Hugs

Porter has recently started giving Stella HUGE hugs out of the blue. He goes up behind her a few times a day and wraps his little arms around her and squeezes tight. Of course, I love seeing this and know that in a few years, they will be bickering constantly, so I need to soak in these moments when I can. :) The first photo cracks me up.
Also a funny Stella story. We were goofing around tonight and playing with her toy dog. We started talking about tails and I asked her if she had a tail. "No". I asked her if Porter had a tail, "No", she said. Being silly, I told her I really think he does have a tail. She says "No, mom, he doesn't have a tail. He has a penis"!!! LOL!

And can you tell I'm bored with Mike out of town, this is my 3 post of the day!!!!

Negotiations

We were eating dinner tonight and Stella was not eating well, big surprise. I told her she need to eat 5 more pieces of her cheese, of course she said "No". I said fine you can either have 5 or 6 more bites....her reply "No". Okay, you can either have 5, 6 or 7 bites of your cheese. She agreed to 7, and she ate all of them! I love negotiating with a 3 year old, but normally it doesn't work out this well. LOL
Porter has started doing something funny today. If I tell him it's time for a diaper change he goes and lays down in front of his diapers! Now if I could only get him to lay still for the actual diaper change, we'd be doing good!!!

Outnumbered

Mike is in Kansas City all week doing some work for a friend. He left on Sunday and will get home Friday or Saturday. This morning I did something I've never done before. I took the kids out for breaky all by myself....alone with 2 toddlers! They did super and ate really well. We went to this little hole in the wall diner not too far from our house, it is something like you'd see in MA! Then we headed to the library for storytime and new books. Stella has been sick since Monday, but she seems to be doing a bit better. Yesterday she had a temp of 102.4, and hardly ate all day, but she ate a lot of her eggs and pancake at breaky this morning.

Trip to Reimen Gardens

Upclose with Haydn

Sara

Haydn going down the tube slide

Stella on a jumping thing

Hannah on some type of monkey bars

Yesterday mom came up and we all traveled to Ames to visit Reimen Gardens which has a wonderful butterfly garden, and lots of grounds outside to wander around. All the kids really had a great time. We got lunch and had a picnic at a park beforehand. The kids also loved that and playing on all the equipment. It was a hot one out yesterday, but that didn't stop us from enjoying our time together! After we left the gardens we tootled around Ames for a bit, things sure have changed since Mike and I graduated! Makes me feel OLD!!!!!!! :)

Butterfly Gardens

Sara showing off her big arm muscles!

Sara (with her bird legs!) and Porter

The girls running to the butterfly gardens, they were excited!

Front view

Stella getting a close look at a butterfly

Reimen Gardens

Watching the trains in the childrens gardens

Throwing in pennies and making wishes

The girls

The grandkids with Nana---Porter is having a ball!!!!

Porter pointing at a butterfly---He LOVED them!

Pretty Pretty Princess

Stella is obsessed with her game Pretty Pretty Princess (thanks to Uncle Chris for giving it to her for her bday in March!!). She asks to play it about 10 times a day. Yesterday we had loads of fun playing while P was napping. I put all the rings on her toes and she thought it was SO funny! I asked Mike to toss me the camera so I could get some good shots of her and he tossed me the crap-o-la camera, so the pictures aren't that clear....but you get the idea. :)

Cute Kids, Crappy Pictures

The kids and I traveled to MA last week to see Amy, Cady and Dax. Of course neither of us thought to get our cameras out until right when we were walking out the door. You can see the great shots I got! Stella and Cady had a lot of fun playing, Stella didn't want to leave.

Holla Jesus

Stella was in Vacation Bible School this week and I think she finally had some fun today!! I picked her up and got there early enough for all the songs they do at the end. She was singing and dancing her little heart out! One of the songs was titled "Holla Jesus", which cracked me up!! VBS has come a long way from when I was a child! She was also wearing a sticker that reads "Dude All My Strength Comes from God"! I don't think we had those in Ringgold County! :) Here she is with her craft from today. They also handed out gold medals to all the children today as they were leaving, the theme for the week was Going For Gold With God. The church did a fantastic job with everything, I was very impressed!

P-Man

A couple of cute shots of Porter Pie. The first he is enjoying a brownie that Stella and I made for Grandpa's birthday---he approved! The second he brought me his rainboots last night to put on him, he's starting love putting and taking off shoes!

More Lake Photos

I have my memory card reader back now so I can post some more photos from Okoboji. The kids had a wonderful time with Uncle Chris, as you can see!! And Stella loves to fish!!

Her Future Is SO Bright

She has to wear 3 pairs of shades!!! :)

Ashby Park

We headed to Ashby Park today and met up with my friend Anica and her adorable little boy, Evan. We had a great time. The kids really enjoyed the water and the playground.

Haydn LOVES Porter!

Little Haydn just can't seem to keep herself away from Porter. It's SO funny and cute. She has gotten A LOT better but as you can see in this picture....he's just so tempting to hug sometimes! :)

We All Scream For Popsicles!

I had the joy of having Hannah and Haydn over to play tonight. They all had a popsicle after dinner. :)

Behind The Scenes

Here are a few other pictures from this morning:
Our very own KCCI's Eric Hansen!!! I mostly took this one for Mike---we have a weird obession with news anchors from KCCI!!!!!!!! :)


Simon Estes Singing


The camera crews and crowd

Our Olympic Hopefuls!!!!

I'm not sure how much Shawn Johnson has been talked about outside of Iowa, but here she is already BIG news! She is from West Des Moines and the #1 ranked USA gymnastics girl! WHOO HOO! Today there was a big send off for her and Lolo Jones, also number #1 in hurdles. Lolo is from Des Moines and went to Roosevelt High. Shawn is still a student at Valley High in WDM. Anyhoo, the kids and I went down today for their big send off with our neighbor, Cheryl. Cheryl is friends with Shawn's family so we had FRONT row seats! It was so neat. I sat right next to her Grandma and her aunt. I also met her parents, uncle and cousins! Pretty cool. :) Simon Estes (also from IA!) sang the national anthem.