An Adventurous Weekend...(4/16-4/17)

We headed down to Ankeny a weekend in April to attend the wedding of two of Rob's classmates from seminary. It was kind of a crazy trip just because Rob was presented with the opportunity to go to the bachelor party of the groom-the activity....SKYDIVING!!! Yup you heard me right! within the week my husband was jumping out of an airplane and my baby sister was bungee jumping from the highest point in the world!!! Crazy! So Rob headed down on Wed night after youth group with Karys and Gracie and I headed down Thursday after I was done with labs. Kind of chaotic....Here are a couple pics of the crazies doing their thing--> The very small plane that they went up in...it was pretty funny b/c the night before Rob left, a guys at youth group said, "You know, if anything happens your life insurance is no good." Probably a good thing I didn't see the plane before he did this!The view of Skydive Iowa from 10,000 ftRob and his buddy Andy, both survivors of their first skydiving experience!!! Rob's self portrait while the plane was making it's ascent to 10,000 ftThe bumper sticker on the back of the plane...in case you can't read it it says, "If at first you don't succeed then skydiving is not for you." Reassurance at its best!WOW! No words for this...tandem skydiving, something I thought Rob would check off his list once he did it. But no, "Next time I want to jump from 20,000 ft" Awesome....The bachelor party group! The groom to be is in the orange sweatshirt...what a crazy group of guys! I am glad my husband is one of them ;)And OK...that small dot attached to that thread in the picture, yeah-that is my sister Megan free falling with a rubber band around her ankles! CRAZINESS I tell you!

So needless to say we all needed a little R&R come Friday. We enjoyed a picnic lunch and an afternoon at the park with Grandma Doreen at the park right down the street from her house. A little more uneventful than jumping out of a plane, yet adventurous all the same ;)Eating sandwiches and chips before running off to play...Rob got half of his sandwich eaten by our little Maggie...guess we shouldn't set food on the ground;)Taking turns running across the bridge, the bridge is definitely a favorite for allGrandma catching Karys at the bottom of the slideGracie venturing down the slides on her own....over, and over, and over ;)Peek-a-boo! I see you!Maggie wasn't so thrilled to walk across the bridge, Gracie was "cuddling" her to make her feel better!Gracie and Karys both calling out "Higher, please!"Daddy and Grandma took their turns on the swings as well...Daddy loves to show off and the girls are always so impressed with how high he can go!Ready..........Set.............JUMP!!!! Wow! That is so cool =)Our final activity at the park was a game of Crocodile...the girls love to run back and forth and have Daddy, the crocodile, try to catch them =)Go, Karys, Go!!!I think the crocodile is sleeping....be very, very quiet......After an adventurous afternoon, both girls were so tired! Loved this pic of my little lady with her head on a football pillow and her arm tucked snugly around a baby doll ;)

Karys was cashed out on the floor....blankie wrapped around her fingers in her mouth!

QT with Sarah and Leah (4/14)

On Tuesday, Leah was finally feeling better and we were able to spend the day with them! Yay!We started off with a walk to the park in Lennox for a picnic. I love the fact that we are entering the stage where you can just do more and more outside with the nice weather! However, it is sometimes difficult to get three toddlers to eat while sitting on a picnic bench right next to a playground! But in their defense they did a pretty awesome job of eating ;)They then each took turns "going" across the rings...Auntie Sarah was so awesome to help each off them across! After that it was onto the swings...Gracie had fallen right before this so the swings did an awesome job calming her down and helping her to focus on something else ;)Karys Joy was frustrated b/c "These baby swings don't go high enough!"And Leah was content to just sit back and enjoy the ride! WE then headed back to the house for some naps and good R&R. Surprisingly enough no one fell asleep on the way home, but everyone was asleep within 15 minutes of being back to mom and dad's. Thank you lord!That evening we headed out to swing one more time...I was trying to get our final things in the van and make sure that all of our stuff was picked up around the house, so again Sarah was such a blessing to swing with the girls while I finished things up. Leah wasn't too excited to get on and swing with her but the girls really wanted her to. Papa always said there was a "special" spot for each of the three girls to sit and swing together. Karys trying to tell Leah that it was fun and it would be ok ;)Leah finally decided to get off and the girls wanted Sarah to push them so high! I love to watch their faces as they swing and laugh together with the sunset making their faces glow!Beautiful girls enjoying the last swing of the night....
Thanks Sarah and Leah for spending the day with us! We love when we get to spend quality time together with you with no real agenda and fun things to do! Love you!

A Day at Grandma Norma's (4/13)

On the Monday after Easter, Rob took my parents to the airport at 5am and wished them well on their trip to South Africa. The girls and I had made plans to stay at the house a few days and spend some time with Sarah and Leah before heading home. However, Leah was still running a fever from the day before and they were unable to come over and play that afternoon, so we were delighted to get a call from Grandma Norma inviting us over for lunch!We set off right away to go over and have some yummy leftovers with family. The girls of course had to bring both of their babies and push them over in their strollers. Let's just say it was not a fast trip to Grandma's house, which is only two blocks away ;)After the first block we had to stop and take a water break b/c "our babies" were tired...We finally made it though and after an amazing lunch the girls got to spend some good time with their cousins, Josh, Ben, Kylee, and Dylan. Ben and Dylan were pretty busy riding their bikes around and watching TV, but Ben and Kylee did an awesome job of playing with the girls and including them in whatever they were doing! It was so fun to watch...Eventually everyone needed some fresh air and a change of scenery so we headed out to do some sidewalk chalk. They loved coloring in the things that Kylee drew for them on the sidewalk. Karys was eager to bring Grandma Norma down and show her the different things that they had drawn...And was even more excited when Lisa wanted the grand tour of the driveway too!Eventually they needed a break so they kicked back in the lawn chairs with Grandma and Lisa to rest and have a drink.The rest didn't last long though and they were back up in the yard playing with Maggie, squirting each other with squirt guns, and chasing through the grass....We then headed inside for a snack and had some chips and sandwiches--Let's just say they were definitely hungry from all their hard playing and totally worn out as well. Karys was totally nodding off in her chair with Doritos in her hand!
So needless to say I carried her to the car and before we even left the house she was down for the count! What a great day! Good time spent with cousins and I loved just getting to hang out with Grandma and Lisa and be able to catch up on things a little bit amid the craziness of everyone running around ;) Thanks Grandma for a GREAT day!

Easter Sunday (4/12)

So when my parents plans changed and they did not leave for S. Africa before Easter, we headed over to Lennox to celebrate with the Goeman's. Lisa was back from Colorado, Kylee and Dylan were down from Sioux Falls and Jamie, Jen and the boys were around too to head over to Grandma and Kenny's for an undoubtedly awesome lunch! The girls had a GREAT time playing with their cousins and it was nice just to be together with family you don't get to see very often!

Gracie had made this bunny out of a towel at preschool and was so excited to give it to G.Grandma Norma! I don't think Grandma even realized it was for her at first, I think she just thought Gracie was showing it to her! Gracie made the comment later, "I think she really liked that." So cute

Great Aunt Lisa even got all of the girls to not only pose for a picture but all look at the camera too! The smiling thing all together is still a work in progress ;)We then headed back to my parents house for an egg hunt. Jeremy and Sarah had to get going on to the Roe's, but the girls just had to hunt eggs together! My mom did such a GREAT job this year with getting them watering cans! They all found their cans first and then hunted around for eggs to gather in them! Karys was so excited to see a can with a "K for Karys" on it!Gracie with her watering can so full of eggs! "This thing is getting so full and heavy!"Princess Leah, poor girl was running a crazy fever but still looked cute and happy as ever in her little outfit and raced around with the other girls to find eggs too!Jeremy was the first of the big ppl to find his chocolate bunny this year...only to have mom tell him later, "Yeah I told Jeff to make yours easy this year since you are always the last one to find it!" Rob was next and the girls were officially shut out...We wouldn't have been if they would have left Sarah's in the first spot it was hidden but it was so obvious when we walked around the corner that Dad rehid it again...I was last this year by a long ways! Took me forever to find that silly bunny...Gracie even said at one point, "Mommy I think it is lost"Lovely little ladies in their CUTE Easter dresses from Gma Doreen!Love these girlies! Best pic we could get together out of many attempts!Grandma Sally got all the good pictures with her! Look at those smiles!Little Leah...full of joy

Got to spend the day with some wonderful ladies, and a few good men too =) Missed the sister! But all in all is was a wonderful day to hear my girls say, "HE IS RISEN!!!" he is risen indeed....

Springtime??? (4/7)

Seems like another winter that has lasted into April...why did we move back here again? Anyway, we were excited to get out and grill. We got our propane tank all filled up and ready to go! Tasted so good to be able to eat grilled food again and just be outside cooking. The girls loved being in just jackets scooping up snow and putting it in their "spring" wheel barrow! Had a blast just playing with the snow while Daddy grilled us up some very tasty chicken!Gotta love the grill out in the snow ;)Karys with her shovel "full" of snow. The snow was so icy it was hard to keep it in the shovel.Gracie filling up her scoopIt would have taken forever to fill up the wheel barrow...good thing the meat was done before then!

Two cutie patooties playing outside! They have so much fun together!

Dying Easter Eggs(4/6)

Ok...today starts my attempts to update the blog. I really think this too is one of those nesting things, b/c I know that once the baby comes I don't want to go back but want to be able to just go forward and tell you how wonderfully it went and how easy the transition is ;) or something along those lines...

So as I do that, it brings me all the way back to Palm Sunday weekend (4/6). I had a Dr.'s appt that Monday so the girls and I headed over to spend the evening with Gma and gpa and Grandma was SO generous to watch the girls the next morning while I headed to my appt. Originally, my parents had plans to be gone over Easter...they were planning on going to S.Africa on Saturday...so we were excited to spend some time before they left!

My mom did an awesome job of entertaining the girls! Karys fell asleep really early in the day mainly b/c of the fact that they didn't go to bed til 11 =) But Gracie and Grandma were busy making cards for Kylee, Ben and Megan when I got back from the Dr. I also stopped off and bought some supplies to die Easter eggs--Mom and Gracie had boiled the eggs already. So after a fun-filled day, BBQ Chx for supper, and some play time with Leah and Evelynn the girls were asleep before we hit the interstate! What a fun day!
All of the cards set up that the girls made! I helped Karys a little ;) It was so funKarys with her blue egg...she liked to splash a little bit, but I did discover that you can wash egg dye out =)Gracie had so much fun choosing her colors and watching the invisible crayon show up in the dyeI couldn't just do the plain colored ones, had to mix it up a little bit and go for the stripes!Egg dying central!!!Gracie trying to balance her egg on the little plastic thingieAll of our beautiful eggs! I had to redip a couple of the girls eggs and spice them up a little with some stripes...need to learn to let some things go I think, but the eggs looked good!Karys and Leah dancing and jumping with Jeremy...Karys loves this guy!

"Baby" Evelyn...not such a baby anymore! she is so cute and growing up so fast! Glad they could come over and play!