have a couple of weeks off to play and do whatever we want.  June starts off with all of her summer activities and I have her booked solid for the summer!  VBS, swimming lessons, gymnastics, Nature Center, and Art Center.  Plus we will throw in some trips to the zoo, library, movies, some lake trips, and a couple of tractor shows.  Should be a fun summer, busy, but fun!

Love, Amy

Tractor Drive

Last weekend was the Flywheels Tractor Drive.  We had five tractors in the drive.  My dad went along this year and the manager at Tractor Supply (who donated all the parts to restore the show tractor) drove the show tractor along with Chris and I and Dan (Chris' dad).  With a total of 32 tractors, the biggest drive yet.

It was such a gorgeous day.  The morning wasn't cold like it has been in the past so we didn't have to worry about all the layers.  By afternoon, the sun was beating down and not much wind and it was almost too hot!  But still a wonderful day.

We left the Flywheels at 9:00 and made our way east over to Old 40 Highway.  We made our first stop at the park in New Cambria.  I hopped off the tractor to go check on my dad (bad back and was worried about the long day for him) and he was all grins and ready to buy himself a tractor.  It was a cool sight to see!!  Everybody visited for awhile and then we headed back onto Old 40 for our lunch stop and turn around in Solomon. 

The traffic down Old 40 was pretty sparse which I was happy about.  I was a little nervous traveling down such a busy road with as many tractors as we had and only reaching 8-10 mph.  We were all at the front of the line and several turns we made and could look back at the rest of the line, we had spread out quite a bit.  As we traveled, the vehicles coming in the opposite direction would wave and slow down and some even pulled over or off the road and watched and waved as we passed.  Others would get out and snap pictures.  I often wondered what we looked like to the vehicles traveling on I70.  Old 40 runs parallel to I70 and only a mile apart.  And we actually passed over or under 3 times on our return trip.  That would have been interesting to see!

Right outside of Solomon, we passed a train headed towards Salina.  He was moving pretty fast but he was blowing his horn all the way past our procession.  It was loud but really cool.  Evan would have loved it!  I can't wait for the kids to be old enough to go along with us!  And then as we were coming into Solomon, Jeff Cooper with the Salina Journal was waiting for us to snap some more pictures.  He was at the Flywheels before we left and then we saw him two other times along our route to Solomon.  My dad ended up in the paper on Monday along with two other pictures of other drivers.  He's a celeb on his first time out!!  I was joking with the guys that surely I would make it in the paper since I was the only female driver!!  But it didn't happen :(  Maybe next year :)

When we arrived at the park in Solomon, there was a huge layout of food.  Hamburgers, hot dogs and everything that comes with it!  All generously provided by the family of one of our organizers.  It was wonderful and they totally out did themselves.  I hope they are prepared to do it again next year because I am sure everyone will be requesting.  Made it much easier on all of us not to have to bring sack lunches with us.  Not a lot of room on the tractor for a cooler.  We had a nice time to eat, stretch, visit, and hear stories from some of the "old timers".  After lunch we took the scenic route back to Salina, winding through the dirt roads and farm country.  I like this route much, much better than taking the black top.  Much more to see, no traffic to tie up and way more relaxing.  We ended up back at the Flywheels at 3:30 and then the four of us continued on back to our house, ending about 4:00.  We traveled 38 miles total as a group and an extra five or six back to our house.  Awesome, awesome day.  I am so glad my husband got me a tractor so that I could do this with him.  It really is a lot of fun.  It will be even better once we can all do it together one of these years!

Enjoy the pics!
Love, Amy

Fun, Fun, Fun

That's us lately!  Fun times and looking forward to more fun and busy times this summer.  We made a trip to the circus this month, had a wonderful yet busy Easter, lots of family time, field trip to the zoo, and more tractor fun!  And then we started May off with delivering our May Day baskets and having a great time in Valley Center for Jaxson's 2nd Birthday!  Life is Wonderful!!

Waiting for the circus to start!!

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Easter weekend was a busy time.  We spent Saturday at my parents' house and had a great time watching the kids hunt for eggs and play together.  And of course had some wonderful food as well.

Easter Egg hunt at Nana and Papa's

 Saturday evening we had family from Kansas City come and stay with us.  Cathy and Dino and their 8 kids along with Dino's mom Roxanne met with Jane's Uncle Mark (Cathy's dad) to visit family for the day and then stayed with us and had a wonderful Easter Day!  After finally getting all the kids settled and into bed, the adults stayed up and filled probably close to 200 eggs with candy.  Craziness!!

Easter morning, we all dressed in our finest and headed to church.  Came home and had a wonderful meal and then let the kids loose to find all the eggs!  It turned out to be a wonderful day (a little windy, but it is Kansas) and the kids had so much fun together playing outside, having tractor rides and eating LOTS of candy!

Easter Dress!

To make up for all the candy, all the kids got toothbrushes and toothpaste!  It balances out right?

Half of the Durando kids enjoying their Easter baskets!

I love all the kids running out of the house, so cute!!   And I missed the older ones!

Easter egg hunt at our house.

Checking out their loot!

Bernadette and Madi

Easter day tractor ride

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 Last week Madi's preschool had their Rolling Hills Zoo field trip.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to go through the zoo.  When we arrived, an animal had gotten loose inside the zoo and they were working on getting it contained.  And since we had just a little time we went through the museum instead.  Still a wonderful trip and the kids had a blast.

Friday, we were among the 2 billion that tuned in to watch the Royal Wedding.  However, we did not get up at 3 am to watch.  That's a little too early to be a functioning Mommy for the rest of the day.  The power of technology allowed me to record the event and we watched it later in the morning!  But as we were watching, Madi fell in love with all the hats.  Especially the ones with feathers.  But since I didn't have any feathers, we made our own flower hats and joined in with the others in attendance!  It was fun!




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We spent all day outside Saturday, it was so gorgeous.  The kids played and entertained themselves for the most part.  Madi dog sat our neighbors dog this weekend.  So she had a little friend following her around all day.  It was so cute she would be walking along with him talking or singing.  And Evan also enjoyed him.  I would love to get the kids a dog, but we are just too busy anymore and I'm afraid the newness of a dog would wear off quickly and I would be stuck taking care of it myself.  Chris worked on getting the tractors all ready for next weekend's Tractor Drive.  (I jumped back in forth helping him and watching the kids and the dog.)  I can't wait, I'm so excited!!  We should have 5 tractors in the drive this year.  Chris and I, both of our dads, and the manager out at Tractor Supply is going to drive the Show Tractor.  Lots of work but lots of fun!

Sunday morning we delivered our May Day Baskets to a couple of friends and family and then made our way down to my brother's house in Valley Center to celebrate Jaxson's 2nd birthday.  It was a little chilly yesterday but the kids had a blast playing on Jaxson's new fort.  It was a wonderful day!

I have more pics to add from Chris' phone, check back later and I'll update next week after the tractor drive!  Have a great week!
Love, Amy

Our Weekend

I am loving this fantastic weather we have been having!!  This is my favorite time of year, being able to play outside, have the windows open, everything is turning green again!  Love, love, love it!!  We have been thinking and planning about our garden the last couple of weeks.  We really haven't done anything yet.  It's been so stinking windy lately that I suggested that we don't get crazy and till yet.  We would lose half of our dirt.  And then this morning I heard that you aren't supposed to put anything in the ground until Mother's Day.  I guess by Mother's Day all chances of cold weather or unexpected overnight freezes are gone.  Yay, a couple more weeks to get the ground ready.  Chris went out last night and harrowed the corn field though.  Getting ready to get it planted too.  Madi was a little upset that we are planting the whole field in corn again.  It's supposed to be pumpkins so that she could invite all her friends to our house to pick pumpkins this year.  The kids and I went out and rode around on the golf cart and watched him.  Madi drove and she was so excited.  "Mommy, I can drive now!!!"  I had to stress to her several times that she is not allowed to EVER drive without Mom or Dad on with her.  I can just see her hoping on and taking off by herself, SCARY!!  Or scarier yet, with Evan, AAAHHH!

Here is some pictures from our weekend.  We did a lot of family time this weekend.  The kids stayed a couple of hours Saturday with Dan and Jane while we went to a funeral and they had a great time playing.  Then we went to my parents and had more fun playing.  Madi spent the night with them Saturday night.  And then Sunday we went to church and after naps we met Chris' parents out at Bennington Lake and did some fishing.  Evan's first fishing trip (not in my belly)!  And Madi caught her first fish!!  And we left luckily with only one foot falling into the lake!  Shocker, because we saved Evan from falling in several times.

Watching Grandpap mow.  It was mesmerizing, I don't think they had ever seen someone walk and mow at the same time, good job Grandpap!!

Evan "fishing"

I love Madi's fishing attire.  Good thing she had those boots on, saved her foot from getting all wet when she fell in the lake!

Didn't take him long to trade the pole for some snacks.  Now that's fishing!

Madi's first fish!!

Her pole wasn't in the water 5 minutes before she caught her fish.  Madi pulled that fish out of the water and she went running.  Took some prodding and promising that it wasn't going to get her for her to come back and get her picture taken.  She still didn't want to touch the fish though.

Evan's new fishing pole.

 Evan caught on real quick as to what we were doing.  I helped him cast a couple of times and reel it in.  He loved it.  So much so, that he didn't like that little blue fish being out of the water.  I had so save him and the pole a couple of times from going into the lake.  He kept trying to throw the whole thing in.  Plus I got smacked a couple of times by that blue fish with him swinging it around, it hurt!

Checking out the worms.

 He had no fear with the worms.  He picked it up with no problems and like everything else, it went straight to his mouth!!  A little worm goo and dirt never hurt anyone, right?  Such a boy!

Evan and Madi cruising this morning.

Love that smile!

Evan didn't like Madi hitching a ride with him!

My poor boy is always surrounded by pink.  I even bought him that new Diego fishing pole so he wouldn't have to use one of Madi's Barbie poles.  I hope he doesn't get a complex!!

Have a great rest of the week!!
Love, Amy

18 Months...A Little Late

This month Evan turned 18 months.  He is quite the little busy body now.  Exploring and getting into everything.  Trying to talk more and very vocal at times.  Still very smiley and a happy little boy.  He is on target for growth and development.  Here are his stats:  Height--34 in. (91%) and
weight 28 lbs. 2 oz. (78%).

Evan seems to have grown in a weeks time.  All of his 12 month pants are now too short and it seems like just within a week or two.  His vocabulary is getting a little bit bigger.  Please, up, down, bye, ball, truck.  And his recognition and understanding are great.  He knows exactly what we are telling him.  Whether he does it or not is another story, but he is a toddler :).  Also, this weekend, driving around town he would say "go Papa!"  And he wanted to go see Papa and Nana.  It was so cute.  He also is recognizing where we are.  Pulling into Mom's work this week and having not said where we were going, he said "Nana, Nana!"  So much fun right now.  But he also takes in everything we do and especially Madi.  He tries to do a lot of what she is doing, but not quite big enough yet.  He loves playing outside and in the shed.

Both of the kids have been playing so well together lately.  Evan and Madi will take off for the basement or one of their rooms and can play together for a good half hour.  It's very helpful at meal times or just trying to get the house picked up.  And Madi is so helpful with Evan.  She loves to take care of him and do things for him.  She gets mad at times when she wants to help him and I step in.  She is the little mommy and plays that way too!  They are great kids!

Love, Amy

Our Busy Spring (So Far)

I hope everyone found me after doing a bit of cleaning up and changing on my blog here.  I used to think that it would be really cool for a bunch of people to follow me and my little writings here.  But once I started getting some people I didn't know and from different countries following, it made me really nervous.  Maybe if I wasn't so specific about what is going on in our lives it would be different.  I follow a couple of other mom bloggers but they tell funny stories about what their kids do or one does craft projects and shares tutorials.  So I am sticking with my family and friends because they are the only ones that would care about the stuff I write.  I guess I won't be one of those bloggers with 1,000 hits everyday!

Back to the family and kids stuff!  We've been busy with outings and outside fun this month.  We've been having fun with our church friends on Monday's with the Monday Mommy group.  And even had everyone over this week.  It was fun and wild.  14 kids running around playing on bikes, shooting hoops and getting really muddy.

Madi went to her cousin Kenley's birthday party at On the Pot.  What an awesome place.  I have been in and had them make me a plate for my parent's anniversary several years ago but I haven't been in and looked around and checked out what all they have.  I could go crazy in there.  Luckily (for Chris) it's not a place I could easily go to with the kids.  So I won't be spending all my time there.  But I may have to do their once a month ladies night sometime.  If anyone would like to join me, it sounds like a lot of fun!!

We also had a birthday party for Malia (my cousin Jaime's little girl) at the Wichita Zoo.  What a wild and crazy day that was!  The birthday party was fun and the kids all got zoo animal masks and they had zoo themed cupcakes and then we all went and started walking the zoo.  It was pretty chilly out and we got through the reptile building and the rain forest building before the skies opened up started raining.  We all made a running dash for the chimp exhibit.  But we were all soaked by the time we got there.  We waited it out and let the kids run around and the adults visited.  Then we left for the day.  Which was a good thing.  We get to Newton and Mom and I both looked at each other and asked "Is that snow in the fields?"  Can't be!  Wait, there are two cars in the ditch, what is going on?!  Two hours later we finally get home after seeing rain, snow, slush, sun, clouds, rain, sleet, snow, rain, snow and pull into my drive way with almost an inch of very wet snow on the ground.  It was crazy!  The kids didn't help any either with no naps they were both prone to meltdowns on the way home.  Not fun and so glad I didn't make the trip by myself.  Thanks Mom!!

Evan loved the birds!

My little monkeys with cousin Arianna

Madi finished her school week last Wednesday before Spring Break with a field trip to the bowling alley.  She loves bowling!!  Evan is usually so good on the field trips but once he turned 18 months old, he is non stop and into everything and ready to explore.  It wouldn't have been so bad if I hadn't been the only one on our lane with three other little kids.  Somehow all the other lanes had at least two parents.  He wanted to check out the ball returns.  You know the ones with moving exposed parts that shoot 6 lb bowling balls out at like 100 miles an hour.  Yeah, quite scary when you turn around and see his face in front of it. Luckily no squished noses or smashed toes...es (Dr. Seuss, I am not)  But the kids had fun!

Bowling friends: Zoe, Kenley, Madi and Evan

The girls watching the bull riding Saturday night.

My little cowboy...eating M&M's off the ground, YUCK!

Madi has had a couple of sleep overs with her cousin Mayci the last two Saturdays.  So much fun hanging out with cousins!  We took Mayci to church with us Sunday and she really enjoyed it and is already counting down the days until Sunday when she can go again.  I told her I would take her as long as she wants to go.  I remember growing up and going to church with my Grandma and later on with my Aunt Lisa and her family.  It was harder with the catholic church feeling like you belonged there when I wasn't baptized and couldn't take communion.  That's what I love about our church.  Feeling like I belong and welcomed in no matter what.  I hope that's how Mayci was feeling last weekend.  She was able to participate in Children's time and then to go to Sunday School. 

This last week has been busy around here.  Chris got the show tractor done!!  It looks so awesome.  This was a well taken care of tractor before we got it so it made it much easier to get everything changed back to its original state and get it painted and looking brand new.  Very proud of him!  I guess that means another busy summer of traveling to tractor shows!  We really did have a great time doing it last year.  A lot of work, but we got to spend a lot of good quality family time together at the same time.  This year should be even better with the bigger truck, we won't have to take two vehicles, YAY!!  Chris took the tractor over to the Farm Show at the Bi-Center this week.  Hopefully they are able to sell some tickets!  We also got the basketball goal up.  Chris' parents and I chipped in together to get him one for his birthday.  We had some serious adult PIG going on Sunday afternoon while the kids were taking their naps!  Madi likes it too :)

Cute kids in front of that Big Red Tractor

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Spring Break.  It's been a little windy the last couple of days to do too much outside.  It has been wonderful having the windows open, hearing the birds chirping and watching the grass turn green.  Too bad it isn't here to stay.

Love, Amy

Evan's Baptism

Today was Evan's Baptism.  He did such a great job.  We really enjoy our church.  They have so much to offer for families and we love it.  The people are nice and inviting.  I'm really glad that we have all started to attend together and are finding our own niches and likes within our church.  Now if we can just get Evan to like the nursery and out of Mommy's sight, we will be good to go!

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We finally got the office done and back into shape.  I love it!  I haven't gotten everything totally organized yet and I still have a lot of empty cabinets, but I am getting there.  It is so nice to be organized and not having everything crammed onto a little table.  Madi and Evan enjoy their space and having room to color.

 

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Evan is getting a molar in and has been working on it for the last two weeks.  He was pretty cranky most of last week.  Running a fever and a runny nose.  So it was cute that we finally got a nice big grin out of him the other night while playing downstairs.

 

What a cheese!



Huh?  Did you say something!

My pretty girl!

We have had a great weekend.  Spent most of yesterday at Mom and Dad's with Jason, Tabatha and Jaxson.  The kids play together so well, it's a lot of fun to watch them together.  And then after church we had everyone out for breakfast and more playing.

Tomorrow is Chris' birthday and another busy week for all of us.  Have a good one!
Love, Amy

I'm Back...Almost!!

I had a major virus on my computer. It was affecting pieces of everything. If it was a log in page, I couldn't do it. Google, Yahoo any search engine, I couldn't get to it. So I and my tech support (Dan) had to reinstall all the programs back onto my computer, which means starting all over again. I'm still having some problems with being able to send emails, but I can receive them. And the sidebar stuff on my blog is gone. But hopefully I will get it all figured out and be good as new again. Or at least as good as technology will let me!

I'll have a better update later. I'm still trying to get all my favorites saved again, email addresses back into my contacts, and all my pictures back to where they are supposed to be.

Check back soon!!

Love, Amy

Praying

My thoughts and prayers are with Grandma Betty right now. She is in the hospital in Alabama with heart and kidney complications. I wish we could be there but I can pray right here as well. There isn't anything I can do but be in the way at this point. But I hope she knows we are constantly thinking about her and hoping she gets to feeling better very soon.

Love you Grandma Betty,
Amy, Chris, Madi and Evan
















(I stole this picture from Joye's email. Great pic of them all! Thank you)