The Iron Is Hot

I'm in the mood for more blogging, so I decided I should jump right on it. I've been a little lax with the blog during the past several weeks. I should definitely strike while the iron's hot. I wonder where that saying came from anyway. A blacksmith?

Here are photos which were taken in the back yard of a playgroup friend, 2 weeks ago.

Bathing Cuties

Look how her garden grows!! Remember back at the beginning of June, when Jadyn planted her flowers? Here are her zinnias now! She is so proud of them and she has to show them to everyone. They were definitely a good choice for a child to plant. They came up fast and have been so hardy.

Indulging Mom with yet another photo.

On Tuesday the 19th, we had a rainy afternoon. Kaitlyn and Jadyn decided to play in the rain on the deck. They had fun!

Rain Dance!

Last Friday, we had playgroup friends over for a Sand & Sea party. I actually didn't take many photos. Here is just one. How many little girls can fit into a sandbox? Room for one more? :) I put shells into the sand for them to find. You can sort of see them here.

Here are photos from our trip to the State Fair yesterday.

Petting a 1 day old calf, and also a momma cow.

Sweet babies!

My brother used to raise momma pigs and babies like these as an FFA project when we were teenagers. I still think the babies are so cute!


This is today's funny photo. Jadyn has been playing with this puppy for a couple of days, wrapping it in blankets, feeding it, etc. I just laughed out loud today when she asked me to look how he was drinking tea! :) She's a funny girl.

This past week was busy, but fun. We had 2 parties at the house, and also had a group over on another night. We still found some time to catch up on a few things and do a few things just for fun. It was a good mix.

Alan was out of town for a couple of days for business in Denver. We always miss him while he's away. Thankfully, Jadyn is handling his trips so much better than she used to.

Kaitlyn and Bryan went on a trip to Wisconsin with a church group. They had a really great time. They returned on Saturday. Lauryn and Aaron joined us for pizza that night.

We had our playgroup friends over for a little pool party on Friday. It was fun but busy, busy with 10 children and 8 moms. We always have fun, no matter what we do.

Kaitlyn left for school in Missouri on Sunday. We were sad to see her go and we will certainly miss her. But we know she will enjoy getting to spend time with Chris and her college friends. For a day or two, I had to remind myself that she wasn't here. I kept thinking that we needed to be quiet because she was sleeping in her room. :)

She started classes today. She decided to change her major from Political Science to Accounting. It will be interesting to see how she enjoys her classes.

We experienced the Great Minnesota Get-Together today. Jadyn and I went to the State Fair. We stayed for about 4 hours and it was fun. We may be going later in the week with family too. I decided to go today as well though, because you can never see too much of the State Fair. Usually, I leave with the feeling that I didn't see enough stuff. You can walk forever and never see it all. Hopefully some of our photos will be nice and I can post those soon.

Something exciting which happened this week is that 2 of the families we traveled with to China adopted little ones. The Grant Family was blessed with Emma. The Peed Family was blessed with Jackson. We are so happy for them. Hopefully, we'll get to meet these little ones one day at a reunion.

Here are a few more photos of our Texas trip. I think maybe they are "old news" now, but maybe you'll enjoy them.

Enjoying a snack at Grandma's.

Kaitlyn had a birthday while we were at my parents' house, so my parents invited family over for a hotdog cookout, cake and ice cream.

Bryan and my brother, cooking hotdogs over the fire.

Some of our family enjoying dinner.

Happy birthday, Kaitlyn!

One evening, we visited with Alan's brother and his family. This is our nephew Zach, playing with his daughter. I think she looks a bit like a doll in the air. Wow, that's some serious air!

On our way home from Texas, we stopped in the Kansas City area to visit with Chris and his family, at his parents' home. It was very nice to meet his family and they have a very lovely place.

Here's a photo of Kaitlyn, Jadyn, and Chris. Chris and Kaitlyn hadn't seen each other in almost a month. They look pretty happy here, don't they? Chris' family has raised 3 raccoons as pets, since they were orphaned babies. How cute they are.
Here is Jadyn with Chris' mom in the raccoons' cage. Don't worry, they are quite tame.

Jadyn with Chris' mom, Teresa petting one of the horses. Checking out the miniature horse.
A baby horse had been born that morning and what great timing it was. Jadyn was able to see and pet her.

I'm Finally Back

Yes, I'm finally back to blogging. I didn't really intend to be away for so long. We took a trip to Texas to visit family and we were gone for about 9 days. I'm not totally sure why it took me so long to get back to my blog though.

We had a truly wonderful trip and we had so much time to visit with family. It was great. I have tons of pictures that I want to share. I think I'll actually do 2 posts, because there are so many photos.

We took our time driving down to Texas and we spent one of the nights in Oklahoma City. We visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. We had always wanted to go but we'd just never taken the time to do it. Boy are we glad we went. It was absolutely awesome. The museum is wonderful, and incredibly well done. You get such a clear picture of the magnitude of the devastation and loss. Since the bombing happened so many years ago now, one could sort of forget the horror of what really happened. The museum leaves no doubt about it. I would highly recommend the tour to anyone. We were there for over 2 hours, but we still did not get to thoroughly see it all. It's such a great museum.

This is Jadyn by the reflecting pool at the memorial.The chairs you see are where the building actually stood. Each chair represents someone who was killed in the bombing, in April of 1995.

On to Texas...

This is Bryan and my dad. Bryan sometimes enjoys a little target practice while we are there. You can see a cotton field behind my parents' property.

Here is Jadyn with a sparkler. My kids were happy to use some fireworks that Grandma had.

Playing horses with Grandpa.

Playing with her cousin Thomas.Water gun fun with cousins Chloe, Thomas, and Aaron. They had a great time and it was dangerous for any adult who stepped out the door. It was so hot though, that getting wet wasn't too bad. Bryan and Thomas Jadyn loved all of the excitement of playing with her cousins and being chased.

This is my sister, Teresa with Jadyn. Teresa painted Jadyn's fingernails and toenails. They were about the same color as her shirt. :)
Here we are, having a big ole toenail painting party. My sister painted the toenails of 5 of us ladies. We each had them painted like watermelons. It was fun, and will be a good memory. This is my mom, my niece Hanna, me, Kaitlyn having her nails done, my niece Chloe, and Teresa, giving the pedicure.

Watermelon toenails. So fun!