G/G Nelson visit

This past week, G/G Nelson came to visit -- what a fun week! It was the first time they saw Tyler, so that was extra special. I just love having an extra set of hands (or two) and since Bryan tries to take some vacation time also, it's REALLY a treat when they come!

Kayla is really get the hang of pedaling her bike --all of a sudden our "little" girl doesn't seem so little :(.

Good times of batting practice in the yard.

And of course, Kayla needed her turn, too!

OK, so Bryan remembered this really cool restaurant we had briefly seen in KC -- so we decided to give it a try. The kids LOVED the dinosaurs . . .

well . . .it was kind of a love/hate thing with the loud noises!

Grandpa, Tyler, Joshua, Kayla, & Grandma

Grandpa & Tyler

There was a fountain nearby so of course, we made a brief pitstop there!

Boys & water -- what more do I need to say?

Tyler really started smiling this past week . . . we all just love it!

We also celebrated Bryan's b-day with his parents here -- Happy 3*th B-day!

After G/G left, we all had some detox to go through yesterday! We got out the bikes last night for the first time this summer. Joshua rode his own, Kayla was on the back of Bryan's bike, and I pulled the trailer with Tyler. Talk about riding in style!

Our crazy kids . . .

This was my lame attempt at taking all of their pics while Bryan was working . . . note to self . . . just wait until he comes home! (Joshua's lip is looking MUCH, MUCH better now -- don't want the grandmas getting worked up or anything!)


OK, so we joined this summer bowling program where the whole fam can bowl for free all summer -- we just have to pay for shoe rental. So, a friend and I met up at the bowling alley last week to give it a whirl. She has a 4 and 2-yr old, so it was quite the experience! They were quite enamored with the shoes!

Winding up . . .

Concentrating . . .

I da man!

Kayla and mommy worked "together" on most frames --
she was much more interested in the snacks!

So last Saturday, the Preakness Stakes was on -- and Bryan called me in from the kitchen to look at Kayla . . . evidently she wanted her horse to be covered like the horses on TV!


Yep . . that's one of the minivan seats. Pretty sure that's NOT what the Chrysler designers had in mind when they put rollers on the bottom of the seats! (As a side note, the seats were out because my wonderful hubby NOT ONLY vacuumed the van, but also vacuumed the van WITH THE SEATS OUT! Now THAT'S an act of love in my book!)

Tyler's One Month

Here's our little man at one month! He LOVES the swing-- I'll even admit that a couple of nights when sleep was at a minimum, I let him sleep in it because I SO DESPERATELY wanted some sleep! So far, he seems to be ok on the whole extreme fussiness front -- and for that we are very thankful!

This pic doesn't really show the battle wound -- but we had quite the adventure last week. At about 3:30 am, we heard this SCREAM from Joshua's room. We ran in, only to discover he had fallen out of bed, and there was blood on his sheets from a bloody nose (we thought). When we turned on the lights, we discovered that he had actually split his lip -- not just gotten a bloody nose, and determined that we needed to get him into the ER. So, since Tyler was going to need to nurse soon, Bryan took Joshua in at 4am.

Joshua was a HUGE trooper and didn't cry even once. (He was very confused, though, why they went in a different entrance than when Tyler was born and they came to visit me in the hospital -- funny!) Thankfully, the dr. was able to "super glue" it and no stitches were required. He has been great about not picking at the "glue" and it is looking better and better. They got home at 5:30am and Kayla was up a little after 6 ready to start the morning. Wow. Check out Bryan's blog for more in-depth reporting!

The day following Joshua's "incident" he had his AWANA Cubbies Award night. It brought back SOO many memories of when we were in AWANA a few, ok, more than a few years ago! They sang a few songs -- and as you can see, Joshua was quite "animated" in his singing!

Joshua with two of his Cubbies leaders -- he had a great experience this year!

Our first corn on the cob! I made the mistake of telling Joshua at noon we were going to need to shuck the corn for the evening meal . . . holy cow . . . I think he asked me about it every 15 minutes! He was VERY excited to show Kayla the detailed method for shucking corn.

Kayla's first try at eating corn on the cob!

And, last but not least, a little family bonding time playing musical chairs.
Yes -- count the chairs -- three chairs, three people. It just works better than way with little ones!

This & That

Kayla and her bike! I'm just wondering how she sees anything behind her hair and helmet!


Tyler's first bottle . . . he took it like a champ! Can I hear a "hallelujah?" Bryan immediately said, "So . . . when can we go on a date???"


Last Sunday AM, a friend and I were nursing at the same time -- we couldn't help but laugh at the sizes of our babies! Tyler was born 10 days before she was -- they're almost the same size, right?

Last Sunday, J's SS Class had a "program" with some songs and verses -- very fun to see them! This is the SS class that I help out with every other week (well, before Tyler, anyway!). If you can't locate Joshua, he's the one about 10 inches taller than everyone else!


Great Grandma and Grandpa ended up making a trip north this past week, so we got to see them for an hour or so! I think Kayla only lasted about 2 minutes with Grandpa reading the book!

Great Grandma and Tyler
It was so good to see them -- being around family is just the best!

Ok -- so the other day, I was sitting on the floor here taking this picture with the kids and Joshua says, "Hey -- we have three kids now!" Apparently, it was a "light bulb" moment!

Working on a little "tummy time" -- such work, isn't it????