It Finally Happened

 On Monday June 4th Rachel had a makeup softball game and then we went to watch some girls in Majors play. While we were watching Johnathon and his cousins were playing on the playground. His cousin came and got me and said that John had fallen and was hurt pretty bad, so I jumped up and met him. He wasn't crying that bad at all but he was favoring his arm quite a bit. We made him sit, much to his dismay with a pack of ice for 20 minutes. After the 20 minutes we took the ice off and there was  weird swelling right on top where his arm bends at the elbow. BJ loaded him up and headed to Pella to check it out. They said they had to have the radiologist look at the x rays and they would call in the morning. I got a phone call about 9:00 and they said that he had broken his elbow and we needed to see a pediatric orthopedic Dr. in Des Moines. Oh, she also told me that he was to sit and ice it continuously for all day Tuesday and Wednesday. What a chore! John does not sit still for long at all! Thank goodness for the Kindle!

We made it tho, and the Dr. said that he did not need surgery just a cast with his hand facing up, which makes it quite difficult to button your pants or hold on to anything we have found out! He gets a new cast next week Thursday because his arm will have shrunk so much that it will about slide out of this one, they told us. I am thankful for that because it has proved pretty tricky to keep this one clean!

It has not slowed him down in the least and he is sucking up all the attention he gets from it!

Sunday Afternoon Ride

 Our family was invited to go riding on a friends acreage down south a little ways. We had no idea that he had invited so many other families as well. What Fun!! We did a bunch of riding on trails thru the woods and brush. I was to busy hanging on so I didn't get any pictures from that. After our woods excursions we were all hot and ready for some water fun! Wow, did we get wet and sandy and the guys got to pull out a bunch of people. Deep down I think they enjoy that almost as much as riding.

 This is what happens when you stop in a soft spot. Kurt buried it good! Thank goodness for a wench. Kurt was one of many people that got stuck on the water run. BJ was always great and stopped to help, so the kiddos got in some swimming time and I got some pics taken.

This is Karl and Kristen coming thru a pretty deep spot. BJ was an awesome driver and we didn't get stuck once. We had so much fun and would love to do it again sometime!

Dan Larson Memorial Bull Riding

 On Saturday evening we went to this bull riding and barrel racing rodeo in Albia. It was a beautiful night and BJ was able to take the evening off. We had a wonderful time. The bulls did much better than the cowboys but the announcer and the rodeo clown were very entertaining! The boys are still telling jokes and laughing at all the silly things they said and did. 

 Adalli got a little bored a time or two so she opted to play the Kindle for awhile.

 One of the barrel racers. I always love watching the horses get so excited to run barrels!

Kindergarten Graduation

 Johnathon graduated Kindergarten this year. Wow, like I always say time is just zooming by! He enjoyed school for the most part this year. I praise God for Mrs. DeBruin and the hard work and devotion that she puts in to each child every year! She teaches them Bible verses for each letter of the alphabet, then has them pick out their favorite one. I kept his book by my desk for at least a week and now when I am trying to blog about it, it is no where to be seen. Bummer!

 Johnathon was a raccoon for his ceremony.

Fairy Garden

 Rachel and I went to the local greenhouse and got some fun things to make her very own Fairy Garden. With a little imagination and some pretty flowers I think she did a wonderful job! There is a puppy, a lady bug, a pond, pink mushroom and a mailbox. We are saving money so that we can add to our collection next year.

 My beautiful big girl with her masterpiece.

I bid at an auction for this beautiful blue pot. I took it to the greenhouse and they filled it for me with these beautiful flowers. Thank you so much Stam Greenhouse friends! It is so beautiful!

Little Girls

 These are just a few pictures I took over the last month. Adalli is big enough to go to her locker and pick out her own shoes and coat. On this particular day we were going to get groceries but she wanted to go with dad instead; so she put on her big brothers hand me down John Deere boots. (work boots) I thought it was to cute so we grocery shopped in her boots. :)

 I love her intent concentrating look as she works hard at her little pattern.

Natalie Mae, wow has time flown by or what? I find myself saying that so much! You are six months old in this picture. You giggle, smile, give kisses, sit up all by yourself, LOVE your baby food, continue to grow more hair, suck on your toes, thumb and finger, and love to watch the busyness of your brothers and sisters. You are not much into sitting outside by yourself while mom tries to work in the garden and yard but you love to be outside when you are held or pushed in your stroller. I think when you start crawling you will be a little more content. You slept thru the night for four nights last week but now you are up once to quick eat and go back to sleep. You are getting way to big for your little crib so it is about time we move you to your big girl crib in the girls room. As I type this I realize that today is your 7 month birthday. Hopefully we can get 7 month pictures up here before you are 8 months.

Pancakes

 A few Saturdays ago Rachel and Adalli wanted to make some pancakes. We pulled out Pioneer Woman's cookbook and put together her sour cream pancakes. Oh Yum!  Rachel did all of it by herself. Adalli ate lots of chocolate chips and supervised the whole process.

 I wanted a picture of the big stack of finished yummy pancakes but they kept disappearing as soon as Rachel pulled them off the griddle.

Natalie was also a great supervisor.

Aunt Moriah's House

 We had a work weekend at Aunt Mo's house a month and a half ago. 
We helped with a couple jobs inside and outside the house. Grandpa killed all the creeping charlie in her yard and then realized, that was her yard!  We planted new grass to replace it. The kids worked hard and we enjoyed a weekend away swimming and hanging out with cousin Zander, Aunt Mo, Aunt Kay and Uncle Ben.

 Here are My mom and dad's grandkids minus Natalie (she was taking a much needed nap). Kelita is also due with their 2nd in October. Yay! 

In front of Aunt Mo's cute little house! 

So Cute It's Exhausting

Natalie loves her exersaucer Grammie got her. She is the only one of our kiddos to have one because I was always to cheap to buy one. Thank goodness for Grammies, I don't know what I did without an exersaucer for the others!
Adalli loves her little sister so much and loves to make her giggle. Natalie jumps and jumps, then giggles and giggles. It is so cute!
After all that jumping and giggling she gets wore out! Time for a rest!

Feeding Cows

The other day Adalli wanted to help Daddy feed cows so she hopped on the tractor with him and they ground up some hay with the loud tractor and grinder. She loved it and asks all the time to go check on the cows with Dad.

I love how the calves get all excited too. It's not like they eat lots of hay but they sure get excited!

Thumb Sucker?

My three beautiful girls

Natalie has really started to find her thumb lately but usually only right before she falls asleep and then looses it shortly after she falls asleep. I was not to terribly concerned because I have never been a huge fan of pacifiers, but I have been told by a few people, that it is not the best thing for their little mouths, I have also been told by a couple people that they sucked there thumb until kindergarten or 1st grade and never had a problem, so we will see what happens.


She always puts her two fingers up above her nose.

4-H Project (Moon)

This is Moon, Gideon's bottle calf for the year. She is a twin from our very first cow that we bought from our cousin that had her as a bottle calf. Anyway, the cow's name is Star (she is our only cow that has a name by the way.) so the kids decided to call her twins Sun and Moon, I thought that was pretty cute. So we are going on week three of getting up a half hour earlier in the morning to get her fed and then making sure she has a bottle for lunch and then after supper. She is teaching great responsibility and she is so cute!

Adalli loves to help feed her and she asks me all morning when we are going to go feed Moon, but once we get out there she is not quite sure about her so she usually stays on the outside of the fence and watches her. It probably makes her a little nervous because Moon will suck on anything that gets close to her and her and Addi stand at about the same height so Addi gets a tongue right in her face.

Adalli's 2 Year pics

Here are a few of Adalli's 2 year old pictures that Becky took for us.


Adalli is becoming such a big girl! She really likes pretty things like necklaces, dresses, earrings and glitter. She is almost always happy and sweet. She loves being a big sister to Natalie and feels so grown up when she can hang out with big sister Rachel.

Next to her daddy Adalli's true love is books of any kind! If you can't find her, you just need to look in the corner by the book shelf and there she is. It doesn't matter if there are pictures or not, she just makes up her own little language and tells the whole story.

Natalie and Allison Baptism

These pictures Becky took for our family. They turned out wonderful! Thank you very much Becky!

These are the pictures from my camera. Everything went very well, we did not have any major breakdowns or huge scenes in front of church :)We are truly blessed to be surrounded by five beautiful, amazing children from God!
Grandpa and little Natalie

Natalie is almost 4 months and Allison is 6 weeks old. It is so amazing how quickly they grow.