Extended Weekend

Friday morning, Jake surprised the kids by telling them he took the day off work and asked if they wanted to go to Silver Dollar City. Of course thy said yes. Here they are before we left:

And at the park:

Ruth just lounged around, ate, slept and played all day. Thankfully it was in the 70's and perfect weather.

The older kids rode rides and ended the day playing in this giant fort:

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday we enjoyed bbq's with friends, a visit from my brother Andrew as well as lots of time outside. We worked on the first of 4 flower beds needing work:

We took out the old black "stuff" and staked landscape timbers around the flower bed to match the other two beds in the backyard:

Then we planted 10 azalea bushes surrounded by mulch:

Now to tackle the other two beds that have been neglected for years...

Graduation weekend

We went to Manhattan last weekend to say goodbye to my brother Jonathan and to also watch my brother Andrew graduate from KSU.

Jonathan and the kiddos:

Isaiah has a magnetic field for basketballs and found this one outside within hours of arriving at my sisters:

Jonathan and the boys swinging:

Isaiah and Jeremiah found great entertainment from oyster crackers. After they tired of eating them, they realized they could throw them on the ground and stomp on them causing crumbs to fly.

Jake, Ruth and Samuel. Two happy babies, although I think Samuel always has a smile on his face. And I mean ALWAYS. 

We had planned to attend the OU-KSU baseball game but it was standing room only (for good reason – after a win that night, KSU won the Big 12 title – adding to the basketball and football championship titles this year!) Since we all have little ones, we opted to BBQ at the park instead:

Saturday at Andrew’s reception at yet another park; this is Isaiah’s favorite way to swing:

Emelyn was very excited to get to play with cousin Janessa!

Siblings (less Jonathan and Melissa:)

With Dad & Mom:

Dad & Ruth (if you look behind her you can see Samuel patiently waiting his turn:)

The graduate! Allow me a brief moment to brag on, embarrass  comment on my brother. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from the college of engineering (with a perfect 4.0!) in Biological Systems Engineering (basically designing new farm equipment, I think.) The reason he’s on stage in this picture is because he also lead the coliseum in the national anthem and singing of our alma mater. A man of many talents!

The many expressions of Ruth

8 Months!

Guess who’s 8 months already!? That’s right, 2/3 of a year old today…  I guess that means I need to stop saying that I have a newborn, right? This sweet girl is growing up way too fast. In the last few weeks we’ve started giving her a bite or two of food off of our plates and she eats it like a champ. And three days ago she decided to sleep all night for the second time ever… and she’s done it every night since too. I’m really hoping this means she’s ready to start sleeping all night permanently; after all, she’s way behind her siblings in this department, but somehow, (most of the time) we didn’t mind that our “newborn” still woke to eat at night.

We go in for a well check next month, but one notable thing I want to remember is that she’s starting to talk. She says “dada” a lot and “Mmmm” when she sees me and is hungry. Emelyn tries to decipher what Ruth says and claims Ruth says all kinds of words, but these are the only two I hear her say consistently. She also is starting to interact with the other two each time she’s awake. If she sees Isaiah laughing, she starts belly laughing with him. The three of them like to have squealing matches too… they all lay on the floor and squeal as loud as possible and it ends with lots of laughter from all three. I can tell she’s starting to understand what we say too. If I ask her if she wants to go jump in her jumperoo she starts to jump up and down. If we ask her if she’s tired, she’ll rub her eyes. And the moment we set her in her highchair she has a stare down match with the pantry door waiting for food.

Crawfish Boil

Every year we are invited to the same crawfish boil and it has become something we all look forward to… great food, fun people, live band playing great music that the kids love dancing to AND a section for kids full of sporting equipment, jump ropes, airplanes, bubbles etc… Basically a kid’s toy paradise!

Ruth with a death grip on my hair:

Isaiah swinging at bubbles with a bat:

Emelyn carting around her clubs:

Isaiah couldn’t decide which sport to play:

Grandpa and Grandma Visit

I actually remembered to use my camera when my parents came to visit at the end of April! (I forgot to get it out at all when Jake’s parents visited at the beginning of April )

Emelyn has been asking for a purple dress to wear to Uncle Isaac’s wedding for months and I couldn’t find one. As a last resort, I went to a consignment store and found this beautiful purple and white dress for only $14! Good news – it’s purple… Bad news – it was custom sewn for someone that was about 2 inches smaller than Emelyn. Well… Emelyn seems to think Grandma knows everything (and the longer I’m a mom, I realize she really does know everything) and so she told me to just call grandma because she knows how to fix anything. I wasn’t sure how to tell her that some things just can’t be fixed, but since I knew my parents were coming that weekend to surprise the kids, I held on to the dress before the 7 day return window was up to show my mom. Just as Emelyn thought, my mom WAS able to fix the dress by doing her sewing magic, and the dress fit perfectly when she was done with it. Emelyn was on cloud nine!

Isaiah found Grandpa’s hat quite hilarious…

Grandma and the girls…

Dad and Ruth

Since Ruth refused to smile, dad made a “Ruth face:”

Our cheese ball:

Ruth really, truly is a very happy baby, but ever since she started teething, she chews on her lip which makes her look like she’s mad at the world:

Isaiah is still quite the snuggler and took full advantage of a grandma that likes to snuggle too: